The place we were heading to under Lariel's request was near the mountain range in the northern part of the Lovile Kingdom.
My face grimaced as I saw the rows of abandoned villages and the nearby barren mountains.
“The condition of this area’s earth veins are, oh? It’s not as awful as I imagined……”
“Majou-sama~ it seems like there are still people living here."
I surveyed the barren mountains and the surrounding land with mana-strengthened eyes.
The flow of the earth veins’ mana in the downstream region felt weak but, surprisingly, I didn't find any major mana-related problem in the place where the root of all the problems lie.
In fact, I can sense the vigorous vitality of the fields and the forest with the mana flowing out of bare mountains.
However, the town itself looked desolate maybe because it hadn't been developed and the populace was surviving using the only remaining sound buildings.
"Let's visit the town first."
"Okay-nanodesu."
Teto and I walked through the town but seeing that even what looked like the guild building was unmanaged and abandoned, we gave up on it and instead found an inn with a restaurant and entered inside.
The owner of the restaurant, a male dwarf, was sitting listlessly on the store's seat.
"Oh, Miss. Welcome to my humble shop. Are you a traveler?"
"Yes. Can we have dinner and some information about this town?"
"We want delicious food!"
"I'm sorry, Missy. I don't have enough food to offer to some strangers. I do want to cook but the nearby towns and villages took priority since they had a bad harvest. Though the inn service is available."
I took out things from my magic bag and gave them to the dwarf shopkeeper who apologized to us for the inconvenience.
"Wheat flour, orc meat, vegetables, freshwater dried fish, fruits, salt, and sugar. I wonder if you can cook with these ingredients?"
"Wh!? They, where did you get these......"
I continued my negotiation as the dwarf shopkeeper's eyes went wide with surprise.
"Anyway, can you make something soon since I'm providing the ingredients? Of course, I’ll pay for the cooking and you can keep any leftover ingredients."
"That's why please make delicious food!"
The surprised dwarf shopkeeper took a deep breath and cleared his expression at my request and Teto's carefree words.
"Of course, I’ll cook you something delicious with these ingredients! My hands have already been itching to make sumptuous dishes for a long while! And you said you want to know about this town, right? I can talk about it with you while I cook!"
After saying that, the dwarf shopkeeper, who accepted my request, began to speak about the town while cooking.
There were lots of mines in the northern region of the Lovile Kingdom and so a lot of dwarves immigrated here looking for them.
The dwarves who gathered for one uniform goal took over all sorts of work and built this town as a result.
"Hmm, such a scale is surely at the level of a town. But why is there no guild here?"
"The town's scale gradually became smaller when the dwarven blacksmiths left due to the closure of this town's mining industry and it naturally affected the guild."
"That must have been rough."
Teto chimed in with a smile while eating her roasted bread, made by dissolving wheat in water, with a side dish made of meat and vegetables.
"I didn't ask earlier, but for what reason did you come to this town?"
"We have come for the mine."
"Well, you’ll have to go back empty-handed then, unfortunately. The mines here sure used to yield magic metals like mana steel, Mithril, Orichalcum, and mana crystals but they're now closed. No one can get them since a large number of insect-type monsters from who knows where have entered the mines and made them their breeding ground."
"I see ........... Can you tell me about this in more detail?"
We listened to the situation of this town while eating the dwarf shopkeeper's strongly flavored dishes. We heard from him the history of this town.
It started with how a mine had appeared in the nearby mountain around 200 years ago.
A lot of dwarves immigrated to this place since in the mines scarce magic metals like Mithril, mana steel, Orichalcum, and «Mana Crystals» which let one store their mana were found. They then created and developed this town.
The town gave birth to lots of craftsmen especially at its prime, producing lots of weapons that supported adventurers and knights. Some were presented to the royal family and even exported to other nations.
“It was about 30 years ago. The dwarves working in the mines excelled at earth magic after all. Everything that could be mined from the mines was mined and they were then abandoned. The dwarven miners, dwarven blacksmiths, and human merchants left this town after they gave up on the abandoned mines. The outcome of that is the currently deserted town.”
“The people left behind didn’t follow them?”
We had already finished eating, and, after hearing the history of their town, I quipped while drinking tea prepared by the dwarven shopkeeper.
“We are the dwarves who were born and raised in this town. This is the only home we know of. Fortunately, we are adept in soil magic. So we were able to create farms in this forsaken town, and our bodies are also all sound. Besides, we may not be able to collect magic metals but we can still gather iron and silver in small amounts. Though, it’s just…….”
The mana of the land here wasn't weakening like elsewhere. People could still live here for tens of years at least, but it sounded like another problem was plaguing them.
"So there's still some problems?"
"Quite a good number of insect-type monsters are living in the abandoned mines and while they're not that strong, their numbers are increasing as the years go by. The situation has gotten so bad that we can't even dig normal metals recently and the mines have basically turned into mazes with the insect monsters digging around inside."
It should be difficult to exterminate them. And the reason behind their explosive propagation should be because of their exposure to the mana gushing out of the earth veins which enhanced them.
The aftermath of that was that they weren't troubled with the matter of bad harvest with the mana filling up their land unlike the awful situation in the lower regions of the earth veins but I guess this town doesn't have the money to commission for the extermination of monsters living in the mines.
"And that's the situation. We're currently watching the entrance of mine and exterminating any monster that comes out of there with the vigilante corps but, truthfully speaking, no one knows what's actually happening inside."
It wasn't to the point where a drastic change occurred overnight but the situation wasn't exactly bright either.
After all, it's Lariel of five goddesses who had personally requested my help in this situation.
"Our plan, for now, is to scout the inside situation."
"Maybe, we might even find a mountain load of mana stones!"
Dwarf ojii-san displayed a baffled expression when Teto and I replied so.
"You ladies will? I'm not gonna say anything unlucky, but I would advise against it."
"Is entry not possible, or do we need permission?"
"No, I don't mean that. You're dressed quite neatly for a traveler. You must be an aristocrat and her attendant, right? Heed my advice and don't think about challenging the monsters as some sort of trial."
Teto and I spontaneously burst into laughter upon realizing he had mistaken us for an aristocrat and her attendant who had just learned magic.
However, Uncle Dwarf was serious as he tried to persuade us against the idea.
"Don't laugh, I'm being serious here. The mines are really really deep. An amateur would be hard-pressed to break through the mines once they enter, and that’s not even mentioning how dark it is inside. There are even places choked with dangerous gases. The danger there isn't just confined to monsters. Don't throw your lives away for nothing."
"I'm sorry but we can't do that. However, I'm happy to hear uncle is seriously concerned about us."
"Thank you-nanodesu. But we're this type of people."
The guild cards were really useful at times like these.
Uncle Dwarf took the cards into his hand and was stumped when he saw our A-rank Adventurer guild cards and the «Flying Carpet» party name.
"We're a somewhat famous party with the name «Flying Carpet»."
"You ladies...... are A-rank Adventurers?...... However, I'm just a simple country man so I don't know about the «Flying Carpet» party. I'm sorry but I don't have the strength to check your abilities out......"
Uncle Dwarf said that and showed a troubled expression.
Apparently, he didn’t know of the weight of an A-rank Adventurer title nor the fame of the «Flying Carpet» party.
One needed to have a mana perception ability on a level higher than a C-rank Adventurer to judge the mana capacity of an opponent with mana so it was impossible for the dwarf shopkeeper to check and judge us properly.
"There are only D-rank adventurers in this town in the first place since it only has the abandoned mines. Why did A-rank Adventurers like you take the trouble to come to this countryside? You've even come from another country, I really don't get it."
The Iska Kingdom where we registered as adventurers and got promoted to A-rank must be a faraway place for someone from the Lovile Kingdom.
"I understand it might be baffling but I came here at the request of a certain someone."
"Certain someone?"
"Yeah, I won’t name the person but I’ve been asked by that person to do something. I think that request is related to the abandoned mines here."
"I see...... Alright. However, promise me. You two ladies must come back every day for a week. I’ll believe in you ladies if you are able to go into abandoned mines and come back consistently and I’ll be able to send you off with peace of mind."
Uncle Dwarf replied back with a serious look in his eyes.
It would be more efficient to ignore his request and directly check out the mines ‘til the inner region though......
"Very well. Then we will be renting this inn for one week. I'm leaving cooking to you."
"It might be needless worry from my side if you're really A-rank Adventurers however it’s impossible for me to feign ignorance to you two young ladies and not be nosy about this."
"Fufu, your concern for us is enough to liven up our mood. But you know, I'm 40 years old despite how I look."
"And Teto is 44 years old-nanodesu?"
Uncle Dwarf's eyes widened in astonishment when we mentioned our ages while showing the age section of our guild cards.
"You guys...... look young...... No, you both look too childlike to be humans. Do you guys perhaps have elven or dwarf bloodlines?"
"We just have lots of mana, that's all."
I replied so and then we decided to end our day in the inn of this town.
Afterwards, we also met with the inn's female dwarf proprietress but her young appearance and height of around 140cm made her look like a legal loli compared to the short and stout male dwarves with beards.
She looked like a petite 20-year-old young girl but one must not judge long-lived races of a fantasy world based on appearance as her actual age was 45.
There was also one more person一一
"Hurray, we finally have guests after so long!"
"Hey Arim, you’re being rude in front of the guests."
The daughter of the couple of this restaurant-cum-inn, a young dwarven girl, came back.
She looked to be around 12 years old like me, appearance-wise. The dwarven proprietress and she looked like siblings when standing side-by-side.
Maybe my appearance as an eternal 12-year-old might not be such an odd sight in this other world where legal lolis exist.
"Nice to meet you! I'm Arim. What’re your names, guests?"
"I'm Chise. For now, we’ll be under your care for one week."
"I'm Teto. Nice to meet you-nanodesu!"
"Chise-chan, Teto-chan, let's get along!"
Chise-chan, Teto-chan...... How should I describe it? A young girl-like treatment of us who were supposed to be adult women, at least mentality-wise, by a young girl kinda gave me an itchy feeling.
"Stop it, Arim! The guests are adults and more than twice your age!"
"Wha, really!? I thought Chise-chan is also the same age as me!"
I could only muster up a bitter smile at the young energetic dwarven girl.
"Arim-san, let me show a bit of magic."
I repeatedly opened and closed my palms at first to show that my hands were empty. Then I held my hands together as if holding something and activated the chantless «Creation Magic».
"Here, magic complete. Now open my palms."
"Okay. Huh, wahhh, it's candy!"
I opened my hands over Arim's palms and put the candies I made with «Creation Magic» on them.
The candies wrapped in oil paper were of strawberry, orange, and lemon flavors. Sweets were a luxury product in such a backwater town.
"You're amazing, Chise-chan! Is it really magic!? Are you sure I can have them!?"
"Of course, it's Arim's after all."
It was really disheartening to see common products like candies being treated as precious luxuries in this declining town.
Seeing the young energetic dwarven girl looking so delighted was a dazzling sight.
And her smile when I also gave one candy to both of her parents reminded me of the old days.
I remembered the time when Selene was young, I used to lightly tap her pocket while singing a song and then secretly put a biscuit in it with «Creation Magic» or play magic tricks like this and make candies appear in my palm while playing with her.
I felt slightly melancholic when I remembered my stepdaughter with whom I parted.
While Teto wasーー
"Majou-sama~"
"I know, I know. I also have Teto's share."
I clenched my fist again and used «Creation Magic» to produce new candies.
"You're the best!"
The dwarven couple showed an apologetic expression to me looking at the merry figure of their daughter as Teto also showed her delight with Arim-chan.
"We're really sorry. You have to give your items to us and our daughter......"
"Don't sweat it. I also like to see the merry expressions of kids."
We talked with Arim-chan and the proprietress about this town after that and then I spent some time with Teto in a double room.
