The Villainess Wants to Make Her Husband Slim Down

CHAPTER 36

3 – 5

"There was a disaster in Grenze!?"

Alois' office, deep into the afternoon. Camilla repeated the words she had just been told in abject shock.

Alois glanced up at Camilla from behind the massive pile of reports on his desk.

"More specifically, it was between Grenze and Einst. At some point where their two manaveins intersected. We don't know exactly where that epicentre is just yet, though."

There were all sorts of letters and reports on the extent of the damage stacked up in front of Alois. She couldn't read the roughly scrawled handwriting in the messages, but somehow Camilla knew that this was something far out of the ordinary.

The disaster had occurred the morning before. Camilla remembered being rudely awoken with a start as what felt like an earthquake shook the foundations of the mansion. Half asleep, she had originally thought that it was Alois exercising, but after seeing the general panic amongst the mansion's servants afterward she realized it was something else.

As soon as the earthquake hit, Alois sent out riders towards the major mining towns. Then, he waited anxiously for a full day. And now, Alois was gazing at the reports in front of him, his face twisted bitterly.

"It really was due to an accidental explosion in the manastone veins after all. However, the miasma is still thick. I don't think the danger has passed yet."

"An explosion... Just what do you mean by that!? What of Grenze!? The orphanage!?"

"I don't have the full details yet. But from what I can gather, the damage hasn't spread that far. There were some collapses around the mines and a few houses fell down, but thankfully there have only been reports of light injuries so far."

Camilla breathed a sigh of relief at Alois' words, but she still felt gripped by that same anxiety. Houses falling down and injuries. Camilla was worried that the people she had gotten to know there might have become caught up in things.

The old woman who ran the orphanage and those cheeky kids. Even those disagreeable maids. Were they all safe?

As Camilla's gaze dropped to the floor in her worry, Alois continued.

"I'll also be going to assess the damage and offer some help to what victims there might be. I also need to investigate the source of this incident as well. Just where along the veins did the disaster start? That's something I need to find out."

Alois' magical power was useful at times like this.

Typically, searching for the manastone veins and their roots was a job given to a person with strong magical power. Because of their deeper connection with the magical energies being given off by the vein, they can follow the fluctuations in the magic of the manastones.

That way, they can pinpoint just where the magic and miasma was at its strongest. In the old days, if someone was trapped underground in a manastone mine due to something like a cave in, it was standard practice to break open a manastone. That was because the sudden release of large amounts magical energy could be followed by a magic user on the surface.

Conversely, miners in the dark can be guided by a magic user on the surface releasing magic. When it came to mining operations, there were always two such people. It was an unbreakable rule to have one magic user above the ground and the other under.

This time, however, the search wasn't for a person trapped underground, but the epicentre of this incident. That doesn't change the fundamentals of the task, though. By following the flows and fluctuations of the miasma that hadn't dissipated, he would be able to find the point of the accident.