Chapter 1: The Stove Fire

Chapter 1:
The Stove Fire

 

DURING MY SHIFT at the drugstore, I heard Mina and Noela’s bloodcurdling screams inside the house.

“Eeeek!”

“Garooooo?!”

Their cries were followed by the sound of frantic footsteps in the hallway.

What the heck are those two up to now? Since no customers were in the drugstore, I decided to go look.

Noela was in the hall, carrying a bucket of water.

“Hey! What’s going on?!” I exclaimed.

“Boom! Ker-zoom! Garrooooo! Was like that,” she tried to explain.

I had no clue what she was describing. Hrm. Is it me, or does something smell burnt?

“N-Noela, what’s taking you so long?!” Mina cried. I’d rarely heard her so panicked.

“C-coming!”

I followed the werewolf girl as she trotted down the hall. We wound up in the kitchen, where Mina was running around in a tizzy. The frying pan in her hand was, in fact, on fire.

“Gah!” I screeched. “F-fire!” Wait—what’s the right response here? Oh! “Mina, get the lid! The lid!”

“A-all right!” Still completely flustered, Mina quickly set the lid on the pan, trapping the fire. The three of us watched the terrifying flames fade.

“Whew,” I sighed. “That threw me for a loop. Looks like we’re in the clear.”

“Th-thank goodness.” Mina sat down, exhausted.

“S-so, uh…how’d that happen?”

“Well, Noela got really excited about making lunch today. I told her only to use a teeny bit of oil, but…”

I get it. Mina isn’t the type to mess up and start a stove fire, so Noela’s gotta be the culprit.

Mina explained that, as soon as she’d taken her eyes off the werewolf girl, Noela had lit the stove at full power and poured oil into a pan. The oil had apparently spilled onto the stove’s life stone, causing the fire we’d witnessed.

“Noela scared.”

“That makes two of us.” I’m just glad we’re all okay. “See? This is what happens when you don’t listen to Mina.”

“Arroo… Sorry, Master, Mina.”

I knew Noela hadn’t set the fire on purpose, but I couldn’t let her off the hook for this. She needed to understand how dangerous it’d been. “Look, Noela. If we’d left that stove fire unchecked, it would’ve burned down the entire house and drugstore.”

“Groo?!”

“You have to be careful from now on.”

“Yeah. Noela no more use stove.” Just like that, she was down in the dumps—and not because I was mad or lecturing her.

I guess realizing she could’ve burned our house down really upset her.

“I share the blame for taking my eyes off you, Noela,” Mina added gently.

Sulking, the werewolf girl quietly trudged out of the kitchen toward the living room.

Hrm. Noela never would’ve started that fire on purpose, but what was I supposed to tell her? If I’d emphasized how dangerous cooking fires were after a serious one, it would’ve been too late.

I used the term “stove” for our cooking device in this world, but it was different from stoves on Earth, since it had no safety features. I was grateful that we could use a fire life stone to cook things easily, but still, managing the flames was difficult if you weren’t used to it. In fact, at certain times of year, the Red Cat Brigade functioned more as the town’s firefighters than as security.

“Let’s have lunch at the Rabbit Tavern today,” Mina cheerfully suggested, brightening the dark atmosphere that’d settled over the house. She left the kitchen, grabbing her wallet and shopping basket.

“Something to prevent fires,” I murmured.

Ah—right! I can make a product that does that, so I never have to guilt-trip Noela about the stove again.

I poked my head into the living room. Noela was curled up on the couch, hugging her tail.

She’s like a ball of fluff. “Think you could watch the store for me, Noela?”

“Noela almost burn drugstore to crisp,” Noela replied, on the verge of tears. The usually overconfident werewolf girl had been reduced to a heap of negative energy. “Noela no good.”

“There’s no way to burn down the store by watching it. Don’t worry.”

“Yeah.”

I patted Noela’s head as she stood, then watched her trudge into the drugstore. I should make her an extra potion.

Entering the lab, I grabbed all the ingredients I needed for my new product. Looks like I can make this with stuff we’ve already got in the house. Following my medicine-making skill’s instructions, I poured the ingredients into a bottle and shook it.

 

Blaze-B-Gone: Makes objects less flammable. Prevents fires. Rub on any surface for flame resistance!

 

Perfect. If I spread this blaze-b-gone on flammable surfaces, it’d be much harder to burn the house and drugstore down. I took the bottle and a brush into the kitchen and began painting blaze-b-gone around the oven.

Brush. Brush.

“All right. If any fires pop up, this should keep them from spreading.”

I felt someone’s eyes on me, and I turned to see Noela looking at me inquisitively.

“What doing, Master?”

“Well, I’m spreading this stuff on surfaces in the house so they won’t catch fire.”

“Groo?! Master amazing!”

Right? With a cocky smile, I covered a sheet of paper with blaze-b-gone and set it on the stove. “Noela, if you ignited the stove, what would normally happen to this paper?”

“Fire swoosh!”

“Exactly. But if you spread blaze-b-gone on it…”

I turned the stove on. The life stone glowed red, shooting out a circle of small flames.

“Garoo! P-paper burning?!” Noela peered at the paper on the stove. It was roasting—I mean, it changed color—but it actually wasn’t on fire. “Arroo?! Not burning! Master make more! Lots more!”

“Huh? Er, well, that’s the plan.”

After pestering me to mix more blaze-b-gone, Noela took a bottle and brush and began painting the product all over the house and drugstore.

“How could I stay mad at you?” I sighed. The idea of burning our home down really must’ve terrified her. Now it’s time to get this stuff to the Red Cat Brigade, since they’re Kalta’s firefighters.

I headed to the brigade’s barracks and asked for Captain Annabelle.

“Wh-what is it, Pharmacist?” She curled her red ponytail around her finger.

“Give this a try, please.” I handed the confused Annabelle a bottle of blaze-b-gone, explaining how the product worked.

Annabelle and I soon gathered the other mercenaries so I could give them a proper briefing on the stuff. They reacted as I expected.

“Whoa!”

“W-we’ll have way fewer fires to deal with!”

“And the ones we do put out won’t be so scary!”

“Do ya think this stuff might work on fire magic too?”

I had my doubts about that; I hadn’t made blaze-b-gone with magic attacks in mind.

However, the mercenaries were thrilled at the prospect and began spreading blaze-b-gone on their armor. “We’ll become superhero firefighters protecting the townsfolk!”

 

After closing the drugstore, Noela made dinner—under Mina’s watchful eye, obviously. Both girls were careful, treating Noela’s earlier failure as a learning experience. Thanks to the sense of safety the blaze-b-gone created, Noela seemed back to normal.

“Noela make stove really hot now!”

“You probably shouldn’t make it too hot. Okay?”

“Garroo! Leave to Noela,” she snorted.

 

***

 

Hearing rumors about the Red Cat Brigade’s new product, other mercenaries, soldiers, and adventurers popped up at Kirio Drugs in search of blaze-b-gone. The flameproofing stuff sold like hotcakes to tons of people, making it one of our signature items. As a result…

“Doctor, my frontline officers are reporting that the humans have gotten smarter and that fire magic is terribly ineffective on them these days,” Ejil told me, scowling. “I gather there are geniuses besides you out there, hmm? They’re truly formidable.”

Er…my bad, Ejil!