“Grr-oink?!”
Oh dear.
The boar, spinning around, had a large cloth bag on its back. Before they had any time to wonder what it was, the boar crashed into the pot that Wayne was stirring. To be more precise, it crashed into the open fire underneath. Bwoosh! Sparks flew, and then...
...the boar went up in smoke.
“What?”
Unbelievably, the boar had jumped into the fire with all its might.
The pot that had been sitting over the fire had been knocked aside, but Wayne skillfully caught it with a damp cloth. Meanwhile, Lacey and Tee stared dumbfounded at the crackling sparks. The glow of the flames bounced off their faces.
The fire flickered as it burned. The boar would likely be cooked to delicious perfection.
“Never mind that!!!” The situation was so overwhelming that Lacey’s thought processes had screeched to a halt, but there was no time to space out. “Wh-wh-wh-wh-why?! Seriously, why?! Why is he roasting himself?!”
“Calm down. He’s a feral pig. A flame this small means nothing to him. I bet it’s just like getting in a warm bath.”
“Huh? Oh, I see. Right, I forgot...”
Monsters each had an elemental alignment. Tee, who was a phoenix, was fire, and slimes were water.
The creature which they simply called “the boar” was actually a kind of monster known as a feral pig.
The one difference between animals and monsters was whether their heart was made of mana stone or not. Mana stones circulated mana of a matching elemental nature throughout the body, which allowed monsters to mutate into more powerful varieties.
Feral pigs were fire-element, and their most notable characteristics were their large tusks and the tough fur that covered their bodies. Although there were individual differences, they were saturated with mana down to each individual hair. They couldn’t be hurt by just any old flame.
That was why the boar, whose belly was getting toasted over the open fire, had a rueful look on its face but wasn’t in any hurry to move.
Wayne calmly set the pot on the ground and stepped away from the flame. “See? Told you it’s fine,” he said to Lacey as if this were an everyday occurrence. Nonetheless, Lacey was still in shock, so she placed a hand over her heart and took slow, deep breaths. For the time being, everyone took a moment to sigh in relief.
Though the boar had a resistance to heat, there was probably a limit to how much it could take. “Come over here already, that’s dangerous,” Lacey called to it.
“Grr-oink.” You’re right, agreed the boar. And then...there was a pop.
Some substance loudly burst and scattered. The boar wriggled around. One small, white bit of it flew straight toward Wayne, but he flexibly caught it between two fingers.
“Hot!” Still pinching whatever it was, Wayne shook out his palm.
“Grr-oink-oink-oink-oink-oink-oink?!”
“Be patient, I’ll get you—”
Lacey swiftly took her staff out of her bag and tossed it up. When she caught it in midair, it had stretched out to be much larger. “I’ll use magic!” The staff could grow or shrink however Lacey wanted it to.
At her feet, Tee spread its wings, took a deep breath in, and then spit it back out. “NKWOOOOOO!!!”
A wind current was generated. Tee flapped its wings and directed the current toward the open fire.
The opposite element of fire was water. Lacey couldn’t risk hurting the fire-element boar.
So if I’m going to use water magic, I need a way to avoid hitting the boar!
Tee, who was a phoenix, was a natural at manipulating flame. The wind current that it had generated swirled around the open flames, stretching out long and narrow into the sky. Then Lacey pointed her staff at it and rapidly formulated a spell that glided out of her mouth. Sustained by these two conditions, a blob of water gushed out from the end of her staff.
The blob of water, floating in the air, grew soft and round like a soap bubble and sucked the slender flames into itself with a whirl. As they swirled inside the thin membrane, the flames gradually grew smaller, and with a snap of Lacey’s fingers, the soap bubble popped.
A sudden rain drizzled down from the sunny sky. Relieved now that the flames were gone, Lacey heaved a long breath out.
“Kweeeeeeeeeh!” Tee moved its legs frantically as it ran over to the boar.
“Grr-oink grr-oink!”
“Kwee kwee!”
“Grr-oink-oink.”
Apparently the boar wasn’t severely injured. Lacey patted her chest in relief.
Then she suddenly remembered and turned around. “Right, you too, Wayne! Are you okay? You said it was hot. Did you get a burn?”
“No, it’s nothing much to worry about. But...”
Wayne frowned and slowly opened his clenched fist, showing Lacey the puffy white thing within.
“What’s that?” Lacey asked confusedly as she stared at the thing in Wayne’s hand.
“Not sure...” Wayne responded.
A peaceful afternoon passed, accompanied by jubilant cries of “kwee kwee” and “grr-oink grr-oink” celebrating their reunion.
∗ ∗ ∗
Wayne and Lacey decided to name the puffy white stuff “popcorn.”
The stuff that the boar had carefully transported in a cloth bag on his back was dried corn, a favorite food of his species. It was a souvenir from his home.
However, even the boar hadn’t realized that the corn would pop when exposed to flame. When Lacey and Wayne used a pot to heat some of the remaining corn, it popped and popped.
They were astonished that corn kernels could change into puffy white things, but upon apprehensively giving them a taste, they found that they were kind of tasty. Everybody looked at each other and placed a hand to their mouths in shock.
They planted the leftover kernels in the field, and by the next day, stalks with huge, swelled kernels had popped up. Lacey’s field was beginning to become almost monstrous. Drying the mature corn basically meant absorbing the moisture out of the kernels, so Lacey worked her magic.
Thus Lacey, Wayne, and the pets brought the dried corn down to the village. They were headed to Sasanqua, the only restaurant in town.
Ever since Dana visited, Lacey had gotten into the habit of occasionally dropping by Sasanqua. While Cedric, the proprietor, seemed surly, he was always eager to experiment with cooking. Lacey had learned that he was unabashedly delighted with her insulated thermal bags. He had told her that the next time she made something interesting, he wanted her to bring it to him.
“You know, I’m here, so we don’t have to go all the way out to a restaurant.” For once, Wayne was complaining. Sidestepping him, Lacey knocked on the door of Sasanqua.
“Welcome. Oh, who’s that?”
Cedric was sitting at the counter with an open newspaper and glared at them from behind his thin-rimmed glasses—or at least, he looked like he was glaring. But Lacey knew that at heart, he genuinely was glad to see them. She quietly bowed her head.
Tee and the boar poked their heads out from behind Lacey’s legs, making “kwee kwee” and “brr-ee brr-ee” noises. They were animals—or monsters, actually—so Lacey had thought twice about bringing them into a restaurant at first. But Cedric had badgered her about “Where’d your little birdie go?” so she now took Tee along without stressing about it.