When the restraint that blocked the resonance between the two had been broken, Noah saw a huge net of mana hanging over Maobiana. The net, designed like a spider’s web, fluttered gently whenever the clouds shifted, and the stars poked their heads out in between the grids.
“This is the passage, Noah.” Muell looked back at her, and the child’s thoughts flowed straight into her mind as if they were her own.
Certainly, it was odd. The tale of Noah crossing another dimension as a soul through a mere storybook acting as a medium, and that ancient dragons could go in and out of this world meant that there existed a way to connect the different worlds.
Maobiana had been a passage during the times of antiquity when dragons crossed over to Mute, and perhaps, somewhere in that infinite universe, there is a door to the world where Park Noah lived.
If I could go back to my world… If my body hasn’t lost life yet… Then it’s not theoretically impossible to get my body back.
Noah could feel all the thoughts that filled her head were also conveyed to Muell. She looked down at the little boy and moistened her lips. “…Will it work, Mu?”
“If that’s what Noah wants.” Muell gave a big smile.
“Let’s find it together!” These words echoed inside her head, and Noah made a decision as soon as she heard the child’s enthusiastic voice. What they ought to do wasn’t merely go after Adrian. Here, in Maobiana, was the only place where Noah grasped the chance to retrieve her original body despite not knowing which dimension she was stuck in.
***
Of course, there were things to be accomplished before they could achieve such a feat. The fundamental purpose of their coming was to find answers that they persistently sought.
“So, that means the owner of the mine had ordered to mine some of the undeveloped areas behind Maobiana.”
The tapes from a small portable recorder ran with a click, recording every word of their conversation. At Kyle’s sharp question, a young boy, who was one of the missing miners, answered vaguely.
“Yes… Don’t record the quarry that you’ve mined, but let it go straight out through this cliff path, they said.”
There were about twenty miners trapped in cocoons created by the fairies and the other twenty were confined in another cocoon at the bottom of the cliff. After being locked up for at least two weeks, their condition was not very well. Some were driven to the brink of starvation, while many others were injured trying to escape the cocoons. Some even said they had already fallen down the cliff and died.
The miners who were able to speak coherently were, relatively, recently brought to the cocoons. A boy who appeared younger than Noah stuttered, “Once on the moon, there’s a dealer coming up this cliff. What we were doing was handing over minerals from undeveloped areas to dealers, receiving payments, and handing them over to the miner…”
“You mean Donalian Culton, the owner of the mine?”
“Yes, Mr. Culton. But since the first disappearance… Even though I said I wouldn’t go in this way because I felt uncomfortable, he kept persuading me to double or triple the daily wage. I came here through the lake to cry and eat mustard, but…” The young man glanced at the yellow fairies surrounding them with terrified eyes. It was obvious what would follow.
Then, the mystery of the mass disappearance in the Noviscosha mine was finally unraveled. It was a tale reminiscent of the ancient times, encompassing dragons. Maobiana may appear unambiguous on the outside, but underneath lies the traces of the beastly creature, along with the magical ore, and fairies.
A month and a half ago, when Muell hatched from the egg, the fairies instinctively sensed the birth of the dragon. What seemed to be the queen of the fairies laid itself on Muell’s black curls as if it were a comfortable nest spoke in a resonant voice.
[How dare you take a piece of the cradle and steal it? This was the cradle of Sailor, but it’s also our home. We, the dragon’s family, feed on the dragon’s magical power.]
“They must have been upset that they ripped off their homes.” Noah delivered the fairy’s message to Kyle, who couldn’t hear its whispers.
“It’s only been a month and a half ago when they started kidnapping the miners en masse. I think the fairies started moving in earnest after they saw the miners handing over the ore to the dealers.”
It was unexpected that the fairies, known to have already been extinct, were involved in the disappearance of miners. Now, they had confirmed the existence of the ‘dealers,’ which also materialized the existence of the thieves of Mane Ore.
Kyle briefly calculated information in his head and then asked the boy another question. “When did you first start trading?
When the restraint that blocked the resonance between the two had been broken, Noah saw a huge net of mana hanging over Maobiana. The net, designed like a spider’s web, fluttered gently whenever the clouds shifted, and the stars poked their heads out in between the grids.
“This is the passage, Noah.” Muell looked back at her, and the child’s thoughts flowed straight into her mind as if they were her own.
Certainly, it was odd. The tale of Noah crossing another dimension as a soul through a mere storybook acting as a medium, and that ancient dragons could go in and out of this world meant that there existed a way to connect the different worlds.
Maobiana had been a passage during the times of antiquity when dragons crossed over to Mute, and perhaps, somewhere in that infinite universe, there is a door to the world where Park Noah lived.
If I could go back to my world… If my body hasn’t lost life yet… Then it’s not theoretically impossible to get my body back.
Noah could feel all the thoughts that filled her head were also conveyed to Muell. She looked down at the little boy and moistened her lips. “…Will it work, Mu?”
“If that’s what Noah wants.” Muell gave a big smile.
“Let’s find it together!” These words echoed inside her head, and Noah made a decision as soon as she heard the child’s enthusiastic voice. What they ought to do wasn’t merely go after Adrian. Here, in Maobiana, was the only place where Noah grasped the chance to retrieve her original body despite not knowing which dimension she was stuck in.
***
Of course, there were things to be accomplished before they could achieve such a feat. The fundamental purpose of their coming was to find answers that they persistently sought.
“So, that means the owner of the mine had ordered to mine some of the undeveloped areas behind Maobiana.”
The tapes from a small portable recorder ran with a click, recording every word of their conversation. At Kyle’s sharp question, a young boy, who was one of the missing miners, answered vaguely.
“Yes… Don’t record the quarry that you’ve mined, but let it go straight out through this cliff path, they said.”
There were about twenty miners trapped in cocoons created by the fairies and the other twenty were confined in another cocoon at the bottom of the cliff. After being locked up for at least two weeks, their condition was not very well. Some were driven to the brink of starvation, while many others were injured trying to escape the cocoons. Some even said they had already fallen down the cliff and died.
The miners who were able to speak coherently were, relatively, recently brought to the cocoons. A boy who appeared younger than Noah stuttered, “Once on the moon, there’s a dealer coming up this cliff. What we were doing was handing over minerals from undeveloped areas to dealers, receiving payments, and handing them over to the miner…”
“You mean Donalian Culton, the owner of the mine?”
“Yes, Mr. Culton. But since the first disappearance… Even though I said I wouldn’t go in this way because I felt uncomfortable, he kept persuading me to double or triple the daily wage. I came here through the lake to cry and eat mustard, but…” The young man glanced at the yellow fairies surrounding them with terrified eyes. It was obvious what would follow.
Then, the mystery of the mass disappearance in the Noviscosha mine was finally unraveled. It was a tale reminiscent of the ancient times, encompassing dragons. Maobiana may appear unambiguous on the outside, but underneath lies the traces of the beastly creature, along with the magical ore, and fairies.
A month and a half ago, when Muell hatched from the egg, the fairies instinctively sensed the birth of the dragon. What seemed to be the queen of the fairies laid itself on Muell’s black curls as if it were a comfortable nest spoke in a resonant voice.
[How dare you take a piece of the cradle and steal it? This was the cradle of Sailor, but it’s also our home. We, the dragon’s family, feed on the dragon’s magical power.]
“They must have been upset that they ripped off their homes.” Noah delivered the fairy’s message to Kyle, who couldn’t hear its whispers.
“It’s only been a month and a half ago when they started kidnapping the miners en masse. I think the fairies started moving in earnest after they saw the miners handing over the ore to the dealers.”
It was unexpected that the fairies, known to have already been extinct, were involved in the disappearance of miners. Now, they had confirmed the existence of the ‘dealers,’ which also materialized the existence of the thieves of Mane Ore.
Kyle briefly calculated information in his head and then asked the boy another question. “When did you first start trading?
