The carriage ride took a few hours. The stone oil source they were visiting was located near a small village to the southwest of the capitol Shabagh, even further south than the ancient city of Jarant.
The dry dirt under their feet had been replaced by light white sand. The sun was at the top of the sky, hitting the ground with it's light at a right angle. If it wasn't for the air Corvin was circulating with magic, the heat would be unbearable in the slightly small carriage.
"Thank you, Corvin. You really saved this trip.", said Clair.
"Yeah, sorry about that. The royal carriage isn't usually used for more than two people and it's also thinner than Altus carriages, to make it easier to navigate through the narrow streets we have.", said Nehdean.
"Oh, no problem, Your Majesty. This is something I almost do everyday during summers anyway. I am used to it at this point.", answered Corvin.
"Be careful to not lift any sand when we get off, okay?", said Amy.
"Don't worry.", said Corvin and rolled his eyes.
After a bit of silence, it was Amy who broke it once again.
"Your Majesty. What is the stone oil used for in your kingdom? We used it to pave roads but the one here is different. I wondered if there were any other ways it could be used."
"Hm... Obviously, I can't know every way this was used. It is probably mostly used as fuel since we don't have a lot of trees to use as firewood here. We also used it to pave some roads and make waterproof jugs, but it is hard to take the sand out of it so we turned to easier alternatives as time went on. Some nearby villages sometimes use it in the construction of their homes but other than those, there aren't many traditional uses we have. Terich thinks this may be because in ancient times, a part of our people used to think stone was somewhat holy and the stone oil was in fact the blood of the stone and refused to use it in their lives. But, we don't know for sure."
"I see..."
After a few minutes of chat, the carriage arrived at their destination. They got off the carriage and started walking towards the stone oil source from the nearby village.
The small sandstone houses were huddled together near the sandy ground. Just a quick walk away, the ground was dry dirt, with short brown grass on it. There was a small building near the grassy area, with a few sheep and a guard dog with them, sleeping under a bush.
The stone oil source was a patch of sand wet with a black liquid. It bubbled and slowly flowed downwards on the slight slope of the ground towards a small lake of black. To someone who has never seen something like this, this might have looked like the ground itself was being consumed by something black.
"Honestly, it looks kind of underwhelming once you see it.", said Corvin.
"Yeah, but what were you even expecting?", asked Noah
"Hmm? Like a fountain that spewed higher then my head, or something like that."
"You have a very active imagination, don't you?", said Clair.
"Nothing I can do about it.", said Corvin and shrugged his shoulders.
"So, what did you all wanted to do here?", asked Nehdean.
"Oh, I am sorry, Your Majesty! We are starting right now. Come on Corvin!", said Noah in a panic.
Nehdean smiled slightly at his urgency and watched as the kids took out a bunch of papers and a small table. He sighed and shook his head before gesturing towards his guards. The two guards quickly got towards the carriage and brought some umbrellas for shading.
"Don't spend too much time under the Aleanakib sun. There is no proper winter here like in your Empire. You will get dizzy eventually, especially since we are at the south."
"Oh, thank you, Your Majesty.", quickly said Corvin without lifting his head from his work.
Corvin then took a long chain and walked towards where the stone oil was coming from the ground and threw the chain on the black sand.
"What are you doing?", asked Noah.
"I am gonna check how deep this thing goes."
"How? Won't a long stick or something be better than a chain?"
"Just shut up and let me concentrate."
The chain glowed green and started to quickly enter the hole on the ground. Corvin used his magic to lead the chain deeper into the ground. Whenever he felt more resistance to his magic, he turned and tried to find another way deeper with the chain. After an hour of probing, he stopped and took the chain back.
"Hah~, That was tiring. But I am glad I bought this chain. That was so much easier."
"What did you find out?"
"This thing goes pretty deep. We are going to need a pretty big machine to pump the stone oil out. But, there was something like a giant lake where this thing comes from. I don't know how big it is, but there is a lot of it underground."
"This chain..."
"Yes, Your Highness?"
"Where did you find it?"
"I-I bought it."
"Right... Do you need it anymore?"
"N-No, I don't think so."
"Then I will buy it. I think that's from the construction at our palace."
"I-I am sorr-"
"Don't worry about it. This is a private issue. I still have a lot of work to combat the distrust of the people to the kingdom."
"I-Is that okay for Your Majesty to say to outsiders?"
"It's not like outsiders can use it against me. They distrust outsiders even more. Surely, you have felt it as well when you came here."
"R-Right..."
Nehdean called a knight and handed the chain. After a few words, the knight nodded and went away.
"Well, let's forget about that. You are all tired, right? Let's take a break.", said Nehdean and called for his butler Yatiq.
Yatiq brought out a few plates and food to the table after Corvin and Amy cleaned it.
"Yatiq has been cooking some food for us using the sun's light. We used to cook like this in secret when we were fighting the civil war."
After thanking Nehdean, they started to eat the various food brought to the table. While chatting about what to do next, the meal finally came to an end. Yatiq quickly cleaned the table and Corvin and Clair started to design a pump that could pump the stone oil from underground.
"Do we have to dig too deep? I really don't want to design a pump that needs constant pipes to be added to it."
"Yeah we do. It does go pretty deep. Also, about this part- Clair?"
When Clair's hand suddenly stopped moving, Corvin lifted his head. Everyone was looking at him with empty eyes, including Nehdean and the Butaldhi royal guards.
"Huh? What?"
Crunch Crunch
Small footsteps from the sand entered Corvin's ears. The sound was coming from behind Clair who was sitting in front of him. He got up to see who it was making the noise.
Long, wavy dark blue hair. Eyes that shone bright like aquamarine gems. A beautiful figure that hadn't reached it's prime yet. Wearing white and yellow clothes that blended with the ground around her, it was the girl that bumped into him and started bleeding in the streets a while back.