My Heart Naturally Started Racing
“Uwaaa...”
“We’re climbing that...?”
The Boss, the dwarves, and I all looked up overhead with exhausted expressions.
I’d been wondering how we were supposed to climb the sheer cliff. Turns out there was a staircase. There really was. But honestly, climbing this thing looked terrifying.
“Well, it was built fifty years ago, after all.”
Allen-san said.
The wooden staircase was in terrible shape. There were holes everywhere from decay, and in some places the footholds were missing entirely.
“Boss, you think this thing can handle dwarf weight?”
“Just look at it. No chance.”
Ahh. He said it outright. Well, to be fair, I thought so too.
“Kid, can’t you make a new one or something?”
“Ummm. Maybe I can use that rock over there. Before that, though, could you tear down this crumbling staircase? I think we can still reuse some of the materials.”
“Yep. Leave it to me.”
So the staircase was dismantled. I placed both hands on a nearby boulder and activated alchemy magic.
Reshaping… I imagined the form… then projected that image onto the spot where the staircase had been.
Zugo! With a heavy rumble, a stone staircase burst out of the ground.
“That’s only five steps.”
“I-I know, okay?”
I’d used a fairly large rock, and it still only made five steps, huh...
Should I just reshape the cliff itself?
I placed both hands against the cliff and focused my image.
The cliff face sank inward in the shape of the magic circle, and the lower portion became steps. Even so, I only managed about eight steps. So it depended on the size of the magic circle.
Well, it was more than before, so good enough.
“So you used the wood from earlier for handrails.”
“Y-Yeah. It’s safer than having nothing.”
“What’s wrong? You look more tired than expected.”
I really was a little tired. Maybe because it was the largest thing I’d ever reshaped. Also, when I used alchemy magic with both hands, the completion time decreased, but the mana consumption doubled. That had drained a huge chunk of mana.
I felt like the image reproduction was more accurate with both hands too, but there were still a lot of issues to work out.
I’d been practicing alchemy magic since I was a baby, and yet I still didn’t have enough mana… did I actually have low mana reserves?
“Come on, let’s climb, nya~”
… Why?
“Umm, why are you here, Caro?”
“I tried desperately to stop her, but she threw a tantrum and refused to listen.”
“Orman-san is clearly having a hard time here.”
“That’s Orman’s job, nya~ Come on, let’s go already!”
Caro grabbed my hand and pulled me up the newly completed cliff staircase. Ah, yeah. It was definitely sturdy.
Climb eight steps, then reshape more. Repeat.
And that was how Caro and Orman-san ended up accompanying us.
Well, even if news came from the Royal Capital, it would take at least four days. Three days to the waterfall, six days round trip. Maybe the timing was perfect.
---
“Monster, nya! Leave it to me!”
Monsters appeared every now and then during the journey.
Each time, Caro would dash forward and deal with them in no time at all.
“Caro, you’re thirteen, right?”
“That’s right, nya?”
“How are you so strong?”
“Wahnya!? O-Oh, stop it you~ Don’t call me strong, cool, and cute.”
I hadn’t said the last two parts at all.
Taking breaks along the way, we continued deeper into the mountain paths.
Up hills, down hills, then up again.
Before sunset, we prepared camp and spent the night outdoors. Then we resumed our journey the following morning.
Around midday on the second day, the scenery gradually began to change.
“Trees! There are trees growing here!”
“You’re right, nya. They’re different from the trees around the oasis, nya~”
“Ha, ha. Well, we’re in the mountains. Trees growing here oughta be normal, but somehow it feels like it’s been a while since I’ve seen any.”
Not feels like it. It actually had been a while.
There still weren’t any around here, but far to the west, dense forests were visible even from a distance.
Which meant the soil over there contained plenty of moisture. Yet there was no water on this side.
We continued walking.
Then, during the afternoon of the following day… we arrived at the waterfall Allen-san had mentioned, in an area where trees grew sparsely.
“This is the waterfall, nya?”
“... Umm.”
“That’s impossible. When I saw it ten years ago, there was much more water than this! And the river...”
A river!?
True, water was falling from above, so technically you could call it a waterfall.
But the volume was tiny. About the same as water flowing from a faucet.
And where the water landed, the ground was covered in rocks and boulders.
The water struck the rocks and… huh? Where was it flowing to?
“Looks like there’s been a collapse both above and below.”
“Boss. What do you mean, above and below...? Wait, the waterfall basin?”
“Yeah. Look at this. Water used to flow through here, I’m sure of it. Right, Mister Allen?”
Allen-san nodded.
Apparently it had never been a large river, but when he came here ten years ago, there had definitely been a stream flowing toward the village.
“That river stretched as far as the rocky hill near where we camped last night, and from there it flowed underground.”
“So that became groundwater and made its way to the village.”
“But there’s no river anywhere, nya. Then where’s the water in the village well coming from, nya?”
That water was almost certainly coming from this waterfall.
If it wasn’t flowing across the surface...
“It must be flowing underneath.”
“Probably. The amount’s small, sure, but it runs all day long. There’s no way it’s all hitting rocks and evaporating.”
“Then let’s see what’s going on underneath.”
“Yep.”
The dwarves lowered the equipment they’d been carrying.
“What are those old men doing, nya?”
Old men? Oh, the dwarves.
“I see. The desert people don’t know about dwarves either.”
“Dwarves? Never heard of them, nya~”
“My lady, you studied this before, did you not? Dwarves are earth spirits, skilled craftsmen, and warriors.”
“T-That’s right, nya. I just forgot for a little bit!”
Not a little bit. You completely forgot.
“I’m going to have the dwarves use that thing I developed through alchemy to dig a hole.”
“That thing?”
Each dwarf had carried one piece of equipment.
The parts had been disassembled to make transport easier. Once assembled here…
“The manual drill is complete!”
It felt like I could practically hear a dramatic JAKIIIN! sound effect. And my heart naturally started racing.
What do you think about this chapter?
