🔊 TTS Settings
Chapter 52
Even if what they were looking for was the hot spring water, they needed to check the surroundings.
Information had been the most important thing for her survival.
Clemens’s sharp, gleaming eyes captured every detail.
The grass, flowers, and trees near the spring. The air, the wind, the soil. Even the boundaries of the area.
“I can’t leave.”
It seemed the entrance was the same one they had come through.
Clemens climbed a tree rooted at the boundary.
A bright red fruit gave off a sweet smell.
Looking down, seeds coated with pulp rolled on the ground.
“There’s life here.”
Clemens leapt down, bit into the fruit, and found it as sweet and delicious as the hot spring water.
After eating them all, she looked back up.
“Should I pick more?”
Her thinking was slow, but her actions were fast. She left a few fruits and put the rest in her bag before resuming her exploration.
She wanted to find any connection between the fruit, the Pruina family’s blood, Aistas, or herself—but failed.
All that existed here was beautiful nature. She had hoped to find something with a special power, like the hot spring water, but there was nothing.
Disappointed, she picked up a stone. Among countless stones, this one was the prettiest and most captivating.
“Maybe some research will reveal something.”
Crunch. She popped another fruit into her mouth and returned to Rosia and Gwen.
The remaining area was the entrance. Since they would have to pass through it to leave, it made sense to check it together. By now, the central hot spring’s effects should have appeared.
“I’m back~”
“Clemens! Come quickly, hurry!”
Rosia waved urgently toward Clemens with a flushed face.
“Why?”
“Look. My legs are back to normal, even though the blisters are still there.”
“My body feels lighter too. The fatigue has eased a little.”
“Even though Clemens went far away, I wasn’t cold! Even after being separated for quite a while.”
“Mana circulation seems easier now too. But Rosia, were you really sweating this much?”
As they discussed the effects of the hot spring water, Gwen suddenly jabbed Rosia playfully.
“Gwen!”
“Oh, why are you screaming?”
Gwen chuckled.
“From combining the effects, it seems the hot spring water flushes out all the waste in the body.”
If the body’s waste was removed, the body would naturally become healthier.
“Then you must be hungry. Eat this.”
“This…?”
“It’s delicious.”
Clemens, boasting that she had already eaten two, giggled.
With hesitant expressions, Rosia and Gwen tasted the fruit—and soon, their faces lit up with delight.
“It would be nice to take some of these too.”
At Rosia’s mutter, both Clemens and Gwen nodded in agreement.
“Now, should we discuss how to supply this water?”
Rosia shifted the topic.
A meeting in an unreal space.
“We only took a sip each, and we feel better. The villagers would feel the same.”
“If each knight carries a bucket, one village could be supplied.”
“There are thirty knights in total. That works.”
“Is it possible?”
“If His Majesty gives the order, it can be done somehow.”
“Any other ideas? Clemens, what do you think?”
“What if this hot spring water mixes with other water?”
Instead of an answer, she got another question. Rosia jumped up.
“That would be great! If it keeps its effect even when mixed into a major river in the north! Even if not fully, even partial effect…!”
Muttering, Rosia paced around. Clemens calmed her, saying it was distracting.
“We won’t know until we test. We have to stay here until sunrise anyway. So let’s mix it and see.”
“There’s no water here. How would we do that?”
“There’s water all around.”
Clemens grinned and pointed to the ground.
“Snow. If we melt it, it should work, right?”
Rosia excitedly started experimenting with melted snow.
Meanwhile, Gwen and Clemens checked the entrance.
“In my master’s book, it says only those connected to Pruina’s blood can enter.”
“Rosia is here, so that explains it, right?”
Sprinkling blood relied entirely on Zephyrus’s mana crystal, so that might have worked.
To be certain, it was better to check by moving back and forth.
Clemens reached toward the entrance. Unlike the boundary, it opened easily.
“Can I go out and come back in?”
With that light thought, she confidently stepped outside.
Whoosh—the wind made the trees sway.
“Eek! What?”
“Why all of a sudden!”
“Huh?”
The other two were forced out by the wind, catching themselves as they approached Clemens.
Clemens looked at them with a puzzled expression.
“Why are you out?”
“That’s what I want to ask! What happened to my experiment?”
“As soon as Clemens went out, the space disappeared. Is it structured so one person leaving ends it? How would we get back in?”
While Gwen and Rosia searched for a solution, Clemens’s bag trembled—it was the stone she had picked earlier. Blinking, she realized the same vibration came from the ground.
Looking around, Clemens found the stone emitting white smoke and picked it up. Instantly, the fog stopped, and the hot spring reappeared.
“Oh.”
“Huh? What is this…?”
Rosia was so confused her mind seemed to freeze.
Gwen noticed the stone Clemens held, even the engraved patterns.
“Wait. Can I see that stone?”
“Yes.”
Gwen took the stone, and at that moment, they were outside again.
“Phew.”
“Wow. Give it back, Gwen.”
When Clemens held the stone again, the hot spring appeared.
“What is this?”
“I’m not sure, but Clemens is clearly the key.”
“Indeed……”
“Ah! Clemens! Gwen! What have you done?”
Rosia’s eyes were full of confusion. Clemens gently hugged her and put both stones in her bag.
Without holding them, the hot spring disappeared again.
“It’s fine. This might be better.”
“What do you mean?”
Sunlight hit Rosia and Clemens at that moment. Looking up, the sun quickly disappeared behind clouds.
“It’s a bit brighter now. Shall we go down?”
“Clemens, say something.”
“I’m not sure. There’s a lot to check. It’s better if Gwen carries you on the way down.”
“I can walk myself!”
“Your soles still hurt. And you’re a little sensitive now, Rosia. You need to rest.”
“Yes, Rosia. Gwen will carry you comfortably.”
Finally, Rosia grumbled into Gwen’s ear while being carried. When he answered roughly, a colorful stream of sounds came from her.
Clemens chuckled. Gwen asked her:
“You really have good stamina, Clemens.”
“Of course. Survival requires stamina.”
Gwen roughly understood Clemens’s life had been tough. He imagined every hardship she must have endured.
“Even considering that, impressive.”
“Really?”
Clemens tilted her head and smiled.
Gwen let out a small sigh, watching her turn admiration into a laugh. Not just stamina, but also her immunity to His Majesty’s curse, and the recent events in Aistas.
His Majesty’s curse is one thing… but Clemens’s secrets might be just as formidable.
Though she seemed carefree, it was certain: he was curious about how a desert woman was connected to the north.
Snow piled deep along the mountain ridges, frozen in place.
A faint tremor shook it.
“Ahhhh! No!”
A very high-pitched sound, inaudible to humans, echoed through the north.
Monsters living there shrank in fear or screamed.
“She mustn’t leave her place!”
A woman made of snow, her hair also snow, disheveled it.
Each time, snowflakes scattered, then returned as hair.
After a while, she sighed, repairing the damaged space.
Waving her hand, the melted snow and ice returned.
“It’s already hard enough to maintain this state…”
Who was causing this? She had run off alone and left such a trial. The woman muttered a curse.
“This won’t do. Since it’s come to this, I have no choice but to execute the final plan.”
The snow crystals in the woman’s eyes glowed coldly.
