Never Mind the Heir, I’ll Focus on Healing — Chapter 264
Petrick answered calmly.
“Yes. The Saintess’s power doesn’t seem to have dispersed in this area; it’s far more solid than elsewhere. How did you know?”
In truth, he was quite surprised.
Without a certain amount of knowledge about contamination and practical experience, it wasn’t something one could easily grasp.
Of course, the surrounding area was already heavily contaminated by Demonic Energy.
It was only because the Great Barrier perfectly separated it that the contamination didn’t spread further.
Yet his grandson, even though this was his first time at the Great Barrier, had immediately realized that fact.
‘Did the dragon tell him?’
The possibility existed, but it was slim.
Even for a dragon, being in a soul state seemed to impose quite a few restrictions.
Petrick recalled the aura of Tiamatrak, who had briefly taken over his grandson’s body not long ago.
It had been completely devoid of tension—loose and relaxed.
As for her manner of speaking, to Petrick, who had lived his entire life as a noble, it had even bordered on flippant.
‘Still, that aura couldn’t be ignored.’
It was a presence so powerful that even Petrick or Elvia couldn’t let their guard down.
Of course, the fact that it was inside his grandson’s body made it even more so…
In any case.
‘And yet, that one couldn’t even detect a fragment of my energy.’
Then, this contamination must be something Lion detected himself—but how on earth did he confirm it?
Just as he was thinking that.
“Ah, because of the soil.”
“The soil?”
Lion bent over, dug into the barren ground, and scooped out some soil.
The handful of black dirt was dry and crumbly.
“It’s drier than the soil in the previous area.”
“…”
It didn’t make sense based on his own common sense.
Besides, if he’d figured out the situation just from the ecosystem…
‘If anything, the earlier areas were better.’
Toxic weeds, at least, were growing.
In any form, there had been some lingering vitality.
But not here.
It was a wasteland. Nothing could be seen.
Not even toxic weeds.
Petrick didn’t argue; he waited for Lion’s explanation.
“When was the last time it rained in the Great Barrier region?”
“…Ah. I see.”
No matter how thick the clouds gathered or how heavy the fog settled, no rain fell on the Great Barrier region.
It must be due to the area’s peculiarity.
Even so, the ground near the Great Barrier was damp, even soggy, beyond measure.
In some parts, your feet sank in as if into a swamp.
It had simply been judged that the contamination was severe and the concentration of Demonic Energy high.
That was how he, a mage, had perceived it, and the priests had said the same.
But his grandson seemed to have reached a different conclusion.
And there was obviously a reason he’d brought it up.
“It seems you’ve figured something out.”
“The fact that this particular ground is so dry bothers me. I think it might also explain why the Former Archbishop’s energy is being maintained so well.”
“You mean that it isn’t that the Saintess’s divine power is well maintained, so the contamination hasn’t spread as much, but rather that some mechanism is even preserving the Saintess’s divine power well?”
It wasn’t that such a hypothesis hadn’t been proposed in the past fifty years.
The Great Barrier was one of the very few collaborative projects between the Temple and the mages.
Setting aside their mutual dislike, making the Great Barrier stronger and maintaining it longer was akin to their shared mission.
But…
‘Every investigation failed.’
Even the last large-scale investigation ten years ago had failed to discover anything.
How many mages and priests had been mobilized back then?
Petrick gazed at the dry ground of the Great Barrier, a place he’d seen countless times, with eyes full of mixed emotions.
‘There’s nothing.’
Even when they dug, all that came up was dust-like soil, and neither the occasional structures nor the rocks yielded any clues.
Unless one concluded that Lion possessed some special power, it was impossible to understand why the Hero had stopped by this place.
‘Maybe I’m reading too much into the significance.’
All sorts of thoughts ran through his head.
But when one of those many hypotheses came out of his grandson’s mouth, he felt something reignite in his resigned heart.
“So, what should I do?”
Perhaps because of that small spark, Petrick asked with a bit more enthusiasm than usual.
It was such a subtle change that no one else would have noticed.
‘Oh.’
Fortunately, Lion, who was adept at reading his grandfather’s expressions, noticed the change.
‘Well, how frustrated must Grandfather have been.’
Grandfather considered the Hero a friend.
And though perhaps not to the same degree, he likely felt similarly toward his other comrades.
‘He must have resented this land.’
To be precise, he must have hated himself—for possessing the incredible power of an 8th Circle and yet being unable to grasp even the death or whereabouts of his friend.
‘If he’d been alone, he probably could have let it go.’
But Grandfather always had responsibilities. The family and the empire.
His wife, his daughter.
And his grandchildren.
Even the mages who looked only to him.
The duties he himself had to bear must have prevented him from pouring everything into searching for the Hero.
And…
‘Even though he’s that strong, Grandfather was never a troublemaker.’
He was sharp, but wasn’t he the kind of straightforward person who couldn’t look away?
But I’m different.
Lion grinned and continued his explanation.
“It’s not certain, but there are plenty of good medicinal herb roots like that.”
Lion dusted off the soil that scattered like desert sand and stood up.
“The kind that absorbs and accumulates all the nutrients of an entire mountain to grow. So we need to find it.”
Something that was absorbing all the energy in this land.
It was probably underground.
“Please overturn this land.”
“During the last investigation, we didn’t find so much as a trace of a plant, let alone a root.”
“Right. So we need to dig deeper.”
“…”
Would digging deeper really solve it?
Reading Petrick’s doubt, Lion simply grinned.
‘Explaining would take too long.’
Actually, he’d discovered one more thing just a moment ago.
While Tiamatrak had been busy making excuses behind Grandfather,
Lion had examined the ground with Expert’s Eye on a whim.
And he’d confirmed something: something was faintly glowing beneath this land.
‘Just like medicinal herbs.’
But the extent of it was hard to gauge.
Because the glow was emanating from the entire area of low contamination.
‘But maybe because the light is diffuse, I can’t tell for sure.’
Well, what could he do? He’d have to check one by one.
It was a lot of drudgery, but Lion probably could have verified it by himself.
With enough time, he would surely have found the anomaly.
‘Like the labyrinth.’
But unfortunately, there was no time left.
So he had no choice but to use a somewhat extreme method.
“After that, I’ll handle it myself.”
“…Huh.”
He’d been thinking that his grandson’s capacity for creating trouble was enormous, but this was ridiculous.
Using earthquake magic to overturn the earth was difficult enough, but doing it without disturbing the Great Barrier’s magic was on a whole different level of difficulty.
And he’d have to restore the ground to its original state afterward too.
‘Ordinarily, it would be impossible.’
But if the one doing it was Petrick—
if it was an 8th-Circle Archmage—that was a different story.
And clearly, his troublesome grandson knew that.
“You’re using me quite thoroughly.”
“Hahaha… You will help me, right?”
“You do realize that if I fail partway through, it’ll spell big trouble for you?”
“Fail… partway through?”
Grandfather? Fail?
Faced with that look of utter disbelief, Petrick simply shut his mouth.
“Hoo. Fine. Come with me.”
Petrick stepped in front of Lion and gauged the scale.
An area this size couldn’t be dealt with through simple calculations.
Even for Petrick, it would require a fair bit of effort.
“It looks like it will take a little time. Until then, don’t step in front of me.”
Lion obediently stepped back.
Then, Petrick drew mana out into the air like ink and began to trace a magic circle with both hands.
Once the pair of circles was complete, his fingers immediately began drawing a second magic circle.
All four magic circles gradually expanded until they were large enough to cover the entire barren area.
‘…Incredible.’
It was enough to make him understand viscerally why his grandfather had been able to create the Great Barrier.
“From now on, the magic circles will lift the ground to a set depth. Four times in total. You must find it within that.”
With the added explanation that going further would risk touching the Great Barrier’s magic and was impossible, Lion nodded.
“I’ll do it.”
“Lion… it doesn’t matter if you don’t succeed.”
Probably, Grandfather was only half-convinced.
He had spent plenty of time examining this place himself, after all, so it was understandable.
But—
‘The more he says that…’
“The more I want to succeed, you know?”
“…You really.”
Petrick couldn’t help but laugh.
The way his grandson pretended not to but quietly burned with competitive spirit—it was exactly like the ‘Hero’ he’d once fought beside to save the world.
In fact, perhaps this very thought would prove true after the Great Barrier.
But—
“He takes after me.”
Petrick had absolutely no intention of handing his grandson over to the world.
The actions they were taking now were merely something Lion and the individual Petrick Asteri were doing out of curiosity.
“I’ll begin.”
Petrick swept his arm as if conducting, lowering one magic circle onto the ground, then lifting it up.
And then.
Rumble…
Astonishingly, the ground split into clean, rectangular blocks and rose into the air to precisely the right size and depth!
An area large enough to easily hold a whole village!
“Hm, this depth was confirmed by the investigation teams as well.”
Yet Petrick, the very one wielding the magic,
wore an indifferent expression as he placed one more magic circle on the ground and lifted it.
And then once more, so that the third layer of earth also soared up into the sky.
Even the peerless Petrick Asteri now had beads of sweat on his forehead and tension in his jaw.
Maintaining three entire magic circles without a proper staff was truly a monumental feat.
So much so that Tiamatrak, who was watching from beside them, had her pupils dilate.
Wooooom…!
In Lion’s eyes, the light began to grow clearer.
It was dazzlingly bright, but he still couldn’t see its exact location.
However.
‘I can do this.’
At the very least, the fourth magic circle would likely reveal its identity.
If not, it seemed like something Lion could uncover just by digging.
“Grandfather. Please go on to the last magic circle.”
“Hup!”
With a short grunt, Petrick finally lifted the fourth magic circle.
At that moment.
BOOOOOOOM…
A massive roar, unlike before, resounded.
From the ground, and from the sky.
Thunder rolled.
‘This is strange.’
It was an investigation that had lasted a full fifty years.
Even in the large-scale investigation ten years ago, they hadn’t dug up the entire ground like this, but some parts had reached this depth.
Back then, nothing had been visible.
But now… it was different.
Something was there.
‘Why?’
Clenching his teeth to maintain the magic circles, Petrick accelerated his thoughts.
And unconsciously, he recalled something his grandson had said a moment ago.
The kind that absorbs nutrients to grow.
But this land had remained largely uncontaminated for fifty years.
That meant… where on earth was it drawing those nutrients from?
‘No.’
That wasn’t for him to confirm.
Petrick opened his Mana Circles to their maximum while holding the earth aloft, and spoke.
“Lion! Go and confirm it!”