At first I thought we would have more water than we could drink, and more food than we could eat once we reached the oasis, plus more baths than we could ever take, only to get there and realize that nothing is as I expected.

After we cross the white sand dune, the water source immediately enters our eyes.

Considering it’s a water source in the desert, you could say this place is both vast and lush, almost the same size as a lake. The overflowing fresh water gets darker in color as it gets closer to the center, and it’s very clear, so much so you could clearly see the pebbles under the water when you stand by the bank.

Since I can still only see light and shadows, and I can’t distinguish colors, Captain Sizemore is the one who told me all that from behind me. He still thinks my vision is so bad because I suddenly saw sunlight.

“Your Majesty, there is indeed a lake here, we should add it onto our country’s maps.”

“Captain, we can talk about the maps later. As long as I can drink and bathe, I don’t care if it’s a lake or river.”

From the rustling of the leaves in the wind and the swaying shadows, I can tell that there are a lot of trees here.

“And there are people staying here, too. Rather than say it’s a water source, it’d be better to call it a town.”

“Seems so.”

But what’s bothering us is that although there are houses here, there’s no sense of any people at all. Maybe it’s because we’re still very far away, but not only can’t we hear any talking sounds, we can’t even hear approaching footsteps, could this be an GHOST TOWN?

Maybe he noticed my suspicions, because Conrad rides his horse to my side,

"These aren"t ruins, you know? There are even newly-built houses here."

“Everything looks white to me, what is this town made of? Stones?”

“They should be bricks made of mud and animal feces then dried in the sun, they look considerably st.u.r.dy too. As for the lake… Ah, yes, it should be a quarter of the size of Fenway Park[1], surrounded by 25 to 30 buildings around the sides. There doesn’t seem to be special buildings like a church or shops, but this many buildings is already sufficient for a town and relay point. Oh, yeah!”

There’s laughter in his breathing.

“There are a lot of clothes hanging out to dry, so it shows that the people here have benefited greatly from the water. It’s strange that there’s not a single person out, though, since it’s obviously still quite some time before nightfall.”

“What are you saying? Ah, that’s right, you’re explaining these sights to your blind master, right?”

Saralegui, finally awake, speaks with a volume everyone can hear. Dacascos takes a while but he manages to catch up to us, asking worriedly, “You still can’t see?”

But Saralegui’s will is really scary. Even though he’s been blindfolded, and his movements restricts, he doesn’t seem uneasy or dejected at all, instead he’s extremely interested in his current situation.

Who would have thought his fantasy-like looks hid such thick skin? I’ve been completely duped by him, to the point where even I am surprised by my own stupidity.

In front of Conrad, the Shou s.h.i.+maron boy king straightens up unnaturally, maybe he uses his shoulders and arms to get rid of the blindfold, because I can feel his golden eyes looking at me.

“Good morning, Your Majesty Saralegui. You seem to have slept well.”

“Exactly right, Your Majesty Yuuri. Lord Weller’s chest is so comfortable to sleep on, how I envy you for having such a wonderful subordinate. But he’s Dai s.h.i.+maron’s emissary, right? In that case, why would he obey your orders while we were underground? Do you have some secret pact with Dai s.h.i.+maron?”

“There’s no such thing.”

“Is that so? But you’re too smart, I find that very hard to believe.”

I knew a long time ago that his tongue is deadly poisonous, so I can’t let him rile me up.

Before I start feeling unhappy, I need to think happy thoughts—like water, food, baths. This is just as I thought, there’s enough water for me to bathe. I turn back and tell Sizemore in a purposefully bright voice,

“Captain, since there’s no danger, let’s enter the town. Where are Wolfram and the others? Hazel and Ajira-san should have arrived already too, and it’s very weird that there isn’t a single person in town… Don’t tell me…”

“Y-Your Majesty, ‘don’t tell me’ what?”

Sparkly Dacascos asks timidly. It’s okay now that there’s still sunlight, but once night falls, I’m no confident I can recognize him.

“Don’t tell me some scary dinosaur or huge squid ate everyone in town?”

“I-in this calm-looking lake!?”

“Your Majesty, squids are salt.w.a.ter animals. And if the people were all eaten, there wouldn’t be so many freshly-washed clothes, right?”

“G-good point.”

I struggled but got off the horse, walking towards the patch of aqua blue. If I’m scared because I can’t see, I may not dare to put even one foot forward. But I still stretch my arms out, so that I don’t trip over any obstacles and fall. If someone else saw me, they might probably think I’m a zombie. Honestly, right now I really feel extremely embarra.s.sed, no matter what I won’t let my beloved daughter see me like this.

The cold breeze blowing across the surface of the lake reaches my face and neck, and the white s.h.i.+rt I borrowed blows in the wind as well.

As I walk on the little path between the houses to reach the waterfront, the feeling underneath my feet immediately changes. That feeling is different from the solid hard ground, so soft people might mistake it for a beach. I hear footsteps on the wet sand behind me, and know that Conrad is following closely behind me.

“It’s water.”

Although I’m not so thirsty anymore, the painful memories from my time underground still makes me kneel by the water. The cool water laps over my fingers, buried in the sand, then recedes.

“It’s water, Conrad, there’s actually so much water.”

“A priceless treasure in the desert.”

When I bring my face to the surface, there’s a freshwater smell different from that of seawater. It"s freshwater and a whole lot of it.

And it’s precisely then, that I sense for the first time that there are people in the town.

A door opens and closes roughly, and I hear a man giving a panicked warning,

“Yuuri you can’t, the water has been polluted!”

“Wolfram?”

Before I can raise my head, someone’s already pulled me up by the collar, what a close call.

“You said polluted?”

What a rare word in this world.

Even if he says this water has been polluted, it looks very fresh and clear. It even smells like mineral water.

Wolfram pulls my hand and brings me into a building, it looks like the Seisakoku resistance led by Hazel and the four s.h.i.+n Makoku soldiers Sizemore brought are all here.

“Why does everyone look so serious?”

Dacascos asks, all carefree, and Hazel doesn’t answer him, instead calling out to me,

“Your Majesty.”

Since the room is slightly dim, I can’t tell where she is, so I have to deduce her position from her voice.

“I heard, Hazel. What’s the matter, what do you mean by polluted?”

“You didn’t drink the water, did you?”

“I almost did. But it smells and feels normal, why would you say it’s polluted? Could this be Shocker’s[2] doing?”

Shocker is an organization Murata really admires. It seems they sometimes poison Tama Lake[3], and sometimes release a poisonous gas that strips people of their motivation to work, sort of like the Poison Lady of Earth. If Shocker doesn’t show up in the weekly must-watch episode of Kamen Rider, Murata will sigh dejectedly.

“Someone put a houjutsu on the water, and a tricky houjutsu too.”

“They polluted the water with houjutsu--!?”

The image of water pollution in my head immediately shatters with a crash. The original images were—stiff like colorful industrial waste from factories, or thick smog from tall chimneys, or the water surface being dyed never-before-seen colors, with countless fish floating belly up, and then scary poison monsters claw apart the mud and appear etc. And some chemicals mixing in the water, to cause mutations in the fis.h.!.+

“W-where are the half fish people?”

Conrad purposely clears his throat,

“Your Majesty, in order to protect their good name, let me explain, the maidmer always stay in clean seas.”

“Ah, sorry… But Hazel, you said houjutsu pollution, so you mean that although this is such a large lake, not a single drop of water inside can be drunk?”

“Apparently it can only be used to clean.”

Oh, that’s why they gave up on everything, and washed a ton of clothes.

“So all the people left the town of their own accord, and moved to another place?”

“No, most of them are still staying here. After all abandoning their hometown and moving far away is full of obstacles, and they need to protect the water source generations of their ancestors left behind. You see, they’re desperately doing this kind of work, just like that.”

There’s the sound of rubbing hinges, they probably opened the door of the next house, it’s just that in the dim room, I still can’t tell what’s in front of me.

“I see~~ They split a large water trough into two halves, one above the other, and connected them using a thin pipe in the middle. The trough on top is half-filled with water, sand, crushed pebbles and dead leaves, but the bottom trough is almost completely empty, who would have thought that was to catch the water dripping through the pipe. In other words this is a Seisakoku-style water filter? But waiting for one drop of water is already taking so long I want to fall asleep, and who are these four s.h.i.+nzokus staring at the apparatus unblinkingly? Hazel?”

Conrad, thank you for that explanation that’s as detailed as an educational program, I will never forget your great kindness.

It’s thanks to his appropriate descriptions that I come up with the image of a factory manufacturing make-up for different ages in my head. And every time she sees those ads, Mom will start fussing over whether or not she should by those make-up products.

“These four seem to be performing purification houjutsu, to make the polluted water drinkable. The other remaining residents are also doing the same thing, but it’s hard enough to purify enough drinking water for all these families. It takes so long, no wonder they can’t acc.u.mulate any pure water.”

“I see, so this is simple filtration… Ah, using houjutsu to purify the water, right? And it takes so long I almost fall asleep to purify a few drops, what an inefficient task.”

“But they still have to purify drinking water, and even save some for pa.s.sing travelers like us.”

“So they’re not only purifying water for themselves to drink, how n.o.ble of them.”

“We got here first, so we discussed it over with them, to see if they could spare us some drinking water. Because we really need water whether we’re going forward or back, but it seems they can’t provide enough water to let us all continue on our journey. After all, acc.u.mulating some takes several days already.

“I think so too, after all they have to purify one drop at a time.”

I place my hand on my forehead and look upwards, the wound under the bandage throbbing. Is there any more efficient way, to filter a lot of water at once?

“Aah, I thought of something good! I once saw in a creepy magazine, you can use the power of the pyramid! Just make a pyramid-shaped rack like this, and the water in the cup you put inside will become very tasty. And if you put old milk inside, it’ll even become natto.”

“What did you say!? Animal milk can turn into rotten beans!?”

“Ah, sorry, my mistake. The milk becomes yogurt, and beans become natto.”

Sizemore heaves a long sigh of relief. Wait a sec, if this theory is correct, the power of the pyramid only makes food rot…. No no no, not rot, I mean ferment. But what happens after such important water ferments, is beyond me. If Murata were here, he would definitely answer immediately.

“What about we just build a pyramidal structure over the lake? Maybe this way can even restore the polluted surroundings to normal. Ah~~ But where do we find the materials? Captain, could you get us a bamboo stick that can be adjusted so that they can become really long?”

“But Your Majesty, even if you restore the whole lake, there’s no point if they use the same houjutsu on it again.”

I exclaim “Ah!” and then shut up. Hazel’s right, there’s no point if we don’t treat the root of the problem. Speaking of which, who polluted the lake with houjutsu and why? First we need to understand the whole story.

“Apparently two tribes of equestrian people are warring over this water source, and one side used the polluting houjutsu to be able to monopolize the water.”

“When you say equestrian people, do you mean those guys who attacked you on the surface?”

“Those guys were one of the tribes as well.”

“I see, the equestrian people are s.h.i.+nzoku too, no wonder they can use houjutsu—”

I heard before that in the desert lands in the north, there are a few tribes of equestrian people fighting for domination in the name of protecting the royal tombs, but I never heard that they would even fight over a precious water source.

“Mn—Since they will surround us out of nowhere, and aim crossbows at us, there’s no point in asking us to undo the curse, either.

In a time like this, we could really use Poison Lady"s help. If Miss Anissina was here, she would help invent many things like a ‘Nullification-kun’ that reflects all unreasonable curses and houjutsu, or something convenient like ‘Drinking Elephant No. 3” that can instantly purify any polluted water through its long nose.

This kind of situation sure is upsetting, like a well-timed safe hit that never comes, when you don’t need her you see the Poison Lady everywhere.

“About that—At times like this shouldn’t we ask what houjutsu is it first? Maybe they’ll tell us if they’re in a good mood.”

“Who do you want to ask!?”

Those words make me turn around despite myself, but Dacascos just stands there wordlessly. I’m about to ask why isn’t he reacting, but it turns out to be a language barrier—because I accidentally asked him in English.

This sort of international group is really so confusing. For example, Conrad, Hazel and I are talking in English; Hazel and her comrades as using the Seisakoku language; while I use the common language with the mazokus. So three languages cross over now, Ajira-san acting as the translator between Seisakoku and the common language, Hazel for Seisakoku and English, Conrad and I for English and the common language… It’s getting messier and messier.

When talking to Dacascos, only the common language goes.

“Dacascos, who do you want to ask?”

“The houjutsu user who did this, of course. Since it’s his houjutsu, he should know how to break it, right?”

“Could he possibly be that friendly—They didn’t hesitate to pollute the oasis everyone relied on for their own profit, y’know? Besides we don’t even know where they are, and there are a lot of people in the equestrian tribes, so we have no idea of finding out which one it is.”

Ajira-sa understand us, interrupting,

“Location, know.”

After that, Hazel who knows the inside information tells us what Ajira wants to say in English,

“In the past we found out where the equestrian people live through the residents in town. One side lives a day’s trip by horse north-east, the other is half a day away towards the north-north-west. There are other small tribes too, but their people aren’t as aggressive as these two.”

“But even if we got there, we can’t know which of them used the pollution houjutsu, right? Sorry, I meant even if we found that person, would the other party let us meet him so easily? For all you know he could be purposely hidden up, after all he’s an important ace~~”

“Hmph, if it was up to me, I’d give up this place and go to the next water source to stock up on our drinking water. Are there any other water sources ahead?”

"Map, there is not"

“There might be small-scale wells, but the map doesn’t go that detailed. Even if we rely on the map, it would be no use if we wander aimlessly.”

“But Your Majesty—”

Conrad says in the common language Captain Sizemore and Wolfram can understand,

“If there was a viable water source ahead, the equestrian tribes wouldn’t need to use houjutsu on this lake in order to monopolize it, right?”

“You have a point… This should be the only important stronghold… Mn?”

“Yuuri, what is it?”

“Hold on a sec.”

I keep musing over my words, trying desperately to gather some inspiration. There’s no water source ahead, this town and lake is an important stronghold, we might not find the houjutsu user even if we get to the equestrian tribe’s base…

“Hazel.”

Just in case, I call her in English. Although I don’t know what level my English is, it’s okay as long as Hazel and Conrad can understand me.

“What is it?”

“You patrolled this area before we arrived here, right?”

The grey head moves from left to right, but she also admits in a low voice, meaning I was right.

“Did you discover any equestrian people around here? Even if it’s one or two of them, whether they’re drinking in a bar or saying some annoying rude things to girls?”

“No, as far as I know there’s not even one.”

“Since this is an important stronghold, why is there not even one of the most basic lookouts?”

“Hng-hng~~” Hazel laughs with her nose,

“That is indeed unbelievable. If they were pretending to be residents and hiding in some house then that would be another matter.”

“That’s right, as long as they blend in with the locals, we won’t be able to recognize them, and we couldn’t find them even if we wanted to. Oh, yeah, Conrad, from your point of view, they shouldn’t have any large scale water sources, right?”

“That is merely my outsider opinion.”

He’s really too humble. Since he’s an experienced veteran warrior, and at the same time a seasoned traveler, he can’t possibly be an outsider to geography and traps. Plus he gained a lot of experience on Earth as well, if someone tells me he joined a merchant team crossing the Sahara Desert, I wouldn’t be surprised.

“If that’s so, they should really need the water here. Once they need water, what do you think they would do?”

“The equestrian people from north-north-west come here regularly for water, apparently, and the houjutsu user seems to be from this tribe as well. So they probably have a houjutsu user that can control the water quality.”

As I thought. But even if we go over, we might not necessarily find that houjutsu user… That way we can’t do anything.

No matter which field you’re in, there will be people like those who check out their love rivals or ball scouts. Once they go back to base and report what they find, those with more power will show up. Since the other side can be carefree and wait patiently, then they might also rush here to grab the upper hand.

Once I think of that, I can’t hide the smile in the corners of my mouth anymore.

“Then let him come to us.”

If right now the rumor gets out that a super strong helper came to the town, and became a new source of power, what would happen?

Since that person purified the polluted lake water, the equestrian people won’t be able to monopolize the water source either. Once they get wind of this, the equestrian tribe in the north-north-west would surely rush over here, and they would definitely send the houjutsu user who can control the water quality to recast the houjutsu.

Perfect~~ Then we just wait for them to rush over here in a frenzy.

“That’s why we need a pigeon to fly from one of the family’s drawers.”

Wolfram can’t stand my mumbling, retorting,

“Yuuri, even if ‘Pigeon Mail’ services go all over the world, they shouldn’t have a branch in Seisakoku, right?”

That’s right, it’s true we don’t have pigeons.