Chapter 182: Chapter 180 – The Drakon Passage

The Drakon Passage

The day after Hikaru accepted the special request.

「That’s it? Are you sure?」

『Yup. It’s done.』

「It doesn’t look like anything’s changed.」

『I said it’s done.』

「For real?」

『You don’t trust me, do you?』

「Well, you do look like a gluttonous, drooling, bizarre creature.」

Hikaru and Drake the white drakon were in a forest located in the middle of Pond and Leather Elka. They came to this place since the latter said a Drakon Passage was here.

It was starting to get dark. Worst case, they might need to make camp for the night. There were barely any vicious monsters around, so Hikaru believed they’d be safe.

In the middle of the forest stood a hill with a hole in it, too small to be called a cave. An experienced hunter might think a bear was hibernating in there.

Drake said the hole was the entrance to the Drakon Passage. The drakon mumbled some incantation and that was it. It was dark inside, but Hikaru’s Life and Mana Detection didn’t pick up anything.

「Hikaru. Let’s try going in.」Lavia urged.

「Okay...」

Drake wrapped himself back around Lavia’s neck. Hikaru took out a magic lamp shaped like a flashlight. The hole went surprisingly deep, although Hikaru had to crouch down just to enter.

「You two wait for my signal first before going in.」Hikaru said.

『You really don’t trust me, huh?』

Drake looked dejected. For a drakon, he sure is expressive and cocky, Hikaru thought.

As soon as he entered the hole, the path quickly turned to a downward slope. Hikaru proceeded onward, half-sliding down. The passage—made by simply boring through the ground—grew wider midway, and he could now stand straight up. The whistling of the wind indicated that the passage was connected somewhere.

「This isn’t a dungeon, is it? 」Hikaru wondered.

There would be life around if it was, but he didn’t detect anything. Soon the slope turned into level ground.

「Hmm?」

Hikaru noticed the air had turned warm. It felt like winter’s chilly grip loosened just a bit. As he advanced deeper, this time the slope turned upward. The feel of the earth seemed to have changed, but he couldn’t explain exactly what had changed, since he wasn’t a geological expert.

「Hm? Stairs?」

Nicely-shaped rocks set on the ground formed stairs, though some part of it had long crumbled. When Hikaru made it out, he found himself inside a small building—a shrine. He had no idea what kind of god was enshrined here, but a stone statue stood inside. On the entrance to the shrine was a double door, one side rotten and on the ground. From there, he stepped outside.

「No way...」

Hikaru stood there blankly, dumbfounded. He was in a deep forest just a while ago, and now he was on top of a hill. A town sprawled out below. Houses made primarily of sandstones lined the streets. The place looked just like the town where he freed Drake, Einganstadt.

There was still time before sundown—the sun sat a little bit higher in the sky than when Hikaru entered the hole, as if it climbed back up—and they managed to secure themselves rooms at an inn. Asking at the checkpoint would only draw suspicion, so instead Hikaru casually asked the owner of the inn where they were. As it turned out, they were in Nordenstadt, a town in Einbeast.

「Here you go. Eat up.」

『Yahoo! Deep-fried bread coated in sugar! One of my favorites!』

Hikaru brought Drake a bag full of deep-fried bread. Lavia and Paula already made themselves at home. After asking for tea from Paula, Hikaru turned his attention to Drake.

「So. What was that?」

『Like I keep saying, it’s the Drakon Passage.』

Hikaru knew already, but after seeing the real thing, he couldn’t help but ask.

「With those things, border checkpoints are pretty much useless.」

『I told you, holy mana is needed to activate the passage. A normal human being can’t use it.』

Drake talked as if these things were common knowledge. Verifying every single one of them was a pain. The Drakon Passage was a series of pathways that drakons used to travel all over the world. They were basically shortcuts. In this world, mana accumulated under the earth, running from one place to another. Hikaru didn’t warp through the hole, but rather for a moment, space was bent, allowing for short-distance travel.

Holy mana was more powerful than ordinary mana, able to perform things magic and sorcery couldn’t. Humans couldn’t accumulate this inside their bodies, but it was possible to seal it inside using a catalyst.

「How much mana did you use, then? You’re getting mana from Lavia, right?」

Lavia provided Drake with excess mana which the drakon converted to holy mana so he could recover his strength.

『Hmm... I used up every last bit I got today.』he answered, his mouth covered in sugar.

「So you can only use it once a day.」

『I can use it more than once if I got more mana.』

「Lavia, have you tried giving him all you’ve got?」

「I haven’t. Should I try it?」

「Yeah, go ahead. Of course, you don’t have to give every last drop you have. Just give him enough.」

「Okay. Are you okay with that, Drake?」

『Sure.』

Lavia placed her hands on Drake and closed her eyes. The drakon simply munched on his food without a care in the world. Hikaru crossed his arms, while Paula watched them with great interest.

「Here goes.」

Her hair seemed to stand on end. Then, the mana oozing from her body ballooned. This is just like what happened when I first met her, Hikaru thought. In the cell underneath the Morgstad residence, Lavia showed him her absurd amount of mana, how she was not normal. He could feel the immense power even from outside the cell, but watching it upfront was a whole different matter.

The tea-filled cup clattered on the table. Windows cracked.

『Huh?! 』Drake’s eyes widened.『Wait! Hold it! That’s too much!』

「What?」

Hearing Drake’s protests, Lavia’s mana quickly shrank.

『Incredible! I didn’t know you had that much! I thought humans only had a tiny bit of mana, so I’d been holding back. Maybe I should’ve absorbed more?』

「Th-Th-That was amazing, Lavia-chan! I thought you had incredible mana capacity since you could use powerful spells, but I didn’t expect this much.」

Even Paula was surprised. Lavia had 11 points on Mana. The average Mage wouldn’t be able to hold a candle to her. Among the people Hikaru had met, Lavia’s mana capacity was off the charts, save for one person. Selica had a ridiculous 19 points on hers, but that was only because she consciously tried to level up. As such, she was an exception. Her fellow party member Sophie only had 7 points on Mana.

「.........」

Showered by compliments, Lavia stared at her hands. Hikaru felt worried. He thought Lavia would recall the times when people treated her as a terrifying tool.

「Hikaru.」Lavia called his name.

「What is it?」

「It’s strange... I never thought there would come a day when I’d feel happy about people complimenting my power.」

Hikaru didn’t need to worry, after all.

「I’m proud of your power too.」Hikaru said.

「Thank you. I’m glad you feel that away.」A smile blossomed across her face.

『If I can have this much mana, I might be able to do a lot more.』Drake said.

Exhausted from opening the Drakon Passage, Drake retired early. Surprisingly, he left more than half of the deep-fried bread untouched.

After that, Hikaru went around Nordenstadt to see the sights. They had plenty of time to reach Agiapole. The Pope and Conia were surprised that Hikaru arrived in seven days. What they didn’t know was he had to visit the royal capital for the first day and they actually arrived two days earlier. So in reality, the trip only took four days.

「We’re not entering Agiapole yet?」Paula asked.

They were staying in an inn town just outside of Agiapole to kill time. Hikaru took a sip of his tea as he flipped through the book that he borrowed from Lavia.

「Yeah. They’ll be too cautious of us if we arrived too early.」

「But seven days is still not normal, right?」

「But it’s possible, is what they would think. They would assume I was an extremely skilled adventurer, or someone with a means to travel fast, like say, I tamed a swift monster and used it to travel instead of a horse.

「I-I’m sorry, Hikaru-sama. I don’t follow at all. If you didn’t want to draw attention, you could show up after exactly ten days.」

「I’m trying to see how the Pope would react. He’s testing the princess. His methods don’t sit right with me. I have a right to test him as well.」

「Test the Pope?」

Hikaru flashed a meaningful grin.「A pacifist would probe for information without laying a hand on me. A go-getter would try to recruit me to their side. And a cool-headed tactician would try to kill me right away.」

After taking another sip of tea, Hikaru place the cup on the table and turned his eyes back on the book.

「This should be fun.」he said.