Chapter 52
Chapter 52
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 52
Chapter Title: The Dragon's Nest
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"Oh, Mom!"
"Deina!"
The first to regain her senses was Magda.
Just as Essel opened his eyes, Magda was embracing the five missing children, overflowing with joy.
"You're all safe!"
Fortunately, the children seemed completely unharmed.
"Are the kids okay?"
"Yes, wizard! They all look fine."
Magda rejoiced as she checked the children's conditions.
Wincing at his headache, Esselrid hoisted Juliet—who had passed out as if dead—onto his back.
"Good. Now that we've found everyone, we just need a way out of here—"
"Ah, mister!"
Suddenly, one of the children in Magda's arms let out a scream.
Thud!
"Eek!"
"Wizard!"
Essel barely dodged the attack and rolled across the ground.
"D-don't move!"
The ones about to smash his head were mysterious men wielding shovels and pickaxes.
"What the—"
Esselrid grimaced.
".... Wait, did she just say wizard?"
Fear-tinged murmurs leaked out from the men surrounding Esselrid with their weapons.
**
"So?"
Juliet cut in, interrupting the explanation.
"Why were those black... guild guys even here?"
Juliet and Essel were groping along the cliff wall, investigating it.
It was because Juliet had suggested that the rock formation wasn't crumbly, so they could probably climb up if they did it right.
"Actually, those guys were the masterminds who lured the kids here."
"What?"
Juliet's voice rose.
"They tempted the village kids, promising money if they picked up strange stones in the forest."
"Strange stones, what do you—"
Juliet stopped short.
In the surrounding darkness, after shoving aside a large rock, a small pebble emitting a green glow like luminous paint came into view.
"...A magic stone."
"Yes."
Essel continued his explanation.
Instead of bulky adults, the village kids had fallen for the ploy and gone down under the cliff to gather magic stones.
But they hadn't known when to stop. Greed got the better of them, and with the ground weakened by rain, the cliff had collapsed, sending them tumbling down here.
After hearing the full story, Juliet tilted her head and looked around once more.
"Sounds like something I've heard before."
Deep in the mountains, narrow entrance, magic stones everywhere, suspicious cliff crevice.
"...Habitat."
"Monster habitat."
The words tumbled out simultaneously.
Juliet realized she'd muttered it without thinking, and Essel turned to her with a startled look.
It was knowledge no ordinary person should have.
Juliet hurriedly changed the subject.
"Speaking of magic stones, we have those trackers, right?"
"Trackers? Did you bring one?"
Juliet rolled up her sleeve.
She had, just as she said. Essel's face lit up.
"Why are you only mentioning it now!"
"No, more importantly, Essel—you're the one who made them, but you didn't bring a single one yourself?"
"...Let's get it working quick!"
Amid Juliet and Esselrid's bickering, the people who had been asleep began waking up one by one and getting to their feet.
"Hey! Wizard dude!"
"So noisy I can't sleep!"
But the two paid them no mind.
Once this thing turned on, getting out of here would be only a matter of time.
But—
"...It's not turning on."
"No way!"
"Feels like it wasn't charged with magic."
"What are you talking about? I definitely gave it to Essel fully charged and told him to wear it."
After that—
"......"
The two realized exactly whose doing this was.
There had only been one person with access to the trackers.
"Theo Levatan, that little—"
Juliet vowed that once they got out of here, she would not let Theo off the hook.
*
"How much farther?"
Theo shouted impatiently.
"We've sent word, so they'll be here soon."
"Please don't worry too much."
"...Damn it."
Theo barely swallowed his curse and berated the wizards he'd hastily brought along.
"Hurry up and find them!"
"B-but tracking magic is Esselrid's specialty~"
The wizards made their excuses desperately.
'Useless bunch.'
Even so, three of them couldn't match a single Esselrid.
The wizards droned on that Esselrid's magical wavelength was extremely unique, and pinpointing it amid the mana-spewing eastern forest was no easy task.
But Theo had no interest in their excuses.
"Forget that—figure out something right now!"
"W-we're trying."
Theo clutched his head.
There hadn't been any real malice. He'd just been feeling a bit mischievous.
He figured they'd wander the forest a bit, get scared, and that would be that.
On top of that, he'd let his guard down thinking Esselrid had the merchant group's wizard with him, so they'd be fine—even if they got lost in the woods, they'd find their way out quick.
But no matter how much time passed, the two didn't return.
'Stupid idiot!'
He'd sent out search parties over and over, but they were useless. He'd rounded up the Kanavel villagers and hounded them, but their responses were a sight to behold.
"Five kids went missing two days ago. You think we didn't try everything to find them?"
"No use. Those taken by the great dragon can never be found."
"But young master Theo, this is a waste of time."
Steward Walter calmly tried to persuade him.
"If you just wait patiently a little—"
"I know!"
Only then did Theo realize just what a colossal blunder he'd made.
* * *
A monster habitat had a structure like an underground prison.
The deeper you went, the more dangerous the monsters and the richer the magic stones.
The most stable way to obtain magic stones was through mining operations, but in the East, they harvested far more from these monster habitats.
That was why guilds drawn by magic stones were a dime a dozen in the East.
But even so.
"Seriously, why's your guild named that?"
"Got a complaint, lady?"
The man who was the Black Mane Guild's guild master replied in a creepy tone.
He was clearly keeping an eye on Esselrid, though. A wizard from the Marigold Merchant Group? Of course he'd be scared.
Esselrid whispered to Juliet.
"Not a very high-quality bunch."
"No kidding."
Luring kids into danger out of greed, then causing trouble for total innocents.
Juliet shot the Black Mane guild members a cold glare.
A habitat this deep in the mountains was undoubtedly an ancient monster nest.
The giant monsters that had gone extinct long ago built their nests in remote places like this, and the more dangerous the monster on a given floor, the richer the magic stones.
Habitats usually had an inverted pyramid structure—like flipping a pointed pyramid upside down—the deeper levels narrowing as they went.
"How far did we fall?"
Juliet asked worriedly, gazing up.
It was almost a mumble to herself, but Esselrid came over to stand beside her, looked up as well, and kindly answered.
"At least thirty meters. At this depth, it'd be impossible to be found even by accident. No one would hear you shouting."
"Hm? Why are you looking at me like that?"
What a hopeful outlook.
Habitats always had forests nearby swarming with low-grade monsters.
The North was full of them. That was why clearing monster-infested forests to secure the safety of the domain's people was a long-standing duty for any domain lord.
"But we can't expect that kind of thing in a place like this."
Esselrid sighed.
In places like Kanavel Village, it had been ages since they'd received any oversight from a lord.
Juliet recalled the story that heavy rains had fallen in the area just days before they arrived at Kanavel.
'Maybe the prolonged rain weakened the ground, causing it to sink and expose the entrance?'
Juliet thought it was a reasonable guess.
"But this shape is rare."
Essel frowned.
"How has it stayed undiscovered this long?"
Essel muttered.
Juliet looked up at the sheer cliff face along with him.
This was her first time seeing an untouched monster habitat with her own eyes.
The rule was to report any newly discovered habitat to the guild alliance.
Once you knew its attribute, the monsters inside weren't all that dangerous.
But an unlicensed guild like Black Mane had zero intention of following those rules.
There was no need to ask why Black Mane had snuck into Kanavel Village and mobilized kids to scrape up magic stones instead of officially reporting and investigating the habitat.
If they reported it to the alliance, their share of the magic stones would shrink.
"Kanavel means 'nest' in the ancient tongue."
"Nest of what?"
Essel gave her a look like, *Why ask something so obvious?*
"A dragon's nest."
Come to think of it, Magda had said something like that.
The legend about the dragon snatching kids.
As Juliet rummaged through her memories, she picked up one of the magic stones from the ground.
These were things you had to pay top coin for outside, yet here they were everywhere—underfoot, even.
"The problem is getting out."
As Juliet picked up a magic stone that was pretty like a pebble in shape and color, she noticed something odd.
'Hm?'
Amid the semi-translucent crystal-like magic stones, Juliet picked up a perfectly round, smooth black stone.
What was this?