After wiping out the lizards, I checked my status while watching the dragon vein's revitalization underway.
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Name: Noah Ararat
Emperor of the Empire
Gender: Male
Level: 17 + 1 / ∞
HP: C+B | Fire: E+S+S MP: D+C | Water: C+SSS Strength: C+S | Wind: E+C Stamina: D+C | Earth: E+C Intelligence: D+A | Light: E+B Spirit: E+B | Darkness: E+B Speed: E+B Dexterity: E+C Luck: D+C
――――――――――――
It hadn't changed at all from before the battle.
There was a chance my level might have increased after clearing out all those monsters, but no such luck.
Well, I figured that was just how it went.
My level cap was (for some reason) ∞, but most people in this world capped out at 15 or below.
In other words, even right now, I was already among the upper echelons of humanity.
It was only natural that a single skirmish wouldn't be enough to level me up.
What won't rise won't rise; there was nothing to be gained by crying over what I didn't have.
Turning away from my status screen, I looked back toward Bahamut and the others as they revitalized the dragon vein.
The earth—the desert—had begun to glow faintly.
It cast a dim, pale radiance comparable to moonlight.
Like tributaries converging into a river's main stem, the light flowed toward the central point being revitalized.
At the same time, I felt dense surges of mana that were usually imperceptible.
That alone told me the process was succeeding.
"Ugh..."
"My head... hurts..."
"Hm?"
Pained groans from Peiyu and Ivy suddenly came from behind me.
Turning around, I found the two of them curled up on the ground in agony.
"What's wrong?"
"...Ngh..."
"S-So cold..."
Peiyu didn't even have the breath to speak, and Ivy could barely squeeze out the word "cold."
"Cold?"
"Aaaah, hot... It's burning!"
The complaint instantly flipped.
Ivy thrashed across the sand, crying out from the heat.
What was going on—
"Ah! Is it that?"
Realization struck, and I snapped my gaze back toward the dragon vein.
Highly concentrated mana was billowing out from it.
Were they suffering from mana intoxication?
"Ziz, lend me a hand here."
With that command, I pulled Ziz away from the revitalization work.
Channeling Ziz, I conjured wings of light.
A pair of luminous wings emitting a faint phosphorescence unfurled from my back.
I spread the flight-capable wings as wide as they would reach.
Flaring them to their full span and scattering glowing particles into the air, I shielded the two girls behind me.
Instantly—
"...Ah."
"It's not burning anymore..."
"Master!"
Peiyu called out to me, her voice thick with emotion.
Taking in the scene, she seemed to understand what I had done.
A beat behind Peiyu...
"It's so pretty..."
Ivy was simply mesmerized by the wings of light.
"...Ah! M-Master. What on earth happened to us...?"
"You were intoxicated by the mana, most likely."
"Intoxicated... by mana?"
"Yeah. Stay within the span of the wings."
"Y-Yes, Master."
After cautioning the two, I turned my focus back to the dragon vein.
"Just being here was unbearable... and yet he can stand there like it's nothing."
"He's amazing..."
I stood quietly in place, waiting for the dragon vein to fully awaken.
☆
A few hours later, I returned to the inn with the two of them in tow.
Once inside our room, I had Ivy—who had grown quite proficient at washing my feet over the past few days—attend to the task while I drew a small glass vial from my breast pocket.
Inside the vial sloshed a liquid of pristine clarity.
"So mana... actually looks like water, doesn't it...?"
Looking at what I held, Peiyu breathed in wonder.
"No, mana is naturally invisible. If anything, it's more like air."
"Huh? But..."
Surprised, Peiyu glanced back and forth between my face and the liquid in the vial.
"This is condensed mana. The potions I showed you before were made from this, too."
"I-Is that so?"
"Since we're here, let me show you a few things."
With that, I reached for the candlestick on the table beside my chair in the center of the room.
I pulled out the candle and let a single drop of mana fall onto the holder—just one drop.
Then, I lit it.
"Whoa."
"It's so bright..."
Not only Peiyu, who had been watching intently, but even Ivy, who had been washing and drying my feet with a cloth, gasped in astonishment and looked up from her work.
"Just like this, you can ignite it and use it as a light source."
"It's like lamp oil... Wait, it's lasting a really long time."
"Indeed. It burns far brighter and lasts much longer than wax or oil."
"T-That's incredible..."
"That's not all. Apophis."
I summoned Apophis.
Calling the cane-shaped weapon to hand, I let a drop of its venom drip onto the candlestick, which had finally burned out.
Then, I added another drop of mana.
Once Apophis's venom and the mana mingled, I stirred the mixture with a twig-sized rod.
Before long, a fine, thread-like strand materialized from the clear drop of mana.
Stirring in slow circles, I drew the thread up.
I held it out for Peiyu and Ivy, whose hands had stopped moving entirely, to see.
"You can make things like this, too."
"What is that...?"
"A type of thread. Unlike ordinary thread, it doesn't burn easily, and it's completely waterproof."
"I see..."
"In other words, you could weave garments that won't catch fire and never get soaked in the rain."
Seeing that the two hadn't quite grasped the implications, I explained the practical application of the thread.
"A-Amazing!"
"You can really make something like that...?"
The two girls stared in wide-eyed admiration.
"There are plenty of other uses, too. Though we're still in the experimental stages. For now, it will mostly be used for brewing potions."
"Experimental stages... Does that mean you conduct the research yourself, Master?"
"I do."
"Wow, as expected of Master! You even do your own research."
"It's not like I'm a scholar or anything..."
Basking in their flattery, I looked once more at the drop of mana in my hand.
The dragon vein's revitalization had been a success, and I had managed to condense a drop of mana from it.
Given how severely Peiyu and Ivy had reacted to it, the mana produced by Saralria's dragon vein was clearly higher in both concentration and purity than Almeria's.
When it came to these drops of mana, the higher the purity, the better.
Now that the trial extraction had succeeded, the next step was establishing a mass-production pipeline.
That would require a substantial investment.
Now then, as for the imperial treasury... would there be enough?
Worst-case scenario, even if I had to requisition funds, this needed to take priority—
『Master, an emergency has occurred.』
"Leviathan? What kind of emergency?"
Frowning, I answered Leviathan telepathically.
It was rare for her to report something so urgently.
『The dragon vein has ruptured.』
"What?!"
A genuine emergency. I shot up from my seat on instinct.
Water splashed over Ivy, who was still tending to my feet, but there was no time to worry about that.
☆
Leaving the two girls behind, I rushed back to the site where the revitalization should have succeeded.
Under a full moon sinking toward the horizon, I looked down upon a ruined dragon vein, fractured in countless places and bleeding light like a dying gasp.
"What is the meaning of this, Leviathan?"
『May I offer my conjecture?』
"Speak."
『By your will... The dragon vein of this land had been severed for many years, devoid of flowing mana.』
"Yeah."
『You reconnected it, Master. However, left empty for so long, the vein itself had already deteriorated.』
"...Like an abandoned house decaying at an accelerated rate, you mean?"
『The principle is the same.』
"Hmm..."
I gave a grim nod.
"In other words, reconnecting a tattered pipe was fine and well, but the pipe itself was too brittle to withstand the pressure. Is that it?"
『A keen insight. As expected of my master.』
"It held up fine in Almeria, though... Ah, no. The mana here was purer, and the flow was far more violent."
『...』
Leviathan remained silent, but I could feel her tacit agreement and admiration through our bond.
I had practically been handed the answer, so deducing why it turned out differently from Almeria wasn't difficult.
"I understand the cause. So what's the solution? Can we reconnect it?"
『A living pillar—a human sacrifice is required.』
"I see."
I paused to consider it.
"Are there any specific conditions for the sacrifice?"
『Only that they are in sound health at the moment of offering. Nothing more.』
"Then we'll use a death row convict. There should be someone sentenced to execution alongside their entire household under collective guilt. Offer to spare their family, and they'll gladly surrender their life."
『As expected of my master. A decisive judgment worthy of an Emperor; truly magnificent.』
"Any other precautions?"
『There must be no impurity. For three days prior to the ritual, they must be purified and made to fast. Furthermore—』
Leviathan listed off several other instructions, but everything beyond that was trivial detail.
A human sacrifice, is it...?
It wasn't that I felt completely indifferent to the idea.
Even so, considering the revitalization of the dragon vein and the drops of mana...
And picturing the Empire's prosperity once we achieved mass production...
Even if it was a sinful deed, as Emperor, I had no choice but to shoulder the burden. That was my resolve.