Chapter 70
Gerard had quickly bought plain clothes for Kӧnig and Eloise, and thanks to that, they managed to rent an entire floor of the inn.
But our plan—to eat a simple dinner and pick up rumors—failed completely.
Why? Because no matter what clothes they wore, those dragon siblings’ faces stood out way too much.
“Those two… they look like nobles.”
“Idiot, why would nobles come to a place like this?”
“Still, their faces are suspicious.”
“They’re way too handsome to be commoners.”
From the moment we stepped inside, eyes followed us. Even going upstairs, people’s gazes stuck like glue.
Well… even I had to admit, they didn’t blend in at all.
So, trapped on the third floor, we seemed stuck.
But not yet.
“Chuut.”
Because we had me—no, we had the dragon siblings.
Kreutz siblings, lifelong insomniacs cursed with overly sensitive hearing. Which also meant—
“…Good. I can hear them clearly from here too.”
From the third floor, they could still pick up every word spoken down in the tavern.
Eloise spoke casually, but Gerard’s face twisted.
“Eh? You can… hear something?”
He pressed his ear hard to the creaky floorboards, about to say more—
“Chut!”
Shh!
I glared and flattened myself against the floor.
Then, the voices came through, loud and clear.
***
“Heh, this ‘crystal’ business really must be worth money. I’ve never seen this many nobles in my life.”
The one who spoke had a rough voice, laughter followed by clinking mugs.
“It’s all a show for the count to fleece them.”
“Hey, watch your mouth! Talk like that will get you killed.”
But the drunk miner only raised his voice.
“Am I wrong? They’ve taken some old fairy tale from decades ago and dressed it up to scam everyone.”
“Well, at least it brought life back to town. We got some hush money in our pockets too, didn’t we?”
So—it really was Count Albón pulling the strings.
Why he was staging this charade, we didn’t know yet. But one truth came out:
“Crystal, my ass. It’s all lies.”
The bitterness in the man’s tone rang sharp.
No crystal had ever been found in Gelende’s open-pit mines.
“My grandfather’s grandfather scoured every inch of those pits, just to put food on the table. If crystals were there, they’d have been found long ago.”
“That’s right. I heard crystals usually show up in volcanic rock anyway.”
“Exactly. And those pits haven’t had volcanic rock for decades.”
The men sighed, half laughing. The only thing they pulled up now was intrusive bedrock from deep below.
Volcanic rock, bedrock… both are formed from magma, aren’t they? Then why would it matter?
I tilted my head, confused.
“Ha! Nobles don’t know the first thing about mining. They’ll never find a crystal, no matter how many come here.”
“Right. Only the count gets rich off this.”
Their mugs clinked one last time. It seemed their conversation was over.
Until the first man added one more line:
“…Unless, maybe, over there.”
***
The room upstairs fell into silence.
We all exchanged looks.
Over there? Another place besides the open-pit mines?
“But Gelende doesn’t have any other mining site,” Eloise murmured. She had visited once before, so she knew the lay of the land.
Yet the other miners nodded, agreeing with the drunk man’s “maybe.”
Kӧnig finally spoke:
“Could he mean that rocky mountain near town?”
In his words, I remembered the stony mountain I’d seen from the carriage.
It made sense. Bedrock was pulled from deep below… but volcanic rock? That could be found higher up.
“Chuuut…” I nodded, impressed.
And Eloise added, “If it’s the mountain stretching east, that’s the same direction where crystal was discovered in another village.”
Piece by piece, the puzzle came together.
The next step was obvious: we had to check with our own eyes.
So the next morning, we set out.
***
“See you later, then.”
Kreutz ‘siblings climbed into the carriage, disguised under plain hats. Gerard bowed low.
Unlike them, he had dressed quite sharply today.
“Chuut!”
Good luck, Gerard! I poked my head out of Kӧnig’s pocket to wave.
He was heading back to Baron Volken’s estate on a separate errand.
With Gerard gone, our carriage rattled along the rough stone road.
And then it appeared.
A rocky mountain, looming like a giant elephant across the barren wasteland.
Cracks in the cliffs held only dried weeds. Sheer walls of stone stretched endlessly. Nothing seemed unusual at first glance.
“We’re here, Your Grace,” the driver said.
Kӧnig and Eloise climbed down, scanning the surroundings.
“It’s larger than it looked,” Eloise noted, tilting her head back.
“This mountain’s tougher than most iron ore,” the driver explained. “The miners don’t bother with it. Too hard to chip, and nothing grows here. Even trees planted die fast. Every spring and fall, wildfires break out.”
“They still happen?” Eloise asked.
“Yes, my lady. Though no one panics anymore. Fires flare up on their own and then die out, same as always.”
“…Chut.”
I squeaked quietly. Self-burning fires weren’t unheard of. Back in Bear Mountain, near my secret stash, it happened often.
But only in one fixed spot, almost like a marked territory… that’s strange.
And then—
“Oh dear, there it goes again,” the driver said grimly, pointing up the slope.
“Chuut?”
Even though the day wasn’t hot or dry, smoke was curling up the mountainside.
My eyes widened.
But the strangest thing—
The fire never spread. It stayed in one spot, burning bright, then dying down as if confined by an invisible line.
“…You’re sure?”
“I’m certain.”
Kreutz siblings exchanged a loaded look.
“Chuu, chuut…?”
Wait—what are you two so sure about?!
