Chapter 167
The Thing That Will Bring Ruin to Imperial Japan [Part 3]
"Please don't go beyond this point."
Katou moved in front of Melsa and reminded her quietly.
Before Melsa's eyes was a plant around twice her height that occupied the entire area. Unlike the green forest behind her, the plant was covered in yellow blossoms, and at a glance, its sight was so beautiful that it didn't seem like it belonged to this world.
"H-Hey... Melsa... this... is..."
Oliver used to study Advanced Monster Science at the academy just to compete with Melsa even though he didn't need it.
A cluster of tall plants and yellow flowers. Those two characteristics...
"Impossible... T-This is a... plant hazard...?"
A rare plant-type monster was propagating inside Imperial Japan's barrier.
"There is only one plant-type monster which has yellow flowers. If the plant... has encroached this much, it will reach Edo in half a year..."
"This monster... Is it really... [Over]?"
Plant-type monsters.
Most of them are said to be carnivorous plants. And because they only grew outside the barrier, the people in this world had never come across one.
However, in extremely rare cases, monsters that had broken into the barrier might carry the seed, and there was also a chance for it to sprout. And as there were no natural enemies of carnivorous plants inside the barrier, it would reproduce and multiply tremendously.
[Over] in particular had hard trunks and branches, and was too difficult to cut or burn. The land occupied by humans would be encroached by it within a few years.
"T-This is the southern continent, right? How could [Over] grow here?!"
The Kingdom and Imperial Japan were connected by a continent.
[Over]'s habitat should have only been the northern continent.
The reason why Imperial Japan, which had many strong samurais, had let it grow this much was also that there had never been a record of its appearance in the southern continent.
Even in the Kingdom, only those who had passed the Advanced Monster Science class would know of its existence.
"Two years ago, a local barrier hazard happened in Imperial Japan. At that time, our samurais defeated the monsters, and a magician had also closed the hole, but... we believed that the monsters had [Over] seeds attached to them."
Fukushima clenched his fist and squeezed the words out of his mouth. At that time, the one in charge of the extermination of monsters was Fukushima. Because he had overlooked one seed, the whole country would be destroyed. Although he regretted it very much, what was done couldn't be undone.
"From a monster that emerged from a local barrier hazard?!"
In the first place, it was still unclear why monsters would emerge from local barrier hazards.
Even if there was a hole in the barrier, the surroundings were still within the safe area. So, where did the monsters come from? Melsa had long been unable to understand it until now. It had been said that way since a long time ago, and nobody knew its principles.
Melsa realized from Fukushima's words that the monster that appeared from the hazard might have come from the northern continent, and that realization made her tremble unconsciously. It seemed she needed to do an in-depth investigation for this.
[Over] would shoot every six months.
If the flowers were blooming now, the seeds would fly very close to Edo in summer.
At this rate, both Imperial Japan and the Imperial Japanese people would go extinct in a year.
"...We have tried to defeat [Over] multiple times, but we have lost our magicians and many samurais. There was nothing more we could do. Most of the rice and crop fields have also been encroached, making it impossible to harvest crops. We are very grateful to the Kingdom. You have taken great pains for us to the point you understood why we said it was impossible, and gave us enough food aid for us to live without starvation until the time the Imperial Japanese citizens perish."
While putting his hands over Fukushima's trembling shoulder, Katou bowed his head to Melsa.
"Which means, this one sack of rice... will be... the last one...?"
We can't eat... newly harvested rice every year? Melsa suddenly staggered.
"Melsa!!!"
Oliver supported her body in a hurry. Although Melsa is stout-hearted, she is still a woman. It's understandable if she feels faint when there's a monster before her.
"Let's go home, Melsa. There's... nothing we can do for them."
Melsa was propped up by Oliver and walked back towards the forest involuntarily.
My family's dreams...
Rice...
Dried bonito...
Spicy pollack roe...
The children must be disappointed.
I'm sorry, William.
I'm sorry, George.
I'm sorry, Emma.
...Emma?
Ah!
That's right.
We have Emma!
"Let's go home, Oliver!"
"...? No, well, I just said that earlier, let's go home."
Oliver looked at Melsa dubiously. He suddenly had a bad feeling.
"Fukushima-sama, can you tell me more about [Over]. I will bring the intelligence back to the Kingdom and plan a countermeasure."
"Huh?"
I have a cute daughter with exceptional creativity and no common sense at home.
We have to hold a Tanaka family meeting as soon as I get home! Melsa thought with determination.
♠♠♠
Author's words:
I have finally... somehow... hit on the cause of Imperial Japan's destruction.
Melsa is more gluttonous than you've thought, huh...
On a side note, there are no monsters that seem suitable for the story, so I just made one up myself.