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Chapter 259 – What the Ruined Continent Doesn’t Have

What the Ruined Continent Doesn’t Have

Around the time Hikaru was showing Deena some spells, the messenger Gorja was at the meeting with Vireocean’s Supreme Leader, Patricia Zylberstein.

Compared to other nations, the audience chamber was smaller, but the furnishings were all fancy and elegant. The first-class atmosphere of the room would be enough to overwhelm anyone—except for Gorja who simply acted normally.

「Are you the boss around here?」Gorja asked.「The city governor? Or perhaps the ruler of the continent?」

Watching the messenger not even kneel before their ruler, the knights didn’t even try hiding their displeasure. Patricia, however, didn’t seem bothered at all.

「No. I’m just this country’s representative.」

「Is this “country” big?」

「Depends. How big is your country?」

「My country, Dream Maker, is small, with a population of only around ten thousand.」

「That is indeed small.」

Contrary to expectations, Gorja readily divulged information.

「Vireocean has a population of over three million.」

「That’s a lot.」

He seemed genuinely surprised. Perhaps he actually didn’t know. Gorja then proceeded to ask questions about this country, which Patricia answered: how many cities were there, races, industry, how many countries, was the continent wide, what kind of monsters were there, among others.

Patricia asked some questions as well and gained information. In the Ruined Continent, Grand Dream, people only built cities on the west coast. There were no settlements anywhere else. A few people expelled from the cities lived outside, but that was it. While the continent itself was huge, the powerful monsters prevented them from getting control of the whole land.

「From what I heard, the city built during the initial immigration has long been destroyed.」Gorja said.「There are speculations that the ruins still remain, but none had confirmed it. No one would actually risk their life to check.」

「Monsters attacked so the people had to abandon the city?」

「Yeah. They would’ve been completely annihilated, but the natives, our ancestors, saved them from their predicament with magic items that could confuse monsters. They then escaped inland together with the new settlers.」

「Oh... We didn’t know there were natives in Grand Dream.」

「Apparently they were watching the new settlers. They probably thought monsters would attack them since your people drew too much attention. But they felt bad just watching so they saved them.」

「So interacting with the natives resulted in a mixed race. You seem to all have silver hair and purple skin.」

「Yup. The silver of the moon and the purple of the autumn bellflower. We are proud of our traits.」

Eventually, the conversation moved to the objective of the invaders.

「I know this sounds selfish, but we would like Gigy back. He’s our comrade who infiltrated this place.」

「So you’re aware you’re being selfish. First, let’s talk about terms.」

「We’ll withdraw our ships all the way back to Dew Roke.」

Patricia scoffed. Not even worth the discussion. You trespassed into our waters in the first place.

「What I want is Dew Roke, and compensation for damages.」

「There are more than a thousand people in that island, right? All of them just for one guy doesn’t sound fair.」

Oh, he’s basing this not in terms of interests or territory, but of human lives. He said there’s about 10,000 people in Grand Dream. Maybe to them, human life is valued heavily. Normally when a spy is captured, you just abandon them and pretend they don’t exist. Yet they’re negotiating for his return.

Gorja’s brows furrowed.

「You attacked us without any prior declaration of war.」Patricia said.「We and the other countries are prepared to fight you, you know.」

「In that case, how are you going to take responsibility for abandoning the original settlers? About a thousand of them waited for help to come. But you ditched them.」

「You want us to take responsibility for something that happened five centuries ago? How can you even say we didn’t try to rescue them? We couldn’t cross the sea because of the monsters. You should be well aware of that.」

「.........」

「It’s really simple. Just give us back Dew Roke.」

Gorja’s frown grew deeper.

「So you really insist on getting the island back.」

「We have zero tolerance for invasion of territory.」

「I want to talk to the commander about this first. Would that be all right?」

「Of course. The negotiations have just started.」

「Okay. I’ll be back tomorrow.」

Gorja was about to leave when he suddenly stopped in his tracks.

「By the way, can you send someone who can use mending magic to our ship? There’s some illness going around there.」

「Hmm? Don’t you have a doctor?」

「He’s not feeling well too. We searched for a skilled mending magic user in Dew Roke, but couldn’t find one.」

「Oh...」

Dew Roke was a hub for trade and the fishing industry. Nothing more, nothing less. If something happened, the people there could just come to Ville Zentra to receive medical attention. The Healer they had stationed there could only do first-aid treatment.

「I’m curious about this illness. Experienced Healers are rare. You should go talk to someone from the medical institution. If the person in-charge doesn’t mind, you can take one. Luke Landon will accompany them, of course.」

「That’s fine. Thank you. I don’t know if this is enough, but here, you can have this.」

Gorja took out a leather bag from his pocket. Inside were thumb-sized purple gemstones. They looked like amethysts, but deeper in color.

「What are these?」

「I know you can’t use our currency, so I picked out some gems.」

「Hmm... Very well, I’ll take it.」

「Thank you.」

Gorja then left together with Luke.

Patricia chuckled, holding back her laughter. Normally one would think getting back a whole island in exchange for one spy was impossible. But Gorja said he’d talk to the commander about it. They even wanted a Healer to cure their sick.

「They really value life, huh?」

We might be able to get back Dew Roke rather easily, she thought.

「My negotiation skills are quite something, don’t you think?」Patricia asked a knight, who smiled and nodded.

The Supreme Leader was in high spirits.

Deena was overcome with surprise from the various fire magic shown to her. Flames burned the land here and there, smoke rising from the charred spots.

「Satisfied? There are more powerful spells, but they’re dangerous.」Hikaru said.

「I can use them.」Lavia said.

「You don’t have to.」

Lavia, with her mask on, was enthusiastic, eager to cast spells, but Hikaru stopped her. They hadn’t shown Deena any complex spells, since those were Lavia’s secret weapons.

「Um, can you only use fire magic?」

Lavia shrank quickly.

「Huh? Wh-What’s wrong?!」Deena asked.

「Uh, yeah. Only fire.」Hikaru said.「There are other types, but we can’t use them.」

「I-I see. That’s unfortunate.」

「But we can use healing magic.」

Deena reacted like never before and sidled up to Hikaru.「D-Did you say healing magic?!」

「You’re too close.」

「I want to see it!」

「I said you’re too close.」Hikaru backed away from her a bit.

「Can you do it?」Hikaru glanced at Paula.

「I can, but without a wound, we can’t really tell if something’s healed.」

「Good point.」

「Y-You can injure me all you want! Come on!」Deena said, rolling up her sleeves and offering her arms.

Hikaru wasn’t really into hurting women. Deena crouched down, placed her hand on the ground, and smashed her finger with a rock.

「What? What the hell?!」

「Ouch! Owwww! It hurts!」

「Of course it does! Are you stupid?! Healing magic, now!」

「G-Got it!」

Paula quickly went to Deena’s side and took her hand. The nail on her middle finger was split open, blood dripping from it.

「O’ God who art in heaven, in thy name I ask for a miracle. In thy right hand thou offer the gift of life, in thy left the blessing of death——」

Golden light enveloped Paula’s body as she chanted the spell. Light traveled from her hand to Deena, who was teary-eyed and covered in sweat.

「O-Oh...」

The blood on the wound bubbled and Deena felt an itchiness as the pain faded away. Not a minute had passed before the wound closed.

「A-Amazing.」

「You idiot!」

「Eeek!」

Hikaru grabbed her collar and pulled her up on her feet.

「Who would even think of hurting themselves?! Only morons do that! I’m the one who guaranteed your safety and yet you ruined that! You are a complete and utter idiot!」

「I’m sorry.」

Deena felt so dejected that it looked like she might disappear. She was close to crying.

「Silver Face.」Lavia placed her hand on Hikaru’s shoulder, making him recover his composure.

「We’re done here.」

They headed back to the city.