Chapter 15: Let's Go to the Silver-White Vein
Eldarin seemed uncomfortable with the emotional stares she received after saying just one simple "thank you."
So she quickly changed the subject.
"When did you harvest the Flame Veil?"
"Oh, that?"
Kaian thought for a moment.
"...I don't know."
Eldarin looked completely dumbfounded.
"What?"
"My watch broke."
Kaian shrugged and avoided her gaze.
"It looked like an antique from the start."
"It broke almost as soon as I entered the volcanic region."
"Hah."
"If you dislike it that much, buy a new one with your own money later."
"...I'm sorry."
Kaian immediately bowed his head.
"Please fix it."
Amber was struggling not to laugh while watching the two of them awkwardly argue because neither was honest about their feelings.
The sight was unfamiliar.
But she did not dislike it.
In fact...
She liked it.
They're changing.
Eldarin too.
Me too.
The small outsider who had appeared in Eldargrove after seven hundred years was slowly, but surely, changing their world.
Even now...
Normally, Eldarin would have coldly drawn a line and ended the conversation.
Instead, she irritably held out her hand.
"Haah."
"Give it here."
"Quickly."
"Yeah!"
"Thanks!"
Kaian smiled brightly.
Amber smiled too.
Only Eldarin looked dissatisfied as she repaired the pocket watch.
"...For some reason, this annoys me."
Kaian put the repaired pocket watch around his neck.
Then he asked,
"So where are we going now?"
"To the Silver-White Vein in western Eldargrove."
"There's even a mine?"
Kaian looked impressed.
"This place really has everything."
Apparently, the only thing it lacked was livestock.
"Why are we going there?"
Eldarin gave him a suspicious smile that looked full of hidden plans.
"When you went to collect Flame Veil..."
"What did you see?"
"Ah."
Kaian immediately understood something else entirely.
"So you want to hear the story of my adventure first?"
He cleared his throat.
"Ahem."
Then he began describing the most impressive scenery he remembered.
"First, I crossed the Ash-Covered Land."
"Beside it was a bushland that burned endlessly."
"Ash kept blowing over from there."
Kaian's expression became very serious.
He was copying the expression Liana used whenever she reached the part of a children's story where a dragon appeared.
"It felt like I was walking through a desert while gray snow fell around me."
"And I could hear bubbling from under the ground."
"It sounded like some magical beast was roaring far away."
Eldarin did not know how to react.
That was not what she had been asking.
She had wanted to know whether Kaian had noticed the flow of mana.
The nature of fire.
Some kind of magical realization.
But...
The child looked so excited telling the story that she felt bad interrupting him.
"...Yes."
"That was quite a vivid description."
"Good observation is useful."
"Hehe."
"I didn't read all those children's books for nothing."
"However."
There were things Eldarin still needed to teach him properly.
The atmosphere inside the carriage immediately became calm.
A mysterious weight entered Eldarin's voice.
"You cannot stop at merely seeing and hearing."
"You must understand the true nature of what you see and turn it into your own wisdom."
"The true nature?"
Kaian blinked.
"Did I see something like that...?"
Eldarin smiled.
"Of course."
"You simply didn't realize it."
She leaned back slightly.
"Now concentrate."
"I am about to teach you the wisdom of an Ancient Race, knowledge difficult to find in any book in this world."
Eldarin moved one finger through the air as if she were drawing.
Wood.
Fire.
Earth.
Metal.
Water.
Symbols representing the five elemental manas appeared in the air.
Eldarin arranged them in a circle.
Then connected each one with lines.
In the end, a pentacle linking the five points appeared before them.
"You know what this is, don't you?"
"The five elemental manas."
Kaian puffed out his chest.
"I know that much."
"Hmm."
"Do you?"
Eldarin looked at him.
"Then what is mana?"
"Uh..."
Kaian's gaze wandered around the carriage.
In the end, he pouted.
"Isn't that a little too difficult to ask an eight-year-old?"
"You never get tired of being cheeky."
"Listen carefully."
The five symbols Eldarin had drawn began shining.
Kaian immediately forgot his complaint.
His attention became completely focused on the sight.
"Mana is a mysterious force and energy that existed before all living beings."
"It was mana that created this world."
"And us."
Eldarin raised one finger.
"The important thing is that these five elemental manas circulate."
"Circulate?"
"Yes."
"And that circulation follows a rule."
Eldarin made only the mana symbol matching her words light up.
"Wood gives rise to fire."
"Fire gives rise to earth."
"Earth gives rise to metal."
"Metal gives rise to water."
"And water gives rise to wood."
She looked at Kaian.
"All power is connected."
"Each one affects the others."
"Hmm..."
Kaian narrowed his eyes.
It sounded difficult.
Eldarin created a tiny wooden thicket in the air.
"Huh?"
"What is that?"
"Do you recognize it?"
"Of course...!"
It looked exactly like the Flame Thicket Kaian had seen.
Only this version was small enough to fit on both of his palms.
"For example..."
"As you saw in the Flame Thicket..."
"Fire burns wood."
Eldarin snapped her fingers.
Fwoosh!
The tiny thicket caught fire.
It burned with soft crackling sounds.
"Fire is a power that changes form."
"What did the burned thicket become?"
Kaian remembered the ash desert he had crossed.
The tiny thicket floating before him slowly burned away.
Soon...
Only a small pile of ash remained.
Kaian could not look away.
"...Ash."
The burning heat of the Ash-Covered Land returned vividly to his memory.
In front of Eldarin and Amber, Kaian had acted as though it had not affected him much.
But somewhere deep inside his heart...
The magnificent, terrifying sight still remained.
Kaian looked toward Eldarin.
