Chapter 32

The scholars belonging to the Royal Academy of Magic were even more eccentric than the Knights.

For example, Nonoka specialized in natural environments and biology, but she loved fieldwork so much that she had almost no students; her laboratory consisted of a few like-minded individuals huddled together for research. The reason she could accompany the Knights twenty-four-seven was that there were others besides her who could teach subjects like environmental science.

Conversely, personnel who were irreplaceable could not simply leave their laboratories vacant.

For instance, it was a famous story within the Knights that the Familiars employed by the Order all originated from a contract made by a single mage. That scholar was a shut-in to the core and was notoriously selective about people, resulting in a history of being unable to secure her cooperation for a long time.

Familiars were a revolutionary technology for the Kingdom. They desperately wanted to implement them.

However, “she” refused to comply, no matter how much officials or the Knights tried to persuade her.

There was only one reason: she feared the Kingdom would treat the Familiars as slaves or disposable tools.

Ultimately, she agreed to the Kingdom’s demands only after they accepted the extraordinary condition of “granting her complete and sole authority over the personnel decisions regarding who becomes a Familiar User.” This had happened a mere year ago.

As for the crucial appointment method… she took a very casual approach.

In a field where all the Orders, including the Holy Knights, were lined up, she released five Familiar birds. Then, she watched slowly as the Familiars approached individuals as if they were perches.

There were men who couldn’t hide their surprise when a bird landed on their shoulder, those who reflexively brushed them off, those who screamed, those who dodged with a sharp sway… and then, the last person caught her eye.

“…Um, my head is a bit heavy, so could you move?”

『No. Here, VIP seat.』

“I-I see… Just don’t leave any droppings, okay?”

『My, how vulgar to a lady! How rude, hmph!』

“You talked so fluently!? What was that broken speech from a moment ago!?”

There stood a young man with a troubled face, his scalp occupied by a large parrot—the rookie commoner knight, Caliban. He didn’t treat the Familiar harshly, nor did he fawn over it; he simply accepted it naturally.

“…I shall make you my student.”

That year, she took Caliban as the Kingdom’s first Familiar User and conducted a month of intensive lectures.

Contact with a monster other than an Orc for the first time in his life—and to meet a creature that actually took a liking to him—made Caliban feel that perhaps he had joined the Knights in a rare era. Moreover, the fact that a Veera was something seldom seen even on the continent was astounding.

At the same time, he felt they should return the monster to its parents as soon as possible.

It was said that animals that became too accustomed to humans could no longer fit into the wild. The same applied to monsters; apparently, a tamed monster could never return to its original pack. Besides, if the Knights were to look after the little one, there needed to be a corresponding benefit; without one, they wouldn’t be able to provide full care, and the creature might lose its place entirely.

Since he was being sent back to lookout duty in the afternoon, Caliban wanted to establish a conversation with the Veera and find its home as quickly as possible. To that end, he had thought of a method for talking with wildlife using Familiar and magic tools.

“Let’s see, the tools Professor gave me… found them, found them!”

Opening the false bottom of a drawer in his room, Caliban pulled out the books and magic tools he had stored there. Though it had only been for a month, he had attended every lecture seriously until the end, and these were presented as a parting gift—magic tools made of incredibly precious Mithril silver.

They were such outrageous valuables that buying them would blow ten years of Caliban’s salary, so he had kept them stored carefully, never imagining the day would actually come to use them. Relying on his memory, Caliban flipped through the pages of the book to the section on conversing with animals using these tools.

“—Equip the target with the ‘Resonance Ring,’ and the human equipped with the ‘Contract Ring’ activates a ritual through a Familiar. This temporarily grants the target intelligence and vocal functions similar to a Familiar contract. Magic is subtly amazing.”

Caliban himself couldn’t use magic, but magic tools like these rings had a function to absorb faint mana from the surrounding environment. By applying this, one could handle magic in a pseudo-fashion. To be precise, however, the truth was that one could issue instructions to a Familiar to use the magic.

“I didn’t use it before because it’s so precious that if a wild animal ran off with it, it’d be no laughing matter. But with a Veera, there’s no worry about it running away, so it should be fine.”

Yes, this magic seemed convenient, but it was actually very difficult to handle.

After all, it might be one thing for a pet dog, but the target was a wild being.

Even if it became able to speak, it wouldn’t gain the same level of reason as a Familiar; therefore, if used on a wild animal, there was a risk it would be startled by the activation of magic and flee into the mountains—a tragedy.

Naturally, taking the precious ring with it.

It was the worst kind of high-risk, low-reward pattern.

“Still, this is my first time putting it into practice… No, no. Anxiety spreads to animals. Sigh… I can do this, no problem!”

He took a deep breath and fired himself up with self-suggestion.

Honestly, it wasn’t that he wasn’t tired from his mission, but since he couldn’t just brush off his duties or rely on others, he had to finish this quickly within his limited break time. Caliban walked briskly toward the Recovery Squad station.

Looking at the spot where the Veera had been, he saw that at some point, its home had been upgraded from a pot to a large tub, and it was currently sleeping peacefully.

“Myu… myu…”

Gathered near the Veera were a girl from the cooking squad, one of the three brothers from the Tool Creation Squad—who were almost impossible to tell apart—and for some reason, a weary-looking mechanic named Rai. Everyone seemed healed by the Veera’s innocent sleeping face.

‘S-So cute…!! I used to admire mermaids when I was a kid, but this little one’s cuteness has more impact than any mermaid…!!’

‘Ah, my soul is being purified… while we’re at it, I feel like love is about to leak out of my nose… rather than a mermaid, this is already an angel…!!’

‘She’s a perfect subject for the prototype camera, isn’t she?’

‘…That’s true.’

‘But her breathing might cause some motion blur, wouldn’t it?’

‘…That’s true.’

‘I want to snap it more crisply in an instant, wouldn’t you?’

‘…That’s true.’

Rai replied to the whispers of whichever of the three brothers it was, but his expression was completely devoid of life. It seemed he had worn his spirit down so much that he was barely maintaining consciousness by feeding on the healing presence of the Veera. I wasn’t quite sure what had happened, but it was undoubtedly the fault of the three brothers.

He was curious about the black box being pointed at the Veera, but the way of the Knights was to pointedly not touch upon it, lest he end up like Rai.

“Ah, Caliban-kun, you’re back?”

Nonoka, who had been lying on a sofa a short distance away reading a book, spoke to him in a low voice.

“Yes, Nonoka-san. But I think I’ll wait a bit longer before I try to talk to her.”

“Ufufu, how kind of you. I just gave her some food, so she won’t be waking up for a while.”

“By the way, what did she eat?”

“Fishing worms. Veeras are omnivores and will eat anything.”

She ate something like an earthworm with that face… He felt his dream crumble slightly, but she was a monster to begin with, so he supposed that’s just how it was. Nonoka handed the book she had been reading to Caliban. For now, he glanced over the open page.

“Let’s see… ‘In exchange for being able to live only in restricted environments, Veeras eat very little; if they remain still, they can obtain a month’s worth of nutrition from a single insect.’ Is this about the Veera’s ecology?”

“That’s right. There aren’t many books that go into this much detail, you know? Come on, keep reading.”

“Ah, yes.”

He wondered why the sudden request, but as she was his senior and one of the Three Great Mothers, he couldn’t refuse Nonoka’s suggestion. As told, he continued reading through the Veera’s ecology until he reached a certain section.

“‘Due to the beauty of their appearance, Veeras have been overhunted and traded, but many are kept in poor environments due to the owners’ lack of knowledge, shortening their lifespans… While there are voices calling for their protection, monarchs, nobles, and guilds justify the capture of Veeras on the grounds that they are monsters, and wild Veeras are… thought to be on the verge of extinction…?’”

That single sentence felt incredibly gruesome to Caliban for some reason.

That cute, friendly monster was about to vanish from this world.

The patterns of ink soaked into the book weighed down on him like a curse.

Nonoka peered at him with a serious gaze.

“Caliban-kun. If the place that was her home has truly become an inhospitable environment due to pollution or predators, she likely won’t ever be able to rejoin her kind.”

“…We don’t know that for sure yet, do we?”

“True, we won’t know without checking. But if she was separated from her parents after being driven from her home… she’s all alone. Surely, for the rest of her life… If that happens, what will you do, Caliban-kun?”

What will he do?

When they first met, the Veera had blasted water at Caliban, likely out of wariness.

He was sure her heart was overflowing with anxiety, and she had fired it with a prayer-like feeling just to protect herself from an unknown entity.

However, after being hit by the water and knocked over, he managed to stand up, released the little one from the sharp talons of the Familiar, and pulled her close. Then, she became as quiet as a borrowed cat. And when he filled a pot with clean water and placed her inside, she smiled for the first time.

I’m not an enemy.

It’s okay to depend on me.

You don’t have to be afraid anymore.

That smile must have meant something like that.

Though the species was different, a child was a child.

If the pain of loneliness could be filled by a human—.

“…Veeras really don’t eat much, do they? A single insect for a month’s nutrition if they don’t exercise heavily? That’s amazing; I could easily cover her food expenses with just my pocket money. This really has all sorts of info… yeah, it’s a great reference.”

“…Caliban-kun, you’re so kind. No wonder she took a liking to you. Fufufu, read it thoroughly, okay? It would be quite a task for Nonoka to look after her all by myself, after all.♪”

After that, Caliban read the book intently until the Veera woke up about an hour later, hammering information about the environment and health management required for a Veera to live comfortably into his head.

In the town, inside the Motive Carriage, and in places unrelated to the cliffs that were the scene of the incident, matters were steadily progressing.

Different motives, different directions—each person’s intent seemed to be moving elsewhere.

However, in reality, there is nothing in this world that does not have a mutual relationship.

Everything is happening within a single, connected world.