Exterminating the Moomoocar (1)
Weeds always sprout on fallow land left unplanted. Look at those weeds, and you can read the condition of the soil. If a moisture-loving variety runs rampant, the land doesn't drain. If a nitrogen-fixing weed thrives in abundance, the soil already has nitrogen enough that you can skip the fertilizer for a while. There are even weeds that neutralize the acidity of the earth.
Weeds grow anywhere. Even on barren ground they take stubborn root and restore the soil. And yet, on the plot the village chief had given him, not a single weed would grow.
Why? Seeds that hid in the earth for ten years, a hundred years, then poked their heads up the moment they found a patch of open ground—why were those things so quiet now? Those stubborn weeds you'd pull and pull only to watch them poke up again in a few days were nowhere to be seen, and Rian found it strange.
"This isn't even land a living thing can survive on..."
He didn't know the reason yet, but he had a clue. It was something Lacazette had said not long ago.
I refer to land overflowing with the energy of monsters, such as this very place.
Lacazette had told him he could only travel on demon-tainted ground. The fact that a being like that had been prowling around the village at midnight was proof enough: a monster was living on this land.
"What kind of thing is it...?"
Please don't let it be something powerful.
"I'm a farmer type, not a combat type, okay, Mr. Monster?"
He was muttering that as he walked down the street when he glanced aside without thinking. On the wooden porch in a courtyard sat a half-sliced pumpkin and a kitchen knife, left sitting there in the open. The homeowner had apparently stepped away mid-chop.
Rian walked into the yard without the slightest hesitation, sat himself down, took up the knife, and started slicing the pumpkin with brisk, clean cuts.
"Monster, monster, monster, monster..."
"Oh? Rian?"
The lady of the house came outside. She saw him and broke into a bright smile.
"What brings you here?"
"I was passing by and thought I might help."
"Aigoo, aren't you sweet."
Lately, among the villagers—or more precisely, among the village women—Rian had become a celebrity of superstar proportions.
When the men went out to the fields during the day, it was mostly women who remained in the village. Rian, who was little better than an outsider and had nothing to occupy him all day, had taken to poking around here and there, and as he wandered he would often come across clusters of village women sitting together prepping vegetables.
"I'm bored. Might as well join them."
Vegetable prep was something he was confident he wouldn't lose to anyone at. He'd learned it getting scolded by Audria every single day. He'd walk up to a knot of aunties, give a little cough, slide in as if he belonged there, and after shucking a few bean pods they'd be laughing and getting along in no time. On top of that, Rian had a modern Earthling's way of thinking, so he clicked with the women and was a natural at shooting the breeze.
"My husband won't go anywhere near this kind of work—says his pecker'll fall off—but you're amazing at it, Rian. Your wife's going to love you~"
"Good heavens, look at that delicate touch with the greens. Rian, you're not actually a man, are you?"
"Well, you'd know if you looked! Drop your pants, let's check!"
"Oh my, look at this woman! Just because she hasn't got a husband she says whatever she wants! But I am curious. Go on, peel it! Hahaha!"
It wasn't as if he'd only been helping out of the goodness of his heart. With an eye on the future, he'd been collecting leftover crop seeds from each household in lieu of payment for his labor. And so, after all that chatting and all those busy hands, Rian had come to possess every variety of seed that existed in the village.
Thirty-five kinds in all. Thirty-five different seeds slept snugly in Rian's sack.
For later!
"Ma'am, about the grape fields. How long have they been like that?"
Rian asked as he sliced the pumpkin. The auntie was spreading the pieces he'd cut into a basket one by one.
"About two years now? The chief stepped up and tried this and that, but nothing worked. The berries are small and they aren't fresh, so they say every grape that leaves our village only gets used for jam. That's what the peddler girl told me. Said that's the only use they've got."
"That must be frustrating."
"You bet it is. We even held several rites for the earth god just in case, but it was the same every time."
A voice came from outside the yard.
"Rian, so this is where you were?"
"Hello."
"Oh my, looking handsome again today. Hohoho."
A plump auntie came into the yard, found herself a seat, and joined the chatter as if she'd been there all along.
"Rian, I heard you got some land?"
"Yes, I did, but the soil's no good, so I'm worried."
"What's wrong with the land?"
"You know how it is."
"People from the neighboring villages used to be so envious of our land. It was incredibly fertile—they all called it soil worth its weight in gold."
"Has anyone around the village seen a strange monster?"
"A strange monster?"
The two aunties stared at Rian, bewildered.
"I was wondering if there'd been any odd phenomena, or some kind of ominous sign. Land doesn't just change overnight."
"Was there?"
"Hmm..."
Suddenly one of the aunties slapped her knee.
"Now that I think about it, there was! There was!"
She widened her eyes like someone spinning a ghost story and launched into something that had happened long ago.
"I heard this from Marco next door. A few months back, on the day the rain knocked down that old tree over there. He was out working in the field when something pale and whitish came creeping along from the woods way off in the distance. Marco didn't think much of it and went closer to see what it was. And when he got there—well!"
She clapped her hands and her eyes went wide.
"It was a giant snake's tail, if you can believe it!"
"Oh my, oh my. I think I've heard that too."
The other auntie chimed in.
"The story about Marco seeing a giant white snake and running for his life?"
"That's it, that's it. That's the one."
"A white snake? So what happened?"
When Rian asked, the aunties answered at the same time.
"The snake was gone."
"Nothing happened after that. That was the end of it."
After Marco came to his senses, he'd rushed back to the site with the villagers to check, and it had vanished without a trace.
"A giant white snake..."
Rian thought for a moment, then curled one corner of his mouth.
"I think I know what that was."
"What?"
"No, never mind."
An ordinary person would have heard the auntie's story, thought huh, so that happened, and moved on. Rian was different. Hearing it, he had a vague sense of what it was. A professional farmer's instinct had kicked in.
A rainy day. A giant white snake.
Audria's teachings from long ago came back to him.
"The creature called Moomoocar is a monster of the earthworm family. In ordinary times it sinks a kilometer into the earth and stays there quietly. Only on rainy days does it crawl to the surface, to move to another place."
"If it's an earthworm, isn't that a good thing?"
"If it were, why would it be a monster? While the Moomoocar dwells underground, it drinks the soil's nutrients from everything within a twenty-kilometer radius and secretes a toxic blight. That substance is laced with a peculiar magic, so the farming methods we know cannot undo it. Finding the Moomoocar and killing it is the best solution."
Rian, who had been chopping, sprang to his feet.
"I need to hurry!"
The aunties jumped.
"W-what!?"
"What's wrong?"
"Both of you, put both hands up high over your heads."
"L-like this?"
"Palms open?"
"Yes."
Rian high-fived the two aunties, palms meeting with a pair of sharp claps, and immediately bolted out of the yard.
"I'm going to see the chief!"
The aunties left behind stared at each other, blank-faced.
"Why'd he clap...?"
"Is that how they greet people where he's from?"
Rian ran straight to the village chief's house. He met with the chief and laid out everything he had deduced. Once he'd heard the situation, the chief's face grew grave.
"A monster called Moomoocar is living under our village?"
"It's only a theory for now, but if it exists, it would be living underground here, or somewhere nearby."
The chief let out a long breath.
"We've spared no means trying to restore this exhausted land. But every effort of ours has failed. I even found myself resenting the heavens."
He lifted his head and met Rian's eyes. He was past fifty this year, and a fierce zeal showed in his gaze.
"Whether the thing is there or not doesn't matter. Even if it all comes to nothing in the end, we ought to try everything we can, shouldn't we? That's better than sitting idle, despairing and giving up."
He put steel into his voice.
"I'll mobilize the villagers on whatever day you name. Just say the word, anytime."
"Thank you."
Rian smiled brightly as he looked past the chief's shoulder. Outside the window, the wind had picked up hard, and dark clouds were rolling in.
"Today. Please gather the people at once."
A torrential downpour began from early evening. The villagers, wearing rain cloaks woven from plant stems, gathered in a wide clearing, paying no mind to the foul weather.
"I'll take roll! Roll call! Group One, raise your hands!"
"Here!"
"Group Two!"
"We're all here already, so hurry it up!"
"Group Three!"
"Mister! You're over here, come this way! Group Three's all accounted for too!"