Part 37:
The Miner Shovels the
Bronze-Skinned Princess
✦ ✦ ✦
It was early in the afternoon, but the sky was black as a host of storm clouds gathered above the Kingdom of Darkness.
After Alan and the others saved the bronze-skinned girl and broke through the Obsidian Gate, they decided to camp in a nearby forest. Alan cut some firewood with his shovel and started a fire using the Shovel Friction. With his Shovel Rifle, Alan took down some wild boar and cooked them. Needless to say, the party were going to sleep in the safety of a Shovel Cave.
“My head hurts…” Catria knew in her heart this adventure was going to suck.
In any event, the party sat around the fire along with the bronze-skinned girl, warming her up.
“Um! Thank you for saving me, Master Mage!” The girl bowed again and again in gratitude. Her name was Kuronono and she was quite young. In fact, it was entirely possible she hadn’t yet hit fourteen.
Alan and Catria heard her story out while Lithisia was still resting in the carriage. Meanwhile, Alice and Lucy were in the middle of ascending to the next realm of existence.
“Master Mage, eh?” Alan couldn’t help but chuckle. Those were nostalgic words, in a way. When he first showed Lithisia his Wave Motion Shovel Blast, she had mistaken his shovel skills for magic as well. It appeared the shovel’s ability to fire Wave Motion Shovel Blasts just wasn’t an accepted truth in this world. “Now that I think about it, even you didn’t accept that the shovel was a beam weapon when we first met, Catria.”
“Of course I didn’t.”
Normal shovels didn’t fire beams. That was supposed to be—er, it was common sense.
“Um… Master Mage?”
“My apologies. My name is Alan, Alan the miner. This here is Catria, head of Rostir’s Holy Shovel Knights.”
“Head of the Holy Knights?!”
“You couldn’t be more wrong.”
An exclamation point appeared above Kuronono’s head as she looked up at Catria, her gaze filled with respect and longing. “Huh? But aren’t you a Holy Knight…?”
“Well, yes. I’m a knight of Rostir, but I’m no Holy Shovel Knight.”
“A knight of Rostir…! Lady luck is finally on my side!” Tears welled up in Kuronono’s hopeful eyes. She corrected her posture and once more bowed deeply to Alan and Catria. “Um! Please save the Kingdom of Darkness! No, um, please save the world, oh heroes from Rostir!”