Translator: mii

Editor: sleepchaser

“…Minoru.”

I felt something cold press on to my forehead. My eyes flew open.

Before me was a handsome face. Beyond blond locks s.h.i.+ning bright like the sun stretched a blue sky.

As I wondered dazedly why he was carrying me, he throws a bucket of cold water on my face.

“So cold!”

“It looks like you've come back to your senses. What a relief. I heard a scream before. What happened?" the hero asked, wiping my face with a clumsy hand. Meanwhile, my memory gradually returned.

When he is wiping my face clumsily, my memory gradually starts to come back.

A scream… That's right, I was harvesting the potatoes and I couldn't pull out the shovel… And then, from the soil, that thing―

“…ah, just now, there was something there!”

“Calm down.”

On alert, I jumped up and look and scanned the surrounding fields. However, the thing I had seen earlier had already disappeared.

I felt someone rubbing my back. Naturally, it was the hero. With that, I came back to my senses.

“Did you see an earthworm?”

“It's not something as cute as that!”

Just recalling it makes me s.h.i.+ver. While its shape was similar to a worm's, its body was as thick as that of my thigh. Not to mention, its length was around one meter, maybe even more.

As I described the creature I had seen while gesturing with my hands, the hero only looks dubious, brows furrowing in puzzlement.

“Isn't that an earthworm?”

“…Eh?”

The hero rose to his feet while carrying me, looking around the area with a shovel in his hand.

Then he stabs the shovel into the earth, digging up soil with a single hand.

The moment he raised the shovel, I could see something being lifted. A gigantic earthworm a shade of reddish brown, wiggling and squirming in discomfort as it turned its head toward us―Eeeiiiiiiiyaaaaaaaaaaa!

“Is this what you saw before?”

“Yeah!! T-that's enough! I get it already, so throw it away!”

I pressed myself as close as I could to the hero to get away from the earthworm. I wanted to run away, but since the hero was hugging me like a child in his arms, I was stuck here.

I would never be mistaken. There's no doubt that this creature was what I had seen earlier.

The hero lightly shook the shovel, causing the earthworm to fall to the ground. It squirmed fiercely and dug back into the soil.

“You don't need to be that scared. It's not a creature that will attack a human, but rather a wild animal that cultivates the field. Although the field is still small, the one that cultivates should be that earthworm, right?” said the hero. He patted my hair was his free hand, patting off some of the soil that had fallen into it.

Wait a minute. I felt like I'd heard a word that I couldn't help but need clarification of.

“…Small? That means there are ones that are even bigger?"

“Do you want to see them?”

“No need!" I said firmly, scanning the area for that thing while hugging the hero's shoulders. "I don't want to see them, so stop it!”

If that thing from before was small, then the adults should be… I got chills just thinking about it.

The hero didn't laugh at my miserable appearance. In fact, he fixed his posture and held me even more tightly. That's right, he was still carrying me like a child. I had to get down soon.

“I'm sorry for making a ruckus. I'm fine already, so I'll stand by my own…”

With that, I climbed down the hero who was being treated like a tall tree, my feet reaching the ground.

What caused me more embarra.s.sment was how I couldn't find it in myself to take even one step away from him. As soon as I recall that earthworm's mighty figure, my feet would inevitably freeze.

What should I do now? There were still more than half of the potatoes left to harvest today…

As if unable to watch me moping around, the hero gently said, “How about I help you?”

I nodded, eyes teary.

“Uhm… That earthworm before won't bite, right?”

“It won't hurt even if you do get bitten.”

As the hero gathered potatoes by my side, he explained the teeth of that species of earthworm was soft.

So it bit after all? I hate that…

But since it's a creature that helped cultivate the soil, I shouldn't be scared of it since I'd be using the field a lot in the future. That's right, let's give it a name. How about Red Rosé? Everytime he drank the wine, he would remember that woman's brave figure…

That day, I presented a matching straw hat to the hero who helped me harvest the potatoes.

Author notes:

Red Dragon: Commonly cultivated earthworm. Its body length is around 1m ~ 4m. Farmers' guardian deity.

T/N: A worm as big as your thigh… If I'm Minoru I can't even scream anymore ಥ_ಥ

The red dragon is not cute at all~ ＼(ﾟｰﾟ＼)