Weishardt felt perplexed by this, too.
He’d heard the aftereffects of failing to subjugate the red dragon had put the alchemist in danger. It had not been disclosed to the public that routine Labyrinth operations were taking place under the Labyrinth Suppression Forces’ base. Even if there were a possibility of strong enemies appearing in a shallow stratum at the time of defeat, there had been no measures taken to prohibit entry to the Labyrinth in case of emergency. But considering the importance of the alchemist, a squad’s worth of soldiers should have accompanied her at all times, even if that meant they had to give a forceful reason for it. At the very least, they would have known what the Forces were doing and told her to gather herbs on a different day so she wouldn’t enter the Labyrinth during a subjugation involving unknown factors.
Under normal circumstances, they would have brought Nierenberg along, and Weishardt had expected two adventurers on the verge of A Rank to be strong enough to handle any problems. His attention had been divided by the Forces’ fight against the red dragon, and he felt his ignorance of the alchemist’s actions was his own blunder.
As a result, the Black Iron Freight Corps lost a talented young man protecting her.
Dick and Malraux had originally been members of the Labyrinth Suppression Forces, and they had considerable experience in losing comrades in the line of duty. It wasn’t that they’d gotten used to losing cherished friends, but they’d learned how to come to grips with death, understand the cause, and move on. Even more so for Leonhardt and Weishardt. They’d been under the impression the alchemist was the same.
He’d invited her to the estate to explain and apologize for the situation regarding the red dragon subjugation and to renew his resolution to move forward together. However, the alchemist looked haggard and showed no sign of overcoming the death of the young man named Lynx.
It would be easy to take all the blame and express the connection between Lynx’s death and the red dragon subjugation. He could have explained how he’d failed in his duty to inform her of that possibility and prevent her from entering the Labyrinth. However, Weishardt knew that wouldn’t help her overcome grief.
The subjugation of the Labyrinth would continue. Dick and Malraux had declared they would participate. They could die in battle, and her acquaintances in the Labyrinth Suppression Forces she had developed a strategy with could all perish, too. If she blamed herself and wasted away every time, she wouldn’t be able to endure the struggle from here on out.
Sending Mariela and Sieg back to Sunlight’s Canopy wasn’t because the place had been set up with a sufficient defense system. It was because making potions around the clock in a subpar environment wouldn’t lead to productivity. What he hoped for from the alchemist wasn’t just an increase in the number of potions, but for her to lead them to a clue in capturing the stratum with her knowledge and ideas.
She couldn’t make the special-grade “Ice Spirit’s Protection” potions yet. They hadn’t obtained the red dragon scales for the “Demi-Dragon Medicine,” the polymorph medicine that could transform one into something like a demi-dragon and allow them to function in harsh environmental conditions.
Currently, Mariela still hadn’t processed Lynx’s death. All she did was gloomily make potions. At first, when the Labyrinth Suppression Forces brought in a large bushel of gathered lunamagia, she repeatedly ran out of magical power and collapsed until the lunamagia was all used up. Abusing herself wouldn’t allow the departed to rest in peace.
Which means she doesn’t put up a front… She needs time.
With this in mind, Leonhardt and Weishardt had deliberately tried to make trifling conversation as they sat at dinner with her. First, she needed to get her smile back. If she sorted out her thoughts, she would start to stand on her own two feet again.
Now, what’s to be done…?
Weishardt was lost in thought. With the deliveries, they had been able to maintain sufficient stock of high-grade potions up to this point. However, he had no bright ideas regarding the red dragon. They’d found a means of surviving through Elmera’s husband, Voyd, neutralizing the dragon’s breath. But when Weishardt had indirectly asked for his help, he turned him down. Even if the Forces were protected and managed to pull the dragon to the ground, they had no way to finish it off.
Currently, the only measure the Labyrinth Suppression Forces could take was to send soldiers to each stratum in the Labyrinth to reduce its power and prevent its growth even just a little.
In short, everything was at a stalemate.
✦ ✦ ✦
It was a land of death where earth and stone had melted and hardened—where plants could no longer grow.
Resembling the fifty-sixth stratum impeding the Labyrinth Suppression Forces, this place lay deep in the Fell Forest.
It was one of the sites of a bloody battle during the Stampede that had happened two hundred years ago.
The power wielded by the Sage of Calamity had alighted in this ravine of the Fell Forest, burned the heavens, melted the earth, and consigned the A-rank monsters that roamed here to oblivion. It had been said that the momentum of the monsters attacking the Kingdom of Endalsia had been greatly reduced from this.
A handful of people had managed to survive. The Schutzenwald family’s troops had arrived to provide relief immediately after the Stampede and managed to secure an area for people to live.
Even now, there were traces of the battle that remained. Although the area of scorched earth had shrunk in size over the years, it remained a land of death where plants didn’t grow. Two hundred years ago, it was a dangerous area inhabited by A-Rank earth dragons; the only people who had been here were high-ranking adventurers like Dick.
Not even the Fell Forest was spared from the drizzling rain that continued to fall.
Since there were no trees to block it from the barren land, the rain whittled down the melted and hardened earth little by little at its weak points, cracking rocks. After being weathered by the wind and water, the place would probably eventually allow normal growth again.
In an area near the forest, piles of fallen leaves had rotted and turned into dirt, fallen seeds were sprouting, and the forest was spreading. Tall trees had sprung up, and a sudden bolt of lightning struck one of them.
The tree split and collapsed as it burned. The impact of lightning and the dull thud of a collapsing tree weren’t terribly uncommon. Other than the birds who couldn’t fly away in the rain, huddling together in the shelter of the trees, no one made a fuss over the lightning’s impact. Nothing living in the Fell Forest noticed a hole had opened in a section of the ground from the fallen tree.