"Who is it?"
The scarred man lowered his arm and checked the face of the soldier who had just entered the mine. The man frowned as if he had bad luck when he saw that the soldier was wearing armor with the Lamberda symbol on it.
"Are you from that family?"
"You mercenary bastards don't know!"
He spoke as if it was unpleasant for a soldier to even talk to a mercenary.
"Why don't you just do your job properly? This kid was wandering around the mansion. How can you handle your work like this?"
The man responded rudely to the soldier's shouting.
"Oh, yes, yes. Be careful."
The soldier turned around immediately as if his business was over, and showed his displeasure openly. As the soldier turned away, the man with the severe scars spat out thick curses.
"What the fuck! I'm just doing whatever I say because you paid me! Who the hell are you treating me like a babysitter for?"
The man spat on the floor and roughly grabbed the boy's arm as if trying to vent his anger on him.
"You! You were hanging around the mansion? When did you go out? You're bothering people!"
The man growled. But the child paid no attention and instead, his eyes flashed and he looked around with the eyes of an eagle.
"...!"
And as soon as he found Dino and Phillip lying on the ground, he ran towards them.
"Dino! Philip!"
"Huh?"
Dino and Philip suddenly looked up in surprise when their names were unexpectedly called. Philip's cough had subsided after going outside and getting some fresh air.
"Are you guys okay? I came to find you."
Aiden approached Dino and Phillip to check on his brother's condition.
"Brother Aiden?"
"Brother..."
Dino and Phillip burst into tears when they saw Aiden's face.
"Ugh!"
"Brother... ahh..."
Dino's cries were louder than Philip's.
"That's why I told you not to follow people you don't know and to always be careful!"
Aiden was terribly angry. But Dino and Philip were so happy to see Aiden at this moment. Dino said while crying.
"Brother Aiden! I was wrong!!"
Aiden hugged Dino, who was crying, and Philip, who was sobbing. And so, Aiden and his brothers had a touching reunion. And then, the man who was watching the scene from behind asked.
"Hey? What is it? Are you the older brother who came to save his younger brother? Brother?"
The man sarcastically mimicked Dino and Philip's speech.
"You came here on your own two feet to save your younger siblings? That kid is really crazy."
At that sound, Aiden glared at the man. The man chuckled, raised his club at Aiden, and threatened him.
"Now that the cool older brother has come, I guess you can work hard to take care of my younger siblings' share too! Right?"
The scarred man snickered and laughed wickedly.
"...!"
Contrary to Dino and Philip's expectations that Aiden would come to their rescue, Aiden asked the man.
"What should I do?"
"Oh. I'm glad you understood what | said. Or else I was going to beat you up to make an example of you. You're quick-witted, aren't you? I like you."
"Brother..."
Dino looked at Aiden with anxious eyes.
"Okay, then let's get to work right away. Go over there."
The Scarred Man again led Aiden, Dino, and Phillip deep into the mine shaft.
"With this, just break as much dirt and rocks around the red stone as possible. Don't break the red stone itself."
The man gave Aiden a long, blunt-tipped iron nail and a heavy hammer. Dino and Philip received crude hand shovels. At the innermost part of the tunnel, the three children had to dig out a solid block of rock. Inside, Aiden whispered quietly to Dino and Philip.
"Don't worry. I'll take care of everything, so you guys just pretend to do it. And make sure to cover your mouth and nose with your scarf so you don't inhale any dust. Okay?"
"Huh."
"Yeah."
Dino and Philip nodded in understanding.
Karina, who followed Aiden, couldn't help but be astonished.
"It looks like they just sent the kids into the mine shaft... Did I see it correctly?"
Karina doubted her own eyes for a moment. She had been hiding to avoid being caught, so she had been observing the situation from a distance, and it was dark because it was night. She wanted to believe that it was an illusion. Karina rubbed her eyes and opened them again.
"I saw it that way too."
But contrary to Karina's wishes, Hasten pointed out the truth. Mikhail nodded with a regretful expression as if it were true.
"They're making those little kids work in mines?"
Karina sighed at the unbelievable situation.
"This doesn't seem much different from being kidnapped and sold into slavery."
Hasten continued with a stern expression.
"The practice of taking young children, abusing them, and exploiting them for labor until they die is something that happens frequently and unseen."
"..."
Karina was momentarily speechless. It was forbidden by imperial law to force children to do hard labor and exploit their labor.
"This is a clear crime."
Hasten shrugged at Karina's words.
"Why would you do something like that without knowing? That's why you brought the children here on a dark night so that people wouldn't see you.
"No, where are the miners, leaving these children to work so hard?"
"I'm not sure, but I heard that part of the mine shaft in the Lamberda family's mine collapsed. Maybe the shaft in this mine collapsed and made the passage narrow? So narrow that only small children could fit through."
Hasten guessed the situation almost exactly, Mikhail added, looking down the tunnel with chilling eyes.
"If children are injured or sick and cannot work, they will be abandoned on the streets again. Then, they will suffer and die in silence without receiving treatment."
"!"
Karina's expression twisted involuntarily at the horrible sound. Karina felt a deep disgust at Revels Lamberda for using children in this way.
"I must make sure Lamberda gets. punished for this."
There was anger in Karina's voice.
"Even if they exploited the labor of children, the punishment given to Lamberda would not be that severe.
After all, nobles are nobles even if they do such things."
Hasten said strangely. Karina tried to calm her down.
"I have to take the kids out right now."
Regardless of what happened next, she thought that taking the kids out was the priority. However, contrary to her feelings, taking the kids out didn't seem easy.
"There are too many security personnel around the mine. The security is so tight that they must have already prepared for intruders. And we don't know yet whether the children we see now are all there are or if there are more somewhere else."
The more she heard the exact situation explained, the more her headache became.
'He was more thorough and bad than I thought.'
Karina was worried. She wanted to make sure that Revals would never do something stupid again. But when she thought about it, she couldn't help but think that it was the same situation as Croana poison.
'As long as the mine exists, they will bring the children back by any dirty tricks they can.'
"It won't work."
A sharp light came into Karina's eyes. Karina opened her mouth with a determined look on her face.
"This copper mine. Let's blow it up."
"Yes...?"
Mikhail and Hasten looked at Karina with surprised faces.
"The tunnel here collapsed once, right? Let's disguise it as a landslide or something and bury it deep underground. It'll be so bad that you can't even dream of digging the tunnel again!"
Karina emphasized the word 'crash'.
"That's a good idea."
Mikhail agreed with a smile.
"What?"
Hasten was even more embarrassed by Mikhail's approval.
"If the mine explodes, Lamberda will suffer huge losses related to mining."
Mikhail said with satisfaction.
"No... How are you going to cause an explosion here right now? You don't know how big the mine is or what it's like inside..."
Hasten began listing the problems that came to mind in his complicated thoughts. Mikhail solved the problems he presented simply.
"You haven't forgotten that I'm a wizard, have you?"
"Ah..."
"With my ability, that level is no problem."
Hasten looked suspicious at Mikhail's attitude, which made it seem like it was too easy.
"If it's possible to cause an explosion, then it's quite possible. How about this plan?"
At Karina's question, Hasten groaned and became deep in thought. Then he opened his mouth again.
"It's certainly a bit reckless and rough, but... I guess it can work."
Karina smiled, raising the corners of her lips.
"Okay. So what do I do first?"
Mikhail answered fluently.
"We need to evacuate the children first, so I think we need to meet Aiden and find out where the children are staying and how many people are there."
"Yes."
"And we'll also need to figure out where the explosion will occur, so we'll need to look inside the tunnel as well."
So Karina and her group made plans step by step. And they secretly joined up with Aiden and waited for a chance to move.
***
Meanwhile, Jeremiah was in his office, catching up on work that had piled up. He was in a very bad mood because he had been treated rudely by Karina. Even though it was late at night, the papers on Jeremiah's desk showed no sign of decreasing. As always, whenever new information came in, Ron would come to his office and report to them without any time constraints.
"I heard that some time ago, a part of a copper mine near the southern village collapsed."
"Copper mine?"
"Yes, at first I didn't think it was a big deal since mine shafts collapsing is a common occurrence, but the owner of the mine is Lamberda."
"..."
"So, they were secretly investigating separately to see if there was anything strange, and there was some strange talk going around among the miners working there."
"What is that?"
"They say that other minerals besides copper were discovered inside the mine. They say that caused a stir inside for a while."
"Other minerals?"
"Yes, but one day, a gag order was issued about this fact, and they started to expand the mine shaft forcibly to mine the mineral. It is believed that this was the main cause of the mine shaft collapse."
"So what is this newly discovered mineral?"
"According to the miner who witnessed it, it was a red stone. It shimmered as if there was a burning flame inside, but it wasn't hot when touched. Based on the description, it is presumed to be a firestone, one of the magic stones."
"It's a firestone."
"If that is indeed a flame stone, It seems that Lamberda is secretly mining magic stones without permission and smuggling them somewhere."
Jeremiah's eyes sank deeply.
"How much magic stone is buried?"
"It seemed to be quite a lot. I heard that after the mineral was discovered, several experts secretly visited it several times. According to what the miners heard, they estimated the amount to be around 50,000 tons."
When magic stones were discovered, they had to be reported to the imperial family immediately. Magic stones became the property of the imperial family from the moment they were discovered. Therefore, to mine magic stones, one had to receive mining rights from the imperial family, and imperial law stipulated that mining could not exceed a certain amount. Violating this was considered a very serious crime, as it was considered to be disobeying an imperial order. And the greater the amount, the heavier the crime.
"It's so unfortunate that such an unfortunate thing is happening in the North."
"I'm sorry I didn't notice it earlier. I think it would be better to investigate this thoroughly and resolve it, so as not to cause unnecessary trouble."
"I see. I should go and check the situation myself. When will it be...?"
Jeremiah trailed off without answering.
Jeremiah thought about the time Karina would eat breakfast and estimated the time she would be home without being late.
"Go right now."
If they calculate the time it takes to go to the southern village, assess the situation, and return, it would be right to leave now.
"Yes? Right now?"
Ron, who thought that his overtime work for today would be over once he reported it, was surprised.
"What's the problem?"
Ron bitterly gave up on leaving work when he realized that Jeremiah really intended to leave right away.
"No. I will prepare it right away."
It was a midnight emergency call that came as a bolt from the blue to the Knights Templar.
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