“How did the Crown Prince come to a place like this… … ! Did you have dinner?!”
Caspal’s father hurriedly came down the stairs, saluted me and shouted at me.
“I haven’t eaten yet, but I’m not feeling well because I’ve been riding for so long. I want to rest for now.”
After receiving a light salute, I shook my head.
“Sure, I understand. You have worked really hard to come this far. As soon as the tidying up is over, the butler will guide you to the room. Butler, prepare quickly!”
After yelling at the butler who was still on the second floor, Caspal’s father took a deep breath and regained his composure. Caspal’s father, who had regained his composure, felt like a sheriff somewhere, befitting the lord of a town reminiscent of a western. beards are cool
“Your introduction is late. I am Ibrahim, the father of Caspal and Pelex.”
“What a wonderful name. As you may know, I am the iron-blooded prince, Mikhail. Please take good care of me.”
Caspal’s father, Ibrahim, greeted them politely again. I accepted the greeting by introducing myself anew.
“I had no choice but to come to help when I heard that the family of my close friend, Caspal, is suffering from monsters. I am also interested in abandoned mines. I will take care of you for a few days, so please take good care of me.”
“I never thought the crown prince was close friends with Caspal. There’s nothing to be ashamed of. We will do our best to make you as comfortable as possible.”
Ibrahim smiled softly and bowed his head again. Compared to the impression of being stubborn, he is good at handling things. Among the adults I met recently, I had the most crush… … Or rather, it seems that all the other adults weren’t proper human beings.
“What about the others?”
“My name is Dimitri. Caspal and I are like water and fish.”
“B, this is Ber. I am researching alchemy. I came because I was interested in abandoned mines!”
“This is Katyusha. It is the prince’s attendant. i look forward to.”
In response to Ibrahim’s question, the colleagues standing behind introduced themselves side by side. Ethel stared at Ibrahim with a disinterested expression. Ibrahim glanced at Ethel as if he was concerned, but ignored it, perhaps deciding that it was not necessary to ask for a child’s self-introduction.
“I thought I wouldn’t have any friends because I’m a blunt kid, but I never thought I would bring so many. It’s a new feeling as a parent. Good job, Caspal.”
Ibrahim smiled across his face and stroked Caspal’s head. Caspal averted his gaze with a displeased expression.
In that averted gaze, I could definitely feel disgust.
From noble mtl dot com
‘How bad are you with your family? Well, that’s not what I’m talking about.’
“Master, the room is ready.”
The butler came down the stairs. He was a slightly dark-skinned man. It feels like a black butler that is common in western movies. I don’t mean to be racist, but he was.
“already? Pretty fast.”
“I usually clean, so it was enough to prepare bedding. The room… … .”
The butler carefully looked around us.
“There are two rooms, one for Caspal-sama and one for guests, but I don’t know how to distribute the number of people.”
“hmm… … .”
At the butler’s words, Ibrahim shut his mouth and quickly looked over us before falling into trouble. You seem to be misunderstanding something.
I had heard from Dimitri that a quest party with a mixture of men and women seemed to be trying to enjoy ‘freedom’ in various senses.
‘Well, I don’t mean to deny it… … .’
“Three men and women separately. That’s it. Do you need to care about that in the first place?”
said Caspal. Ibrahim laughed that he was too, then added that he should be comfortable anyway, and that he would excuse himself, and that he should always speak to the butler if he needed anything, and then went up.
“Then, have a good time.”
He’s saying hello like an innkeeper.
The distribution of the rooms is natural, but it was 3 females and 3 males.
“I wasn’t expecting anything in particular, but I’m a little hopeless.”
“There is a lot of work ahead. I can’t afford to worry about that.”
“I know. Well, that’s just it… … .”
“By the way, Caspal, there’s something I’d like to ask you.”
I left the shy Dimitri alone and called Caspal, who was making the bed.
“What are you doing?”
“What do you mean the family you just talked about has rotted away? Come to think of it, the hair color is also completely different. Is there something complicated about it?”
“… … .”
Caspal was silent at my question. I gave Dimitri a sneak peek to help with the question.
“Hmm, I wonder too. At first glance, you both seemed like nice people.”
Dimitri also helped me with my question to see if he was bothered.
“What are you doing with your mouth shut after teasing a lot? I have no choice but to speak.”
Caspal let out a sigh. And sat down on the bed. The old bed creaked slightly.
“It’s long to say, but it’s a simple story if you wrap it up.”
“Simple story?”
“It’s just that both his father and older brother, who look good to him, are actually very ugly people.”
When he said that, Caspal’s face didn’t show the usual tiredness or even the slightest bit of mischief. I felt only contempt and disgust.
“Fortunately, though, my blood is thicker than the blood of the two of them. That’s why the hair color is different.”
Caspal added with a light laugh. It was a genuinely happy smile.
“Different blood?”
“yes. You can easily guess from the color of my hair, but I am the son of my second wife.”
Caspal’s face was expressionless when he said that, but it seemed that he was suppressing his emotions somewhere.
“When you say second wife, it means you had a previous wife.”
“Well, yes. I heard that he died in the middle of the war. Neither of them gave much detail. If you come to know, wouldn’t it actually be divorced or divorced? I think so.”
“Don’t you trust your father quite a bit?”
From the outside, he seemed like a pretty good person, but in reality he wasn’t. I sneakily scooped up Caspal.
“There are few creatures as rare as a trustworthy father. How is the Crown Prince?”
“… … hmm. There is no easy answer to that.”
And it came back with a much harder question to answer. To me, it is difficult to answer purely because the father and the emperor are not the ones to discuss trust. Because you don’t usually trust your enemies.
“My second wife, my mother, was an aristocratic woman who fell for sticking to the twist. After wandering here and there, I came to this family as if I was sold as a good bloodline.”
“A good bloodline?”
“Because she was the owner of the magical power of water, my mother. Although it wasn’t that great.”
It is said that preferential treatment to water magic began even before Iron Blood completely unified the continent.
However, in order to receive the preferential treatment, after welcoming families with water magic here and there, it resulted in a pitiful ending that almost no owners of pure water magic had disappeared.
“Well, the result was the magical power of the fog, which was not very useful. It’s commonplace.”
Caspal seemed to know that as well, and said with self-deprecation.
“Your magical power is never cool. You did a great job fighting the thieves, didn’t you?”
“I think so too. Don’t lower yourself the magic I hold high.”
Dimitri and I immediately denied Caspal’s words.
“It’s okay if you don’t have to comfort me.”
“I’m not trying to comfort you, I’m serious. Please do not dismiss my words as consolation.”
The magic of Caspal’s fog is far more useful than the magic of water depending on how you use it. I don’t want to be stuck by underestimating my abilities.
“… … Then I will gratefully accept it. I’m glad you appreciated it.”
Caspal replied with a wry smile. It was a somewhat disconcerting sight that I couldn’t understand. He thought that he might have had a bad experience with his magic power.
“Well, from what I just said, I understand why the hair color is different. But why are the father and older brother so ugly?”
I changed the topic thinking that continuing to talk about this would only make the atmosphere worse. It doesn’t seem like it’s a hot topic, though.
“… … .”
Caspal averted his gaze and was silent. It was the doctor’s expression that he did not want to talk.
“Then ask directly.”
But I don’t intend to come here and be frustrated. I ignored Dimitri’s fidgeting and stepped in front of Caspal.
“What is the reason for your hatred?”
Then he stood with his hands behind his back and asked briefly, but clearly.
“… … If you really want to hear it, I can’t help it.”
Caspal, who had been silent, sighed as if he couldn’t win.
“It’s a simple story. Because they killed my mother.”
Caspal, who said that, had a somewhat relieved face.
“I think it will be too heavy and long to listen lightly. Are you okay?”
“It’s good. We can share a consensus.”
This situation is not too different. I sat next to Caspal.
“… … what is it. Would you like me to leave?”
“Just let it be.” “Just stay here.”
I felt a little sorry for the restless Dimitri.
“I’m asking in advance just in case.”
I rhymed before Caspal started talking.
“Is it related to the mine closure incident five years ago?”
“… … If you have too good a sense, you will be hated, Crown Prince.”
Caspal said with a sigh as if he was tired of it. My expectations were not very wrong.
“As expected by the Crown Prince, everything started when the silver line was cut off.”
I heard that the mines here once accounted for 80% of Sangvis’ silver production. Of course, this is a story from 5 years ago.
“Thanks to the sudden cut off of the silver line in the midst of accumulating wealth, the family as well as the villagers fell into a panic. It was a town with nothing but silver veins.”
As Caspal had said, it could be expected that even nomadism would not be easy in this barren land. To be honest, it’s amazing how the village is maintained.
“People, including my father, dug deeper, saying that if you dig a little deeper, something might come out. I didn’t even know what else to do.”
“Something happened because of that.”
“yes. Death appeared.”
Caspal said as he lay down on the bed.
“Can you tell me specifically what the death was?”
“To put it plainly… … It should be called black fog.”
black fog.
It was a word similar to the black beast Ethel had spoken of.
“After digging and digging, the miners, who reached an unprecedented depth, struck the black hard rock covered in pitch blend with their pickaxe, and a black mist spewed out.”
Maybe it was some kind of toxic gas? I don’t know the details, but I remember hearing somewhere that there were harmful gases coming out of mines.
‘… … But I can’t think of it that simply.’
When I remembered what Ethel had said as if it were a black beast and expected, I had a hunch that there must be something more. It’s not strange no matter what happens in a town where something similar to radioactivity is chaos or something.
“What happened when you touched that black mist?”
“At first it was fine. I was surprised at first, but everyone took it for granted. By the time the fog came up through the tunnel, I slowly realized that something was wrong.”
Caspal stretched out his hand as he lay down.
“But it was already too late.”
and covered his eyes