Chapter 8

To arrive at Rowan from Dno you’d have to head east, the journey taking three hours on foot. The further they walked, the greener the scenery around them became; the various types of trees and shrubs increased as well. They figured that when it came to the soil, this region was blessed.

Despite this, the moment they crossed over into the town of Rowan, their surroundings changed completely.

It was as if a deep border had been cut through Rowan. The leaves from the trees had fallen off, and the flowers had withered away. Even the divided plots of land, land that was probably meant to be fields to grow grains in, were empty. On the path Lion and Seirios took, cracks were beginning to show here and there.

It was strange. The environment inside and outside of Rowan was just too different.

This was…

“…A demon’s doing, correct?”

“I’m trying not to think about it too much, so can you please not say it so bluntly…”

The spread of the drought was obviously too intentional to just be weather issues. Since that was the case, no matter how many officially-sent meteorologists there were, they would never figure out the cause.

The informant, whom Seirios had suspended in the air earlier, had informed Lion that the client who issued the work request was the Mayor of Rowan.

While wandering the town, Lion inquired about the direction of the Mayor’s house from the children playing on the roadside. By one way or another, Lion and Seirios eventually managed to arrive at the Mayor’s house.

When Lion knocked on the wooden door, which looked slightly more elegant than the doors of the other houses, the face of a fifty-year-old man with peppered grey hair popped out.

“Greetings, I’m Lion Shray, the summoner who accepted your work request.”

“Ah, yes, I’ve heard! Thank you for coming. Although, you’re younger than I expected…”

It seemed that it was at this point when the Mayor noticed the tall man standing behind Lion. He suddenly looked startled. Not only was his appearance sophisticated, but Seirios’ aura itself stood out in this cramped town. The mayor’s eyes seemed to be questioning Lion: Who is this person? Is he a nobleman?

“Um…this… is my companion. He’s a… black mage. We’ve taken on the work request together.”

Since Lion hadn’t thought at all about how he’d explain Seirios’s presence, the best excuse, for the time being, was that he was a black mage. There was no way he could reveal that Seirios was a demon.

The mayor, who was called Adon, collected himself and invited them inside.

He filled them in at once.

“You’ve seen the state this town is in. Originally, this was a place where it would rain a lot. This region was well suited for agriculture, and here we had primarily cultivated rice and tea. It’s not like we haven’t experienced a poor harvest before, but it was never like this…”

During last year’s drought, many in the town thought that it is normal for yearly harvest to be poor sometimes. They still managed to somehow weather the drought with their own stockpiled crops. But they wouldn’t survive another year like this, because this town was heavily invested in agriculture. When one looked at it from a different angle, that meant that there weren’t any other industries.

“Um, have you reported this to the government as well?”

“Of course we have! At first, knights and mages came here to investigate, but after that, we’ve only received notice after notice about meteorologists’ search for the cause of the problem. They haven’t figured it out…”

Hm? That’s so strange. The cause is obvious enough that even someone like me, with meager magical powers, would realize what’s going on. If mages had actually come, they would’ve immediately determined that a demon had something to do with this drought.

“Hey, mayor, do you recall if there were any conflicts with demons before the sudden drought?” Seirios, who, with gracefully crossed legs while sitting next to Lion, suddenly spoke. Adon’s shoulders jumped with fright as he looked at Seirios fearfully.

“Conflicts with demons…? So, demons do have something to do with this after all…? Hm, it’s not like I don’t have any idea of what it could be. Although, I’ve already told the investigators about this too.”

With that said, Adon talked to them about the small incident that took place last year.

Although Rowan was an agriculturally thriving town, part of its inhabitants would also go on hunts. These hunts were of all kinds, their main purpose only to feed the locals.

Unfortunately, some hot-blooded youngsters went too far, deciding to set foot into the Eastern Demon King’s territory. Apparently, they ended up killing four demons by accident. They’d dragged their prizes all the way into the town. It was then, when some adults in the vicinity noticed them boasting of their own bravery, that it reached Adon’s ears.

According to what the youngsters had said, this was something that had been done by mistake. The demons resembled the boars the townspeople usually ate. However, in Adon’s eyes, the demons didn’t resemble boars in the slightest.

While their bodies were similar to a pig’s, they had horns on their foreheads, while their long tails were a characteristic of the gentler demons with weak magical powers that could often be seen inside the demons’ territory. These four demons had died after being relentlessly shot at. They hadn’t made a mistake. They had clearly gone to enjoy some demon hunting.

As the Mayor of Rowan, a town that had maintained the peace between demons and humans for a very long time, he immediately sent an inquiry to the government office Rowan was affiliated to… and he was told not to make it into a big deal.

‘As long as they weren’t important demons, the Eastern Demon King probably won’t have noticed either.’ The official had told him offhandedly.

“Eh, don’t tell me that the drought began from that point on?” Lion asked.

“Yes indeed, the drought arrived soon after that incident… Since the abnormally dry weather continued even into this year, I was very anxious. Perhaps the Eastern Demon King really is angry, but after having been handwaved for so long…”

“Um, if a Demon King is angry, wouldn’t he let the demons retaliate directly? Would they do such slow-paced things like bringing on a drought?”

“Well, it’s not like a Demon King’s influence goes as far as knowing about the life and death of the demons on the very fringes of their territory. Although, if this were the North, those humans that had started this would already have long disappeared from this world.”

Seirios said such a frightening thing so easily.

Although the youngsters were reprimanded severely by Adon, they didn’t show any signs of remorse. Lion felt like this troublesome incident was closely related to the truth behind this drought but…

No, no, I shouldn’t poke my nose into things I don’t need to! I will just use Thunder to bring rain. That’s all. Figuring out the cause isn’t my job!

The situation was such that if Lion were to make a slight mistake here, he could be asked to reveal the demon who was behind all of this and then defeat him. So, Lion decided to smoothly banish any such thoughts. This was also part of knowing how the world worked.

“I-in any case, are there any hills or mountains overseeing the town? I’d like to check if there are any places suitable for summoning a beast.”

“There are some good spots to do that, I’ll show you the way.”

They were allowed to leave their luggage inside the mayor’s house, and then were led to various mountains and small hills. When they ascended a gently sloping hill and took a sweep of the town, the contrast was even more obvious. The borders between verdant green fields outside the town and the reddish brown tones inside the town could be clearly seen. It was hard to believe that this could be a natural disaster of any kind.

After that, they were led to many other spots. In the end, Lion chose to do the summoning on a hill that oversaw the town. By then the sun was starting to set, so he decided that he would carry out his plan tomorrow. Thankfully, the mayor let Lion and Seirios stay over at his house that evening.

“This is the countryside, so my home is a humble one, but I have plenty of rooms. My daughter is married and has already left the house, so please, feel free to use them.” Adon said, providing them with two adjacent rooms. However, …

“One room is enough. We’ve always had only one room.”

“Ah… but, there’s just one bed in the room, so…”

“We sleep together so that’s not an issue.”

“Bah…! No. Wait! Mister Adon, this is a misunderstanding! We didn’t have much money before, so we had no choice but to rent only one room up until now! If you were to let us borrow two rooms, we’ll gladly use those!”

“Hm? What are you fretting about, Lion? You’ll bite your tongue.”

In the end, partly due to Seirios’ insistences as well, they ended up staying in a slightly larger single room.

“I didn’t realize…” Adon started. His knowing gaze was painful to Lion. He might have misunderstood that they were… in that kind of a relationship.

Adon’s wife prepared dinner for them, which they accepted gratefully. Due to the poor crops, they probably suffered from lack of food, yet the dishes she kindly prepared for them had root vegetables, chicken meat, and leaf buds.

During dinner, Seirios intently watched Lion as he ate, not caring that they were sitting in front of a married couple. He kept saying things like,“You’re eating as enthusiastically as a little kid, it’s so cute,” causing Lion to energetically choke. The married couple averted their knowing eyes, pretending like they couldn’t hear what he said.

It totally seemed as if they were in that kind of relationship!

Just like that, the night in Rowan went on.

The next morning, Lion and Seirios walked out of the mayor’s house just as the sun rose. Lion instructed Adon that he wished for a notice to be put out, warning the townspeople to be careful, since the summoning would be accompanied by storms and lighting. With that done, Lion and Seirios headed towards the hill, just the two of them. When they climbed up to the hill’s highest point, they experienced the blighted dry air firsthand.

“Mister Sei, be careful of the gusts of wind and lightning as well. I’ll begin now.”

Please, don’t let the demon come out!

With these powerful feelings of prayer, Lion closed his eyes. He connected the summoning patterns on his palms, placed his hands together according to the summoning instructions, and entwined his fingers delicately. He felt his body gently warming from the bottom of his feet, slowly being unable to hear any other sounds. In his mind, he called out to the distant summoning beast he had bound to himself by a contract.

Thunder, it’s been a while since it’s been your turn. I would like you to bring down some rain.

There was no reply to his words but the air that surrounded Lion changed. Suddenly, a gust of wind came, so full of moisture that it was almost stifling, and a crackling sound popped close to his ear, resembling the sound made by static electricity.

As if something wanted to hinder Lion’s summoning, layers upon layers of an invisible membrane spread around him. He felt a little trapped, but he tore through them all, forcing them to disperse.

When he opened his eyes, it was as if someone had spilled diluted ink into the distant clear blue sky. From afar gray clouds were drifting close. As the fast-moving clouds formed, becoming thicker and thicker, they floated over to the town’s skies.

A cold drop of water fell onto the tip of Lion’s nose. From there, after some ten-odd months, rain finally began to fall on the town of Rowan.

Within the roar of the rain, whose torrent was still growing, cheers of “Woo!” could be heard coming from the town center. Even though Lion had warned the townspeople to be careful of the rain and wind, they must have gone outside anyway, unable to contain themselves.

From the top of the hill, Lion spotted a crowd of onlookers, staring up at the rain without umbrellas. A spark of light flashed through the black clouds, as if some electricity began to discharge. From time to time, the dark clouds would light up. Then, as if trying to illuminate the darkened village, a single line of lightning struck down into the mountains, and a few moments later, a low sound that made one’s body tremble reverberated.

As if attempting to cut between the stormy clouds, a creature ran across the sky, heading straight for Lion.

“Thunder! Great job as usual!”

The beast flying through the sky was Thunder.

Although it had the body of a tiger, it was twice as tall as Lion, and its body length was easily over five meters. It had six legs, and its long tail covered in yellow fur curved gracefully, looking as if it came from a different creature altogether.

As if delighted by the fact that it could see Lion again after an impossibly long time, Thunder excitedly ran around above. When it finally descended onto the top of the hill, it rubbed its head against Lion’s chest. Lion roughly stroked that big head.

“As long as my stamina holds, you can play around as much as you want today! Go, go!”

The summoning beast dashed up to the sky with an affectionate cat-like purr, comfortably running around the rain. The strength of the rain increased again, now strong enough that it could be called a downpour.

On that day, the rain that began to fall in the morning, kept its strength throughout the day, and continued to fall for many hours.

Due to extreme downpours falling in such a short amount of time being linked to flooding river banks and causing landslides, from the next day onwards, Lion decided to only summon Thunder for a few hours each day.

…And then, it happened on the seventh evening of Lion bringing rain.