The Grafting of Beasts
The words Nicesas had just spoken left Elbridge and his companions utterly bewildered.
"···What?"
Nicesas declared with evident pride.
"Do you know what grafting is?"
"···I've heard of it, I think."
"If you slice a small section from the stems of two plants and bind them firmly together, you can create something that's a blend of both. It's similar. About four or five hundred years ago, I saw a demonic beast that resembled a wild boar and had an idea. With a bit of luck, I realized I might be able to graft them."
Bireon's speculation that the Land Boars were a hybrid of beast and demonic creature had been exactly right.
The problem was that this hadn't occurred naturally. It was the work of the elf standing before them.
"So first I subdued a demonic beast and tied it up properly. I was wondering what to do next when, surprisingly, a female boar took a liking to it first. And the result···. Ta-da! The very first Land Boars were born!"
As Nicesas told the story, he seemed to expect some kind of reaction from Elbridge's group.
But their faces had gone rigid as stone.
If this had been only a short while ago, they might have been impressed.
The three of them had witnessed the devastation wrought by the Land Boars.
They had seen the creatures topple fortresses and cities, trampling people beneath their hooves. They had watched countless lives snuffed out.
They had seen the God of the Flowing Water descend to protect his followers from a Stampede, only to become corrupted into a demon.
Bireon had said it plainly: no demonic beast in the South had killed more people than the Land Boars.
That much, they could understand.
But the idea that so many people had died over the past several centuries because of one insane elf's reckless experiment was simply impossible to accept.
Elbridge rose to his feet and gripped the hilt of his sword.
"You··· just what the hell···."
Because he believed a holy knight's duty was to fight demons, Elbridge rarely turned his weapon on another person.
Yet even by his standards, what Nicesas had done was an unforgivable sin—one that not even death could atone for.
Marcus and Rombel's reactions were equally grim. Both men drew their weapons.
But at that very moment, the Goddess of the Rusty Shield delivered an oracle.
Elbridge. Wait.
Startled by the sudden oracle, Elbridge froze. Nicesas let out a disappointed sigh.
"Yeah. Well···. I figured as much."
Clap.
Nicesas clapped his hands. Intricate patterns bloomed across the floor and walls of the hut, radiating light.
Elbridge's body, caught in the glow, began to stiffen.
A trap!
Unlike ordinary spells that required time to cast, magic circles activated their effects the instant their trigger was pulled. They had walked straight into it the moment they entered the hut.
"G-Goddess!"
His life was in danger. The moment Elbridge struggled to offer a prayer, Nicesas lifted him bodily and strode toward the door.
Creak—
Nicesas opened the door and hurled Elbridge outside.
Thud, clatter—
Elbridge tumbled across the ground, rigid as a wooden log. Rombel and Marcus were thrown out after him.
That was the end of it. Nicesas had not killed the three of them; instead, he simply turned to go back inside the hut.
Rombel, his pride wounded, forced his stiffened tongue to move.
"You're not... going to kill us...!"
Nicesas answered with a bitter expression.
"A host must never harm his guests."
Thud.
The door slammed shut.
"···."
The three of them waited until the magic wore off, then slowly pushed themselves to their feet.
Countless Land Boars surrounded them, yet none attacked. A few wandered close to sniff at them before wandering off again.
Rombel worked his jaw slowly, his speech still slightly slurred.
"What... are you going to do?"
Would they go back into the hut and subdue Nicesas, or simply leave?
Elbridge thought for a moment, then shook his head.
Whatever his intentions, Nicesas had chosen not to kill them even when he easily could have.
The Goddess of the Rusty Shield's oracle also weighed on his mind. Though she could be frivolous, she never stopped him without reason.
"···Let's head back for now."
That night, Elbridge lay in bed and offered a prayer to his goddess.
"Goddess. Why did you stop me?"
In truth, even without her intervention, their chances of victory would have been slim.
Once caught in a mage's web, how could they possibly overpower the mage himself? But Elbridge didn't want to admit that. After all, the goddess's command had left him unable to do anything at all.
Elbridge. Nicesas is no mere eccentric.
"You know him, Goddess?"
Among the gods of heaven, few would not know of Nicesas.
"Goddess. Is creating the Land Boars such a monumental achievement?"
It is not for that reason. Yet I am unsure whether I should speak of his deeds...
The Goddess of the Rusty Shield did not explain further about Nicesas.
Even so, Elbridge did not miss that her very hesitation was a clue in itself.
The gods could not carelessly spread the secrets of heaven to mortals.
But there were few restrictions on sharing stories of the mortal realm with other mortals.
That means Nicesas is connected to the heavens somehow...
The goddess gave one final oracle.
I do not recommend clashing with Nicesas, whatever else you may do. Elbridge.
"Understood, Goddess."
Yet within the oracle, Elbridge sensed a faint spark of curiosity.
The next morning at dawn, Elbridge woke and immediately stepped outside.
Beneath the dim sky, he gazed in the direction where the hut had stood the day before.
Huh?
He realized something.
The Land Boars that had merely been loitering nearby yesterday were now moving—very slowly—toward another place.
He recalled what Rombel had said the previous day.
Tomorrow at sunrise, I'll send the Land Boars elsewhere. That'll wrap up the request in one go.
As Elbridge stared blankly at the creatures, Masa approached and spoke to him.
"You're up early. The bed wasn't uncomfortable, was it?"
"No. I slept comfortably."
"It looks like the Land Boars have started moving···. Did you resolve the problem yesterday?"
Elbridge's group had not told Masa what had happened with Nicesas.
But the situation wasn't one where he could confidently say the problem had been solved.
Well... Rombel did talk with Nicesas, so maybe it has been resolved...
Elbridge let out a deep sigh.
"···I'm not sure."
The matter seemed settled for now, yet his heart remained uneasy.
Separate from whether the problem was truly over, he felt he needed to learn more about Nicesas.
He asked Masa,
"Masa."
"Yes?"
"What do you think of the Land Boars?"
"Just looking at them makes me anxious. The trouble they cause is no small thing."
"Was it always like that? Even before they started gathering in such numbers?"
Masa shrugged.
"I've seen them since I was a child, so I'm used to them and don't pay much attention. But if I had to say··· they're not good. They're unsettling, they stink, and they keep digging up the ground and ruining the crops. If only those things weren't here, the Great Forest would be a much better place to live."
"I see."
As expected, to the people of the South the Land Boars were nothing but thorns in their side.
Just as Bireon and every other southerner had said.
"I'll go take a look around outside for a while."
"Take your time!"
Leaving the cheerful Masa behind, Elbridge stepped past the wooden fence and walked through the Land Boars, lost in thought.
Why did Nicesas create the Land Boars?
It was a question that hadn't occurred to him inside the hut yesterday.
Had Nicesas made them purely on a whim, for his own amusement?
After taking in the sight of tens of thousands of Land Boars, Elbridge spotted an elf riding atop one of them.
It was Nicesas.
Elbridge tensed slightly.
A magic circle probably wouldn't spring up like yesterday, but from what he'd seen, Nicesas was an exceptionally skilled mage. What would happen if he turned hostile?
I think I could handle Nicesas himself. But if the Land Boars suddenly turn on us...
Yet Nicesas's reaction upon seeing him was completely unexpected.
"Sleep well?"
Despite the rather unpleasant way they'd parted the day before, Nicesas greeted him with that same refreshingly bright smile.
The only emotion in his voice was one: gladness.
Elbridge wondered,
When I first woke from the seal, did I speak to people in a voice like that?
Nicesas called out to him.
"Elbridge. I thought I'd heard your name somewhere···. It finally came back to me. You're the one who was sealed together with a great demon, right?"
"That's right."
For some reason, hearing himself called a "guy" made him want to laugh.
It really drove home that the other party was an incredibly ancient elf.
"Elbridge. You've been through a lot too. In more ways than one."
"It wasn't easy."
The atmosphere didn't feel like a fight was about to break out.
Elbridge leaped lightly onto the back of a Land Boar beside Nicesas.
The creature's coarse bristles made for a rather unpleasant ride.
"Nicesas. One question occurred to me last night."
"What is it?"
"Why did you create the Land Boars?"
Nicesas laughed.
"You know what? In the last three hundred years, you're the first person who's ever asked me that."
"So it wasn't just for fun after all."
"Correct. I made them because the South desperately needed them."
Nicesas stroked the Land Boar's fur as gently as if he were petting a puppy.
"Elbridge. Why do you think there are no demons in the South?"
"···I'm not sure."
Even two hundred years ago, the Great Forest of the South had been famous as a land without demons.
But the absence of demons hadn't made life easy for the southerners. Instead of demons, they had to fight demonic beasts and the brutal forces of nature.
"In truth, it wasn't that there were never any demons here. These fellows drove them all out."
"The Land Boars drove out the demons?"
It sounded absurd.
Yet at the same time, it seemed entirely possible. If tens of thousands—or even hundreds of thousands—of Land Boars charged at once, only a demon with truly exceptional power could hope to withstand them.
"Long before you were born, the South was in far worse shape. They had to face demonic beasts, nature, and demons all at the same time. Human strength alone could overcome none of it. Watching that, I thought to myself: if humans cannot defeat demons, perhaps demonic beasts could drive them away instead?"
It was a preposterous idea.
Demonic beasts were essentially byproducts of demons and obeyed them without question.
But if one mixed demonic beasts with ordinary animals to create the Land Boars···.
When Elbridge's eyes widened, Nicesas smiled.
"Quick on the uptake. I decided to use the Land Boars to drive out the demons. And the idea worked beautifully. It took decades for their numbers to grow sufficiently, of course. Back then, people called the Land Boars a blessing sent down by the gods."
Elbridge replied,
"That's certainly not how people see them now."
"Of course not. How could people who don't even remember the demons feel any gratitude toward the Land Boars—or toward me?"
"···."
For some reason, a heavy ache settled deep in his chest.
Wasn't that exactly why he himself could not reveal the full truth before others and had to pretend to be one of their descendants?
The Land Boars, who had become nuisances in a world without demons.
And himself, who would be the first to be suspected in a world where demons had vanished.
"Elbridge. Do you know why the Land Boars follow me?"
"···Because you created the very first ones, I suppose."
Nicesas shook his head.
"No. It's because I'm the only one who loves them. These fellows have an uncanny knack for sensing whether someone likes or hates them. Go on, try stroking one of them gently."
Elbridge gently stroked the Land Boar he was riding.
The creature let out a small, contented grunt. Grrrk.
Without realizing it, Elbridge murmured,
"So that's how it is···."
"Yes. That's exactly how it is."
Nicesas murmured those words, then wore an expression of deep, sorrowful longing.
Thanks to their innate beauty, elves wearing such an expression became living works of art.
Even now, riding atop a Land Boar, Nicesas looked far more gallant than any knight mounted on a white stallion.
In a voice like someone singing or reciting poetry, Nicesas brought the story to a close.
"And as a result of being so unfairly hated, even though I was chosen by the gods three times, I lost the heavenly vote each and every time. That is why I could not become a god. Can you imagine how resentful I feel, Elbridge?"
"···."
Nicesas's tale had taken a sudden leap forward.
Elbridge thought that the elf had clearly omitted many crucial details.
Whether he had read that reaction or not, Nicesas laughed brightly.
"Haha. Don't worry. The Goddess of the Rusty Shield didn't cast a vote against me."
Only then did Elbridge understand what Nicesas had meant yesterday by the word "pass."