Volume 4 Prologue 1.3 (1/2)

Volume 4 Prologue Part 3

Translator: Reflet

Editor: Weasalopes

「You think there’s a relationship between the feng shui and the cave-in？」

「I can’t say for sure, but whenever the feng shui weakens or the current changes, I feel the ground weakening. I’ve thought this on numerous occasions. Not the plaza where the branching path begins, but the straight tunnel path and where the entrance’s firmly reinforced, ‘n then the bedrock that’s clearly wider than the tunnel crumbles and gets pulverized, causin’ this flashy cave-in. I’m thinkin’ it really might be best to suspect the feng shui.」

Hiroshi, knowledgeable in both engineering and excavation answered, Mio’s question with consideration, and everyone just fell silent again. If they were to accepted Hiroshi’s suggestion that the feng shui was at play here, there was a fair chance that another incident like this one would occur. After all, this was not an issue of excavation technique, so no one at the actual scene of the incident would have any way of preventing such a disaster.

「……So how exactly do we go about checking this out? Go to the temple as usual？」

「Yup, not really much else. With big feng shui comesa natural connection to most temples.」

Hiroshi said nothing to the contrary when Haruna asked him about their course of action. There was a high chance that the feng shui acting up was an indication of some sort of irregularity occurring in the temple. Still, the only countries whose temples’ locations were made available to outsiders were mainly Farlane and Darl, while Forre, whose feng shui was the largest, was a complete mystery to anyone outside the country, including the god it worshipped.

「I think the goddess worshipped in Forre went by the name Elza-sama, right？」

「That’s what I hear.」

「One of the five great gods, eh……」

Tatsuya and Makoto sighed simultaneously at how much of a sitting duck this goddess was.

「The moment we come here, we get a hint of trouble. I bet this country is in one heck of a conundrum……」

「You act like this is new, but have we ever really found a country over here or over there where the higher-ups aren’t struggling with something?」

Tatsuya lamented yet another difficult situation, and Haruna burst out with her own remark as she grimaced. Unable to retort to that blunt comment of hers, Tatsuya just decided to gulp down the rest of his soup rather than say anything more.

「But I’d be really glad if the government didn’t get wrapped up in all this. We seem to be wrapped up in all the nationwide nonsense all the time, after all…」

「Well, it ain’t like we gonna get involved in the center of the country EVERY time, so let’s just try ‘n avoid that flag this time around, yeah?」

「Yeah, it’d be real good if we could, y’know. But wait, Hiroshi. The whole reason the central figures lay their eyes on us was because you kept going too far！」

「Farlane was a coincidence, and I’m purty sure that people had their eyes on us right away in Darl’s case……」

Hiroshi attempted to excuse his way out of Makoto’s harsh criticism. In actuality, had they not gotten themselves noticed in Farlane, the world would have probably been in crisis, but in the case of Darl, although they were monitored from the start by the royal family, it was Hiroshi’s fault that the group was forced to get involved in the events there, so he had no room to retort.

「Well, anyhow, returning to the first topic……」

「The first topic？」

「What’s that stone you mentioned obtaining？」

「Oh, that. It’s got a lotta mineral content, but it’s mainly iron ore. I was thinkin’ of usin’ it fer Haruna and the others in forgin’ ‘n smeltin’ practice. When I considered the amount o’potions that could be released or the amount o’work ‘n difficulty of dealin’ with the crushed bedrock when I removed it, I didn’t have no problem with takin’ it all.」