Chapter 157
Father seemed very pleased with that story.
“Jackson, was it? If the Western Information Guild ever runs into trouble, come find me.”
“T‑That’s an honor! Then I’ll take my leave now. Haha, I have an appointment with my informants.”
“Do you dislike me?”
“N‑No, of course not—Aah!”
Honestly, Father really is something.
“Father, don’t scare the kid. Get home safe. We’ll be relying on you again, okay?”
“Thank you.”
As Jackson left, he handed over a map he had organized during this time.
At first glance, it looked like an ordinary map of a small town. On it were scattered notes like grocery store, prayer hall, place where cats gather, jujube tree struck by lightning. It looked like a child had scribbled on a neighborhood map.
But—
“A cipher?” Elber said.
“Yeah. You noticed?”
“You wouldn’t take something useless. I’ll handle the decoding.”
“Just remember the important part. Here.”
“‘Where the rotten feast is thrown away’? What kind of code is that?”
Unexpectedly, Father answered instead.
“It sounds like a back road leading to desert ruins.”
“Wow, correct! You know your stuff.”
“Not as much as Benen, but when I was young, I managed several underground groups in Flogel.”
“When you were young? What about now?”
“It became bothersome, so I wiped them out.”
“Well, once you became a duke, running underground groups would only leak information anyway.”
“You understand well. Once you’re the one in charge, it’s better to step away from such things. Now, let me ask you—what should be done next?”
“Send spies into every major underground organization! If we send more than one, we should stagger their timing so they don’t collude!”
“A good answer.”
While Father and I went back and forth, Elber asked with a tired expression,
“…Have you and Schlaeger been holding secret lessons somewhere I don’t know about?”
That sad question was resolved when I pulled Elber into a tight hug.
Thankfully, Father’s steam‑engine company had a perfectly respectable name.
Its full name was Solarium.
…Literally speaking, a space that holds sunlight.
“Sol, I’d like to thank the person who named you. Thanks to that, it led to another good name.”
“…Yes. They were truly, truly a good person.”
Even though I named myself “Sol,” the root name, Han Seyul, was given by the orphanage director.
Like a tax rate that exists steadily forever—live without crashing downward.
Yeah, it’s a little strange, but it really is a good name.
Elber and I, posing as members of the Solarium business family, wandered freely around the mining area under the excuse of inspecting steam‑engine installations.
As expected, not every worker was diligent.
In one special‑ore mine dug downward in an inverted‑pyramid shape, a worker came out wearing a strangely ill‑fitting turban—and was caught by Elber.
“Excuse me. Were you just excavating?”
“Y‑Yes! W‑Who are you? You don’t look like a mine supervisor…”
“I have nothing to do with the mine. I’ll keep it secret, so show me what you’re hiding.”
Elber didn’t bother speaking indirectly.
The worker panicked, but faced with Elber’s much larger build and sharp gaze, he froze. He slowly untied the turban and revealed what was inside.
A black opal the size of a fist.
At first glance, it looked like incredible luck.
But this wasn’t a black opal mine, and extracting something that large with ordinary equipment was nearly impossible.
Which meant someone had planted it as bait.
I sent the silver butterfly Elber had made for me fluttering toward it. When it tried to land on the opal, it shuddered and immediately returned to me.
“Just as I thought. That’s on it.”
The Silver Dragon’s energy reacting meant another dragon’s traces remained on the opal.
One of the precious stones scattered as bait by the Cardinal Dragon.
The worker, who couldn’t see the butterfly, looked helpless.
“Is something wrong? Why are you staring like that?”
“That opal—are you planning to sell it?”
“Huh? Of course! I’m leaving this place immediately! I won’t let even a high‑ranking noble stop me!”
“I know.”
For people who had come all the way to the desert just to survive, this was a life‑changing opportunity. I had no intention of stopping that.
But I did have to prevent him from returning home and spreading rumors like, ‘There’s treasure in the Biste Desert! You can get rich too!’
I waved my hand over the opal and said,
“Before selling it, pray at the temple every day for one month. And from now on, you must never speak about the Biste Desert.”
“What? W‑Why?”
“There’s a curse from those who died in the desert attached to it.”
“W‑What do you mean…?”
“It’s true.”
<Ah, this is such an obvious setup.>
“…Oh my, it’s already followed you. Right behind your right shoulder.”
“W‑What? I don’t see anything.”
A few seconds later, a small pile of rocks collapsed behind his right side. The worker flinched.
“Eek!”
“Think calmly. Does this place really look like a mine where black opals would come from?”
“…No.”
“Heed my warning. If you ever say the name ‘Biste’ again, the restless spirits that died here will follow you forever.”
“Y‑Yes! I understand!”
The worker wrapped the black opal tightly in his turban again and ran off in a hurry, as if afraid someone might chase him.
I lifted the mana‑pearl detector after a long while and looked after him. There were no traces of mana pearls.
“Looks like even the Cardinal Dragon knows mana pearls are valuable.”
“More like they’re hard for civilians to recognize, so they weren’t used as bait. Raw gemstones are more obvious.”
“Ahh! I’m really glad I came with you, oppa.”
“W‑What? That’s nothing.”
Elber looked embarrassed but a little excited, swinging our hands back and forth. Our hands were covered in sand dust from walking around all day.
Still, we gained something from it.
“You think you know where the Ancient Dragon is buried, right?”
“Yeah. If we follow the direction people would assume is a ‘vein,’ it should be deeper in there.”
We climbed a small hill and looked into the distance.
A sight unfamiliar to those of us who grew up on plains with snowy mountains and lived in cities.
Not all deserts are just sand dunes. Most of it is yellowish land like in western movies, with those round tumbleweeds rolling around. The roads are fairly wide.
But the desert near the ruins looks like a stormy sea. Every time the wind blows, waves of sand writhe and dance. Sometimes whirlpools form beneath the ground, swallowing building remnants like antlion traps.
The difference from the sea is that—you can walk on sand, at least.
“Oppa. Is that a person, or a lizard?”
“Hmm… Ah! Judging by the size, that’s Ignatz hyung!”
“So that’s big brother! Oh, now that I think it’s a person, I can tell.”
They were pilgrims.
All of them wore turbans, making it hard to tell who was who. But the person everyone’s eyes followed, the one holding everyone’s hands—that had to be Seraphina.
Or else…
“The Lord God…”
I like Seraphina. Sometimes she makes my head hurt, but that’s fine. It’s not like I’ve never stressed out the people around me.
But if that girl were nothing more than a finger puppet of the god…
Could I still like Seraphina?
Beside me, Elber asked without understanding,
“Sol, are you praying to the Lord God?”
“Ah, of course. May you be blessed.”
I bowed deeply toward the sky twice. You’re neither alive nor dead, but since you dragged a Korean here, at least have some Korean taffy.
Elber smiled warmly.
“That must be a greeting you learned at the temple.”
“Yeah.”
After greeting the god, I looked elsewhere.
The desert constantly changes its shape. Is that ahead a hill, or a mirage? Even with the mana‑pearl detector, I couldn’t clearly distinguish between the hazy sun and treasures buried deep underground.
And what I regretted, all over again, was—
“Sol, are you looking for him?”
“…You won’t believe me even if I say no, right?”
“Yeah. I can tell just by your face.”
“….”
I hadn’t checked what color mana pearl Kai carried.
A knight that strong would definitely have one. If I had checked beforehand, I could have found him faster no matter where he was…
Elber shook his head.
“Father tried tracking him several times too and failed. The Cardinal Dragon seems to scatter its energy everywhere, making it hard to pinpoint.”
“That makes sense. And since Kai was badly injured, the Cardinal Dragon’s power weakened too, making it even harder to find.”
“Ah…”
“It’s fine. It’s been so long—do you think I’d still be heartbroken over his injury?”
I smiled.
…While desperately trying to forget the image of Kai jumping down, I smiled.
Seeing that Elber didn’t smile back, my forced smile must have failed—but that’s okay.
We still have work to do.
“Now that we roughly know where the Ancient Dragon might revive, shall we move on to the next plan?”
“Right. Removing the elements that could revive the dragon.”
We succeeded in gathering the laborers who had come chasing a dream of sudden wealth but failed to find jobs. But desire only swells the more it’s fed. Even if Father paid out his entire fortune as severance, they wouldn’t quietly return home.
So we had to use an emotion other than desire.
If desire brought humans here—
Then the emotion that could send them back was fear.
Suspicious rumors began spreading among the mine workers.
“You know that rumor, right? About mages squeezing people dry in nobles’ basements.”
“Mana pearls or something? I’ve heard it in the city. Why bring it up now?”
“Don’t you think the Solarium owner is kind of suspicious?”
“Huh?”
“Leaving treasure pits right in front of him but spending money only on research—does that make sense?”
“Why not? Thanks to that, hauling goods is easier.”
“That’s too naive! That steam engine thing… What if it’s just a tool to lure people like us, with nowhere to go, and squeeze us dry?”
“…N‑No way.”
The rumors Jackson and his group spread and collected gradually converged into a single point.
“If it’s Schlaeger, wouldn’t he totally do something like that?”
