Chapter 10. Stubbornness and Arrogance (9)

A light so bright it could be felt even through my closed eyes illuminated the surroundings, and I felt a slight dizziness.

I hadn’t exerted myself as much as I had at the Gnome Lake. It seemed there were quite a few places like this in the Dwarf Kingdom. To purify everything as quickly as possible-

“…….”

No, wait a minute.

I opened my eyes again, a little flustered.

Before me was a puddle of water that had become transparent. A clear well filled to the brim with water.

Sounds of admiration could be heard from the surroundings. There were also grumbling sounds, seemingly from the priests, expressing dissatisfaction.

Judging by the reaction, it might be considered a ‘success.’ I had poured in as much strength as I had when healing the dwarves, so the well itself had become transparent enough for people to drink.

However.

“Anna?”

Ria called me from beside me.

“…….”

I knelt on the ground and scooped up some water with my hand. Like the lake in the Gnome territory, the water was shimmering slightly. It contained holy power.

But the tingling sensation I felt from the surroundings had not disappeared at all.

Looking back at the puddle, something was dripping from the side of the rock onto the puddle.

Black liquid.

Magic itself.

Although it was quickly purified every time it entered the water, it wouldn’t last forever. Not unless the source was completely eliminated.

I stood up.

“Anna?”

“Ria, let’s go back.”

As I said that to Ria and turned my body, the people who had followed to escort us also moved their feet in a slightly bewildered manner.

“No, wait a minute.”

And when I stopped walking, the people also stopped, a little bewildered.

I looked at the dwarf priest. The priest who had blocked my path earlier.

Did they block my path simply because they considered that puddle sacred in itself?

If so, wouldn’t there be no reason to leave it like this? There are abandoned sanctuaries, after all.

I asked the priest.

“What do the people who live here do for a living?”

Inside a cave, and so deep at that.

In a place where magic was this dense, unless one could handle holy power like those affiliated with the church, or had some resistance by storing magic in their bodies like the dwarves, the only beings who could survive were monsters.

And monsters cannot be used as food. The food I saw at yesterday’s banquet was all from slaughtered livestock, fresh vegetables, and things like mushrooms.

The dwarves dying from drinking magically contaminated water wouldn’t be able to survive by eating monsters made of magic itself.

“The drinking water… it certainly wouldn’t be enough with just that. There must be a minimum amount of water used for living. And they must receive food as well.”

“That…”

The priest replied with an expression as if asking something strange.

“They make a living by scooping and selling the liquefied magic from inside there. Although it’s less efficient than magic stones, if mixed with dirt and made into lumps, it becomes usable once.”

“……It sounds more dangerous than mining magic stones. Do the priests do the processing?”

The dwarf priests exchanged bewildered glances amongst themselves.

“……I understand.”

It meant they didn’t.

Those among the dwarves with the most magic all reigned over the Dwarf Kingdom. Naturally, their individual combat power would be incomparably strong.

……It’s only natural. It’s common for such beings to rise to the top of society. And conversely, those who cannot do such important work are driven to the fringes of the kingdom.

In the end, those who can, don’t do it.

Those who can’t, do that work.

Because otherwise, there’s nothing they can do.

Drinking water mixed with magic, touching magic-infused dough with bare hands without equipment. Their insides and outsides both rotting.

I moved my feet again.

“Ria, let’s go back to the royal palace. I think I need to meet the princess.”

“Understood.”

Ria nodded. She didn’t ask why.

*

As soon as I returned to the royal palace, I requested an audience with the princess.

The princess immediately accepted my request. As if she had been waiting.

“You came in person without even receiving a report yet.”

To the princess’s words, I stared intently at the princess and said.

“I went to see the place you told me about.”

“You mean the place where the most suffering people in this country live.”

When I asked, the princess told me about that place.

It was as she said. It was difficult to think of anyone living harder lives in this country than those people. It seemed to be well-known even among the dwarves.

But- somehow, I felt that the princess hadn’t simply told me about that place because I requested it.

Rather, perhaps she had something she wanted to tell me from the beginning.

Even if I hadn’t asked, I kept getting the feeling that the princess would have suggested I go there first.

“What did you see there? Did you see the suffering people, and the priests who ignored them despite knowing they needed help?”

I saw both.

But the most serious thing I saw wasn’t that.

No, the most serious thing among what I ‘felt’-

“……I saw magic.”

I said.

The endless magic emanating from that place. An intensity incomparable to the lake in the Gnome territory.

I didn’t see it directly. In the first place, I couldn’t even grasp its extent with my power.

“The entire mountain.”

I told her what I had deduced.

“Isn’t that right?”

As if my words were correct, the princess nodded.

“Yes.”

And then, she slowly extended her index finger and pointed to the ceiling.

“Up there. Most of this mountain, rich in magic stones, is entirely filled with magic. That’s why it’s rich in magic stones, isn’t it? It has been steadily altering the rocks of this mountain for eons.”

“…….”

“I apologize. I couldn’t tell you right away. I couldn’t know if your sister’s power could truly help us, or if you had only come wishing for the spread of religion.”

“You wanted to know if the stories I heard were true.”

“And, if you had the power to see such situations, I also wanted to know how you would judge this situation.”

She wanted to inform me more accurately than just by words.

……No.

“……No. It’s probably because you wanted me to be surprised.”

“…….”

This time, the princess fell silent.

“You must have heard that I purified the contaminated lake in the Gnome territory. I… you wanted me to see the situation myself.”

“……Will you forgive my rudeness?”

I couldn’t think of how to answer that.

“Yes, that’s right. We are also making that deduction. We dwarves… have lived for a long time by digging tunnels in various places of this mountain range. Now we have reached our limit. All of the royal family knows that we should not dig any further.”

Because if they dig further, magic will leak out.

But they can’t easily move outside either. Once you leave the Dwarf Kingdom, you immediately encounter rugged mountains. Mountains that are incomparably higher and colder than Earth.

If they go to a warm place-

“The habitable places are war-torn. And… you must have passed through there too, sister. Didn’t you see what state that place is in?”

The place on the surface where humans could live was now a complete ruin.

It had been contaminated by magic everywhere, and now it was questionable whether grass could even grow properly.

Perhaps they could survive in the desert. If they could find a place where water flows.

However, most of those places were Gnome territories. The gnomes couldn’t accept the dwarves, who had deep-seated grudges for a long time.

Moreover,

I know.

That magic will inevitably become a problem. It will one day engulf that mountain, and then engulf the Gnome territories below the mountain.

“Now you can understand why we had to research gates.”

“…….”

I remained silent.

“Some of the royalty and nobility hope for that. To move through your land and live beyond other gates. Because opening a completely new world carries too much risk.”

If a gate were to appear in the sea, it could cause a great flood inside the mountain. Even if it wasn’t the sea, if it was a barren wasteland with nothing, opening a gate would be meaningless.

However.

“……I know that it’s not an easy task either. Although it’s temporary, hundreds of thousands of dwarves will pass through your country. There’s no reason why no problems will arise during that process.”

“…….”

I had nothing to say.

“Furthermore, even if you pass through your gates and go to another world- I don’t know if you would welcome that either.”

If there is a country directly beyond the gate, the government doesn’t interfere excessively. The government doesn’t want war.

But, conversely, if there is no country beyond it, the government essentially uses it as its own land. They make landfills and radioactive waste disposal sites.

Giving up such a useful place is not very welcome from the government’s perspective. Refugees also wouldn’t want to go too deep into the gates.

“……Some might make ‘radical’ proposals. How much do dwarves believe in the superiority of the dwarf bloodline?”

The princess smiled bitterly, as if she understood the intention of my question.

“……They would probably consider other races as something less than ‘people.’ Especially the radical ones. Yes. If they knew that half of my blood was Gnome, some might even try to assassinate me.”

I closed my mouth.

Uh… um, Princess?

Talking about such sensitive topics so casually…?

Ah, no, is this not a topic I should be discussing?