Chapter 85

In a state of invisibility, I continued to search for the men.

Near the reservoir, there was a shack, and it seemed that the men lived here and patrolled the reservoir.

They seemed to be doing quite well. There were many expensive bottles of alcohol, and on a piece of paper that seemed to be used as a note, there were high prices written, as if they had been used for betting.

As I searched further, I found documents stored in a corner of a shelf lined with expensive alcohol. I picked them up and began to read through them.

Upon confirming the contents—

"Water, selling."

—It was a ledger of the business the men were conducting.

It seemed that the men were selling the water from the reservoir to the village at the foot of the mountain.

The village had been cultivating crops and making a living using the clean water that flowed from Lake Cool Rain. Therefore, the lack of water was a matter of life and death.

And the men, knowing this, had dried up Lake Cool Rain and built a poorly functioning reservoir.

I don’t think selling water is inherently wrong.

But this is different.

I pondered deeply.

From the documents, I found a single sheet of paper. It was tucked into a leather document holder, different from the others. As I picked it up, a pleading voice reached me from outside the shack.

"Please. I have the money here."

"It’s twice the amount we sold this land for. I’ll buy it back with this."

"Is this enough!?"

The unusual situation prompted me to go outside to find the source of the voices.

There, an old man and a middle-aged man were standing, offering a leather bag to the men at the reservoir. The bag seemed heavy.

"Well, I’ll take the money."

One of the men snatched the leather bag from the old man.

The old man stumbled, and the middle-aged men on either side of him hurried to support him.

"This is this week’s water fee, right?"

"What!?"

"No! We brought this money to buy back this place! The water fee can’t be that high!"

"Ah? We set the price. If you think it’s too high, you don’t have to buy the water."

"Damn... You know it’s impossible! There’s no other water source around here. Our village has been living off this water..."

"You need the water. We have the water. If you want the water, you have to pay. And we set the price. It’s only natural, right? Idiots."

"We have no intention of selling this place. We legally bought this land from your village. We have the proper documents."

I looked at the leather document holder in my hand. This must be the land deed.

The men laughed in a low, despicable manner.

"We’re just doing business legally. We bought the land from you. You were even grateful, saying, ‘It’s a blessing to be able to sell this remote mountain.’"

"That’s... But if this continues, we won’t be able to grow crops in the village. The water is too expensive. Water shouldn’t have a price... Selling it at such a high price..."

"Huh? Buying low and selling high is natural. It’s supply and demand, right? If the water fee is high, add it to the price of your crops and sell them."

"Who would buy such overpriced crops!?"

"That’s not our problem, but yours. Anyway, we’re not selling this land. But we’ll sell you the water."

"If this continues... the village will cease to exist..."

"We don’t care what happens to you!"

The old man’s shoulders trembled, and the middle-aged man’s face twisted in frustration.

The men, seeing this, grinned and sent them back to the village.

Alright. I understand.

With my mind made up, I sent a mental message to Samyū, who was hiding in the forest.

"Samyū."

"Yes! Lady Rini!"

"—Take down the men."

"Understood!"

What they were doing, drying up my beloved Lake Cool Rain, was reselling water. And it was destroying the village.

In the long run, the destruction of the village should not be beneficial for the men. But for them, as long as they got the immediate money, it was fine.

If the village were to disappear, they would move to another place. They would ruin a place for immediate profit, let it decline, and move on to the next.

...My chest burned with anger.

I stood before the men and removed my hood.

"Hey."

"““What!?””"

The men, surprised by my sudden appearance (from their perspective), braced themselves.

I ignored them and showed them the leather document holder in my hand.

"I’ll give this to the old men."

"Wh... What!? That’s our land deed!"

"I saw you take the money. I’ll be a businessperson now."

"What are you saying, kid! Give it back!!"

Seeing the land deed in my hand, the men seemed to lose their temper.

One of the men lunged at me.

I kicked off the ground and dodged his charge to the side.

"Wha...? What is this...?"

The man who tried to grab me slid across the ground, looking back and forth between me and the ground, stunned.

"I’ll tell you."

I looked down at him and calmly said,

"When you get the money, you give the product."

Right? Not giving the product and taking only the money is fraud.

"Shut up! Kid!"

"What’s wrong with this kid? Everyone, attack!!"

"““Yeah!””"

There were four men in total, all of whom I had initially found.

They cautiously approached me, inch by inch.

"Samyū, Samyū."

"Yes, Lady Rini!"

"Can you get the money?"

"Leave it to me!"

I sent a mental message to Samyū, and an immediate response came back.

Then, in an instant, a beam of light stretched from a nearby tree.

The light aimed straight for the leather bag one of the men was holding.

"Ah!"

The man let out a pitiful cry as the leather bag slipped from his hand and fell to the ground, skewered by an arrow.

Great job, Samyū! So accurate!!

—Now, just blow them away!

"Cat’s claws!"

All at once.

"Become a star!"

—Kiran.

"Alright."