Chapter 3 - 03 Wild Boar
「Then, here I come.」
「Come at me.」
Steve was receiving sword training from his father, Brian. House Archibalt was a military family. As the heir, Steve was expected to fulfill that role. Especially since he was a magic user, expectations for his success as a soldier were high.
However, since he was currently officially only able to use [Measurement], it was uncertain whether he would be called to war. Nevertheless, Brian had been training Steve since before he turned ten and was found to have magical talent.
Until now, Steve hadn't even been able to reach Brian's feet, but since discovering he could use [SOP Magic], he had gained abilities equivalent to Brian's.
Steve's heel kicked the earth, sending dust flying backward. He closed the distance in an instant and swung the wooden sword in his hand in a horizontal flash. Brian caught it with his own wooden sword.
Then, he immediately entered an offensive motion. At the moment the wooden sword swung down from an overhead position was about to hit Steve, Steve jumped back to evade it. Brian's strike cut through empty air, but he immediately stepped forward to close the distance with Steve.
From there, Brian's continuous attacks assailed Steve, but Steve parried them all, never taking a decisive hit. Brian wasn't just performing simple attacks; he was mixing in high-level feints along the way, but against Steve, who could use his own techniques exactly as they were, all such feints were completely read.
「To think my feints would be read like this...」
Worrying that he might not be able to maintain his dignity as a father, Brian's shoulders slumped slightly.
「Since my techniques belong to Father in the first place, it's possible for me to read that Father's feints are indeed feints. However, if you were to develop new feints that you haven't taught me, it wouldn't go like this.」
「Hmm, new feints, huh.」
Brian thought for a moment after being told that by his son. However, new ideas didn't come to him so easily, and after a while, he stopped thinking about it.
Once the training with his father ended, Steve went out to play with children of his own age in the territory. Although one says 'play,' it was something between hunting and playing.
Those children were a boy named Abel and a girl named Bella. He went to hunt birds with the two of them. Abel was two years older than Steve, and Bella was one year older.
Even as the son of the lord, in a small frontier Knight-rank house, social status didn't matter among children, and adults didn't say anything fussy, so they played together, and it was only natural for their speech to be blunt.
「Steve, I'm going to catch more than you today.」
The brown-haired boy, Abel, said so. Being two years older, Abel was a head taller than Steve.
「I won't lose either,」
The red-haired girl countered. Saying this, the red-haired girl, Bella, held up the gun in her hand. To be precise, it was a spring-based launching device in the shape of a gun. It was close to a crossbow. It all started when Steve used magic to create parts for a spear like a Spetsnaz knife to strengthen the territory's defense.
Since it just involved launching a blade with a spring, the structure was simple, and the number of parts was small.
It could be used as a spear, and in an emergency, the tip could be fired. However, because the spring's recoil was strong, they had improved it by adding a stock like a rifle and making it fireable by pulling a trigger so that women and children could use it.
A safety was also attached for security considerations, so there was no danger of accidental discharge even when held up like Bella was doing.
The three of them used these guns to catch wild birds whenever they found time to improve their food situation. And that was the case today as well.
The location was the foot of a mountain away from the village. Their usual hunting ground.
A pigeon was perched on a tree branch about 20 meters away. In this world, pigeons could be eaten, and in the Archibalt territory, they were considered something of a delicacy. Basically, since protein tended to be scarce, meat itself was a treat.
Abel immediately readied his gun and released the safety. When he aimed and pulled the trigger, a lump of iron like a thick nail flew out from the barrel.
「I did it!」
The boy rejoiced at having successfully pierced the pigeon's torso and secured his prey. Bella complained to the excited Abel.
「Don't shout so loud. The other birds will fly away.」
「You're making it sound like it's my fault you can't take down any prey.」
「It is.」
One word led to another. Bella and Abel's bickering began. Steve stepped in to mediate with a wry smile.
「Abel, if you don't go pick up the prey quickly, a snake or a wildcat will take it. Bella, let's aim for the next one.」
「Oh, right. I gotta go pick it up fast.」
Abel stopped bickering and went to retrieve the pigeon he had taken down.
Seeing that, Steve turned toward Bella.
「With Bella's skill, you can take one down anytime.」
「You think so?」
Bella immediately became cheerful upon being flattered. Seeing this, Steve laughed in his heart, thinking she was still just a child.
At that moment, Abel's scream was heard from behind.
「Gyaaah!」
「Abel, what's wrong?」
Steve turned around in a hurry and grasped the cause of the scream without waiting for Abel's answer.
「A wild boar?」
There were pigeons in this world, but there were also wild boars. And their ferocity was no different from those in Japan. Even for an adult, being rammed by one was life-threatening.
And that dangerous animal had locked onto Abel.
「Abel!」
Bella shouted as she took aim and shot the boar. The projectile hit near the boar's right front leg, but unlike with the pigeon, it wasn't a fatal wound. Since the weapon wasn't originally designed for large animals, it didn't have the power to penetrate a boar's muscles and take its life.
As a result, it only ended with the shot boar becoming enraged.
Americans tell a joke about how you shouldn't shoot someone with a .22 caliber bullet. The reason is that it hurts and makes the opponent truly angry. A .22 caliber, unless it's a long rifle round, has low killing power even at close range. That was the situation now.
「Run!」
Steve shouted.
The boar changed its target from Abel, whom it had first discovered, to Bella. It didn't go in the direction Abel was fleeing, as he was closer, but ran toward where Steve and Bella were.
The running speed of a typical wild boar is about 50 kilometers per hour. The boars in this world could run at about the same speed, and a child's legs could not outrun them. The distance was gradually closing.
「Kya!」
Bella, who had looked back while running, tripped and fell. Seeing this, Steve stopped in a panic. Then he shouted instructions to Abel.
「Abel, go call the adults!」
「What about Steve?」
「I'll save Bella!」
「Got it, don't die!」
Abel put even more strength into his legs and increased his speed. He intended to call the adults and return as quickly as possible.
「Steve, run!」
Bella let out a pained cry, but Steve, facing the boar, showed no sign of running. The boar closed in before their eyes, and Bella gave up on everything and started to cry.
It was then. A steel plate about the size of a tatami mat suddenly appeared between Steve and the boar.
A dull thud was heard. There is a saying, 'reckless boar charge,' but boars cannot change direction suddenly while running. Steve took advantage of that trait, lured the boar in, and made it collide with the steel plate.
The boar lost consciousness from the impact of the collision and fell to the ground. Because the plate was in the way, he couldn't confirm it visually, but Steve immediately manifested iron bars like a cage. With this, even if the boar woke up, it wouldn't be able to escape.
「It was my first time, but I'm glad it went well.」
Saying so, Steve turned toward Bella and smiled. For Steve, it was a strategy he had come up with on the spot. He was relieved it worked. However, it wasn't the same for Bella.
She had involuntarily urinated out of sheer terror. Well, since she wasn't wearing underwear, the ground just got a bit damp and Steve didn't notice, but the person herself was turning bright red from shame.
Having her life saved and thinking her incontinence had been seen—from these two special circumstances, a feeling of love for Steve awakened in Bella's heart.
However, it would be much later before she or Steve realized it.
「Steve, that was amazing. What was that just now?」
「It's magic, but I'd like you not to tell others too much. This is our house's top secret.」
「Got it.」
Bella nodded obediently.
Until now, the only people who knew about Steve's [Steel Creation] magic besides himself were Brian and Nick. Magic users were rare, and their magic could sometimes sway the outcome of a war.
Therefore, he didn't want to make it public, but since there was a danger to life, he had no choice but to use it in a way that Bella could see this time.
And in the end, the collision with the steel plate proved fatal for the boar, and it never moved again.
While the two watched the fallen boar, a little less than an hour passed. Abel returned, bringing Brian and the others with him.
「Are you alright?」
Brian asked his son and Bella, seeing that they looked fine externally.
「We're fine. Luckily, iron grew out of the ground and stopped the boar. Then, the place where Bella's shot hit must have been good, because the boar seems to have run out of strength.」
Brian wore a wry smile at Steve's haphazard excuse. The retainer Cody and the villagers who came along got excited, saying they were lucky. For now, they seemed to believe Steve's claim. Since this was a world where miracles created by God called magic existed, there was a foundation for accepting that such mysterious things could happen.
Also, Abel, who had been worried about Steve and Bella, approached.
「I'm so glad you're alive!」
Abel hugged him while crying. Steve was happy, but he was also embarrassed. So, he said to hide his bashfulness:
「Abel, it's Bella's win for taking down a boar over you, who took down a pigeon.」
「Next time, I'm the one who's gonna take down a boar!」
As soon as the crying Abel learned he had lost to Bella, he stopped crying and insisted it would be his turn next. Bella also knew that she hadn't been the one to take down the boar, but if it meant she won against Abel, whom she usually lost to, and because of her promise to Steve, she kept quiet about the fact that Steve had defeated it with magic.
Relieved by two things—that his son was safe and that the existence of the magic hadn't been exposed—Brian turned to the villagers who had come with him.
「Today's a party with boar meat!」
The villagers were overjoyed at those words. In a village where protein was rarely obtained, something like boar meat was a massive feast.
Under Brian's instructions, the work of bleeding the boar began. Steve didn't lend a hand, but he recorded the bleeding process, which he was seeing for the first time, with his [SOP Magic].
If they were children from modern Japan, they would have run away in disgust from such work, but Abel and Bella watched the process with smiles. They had the expectation of being able to eat boar meat, and they were used to butchering work since they did it all the time with birds.
Deciding to collect the steel that had grown from the ground at a later date, the group brought the boar meat back to the village and everyone ate together.
Then, the steel collected later would once again be bought by Emmanuel. As promised, Emmanuel came to the territory with an increased number of wagons.
「As promised, I have prepared three wagons this time.」
Emmanuel puffed out his chest as if to say 'ta-da,' pointing at the wagons. For him, the wagons were rented, not his own, and if House Archibalt hadn't prepared the steel for sale, he would be in a huge deficit from the expenses of the wagons, horses, and people he had prepared. Conversely, if there was enough steel to fill these, it would be a huge profit. It was a big gamble on his life as a merchant.
Seeing this, Brian's expression was completely relaxed.
Just like last time, he guided Emmanuel to the barn and showed him the steel piled up like a mountain.
「My, my. May I assume the purchase price is the same as last time?」
Emmanuel asked Brian while rubbing his hands together. Brian nodded.
And, what was different from last time was that Steve was here. That Steve asked Emmanuel:
「I've developed a new product, so I'd like you to try selling samples elsewhere.」
At those words, Emmanuel's merchant money-making sensor reacted intensely.