Chapter 51
Chapter 51
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter Title: A Researcher's Hypothesis Setup (1)
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The sun scorching across the western great desert blazed fiercely enough to incinerate even the Black Moon Caravan's flag.
The procession, which had been pushing through the sandstorm, halted briefly not at the peak of the midday heat.
But because a dark elf agent had approached like a shadow and delivered a small wax-sealed tube to the caravan's master.
"......"
Inside her personal carriage, Kalendil quietly read the freshly arrived intelligence report.
Her loyal retainer, Bellaris, who stood by her side, waited in silence.
Kalendil murmured softly.
"The chieftain of the Raktali Rock Troll tribe in the southern jungle region, Bak Makrega, is weakening and will soon meet his end... it seems."
Kalendil crumpled the thin parchment in her hand.
"Bellaris."
"Yes, Princess."
"Bak Makrega. The one called the 'Gentle Rock.' What do you think will happen to the Empire's southern situation once he's gone?"
The retainer Bellaris reported the backstory of the intelligence without a moment's hesitation, as if the analysis were already complete.
"On the surface, there won't be any major changes right away. The Raktali tribe isn't aggressive, and Chieftain Bak Makrega has served as a de facto mediator among the large and small tribes of the south for the past several decades."
Bellaris's voice dropped a tone.
"But the real issue is that this mediator is disappearing."
Kalendil nodded quietly in agreement.
Her subordinate then began laying out the well-organized key points clearly and concisely.
"First, it's expected that all the suppressed interests in the southern jungles will explode at once."
"The longstanding territorial dispute between the Abalut tribe of the swamps and the Laalrak tribe of the jungles will reignite immediately, potentially becoming the spark for a massive civil war that could drench the entire Empire's south in blood. The minor tribes might join in as well."
"Not just the rock trolls, but various other sub-races are entangled with them, so the moment they lose the Raktali as a central pillar, the south will plunge into irrepressible chaos."
Kalendil closed her eyes for a moment.
It had only been a few days since she'd heard the news that the Empire's north had been pacified and was prospering under some rosy miracle sauce.
And now, the Empire's south was preparing to burn in the exact opposite way.
'Chaos.'
Complex calculations flashed in her eyes.
"What about the movements of other kingdoms or sub-races?"
The retainer Bellaris answered immediately, as if she had the intelligence fully memorized.
"The Empire is currently focusing its administrative power on subjugating the northern giants and expanding trade routes. It doesn't seem to have the capacity to deal with the chronic conflicts in the southern jungles. It'll hope for the status quo at best, but active intervention will be difficult."
"And the other sub-races?"
"The lizardmen of the swamps have a long alliance with the Abalut tribe, but they can't ignore the Laalrak tribe's power either, so they'll bide their time under the guise of neutrality. The southern merfolk tribes will side with the victor and prepare for plunder as well."
Bellaris nailed the core issue.
"......"
Kalendil closed her eyes briefly. Chaos. To a merchant, it was an irresistible opportunity—and at the same time, a disaster that could swallow everything.
If the south erupted in flames, the southern trade routes pioneered by the Black Moon Caravan would take a significant hit.
But her amethyst eyes soon regained their calm.
She gazed out the carriage window at the sun still pointing east.
'The south's chaos isn't our concern. At least, not now.'
Her goal lay beyond the gray desert to the east, in the heart of the Empire.
The saint who had tamed even the north's beasts. Aligning with him was the only key to unlocking the rusty gates of the dark elf kingdom. A southern civil war was trivial compared to that grand flow.
No, this chaos might even become a new stage for that saint.
A dying chieftain, rotting jungles. The miracles he wielded wouldn't be needed only in the north.
"Bellaris."
"Yes, Caravan Master."
"Keep a close eye on the southern situation, but we won't intervene. We'll observe."
"Understood."
As Kalendil burned the wax tube in a candle flame to erase any traces, she issued her command.
"We'll observe for now. We need to watch whose hands that blaze falls into—or if a new miracle to quench those flames emerges from the east once more."
She opened the carriage window and shouted to the guard captain.
"We're moving out! To the east!"
The massive Black Moon Caravan procession, which had paused briefly, began rolling toward the blazing sun once more.
At that moment, the workshop in Kandoria Castle was a place where cold rationality and burning passion coexisted, in stark contrast to the desert's heat.
"This way, Miss Iris."
The workshop, reached under Erika's guidance during a chance evening stroll to catch some air.
It was filled with tools for precise mana control and crystal devices, in the Argentis family style.
In one corner of the workshop, the rare northern materials for Iris to verify were piled up.
White yeti fur pelts, wyvern scales emitting cold chill, and precious ores and frost crystals.
While Iris's gaze was fixed on those rare materials, Erika headed to the back of the workshop, to her personal workbench.
Unlike the massive engineering setups of the magic tower, it resembled a clockmaker's or jeweler's desk, with extremely precise tools arranged neatly alongside magnifiers.
Erika picked up something from the workbench with familiar motions.
What she held was a small silver button the size of a fingernail.
Erika deftly fitted the magnifier to her eye and secured it under the workbench's loupe.
"Now, where..."
Soon, she took up a special steel graver finer than a hair.
With delicate hand movements, she began engraving an extraordinarily complex magic circle onto the button's surface.
Minute lines intersected, completing the circuit.
"Hoo..."
Her cheeks flushed slightly as she immersed herself in the work.
When she filled the grooves with pigment ground from mana stones, a faint mana emanated from the button.
'If he has this... maybe Jonathan will be a bit more comfortable during his usual inspections.'
She pictured Jonathan.
Despite his status as heir to the Count Valerius family, he always insisted on leading from the front.
Whether it was the chicken coop expansion at Scarlett Pasture or the sauce workshop in Kandoria, he was always the first to rush in.
For the sake of noble decorum, he wore a sword at his side and minimal attire like a pourpoint or gambeson.
Even knowing the sweat would pour like rain and soak him through in moments, he always urged the laborers on from the very front.
Every time she saw him like that, Erika's heart raced, yet she felt a pang of pity.
'Wearing clothes soaked in sweat like that must be so uncomfortable. He might even catch a cold. Silly Jonathan.'
Thinking of that Jonathan made Erika's face flush peach-pink.
It was her sincere wish that this small magical device, which expelled sweat and heat, would ease his efforts even a little.
She herself often grew weary of sweat and heat when pulling all-nighters in the alchemy workshop.
Knowing that discomfort better than anyone, it was her subtle consideration and affection, crafted in secret to give to him.
It was then, as she once more filled the magic circle's grooves with mana stone pigment using her delicate touch.
"That's not the Empire's standard cooling magic circle."
Erika jumped in surprise at the curt voice from behind, her shoulders twitching.
Iris had silently positioned herself right behind Erika's workbench, peering into the magnifier at the tiny button alongside her.
"M-Miss Iris! Since when...!"
"Just now."
Iris ignored Erika's fluster and scanned the magic circuit with her violet eyes.
"The circuits are extremely fine. An application of gem-cutting techniques? You've minimized mana consumption to the extreme and limited activation to rising body temperature and humidity increases. What's the purpose?"
At Iris's question, Erika replied with slightly reddened cheeks.
"Oh... this is a portable dehumidifying, heat-dissipating magical tool you pin inside clothes. It quickly vents sweat and heat outside to keep you more comfortable."
"I see. But it seems inefficient. For a consumable made with this much labor and material precision."
Erika's shoulders twitched again at her cold critique.
Iris von Valkenriter. She was a guest staying in Kandoria as Jonathan's partner.
But to Erika, she was someone she met for the first time as the heir to the alchemy house Argentis—perhaps an equal, or even superior, and one of the few with whom she could exchange ideas.
Yet such a person eyed this inefficiency with curiosity and tossed out the question bluntly.
Erika tried to hide her fluster, lowering her head slightly to conceal her flushing cheeks.
"I-It'S not just a consumable! This is... for someone, it's absolutely necessary...!"
Her voice trailed off smaller and smaller. Because Jonathan's face came to mind with the word "someone."
Iris's violet eyes didn't miss that subtle emotional shift. She pierced the core with her usual blunt tone.
"Someone?"
"Pardon?"
"The target worth investing this level of precise magical processing in personally. Lady Argentis, alchemy is a discipline of allocation, not emotion. The time and mana stone pigment for one of these could make six standard coolers."
Iris's critique was flawless. Perfectly logical.
Erika couldn't find a rebuttal and finally confessed in a small voice.
"...It's for Jonathan."
She looked down at the tiny silver button on the workbench.
"He's always like that. Even as a noble, he heads to the front lines first. Whether it's the chicken coops at Scarlett Pasture or this workshop, he's always wearing a gambeson or pourpoint, sweating just like the laborers. Every time I see it, I want to make things a little easier for him..."
Erika's voice carried sincere worry, laced with unmistakable affection.
Gauging Iris's reaction, as if unsure what to say, Erika murmured, "W-Well, then I'll get back to it!" and returned to her spot.
Unable to meet Iris's gaze, she picked up the graver again and immersed herself in engraving the magic circle, sweeping back her golden hair as if to hide her reddened earlobes.
Iris said nothing.
She simply quietly observed Erika's back as she dove back into her work, and the faint glow of mana rising from her delicate fingertips.