64 – 64. Festival (3)
The expressions of the two officials are not very good.
At first, I shouted that only one person could do that, but soon the same situation happened.
When the first one becomes easier, the second and third ones appear even earlier. With the thought that if I do this, I can get what I want.
They don’t try to break through the situation like that, but they start trying to fill their stomachs.
Because I’m locked up anyway. ‘Cause I can’t do anything No matter what you do here, it won’t change anything.
In order to look at my interests even a little bit and plan for the future even a little bit.
If you run out of food, those who have eaten even a little will survive, and if you hold a weapon in advance, even the powerless can pose a threat.
If those who seduce people and take up arms split sides, they will monopolize food and stay away from hunger. Monopolizing blankets and blankets, lighting a fire and covering oneself with blankets, one can endure the pain of the cold.
And in the end, when he thinks reinforcements won’t arrive, he will do anything to survive until the end.
Even if you throw away human morality.
That is the reaction of those who have lost their composure and are engulfed in fear and madness.
“…What should I do?”
“Hey! Are you going to listen to him?!”
“It can’t be helped. At this rate… It won’t be long.”
As a merchant, measuring profit and loss must be their specialty.
As anxiety rises, time becomes more valuable than money. Members and outsiders slowly becoming dissatisfied.
This would have predicted the future that further damage would occur.
“What can I do?”
An executive who can speak the language first requests a conversation.
The middle-aged executive, who had been raging beside him, was also silent, avoiding his gaze. As if he couldn’t deny it.
Now the two recognized the seriousness, and thought of the means Junon said he would devise.
“We are mere merchants who are ignorant of magic, so I hope you will answer. I think you said something with wagons containing mana stones.”
“Did you check earlier? Gunpowder and firecrackers aren’t enough to break through the blocked passage.”
“That’s right. That’s why I was barely sending a signal. I didn’t have enough firepower.”
“A mana stone is just a stone that contains unrefined mana. By using that fact, you can use a mana stone as a substitute for fuel. Also, the black smoke that comes out when you explode a mana stone is dangerous in the academy. It could be seen as a sign.”
“What, what…!”
Now the executive understands what he said about consuming mana stones.
It meant that he would collect magic stones of that size in the wagon and ignite them like a bomb.
“Are you crazy? Say you’d rather die, huh?!”
“Are you insane…? If you do that, we won’t be safe either…”
At Junon’s words, the two executives jumped in a fit of rage. He said that he would set explosives on rocks right in front of him and explode them.
The act of causing an explosion was dangerous in and of itself… But there is something more dangerous than that.
“No matter how ignorant I am of magic, I know what a mana storm is! Don’t even think about that!”
“That’s right. Isn’t splash out too funny. Besides, using it as a signal…”
It’s blacker than the soot produced when a mana stone is burned like fuel to cause an explosion.
It was because of a mana storm, or a storm of magic called a splash out.
‘Do you know that far?’
All living things on the continent have adapted to accepting demonic energy, but there is still a limit.
Because of this, all living things must refine this demonic energy to maintain a certain ratio. Among them, humans are the creatures that best purify demonic energy.
However, if you inhale demonic energy at a level that even the human body cannot handle, the human body takes time to refine it.
It’s like a complex digestive process that breaks down trace amounts of toxic substances and accepts them as nutrients. Just as an overdose of poison is dangerous to the human body, demons are the same.
The accumulated turbid magi has a detrimental effect, starting with nerve and cell paralysis and causing various poisoning symptoms. It can even cause a mana runaway like Charlotte at the beginning of the semester.
Thus, if you explode a large amount of mana stones, you will inevitably inhale muddy magic in this sealed place.
People who continue to ingest the muddy magi show symptoms of poisoning.
For this reason, they are running wild and raising their voices. ‘Cause I might die anyway.
“First of all, since you know that far, it should be quick to explain. That’s right. If you do that, a splash-out will happen. Since the road is blocked, the symptoms of Magi poisoning will come even faster.”
“Even though you know that, you’re asking us to proceed with the absurd task of exploding the mana stone…?”
“No. There are ways. There are ways to avoid being poisoned by magi. Of course, you have to be careful about unstable strata.”
“”Is that possible?””
The two executives are suspicious.
But I wonder if anyone will react like that no matter what.
“First of all, please tell the members that you will escape from here. Before another accident occurs.”
The two officers gathered the members and encouraged them once, and everyone checked the wagons and carts once again with hope.
Among them, there were quite a few things that could be useful. However, the most important thing is the number of mana stones.
The magic stones in one wagon were not enough to blow rocks.
“How many wagons with magic stones?”
“Your one.”
If there were two, it would have seemed insufficient, but if it were four, the story would be different.
Besides, the number is even. It fits snugly.
“There’s one more thing you need to know. But this…”
The reason why Junon tried to bring up this story was because he had to break one of the methods that the Lewen Merchant Company was so obsessed with.
I don’t know if it’s one person’s stubbornness, but it’s not an easy thing to say to break a policy that hasn’t changed for a long time.
However, they were well aware of how dangerous the situation was.
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“Don’t hesitate to tell me. You have to destroy the situation in the first place.”
“I agree with you at first. It sounds crazy, but there is no back, so I won.”
They are merchants. They are not those who waste time and information, and their calculation speed far exceeds that of ordinary people.
Immediately, they looked at the reactions of the members and guessed what would happen in a few minutes.
Thanks to that, Junon didn’t have to struggle to convince the two executives.
“To make the last condition hold, we need to know what the current power is.”
This is like a taboo for the Lewen Merchants.
It was meant to reveal the identity of the members.
***
“I’m sorry. That’s… A little embarrassing.”
“It looks like they’re trying to gather powerful guys, but that’s just as difficult. They haven’t even informed the members yet.”
“Why are you in trouble?”
It’s about gathering powerful people to solve the problem. At first, it felt odd.
“Oops… You thought they were in their shoes, but you didn’t put yourself in our shoes.”
“Listen carefully.”
The two executives calmly explained to Junon, who had doubts.
‘Well, that’s right. He said that he used magic stones like explosives.’
It is said that this was the reason for not properly informing the members of this absurd plan.
‘If the contents of the plan are announced, they will rather protest against it, saying it is a ridiculous plan, and it will cause the strong to unite and cause the preceding danger again…’
At the academy, it was overlooked because it was considered as simple as a team facing a beast.
I thought it was similar to the difference in strength by position within the team, but they are not.
In the case of Class D and Class C, there is a difference in magical index. Although relative, the strong and the weak can be seen in terms of mana. You can see that much
However, do magical indexes have meaning here?
Yes. This is not an academy. If they were announced and shared like that, they would be divided into those who can handle magic and those who can’t.
It means that those with power will try to unite among themselves, and it may result in thoroughly rejecting the incompetent.
In the end, it was like going back to square one.
‘Is there any other way?’
Exploding a mana stone is something that requires two or more elemental mages to do after all.
If you keep going like this, you won’t be able to rush out, making it impossible to escape.
Junon said he had to find the answer somehow, pressing his fingers to his temple. It was like that.
“Knock it all out! This wasn’t what those guys ordered! Would you care if you were an escort or a nabal in this situation?”
After all, it seemed that time was up.
“Even if we, who can use magic, unite together, we can’t see a gap even if we pierce it!”
“Seriously. We also have a way…”
“How? What are you doing there? Isn’t that counting the loss of the top in your head?”
It’s dangerous.
I knew the grace period was short, but it was too soon.
There must be something that made them realize they tried their best to pierce but couldn’t.
“It’s getting dark and I’m dying of cold, but you guys are warming up by the fire. How many hours can you survive with a piece of jerky the size of a mouse’s tail I gave you earlier?”
─That’s right, that’s right!
“We’re human too! We’re hungry and cold! But what did you guys do while we sweated through it?”
…As expected, hunger and thirst drive people crazy.
There is no way they can calm themselves down with just a piece of beef jerky and a bottle of water.
Because I am not a trained soldier, I have not learned how to minimize my thirst when sharing jerky or quenching my throat.
Where is the will to endure the fundamental desire of appetite?
Most of the escort missions are commoners who have school fees problems here.
Among them, these are the ‘relatively underdog’ who give up learning magic and barely make ends meet after leaving the academy.
If they, who have lived only as the weak, are about to die, will they be able to take control of their reason? It can’t be.
Their unstable psychology, which is like a delicate string on the verge of breaking, eventually gets caught up in one person’s instigation.
“Before you are merchants, if you are a human being, shouldn’t you value your life more than money? Even in this situation, money comes first!!”
─Yes… Why do we have to go through this?
─We have the power, but we don’t have to listen to them, right?
—Looking at it earlier, there were more than one wagon filled with food. For those who can’t afford that…
It was on the verge of turning into looters, not escorts, as the people who penetrated the road rebelled one by one, sending distrustful glances at the incompetent, causing a division.
Just as Junon was about to step forward, claiming that he had no time, Junon blocked the front of those who were on the verge of becoming plunderers.
“You’d better go there.”
“What are you? Some porter, get out of here!”
Junon, who blocked the instigator, blocked his magic.
The infinitely weak electric shock emitted only a brief moment of light.
“How did this…?”
The example should always be there.
You shouldn’t even show loopholes. If you don’t knock them down properly, they’ll attack right away.
“What… Hey? How did this…”
“Noisy.”
“Ouch…! What the heck…!”
His body slumped and collapsed while drawing a weak electric magic circle over and over again.
What you see in front of you is the instigator who collapsed without knowing why and the porter in No. 229 Who easily subdued him.
Their march can’t move forward because they can’t even figure out what happened.
And soon, even the warning drops.
“If you move even one step further from there, I’ll assume you’re dealing with me.”