It was a full-blown hit to my conscience. When I arrived here, I didn't want to be involved with anything. Whatever happened, happened. Whatever wants to happen, happens. I didn't want to care.
I was thinking, who cares if Lucilius dies? Who cares if I can't heal or have magic? This is a fictional world and I'm probably stuck in a long coma so I don't have any obligations for anything.
But it was as Helena had said. Whoever I am, whenever any job is assigned to me, I have to do what I am supposed to do.
So today, I got out of my room and strolled to the garden for some fresh air, and planned to head to Orion afterwards to apologize properly to Lucilius and perhaps ask him if I could do anything to make up for it.
Instead of sitting at the teahouse as I usually would, I went to the other part of the garden, which I've never stepped on before. As I was walking and admiring the view and the cold breeze of the morning, I heard some faint rustles, like someone was running. I looked around, trying to pinpoint the position of the source of sound.
'...ry!' It was a male voice, unclear.
I stopped in my tracks, listening intently.
'Sir!' Another male voice replied.
'...you… shing?' I could only hear bits of it. I frowned, as if it would help me listen better.
'...mine!' the other replied, his voice became softer. '...gic stones!'
Magic stones?
'What!? Are you sure?!' this time he was shouting.
'Yes!'
'...ny… sualties?'
Casualties?
'out...ty…'
'… port this… cher…'
Archer?
'...but it's… unsure… ry again…'
'...port to me… situation persists...'
'Yes, Sir!'
Then there was the sound of running footsteps, away from me. I stood quietly, figuring out the conversation I was listening to.
Did the guy say something about mine and magic stones?
'Mine…' I muttered. 'A mine of magic stones…'
"Leonhardt turned to Sophie, a big smile across his face. The mine of magic stones he won over Sirius a few months ago when he was out hunting at the Lorcan Forest turned out to be useful. He had instructed to have the stones put all around Alshain's border albeit unsure of its true purpose in the beginning. When the beasts from the Sealed Island escaped, they weren't able to enter the country."
I remembered the novel mentioning the mine of magic stones. Leonhardt won the mine after confronting Sirius. I couldn't remember how he did it but there was definitely an arc about the mine conflict.
Then, an idea popped in my head. Wait… My lips curved a sneaky smile. If I could prevent Leonhardt from obtaining the mine, it could be Sirius'. It sounds far-fetched but I can heal myself after being stabbed; nothing is impossible anymore. Lucilius would treasure me to the moon and back!
'Okay, we need a plan!' I said out loud before rushing back to Ophiuchus.
***
[Elias]
He entered Ophiuchus through the front door where Helena led him. While he was supervising the apprentices in the tower, Helena came and said that Luna called for him and that it was "rather urgent". He thought of what it could be but he had no idea.
He entered her room hurriedly. 'Luna?' he called out.
'Ah, here Elias!' a reply came, muffled. He frowned and walked around trying to find her.
'Luna, what are you doing?' he asked in bewilderment as he saw her sprawling on the floor with a large parchment of paper and a bottle of ink. There were some thick books stacked by her side. It seemed like she was drawing a map or some sort on the paper.
She looked up at him with a grin. 'You have to help me out,' she said.
Elias didn't say anything else. He just knelt next to her and examined the map. 'Are you drawing…' he trailed off, confused.
'The Archibald Village,' said Luna. 'Right at the border of Sirius, next to the Lorcan Forest of Alshain.'
She circled at the crooked line she drew that separated Archibald Village with Lorcan Forest. 'There's a mine full of magic stones here, in between the two borders,' she said.
'What?'
'I know you don't believe me now, but we have to go solve this before Lucilius gets there.'
'No, wait, Luna,' said Elias. 'What are you talking about? Mine? How do you know this?'
'I overheard someone talking,' she replied.
'How is that reliable information?'
'You have to trust me in this,' said Luna, her tone becoming desperate. 'You won't believe it until you see it.'
Elias still had his frown, but he nodded. 'Okay, what about the mine?' he asked.
Luna smiled. 'The mine is located right below the border, between Archibald Village and Lorcan Forest. I'm not sure what really happened but the patrol borders of both sides are fighting, and there are casualties. For now, I am suspecting that Lucilius is still unaware of the mine.'
'How long has this been going on?'
She shook her head. 'I am not sure, but from what I heard, they are not going to tell Archer about this yet, so it's going to take some time until Lucilius knows.'
'What's your plan?'
***
There was nothing painful or particularly exciting about teleporting. I merely blinked once, and suddenly I wasn't in my room anymore. I looked around and saw a wooden fence, waist-height, forming a straight line in which on the other side were tall and large trees: the Lorcan Forest. On our side, we were standing on the bare ground, with only some grass sprouting here and there.
A little far from us, we could see wooden cottages and houses, and faint lights from their oil lamps hung above the entrance of each of their shelters. Lorcan Forest, on the other hand, was very dark and unwelcoming.
'Where's the mine?' Elias asked in a whisper. I further scanned the area and turned to the part where there were no houses and just the wide land that stretched beyond my view.
'They were fighting, it couldn't be too close to the villagers' houses,' I replied. 'Maybe they've set up a camp or some sort over there.'
Elias nodded and we headed opposite the residential area. It was quite a distance until we saw several tents set up far back from the fence. There were a number of people gathered, perhaps more than 20 of them.
'Hey,' Elias said out loud as we neared the group.
One of the soldiers saw us and gasped, then immediately stood straight with a salute. The rest frantically followed suit. 'Sir Elias!' He greeted him enthusiastically, then his gaze travelled to me. 'L-Lady Seraphinus, you're here too!' he stuttered. I merely nodded my head in acknowledgement, pretending to be the original Luna.
His friends stood and saluted as well. Elias nodded and they relaxed. 'Brief us,' said Elias.
'Y-yes Sir! The patrol officer from Alshain held one of the villagers hostage,' he said. 'We tried to get him back but they attacked us, claiming that the villagers trespassed their border first. We couldn't just stand back so we engaged with their officers.'
'Where did you get this information?' Elias asked.
'The brother managed to escape and ran to us. He said they accidentally stumbled into a mine underground but the patrol officer caught them.'
'When was he taken hostage?'
'Two nights ago, Sir,' said the soldier regretfully. 'We tried to solve this quickly but seeing how many of our friends had fallen, we had to report to the Palace. We sent a messenger, is that why you've come?'
'How many got injured?' I asked, dismissing the soldier's query.
The guy glanced at the tent. 'As of yesterday, we now have 51 injured. No death.'
That's pretty serious. I thought it's just a small altercation.
'Have you seen the mine?' Elias asked.
The soldier shook his head. 'We tried, but those from Alshain guarded the entrance and won't let us pass. They threatened to charge us for trespassing.'
Trespassing? Bullshit. Perhaps they found the mine beforehand and won't let anyone else in.
'Show us where it is,' I said. Elias glanced at me, and the soldier was hesitant.
'The mine is right under the border. They can't say it's trespassing just yet.' I added.
'Are we going to barge in?' Elias questioned.
'If we have to,' I replied then tiptoed to whisper in his ears, in which he bent his body a bit so I could reach him. 'Just bust them all off with your magic or something.'
'It'd complicate things if we attack them,' said Elias.
'I have an idea,' I replied.
***
The soldier dropped us off far enough for us to see 2 patrol officers of Alshain standing before a small entrance on the small hill, like a cave. The fence had stopped around the area. We dismissed him and he headed back to his post. Elias and I advanced with caution hiding behind trees that are far from them. Despite moving at night, they could likely see our silhouettes from far.
'So? What's your idea?' Elias whispered.
'Probably throw a rock at their head and run away,' I said.
Elias frowned. 'How is that different from attacking them?'
'Who cares if we attack them? They kidnapped our guy.'
Elias looked like he was about to say something but decided against it.
'Can't you teleport inside the mine?' I asked.
'No. I've never seen the inside of the mine so I can't do that.'
'Oh. So you can only teleport when you've seen the place?'
'Yes. And also if someone I know is inside, I can teleport there because I can visualize the person.'
I raised my brows. 'Wow, so teleporting is basically like imagining stuff, and it becomes real?'
Elias chuckled. 'The key is to focus. Apprentices need to practice a lot on their focus when they want to perform magic. Primeval Magicians spend less time focusing because they're used to it.'
'Can I do magic if I focus hard enough?'
Elias shook his head. 'No one in history has ever done that. We need to control our mana as well.'
'So there's no such thing as a Primeval Magician that was abandoned from a young age with no knowledge about magic growing up and finding out that they have power and perhaps hurt the people around them?'
Elias blinked. 'That's a very wild imagination but at least in Sirius, no.'
'No such thing as non-magicians marrying a magician and their kid one day finding out they can do magic?'
'No…'
Fantasies are merely fantasies, huh...
'Hey, look,' Elias said and pointed at the entrance where another patrol officer had come by. 'They're changing shifts.'
'Eh?' We both chorused in wonder, as we witnessed something entirely different from what we imagined.
'They're not changing shifts…' I said. 'He's entering the mine.'
The new officer who came, saluted the two guys guarding the entrance and entered the mine. A few minutes we waited, and the officer came out with a big sack over his shoulders, filled with bulky things.
'They're taking the stones away,' Elias muttered.
'I knew it! They found the mine beforehand,' I said, turning to Elias. 'That's why they kept the villager hostage.'
We watched as the officer disappeared into the thick forest.
'I don't think he will only take that much,' I added. 'He will either come back or have a friend bring them again. Can't risk alerting others if they get a whole team coming in and out of the mine.'
'Then we wait,' Elias said.