There Was a Mana Stone Mine Behind the Fief (2)
I packed a light rucksack and headed out beyond the borders of the fief.
I had one goal and one goal only.
Somehow, some way, secure twenty-eight new units of free labor — no, new residents for the territory.
This was the perfect window to shore up Seorigol's basic strength before Lionel's pressure campaign began in earnest.
The only question was where exactly I was supposed to collect said labor force.
"Let's see…"
A little time had passed since the Eclipse, but refugees, once uprooted, had a way of drifting aimlessly across the world. And the terrain around Seorigol was brutally rugged. People getting lost out here was hardly unheard of.
If I happened to stumble across some poor lost lambs who'd taken a wrong turn near Seorigol… heh heh heh.
I'd simply abduct them — no, courteously escort them back to the fief and provide them with a warm place to sleep and… an opportunity to work.
I set off along the forest paths surrounding the territory, wandering without a fixed route. I concentrated my search around the approach the refugees had used a few days earlier when they'd flooded into Seorigol, but strangely enough I couldn't find so much as a human footprint — not even animal tracks.
The entire forest had gone silent, as if it had suddenly died.
"Hmm… something's off."
By the time the sun hung high overhead, I had pushed deep into the woods. The unfamiliar terrain and the oppressive atmosphere were starting to fray my nerves. That was when a rustling in the underbrush produced a small child who popped out in front of me.
One of the refugee kids who'd drifted into Seorigol. The same one who'd been trailing after Anya not long ago with a basket in hand, playing the devoted little retainer.
"Oh — my lord? What are you doing out here?"
"Labor for— ahem. I was looking around to see if anyone might have gotten lost. What about you? What are you doing out here?"
"I-I was checking if there were any medicinal herbs or anything! But… my lord, please don't go that way. It's dangerous over there."
Anya's Number One Minion pointed in the direction I'd been heading — deeper into the forest. Mist clung low to the ground there, and even the sunlight barely reached. A thoroughly sinister stretch of woods.
"Boss Anya said she felt something weird coming from that way! She told us never to go near it!"
It was definitely strange. The eerie stillness blanketing the whole forest, plus the kid's testimony…
But behind the word danger, my instincts had already sniffed out an opportunity. What if the missing people were trapped in there? If I rescued them and brought them back to Seorigol…!
Free labor acquisition chance!
Figuring the kid would only get in the way if he tagged along, I tried to send him back in the gentlest voice I could manage.
"Thanks for the warning. You head on back to your friends now. I've got some business that way."
"W-what about you, my lord? Are you really going over there?"
Worry clouded Anya's Number One Minion's eyes.
"Yeah. Just in case. I want to take a look myself."
The little brat's expression transformed on the spot — pure reverence and awe.
"For people who might be lost out there… you'd walk into a place that dangerous yourself!"
"That's a misunder—"
"I-I'm so moved! No wonder everyone says you're an incredible person, my lord!"
…I just wanted free labor.
There was clearly a misunderstanding in play, but if it worked in my favor, fine by me. I cleared my throat and let the misconception stand.
"Hang in there, my lord! And… here!"
Anya's Number One Minion dug something crumpled out of a tiny pouch and pressed it into my hand.
It was one of the candies I'd given Anya — the ones I handed her whenever she'd been working hard. She must have been saving them up and sharing them with the kids.
"…Thanks."
Something in my chest tightened, just a little. A fief where even cheap candy got passed around like treasure.
I waved the kid off as he hurried away, then steeled my resolve once more.
I was going to claim that free labor and develop this territory no matter what.
"Hah… hah…"
My breath burned all the way up into my throat. How many hours had I been walking?
The fog grew thicker by the minute. Every direction looked identical — the same trees, the same endless green. The sun was already starting to sink; darkness was swallowing the forest at an alarming pace.
Am I actually going to get stranded out here?
Fighting down the dread clawing at me, I carved a mark into a nearby tree with the dagger in my hand. I'd been leaving these for the past hour — markers to follow back if I lost my way.
Then I looked ahead and walked straight on.
But…
"…!"
What appeared in front of me was the very first tree I'd marked.
Same spot. Same shape of the knife cut.
I had walked in a straight line the entire time. There was only one thing that could mean.
The space is distorted.
A sickening sense of déjà vu rolled over me, and every hair on my body stood on end. This wasn't ordinary disorientation. I had clearly been caught in something supernatural.
Yeah… I was pretty thoroughly screwed.
Monsters and Aberrations. Both are hostile to humanity, but the way they operate is fundamentally different.
Monsters tend to force their way into human life through raw physical power — destroying, pillaging, making their presence unmistakably known. Werewolves, goblins, orcs. That sort of thing.
Aberrations are different.
They seep into the fabric of everyday life like shadows, like fog. Nesting in civilization's dark corners and in the deepest recesses of the human heart, they slowly poison the mind. And the people they contaminate go on, as if it were the most natural thing in the world, becoming the Aberration's daily feed.
Of course, until an Aberration fully establishes its territory and puts down roots — or sometimes for reasons no one can comprehend — it may behave like a monster. Like the one that had stormed Seorigol.
They are despairingly powerful. And yet, ironically, that despairing power can feel like the better option. Because once they settle into a place completely — once they become a region's urban legend — it means countless innocent people have already been offered up and swallowed whole.
And right now, I had no choice but to admit it with bone-deep certainty.
I've fallen into an urban legend.
A space that repeated without end no matter how far I walked. This was unmistakably the kind of legend that preyed on humanity's primal fear of being lost, gnawing away at the mind.
The problem was that the feeling of "being lost" is so universal that I still had no idea what kind of Aberration was running this particular legend. A careless mistake. With things like this, even the meager knowledge of Aberrations and monsters I'd managed to dredge up from memory was useless.
And I came out here relying on that knowledge.
Was I doomed to wander the same stretch of space forever — starve, go mad, or get eaten by the Aberration?
"No. Absolutely not."
Think. There had to be a way out.
These things ultimately thrived on the primal fear of losing one's way. Which meant there were almost certainly other people already trapped inside this legend, wandering just like me.
I needed to find them. Information was the only way to deduce the Aberration's true identity. And once I knew what it was, I could crack it using the bestiary I'd pieced back together from memory.
I was roughly half-certain people were trapped in here. Anya's report had mentioned that the number of refugees prowling the edges of Seorigol had dropped sharply of late. Odds were good they'd been pulled into this.
But right now, there wasn't so much as a human silhouette in sight.
That could mean I hadn't yet reached the true depths of the legend. Maybe I was stuck somewhere awkward — wedged between reality and the legend itself, pacing the threshold.
Why am I stuck lingering between reality and the legend?
That was the heart of the problem.
I couldn't return to reality, and I couldn't begin a proper assault on the legend either. Going back to reality was effectively impossible at this point. In other words, I had to fall all the way in.
So why couldn't I?
Think.
I didn't know the legend's true nature, but this was an Aberration for people who had lost their way. So what did "losing one's way" actually mean?
…You need a clear destination you want to reach.
But I had wandered this forest with nothing more than a vague intention to "find refugees" — no concrete destination at all. Just the abstract goal of increasing the fief's population, with no specific where.
If that was why I kept circling the entrance of this legend…
"I need to set a destination. A clear, concrete one."
So where should I go?
How could I break free of this endless loop, approach the legend's core, and still have a decent shot at getting out alive?
This was deep mountain country — not a single trace of human habitation. Artificial structures were unlikely. And if the missing refugees had gathered somewhere, that place would inevitably be…
"A cave."
I closed my eyes and shouted it in my mind with everything I had.
I want to go to a cave. A safe, secluded cave where lost people might gather!
The moment I opened my eyes again with that desperate resolve locked in place — after only a few steps — the faint outline of a sheer cliff began to take shape through the fog in the distance. It shouldn't have been possible. It happened anyway. And at the base of that cliff, a cave mouth gaped dimly in the gloom.
"Someone's coming!"
Urgent voices spilled from deeper inside the cave.
I swallowed hard and started walking slowly toward the entrance.