Alexia's Anguish

Parched, cracked land. A water shortage so severe that people couldn't even find drinking water.

When I first saw it, I could hardly believe it.

It had been a while since I'd last visited, but it hadn't been years since I'd left this land for war.

My homeland had been a place with nothing much to boast of, but we'd never lacked for water or food. To see it transformed so utterly…

And the new lord, Baron Aerg, was doing next to nothing about the disaster, busying himself with hoarding burning stone instead.

Unbelievably, he'd even haggled down the price he himself had posted.

Did the man have no shame?

Ah, but who was I to talk.

I'd lost a war, been taken prisoner, and ended up a slave.

An unwilling homecoming on top of all that, though I'd be lying if I said some small part of me hadn't looked forward to seeing the familiar landscape again.

The shock was so great I could barely force my food down.

My master, Yohane, noticed I wasn't eating and looked worried.

Observant as always.

The stale smell hanging over the city was probably because they couldn't clean properly due to the water shortage.

Master judged we wouldn't get decent rest at an inn anyway and decided to spend the night outside the city.

Beyond the city walls, the ground was cracked despite temperatures that weren't even high. Not a weed in sight.

At this rate, the entire breadbasket must have been wiped out.

A clenching sensation gripped my stomach.

Could this somehow be my fault?

I hadn't been able to stop my father, who'd been taken in by honeyed words and couldn't hear anything else anymore.

We'd ridden out together, and I'd fallen into slavery while Father died.

Our patron, the earl, had clearly said to leave everything to him if anything happened.

This was beyond tragedy and into farce.

The ones being mocked were my family.

The house was naturally dissolved, and as a result Baron Aerg had taken over.

Even so, if the territory had survived properly, I could have just regretted my own inadequacy.

But what was this?

The Water Elemental should have been on good terms with us.

What could anyone possibly have done to bring things to this?

A gatekeeper so drained he could barely stand, let alone do his job.

I saw a child collapsed in the shade.

When I hurried over and gave her water, the slight improvement in her color brought a small measure of relief, but it was only a stopgap.

Just a single cup of water as the daily ration?

There's no way anyone could live properly on that.

At this rate, this place would be dead before long.

Surely even they had to understand that.

The water I'd created with magic and distributed didn't help much at all.

(This city is the granary for the surrounding area… I don't even want to think about how many people will starve to death.)

I unloaded the crates, and with the cart a bit more spacious, I lay down inside.

My eyes stayed wide open. I couldn't sleep. I even felt like cold sweat kept running down my back.

We were close enough that every time someone shifted, I could hear it perfectly.

I was detecting the surrounding area with magic as a precaution, but I didn't sense even animals, let alone monsters.

In the end, grim thoughts circled through my head all night, and I greeted dawn without having slept a wink.

The other three were still asleep as I sat up.

We were outside the city, so I wasn't wearing the hood.

I stepped out of the cart and conjured water for the horse.

The dry air must have left it parched, because the horse drank eagerly.

When I stroked its mane, it shivered happily.

I caught myself sighing without realizing it.

What had anything I'd done amounted to?

Should I have stopped Father by force, even physically if necessary…?

I wanted to do something, but my status was that of a slave.

Even though Yohane, my master, treated his slaves kindly despite how he talked, that was just because he was an oddball. It didn't change the fact that I was a slave.

And I, a slave, was living a decent life, while the people of my homeland, who'd only gotten a different lord, were suffering.

If I could at least find out what had happened between the Water Elemental and Baron Aerg…

Just then, a water droplet was floating in front of me.

Rain? I thought for a moment, but that wasn't it. The weather was clear, the sun shining on the ground.

The droplet hung still in front of me. Then it started spinning around me.

Could this be… part of the Water Elemental?

The power I sensed from the droplet was the same as the Water Elemental I'd encountered before.

I held out my hand, and the droplet settled onto my palm.

"You remembered me."

The droplet bounced.

It understood my words.

It must have noticed I'd returned to this land and come over.

But the Water Elemental should have been much larger than this.

Not this tiny droplet size.

The water element naturally present in the land mixed with the mana accumulated there, gained consciousness, and became something like a local deity.

Its power was immense. If you could gain its cooperation, an entire city wouldn't have to worry about water.

Yet now, I could barely sense any power from this Water Elemental at all.

"What happened to you?"

When I asked that, it spun around in the direction of the manor that now belonged to Baron Aerg.

Just as the rumors said, something must have happened with that Baron Aerg.

But I couldn't imagine what a human could do to a spirit…

The Water Elemental suddenly disappeared.

I sensed a human presence instead.

Master had woken up and come out.

The Water Elemental must have disliked the human presence.

If I was going to do something, I'd need to persuade Master.

(He said our lives were more important than anything, but to move this man, I'd need to talk about money.)

Being shortchanged must still be bothering him.

He had a furrow between his brows.

I quietly approached Master.

I couldn't stay like this any longer.