CHAPTER 174
Just then, there was a small presence that tugged at Eve’s attention as she panicked.
It was Amber, clinging tightly to her shoulder.
The butterfly golem—who loved flapping its wings playfully—had been curled up for quite a while now.
Something was off.
‘Could this be…?’
Recalling a possibility, Eve returned to the group and cast a spell.
It was the reverse of the practical gardening magic she had used before on Stefania and Derrick.
The reaction came immediately. The Punishment Knights marveled at how much lighter their bodies felt.
“It’s much easier, Your Highness.”
“How did you do it?”
Eve kindly explained.
“I reduced the gravity acting on your bodies.”
“Gravity?”
“It seems the Sealing Stone’s power made the gravity in this area stronger. When you bind winged things, the basic method is to impose strong gravity so they can’t fly.”
“Ahh.”
Around then, Amber—who had provided the decisive hint—seemed delighted and flew up from Eve’s shoulder.
But, unsightly as it was, it immediately plummeted as if diving.
Eve safely caught Amber as it fluttered down like a petal, cradling it in both palms.
“Sorry. The gravity-alteration magic I used applies based on the condition of standing with your feet on the ground. Extending it to someone in midair is too much for me.”
Flap, flap…
Lying in Eve’s palm, Amber slowly flapped its wings.
It meant it was fine.
In the first place, it was absurd to think a single person could nullify a Sealing Stone.
Even this level of mitigation was tremendous.
Next, Eve also explained about the rocky mountain that kept producing rockfalls.
“The deeper we go toward the center of the sealing grounds, the stronger the gravity will become. The constant erosion is definitely because of gravity.”
“It would be best not to approach. It’s dangerous.”
“Yeah. If we go deeper, even sleep magic might activate. Let’s go back.”
However, life rarely flowed the way one intended.
Drdrdrdrk—
The ground beneath Eve’s group began to vibrate.
“Hm?”
“What is it?”
The rumbling was only a brief prelude.
The real thing happened the next instant.
Crack! Crack! Craaack!
Suddenly, fissures formed in the ground and began to split apart.
And, at the very center of it, unfortunately, was Eve’s group.
“Your Highness!”
Mikael immediately hurled himself toward Eve.
The others could avoid it on their own, but Eve—who possessed hopeless reflexes and athletic sense—could not.
Normally, Mikael would have taken Eve into his arms and lightly moved them away.
But the ground, strained under centuries of strong gravity, was now in a very weakened state.
Crk! Crkrrrk!
The earth began to crumble.
In an instant, the ground under Eve and Mikael became empty.
“Hk.”
Eve sucked in a breath.
Because the moment they lost their footing, strong gravity seized her body again.
At this rate, the two of them would be dragged into the underground like a bottomless abyss.
“Imperial Princess!”
“Captain!”
Already, the shouts of the Punishment Knights sounded distant from above.
Eve and Mikael were falling at an abnormal speed.
Sshiiiiiik!
A sharp wind screamed in her ears.
The horrifying sensation of falling swept over her entire body.
Mikael immediately cast levitation magic.
The buoyancy created by physical wings had limits, but buoyancy created by magic could rise without end in proportion to mana.
And Mikael had mana to spare.
Soon, the falling speed of Eve and Mikael slowed more and more—then stopped completely.
Eve exhaled a relieved breath in Mikael’s arms and lifted her head.
And that was when something in her sight captured her eyes.
“Mikael, look at that. There’s a cave.”
They needed a place to put their feet down and catch their breath, even if only briefly.
Tap.
Now that there was ground to stand on again, the gravity reduction regained its effect.
Her body, which had felt heavy and weighed down as if she were carrying a load, became comfortable again.
“Imperial Princess! Can you hear us, Imperial Princess! Please answer!”
“Your Highness! Captain! Are you safe?!”
From far above, their desperate cries echoed down.
First, they decided to send word.
“Her Highness the Imperial Princess is safe! We’ll come up soon—wait!”
It was around the time the Punishment Knights, hearing that, began to feel relief.
Mikael sensed the emptiness at his side and hurriedly looked for Eve.
In the meantime, she had entered the cave and was illuminating the wall with a magic lantern.
“Your Highness—no, Eve. If we go deeper, it’s dangerous. With the gravity, we don’t know when it might collapse.”
“Yeah, just a moment. The cave wall is fascinating.”
As Eve said, the cave wasn’t made of ordinary rock but of ore that shone with a black luster.
Mikael spoke the name of the first black gemstone that came to mind.
“Obsidian?”
“Not sure. It’s opaque like obsidian, but this feels less sparkly—less like glass.”
“Then is it lower-quality obsidian?”
“Ah, that won’t do. We need an ore that’s worth money.”
She’d been delighted at the thought they’d discovered a resource they could use as a specialty product, on top of vigor sausage, monster shellac, and purple fir.
But if it was a cheap product that wouldn’t even cover distribution costs, that was a problem.
“Lend me Nightray. Let’s take a sample, and tomorrow we’ll ask Viscount Lucciad.”
Since neither of them had deep knowledge of minerals, they decided to seek an expert’s help.
But for some reason, the black ore did not chip under Nightray.
Mikael spoke in a slightly dumbfounded tone.
“In this land, the trees were like that—and now even stone treats a famed sword lightly.”
“Right? The World Tree too, and now this stone too—how is it that even a sword made of black gold and mithril doesn’t so much as nick it?”
Sometimes, words spoken without much thought could bring sudden insight.
It seemed a similar thought surfaced in Mikael’s mind as well.
“Eve, could this ore perhaps…”
“It feels like that ‘perhaps’ is right…”
Mikael immediately raised the arm holding Nightray to its fullest and struck the wall without mercy.
Only the recoil climbed up his arm.
The cave wall remained intact.
The physical strength of metal was honest.
With that, the ore’s identity was proven beyond doubt.
“My goodness. This really is black gold.”
Black gold—commonly called “adamantite”—was one of the three great rare metals, alongside orichalcum and mithril.
Because of its tremendous strength and mana capacity, it was in high demand as material for famed swords and magical-alchemical engineering.
Its monetary value did not fall short even when compared to rechargeable Magic Stones.
“We’ve discovered an incredible treasure.”
“Yes. If nothing else, this alone could make us one of the empire’s great magnates.”
“What do you intend to do with it?”
“First, we hide it.”
At present, the land beyond the gray barrier was an undeveloped region, left abandoned without even a proper name, much less an owner.
If the existence of an adamantite mine were revealed now, the imperial family would designate the Demon Dragon’s land as imperial territory and absorb the mine into the national treasury.
Eve would render great service and gain Desmond II’s favor—
but that wasn’t what she wanted.
An adamantite mine was different from a Magic Stone mine.
Magic Stone mines were beneficial for the empire as a whole for the imperial family to monopolize, in order to expand imperial finances and control prices.
But after leaving Dandelion neglected until now, to swoop in and suck out only the resources—
wasn’t that far too shameless for the imperial family?
One might think she’d grow greedy at the sight of a valuable object, but Eve was firm.
“After we subjugate the Demon Dragon, I’ll give the adamantite mine to the lord who receives this land.”
A precious resource ought, properly, to be used for the region’s economic development and to improve the residents’ quality of life.
At that moment, Mikael—lost in his own thoughts—murmured softly.
“Dowry…”
“Hm? What did you say?”
“No. It’s nothing.”
That ended the conversation.
Eve held out her hand to Mikael.
“Everyone will be worried. Let’s go back quickly.”
Hiding a harvest she couldn’t boast about, Eve continued the exploration.
By the afternoon, they were fortunate enough to find one Sealing Stone nearby.
It wasn’t a broken Sealing Stone, but it would serve as a reference point for finding the other stones going forward.
Eve returned to Dandelion early with the group.
The pretext was that once the gate opened tomorrow and they joined up with Brigitte and Derrick, they would proceed with exploration in earnest from then on.
In truth, it was to conserve stamina.
If they left the fissure as it was, Brigitte might look around the granite quarry and discover the adamantite mine.
Eve could not stand by and watch a precious resource—meant to be used for the region’s economic development—become her half-sister’s slush fund.
To take measures, Eve and Mikael secretly slipped out of Dandelion at night and returned to the quarry.
“It feels like we’re having a secret tryst, just the two of us.”
“Right? My heart’s fluttering.”
Under the faint moonlight, the lovers exchanged mischievous smiles.
They decided they’d go on a date after finishing the work first.
“Since the adamantite vein is exposed halfway up the cliff, collapsing it to hide only the entrance isn’t feasible.”
“It would be best to fill in and conceal the fissure itself.”
“Yeah. For safety too, we have to get rid of a huge fissure like this. The problem is how to fill it. Hngh O”
“It’ll be hard to gather enough soil or gravel… What if we melt the ground with a powerful flame spell and then let it harden?”
“Waaah, then it wouldn’t even leave a trace.
Let’s do that.”
The act of melting rock into lava was discussed and approved with astonishing ease.
Mikael told Eve to use levitation magic and retreat far up into the sky.
With that tremendous heat, the ground would boil—so it would be dangerous.
“Be careful, Mikael.”
“It’s fine. I have the Aegis you gave me, and the warming magic stone.”
Eve felt newly proud of her wealth.
As expected, equipment mattered.
When excellent skill met excellent equipment, wasn’t it perfect like this?
“Then I’ll watch from above.”
Eve pulled up her mana to the limit and rose into the sky.