Chapter 22: Girl, Works Miracles
SOWING seeds proceeded smoothly with the assistance of the villagers. By the afternoon, they had finished removing the dead plants, tilling the land, and putting oil cake fertilizer in the ground.
Surrounded by the smell of fresh, earthy soil that was strong enough to make her choke, Nichika beamed brightly as she pulled weeds in spite of the fact she was covered in mud.
“Nichika, you seem to be in a really good mood,” Wolfie observed.
“Do I?” she asked, turning toward the bewildered wolf with a big grin on her face.
“Did something happen?”
“Not really?”
Oswald’s compliment had definitely affected her, but Nichika hadn’t given it much thought as to question the source of her high spirits.
“It’s my first time gardening, but it’s a lot more fun than I thought it’d be.”
Working with the smooth and silky soil with its rich aromas had a way of washing away the mud clogging up her feelings. Taking a closer look at the ground, Nichika noticed orange mana drifting about the earth here and there, vanishing as if being absorbed.
“Digging holes is fun, isn’t it?” Wolfie animatedly dug his claws through the dirt, kicking piles of it behind his back legs. “Master and I also did that here yesterday—” He froze in the middle of his fun dig.
“You were digging yesterday too?”
Wolfie suddenly started to tremble. “O-O-Oh yeah, I f-forgot! I-It’s b-buried i-in this f-flower field!”
“What is?” Before Nichika could hear his answer—her attention was drawn to another conversation.
“Miss Violette, are you feeling unwell?” a villager inquired.
“N-No…I-I am fine,” Violette replied.
Violette looked whiter than a sheet pulling weeds several plots over from Nichika—rather, her complexion had passed white altogether and gone straight to ashen. Nichika was becoming increasingly more puzzled by the deathly ill skin color of the normally unreadable woman’s face. Overhearing them, Makina stopped pulling weeds and looked over his shoulder.
“Why don’t you sit down and rest if you’re not feeling well?” he suggested.
“…Thank you very much for your…kind words. I will take you up on them for a moment.”
Makina and Nichika worriedly watched her unsteadily stumble away.
“I wonder if she’s okay,” Nichika said.
“It’s my first time seeing her like that. Who knew homunculus could fall ill too,” Makina noted.
Violette sat under the shade of a tree with her head drooped and her hands pressed against her chest. Her shoulders painfully rose and fell with her breathing.
“I should go check on her,” Makina said, rising to his feet.
“Okay, I’ll com—” Nichika tried to dash after him but was suddenly yanked backward by the hood of her mantle, making her choke out a weird sounding, “Gueeh!”
“…What an unattractive noise.”
“That’s your fault for suddenly pulling on my mantle! You choked me! Quit grabbin’ me whenever you feel like it! Sheesh.”
As expected, it was Oswald who was behind her. Only, he wasn’t letting go, but trying to drag her off somewhere by her mantle.
“Whoa! Hey!” Nichika protested.
“Come. It’s almost time.”
“Time for what?!”
As usual, he didn’t provide an explanation. After bringing her some ways away from the field, he instructed her on what she had to do next.
“First things first, a miracle isn’t going to happen. But we can make it appear like one has.”
“Okay, how?”
Oswald plopped a hand on her shoulder. “I’m counting on you, Spirit Priestess,” he said, tossing the problem into her lap.
“Excuse me?!” Nichika felt like he’d just punched her in the head. Enduring the disorienting feeling, she clenched her fists in anger. “Wh-What’s that supposed to mean?! W-Weren’t you going to use a Witch’s Item to make the flowers bloom?!” she sputtered.
“You think I’d make an item with no demand?”
“It’s in high-demand right here and now! HERE AND NOW!” She fiercely stomped her feet on the dirt.
Seriously, what a scam artist! Or should I say he’s got a nasty habit of doing whatever he wants without considering the consequences?!
“How could you go and make me speak so highly of you, when you didn’t even plan to make a miracle happen in the first place!”
“Put everything you’ve got into it if you want something to happen then. I’ve perfectly arranged all the conditions for you.”
“…What?”
Oswald bent over and scooped up a handful of dirt. Then, burying a single seed from his pouch in it, he elaborated, “The seeds I prepared are the fastest flowering type out of all the plant species suited to this environment. The fertilizer we mixed with the soil is of the highest grade and specially made to fine tune the balance with the original dirt to encourage growth. As you can plainly see, the most favorable conditions for growing flowers are now present in this field.”
“…Are you sure you’re not actually the son of a florist?”
“Don’t be stupid. This much knowledge is required for potion making. Back to the point. This is where we’ll be borrowing the power of mana.” He stroked the surface of the pile of dirt in his palm and called, “Come!”
Orange lights took on the form of birds and began to flock around his hand. One landed on his finger, and he gave a command as if speaking to it.
“O spirit of the fertile earth, please lend the sprouts of life your aid.”
The bird cocked its head then dove into the dirt, becoming one with it.
“Wow!”
Before their very eyes, a young green bud sprouted from the dirt in his hand. It grew rapidly, as if they were watching a recording with fast-forward on, until it finally bloomed into an adorable pink flower.
“And well, that’s how it works,” he concluded, holding it out to her.
“Cool! It actually bloomed!” Nichika accepted the flower, dirt and all, and poked at the pretty petals. It wasn’t artificial; it was a real, live flower. “All I have to do is ask the earth mana for help? I wonder if they’ll listen,” she said uneasily, as she planted the flower in the ground.
While the Great Fire Spirit had opened up the world of mana before her eyes, Nichika still didn’t have a firm grasp on manipulating them. It’d never occurred to her that she might have to do it on the fly at an important time like this, without any practice.
“Whether or not the flower festival can be held depends on your ability.”
Nichika glanced up at Oswald’s face. “…Do you want things to go well?”
If they failed to help the festival, it’d mean he’d lose his bet with Makina. In other words, Nichika would remain in Lolo Village.
Oswald stared down at her without answering. The wind played with their hair as it blew past. When he finally opened his mouth to speak, he spoke in a businessman’s voice, “…I forgot to tell you something.”
“What is it?”
“It’s possible for you to one-sidedly put an end to our contract.”
Processing what that meant made her eyes bulge. In other words, he was saying—
“You decide. Will you come with us? Or stay here?”
“B-But if I stay behind, the issue with Fake Lover will never be resolved…”
“You don’t need to worry about that. That four-eyes Makina is from a family that runs a huge enterprise based on magic. If you just want to gather information, staying with him might actually be more effective.”
“But…but!”
A lump formed in her chest from her bitter feelings of having him thrust this upon her. No, that wasn’t quite right. Really, Nichika just wanted to know what Oswald was thinking. What did he want? Why was he entrusting her with this choice?
Those questions surfaced within her but failed to form proper words that would break her silence.
Oswald stared off into the distance as he candidly asked, “Isn’t that…what would make you the happiest?”
“…!”
“Rather than…coming with me.”
Nichika couldn’t bear to have him see the emotions surging in her, so she made a run for it as if to flee. Why? Why is he suddenly saying something like that? She slipped in to the throng of people working in the field and stopped to catch her breath. I knew it. I just knew it. Oswald wants to get rid of me. That’s gotta be it.
She was furiously trying to hold back the tears threatening to spill over for reasons she couldn’t understand, when some of the children came over and worriedly peered up at her face.
“Nichika! Whatz w’ong? Do you have a booboo?” one of the girls asked, holding her hand.
“Are you sleepy? Wanna nap? We’ll work hard, so you can go nap!” one of the boys offered, rolling up his sleeve to flex a tiny arm.
Their innocent voices helped her wrench the faucet of her tears closed before it was too late. She roughly rubbed at the corner of her eyes with her dirt-covered sleeves and showed them the best smile she could manage.
“Nothing’s wrong! I’m perfectly okay!”
“You’d better be okay, ‘cause the flower festival is almost here!”
“The flower spirit won’t come if you aren’t smiling, you know!”
Nichika nodded once to their expectant faces and solidified her resolve. That’s right—I need to make the flowers bloom, no matter what. I’ve got to push the bet to the back of my mind so I can do my best to help the villagers who are looking forward to the festival. Ignore the pain in my chest, concentrate on the problem at hand. I can think about what comes after this later.
Nichika took a deep breath of the earthy air and searched for mana in the vicinity. Instantly, she located a vast number of orange lights. Not caring if she got dirty, she knelt on the ground and tried to offer her hand to one of the orange butterflies fluttering around her feet. However—
“W-Wait!” It swiftly flew away from her hand as if fleeing from her. The other mana reacted the same way, like they were avoiding her for some reason. “Why?”
At a loss, Nichika suddenly became aware of something out of the ordinary occurring in her waist pocket. It was strangely warm—or more like hot!
Consequently glancing at her pocket, she let out a shocked, “Hey!” The magic orb was glowing red—the red mana were violently zooming around inside the glass in a rampage. “D-Don’t do that! You shouldn’t intimidate the other mana!”
But the fire mana menacingly flapped their wings, driving away the earth mana. They were almost behaving like they were Nichika’s loyal guard dogs.
Why are they acting this way? How am I supposed to fix this?
The same pattern kept repeating, and the orange butterflies fled in fear whenever Nichika tried to approach them.