I Shared Out the Firewood
The Lizardmen city of Outer City was a place of astonishing technology.
They possessed a machine called the Starseeker, a device capable of drawing down the power of the stars from the heavens, and by using it, they could keep the temperature throughout Outer City perfectly steady.
That was how they had been able to survive for so long in the Gehenna Great Forest despite being cold-blooded, unable to regulate their own body heat the way warm-blooded races could.
Using the power of the stars, the Lizardmen had also hidden Outer City itself within the shadows. It was a safe haven that could never be seen by those who had not been granted permission—a city finished with alien, otherworldly technology, where a colossal gear-like solar wheel turned at the center.
That was Outer City.
Inside the central senate chamber of Outer City, voices rose without end.
The Lizardmen in their tailored suits were arguing heatedly, and the reason for the dispute was Behemoth, who had come up as a topic of discussion.
"Mid-Rank Councilor Lizardso! What you just said is no different from insulting the Prophecy Tablet! Do you truly mean to deny the Prophecy Tablet? Think carefully about how our ancestors reached this land, and how we came to be born into it!"
"I have thought about it enough to reach my conclusion, Senior Councilor Lizardda. I had no intention of insulting the Prophecy Tablet. I only wish to argue for Behemoth’s exceptional nature. He has already saved countless demi-humans from disaster. The Devil Tree, the manticore, the arachne, the jabberwock, the cerberus—those monsters were slain by his hand."
They were in the middle of debating what should be done about Behemoth, the beast of calamity, according to the Prophecy Tablet.
"It was nothing but coincidence, or perhaps just the sly tricks of a beast of disaster!"
"To call it a sly trick is hard to accept when so many demi-humans have been saved by him, and to call it coincidence feels even stranger when such things keep happening so often."
The senate had split cleanly in two.
One side insisted that the Prophecy Tablet was undeniable fact, and that Behemoth must continue to be watched as a beast of calamity. The other argued that Behemoth had to be treated as an exception.
Their opinions stood in sharp opposition.
"I agree with Mid-Rank Councilor Lizardso."
"Nonsense. Senior Councilor Lizardda is right."
Neither side would give an inch.
Because the fate of the entire Lizardman race was at stake, no one was willing to yield.
Bang!
The senate doors flew open.
"Marshal Lizardrin."
Lizardrin entered the chamber wearing armor splattered with blood.
Behind her followed warriors in full battle gear, because she had just returned with the magistrates and the army after sealing away the ancient monster Mushuhushu.
"So, how has the meeting been going, you know?"
She asked her aide, Lizardra, who served as her secretary as well.
Lizardra bowed her head.
"Both sides have been deadlocked."
Lizardrin nodded.
"Let’s set aside the Behemoth issue for a moment and talk about the results of the suppression operation. Total casualties: zero. Mushuhushu has been sealed safely, and with that, the being that could pierce through our shadows is gone, you know."
The Lizardmen councilors momentarily stopped arguing and let out cries of astonishment.
To fight an ancient monster and suffer zero casualties was nothing short of a miracle.
Although three days and a tremendous amount of resources had been consumed, it was a flawless and overwhelming victory, like a painting brought to life.
The grim atmosphere from a moment ago vanished without a trace, and the Lizardmen turned to one another with brightened faces.
Lizardrin raised a hand.
"That leaves nine ancient monsters remaining in the Great Forest. Ten have been erased by Behemoth’s hand, and the last one was sealed by us Lizardmen, you know."
At the mention of Behemoth, the councilors swallowed hard.
To wipe out ancient monsters that the Lizardmen had nearly exhausted themselves just trying to capture, and to do it alone.
Ten.
It was an utterly terrifying power.
Looking at the silent Lizardmen, Lizardrin walked toward the seat of honor.
"...The reason we Lizardmen sealed Mushuhushu was because the Prophecy Tablet commanded us to do so, you know. It also contained the means by which we were meant to seal Mushuhushu."
No matter how advanced the Lizardmen’s technology might be, sealing Mushuhushu without losses had been impossible. It had all been thanks to the Prophecy Tablet.
And then—
"A new revelation came down today, you know."
"Is that true!?"
"A new revelation...?"
Only Lizardmen who carried the blood of the Great Leader could interpret the Prophecy Tablet.
And that blood flowed only through Lizardrin and her family.
That was why Lizardrin, the bravest warrior and the most capable leader among them, held the rank of marshal over older Lizardmen who might otherwise have claimed it for themselves.
"The revelation said that, for the protection of the Great Forest, we were to seal Arachne, Jabberwock, Dullahan, Chimera Fairy, and Manticore, you know."
“……”
"Yes. You all noticed, didn’t you? Those are the ancient monsters Behemoth has already erased, you know."
Lizardrin sat down in her chair.
Then she fell silent, lost in thought.
No one dared speak.
How could they possibly seal monsters that had already vanished from this world?
It was contradiction itself.
Lizardrin’s words had just struck directly at the authority of the Prophecy Tablet.
The Lizardmen felt as though they had lost their way.
The compass that had guided them from the era of their ancestors to the present felt as if it had broken in their hands.
Until now, the revelations passed down from their forebears had all been correct.
They had even confirmed that the information concerning Mushuhushu was true.
And yet, why had the prophecies connected to Behemoth been wrong?
Could it really have been a coincidence?
“……”
I couldn’t even begin to make sense of it. The Prophecy Tablet painted Behemoth as a beast of calamity and an evil god, but the deeds he had performed among other races had them praising him as a benevolent deity. Were we truly supposed to keep fearing him, to the point of outright conflict...?
"Marshal Lizardrin!"
A Lizardman warrior burst through the senate doors.
His rudeness should have been condemned, but he looked so urgent that no one bothered to rebuke him.
"What is it, Lizardcaro?"
"An emergency report! The Forest Observation Team says they’ve confirmed that all the ancient monsters have been erased."
"...Was it Behemoth who did it?"
"W-Well..."
The warrior shook his head.
Then he took a deep breath and spoke.
"The one who erased the ancient monsters is said to be an entirely different being from Behemoth."
"...What?"
"I think you should hurry to the observation station at once..."
Something was very wrong.
Lizardrin immediately told the councilors, "That will be all for today’s meeting, you know. I look forward to seeing you all at the next one."
Then she hurried toward the observation station.
The ancient monsters were all erased, and yet it wasn’t Behemoth...?
The beast of calamity, Behemoth, had awakened.
The Prophecy Tablet that had told them so had, for the first time, given the wrong answer.
And another powerful existence, separate from Behemoth, had appeared in the Great Forest.
What on earth.
Lizardrin could only chew on her lip and quicken her pace.
"Ooooh..."
The brittle little Ppangdu sprouts had already grown into a towering tree.
It had all happened in a single day.
I’d been worried that the corpse of such a massive monster might not even be edible, but contrary to my expectations, it hadn’t left so much as a bone behind; it had devoured the whole thing clean.
I crunched into the Ppangdu I’d begged and received from Satania’s place, and my expression turned deeply satisfied.
My first successful harvest.
Honestly, it had been a shameless shortcut, but it was still the result of valuable labor.
Now I just had to wait quietly for the fruit to grow.
Other people might have found it disgusting to call it a tree that fed on corpses, but if you thought about it that way, every living thing born and raised in this land was disgusting. In the end, life was just a matter of eating and being eaten. Mm-hmm.
I walked over to the river.
There, piled up in heaps, were the trees I’d uprooted while clearing the land for the Ppangdu saplings.
Today was giveaway day.
If you didn’t know what I meant, just shut up and keep watching.
I chopped the trees apart.
One swipe of my blade-hand was enough to shatter the sturdy trunks into pieces.
Then I carefully ground the split wood against a stone.
The jagged bits were worn down smooth, and before long, the wood had become perfectly usable firewood.
I sorted the firewood into neat bundles.
Then, carrying the bundled wood, I set off in a cheerful stride.
"■■■■■!"
"■■■■■■ ■■■!"
The first place I headed was the beastmen’s village.
The beastmen came out to greet me with happy faces, and maybe because I’d kept lifting up the man who looked like the village chief over and over again before, they mercifully didn’t bow this time.
I gave them the wood as a gift.
They accepted it with extremely pleased expressions.
"Nyaa!"
Soho, who hadn’t been visible from the hut, suddenly popped out.
So you were here after all.
I stroked Soho with my index finger and left the village.
Next was the place where the dwarves lived.
Their city lay deep underground, and the passage leading down into the earth was absurdly narrow, so it would have been hard for me to go in.
"■■■■■!"
They came climbing up the ladder from below ground and greeted me warmly.
Among them were a few who had brought figurines they’d made of me.
Wait, what the hell was that?
I wasn’t some narcissist who liked staring at himself and getting lost in admiration, so I politely declined.
For some reason, he looked extremely happy about that, though I had no idea why.
Anyway, I gave the dwarves the firewood.
Just like the beastmen, they were delighted and accepted my gift.
Man, it would’ve been nice if we could actually understand each other.
Maybe I should have Lucy or Satania teach me sometime.
With those thoughts in mind, I kept walking.
"Here. This is the price of the Ppangdu."
"Thanks. Over there."
Satania’s reaction was just kind of so-so.
Maybe it was because she could gather firewood easily with magic.
Compared with the noisy reactions of the others, hers felt a little weak.
That was kind of disappointing.
Just as I reached out for the Ppangdu, Satania shouted, "No way!"
"Tsk."
I stacked the firewood near the pillar gate and waved.
The last place I headed was Lucy’s hut.
Lucy was watering flowers in the yard.
When she saw me, she greeted me warmly.
I set the firewood down on the storage rack.
"Wow, thank you. I’ll make good use of it."
Lucy smiled with delight.
"Oh, and I still have some dried jerky from last time..."
"I’m fine with meat."
"Really? Then I don’t have anything else I can give you."
"I just brought over the leftovers. Don’t worry about it. Oh, Lucy..."
We stopped talking.
Then we looked up at the sky.
It was dark evening now.
It was only natural for the moon to be up.
And yet neither of us could take our eyes off it.
"Isn’t it strangely red...?"
"Yeah..."
From the blood-red crescent moon, an ominous crimson glow poured down over the land like spilled blood.
For the first natural phenomenon I had ever seen, I felt not wonder but dread.
Something was happening in this land.