NOVEL NEXT WORLD Chapter 145
In front of me was a scenery I had never seen before.
At first, I thought I was underwater. Inside the vast circular space, there were transparent crystals embedded everywhere.
Even at my feet, the crystals were emitting a faint blue glow, and a few strands of light leaked through the cracks in the ceiling, sending out beams of light.
I stared straight ahead, speechless. While I was still reeling from the sight, something vaguely familiar flashed past before me.
“That’s…”It was the one Rudrick had shown me just moments before. Those tiny creatures crawling swiftly through the crystals…
“There are a lot of them.”It was the fiends.
And not just one or two. Just as Rudrick had said, there were quite a few of them, flitting in and out of sight.
Staring at them, I was speechless. I hadn’t expected to see so many of them in one place, after coming up north and not seeing a shadow.
How could I have thought it would be a matter of finding a cave and calling it a day?
I thought,
‘What have I been doing?’
Finding the demon insect brought me no joy, but instead a sense of despair. I stood there in disbelief and quickly shook my head.
‘Nope, it’s the price of life.’
Because honestly, if I hadn’t fallen off that cliff, I would never have found this cave in the first place.
Yeah, a cave. What in the world was this place where all those elusive monsters lived?
According to Lord Michel’s grandfather, they’re only found once or twice a year, close to the veins…
Hang on. What about when you’re actually in the lode?
‘No way, this place?’
I snapped out of my reverie and scanned the room, stunned once again by my newfound realization.
“Wait, you don’t mean all these crystals…!”Rudrick interrupted my exhilaration.
“They’re magic ore.”What I had thought were just pretty crystals turned out to be magic ore. I thought I was surrounded by crystals, when in fact, it’s the other way entirely.
As soon as I realized this, my head started spinning. Suddenly, all the blue glowing stones were converted into money.
‘Oh my gosh, how much is all this worth?’
No matter how I tried to calculate, this place was priceless.
Even a lump of magic ore sells for a lot of money, but a cave made entirely of magic ore, perhaps worth as much as the mountains east of Pelitos that I’d gotten from the crown prince.
I had to suppress the corner of my lips at the unexpected discovery.
While I’m at it, I might as well start mining the ore. This much would keep the Bousers well-fed for years…
‘Wait.’
But those blissful thoughts were soon shattered. Suddenly, I recalled what the natives of the north had said all along.
— ‘Because wherever there’s magic ore, there’s always a fiend…’ — ‘Didn’t you know? Magic is the source of life for demons.’ — ‘So, wherever there’s a lot of magic ore, there are a lot of magic beasts!’ “That’s it. We have to get out of here.” “What?”Rudrick stared at me questioningly as I pensively led the way. I shouted urgently.
“Come on, this can’t be a monster lair!” “Monster? Ah…”Rudrick’s brow creased, but he soon looked up again as if he understood what I meant.
Then, as if it were no big deal, he glanced around casually and replied.
“That’s not going to happen.” “What?”No, how on earth could he be so sure of that? Was it some sort of underlying sense of confidence that he could handle any number of demons?
When I stared at him in disbelief, Rudrick, whose gaze was fixed in the distance, spoke.
“Perhaps, if I’m right…” “Huh?” “Because this is a tomb.”What? What tomb?
As I stared at him questioningly, he immediately pointed somewhere.
I followed his gesture and turned to my own accord, and was horrified by what I saw.
“It’s a demon!”There, nestled in the corner of the cave, was a large, hulking creature that I wondered why I hadn’t seen before.
It was a very different creature from the goblins and giants we had seen yesterday.
The beast-like creature with a lion’s body and bat wings had a different sense of menace than the previous ones, and it would be very frightening if it charged at me…
However, its condition was strange.
‘Huh?’
I screamed and jumped all over the place, but it didn’t even try to move, not even flinch. It was as if it couldn’t move anymore like it was dead. Suddenly, I realized something and mumbled to myself.
“You mean this is a tomb, where the demon died…” “Yes. A tomb of demons.”I was at a loss for words at this simple acknowledgment.
A tomb of demons?
Doesn’t that mean that this place wasn’t just a vein of ore or a place where magic ore was hidden? And why would monsters specifically flock here to die?
But the next words I heard from Rudrick’s wraith were even more confusing.
“I’ve heard of demons becoming magic ore when they die, but I never thought I’d actually see it…” “Wait. What?”I repeated his words,
“Demons become magic ore when they die?”Instead of answering my question, he walked closer to the creature’s corpse, grabbed it with one hand, and lifted it, I tried to stop him, horrified.
If I hadn’t noticed something strange at that moment.
“Is it… merging with the ground?”Rudrick lifted the body with his hands, but it hadn’t separated from the ground.
Not only that, but the now unrecognizable creature’s legs had already merged with the ground, turning semi-transparent and leaking blue light.
I stared at it in disbelief and muttered,
“So, this is all in the monster forms…” “That’s interesting.” “No, it’s not supposed to be interesting. Why doesn’t everyone else know this the way I do? Isn’t Bouser slaying demons every year and killing them all?” “Everyone thinks it’s just a story passed down from the generations. Usually, when we kill a demon, we leave its corpse in the woods, or skin it for supplies.”I nodded in agreement with Rudrick’s explanation. Admittedly, I would have dismissed it as nonsense until I saw it for myself.
“So… a monster becomes a magic ore… and a magic ore becomes a monster…”And yet, I was still perplexed.
It was inevitable. Now, magic ore was a precious resource in the empire, even on the entire continent.
As a crystal of pure magic essence, it allowed ordinary people to use magic.
And since there were only a few mines that produced magic ore, it was said that
‘the country with the most magic mines is the most powerful in the empire’.
Our empire had the most mines.
So, if there’s a time when you truly need magic ore, and you don’t have any, then…
‘What if we used a demon corpse…?’
I was mulling over my theory. Rudrick, who had been looking around more, looked back in my direction.
“Anyway, I don’t think there’s anything else to examine, so let’s head back.” “Uh, what?” “You don’t plan on sleeping here, do you? Even if this is a graveyard, you never know when a demon might crawl in, so it’s better to be safe.” “Oh. I see…”I nodded meekly, then gazed at Rudrick in disbelief.
“Rudrick, do you happen to have any more spare pouches?” “What?”At his questioning gaze, I smiled broadly.
“Just ten more.”To make a long story short, we were safely rescued.
Frankly, it wasn’t without anxiety that we were back in the dark cave again.
It didn’t matter if we had captured all the demon insects if we weren’t rescued.
But Rudrick, being with me, seemed unconcerned.
He wrapped me up in his cloak to the point of suffocation, even though I was reasonably well-dressed. Then he threw his arms up in the air, as if satisfied.
— ‘Not all of them are stupid.’I don’t know if that was a compliment or an insult. But one thing was for sure, he believed in them, and I chose to believe in him.
This made me realize that maybe Rudrick was more trustworthy than I thought.
I was reminded of this again when we had just been rescued.
“Princess, Your Excellency!”True to Rudrick’s word, the division commanders reached us in less than a day.
Lord Leona wept when she saw me, and the others were relieved, though they didn’t speak.
Kassar, the gauntest of them all, was not his usual vicious self, but he barely gave me and Rudrick a glance.
“I’m glad you’re safe.”The sincerity in his words was palpable, and I could only smile back.
But trouble came next. The division commanders had been so focused on getting me and Rudrick out that they hadn’t thought about what was going to happen next.
Or, more precisely, how they were going to transport me.
“Uh… the carriage…”They were stumped when they remembered that I couldn’t ride a horse.
The more they apologized, the more I felt sorry for myself. I was delaying their departure for my reasons.
I was grateful that they came to my rescue, but I couldn’t put them in any more trouble.
Not only that, but I was just about to say,
‘Please knock me out.’
“Huh?”Something covered my vision.
It was Rudrick’s cloak, which I had draped over my shoulders just moments before.
After I was rescued, I returned it to him, but before I knew it, he had taken it off again and pulled the cloak back over my head.
That wasn’t the only thing, as I panicked at the sudden obstruction of my vision, he quickly scooped me up in his arms and set me down somewhere.
‘Ugh.’
I swallowed a small gasp. Even if I couldn’t see, I couldn’t help but notice.
The momentary elevated position of my body, the way my feet didn’t touch the ground, and the writhing muscles of the horse beneath my buttocks.
Before I knew it, I was sitting on top of the horse.
My vision blurred, spinning, and I felt sick to my stomach. My mind went blank and only one thought dominated my mind.
Getting off the horse now. If I don’t get off, at this rate, I’m sure there would be another…
“It’s okay.”A low voice whispered in my ear. Then, as if by magic, the quivering stopped.
Someone was riding behind me, and he reached out and wrapped his hand around my shoulder, pulling me into his arms and whispering,
“Take a breath. I’ll be there when you wake up.”I leaned back against him, feeling myself relax, and even after we started, he didn’t loosen his grip on my shoulder for a long time.
His grip tightened as if he didn’t want to let go, and I closed my eyes as he gave me a clumsy pat each time.
A light drowsiness washed over me.
Through the darkness, I could feel a regular heartbeat. I don’t know if it was his or mine. I just knew that I felt quite comfortable at this moment.
We could stay together for a long time, forever…
‘What do I want to do…’