With a near-tearful face, the Manager Uncle continued to express his gratitude as I climbed into the cargo truck with Florene.
To justify my actions, I wasn’t volunteering to work hard just to slack off.
Right now, officially, I was heading to unload the Beast Corpses from the cargo truck at the Purification Facility’s warehouse.
In simple terms, I was going for some loading and unloading work.
Loading and unloading was one of the most exhausting jobs I’d ever done, easily ranking in the top three for sheer physical strain.
In fact, under normal circumstances, one would have to question the character of a manager who would send a single girl to manage the loading and unloading.
Of course, this assumption had no meaning when it came to Florene.
As I waited for our departure while thinking about that, the door suddenly opened, and someone sat down next to me.
Seeing the newcomer, Florene, who had been sitting on my right, exclaimed in surprise.
“What?! What’s going on? Is Dwight coming along too?”
“Yeah. I’ve been a bit interested in the Purification Facility operated by Dolos for a while now. They said I could freely tour the place once the work is done, so I decided to tag along,” Dwight replied to Florene in a nonchalant voice.
Naturally, he had come along to satisfy his inquisitive nature, without a hint of a magical enthusiast’s enthusiasm.
I shook my head, thinking how ridiculous it was, when Florene suddenly flashed a mischievous smile and turned to Dwight.
“Well, even if you say that, you secretly want to hang out with me, right? You only talk about magic, but I see you’re just a guy after all! Great! You know, with that tired-looking face of yours, you’re not half bad. So I, the kind-hearted Florene, will make a special exception and date you!”
“…Here we go again. Didn’t I say I have no interest in that kind of thing?”
“You’re pretending again! Just be honest! The truth is, you like Florene, don’t you?”
“…Haa, this is why I hesitated about coming along.”
As Florene endlessly clung to her usual self, Dwight, who rarely showed any emotional fluctuations, frowned and sighed—a rare sight.
It made me chuckle softly.
Even though I had never seen that side of him, it somehow felt nostalgic.
This was frequent in the original work.
Florene, who was literally a walking noise generator, was like a natural enemy to Dwight, who was always fed up with noise and chaos.
Thus, their relationship was characterized by constant friction whenever they were together.
However, despite how much Dwight seemed to dislike it, I wasn’t overly worried.
Because I knew.
When Florene went missing following Marin in the original story…
Dwight had told Yoon Si-woo this at a time when they couldn’t even send a rescue team to look for them, having resigned to the situation.
“I always thought of Florene as nothing more than a bothersome and noisy nuisance. So even if she died, I thought it wouldn’t matter. But why does my heart hurt so much? It’s just one annoying girl who got lost and wouldn’t stop coming up to me despite my rejection… Haa, I really am foolish. I’ve been taught since childhood that a mage should always be rational. They taught me that being swayed by emotions is a stupid thing. I guess I should really quit being a mage now.”
Since that day, Dwight fought like a madman every time he encountered the demonic beasts.
Even when overwhelming hordes of them came, and everyone else fled, he remained behind, fighting madly as if to expel the pent-up frustration in his heart.
That was how Dwight died.
Maybe that was why.
Seeing Dwight pick on Florene like that felt uncharacteristically youthful.
When will this tsundere guy truly realize his feelings?
As I watched their conversation with a smile, Dwight, feeling a headache coming on, pressed his forehead.
“First of all, I prefer graceful women. There’s no way I’d think about someone like you. Maybe Scarlett here is an exception.”
“Eh? So, you want to date Scarlett?”
“…Haa, are you really asking me that? Just sleep until we arrive.”
With a heavy sigh, Dwight snapped his fingers in front of Florene’s eyes.
Suddenly, a light flickered, and Florene yawned.
“…Yawn, huh? I suddenly feel sleepy… I’ll sleep…”
After mumbling for a moment, Florene resting her head on my shoulder dozed off.
…Did he just put her to sleep because she was being loud?
As I looked at him in disbelief, Dwight lowered his head towards me, as if asking for a favor.
“…I’d appreciate it if you could understand. If I have to listen to her chatter until we arrive, I think my ears will start bleeding.”
Seeing the desperation in Dwight’s eyes, I had no choice but to nod in agreement.
Seriously, it’s not like he’s a hypnotist putting a same-age girl to sleep with magic. This sounds ethically questionable.
I began to wonder if Florene realizing that she was a precious existence to him might require a bit more time.
While lost in those thoughts, Dwight cautiously spoke to me.
“By the way, please don’t misunderstand what I just said. I have no interest in anyone who’s already in a relationship. Besides, I’m not planning to date anyone yet.”
I smirked at his words.
Seems like he’s got a long way to go.
Since he said he prefers graceful women, it would be quite a challenge for him to develop romantic feelings for someone like Florene, who flitted about asking everyone to date her.
Feeling slightly pity for him, I nodded, and for some reason, Dwight let out a relieved sigh.
“That’s a relief. If I had to be pitied, it would have been a nightmare. She seems unyielding in that regard, after all.”
? Pity?
I tilted my head, unsure of what Dwight meant.
Suddenly, I felt the air around us shift in a strange way against my skin.
In that moment, Dwight murmured, “Looks like we just passed through the Barrier.”
Now that I thought about it, I hadn’t really been paying attention, but if the vehicle had crossed the Barrier, it seemed that the Purification Facility was located outside it.
I felt a bit awkward because I had assumed it was inside.
Crossing the Barrier could potentially mess with my physical condition.
But what could I do? It had already happened.
I might as well hope that there wouldn’t be any significant issues in crossing back.
Then, I looked at my body and suddenly remembered something and asked Dwight.
“Hey, Dwight. When you pass through the Barrier, doesn’t the Miasma decrease? So if we just take the Miasma with us through the Barrier, wouldn’t it end up barely disappearing?”
“…You must be really clueless. If it were that simple, why would we need a facility like the Purification Facility?”
Dwight muttered, sounding incredulous at my question.
He had a point there.
However, as I blinked in confusion, Dwight took a moment, then opened his mouth to explain.
“It’s not a widely known story, but there’s no need to hide it either. You’re bound to hear it sooner or later.”
Dwight began his explanation.
“All magic relies on magical energy. Since the Barrier is a form of magic, it requires magical energy too. But have you ever thought about how much magical energy goes into maintaining such a vast scale of magic? So what do you think is the energy source necessary to sustain it?”
“…Um, something like magic stones?”
Magic stones, to put it simply, were stones imbued with magical energy.
These were used as energy sources for most magical tools in this world.
Yet, Dwight slowly shook his head.
“Unfortunately, that’s not the case. I’ve heard that once upon a time, things were different. But maintaining the Barrier requires an immense amount of magical energy. For humanity, who have limited usable land, magic stones would eventually become a depleted resource. However, that’s when my ancestor, Viola Neinhart, discovered something. A power source that could produce massive amounts of energy perpetually. Do you know what that energy source is?”
Dwight took a moment to catch his breath before speaking again.
“It’s a Witch. Specifically, it’s the corpse of the Witch of Gluttony, which my ancestor and the Great Hero Aegis managed to defeat after a two-week battle. That corpse is what currently serves as the power source to maintain the Barrier.”
I took a sharp breath at his words.
A power source? A Witch?
The response was completely unprecedented, leaving me in shock as Dwight continued rather nonchalantly.
“After finally defeating the Witch of Gluttony, my ancestor realized something. Even though it had become a corpse that could rightly be referred to as a carcass, the witch continuously emitted magical energy while also attempting to absorb it again to revive. If left unchecked, it would resurrect in no time and threaten to end the world. For reasons unknown, he hasn’t left any detailed studies about it behind, but my ancestor ultimately found out how to convert magic into magical energy and utilized that in creating the Barrier.”
“…”
“And so the Witch became the power source for the Barrier. The Barrier not only serves as a fortress to protect the city, but it also acts as a seal by consuming the magical energy the Witch emits to prevent her resurrection.”
Dwight spoke in his usual calm tone, but my mind was in a frenzy of confusion.
In a state of disbelief, I struggled to process his words.
“It seems my explanation was quite shocking for you. But it’s good to know. This is something most heroes will eventually find out. Anyway, this is what I wanted to convey. Maintaining the Barrier requires quite a hefty amount of magical energy. Since the Witch has a limit to how much magical energy she can emit at once, trying to eliminate too much magical energy at once could lead to overload, which would cause a malfunction. That’s why we need the Purification Facility.”
Dwight’s words made me tremble.
“…If that happens, the Barrier will vanish and the Witch will resurrect immediately?”
Dwight shook his head in a reassuring manner.
“Of course not. Even if that were the case, as long as we activate the magic stones for auxiliary energy, the Barrier can restore itself. There are always heroes stationed near the power source for that very reason. So there’s no need for you to worry. Anyway, now you understand why the Purification Facility is necessary, right?”
I dumbly nodded at his explanation.
But my mind was filled with just one thought.
If the Barrier disappears, the Witch will resurrect.
My mind conjured up the fearsome visage of the Witch of Gluttony from the original story.
The Witch, whom even Yoon Si-woo had no means of overcoming.
Therefore, the Witch’s resurrection would truly spell the end of the world.
That absolutely should not happen.
Knowing can sometimes lead to fear.
At that moment, I felt an overwhelming envy toward Florene, who was soundly asleep with her head resting on my shoulder, carefree and ignorant of everything.
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