The Shitty Elf and the Shitty Dwarf (9)

"Please, I want you to lend me your strength to stop the crazed water spirit."

The one who said those words to me was Maltena, a priestess with White Lake, said to be the town's foremost adventurer team.

In other words, she was a companion of Airena, the elf I knew.

White Lake had left Vistcoat for a long-term job, but after more than a month, Maltena was the only one who had returned. As soon as she did, she came straight to the smithy where I worked and bowed her head as she made that request.

I still had no idea what was going on when she suddenly said this, but the sight of a member of the town's foremost adventurer team bowing her head in this smithy, which adventurers often visited, would draw far too much attention—and not the good kind.

I glanced to the side and saw my Shitty Dwarf master nod and jerk his chin, so I led Maltena out of the smithy.

I had no idea what was going on, but she was a companion of Airena, to whom I was indebted.

Of course, it depended on what she was asking, but I had no intention of flatly refusing.

But Maltena's request contained a phrase I didn't quite understand.

Yes, a crazed water spirit.

As I mentioned before, spirits are incorporeal, immortal beings.

Their immortality extended to their minds as well, so I wouldn't have thought they could go mad, but...

Once I got back to the inn, I drew the details out of Maltena.

The inn where I stayed was one Airena had recommended, and... for that matter, Airena was also the one paying my bill.

As a result, she and the other members of White Lake used the same inn. They had an annual contract there as their regular lodging, so their rooms were kept for them even while they were away on a long-term job.

The inn was the best place in town to talk without worrying about prying eyes.

Once I had finished hearing Maltena's story, I got a headache from how troublesome it all was and pressed my fingers to my temples.

It was far too troublesome to get involved with, but I seemed to be the only one who could solve it.

If we left it alone, there would probably be consequences for us, too.

The request White Lake had gone to fulfill had apparently been issued by the town of Galaret, more than two weeks from Vistcoat, specifically naming them.

Under ordinary circumstances, that would have been a little strange.

Because although White Lake was certainly Vistcoat's top adventurer team, they weren't the most skilled adventurers in the country.

There should have been skilled adventurers in Galaret, too, and including the neighboring towns, there should have been other six-star adventurer teams as well.

Even so, Galaret had specifically requested White Lake.

There was only one reason.

White Lake had Airena, an elf who was a skilled spirit mage.

The request was apparently to lift a curse that a crazed water spirit had placed on the river Galaret used as its water source.

Up to this point, I could more or less understand the situation.

If someone living in Galaret had done something that enraged the water spirit, then it wasn't impossible that a curse had been placed on the town, causing its residents to fall ill when they drank the water.

I could understand people calling a spirit that harmed them mad without even trying to find out why.

And I could understand their impulse to turn to an elf for an easy solution.

But when I heard that the river itself was also suffering damage—with fish dying in large numbers and nearby plants withering—I realized the problem ran much deeper.

A water spirit's curse aimed at the town couldn't possibly kill fish or weaken vegetation.

If the people, fish, and plants were all suffering equally, then the only possible explanation was that the river water had been contaminated.

And if that was the case, it was absolutely impossible for a water spirit to pollute the water it inhabited—the river itself.

But the real problem came next: what had caused the river water to become polluted.

Once I knew what sort of place Galaret was, I could tell without even seeing it: it was a new town built to develop a mine discovered ten years ago.

In other words, this problem was simply an attempt to shift the blame for pollution from mining toxins onto the water spirit angered by it.

The lord in charge of Galaret was apparently a newly risen noble who had only just established his house.

He was probably so eager to carry out the mine-development task entrusted to him by the king that he focused solely on productivity and neglected environmental safeguards.

I didn't know whether the noble was trying to pin the blame on the water spirit or simply hadn't realized that an environmental problem was occurring, but either way, the problem would remain unsolved if he had no intention of solving it.

At the local water source, Airena could do no more than placate the water spirit, which was enraged enough to seem bent on destroying Galaret, leaving her unable to stay away for long.

That was why White Lake had decided to ask me—the only one who seemed capable of resolving the situation—for help.

Clayas, another member, remained behind to guard Airena in case of an emergency, while Maltena was the only one to hurry back to Vistcoat by taking one carriage after another.

It was a horribly troublesome situation, but I was a little glad to learn that Airena had steadily grown as a spirit mage since we first met.

If all they wanted was to fulfill the request, they could have defeated the water spirit said to be mad—or, more precisely, destroyed the polluted water in which it dwelled—and temporarily rendered it unable to interfere with this world.

But even if they did that, it wouldn't solve anything; once the pollution progressed further, the water spirit would simply reappear in an even more furious state.

That was why, as someone who considered spirits friends, I found Airena's determination to properly understand and resolve the problem admirable.

I had no objection to cooperating, but... it would be difficult for me to solve the problem completely on my own.

In that case, I decided I might as well involve my Shitty Dwarf master as well, since he was an expert on metal.

The pollution problem in Galaret was something no smith in the country who worked with metal could afford to treat as someone else's concern.