◆ Chapter 22: I Wish Someone Else Knew How I Feel
“THE dragon is nowhere in sight, m’lady!”
“Good! Then let’s hightail it outta here before the miner zombies catch up!”
We scramble out of the dark cave into the sunlight. We weren’t in there more than an hour, but it feels like an eternity since I was last outside. As much as I would love to rest, the zombies are still an immediate threat. After making sure the dragon isn’t around, we resume running to escape the miner zombies.
“Th-Think this is far enough…?” Exhausted, Rosso flops down on the ground after we’ve run for a while.
If it wouldn’t dirty my school uniform, I would be all for rolling in the grass and leaves right about now. Nady comes up beside me and puts her arm around my shoulder to support me.
“Are you all right, Mizuha?”
“Yeah, thanks. You—seem like you still have plenty of energy to spare.”
“I was trained to run through forests and mountains…”
Sounds like a Spartan upbringing to me. I won’t judge if it’s a good or bad way to bring up a kid, but at least all that training is paying off right now.
At any rate, I’m surrounded by people with serious stamina, including Nady, Iris—who is intently staring at me with a euphoric smile—and a completely unfazed Lex. Rosso is the only normal one.
“Our destination is near here, so this is a good spot to collect ourselves,” Lex says, looking into the distance.
Trees span out in every direction. I have no idea what he’s looking at, but I hear running water, although it was hard to tell at first because heavy panting drowned out the sound. We seem to be close to the water source.
Knowing we don’t have far left to go has the curious effect of giving me an extra energy boost. The rush of water grows louder as we advance. We pass through the trees that had formed a sort of natural gateway into the next area, and we’re greeted by a lake that reaches farther than the eye can see.
Looking to the far left, I see water overflowing from the many rugged rocks in the ground. In Japan, there are places where several tons of water pour out daily, and this spot is comparable to that. It’s continuously flowing into the lake.
“It’s amazing…and reeks…”
“Iris believes her goddess should spit saliva right now.”
“Please don’t place your hands under my mouth. I’ll spit directly into the water, thank you.” Am I the only one who doesn’t want to touch other people’s spit? No, the majority of people think that way. Repulsed by Iris’s disturbing fetish, I redirect the conversation toward Lex. “I just have to purify the land around the spring, right?”
“Yes, m’lady. That should do the trick if Master Pino’s experiments are anything to go by.”
It doesn’t matter how clean the pooled water is if the water flowing into it is infected. Pino did a bunch of experiments to solve that problem. Like Lex and I just discussed, purifying the land around the spring source should purify the spring water in the process.
“The only catch is that the purified state can only be maintained by a holy flower, but the purifying effects of the flower dwindle with time,” Lex points out.
“In other words, it’s a race against time. Everyone, face the other way. No looky-loos. You hear me?”
“Loud and clear. Please don’t mind us.”
Everyone offers the same assurances as Lex, so I immediately start the purification process. After purifying the surrounding area by wetting the ground, I spit into the lake. I hear a droplet hitting the water. As the ripples spread, the poisonous color instantly turns a crystal clear blue. The lake’s purification is completed in the blink of an eye. Clean water flows from the spring without issue as well.
“You can look now! …Ugh.” I go ramrod stiff when I turn around. The others are scooping up the purified lake water and drinking it from their hands.
“Freshly made holy water is exceptional,” Lex remarks.
“I’m alive again! My throat was hella parched!” Rosso exclaims.
“Incredible. So this is how purification works… It tastes amazing too!”
“Goddess! My goddess’s… Glub, glub, glub!”
Everyone looks so refreshed their exhaustion is nowhere to be found. There’s nothing better than for them to be reenergized. However, I wish they understood how I feel watching them drink from what I just spat in. For now, I settle for pulling Iris’s head out of the water and shoving the traumatizing incident out of my mind.
“All that’s left is planting the holy flowers nearby and we’re finished, right?”
“Yes, m’lady, that should prevent the surroundings from rotting.”
“Let’s hop to it then. Help me out, guys.”
Everyone takes a holy flower out of their bags and plants them all over the ground. It doesn’t take a lot of effort, so the job is completed without a hitch.
“The floodgate is the only thing left,” I say, dusting the dirt off my hands.
“The other side of the floodgate connects to the Noor River, which gently descends the Bebetor Mountains. And this side connects to the Cladorca Canal.”
As I listen to Lex’s explanation, I look at the two floodgates built at the edge of the lake. Both seem to have a mechanism to raise and lower the wall. The Cladorca Canal side is slightly down, while the river side is almost halfway down.
“I wonder if this is how they have always had it set to stabilize their water supply.”
“I heard from Master Pino that even taking a minuscule amount from here is more than enough to supply their whole city.”