I Became the Maid of the Lout Prince

Chapter 141

After meeting the salamander, a fire spirit, in the half-dwarf’s workshop, I quickly grasped what had been happening.

About a month ago, the mana in the air began to gradually decrease, and about two weeks ago, it was completely depleted.

Along with that, the wind and light elementals that roamed the air also disappeared.

The salamander explained that when it was on the verge of disappearing, surviving on the faint mana left in the furnace, it leaped out after smelling the mana flowing from my body.

That information alone was enough to infer the situation unfolding in this village.

‘Could it be a wide-AoE spell that drains mana...?’

Based on what this elemental was saying, that possibility seemed most likely.

Additionally, through the salamander’s explanation, I could understand why the villagers looked so unwell.

‘Of course, it’s natural since there’s no natural mana in the air.’

One might mistakenly think that commoners and animals don’t have mana flowing through their bodies in a world where only nobles can use magic, but that wasn’t the case in this world.

Basically, mana flows through the bodies of all humans. Of course, the maximum mana capacity of commoners is meager compared to that of most nobles, but the important thing is that it flows nonetheless.

Humans in this world were constitutionally designed to gain vitality by constantly circulating the mana internally generated in their bodies with the natural mana present in nature.

With no mana in the air now, everyone in the village looked exhausted.

Without mana from nature, constantly producing and releasing it would quickly drain the energy of ordinary people. In my case, it didn’t matter since I generated more mana internally than what leaked out. [Read this novel on Galaxy Translations only! / Axiomatic]

Also, dwarves are a race inherently less affected by mana in terms of their condition, so they would be relatively fine. Even as a half-dwarf, half of their nature would still be dwarf-like.

‘But... why did Ethan suddenly become depressed as soon as we entered the village?’

He’s basically a noble, so his maximum mana capacity is higher than that of ordinary humans. He shouldn’t be the type to wilt in this kind of environment.

I’ll need to look into that separately later.

Anyway, gathering mana from the air was a type of skill that ordinary humans couldn’t use. Usually, it’s magic that only demons closely related to mana or elementals can use.

However, elementals generally aren’t the type to come down to human society and cause harm, and to begin with, an elemental capable of absorbing mana on the scale of an entire village would have to be at least some kind of elemental king.

Since it’s unlikely that such a being would descend upon this small village, it’s rational to assume it’s a demon.

...And a fairly high-ranking demon at that.

“......”

As soon as the idea of a high-ranking demon being involved occurred to me, I felt my internal crisis detection sensor activate.

Feeling that further involvement here wouldn’t be good, I bid farewell to the salamander.

“I’ve heard your story well, Miss Salamander.”

{Do you know what’s going on?}

“Yes. I’ve grasped more or less what the cause might be.”

{Hooray! So you’re going to help?! If you follow the faint flow of mana, the place where mana is gathering is probably on the opposite side of this mountain....}

“Young Master Ethan, I think it would be best to return to the Blackwood Estate as soon as possible. It seems that something ominous is happening around here.”

As I said before, I didn’t want to get involved in troublesome matters unnecessarily.

[Read this novel on Galaxy Translations only! / Axiomatic]

Especially unlike quests in games that can be accepted and completed later at leisure, quests that have become reality were time-constrained in many ways, so I couldn’t carelessly accept this suspicious offer that might become a binding contract the moment I accepted it...

{Me, me too! I’ll help make the sword too!}

“...Pardon?”

{Hu-humans like it when we bless their weapons, right?! I’ll add my blessing to the weapon that dwarf makes! So, please! Please~!}

“......”

A fire spirit’s... blessing...?

And on a dagger forged by a dwarf...?

‘Crazy.... That’s almost epic-grade equipment...’

Even I couldn’t help but hesitate at the offer from the half-dwarf and the salamander, which was hard to refuse.

Struggling to suppress the desire in my heart, I cautiously asked Ethan for his opinion.

“What do you think, Young Master Ethan?”

“Huh?”

“Do you intend to help the dwarf craftsman here and contribute to normalizing the village? Or are you concerned about facing unknown dangers and wish to leave this village?”

“...What do you think, Lilith?”

“I will simply follow your decision, Young Master.”

“......”

Ethan pondered with his hand on his chin after hearing my response as his exclusive maid.

Not only my gaze but also those of the half-dwarf and the salamander were focused on him at that moment.

Ethan’s response came back carefully. It was a bit defensive, but it was also the answer everyone wanted to hear.

“...For now, if it’s just investigation...”

“Pardon?”

“Let’s start by investigating what the cause is, and if it’s something we can resolve, we’ll do it then. If it turns out to be something beyond our ability to solve, we’ll have to retreat at that point.”

“I understand. If that is your opinion, Young Master Ethan, I will follow it.”

{You’re going to help? Really?!}

“So you’ll cooperate?”

“For now, we’ll start with investigating the cause. Whether we can resolve it or not will be decided after we understand the problem.”

“...Alright, I understand.”

{Yesss~!}

It did seem a bit dangerous for just Ethan and me to investigate this event alone.

...But the offer of epic-grade equipment was too tempting to simply refuse without a second thought.