🔊 TTS Settings
Chapter 39
“Just what the hell do those bastards think they’re doing, scheming behind my grandfather’s and my backs in Verdi territory?”
Someone secretly exploring the territory’s land without permission, determining the location of mana stones, and even secretly mining them was a serious matter that could never simply be overlooked.
Calliope’s muttering was so ominous that Lerazier instinctively shuddered.
“Lerazier Dion Arenfreed.”
“Huh? Y-yeah…”
“You know the mana stones I gave you earlier?”
“Ah, right. Do you want me to give them back?”
Faced with Calliope’s chilling appearance, Lerazier hurriedly reached into his coat to take out the pouch.
But Calliope’s next words were completely different from what he expected.
“That was your advance payment.”
“…Huh?”
The two of them climbed the stairs again and emerged from the well.
They then inspected the other wells in the village where the exact same phenomenon had occurred.
“It’s the same.”
“I see.”
Every one of the wells had dried up enough for the bottom to be exposed, with tiny mana stones—barely visible to the naked eye—settled among the gravel.
“That confirms it.”
Having reached her conclusion, Calliope exchanged a meaningful look with Lerazier.
By the time the two of them had finished checking all the wells, the sun had completely set, and it was already dark night.
The knights waiting outside the last well with torches approached them.
“Did you happen to find anything this time?”
“Nothing particularly noteworthy.”
Calliope rubbed the space between her eyebrows before adding,
“For now, even if it’s inconvenient, have the drinking water we need brought in from the nearby villages.”
“Yes, Young Lady.”
After giving them several instructions, she climbed into the carriage with Lerazier.
As the carriage headed toward the Verdi Count’s estate, Lerazier asked Calliope,
“You didn’t give the knights any information earlier because you suspected that one of the culprits or their accomplices might be a knight of the Verdi family?”
“That’s right. I don’t want to believe that one of our family’s knights is involved, but accidents always stem from trusting too much.”
Calliope’s face was colder than Lerazier had ever seen it.
It was a side of her that most nobles, who had only encountered her during social gatherings, would never have imagined.
Of course, Lerazier was one of the few who didn’t belong to that majority.
“Anyway, we’ve set the trap. Now all we have to do is wait for the prey to take the bait.”
“I hope it doesn’t take too long. That way, the people who evacuated from the village can return to their homes.”
Calliope, looking somewhat troubled, brushed back her long hair. Then she took out a mana stone.
It was one of the stones they had collected from the well earlier.
“Let’s see. The transparency is good, but…”
She held the mana stone between her thumb and index finger and examined it closely before asking Lerazier,
“Is there any magic you need?”
“Not particularly. Maybe you could give me something to eat.”
The food he had eaten shortly before arriving at the village had long since been digested.
Calliope clicked her tongue.
“Magic isn’t omnipotent. It’s impossible to create something from nothing. Conjuring bread out of thin air is something that only happens in fairy tales about fairies.”
She clicked her tongue again.
“Even if you use mana differently, you’re a Sword Master who can manipulate mana. How can you not know something that basic?”
“But still…”
Calliope snapped her fingers and opened her subspace.
However, this time it wasn’t the small, storage-room-like subspace Lerazier had seen when she stored and retrieved the mana stones.
Lerazier stared in amazement.
“I have no idea what I’m looking at right now.”
A kitchen had appeared before his eyes.
It was fully equipped with everything one would expect from a respectable noble family’s kitchen.
“Even if you can’t create something from nothing, you can still use the ingredients you have to efficiently create something.”
Calliope snapped her fingers.
At once, a large sack of flour standing to one side began pouring its contents into a bowl, and every utensil in the kitchen started moving on its own.
Lerazier watched in amazement as the substance that had been nothing more than white powder was transformed into bread right before his eyes.
“Here.”
A short while later, freshly baked bread tumbled into his hands.
Lerazier tore off a piece with an uncertain expression, then his eyes widened.
“Not bad, is it?”
Calliope also tore off a small piece and brought it to her mouth as she asked.
“This is the first time I’ve ever wanted to learn magic.”
Calliope looked satisfied.
As Lerazier quietly watched her, he suddenly realized that the mana stone she had been holding moments earlier had disappeared.
It seemed to have been consumed by the magic Calliope had just used.
“The purity is quite good. To think I can cast magic of this scale with just one mana stone.”
“So that’s why you suddenly decided to use magic. You were checking the mana stone’s purity.”
“You’re stating something obvious as though it were some great revelation. Did you really think I was doing it for you? You can just watch and eat your bread.”
“Hmph.”
Calliope scoffed and shook the pouch of mana stones in her hand.
“At minimum, the eastern part of the village. If we’re lucky, perhaps the entire village.”
It was a cryptic mutter, but Lerazier immediately understood.
“You mean the amount of mana stones buried here.”
“Yes.”
“If that’s true, isn’t it an enormous amount?”
“It is.”
Calliope smiled meaningfully.
“It means our territory is about to become incredibly wealthy.”
Deep in the night, beneath a blanket of thick darkness, several people moved stealthily, suppressing every trace of their presence.
Their clothes and even their faces were concealed by masks, leaving only their eyes exposed.
Hurry up!
The man leading them signaled with his hands.
His precise, disciplined movements suggested that he was a knight by profession.
Taking advantage of the villagers being asleep, they finally arrived at the well.
The knight quickly placed four artifacts at four points around the well.
They were artifacts that concealed their presence and blocked out sound.
As the artifacts activated, they enveloped the area around the well in a massive dome.
“Phew. We succeeded. Let’s go in.”
They entered the well with ease.
As expected, the water had receded almost all the way to the bottom.
The illegal mana stone miners began chatting excitedly.
“The water level dropped just enough, huh?”
“Heh heh… What idiots. They don’t even realize that spreading rumors about the well drying up is actually helping us.”
It took time to block the underground water vein and cause the well to dry up. The best time to begin working could be determined by observing the villagers’ reactions.
“Everyone, pace yourselves. We’ll have to continue working at another well tomorrow.”
“Don’t worry! What’s a little fatigue when we’re going to make a fortune?!”
Moreover, there were places in the village where the underground water veins were connected, so blocking a single water vein could cause two or three nearby wells to dry up in succession.
This was one such case.
The miners began noisily descending the stairs in a line.
Then someone suddenly asked,
“Ah, but didn’t the Verdi Young Lady come to the village?”
“She went around to every well on the first day she arrived, searching them as thoroughly as if she were hunting rats.”
The leader, a knight named Jorje Difel, answered.
There was mockery in his voice.
“But she didn’t find anything.”
“I heard she was supposed to be an incredible mage. Guess that wasn’t true?”
“Seems like it was exaggerated. Haven’t we all seen noble lords exaggerate their abilities plenty of times?”
“That’s true! Hahaha!”
They snickered as they descended all the way to the bottom of the well.
Jorje took another artifact from inside his coat.
We would’ve been in trouble without this.
The artifact his client had given him had proven useful like this every time.
Recalling how to use it, Jorje placed a large refined mana stone on top of the artifact.
“All right, everyone, stand back. You might get hurt.”
The miners moved well away from the artifact.
A moment later, an explosion echoed up from deep beneath the ground.
“Perfect!”
The bottom of the well was violently torn apart, almost as though the earth itself were being overturned.
It looked as if something buried deep underground was being forcibly dragged to the surface.
Before long, transparent, gleaming stones began appearing before the miners’ eyes.
“It’s mana stones!”
“That’s money! Cold, hard money! Come on, let’s haul them out!”
Since they were paid according to the size and number of mana stones they mined, the miners rushed forward as though possessed.
Splash, splash.
They frantically began scooping up the mana stones, splashing through the water in their excitement.
And after some time had passed, one of the miners suddenly muttered with a confused expression,
“Wait… doesn’t it seem like the water level has risen a little?”
