The Hidden Palace

“Yaaaawn… Good morning.”

One night has passed since the welcome banquet. It seems I ended up getting drunk and spending the night on the floor of the tavern before I knew it. Tickled by a delicious aroma, I stretched and sat up.

“Good morning, Sir.”

“Mornin’!”

“Koo!”

The villagers were nowhere to be seen, but Paula and the monster-kids greeted me energetically. I noticed they had already cleared away the messy plates from last night and were busy wiping down the tables. It was a diligent display of work, hardly what you’d expect from the daughter of high nobility.

The two little ones had been clinging to her feet, but seeing me wake up, they came waddling over. I picked them up; the furry one began sniffing my neck intently, while the feathered one started nibbling at my collar. As I was being soothed by the two active creatures, Paula smiled and handed me a wooden mug filled with water.

“Here you go. Please rinse your mouth.”

“Oh, thanks.”

Perhaps because I slept after drinking my fill, my mouth felt like a disaster zone. I gratefully took a sip, but my brow furrowed instinctively. It tasted a bit muddy.

“Is it not to your liking?”

“No, it’s fine. Phew, that feels better.”

I spat the rinsing water back into the mug and thanked Paula. Just then, Ute-san, the tavern’s proprietress, brought a steaming cauldron to the table at the perfect time. The source of the aroma was barley porridge—something that looked easy on the stomach.

While ladling the porridge into wooden bowls, Ute-san offered a regretful apology.

“Sorry about the water tasting bad. I try to scoop from the surface as much as possible, but the source is in terrible shape, so please bear with us.”

“Is this river water?”

“Yes. Ever since the turn of the year, it suddenly started getting murky. It’s been a real struggle for everything.”

“So that’s why you were digging the well.”

Recalling the half-dug well in the plaza, the tavern lady nodded with a troubled look.

In the first year of the Dragon of Ruin’s awakening route, the most prominent anomalies involve water. It becomes abnormally turbid, spoils easily, and eventually leads to severe droughts. This directly impacts the crops, leading to a poor harvest.

South of “The Starting Village,” there is a river that flows out of the Dragon’s Arm Forest and into the Dragon’s Inner Sea. I had learned from Old Man Eugen—before he passed out drunk at the banquet—that this river provides water for irrigation and daily life.

I had also obtained a crucial piece of information.

“Thanks for the meal. How much for breakfast?”

The barley porridge was simple, easy to eat, and quite delicious with just the right amount of salt. When I tried to pay, Ute-san laughed merrily and shook her head.

“I can’t take money from our important Teacher.”

“No, I can’t do that. I’ll pay properly.”

“You’re young, so don’t be shy.”

“I can’t keep taking advantage of your kindness, and besides, look…”

“My goodness, they certainly ate well!”

Noticing my gaze, Ute-san’s eyes went wide at the empty cauldron. While we were talking, Paula, as requested by the kids, had been busily ladling seconds into their bowls. Having polished off a mountain of porridge, the monster-kids let out satisfied voices with happy faces.

“Good food!”

“Koo!”

Taking a whole cauldron’s worth of food for free was definitely out of the question. After a moment of thought, Ute-san clapped her hands together and proposed a condition.

“Well then, in exchange… that lantern from last night. Could you lend it to us?”

“I don’t mind, but it won’t work without someone who possesses mana.”

“Is that so? Mia, come here a second.”

“What is it, Mom?”

A young woman, appearing to be in her late teens, popped her head out from the back of the counter. She had flashy, curled blonde hair and a well-defined figure.

“Let me introduce you—this is our star girl.”

“Nice to meet ya! Oh, are you the rumored Alchemist? You’re handsomer than I thought!”

Even if it’s flattery, being told you’re handsome by a cute girl is surprisingly nice. It’s even better when it’s a character you recognize from the game. In Dra-Chro 2, Mia worked as a clerk in the general store and was someone I spoke to frequently for buying and selling.

“You have mana, right? Try touching this for a second.”

“Huh, what’s this?”

“Insert your finger into that hole, and it will work if you touch the stone and channel your mana.”

“Really? Like this…? Whoa! It lit up!”

The White-Glow Stone has the property of gathering Light-attribute mana; when mana is channeled into it, it activates and emits light. However, since it’s only about the size of a handheld object, the amount of light is limited. Furthermore, once it’s on, it stays on—you can’t turn the light off from your end. You either have to adjust the amount of mana or cover it, which is a bit inconvenient.

“You’ll need to be careful with that part.”

“I see. Well, this much light is more than enough.”

“Cities really do have lots of convenient things!”

“Is it alright if I only lend it to you at night? I have plans to use it soon.”

“Oh? Right now?”

Ute-san muttered curiously while looking out the window at the rising sun.

“Yes, there’s a place I want to visit.”

“Then that works out. Mia, give him a tour.”

“Eh? Me?”

I was a bit worried about the path, so having a local come along was helpful. Besides, there was something I wanted to confirm.

“Is that okay?”

“Yeah! Just leave it to me!”

“Thank you for going out of your way. Sorry to be a bother.”

“Much obliged!”

“Koo!”

And so, after being handed black bread and wine for lunch, we set off immediately. The three people and two creatures left the tavern and headed straight south. In the plaza, the men were working around the well. Noticing me in the lead, they stopped their work and waved.

“Teacher, where are you headed?”

“Just going to look around the village outskirts.”

“I see. There ain’t much out there, so be careful.”

“Yes, thank you.”

I seemed to have fit in perfectly after last night’s drinking session. Passing between the houses, the vast fields appeared before our eyes. Looking closely, the fields were divided into those where green wheat was starting to grow and those with only brown soil. While staring at the unplanted farmland, Mia answered my unspoken question.

“We’re letting this part rest, Teacher.”

“Ah, fallow land. You’re practicing the three-field system properly.”

The three-field system is a farming method where the land is divided into three sections: one for winter wheat or rye, one for summer barley or legumes, and the last left fallow to recover soil fertility, rotating them in order. It was a familiar practice in the game, but it seems to have spread properly in this realized world as well.

“Whoa, did Pau-sama come from the East? I’ve never seen a Mazin before! You’re like, super beautiful!”

“Is that so? You are quite lovely yourself, Mia-sama.”

“You can just call me Mia! It’s kinda ticklish otherwise. Pau-sama, your hair is so silky! What kind of routine do you have?”

“My hair? Let’s see…”

Mia provided a few explanations at first, but she seemed to get bored quickly and started an intense information exchange with Paula. Well, I had asked her to come along for confirmation and to prevent us from getting lost, so I suppose it was fine.

As I walked, I began to organize and reflect on the conversation I’d had with the Chief and the others while drinking last night.

There are three major roles expected of me in this village.

First is the acquisition of external capital. Currently, the goods Hans takes to the Royal Capital are almost entirely agricultural. However, this village is at the boundary where the Dragon’s Arm Forest and the Dragon’s Back Mountains meet. A bit further out, the Dragon’s Inner Sea is close as well. It is a place where one can abundantly obtain blessings from the forest, the mountains, and the lake. In the game, the basic loop involved roaming these areas to gather materials. My plan is to process the items we find to increase their commercial value.

Second is assisting in village development. With the current drinking water issue as an example, frontier villages are prone to various inconveniences. Thus, my job is to come up with items—like last night’s lantern—suited for solving these problems.

Third is acting as a substitute doctor. In this remote area where adequate medical treatment is unavailable, minor illnesses or injuries can lead to unexpectedly deep wounds. To prevent this, there are high expectations for me, as I can compound various remedies. The Chief, being an Oni, can use mid-level purification powers, but apparently, that alone isn’t enough to feel secure. In fact, there are several important characters I haven’t met yet who are currently recuperating from injuries or illnesses. I’ll need to take action on that front immediately.

Honestly, it’s too much work. I think it’s at a level that’s unreasonable to ask of an Ordinary Alchemist, but apparently, Workshop Master Barnabas talked me up quite a bit in his letter. Seriously, what a thing to do…

If it were the old me, I would have turned pale, but the current me is different. Since there are no other alchemists’ eyes around here, I’ll take the liberty of doing whatever I want.

Despite acting cool, the reality is that I don’t have the luxury of leisurely roaming forests and mountains for materials. Besides, things that anyone can gather won’t make much money. To earn a lot of money while helping the village and preparing for the poor harvest, an ordinary effort won’t cut it. I need something special.

And now, with my heart racing with anticipation, I was headed right toward that.

After about ten minutes, we arrived near the destination. Checking the position on the world map, I looked around the area once more. Turning my gaze to the west, a dark mass covered the edge of my vision far in the distance. And towering beyond that was a majestic mountain range that seemed to pierce the clouds.

“That’s the Dragon-Arm Forest, and the mountain in the back is the Dragon’s Back Range.”

“Yep! And that shimmer over there is the Dragon’s Inner Sea.”

On the opposite side Mia was pointing to, in the east, the lake surface was spread far in the distance, reflecting the light.

“And this is the… river, I guess?”

My doubt was reasonable. At the bottom of the depression snaking in front of us, only enough water was flowing for an adult to step across. Most of the banks were exposed brown earth, completely dried up.

“Aw, if I’d known we were coming to the river, I would’ve brought a bucket. Darn it.”

“Are there any other water sources?”

The water flowing sluggishly through the riverbed was murkier than I imagined; it was so bad that it would take some courage to even put it to your mouth.

“Nope. I heard from someone who went all the way to the sea that it’s dried up pretty bad over there, too.”

“It’s more serious than I expected. If the water issue isn’t resolved soon, we might be in trouble.”

“Oh! Wait, can you make the river go back to normal?”

“Don’t ask for the impossible. An Alchemist’s job is much more modest than that.”

“Sir, there is something over there.”

“Oh!”

Paula, who had the monster-kids clinging to her feet, suddenly pointed toward a section of the bank. Deeper in the thickets of bramble tangled along the riverbank, a large horizontal hole stood with its mouth wide open.

“Eh, no way!”

Covering her mouth with her hands, Mia let out a voice of shock. With her eyes wide, she explained the reason for her outburst.

“I come here every day and I never noticed that! Since when was that there?!”

From Mia’s reaction as she stared curiously at the black hole, I reached a single conviction. Undoubtedly, a barrier that inhibited perception must have been active over that cave until now. That barrier had just been dispelled because we came here.

The reason the invisible barrier vanished was simple: I had asked Old Man Eugen about the river last night and triggered the flag. According to the old man, he had once seen a strange hole near this river a long time ago. It sounds trivial, but this is exactly how you make this cave appear in the game. And in this realized world, the exact same method proved successful.

Between Paula’s monster egg hatching and this, everything was matching the game events perfectly. I had wondered if there were other game-like elements and decided to test it; it seemed I was right on the mark.

When you think about it, this is a very important discovery. If the progression is the same as the game, then the likelihood that we cannot avoid the awakening of the Dragon of Ruin is high.

“What is this hole? I feel a very ominous presence from it.”

“This? This is a staple of Dra-Chro 2, a hidden dungeon. It’s the entrance to the Palace of the Dragon Jade.”

To Paula, who was trying to understand the meaning of my words, I added more.

“And this is exactly the last hope we have left.”