172. A Minor Problem
172. A Minor Problem
The subspace pouch wasn't broken.
That was only natural. This subspace pouch was something Arisa had left behind. I don't know the first thing about magic, so I can't say how it was made, but I do know that I can feel Luna's Holy Power in it.
So unless a Legion Commander-class Demon tore it apart with their bare hands, it wasn't going to break.
But the Artifacts? Every last one of them was broken.
"...Hm."
No way... Is it because of my Mana?
I'd already confirmed that the bracelet the Academy handed out kept breaking. It didn't break from simple punches. I tried slamming it against the floor, and it didn't get a single scratch that way either.
But the moment I wrapped Mana around my body, I confirmed that the bracelet broke.
So what about the bracelet now? For the moment... it wasn't broken. The Flame Emperor had put her heart and soul into placing a protection on it, but I still couldn't relax.
Well... I couldn't exactly claim I was stronger than the Flame Emperor, but the nature of my Mana felt like it smashed everything regardless of strength or weakness.
...If the bracelet suddenly broke, I figured the Academy would take some kind of measure.
And it might not be because of my Mana.
The shopkeeper might have scammed me.
Of course, the possibility of a scam was slim.
Even by my own estimation, I'm a goose that lays golden eggs.
The merchant didn't look stupid enough to cut open the belly of a goose like that.
Then why did they break?
What about Stella's? Did hers break?
If by some chance hers hadn't broken, then the conclusion would be that it was because of my Mana. But that felt unfair too.
I do have some awareness of it, so I didn't use Mana when handling the Artifacts.
They broke from Mana leaking out without me knowing?
Isn't that something worth feeling wronged about?
On the other hand, if hers had broken too? If the merchant had scammed us?
I'd go back and rip out that wicked tongue that so diligently spouted bullshit, and the fingers that crafted such dogshit goods.
But what if it was neither my Mana nor the merchant's scam?
There could be magic spread around this mountain that neutralizes Artifacts.
Four hundred years ago, that was a common spell.
It was an era when there were many people with physical impairments who couldn't fight without Artifacts. So those with mobility issues wore Artifacts onto the battlefield, and there was a magic barrier devised by Black Wizards to interfere with that.
Something like that could be spread around this mountain. You can't see it with the naked eye. That's because it isn't spread across the sky, but is magic that seeps into the Mana Veins flowing through the earth.
Well... finding the reason can wait until later.
What matters right now isn't the reason.
What matters is that the Artifacts broke and caused a problem.
The refrigeration Artifact. The food will spoil.
The cooling Artifact. It'll get hot and humid.
The deodorizer I bought out of consideration for the kids, the sound-absorbing device that eats noise, the instant shovel—all broken.
The burner that can start a fire, the canteen that turns even muddy water into drinking water, the dishware that needs no washing.
The mattress that folds down to the size of a fist, the tent that automatically repels bugs.
And so on... all broken.
Of course, I don't care.
If there's no refrigeration, I can just hunt game every day and get meat. The heat? I can endure it. The bathroom is no problem for me either. I can start a fire, and that means I can boil water and drink it.
What do you need dishware for? Break off two branches, strip the bark clean off, and those are chopsticks and a fork.
And even though the magical functions were broken, they still worked perfectly fine as dishware.
Sleeping was the same. Even on the hard, damp floor of a cave, if I wrapped myself in Mana and slept, it wasn't all that uncomfortable. Bug repellent? If one crawls into my mouth while I'm sleeping, that's just a protein supplement. Fine by me.
But the kids can't do things the way I do.
Just look at their faces. Even Eurasia was on the verge of tears.
"Gailan, can you use cooling magic?"
"I... can, but I can't maintain it for long."
"What about freezing all of this?"
"When it thaws... there's no guarantee the food won't burn. No... I'd definitely end up burning it..."
"Pina, what about you?"
Shake shake-
[I'm the same as Gailan... (crying squirrel)]
"Then we'll have to eat it right now."
Smacking my lips in regret, I pulled out the now-lukewarm ingredients.
It was a shame, but what could I do?
It had already happened.
"Still, I packed enough rations for a week, so it'll be fine. If we run short or can't stomach it, we'll just catch some mountain game and eat that."
"Good heavens, mountain game..."
"I'll be the one to catch it!"
"D-don't you have to properly butcher something like that to eat it...?"
"You kill it, drain the blood, skin it, take out the guts, wash it clean, and eat it. I know how. If you look carefully between the trees, there are squir... hm."
I cut myself off and looked at Pina.
With a beaming smile, Pina tilted her head.
If she's a squirrel Beastkin... is she, like, a little... related to squirrels? If I ate squirrel meat, would that be cannibalism, or something...? I didn't know, but for now... I figured I shouldn't eat squirrel in front of Pina.
"Anyway, let's eat like kings tonight."
I took out all the ingredients.
There were way, way too many. It couldn't be helped.
I'd packed enough for at least three people to stuff their faces twice a day for fifteen days.
I let out a sigh and picked out only the highest-quality ingredients among them.
"Eurasia and Silina, you two go out and bring back dry firewood, leaves, whatever... anything that looks like it'll catch fire. Pina and Gailan, you two grab knives and prep the ingredients here, and when those two bring back the firewood, start the fire. One of you use wind to push the smoke back."
Maybe it was the thought of getting to eat something delicious right now, but the kids started moving briskly.
*****
"Um... this is all the firewood that isn't soaked, at least. Should we go look for more?"
Three hours since we'd entered the cave and unpacked.
It was raining.
Not just a moderate rain—it was pouring as if the sky had gone insane.
It wasn't natural rain. I could feel Mana in the rainwater. Several high-level Wizards had gathered and created a rain cloud that could cover this whole area.
That was why the rainwater was clear.
So clear you could drink it straight from a bucket. Had they dumped rain from the very first day so people could use it as drinking water? There must have been a lot of kids struggling over water.
For now, we'd put our canteens outside too. We had plenty of drinking water, but having more couldn't hurt.
"Nah. That much is enough. If we run short on firewood, I can just wring out Pina or Gailan."
"Eep...?"
"I-I'll do everything I can."
Gailan, who'd answered with an expression that said she'd wring out her own Dantian, immediately stood up from her spot.
I sat Gailan back down.
"Don't waste Mana for nothing. Just dry the kids' clothes or something. I'll start the fire."
"Fire...? You can start a fire?"
"Of course. I'm good at everything."
In my Past Life, Paulo and I were street beggars.
The moment we figured out the orphanage director's plan to sell us off as materials for black magic, we beat the director to death. Then we ran away together with all the kids from the orphanage.
During that escape, some kids were kidnapped, some got lucky and went to other adults' homes, and some had no luck at all and died.
But Paulo and I didn't belong anywhere. We shook off the hands of adults and wandered the streets.
In the summer on the streets, you can survive if you take your clothes off.
In the winter on the streets, you can't survive. You have to start a fire.
But we didn't even have money to eat that day, so we had no money to buy a fire-starting stone or matches.
So I learned how to start a fire.
Of course, once I got a little older, met Aunt Diana while pickpocketing, and eventually went to the Demon World and was called a Hero, I never had occasion to use the skills I'd picked up from street life. But I still remember that cold. I can't forget it.
Grinning, I grabbed the firewood Eurasia and Silina had gathered and stood up.
"Wouldn't magic be easier...?"
"Kids these days just live drowning in magic-worship. Hey, Gailan, Pina. Watch and learn. This is all experience. Experience."
*****
"Ah, shit. Hey, Pina, try lighting this."
"Eep...?"
"I-I'll do it! I still have Mana to spare...!"
"...Didn't you say you were good at everything?"
"Ahaha... the firewood must be a little... not dry enough."
"...Normally, this, like, exactly, uh? You rub it like this and the fire should just catch. Tch, it's just... it's been a while, so it's not working... hss..."
Two hours passed and the fire wouldn't light...
Was it because my hands were small? Because I was weak?
I don't... know. Was it because I wasn't as desperate as back then?
I was sure that, like this... if I did it right, the fire used to catch...
"D-done."
Whoosh- The thing that had stayed quiet through two hours of flailing caught fire in less than ten seconds.
It blazed up nicely without even needing to build the fire up.
I wiggled my sore hands for no reason.
This was... the firewood wasn't dry enough, and my body had changed... my body was pointlessly soft and frail, so I failed.
"Oh, my lady must have almost gotten the fire going, so it caught right away!"
Eurasia smiled brightly as she comforted me and applied ointment to my palms.
That made me even more miserable...
"L-let's just eat..."
I trudged to my feet and walked over to the prepped ingredients.
Cooking... I'm confident in my cooking.
Four hundred years ago, among the five of us, I was the second-best cook after Luna.
"Cooking... should I do it?"
[I can cook well too!]
"My lady, I'll help a little."
"I can at least handle a knife."
Everyone was looking at me with anxious faces.
"All of you, shove off. I'm doing it."
"There's plenty of ingredients right now, so it wouldn't matter, but still, don't be pointlessly stubborn, Eliarnes."
"It's not stubbornness, this is... anyway, I'm doing it. All of you sit down and just watch."
Watching me walk ahead, Silina giggled.
"You get stubborn over the weirdest things. Seeing you like this, it really hits me that you're the same age as me, and it's funny."
"...Ha."
If you add up my Past Life age, I'm over fifty.
And she says same age? Saaame age?
Ridiculous.
If I ever end up with the same mentality as these kids, that means I've gone senile.