Chapter 10
Dwarves had worked with metal since ancient times, and for that very reason, they also had extensive knowledge of the harm metals could cause.
When my Shitty Dwarf master heard from me that Galaret was suffering from mining pollution, his expression changed, and he immediately set about taking countermeasures.
My Shitty Dwarf master isn't the only dwarf working in this country—the Kingdom of Rudelia.
Dwarves as a people wield considerable influence over the kingdom's smiths' guild, and their opinions even reach the king.
Of course, that would only happen after the guild sent investigators to Galaret and conducted an investigation, but... apparently, my Shitty Dwarf master intended to volunteer as one of them.
Apparently, it was because no dwarf other than my Shitty Dwarf master would take my story seriously.
...Yeah.
Well, maybe so.
At this stage, my suspicion that mining pollution was to blame was merely an inference based on my circumstances.
If the investigator sent by the smiths' guild happened to be a dwarf, there was no guarantee they would take my story seriously.
I felt I might be able to become friends with other dwarves by drinking, getting into fistfights, and discussing smithing with them, but I couldn't afford to spend that time now.
If my Shitty Dwarf master took action, he could handle all the political problems concerning the mining pollution himself.
My role would be to calm the water spirit, identify the polluted areas, and carry out decontamination by moving earth and water.
The only problem was that, leaving me aside, the smithy would have no choice but to shut down completely without my Shitty Dwarf master, but... the older women who worked there just laughed and accepted it.
If the problem in Galaret grew serious enough for the mine to be closed, the price of metal resources would undoubtedly rise.
In fact, if word of this spread, even if new mines were discovered in the future, their development might face fierce opposition.
They understood that, as long as they worked at the smithy, this was by no means someone else's problem, and so accepted the shutdown.
I took Maltena, whose face had gone pale when she realized that the situation was more serious than I had thought, and headed for Galaret.
My Shitty Dwarf master would be leaving Vistcoat too, but he would first head to the royal capital to mobilize the smiths' guild, then make his way to Galaret.
It was a two-week journey from Vistcoat to Galaret, even with transfers between carriages.
The route was hardly safe, and apparently bandits and monsters sometimes attacked travelers, but the regularly scheduled passenger carriages were, naturally, well guarded.
Besides, because passenger carriages carried only people, they were less profitable targets than merchants transporting cargo, so few bandits went out of their way to attack them.
Thus, aside from the occasional monster attack, the journey passed without incident, and the carriage reached Galaret.
The only problem was that I got motion sick.
The irregular jolts of the carriage as it traveled along the highway thoroughly threw off and scrambled my sense of balance.
Come to think of it, I remembered a little more: I was pretty sure I had suffered from motion sickness in my previous life, too.
As for Maltena, perhaps because she was relieved that she had managed to bring me along as reinforcements, her expression had become considerably calmer than it had been when she had just returned to Vistcoat.
It felt a little unfair.
In any case, we reached Galaret, but we didn't linger and left the town immediately.
White Lake, Maltena included, still hadn't fulfilled the request they had accepted in Galaret, and more importantly, it would be better to leave the town's problems to my Shitty Dwarf master and the smiths' guild than for us to meddle carelessly.
As an elf, I inevitably stood out in town, so although it didn't suit me, I accepted that we'd have to move around discreetly.
Our destination was the water spirit's dwelling upstream along the river where the pollution had occurred.
...Guided by Maltena, I walked along the river.
The water flowing through the river still looked normal at first glance, but the plants growing along its banks were crying out in pain as they slowly died.
No—the plants unable to tolerate metal had already died and could no longer even cry out.
Was wastewater from the mine really being discharged directly into the river?
I was an undeniable Shitty Elf by the standards of ordinary elves and high elves who chose to live in towns rather than forests, but even I found this sight abhorrent.
If the water spirit intended to destroy Galaret, I even found myself thinking that perhaps it would be for the best.
But I knew.
Most of the people working in the mine had not the slightest idea that the wastewater they discharged was polluting the river, or that the pollutants would become concentrated through the food chain and eventually torment and kill not only them, but their own children as well.
The many people living in the town were merely working desperately to survive; they were by no means evil enough to deserve being wiped out.
I had seen human beings through the knowledge of my previous life and through the time I had spent living in Vistcoat in this life.
So I would stop the water spirit.
The town of Galaret, its lord, and the mine—I was sure that Shitty Dwarf, my friend and master, would take care of them.
I, a high elf living in the human world, would do what only a Shitty Elf could do.