When everyone was finally ready to listen, Kaschet positioned himself by his chair in the middle of the rectangular table. Rio followed stiffly, standing by Kaschet's side as he took his seat. All eyes were now on them, glimmering with anticipation.
'Does father always attract such intense stares from adults?' Rio wondered, feeling uneasy with the scrutinizing looks that seemed to judge his manliness.
gulp
"Give the kid some slack, everyone. Take it easy on him; he's only 9 and still drinks goat milk," spoke Kaschet, producing a letter from his pockets.
Bennedick: pfft
Everyone except Olbert, Kaschet, and Rio: PFt, pfft, muahahaha
HAhahaa
"Hehe, my bad, my bad. Looks like he still drinks milk. Keep it up, kid; it gives strong bones! HAHA HAHA HAHA," said Bennedick, struggling to catch his breath.
"That's too bad; we only have spirits and ale here, ahahhahaha," commented some random worker.
Rio just stood there, his face turning red.
"Shut up!" Rio shouted with watery eyes and a flushed face.
"..."
"Waaahahahahah" echoed throughout the room.
"Ehem!" Olbert interrupted the laughter with a stern look.
murmur
"OK, listen up, people. All the mines in the east region received a special request straight from the top," announced Kaschet.
"How high?" asked Bennedick.
"From the emperor," and a hush fell over everyone.
"What's the request about? And the occasion?" Olbert inquired.
"The emperor's son is having his coming-of-age ceremony in three years. The emperor, being considerate, requested—or more like ordered—the east in advance to give us time. You can think of it as a contest, as the first and most beautiful stone will earn its family's mine recognition from the emperor himself," explained Kaschet, his eyes still on the letter.
"And so the hunt for the Dragon Eye Stone begins," said Bennedick, his arms crossed and eyes shining with excitement.
"When was the last time the east region got an acceptable stone, five years?" murmured Olbert.
'Dragon Eye Stone?' Rio thought.
"The rewards are unclear, and the east refinery will send an inspector to every mine in a month to check our progress and deliver our ores," spoke Kaschet.
"It sure is a 'request,'" said Bennedick sarcastically.
"Doesn't matter; let's just show them and hope they keep up their word," spoke Olbert.
"Hehe, they better be," replied Bennedick.
"In any case, from now on, we'll have to improve our capabilities, fix some problems in the mines, solve the miasma spots, and find a way to dig deeper," spoke Kaschet as he eyed all the personnel inside the hall, while Rio still stood stiff and still, processing unknown words.
"So, David, can you truly confirm the signs that there could be one of the rubies in our current mining route?"
At Kaschet's call, a slender, tall man wearing formal attire, a monocle in his left eye, slick hair, and a striking handlebar mustache stepped forward, presenting himself at the table.
"The earth perfectly tells me the presence of the Dragon Eye Stone, Lord Kaschet. Its presence is weak, but it gets stronger as we go deeper, and that's the problem we currently face, Lord Kaschet," replied the gentleman.
(Gentlemanly is a word, right?)
Before Kaschet could reply, a man from the crowd raised his hand.
"Chief, chief, I found some clues that co—ah, excuse me, sorry," the man then squeezed through the crowd and presented himself at the table.
"Ah, chief." The man, of medium height (5.9ft), messy hair, wearing a loose shirt with red patterns in the collar and two buttons, brown shorts down to his knees, and a rope at his waist used as a belt, had baggy eyes, showing his good sleep partnered with round glasses.
"Uhm, ah." The man, obviously just awake, tried his best to be presentable, adjusting his glasses, straightening his collar, and patting the wrinkles in his shirt. He was carrying a bag made of cloth.
"What do you have for us, Kendry?" Kaschet asked with a raised brow.
The man opened his bag and unloaded it on the table.
thud tug
'Rocks?' thought Rio.
"Um, these are the clues that we're getting close to a Dragon Eye Stone," said Kendry with a smile. "According to some recorded studies I've read in the histories of findings of the Dragon Eye Stones, these minerals and gray mana stones are rich in the 100-meter radius of a single Dragon Eye Stone," he said, holding a rock with a cube-like formation and a gray crystal in his two hands.
"I see, so we definitely need to find a way to dig deeper."
"Not just that, chief. Sending rocks out from a 100-meter-deep tunnel is already taxing, and the tunnel is already 250 meters long," said Bennedick in concern.
(Note: They are at the foot of a mountain, so they dig straight and sometimes go deeper. It gets deep as they dig further, and the part they dig gets higher—Felsokro mountain range.)
Kaschet nodded and looked at them. "We need to figure things out within three years."
The meeting ended for now; David and Kendry confirmed the goal they needed to reach. Only problems were identified for now, so Kaschet finally did what he was supposed to do with his son.
'I don't want to see those men again,' Rio thought while walking with Kaschet.
Rio and Kaschet walked through the operating space outside of the mine, and they saw men carrying some large pots and utensils. The men noticed them.
"Chief, where are you heading? We made soup for now and saved some meat for grilling later. Are you and your son not joining us?" Christof, one of Bennedick's men, spoke.
"We are fine, Christof. We already eaten early before the trip. I see that you didn't need Bennedick's help this time," Kaschet replied.
"We-ll, I've been practicing, chief."
"I see. One way to get a woman's heart is through her stomach, I suppose," said Kaschet. "I heard the flower girl of Shakter is a vegetarian, though," he added.
Christof blushed a little and denied Kaschet's hints. "Wh-what are you talking about, chief?" 'Thank you, chief. I was just thinking of cooking her some premium venison cut,' said and thought by Christof with a thankful heart.
"Whatever you say, enjoy your food. I'm just going to show Rio around and how the mine works," said Kaschet, and both he and Rio continued their walk.
"Flower girl? You mean Tyuly's mom's father?" Rio asked.
"That's adult talk. What we're going to talk about and see is more interesting," Kaschet calmly replied.
Rio nodded and followed his father.
After a moment of walking, they now stood by the mine's entrance, a 5-meter tall entrance and 8 meters wide, supported by 15 inches thick rectangular logs.
"This is the entrance to the mine. This is where we get the rocks you saw a moment ago, what our mana mineralogist just presented, but most of what we find are irons and other metals," lectured Kaschet as Rio listened and stared at the entrance.
"The mine is longer than you think. We regularly hire wind spell casters to breathe down there, and we use mana lamps since too much-concentrated breathing air can cause explosions with the torches and oil lamps."
"How so?" Rio asked.
"Fire breaths too, and we ask wind casters to give breathing air in a small place, with torches and oil lamps, plus it's really dry down there; any accidents could cause a fire or explosions."
"I don't get why they explode," said Rio.
"Well, hmmm, imagine if you breathe too much; your lungs will explode," replied Kaschet.
"Huh?"
"Forget it."
"Ah, and those are wheelbarrows." Kaschet pointed at a stack of wooden wheelbarrows by the side of the mine entrance. "We have what we call wheel boys; they carry the heavy task of bringing the rocks that are mined down there to here."
"That sounds tough," said Rio.
"It is; they are the only workers I pay by the hour. Some mines even use slaves," said Kaschet in a whisper.
"What?"
"Ah, yes, it's certainly hard, and we are figuring out how to solve them. Anyway, let's head to the next area," spoke Kaschet as he looked at Rio with a slight, barely noticeable smile.
"Where are we going now?" questioned Rio as he followed Kaschet.
"Well, we are going to where the rocks are separated," spoke Kaschet as both of them walked along.
"In here, they check which kind of rock is which, and they separate them. In here, they would also crack open or smash some stones and rocks to separate the normal rocks from what we need," said Kaschet. He looked at Rio and noticed he was staring at him, assuming he was confused about something.
"It's like cracking a peanut and getting the seed we eat inside," Kaschet explained.
"Ah, I see."
"Yes, that way, we could know if the rocks we mined are valuable. Some dow is just cracked open inside the mine itself before getting sent here, but when a mining captain sees a potential in some rocks, they are delivered to the distributor area and are opened more carefully. But these cases are rare."
"And what is inside this rock?" asked Rio.
"Could be crystals, gems, mana stones, and very rarely, the Dragon Eye Stone."
"That—"
"We'll talk about that later; let me show you the organs of the mine first."