Natural Disaster (1)
The next day, Audria held out Lagreanir to Rian with a composed expression.
"This is Lagreanir, the farming tool my father used. Rather than let it rot away in the warehouse, I thought it best that you put it to use, so I brought it."
Rian took Lagreanir and turned it over in his hands, studying it with open curiosity. To his eyes, it was nothing more than an ordinary rope a little over a meter long.
"Is this for tying things up?"
Audria shook her head. Gazing out at the distant landscape, she spoke.
"In his later years, Father loved farming, but in truth he found even moving about a bother. He used to insist that every king ought to be fat — that dignity only truly lived on a well-fed frame — and so he put on weight on purpose, to flaunt that he ate well and lived well."
She turned back to Rian and went on.
"Walking itself was a struggle for him, so if he ever brought the wrong farming tool out to the fields, going all the way back to the warehouse was an enormous nuisance. To make the work easy and convenient, he commissioned a dwarf craftsman he knew at the time to create Lagreanir."
Audria pointed at the rope.
"Wrap it around whichever arm is more comfortable — left or right."
"Wrap this around my arm? How am I supposed to..."
The instant Rian absently brought it to his left arm, Lagreanir glowed with a gentle blue light and began to move of its own accord. It slithered like a snake, coiling itself snugly from his left wrist all the way to his elbow.
Rian stared at his wrapped forearm and let out a gasp of wonder.
"Whoa, a magic item! Wait — is this an artifact?"
It didn't squeeze uncomfortably tight, and it had a bit of stretch to it, hugging his arm just right. The fit was excellent, and it even looked rather sharp.
"Not a bad wrist guard."
"It is not a wrist guard," Audria said. "Lagreanir is every farming tool distilled into a single form. Picture any farming implement in your mind. Then want it — strongly."
Rian did as he was told.
A hoe. I want a hoe! I want a hoe! Give me a hoe! Hoe, give me a hoe!
A blue light shimmered along the rope, and in an instant it had perfectly taken the shape of the hoe he'd imagined, settling into his hand.
Rian swung it through the air, his face lighting up with delight.
"It's a real hoe!"
He tested it by digging into the ground. It bit into the earth beautifully, and the metal blade was genuinely sturdy.
"You're really giving me something this precious?"
Audria nodded, a smile touching her lips.
"I am giving it to you so you do not get hurt again. Lagreanir can be used as a weapon as well."
"A weapon?"
"It can transform into any widely known weapon in the world — a sword, a bow, a spear. Try it."
"A sword, a bow, a spear..."
Rian closed his eyes and pictured a spear. A moment later, the hoe that had been Lagreanir stretched and reshaped itself into a long, ornate lance.
"That's sick!"
"Sick?"
"Just an expression from my country."
Rian gripped the spear with both hands and thrust it through the air with a whoosh. He was overjoyed.
"Does this mean I can make a name for myself as a warrior now?!"
Audria's voice turned sharp.
"I gave it to you for farming. Do not even dream of using it for anything else."
"Farm with a spear?"
"When you farm, monsters and wild beasts will inevitably appear and wreck the fields. That is what it is for — to drive them off."
"Ahh."
Rian nodded several times, as if that made perfect sense.
Audria added, "And in urgent situations like yesterday, when the man-eating fish threatened your life — using it as a weapon to protect yourself is also acceptable."
"So you won't get angry if I swing a sword then?"
"Simply put, so long as you have no intention of making a living by the blade with Lagreanir, anything is fine."
"Of course! I'll spend my whole life farming with you, Princess! Don't worry!"
At those words, Audria smiled with satisfaction.
"To wield Lagreanir well, you must train regularly. Wait here a moment. I shall go out and return shortly."
"Where are you going?"
"I intend to look around the area for a beast suitable for your training."
She transformed into a dragon at once and soared away. Not long after, she reappeared carrying a live wild boar. Pinned in her sharp talons, the creature squealed and thrashed, screaming its head off.
Rian's eyes went wide.
"You want me to kill that thing?"
"You had best catch it quickly."
Audria flew to the middle of the fields and released the boar.
"Catch it before that creature ruins everything we have farmed."
"Hah—!"
Rian spat into both palms, gripped Lagreanir — now a spear — and shouted with gusto.
"Leave it to me!"
But Rian couldn't even keep up with the boar. It bolted at incredible speed, trampling the fields indiscriminately as it went. He tried transforming Lagreanir into a bow, but without arrows he couldn't shoot — he'd have to find those himself. Every time the crops he'd worked so hard to grow toppled over, Rian felt like he might burst into tears.
"You little pig bastard! Hey, you pig bastard, get over here!"
Audria watched the spectacle in silence for a while. Deciding this wouldn't do, she called Rian to a halt.
"You need to be fast on your feet while remaining completely undetected. That is why you are struggling."
As she said this, she told him to close his eyes.
"Count to five. Then open them."
"Yes. One... two... three..."
He counted exactly five seconds and opened his eyes — and froze. There hadn't been so much as a footstep, yet Audria was already looking at him from some hundred meters away.
"How did you do that? You didn't fly, did you?"
"If you are to manage these vast fields alone, you must be swift of foot." She continued, "Starting today, I shall teach you a magic for rapid movement."
"I can learn magic too?"
"You have already learned even Draconic, and you still wonder about that?"
"Right. I did, didn't I!"
Audria spent the entire day teaching him Haste Flash, a magic for moving both swiftly and in secret. Rian studied diligently, but he couldn't use it proficiently right away. After casting the spell he'd take a few steps and then trip over himself, so catching the boar that day had to be abandoned.
When evening fell, Audria caught the boar — which had been running around having the time of its life — locked it in a pen, and prepared to leave.
"I always say this, but review what you learned today before you sleep. You will not want to, but it is extremely important."
"Yes, yes, of course. I'll definitely do it before bed."
Rian ducked into the cabin for a moment and came back out, holding a carefully folded sky-blue one-piece dress out to her.
"Um, Princess. This is... a gift."
Audria looked at the dress and tilted her head.
"A gift?"
"Exactly what it sounds like. I'd like you to wear this, Lady Audria."
"Clothes? For me? Why...?"
Rian smiled and spoke gently.
"For humans, clothes serve to protect the skin — but there's something even more important than that. Clothes tell you a person's status and their place in society."
Then he confessed what was in his heart.
"I respect you, Princess. I like you. That's why I want to dress you up so I can respect you even more. If you wear this, I'm certain you'll look magnificent and beautiful. Dignified, too. It'll itch at first, but if you keep wearing it, you'll get used to it for sure."
Audria's gaze rested solely on the one-piece dress in Rian's hands, her face expressionless. There was not a trace of joy to be found. She blinked a few times, then quietly accepted the gift.
"Clothes are cumbersome, but since you recommend it, I shall try it on."
"Thank you."
After that, she left without any further display of emotion beyond those words of thanks. Rian scratched the back of his head as he watched her fly off into the distance.
"Guess she's not that happy about it... Well, her lair is full of treasures. A dress like that probably doesn't mean much to her."
Back at her lair, Audria went straight to her ice mirror. She put on the gifted one-piece dress with its twin shoulder straps and simply stared at her own reflection for a long time.
Then, at some point, she spun in place. The hem of the skirt flared out in a circle and settled back down with a light, airy grace. One corner of her mouth, watching herself in the mirror, curled upward.
"Rian's gift..."
It was the first gift she had ever received in her life, and she was overjoyed. She fussed with the dress in front of the mirror for quite a while, until at last she could no longer contain her excitement and headed back to the farm. She didn't want to be apart from Rian tonight. She wanted to see him — soon.
Meanwhile, Rian was in his room, playing around with Lagreanir.
"Turn into a gun! A gun! A gun!"
No matter how much he shouted for a gun, it showed no intention of transforming. Eventually Rian wore himself out and let out a small sigh.
"Guess guns are a no-go. Well, isekai stories get boring once guns show up anyway."
Sitting there in a daze with Lagreanir wrapped around his left arm, his gaze fell on a glass bottle he'd set on the shelf the other day.
Holy water that kills the Demon King! Right — I had that!
Rian picked up the bottle, grinning from ear to ear.
"Enhancement time. Enhancement."
He was the type who could amuse himself just fine, chattering away even when he was alone. The moment he pictured a sword in his mind, Lagreanir instantly transformed into a magnificent blade with a gleaming edge.
"Wow..."
Rian opened the bottle.
"The Demon King isn't likely to come all the way out here, but there's always a 'what if,' so I might as well enhance it in advance."
Falling into old habits from his gaming days on Earth, Rian babbled nonsense about enhancements and the like as he sprinkled the holy water onto the blade.
"Plus one, plus two, plus three... Ooh, so now it's a plus-ten weapon?"
He studied the blade, glistening with moisture.
"No — a plus-ten farming tool. Lagreanir's essence is a farming implement, after all."
Then, suddenly, a voice called his name.
"Rian! Rian!"
"The Princess is back?"
Rian sprang to his feet. He tossed Lagreanir aside and bolted outside at once.
"What's the matter, Princess?!"
The moment he reached the living room, the door opened and Audria stepped inside.
"What were you doing?"
Rian's jaw dropped at the sight of her walking in.
"U-um, excuse me, but a-are you the Princess...?"
"What, you still don't recognize me?"
"N-no! That's not it, it's just..."
Appearing before him in a flowing sky-blue one-piece dress, she radiated a pure and lovely charm that captured Rian's eyes in an instant.
She's... she's beautiful.
Rian was utterly, hopelessly lost in the sight of her.