A Small Problem, 1,298 Times Over
A small problem had come up. The scale of the field was slightly larger than I’d anticipated.
By about 1,298 times, to be exact.
It stretched all the way to the horizon. Standing in the middle of a wide plain, everywhere my eyes could reach was that very field in question.
Damn it. When they said “field,” I’d pictured something far more modest.
This old man was a serious landowner.
“Will you truly be able to make it rain…?”
When I stood there with my arms crossed, saying nothing, the old man asked with a doubtful look. I had to twitch the corner of my mouth.
My noble pride refused to let me back down now and admit that the size was a bit burdensome.
A brief but fierce battle between pride and laziness followed, but pride emerged victorious, bolstered by the many expectant eyes watching me.
“Of course. For me, something like this is a piece of cake—no, more like a sip of soup.”
“Is that really possible?”
“Naturally. Who do you think I am!”
It wasn’t as if I couldn’t do it. The only problem was that this had gone far beyond the level of kindness I had intended to offer.
“Who exactly are you…?”
“You don’t need to know that, do you? It’s dangerous to pry too much.”
“Huh?”
Leaving the bewildered old man behind, I measured the vast scale of the field with my eyes and thought that asking Undine to handle this might be pushing it.
At this size, it would be far more efficient to have Undain do it.
But when I saw Undine’s eyes literally sparkling like a lake at the prospect of having a job to do, I couldn’t bring myself to tell her she wasn’t up to it.
Our Undine was too kind and pure a being. In other words, like me—a good soul who could live without laws—I didn’t want to hurt her feelings.
“Undine, can you manage? The field’s a bit large.”
I'll do my best!
If it's with Master!
I can do it!
“How sweet. She even speaks so prettily.”
It wasn’t just humans; spirits had that limitation too. An unavoidable constraint of their birth.
Like how a rabbit can’t eat a tiger no matter how hard it tries.
The power of the weakest lower spirit was fixed from the moment it was born, so no amount of effort could let it surpass an intermediate spirit like Undain.
But it could come close. In other words, Undine could become as strong as Undain.
How? By meeting a great master like me.
It began with Undine transforming into a small dark cloud.
The cloud spread rapidly from where I stood all the way to the horizon.
It grew darker and darker until it filled every corner of my vision, then began to drizzle steadily.
It turned into a heavy downpour in an instant.
Not a single patch of the vast land was left out of the rain’s blessing.
The dry earth that had been baking under the hot sun was completely swallowed by the pitch-black clouds. In the blink of an eye, the whole area grew dark and gloomy as if we had stepped into another world.
Watching it, I felt a small surge of pride.
That little Undine had grown so much she was now doing something on a scale that rivaled Undain.
Well done, my child.
It wasn’t just because she was my spirit—our Undine really was a genius.
“Well, while she’s watering the fields, shall we finish eating?”
It had been a bit more effort than expected, but it was still an easy task. After all, I was Jeanie Crowell. I turned around feeling refreshed, only to find everyone wearing strange expressions.
“Heh……”
“……”
“Why are you all making those faces? First time seeing rain?”
Ash, Lox, the rest of the party, Lil and her family—every single one of them stood with their mouths open, staring blankly at the raining fields.
Was the rain too heavy?
I didn’t know much about farming, so I had no idea what the proper amount was.
“Is there too much water? Should I make it lighter?”
“No, no. It’s not that…… We’re just overwhelmed by how incredible it is. I never imagined something like this was possible. When you said you’d make rain, I pictured something much smaller…… But this……!”
“If you’re shocked by something like this, we’re going to have problems. Show you Endairon and you’d probably faint.”
“Endai……?”
“There’s something like that.”
Just remember that I haven’t shown even a hundredth of my true greatness yet.
Or that I’m a cold city woman full of secrets.
“Father! Giving them bread and jerky won’t be enough, will it? Should we slaughter a pig?”
“Yes, let’s. And a goat as well……”
“No! You really don’t have to!”
Why stop them when they’re offering free meat!
Ash was as oblivious as ever. We needed to leave quickly and had almost finished eating anyway, but there was no reason to turn down offered meat.
I was pouting in dissatisfaction when I finally noticed Lox with his hands clasped, muttering something. It definitely looked like he was sniping at me.
“Oh God, why did you make the mistake of granting such great talent to a human like her?”
“……Hey. Isn’t your whole doctrine that God doesn’t make mistakes?”
“It seems He did this time. Oh God, this is wrong.”
That guy clearly knew I was the Saint but refused to accept it, so he’d gone insane.
Or maybe he’d simply lost his mind denying a reality he didn’t want to face.
Either way, it was pitiful, so if I were to offer a little comfort……
“Everyone, take this chance to remember it well. I’m shameless, have no sense of decency, and I’m not a particularly good person, but I do know how to repay kindness with kindness.”
“Ah…… so you do know…… that you’re shameless.”
“Of course!”
It’d be nicer if they called me bold instead!
Ignoring someone’s goodwill is also bad manners.
Of course, I’m far too free a soul to lecture anyone on manners, but when they’re willingly offering to slaughter a pig and a goat, wouldn’t it be proper etiquette to at least stay for dinner?
That would be perfect.
If we could stay another day while eating and leave at our leisure tomorrow, how convenient would that be? As expected, I really prefer sleeping in a bed.
“Hey! Stop dawdling and come out already!”
With departure right in front of us, my laziness had me moving slowly when Lox shouted at the back of my head.
I didn’t need to turn around; the voice alone told me it was Lox.
The only one with the guts to yell at me like that was Lox, whose courage clearly exceeded his actual ability.
For the weakest member of the party, his tone sounded like he wanted to grab me by the collar and drag me along if he could.
“If I killed him, Ash would be sad……”
“You’re muttering that way too openly, you know?”
“I said it so you would hear.”
I needed to correct myself. Looking at that face full of discontent and disrespect, it was obvious he wanted to dump me under a bridge rather than take me with him.
But when he made a face like that, it only made me want to follow him more.
“I’m ready. Let’s go.”
“From what I’ve seen, travel doesn’t suit you at all…… If everything is so bothersome, have you considered returning to your own home?”
“Hahaha! I haven’t. Give up on that hope, Lox. I thought you were smart, but maybe not?”
“You devil……”
No, I’m not.
I’m the Saint of this era, you know?
Though I do love a good cackle.
“Annoying woman……”
“You need to go back to the academy. If that’s all the insults you can come up with, your education was wasted. Completely wasted.”
“Ugh, damn human.”
Who was I? The master of annoyance and owner of the metal spirit Rai.
Everything that guy did, he had learned from me, and his antics could never surpass their teacher.
Listening to Lox grind his teeth, I stepped lightly into the yard.
The men had already finished preparing to leave and were exchanging farewells with Lil’s family.
“We’ve imposed on you greatly.”
“Thanks to you, we rested well.”
“We’re the ones who are grateful! I pray you have a safe journey.”
“Thank you. Since we need to return the borrowed horses, we’ll definitely stop by again on our way back.”
“Ah, if fate allows, we may meet again in the capital. We’re planning to watch the Sword Masters’ duel. The whole family wants to go together, but I’m not sure we can get tickets.”
When I came outside, Enk brightened and approached, leading a horse.
True to his chivalrous nature, Enk immediately took the luggage bag I was carrying.
“Miss Jeanie! Have you decided who you’ll ride with?”
“Not yet.”
“Don’t think too hard about it and ride with me. I’ll take good care of you.”
The reason this discussion was happening was because our party had six people but only four horses available to borrow.
That was all the farm could spare, so it couldn’t be helped, and we were grateful even for that.
With tourists flooding in, there were no horses to rent anywhere.
In the end, two members would have to ride behind someone else.
Naturally, the lightest ones—me and Lox—were the candidates, and all that remained was deciding who would ride with whom.
Lox was naturally trying to ride behind Ash.
I had been spacing out while receiving Enk’s enthusiastic advances, but I felt zero attraction to the idea.
I had considered it, but it only became clearer that I didn’t want to.
I was the type of person who generally knew exactly what I wanted.
“After thinking about it, I want to ride with Ash.”
“But……”
Enk looked dejected, but since I didn’t know how long we’d be riding together, I had no desire to hold the waist of someone who made me uncomfortable.
Especially when I’d have to lean my whole body against his back.
“What are you saying! I’m riding behind Ash! Don’t overstep your bounds, you rolling stone!”
“I like Ash too!”
“If you don’t want Enk, there’s still Gail!”
Excluding Enk, there weren’t many choices left. Gail clearly looked like he wanted to ride alone, and Chad was already twice a normal person’s weight by himself, so adding another rider would be too much for the horse.
“Whether it’s Gail or Enk, both are uncomfortable. We’re still basically strangers.”
“Who’s the stranger? You?”
“It may not show, but it’s true. I’m shy. How delicate do you think I am?”
“Does a delicate person kill people the way you do!”
“I kill because I’m delicate. I can’t stand things that bother me.”
“You talk a good game!”
Lox, who clearly had no intention of giving up the back seat, quickly mounted the horse.
That brown horse must be Ash’s.
“Lox, you’re really doing this?”
“Do you think I can watch the two of you sticking together with my eyes open?”
He really was like a mother-in-law.
I couldn’t tell whether he simply disliked me or if he hated any woman who approached Ash.
To resolve this peacefully, I quietly walked over to the horse.
“Since we both want the same thing, it can’t be helped.”
“I’m not doing rock-paper-scissors! In situations like this, the spot behind Ash has always been mine!”
I was getting tired of competing with Lox over Ash.
It was starting to annoy me more than before, perhaps?
I wanted to spend time comfortably with Ash, yet Lox kept physically interfering with his whole body. I didn’t like it.
I liked settling things clearly, and I knew it was easier to simply remove anything that got in my way.
Smiling in a friendly manner, I said.
“Lox? Let’s settle who rides behind Ash with a duel. A fair and honest fight.”
The opponent was the party’s weakest non-combatant, Lox, but I was completely serious.
“……Do you even have a conscience?!”
“I don’t, that’s why I’m doing this. What I want is clear, and all you have to do is disappear. If you don’t want to vanish from this world, you’d better not bother me while I’m still speaking nicely.”