City Sightseeing (1)
'Mana's spilling over... what is this feeling?'
Iseria had just hurled Wind Cutter at the boar beast, and the unfamiliar sensation in her hands left her more than a little shaken. It was an attack woven from her own mana alone, with no spirit's power borrowed, and yet its force was anything but ordinary.
"Kweee, kwiiiik!!"
Blood sprayed from the boar as a blade of wind tore in with momentum enough to shear through space itself. This was no scratch. In an instant the cut sank past the thick layer of fat and bit into the muscle beneath.
She had rested in the forest these past few days, and the hearty extra-soft tofu she had just eaten had left her in fine form. Even so, this was a strength that a simple I'm in good condition could not begin to explain.
"Forget it! Just die!"
Shiiik—!
The stray thoughts could wait. Iseria flicked her hands in a sharp, lively motion, and the formless blade of wind bent like a boomerang before launching from her fingertips. It flew with a vicious whistle of cloven air and took the boar beast's head clean off. The creature died without so much as a cry.
"Hey! You okay?"
"Can't you see? I'm fine."
Kang Jinwoo, who had been watching the fight through the restaurant window, bolted outside the moment the boar's head dropped. Iseria dusted her palms with a light tap and answered him. Her tone was prickly, but she was right. The beast had not managed the slightest resistance; it had been carved apart above her open hands.
Jinwoo had seen the fight himself and knew she had not taken a hit. The worry had simply jumped out of him on reflex.
Iseria looked down at her own two hands. She could still feel far more mana than usual, though it was steadily ebbing—ebbing only back down to the amount that had always been hers. A momentary surge. She had not drunk a potion, and no one had cast a buff on her.
'A potion... could it be?'
A certain dish flashed through her mind. Something white and cloud-soft, steaming hot and nutty-rich.
'No. There's no way.'
She shook her head at once and scrubbed the theory away. A buff or a potion that amplified mana was not some household spirit you could whistle up on a whim. Such things were not made so easily—least of all by a human whose mana was absurdly lacking next to her own.
"When am I supposed to get through all of this...?"
Once the commotion had settled, I laid out the butchering tools and a bucket. The boar beast was sprawled in plain sight across the backyard, waiting to be taken apart.
'Iseria really is ridiculously strong.'
No proper weapon, no armor, and she was hardly built like a bruiser. She was a blonde, twin-tailed elf girl, pretty as a picture. I never would have imagined she could hit that hard. Watching her attack, I briefly wondered whether I might manage the same if I trained in magic, then gave up almost at once. A man ought to stick to his own work. It would not be a total waste of time, but once you weighed the hours and the effort, the returns simply did not add up.
Turning the idle thought over, I worked the sharp butchering knife this way and that. I had learned to cook, not to break down carcasses for a living, so the job was a little clumsy. Not cutting my own hand was victory enough. Beginners learning to debone usually start their careers already nicked across the hands, the forearms, and the chest. Being able to buy meat already trimmed and ready to cook at a neighborhood market, thanks to the Industrial Revolution and the march of science—that was a gratitude you could not truly feel unless you had killed and dressed an animal yourself.
After about thirty minutes of grunting and straining, I managed to separate the front leg. And that was only the tip of the iceberg. No—the tip of the pig.
'If I do this alone, I won't finish even if I stay up all night.'
I stopped cutting and looked around. Iseria was sitting a short distance off, sneaking glances my way. From what I had seen earlier, she had sliced that beast up like a block of tofu. If she helped, would this not be over in a flash?
I trudged over to her. She seemed to have a fair idea of what I was about to ask, and she met me with a prim little air.
"Hey, Iseria. The beast carcass—could you maybe help me break it—"
"Hmm? What was that?"
Sure enough, she needled me like the little snob she was. Her personality was tsundere through and through, so it was not an act. She really was that prickly. I was just opening my mouth, already bracing for our usual WWE match, when she spoke first.
"Fine. I'll help."
"Huh? Oh—thanks..."
"In exchange! Let me stay at your place for a while, human."
"Huh?"
I was grateful for the help, and her staying over was not a problem in itself. It was a perfectly honest question, though. Why? An elf who had come to the human world chasing a dopamine rush in the city—why would she want to lodge in a backwater like this?
I put the question to her. Whereupon—
"Sh-shut up! It's none of your business! So are you letting me stay, or not?"
"I mean... I was just curious. Fine, stay at the house for now. Now will you help me break the beast down?"
"Heh. That's more like it."
Iseria smiled a little imp's smile and gathered her mana. It was not a deal I would lose on, so why did it feel as if she were up to something?
Whooo—
Either way, mana rippled around her and the wind rose. It was not as fierce as the blast she had used on the boar, but the keen edge of it carved the carcass into neat, handsome pieces.
'What is she, a butcher's daughter?'
For a vegetarian elf, she laid those blades of wind exactly into the joints and took the thing apart with impressive cleanliness.
'Well, it worked out. Good enough for me.'
While I was thinking that, Iseria spoke.
"Human. Where are you moving this meat?"
"Hm? For now we should shift it closer to the back door..."
"Got it."
A different wind rose—not the cutting gale from before, but a smooth, leisurely breeze. It nestled itself snug beneath the chunks of meat, still enormous even after they had been broken down.
Fwoomp—!
The meat lifted into the air on that wind and drifted over beside the back door!
"Whoa! Holy shit!"
"Ah! You startled me! Don't yell all of a sudden!"
"Sorry."
Startled by my outburst, Iseria let out a little uuu and fussed at her ears. But how was I supposed to not be shocked? This was more astonishing than the moment I had learned I could use spirits as a refrigerator and a stove. Maybe that was because Basic Spirit Arts and Mana Market were skills I had already possessed. The mystery Iseria was working right now looked like the magic you only ever saw in stories.
Thanks to her one-tap, no-effort show, the butchering was finished in thirty minutes. With the time and equipment I had, making something of the organs would have been difficult anyway, and there was already far too much meat to bother. I had worried the boar's musk would be too rank to eat, but contrary to expectation the meat gave off nothing but a fresh, clean scent of flesh. Wild game in another world really was a different breed.
I put the boar's bones into a large pot and poured in enough water to cover them. Pork bone stock was versatile once you boiled it, so I left the bones like that to draw out the blood. As for the rest of the meat, I packed as much as I could manage into the refrigerator, sorted by cut. Even then, dozens of kilograms remained.
'Guess I'll have to head into town.'
At last I had an excuse to visit the city for the first time in a while. I would sell some meat, take in the market while I was at it, and spend the day out.
"Hey, Iseria."
"What, human."
"Let's eat some tofu."
Well, the city could wait until tomorrow. For now Iseria and I sat down to the firm, springy tofu we had set, with soy sauce and kimchi on the side.
"Hnnngh..."
She declared it had a charm all its own, different from the extra-soft tofu, and her eyes went unfocused again. I was used to it by now.
"Fire's out, door's locked..."
Early in the morning, I finished my last checks before leaving the house. I shouldered a pack of a reasonable size and stepped out into the front yard.
"Why are you so slow? Typical human."
"Yeah, yeah."
Iseria, greeting me with her usual morning prickliness. I knew that picking a fight with a tsundere remark only made things annoying, so I answered just enough and left it there.
"Let's go. I'm counting on you, Iseria."
"Hah... a mere human, putting an elf to work..."
She grumbled even as she drew up her mana and raised the wind. The carefully wrapped masses of meat bobbed along after our steps, riding the breeze.
"You really are amazing, Iseria."
"H-hmph! Obviously. Even among elves this magic is exceptional, and this much is nothing!"
A stock compliment, and she flushed even as she failed, very obviously, to hide how pleased she was. But it was not empty praise. Without her magic, I never would have even considered hauling this absurd amount of meat into the city.
Before long we were out of Kalian Forest, and a well-kept road welcomed us. It was not paved in asphalt the way a modern road would be, of course, but the weeds had been cleared back and the earth was packed firm. We trudged along, chatting, and before I knew it the city of Silbaerin came into view.
The closer we drew to the high walls, the clearer the line in front of the checkpoint became. Merchants hauling freight wagons, adventurers kitted out for the road—ordinary figures, all of them. Floating an outrageous quantity of meat on wind magic, we stood out whether we liked it or not.
"Hey, look over there. What are those two doing?"
"An elf? Did you say an elf? I'll be damned. Live long enough and you really do see one."
People murmured, every one of them.
"Tch. Do they think I'm some pet on display? Humans..."
"Just bear with it a little. We'll be up soon."
Iseria muttered, thoroughly displeased. I had never expected to be moving this much cargo, so I had not hired a wagon or a horse. Buying one for the occasional job like this was more money than I cared to spend. What can you do, Iseria? You're just going to have to tough it out.
"Good day. Please present your identification tag and state your name."
"The tag's right here... The name is Kang Jinwoo."
"Kang Jinwoo? That's an unusual name... Huh!"
The checkpoint guard had been running through the entry procedure on autopilot. The moment he heard my name, he jumped. Then he asked me to wait a moment and ducked inside the post.
What was that about? Sure, the name was unusual by local standards, but enough to startle him like that? For a second I wondered if this was some new breed of bigotry dressed up as a fuss—and then a man who looked to be in charge came hurrying out.
"M-my apologies! You may enter!"
"Sorry? Is that all right?"
"Of course! The check is mandatory, purely in case of the unexpected, so please don't take it to heart!"
"Ah. Right. Thank you."
It left a slightly odd taste, but if they were letting us through without trouble, there was no reason to refuse. Iseria, who had been standing beside me with a stiff face, went blank the moment she was suddenly waved through with me on a free pass. She had no means of proving her identity at all, so even if she pretended otherwise, she had clearly been quite tense.
"What, were you scared they'd turn you away at the gate?"
"What?! As if!"
A light poke, and she bit down hard. It felt like the satisfaction of dropping a perfectly timed dollar donation on a livestream and getting exactly the scene you wanted. I spoke to Iseria, who was glaring at me with her cheeks puffed out in a murderous sulk.
"Quit that and look ahead."
"What's supposed to be ahead...!"
She grumbled, but she looked where I told her—and then she stopped dead, rooted like a stone left waiting for someone who would never come.
That feeling... I knew it well. I had been the same the first time I came through. A northern range of eternal snow, cold enough that it seemed to forbid life itself from flourishing. And yet Silbaerin, nestled at the foot of those mountains, had built itself into a splendid city. Buildings of timber, brick, and clay all wore sharply peaked roofs that called mountain summits to mind. Between the tightly packed blocks, well-laid brick streets ran out in every direction, and street stalls had set up their ranks along them. A bustle and an abundance hard to believe of a cold city in the north.
I spoke to Iseria, who stood with her mouth hanging open in wonder.
"Country bumpkin."
I understood that it was amazing. Still, we needed to sell the meat first and sightsee after. The stares from all around were getting uncomfortable.