Chapter 38
Lerazie, who had been murmuring to himself, suddenly stopped speaking mid-sentence and swiftly jumped into the well.
“Hey, that’s dangerous…!”
Startled, Calliope shouted, but by then Lerazie had already landed lightly on the bottom of the well.
His movements were so agile that even though he jumped into the middle of the well, not a single drop of water splashed.
“Did you see that? My landing skills. Even though the ground was uneven, I landed perfectly without shaking.”
What he said afterward was quite ridiculous.
Calliope grabbed her own hair with both hands and yelled.
“Even if it’s not poison, how do you know what kind of water that is! How can you just suddenly jump in like that?”
Then quickly, she drew magical circles in the air with both hands.
Two identical magic circles formed, each tracing along her index fingers.
“Here, take this, you reckless fool.”
Before Calliope could finish speaking, the magic circles shot across the air and struck Lerazie’s knees hard.
“Gah…!”
Because the attack was so sudden, Lerazie couldn’t react. His knees buckled, and his body tilted forward.
Soft—
“Uh…?”
Expecting a harsh encounter with the bottom of the well along with a cold splash, Lerazie’s eyes widened at the soft feeling touching his cheek.
“What the…?”
Only then did he realize that his body was lying floating on a white cloud.
“You have to know how to use civilization properly. Honestly, ignorance is hopeless.”
When Lerazie turned his head, he saw Calliope’s face looking at him as if she was disgusted.
She was already perched on another cloud, crossing her legs comfortably.
“It’s not civilization just because only wizards can use it, you know?”
Lerazie stood up again and jumped off the cloud. This time, he didn’t fall into the water.
Seeing Lerazie floating as if walking on water, Calliope narrowed her eyes.
“You floated yourself by manipulating mana? Then why did you soak your perfectly good boots in the water from the start?”
“It’s okay since they’re boots.”
Lerazie proudly lifted his black boots, which reached up to his knees.
“Alright, then let’s do a proper search. I’ll check that side; you take this side.”
Then he strode off in the opposite direction.
Calliope shook her head and slowly scanned the bottom of the well.
“I can’t tell just by looking like this.”
The well water was very clear. It was hard to imagine it being polluted.
‘But people got sick after drinking this…’
Calliope looked into the clean water again.
But the well bottom was just covered with pebbles.
‘If the well is this big, the gravel layer must be pretty deep… Wait. What did Lerazie say earlier?’
Calliope recalled what Lerazie had said after drinking the well water.
‘On the contrary, I feel my body getting energized.’
Pop! A thought suddenly flashed through her mind like lightning.
“No way…!”
Guessing what she needed to find, Calliope began moving her hands again.
Purple sparkles flowed from her fingers and began drawing a large magic circle above her head like embroidery.
Seeing this, Lerazie approached her and asked,
“Calliope Verdi, what are you doing?”
“Casting a detection spell.”
“What are you trying to detect…?”
At that moment,
The newly completed magic circle suddenly descended with a whoosh and touched the bottom of the well. Purple light spread out.
Calliope watched as her magic covered the entire well bottom.
Lerazie quietly stared at her.
Calliope’s white face was brightly illuminated by the light coming from below, her red hair fluttering, eyes intensely serious.
Watching that, Lerazie felt a strange dryness in his throat.
‘Damn. Should I drink the well water after all?’
Just as Lerazie thought this, the light that had covered the entire well suddenly went out.
Then, small lights started to appear here and there on the bottom, like tiny lamps turning on.
“Oh.”
Calliope gave a small exclamation.
“I had a feeling, and it’s true.”
Calliope flicked her finger.
One of the stones that had been glowing among the gravel shot up and dropped onto her palm.
Lerazie’s eyes widened when he saw the tiny stone, about the size of a pinky nail.
“…Magic stone?”
“Correct.”
Calliope began plucking the magic stones hidden among the gravel as easily as gathering shells on a mudflat.
A small pile of magic stones began forming beside the cloud Calliope was sitting on.
Most were small, but occasionally, there were ones as big as pebbles.
“You said earlier that after drinking the water, you felt strangely energized, right?”
Lerazie, quick to catch on, immediately found the answer.
“Because you drank water exposed to the magic stones?”
“Exactly. The energy from the magic stones seeps into the water.”
Even if someone wasn’t a wizard or a sword master, everyone had some mana. Most just couldn’t feel it.
“When there was a lot of well water, the magic stone energy would have been diluted, so it wouldn’t have been a problem…”
Lerazie immediately understood what she was implying.
“But as the water decreased, you drank water steeped in magic stones, so your internal mana got disturbed. That’s why you fell ill.”
“Right. Mana must have been spinning like going around an elephant’s trunk a hundred times.”
That might be beneficial for a sword master or a powerful wizard, but for ordinary people with low internal mana, the side effects would be serious.
“Just hearing that makes me want to throw up.”
Lerazie shook his head in disgust.
Meanwhile, after the magic stone mining was done, the glowing at the bottom of the well all went out and it became quiet again.
Calliope pulled out two pouches from her pocket dimension, scooped up the magic stones, and tossed one to Lerazie.
“This is your share.”
“If it comes out like this… I’ll gladly take good care of it.”
Lerazie chuckled and stuffed the pouch of magic stones into his coat.
“We now know why people fell ill after drinking the water. But why did the well water decrease?”
“Magic stones absorb water.”
“…?”
Lerazie looked at Calliope as if she were talking nonsense.
“…Are you kidding?”
“Just joking.”
“….”
“….”
Lerazie cursed silently with his eyes, and feeling embarrassed, Calliope changed the subject.
“The fact that the inflow of water into the well decreased probably means something’s wrong with the underground water layer.”
She stopped talking and looked at Lerazie.
“But doesn’t it seem weird? Why were magic stones stuck between the gravel at the bottom of the well in the first place?”
“Maybe they didn’t find them when they first dug the well?”
“No way. Remember you said the bottom was uneven?”
Lerazie’s gaze turned to the well bottom.
After narrowing his brows for a moment, he sighed sharply.
“Someone dug it up on purpose. The well bottom.”
Calliope nodded.
“Right. And deeper than the original bottom, all the way to where the magic stones were buried.”
Her purple eyes glinted fiercely.
“The problem starts now. How did the culprit know that magic stones were buried here?”
Magic stones were very expensive goods. The reason was simple: they were hard to find.
Magic stones had been found all over the continent, including the empire, but unlike other resources, there was no common feature among the places they were mined.
Some magic stones were found by the sea, others on mountain slopes.
“Even the grandfather, the lord of the Verdi territory, didn’t know this information.”
Calliope’s eyes cooled sharply.
