Chapter 305: They sure Are Running Low on Water
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As predictable, the guild was made out of sand, too. Moreover, it used a fairly artistic design.
“Yep, yep, that’s what I’m talking about!”
The people who built it know their stuff!
I took a picture with my tablet and sent it to Mr. Amato and Damsel Scarlet.
『A World Heritage!?』 was sent right back to me as a reply.
Sword peered at my tablet, “So that’s how you use it?”
“Pretty much. How about you send a picture to Bennyboy?”
“I’ll consider it,” Sword answered.
He’s going to think about it, huh? It’s nothing that requires any deep thought, however. Oh well, if he wants to think about it, so be it.
＊
Once we entered the guild, it was relatively cool inside. Probably because it’s made out of sand.
The official from before had apparently sent a messenger ahead of us since a burly, sun-burnt man, whose appearance practically screamed guildmaster, immediately showed up when we tried to talk to the receptionist.
He’s got that vibe of being the prime example of a desert warrior. At the least, he’s overflowing with that sort of aura.
“I’m the mayor of this town who also serves as guildmaster. I heard that you’d be selling us water. Is that correct?”
……
I exchanged a look with Sword.
Again starting from talking about water, eh? This must mean they’re definitely low on water.
“Yeah, I can create water through magic, but…do you have stones or charcoal? The water created by me is commonly called pure water. I produce it by altering the air with magic elements. Pure water isn’t very tasty, but if you add stones and charcoal to it, it’ll improve its flavor…”
“The taste is of no consequence. Can you produce drinkable water? Everyone in this town can use water magic. After all, they wouldn’t be able to survive here without it. But, we can’t create drinkable water with it,” asked the guildmaster, interrupting my words at the same time.
Sword loosely waved his hand at that.
“No need to worry ’bout that. I’ve drunk that girl’s water. Also, she poured some water in the jugs of the official at the checkpoint. You didn’t hear him mention ‘nythin’ ’bout it bein’ undrinkable, did you?”
The guildmaster nodded, “Then I’d like to buy it. How much can you sell?”
Talks had been proceeding smoothly, but they stalled at this point.
……I don’t know the market price.
Given that Sword remained silent as well, I answered after fretting over it for a short while, “If you’re in trouble, I’ll trade you for magic stones. Let’s use those as payment for the water.”
Sword shrugged his shoulders while the guildmaster froze.
“……You’re fine with something like that?”
Seeing the guildmaster ask timidly, I got worried that I might have made a mistake, and cast a fleeting glance at Sword.
He telepathically told me to do as I saw fit, so I nodded.
“I create water while using magic elements or magic stones as medium. Therefore, I require magic stones just like you need water. I’ll be fine with whatever you’ve got, because it’ll allow me to create lots. So, please give me magic stones.”
The guildmaster became super happy when he heard this. But, when he tried to drag me away at once, Sword got flustered.
“Ah, wait a sec. I’m an S-Rank, you see, so I usually do the unfinished requests whenever I show up at a guild. Got any of those?”
“Oh? …I see. Now that you mention it, I got a message about that as well. For the time being, water takes priority! The outstanding request is about securing water!”
――You heard the man.
Leaving Sword behind, the guildmaster dragged me away.
＊
“How much water can you provide?”
The guildmaster asked as he placed a barrel in front of me.
“As much as you want, but if I continue producing water in one place, that particular area will run out of air. After all, I’m making the water out of air. In other words, I can keep doing it until the air becomes too thin. By the way, people will become unable to breathe once the air becomes too thin, eventually choking to death.”
The guildmaster stiffened up.
“…Could I ask you to do it until it starts getting dangerous?”
“Sure.”
We’re in the desert, so there’s a wind going. As such, I don’t think it’ll be easy to die from this.
Sword, who had no role to play in this, told me on leaving, “I’m gonna to patrol the area for a bit,” before heading out to play around with Ryoku. Meanwhile I sat down cross-legged in front of the barrel.
“It’s seriously better if you put some charcoal or stones into the water as it’ll drastically improve the taste. To begin with, this place has loads of sand, so I feel like it’d also be fine to put in sand.”
As the water accumulated in the barrel while I was talking, the guildmaster objected, “You won’t be able to drink all of it then, right?”
He’s got a point there.
“Well, we got some charcoal, so we’ll put it in later on. …What a strange sight.”
He muttered while peering into the barrel. Particles gathered inside and transformed into water. It kind of felt like the barrel had filled up without anyone having noticed.
The guildmaster immediately scooped up some of the water and drank it.
“!! You can drink it normally! Or rather, I’ve never drunk such clean water before!” He shouted in surprise right after swallowing the water.
“I told you it’d be pure, didn’t I? It’s water that contains no foreign substances. Normal water always has small doses of foreign substances, but that actually makes it tastier. It’s said, if you add charcoal and stones, it’ll cause some sort of effect while being inside the water, improving its taste.”
The guildmaster stared at me in surprise when I explained this to him.
“Why do you know all that?”
Uh-oh, that part caused him to become suspicious?
“I possess a wide range of knowledge. It was granted to me when I was five years old. Ever since then, I possess unusual knowledge about all sorts of things. By the way, the people called braves seem to also possess this knowledge.”
I answered him while keeping things ambiguous.
And while we were having this conversation, I finished filling the second barrel.
“Hmm, I see…young lad, aren’t you actually quite incredible?”
The guildmaster told me with admiration dyeing his voice, but it doesn’t make me all that happy to be told young lad and actually.
“I’m no young lad, and I’m incredible without you having to add 『actually』 there!”
When I objected while sulking, he broke out in laughter.
＊
The guildmaster brought some magic stones for me.
“These are all I have on hand right now. I also got scrap pieces of magic stones, but…”
“I’ll take those as well. …Oh right, it might also be a good idea to soak magic stones in the water. The water might become more delicious from that!”
“No, I’ll refrain. Anyway, I’ll give you these magic stones, so could you fill another two barrels?” He requested.
“I’ll add a third barrel as a freebie if you also give me the scrap pieces. I’ll take all of what you don’t need in the guild, so bring me the barrels and stones.”
Because he had offered me a fairly big magic stone for my work thus far, I decided to give him some free, extra water.
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