Chapter 62
“Then let’s walk a little closer together. It’ll be more comfortable for me too. By the way, I’m glad Teferi joined us.”
“Why?”
I smiled faintly at Teferi, who was glancing at me with just her eyes.
“Walking alone would be boring, but if I stick with you, Teferi, it’ll be more enjoyable.”
“Are you saying I’m a toy?”
“Of course not. Would I really think of you that way? And being with you also means I don’t have to hear people worrying about me being in danger anymore, which is nice.”
“So you usually get a lot of concern from others?”
“Lately, yes.”
I let out a sigh automatically, leaning my head against the side of the carriage and lowering my eyes.
“I try to handle the tasks that are piled up in front of me, but people around me often tell me to rest a bit or worry about my health. Take this situation, for example. People around me said I should ignore those trying to illegally seize my mine because they’re just being bothersome, but I can’t just do that. The mine might actually be unstable, and people’s lives are at stake.”
“So you can’t trust something unless you see it for yourself.”
A bit like that? Well, I used to be like that. Even if others said something, I wouldn’t believe it until I saw it myself. That’s why I never got excited about ghosts or aliens. Even when we had group assignments at school, I’d read the materials multiple times before combining them.
I think I’ve always been a bit of a tiring personality, but if I don’t do something myself, I get anxious and can’t focus. When I entered this body and was faced with tasks far beyond schoolwork, it felt like hell.
Even while grumbling about why I had to do it, my body moved on its own. And over time, I ended up going to inspect the mine myself. Even though I’m within the five-year safety period, I’m acting on someone else’s words. Am I gullible or just stupid?
“That’s true. Sounds foolish, doesn’t it? I could just trust it…”
I muttered quietly and looked out the window. If only I could change my personality.
I wanted to live more comfortably. But… I’ve lived like this my whole life, can it change in an instant? I smiled bitterly. At that moment, Teferi spoke calmly.
“Did you know I was the tutor of Crown Prince Vertasilin?”
“Really?”
That was the first I’d heard of it. Since it was part of both of our pasts, my ears perked up. The gloom I felt a moment ago vanished, replaced by focus on their story. Teferi leaned her whole body against mine, tilting her head back lazily.
“I didn’t teach him management, economics, or royal studies. I only did some basic personality training. Back when he was a prince, before becoming crown prince.”
“‘That guy’…?”
“Yes, that guy…”
“I taught him many things, but do you know what I emphasized most to Vertasilin?”
Teferi smiled, raising her chin.
“I told him to distrust. Even if he saw, heard, touched, or experienced something, I told him not to take everything at face value. The places he was going often had disasters born from mere trust. So I taught him distrust first, then to place everything on the palm of his hand. That way, he could control it.”
“Did young Vertasilin follow that well?”
“Of course not. People say Vertasilin was intelligent, but I thought he was stubborn and as slow as a hippo.”
It wasn’t exactly a term fit for a crown prince, but the image of him as a hippo made me laugh. Teferi couldn’t stop talking.
“He’d argue when taught, insisting he knew the truth. Typical childish stubbornness, but worse. Sometimes it felt like talking to a wall. Still, he practiced what mattered.”
“For example?”
“Not leaving his work for others. I always told him that if you delay your work onto others, it eventually comes back to you. So don’t postpone. He’s diligent. You know that.”
I wasn’t sure exactly. We hadn’t spent that much time together. But when he met me, he didn’t seem pressed for work. He focused on me, never discussing business. So in that sense, he seemed diligent.
No, if he weren’t diligent, he couldn’t have survived as crown prince among such capable siblings.
I nodded, and Teferi paused, speaking leisurely.
“Your obsession isn’t negative. At least from what I see, people with such obsession rarely fail. So don’t make that face.”
“Teferi…”
Her face seemed different. I had always thought of her as a girl with cute cheeks, but now she radiated the weight of experience. When I looked at her with moved eyes, she smirked.
“That expression is ugly.”
“….”
I grabbed her cheeks and stretched them sideways.
After two days of smooth travel, we reached the Bekintor territory where Mount Bekinto is located and quickly set up a campsite. Normally, in such situations, we’d rely on the lord of the land or local merchants for lodging, but this time was different.
We weren’t staying long and didn’t want to alert people by doing another geological survey. Everything had to be handled quietly and disappear without a trace.
We set up more than twenty tents in a row and spent the night. The next day, stretching our stiff bodies, we gathered people to inspect the mines in Bekintor.
Teferi sat in a chair, yawning sleepily, but Rosalyn and Rodelia looked fine. They showed some fatigue from the long journey, but because we rested well yesterday, they didn’t look unwell.
We unrolled the pre-prepared mine schematics across the table. Rodelia spread out her geological survey chart next to it and spoke.
“This area has the upper Bekinto mountains, so the strata seem thick, but actually, that’s not entirely the case. The wide lake behind, fed by Golberin, created this area with alluvial soil. Alluvial soil is unsuitable for mine construction because if cracks form, water from the lake could flood the mine.”
I defended our team.
“You can see this on the schematics. We’ve reinforced it to prevent collapse. Unless there’s an earthquake that splits the ground, it should hold.”
Rodelia rolled her eyes to the section I indicated and nodded.
“The mountains provide some stability, but I probably wouldn’t continue mining this far if it were me.”
“Would that be a problem?”
“No. As you said, the cracks are secured. The supports are well-designed, so structurally it’s solid.”
“Then…?”
Rodelia narrowed her eyes at the schematics, then met my gaze.
“To confirm why Jaksetorin Akse made his judgment, we’ll need to go inside.”
I nodded lightly and looked at Rosalyn. She had been thinking quietly while listening to us and tilted her eyes to ask:
“How much physical shock can the mine withstand?”
“As I said before, unless the ground splits from an earthquake, it should hold.”
“No, I mean…”
She tapped a spot on the map.
“What if a bomb exploded here?”
“A bomb?”
I followed her finger to the center.
“If it explodes here, wouldn’t the mine collapse?”
“Most likely, yes.”
“Why, Rosalyn? Does it look like a problem?”
“Hmm… it’s my first time entering a mine, so I can’t give a detailed answer. But I think the problem is that there’s only one entrance.”
She meant the emergency exit?
“If there’s an exit here…”
“If the mine collapses from a bomb, all six paths to the exit will be blocked. Isn’t that dangerous?”
Her hand traced the schematics, pointing to six paths. Indeed, all routes to the emergency exit would be blocked. But who in their right mind would go to the center of a mine to set off a bomb? Insane.
“What should we do then?”
“We should make another emergency exit later. The current one is practically useless.”
“Noted. Professor Rosalyn, anything else?”
“No. I think we need to enter and check ourselves.”
“Understood. Then we’ll have Professor Rodelia go first, and I’ll go in with her to check…”
“Ludia, you’re going into the mine?”
Her voice cut in while I was speaking. I turned to see Teferi yawning widely, looking at me with a stretched-out face.
“You’re going in there?”
“…Yes.”
Her tone was blunt, but her expression said ‘obviously’.
“You promised others you wouldn’t go into dangerous places and not to worry, but now you’re entering the mine? The people who heard that promise would freak out.”
“That’s…”
That was a well-intentioned lie. What else could I do? Tell my mom, “Don’t worry, I’ll go inspect the mine myself”? She’d probably freak out.
“I had no choice. And if I don’t go with Professor Rodelia, what then? Are you seriously thinking I’d force her into danger?”
“No, that’s not it. I’m asking about you, don’t deflect.”
Teferi, who often shows a slightly disheveled side, now looked firm. She gazed at me from her small frame. Her eyes weren’t sharp, but they felt heavy. She bit her lip.
“Do you ignore all promises just because you say you had no choice? Humans may act like masters of lies, but breaking promises to family and those most precious… that’s surprising.”
“Nothing will happen. We’ll just go and come back.”
“Just go? What if something happens there? If the mine collapses, instant death. If lucky, survival, but otherwise, slow death in darkness, hunger, and suffocation. Can you handle all that?”
“Teferi!”
I turned fully toward her, frowning. Even as my voice rose, she remained calm.
“You’re exaggerating. Don’t overstate things.”
“Exaggerate…”
