Emi's Superhuman Act of Deforestation

Saaaa......

A clear, bright early summer morning.

The Myogomyogoshugo haven't started singing yet, and the only sound around is the great nishakasha trees of Zamago Forest rubbing their small leaves together in the wind, and nothing else.

The rich fragrance of the nishakasha's white flowers tickles my nose as I close my eyes and focus my mind......

“......Ryaa!!”

And then, I!

The next instant!

Controlling my body and magic power with perfect timing, I drop my hips as low as I can, bend my back, and, holding that low stance, sweep my right hand—shaped into a hand chop—horizontally from left to right!

Naturally, I didn't just wave my hand.

From my right fingertips, thin, thin blades of magic power had stretched out, as far as I can currently make them.

The magic blades that slice through anything, 【Great Mantis】.

Around this time last year, in Grounoddka Village, the best I could do with this 【Great Mantis】 was stretch a broad blade a few meters, like a sword, but thanks to training every day, now, as long as I focus and take my time, I can stretch blades as thin as wire to dozens of meters.

Making a 【Great Mantis】 this wide takes time and wears me out, so it's not a technique I can use in a fight.

But what I wanted to do just now was fell the trees of Zamago Forest.

And for cutting down a whole forest's worth of trees at once, this 【Great Mantis】 is a super handy technique.

Mishi mishi mishi...... ZUDOOOOOON......!

All across my field of view, the great nishakasha trees go crashing down with a thunderous boom......

“Look out!!”

Just then, a voice rang out behind me!

It's old man Giovanno!

I instantly look around, but there aren't any monsters targeting me in particular.

Look out for what, I wonder?

For now, I catch a great tree that's falling toward me with my left hand, toss it aside, and turn back to the old man.

“Look out? For what?”

I tilt my head and walk over to the old man.

The old man was pale and breaking into a cold sweat.

His mouth is flapping open and shut.

Oh, by the way, the old man's chains were jangly and annoying, so I tore them off.

“Was there, some dangerous creature?”

“......Ah, there was......”

“Where?”

“Right now, in front of me, there is......”

But in the eyes of the old man saying this, there's only a black-haired, black-eyed beautiful girl.

It seems the old man is seeing things.

Poor thing.

He must be worn out.

◇ ◇ ◇

Now, let's go back in time a little.

“A base, let's make one.”

The moment Giovanno came out of the cave, Emi opened with that.

“A base, you say.”

“Yeah. Old man, weak. Dragging you around hunting, can't. A place you can safely stay behind, needed.”

“Hmm......”

Giovanno pondered.

She certainly had a point.

But......

“This is a demon realm, you know? Do you have any idea where such a safe place might be?”

“No. You, old man?”

“If I had, I'd hardly have gotten myself buried alive.”

“Don't brag about it.”

“It's my nature.”

The quickest solution would be for Emi to take Giovanno and escape this demon realm immediately, but Giovanno could not accept such a proposal from Emi.

To be banished to this land of Zamago was the sentence that had been handed down to him.

And so, though Giovanno had brazenly chosen to live, he still wanted to abide by that ruling.

In truth, they probably thought he should just die, but officially, living on in this land was his legally ordained atonement.

“Just fudge it, and run.”

“All I can see is a future where, having fled, I'm tormented by my conscience, fall ill in mind, and waste away.”

“Selfish old man.”

“I'm a villain, after all.”

“A villain, shouldn't bend the knee to something like a conscience.”

Emi sighed as she said it, but she didn't argue with Giovanno's decision.

Then, after thinking for a moment, she asked this question.

“Then, what kind of place do you think would be safe?”

“Hmm......”

Asked this, Giovanno fell into thought for a while.

He was a noble who had once been granted the rank of count, and he was reasonably well-informed about the surrounding nations.

What came to mind were towns on the edge of a demon realm, like Yoshanka in the Teenidys Kingdom and Liheid in the Tezonka Kingdom.

“A good view, or a ring of stone walls; some such preparation against monsters would be needed, I'd say.”

“True.”

“In the ‘Fantasy Continent’, which is said to be a demon realm from end to end, I hear magecraft barrier defenses have developed as well, but on this continent, physical defenses such as stone walls are the norm.”

“I see.”

“In short, a wall may be a rather simple-minded idea, but against monsters it is also a fairly effective measure.”

“Wow. Old man, you're starting to look kind of smart.”

“Kukuku, the trick is to talk at length so it sounds convincing...... but, you know, Emi.”

And here.

Giovanno shrugged his shoulders.

“This is a demon realm. There is no way a candidate site for a base, with walls like that, exists.”

He sighed as he said it.

“Old man, you don't get it. What I'm saying.”

But Emi, seeing him like that, shrugged right back and returned his sigh.

“What was that?”

“I said, let's make a base. If there isn't one, we just make one. A base like that.”

Looking completely confident, Emi puffed out her chest while remaining expressionless, and began walking into the forest with Giovanno!

◇ ◇ ◇

And so, what Giovanno witnessed deep in the forest where he had been led was the opening scene, Emi's superhuman act of deforestation.

While Giovanno stood there goggling, she felled the surrounding trees one after another, until the forest all around the spot where he stood, a small rise like a little hill, had been completely cleared.

Right now, Emi was building a makeshift wall, laying the felled giants on their sides around Giovanno.

(I'd thought, she must be strong, but......)

From the fact that she got by alone in a demon realm, from the pressure she gave off, the aura of the strong, leaking out all over the place, and from monstrous strength enough to tear chains apart, Giovanno had never doubted Emi's ability.

(But I never imagined, she was this strong......)

But he had never imagined she was a monster this far beyond all reason.

Even now, he couldn't tell if the sweat on his forehead was from the early summer sunlight or a cold sweat.

Having wrapped up a round of work, Emi hopped over a great trunk and came running up to Giovanno.

“Old man, logging, done. The view, got better. I made a wall, too.”

“Ah, ahh...... good work, Emi.”

“Now, you're safe too, old man.”

“Uh, uhmm......”

Emi said this with her chest puffed out and full of confidence, but Giovanno was lost for an answer in spite of himself.

He glanced sideways at the wall Emi had created on the fly.

The great trees she had felled and arranged as a wall were all very large.

Even lying on their sides, they stood taller than Giovanno.

(But this...... would it really work as a barrier against monsters......?)

Yes, in the end, it was only about the height of a person.

The stone walls of Yoshanka and Liheid were much, much higher.

Furthermore, there were gaps here and there between the great trees of the wall Emi had made.

Emi's work...... there was no doubting its output was beyond all standards...... but to put it bluntly...... it was very, sloppy......

A refreshing early summer breeze blew through the area.

Yet Emi's wall made no whistling pyuu of a draft.

Because the gaps themselves were too big.

“Right. Then, I, go hunting.”

“WAAAAIT!? Wait, wait! Wait, I say, Emi!”

Ignoring Giovanno's bewilderment, Emi turned her back and tried to run into the forest, but Giovanno desperately stopped her!

“What?”

“A, a test! Don't you think a test is needed? This wall you went to such trouble to build, don't you want to see what it can do?”

“............”

“A trial run before rollout, a warm-up, a trial period! For any product, absolutely essential! Do you understand!?”

“......It's not a product, though.”

“Even if it's not a product, it's necessary!”

“Is that how it is?”

“That is how it is!”

“........................Okay.”

Perhaps feeling that her handiwork was being nitpicked, Emi went quiet for a while, but in the end, she reluctantly nodded.

And, it was the very next instant.

......Suddenly, her presence began to fade.

Emi's flaw: she's rough and slapdash.

Flip it around, though, and it also means she's easygoing and quick to improvise.