The next day in the Oval Office.

　I enter the office and take my place at the head of the family.
　Just as I was about to start my duties, I noticed something different from the usual.

　It's not the vassals, it's Mimis standing alone.
　And that Mimis has an unusually serious - or rather serious - expression on her face.

　Normally she has a sullen face, but that's just because she's very serious, not this serious.
　And ... nothing.
　Normally he has a large amount of documents to report, but today he has nothing.
　None of the other vassals are here either.

　...what's going on?

What's up, Mimis?
It's an emergency, my Lord.
Emergency?

　My head snapped up.
　It seems that today, it's not a situation that we should just relax and say "alright".

　The fact that Mimi's situation is so serious, and she's saying "emergency" straight out of the gate, means that it's not just a bother.
　It's not just a bother, it's also beyond the scope of what we can call a bother.

　.........no way.

Was there another meteorite that fell?

　It was the first thing I thought of.
　How I became the head of the family, and the mysterious meteorite fall that has been haunting me ever since.

　Did it happen again, somewhere else?　I thought.

'No, sir, I don't.

　Mimis denied it once and for all.

'It's more of an emergency,'
What do you mean?
We have confirmed an unusual growth rate of Acris.
'Akris...?　I've heard something about it. What is it?

　I asked, and Mimis raised her hand to signal me to come in.
　Then one of the maids pushed a wagon into the office.
　Maids don't usually enter here during office hours.
　Mimis must have had her waiting in advance.

　On top of the wagon that the maid pushed, there was a white plate and what looked like black bean grains fluttering on the plate.

'This way,'
What's that?
This is Akris, sir.
"Hmm.

　I got up and approached the wagon.
　As I got closer, I could clearly see it.
　What looked like a black pea grain was an insect about the size of a sesame seed.

　The bug was buzzing around on the plate.

'What about this?'
It is an aberration.
How much of a freak show is this?
Reports from several affected villages and towns have all been the same.
Hmm?

　Mimis's seriousness pulled me back in.
　Soon after, I would be even more surprised.

"The sky is gone,
The sky is gone... no way.

　I huffed, Mimis nodded.

'Yes, there were so many of them that we couldn't see the sky, sir,'
'Wow....'

　That's not good, I thought.

'Not good, when they breed so much.'
Yes, sir. If this is not done well it will destroy the country.
What do you mean?

　When he realized I didn't know anything about it, Mimis went into explanation mode.

'The true horror of this Akris is not the numbers. No, the numbers are a marvel as well.
They're not gonna eat people.
No, this Akris doesn't eat meat, let alone vegetables-- plants and trees.
So what's so terrifying about it?
The truly frightening thing is that this is what you take in your water.
Water?
Yes, you can ingest water and reproduce on its own.
Water.
Yes, water only.
Only water....?
Yes, sir.

　Mimis nodded clearly.

'With that number,'

　Once again, Mimis nodded clearly.

　I was astonished.

　So many that the sky has disappeared, so many that they are reported in multiple villages and towns.
　All at once, it ingests water and reproduces.

　That's........too bad.

　It will uproot rivers and ponds and other water.

Why are they doing this again...
I don't know.

　Mimis shook her head quietly.

'Acris are naturally present in normal times, but they are not much different in number from flies and mosquitoes, and because of this figure, nothing happens, but they breed abnormally at some point.
....
'It's a big deal when that happens, because once this goes through, it's going to uproot the moisture. There are reports that some villages have already been turned into deserts.
Desertification?

　It looked even worse than what I expected.

'Yes, because it's going to take the moisture out of the soil by the roots as well. You can't take it away from plants and animals, so it's going to do the opposite, and it's going to be like strangling your neck slowly with cotton.
That's not good.
What do you think, my lord?

　After the prerequisite debriefing, Mimis asked me.

'What do you want me to do?'

　I threw it straight back to Mimis.

　Now I have to do this.
　I knew almost nothing about Akris.
　Even when I've been briefed, the reality is far greater than I ever imagined.

　I didn't want to make any decisions in my situation.

　We need information first.
　I threw the information back to Mimis, hoping to get it all out.

"First, we need to determine Akris's path, then we need to evacuate the people along the route, then abandon the villages and towns.
Abandonment?

　I was a bit surprised.

'Yes, that was undoubtedly a natural disaster. There's nothing we can do about it.
How do we get rid of it?
If this thing is breeding as much as the sky is gone, and there are more than one of them, the numbers are in the hundreds of billions at the very least...

　Mimis sighed.
　She didn't speak the words beyond that, but she knew exactly what she was talking about.

　It wasn't on a level that could be exterminated, she had to run away first and wait patiently for the 'storm' to pass.

　I saw a sesame grain-like bug on a plate.
　It's true that if this is the level of hundreds of billions of them - it's impossible to get rid of them with ordinary (...) methods.

Well all right, everything is taken care of. We're in an emergency. Do what you can.
I'm sorry, sir.

　Mimis left the office.

''Well it can't be helped,''

　I sighed to myself and stood up.

　　　　　☆

　From the sky, I looked down at the ground.
　The grasslands I'd been to before, but now they were black.

　At this altitude, at this distance.
　From here, it no longer looks like a black carpet, something like a black carpet.

　Sometimes, like the original grasslands, it ripples and undulates, insisting that it's not the blackened earth, but a group of Akris.

　I looked at the tail end of the black group.

　After we passed, the grass was scattered.
　The grass did not take water away from the grass.
　But the soil of the prairie was uprooted and deprived of water.

　As a result, every part of the prairie looked like it had been dug up, and where it had been dug up, without exception, it had turned to sand.

'That's not a bad place to be.

　Up in the sky, I was alone.
　I can actually see it with my own eyes and understand it well.

　This - it's not something that can be left alone.

　I'm sure you'll be able to find a way to make it work.
　It's a great magic with chanting that burns a large area.

　The flaming magic that burned even that slime lord, swallowed a group of Akris and completely burned them out.

　A hole was made in the black carpet, as if a cigarette had been dropped.

　But--'

'Looks like a rebirth, d*mn it.'

　The situation was so bad that he couldn't help but swear.

　The group of acris that had been burned out and punctured by the burning out of the area was again filled with acris, as if they had immediately regenerated, densely filled with them.

　Are they breeding, or are they simply 're-establishing the line' due to their high numbers?

'....Both?

　When I rubbed my eyes, I could clearly see the increase.
　They seemed to be breeding just by ingesting water from the soil.

　The longer we let this happen, the more important it becomes.

We can't afford to be complacent - let's go.

　Kakk's eyes widened and his magic power increased.

　It burned Akris with fire magic that had a range of 100 times greater than the one that burned the Slime Lord.

　A tornado of flames engulfed the group of Akris.
　After swallowing and burning them down, the black carpet looks like it has been regenerated again - but it's not.

''Whew, that's faded properly.

　When I looked down from the sky, it wasn't all black, it was sparse enough to see the ground a bit.

　The numbers are steadily dwindling.

　I'm a little relieved.
　This means, in essence, that the more they increase, the more they decrease.

　If it was a group of people who didn't understand what was going on, I would be in trouble, but if it was that kind of thing, I could handle it.

Shall we just do it in a nutshell?

　I further kneaded my magic power and released a tornado of fire.
　I burned Akris one after another.
　Each time I burned, the group of Akris became thinner and thinner.
　Not only that.

　When it reached a certain level of thinness, the range of the group was now shrinking.
　The numbers are steadily decreasing.

　That made me think I could do more and more, so I released a few more tornadoes of fire.
　I fired a total of more than a dozen rounds, using hundreds of times the magic power on the slime lord to annihilate the group of Akris.

''Alright, this is (...) this is it.

　I wipe the pea-sized sweat on my forehead as I look down from the sky.

　I can't see Akris anymore.

'Next.'

　Muttering that, I got the report, and flew to the next place.

　　　　　☆

　Me coming back to the mansion after burning through the whole thing.
　I gagged in the living room and in the setting sun.

　I was tired.
　I'm tired for the first time in a long time.

　I haven't been this tired in a long time.
　I feel like I don't want to do ... anything else today.

　But.....

"There you are, my lord.

　Mimis popped into the living room.
　It's very unusual for him to come to a personal space and not the office.

　I asked, gagging on the couch.

'Hmm?　What's the matter........
Something terrible has happened.
Again?
It's about Akris, sir.
Oh it's gone, hasn't it, by some mysterious phenomenon. It's--
No, and then they reported it happening again.
What?

　I picked myself up.
　I got up from collapsing on the couch and stared at Mimis.

'According to the reports of the things that have been making us follow the situation, they were swallowed one by one by an unexplained hot wind, but a few of them seemed to remain, and they regenerated from there like a game of doubles.
What?
And now it doesn't seem to need water. Those who saw it say it's like an evolutionary step.
"...evolved to the point where our species was driven to the brink of extinction, is that it?
Perhaps.
Huh.

　　　　　★

　In the dusk, I flew into the meadow I had just left.

　Looking down, I saw a group of acris.
　They are densely packed, regenerating like a black carpet.

　Illuminated by the dusk, it exuded an eerie quality that was different from that of midday.

It's really regenerating...

　I was bummed.
　I mean, I just looked down at them from the sky and thought they were annihilated, and I was wrong.

　Properly, I had to wipe them all out.

"I hate to do this, but I'm tired of it...

　He closed his eyes and chanted.

　It uses the same amount of magical power as the one that burned the group in the daytime to produce a single black ball.
　He throws the bullet made by condensing the high magic power into Akris.

　The bullet hits one Akris.
　It swallowed the bullet and the number of bullets increased to two.

　Each of the two bullets hit Akris again and swallowed him.
　Then each one split off and became four.

　They swallowed Akris one by one, and one by one they increased.

　On the way, the number exploded and in the blink of an eye, it wiped out all of Akris.

　I was on the ground.
　I looked around with my eyes like saucers as the multiplying black balls exploded one by one, leaving me with nothing to drink.

　This time, I made sure that Akris was wiped out before I flew to the next point.

　This day, I flew around all over the place, using the "wandering circle".

　It was the most exhausting day of my life.