Part 5: The Miner Teaches Catria How to Mine

Part 5:
The Miner Teaches Catria
How to Mine

 

“HEY! Let me out of here this instant!”

Catria’s hair was as disheveled as the rest of her when she awoke. She’d found herself in a hole that could’ve been made by an antlion. Alan had felt bad about tying her up with rope, so instead he made a simple jail cell for her with his shovel. It was about three feet in diameter. Its walls had been hardened using alkaline excretions from the shovel, so it was completely smooth and impossible for anyone but Alan to climb.

“My apologies, Sir Miner. Catria is a little bit confused,” Lithisia explained while sitting on her knees and watching her friend.

“Yeah, she is. Mostly because of you.”

“I completely understand. She must be shocked that I’m safe.”

“Actually, I’d say it’s more your words and actions that’ve shocked her.”

But of course, Lithisia wasn’t actually listening. The princess had a tendency to ignore his comments. “I’ll take responsibility and explain everything to her.”

“Please don’t. I get the feeling that letting you take charge would be a very bad idea.”

“But I’m Catria’s master. I think I’m shovely perfect for the job.”

“Nope. Definitely shovely not. I’ll handle this.”

“Really? That’s too bad, but I suppose I’ll leave the matter in your hands.”

I can’t believe that worked, Alan thought. Even as someone used to working with a shovel, the princess’ eccentricity was enough to throw him for a loop. He could totally relate to Catria’s confusion.

 

***

 

A while later, Alan climbed into the hole and sat next to Catria. He tried to explain the situation to her, but the knight was having none of it.

“Impossible! Like hell I believe any of that!” Catria shouted with rage. “You dug a tunnel six miles long with your shovel? You defeated those knights earlier with your Shovel Rifle? You might think you can fool the princess, but you’ll never fool a knight like me! You’re nothing but a fraud!”

Just as Alan was struggling to determine his next move, Lithisia spoke up. “Sir Miner! Why don’t you scoop up her heart with your shovel?”

“What are you talking about…?” Alan asked. Lithisia’s communicative abilities were rapidly falling apart.

“Grr…if only I had my sword. I’d cut you down!” Catria threatened as she bravely stared down the miner.

“Do you really think you can defeat me?”

“Of course! A sword would never lose to a shovel!”

Lithisia excitedly chimed in. “Sir Miner! It would appear as though Catria requires some education in the finer arts of the shovel!”

“Hrm…” Alan muttered. “Then I suppose we should have a duel.”

Catria blinked. “What?”

“If I lose, I’ll give up my job as Lithisia’s bodyguard and leave,” he told her.

Catria happily nodded. “And if I lose, I’ll do whatever you want me to do.”

Five minutes later, the two faced one another in combat. Within seconds, Catria’s sword was sent flying as if it were nothing more than a piece of trash.

“Sir Miner wins! The shovelscore is now six wins to zero!” Lithisia crowed. The princess was still forcing the word “shovel” into anywhere she deemed suitable, but that wasn’t what mattered at the moment.

Catria stared down at her now-empty hand in disbelief. “H-how?! I demand a rematch! Face me one more time!”

“As you wish,” Alan replied, handing back her sword.

Catria’s blade came swinging down once again, and Alan slowly dodged it. If he moved at full speed, Catria wouldn’t have been able to track his movements, and she’d continue to think he was a fraud. To prevent that, he copied the way the bandit leader had moved. The man who had attacked Lithisia on the mountain was far stronger than Catria.

Whoosh, whoosh! The knight’s blade connected with nothing but air.

“Urgh…haaah… How are you…?!” Catria panted. She was stunned by the miner’s abilities. The man in front of her wasn’t just incredibly strong, he was fast. Despite putting her full force and weight into each attack, he barely moved. She felt like an ant facing off against a giant dragon. “This can’t be! It’s impossible! Who in the hell are you?!”

“I’m a jewel miner.”

“Lies! Your movements are those of a knight! A Holy Knight at that! I would know!” Catria’s father was a Holy Knight, and this man moved just like him.

“There’s no way that’s…” Alan trailed off before realizing. Oh, right. If he recalled correctly, the bandit leader who attacked Lithisia had said he was a former Holy Knight. Catria had gotten the wrong idea.

“I get it now!” she continued. “I heard of a Holy Knight who retired and went missing! You must be him!”

“...Fine, whatever. I don’t even care anymore.” It was easier for Alan to just accept that as his new truth. Catria stopped in her tracks.

“So…you’re a former Holy Knight…?” Her hands dropped to her sides. After staring at Alan for a time, she slowly took a knee. “I have lost. As promised, you are free to do with me what you will,” Catria said, accepting her fate with honor. Her sword dropped to the ground with a clang, and she suddenly started to laugh. It was a self-deprecating kind of laugh. “To think that a Holy Knight could be this strong…”

Alan’s strength was inhuman. If this was the power that all Holy Knights boasted, then this was the end of the line. She quickly fell into despair. Of course, Catria had no way of knowing that not only was Alan not a Holy Knight, he was a miner, and he wasn’t even using his full power.

Tears began to form in her eyes.

“Catria! Catria! Hold yourshove together!” Lithisia encouraged her friend.

Alan glared at her. “Okay, you need to back off and be quiet.”

“Okey dokey!” Despite going quiet, Lithisia attempted to reach Catria using telepathy. Hold yourshove together!

This girl had lost it.

“I’m so sorry, Your Royal Highness. I… I can’t…” I can’t live up to your expectations, Catria wanted to say, but before she could finish her sentence, the ground began to shake. Alan motioned for silence before listening carefully.

“Hrm, more knights are on their way. Thirty this time,” he reported.

Catria slowly raised her head. “They’re probably looking for me.” She cast her gaze to Lithisia, her expression a mystery. She then took hold of her sword, rising from the ground. “Your Royal Highness, this is goodbye. Please stay safe.”

“Catria?”

The knight looked as though a great weight had been lifted from her shoulders. “They’re after me, so if you run in the opposite direction, you should be safe.”

“But what about you?”

Catria smiled brightly. “For someone as untalented as I am, the least I can do is serve as a decoy. I have no regrets.” This was the honest truth. She had only just come to realize that her entire life had held no meaning. The thought of throwing her life away no longer seemed crazy to her. “And Sir Holy Knight, might I have your name?”

“I’m not a Holy Knight, but my name is Alan.”

“Sir Alan… If you still have any pride left as a Holy Knight, I ask that you swear upon my blade to protect the princess.”

“I’m not a knight,” he insisted. “Fine…I’ll swear on this shovel of mine instead.”

“Heh,” Catria laughed at his response. “I finally get it. This whole ‘shovel’ thing you and the princess are doing is just an inside joke to calm your nerves.”

Alan rolled his eyes. “If only.” He wished it was a joke.

Catria held her sword up, her ponytail swaying in the wind. “Sir Alan, I promised you that I would do anything you said, but it looks like I won’t be able to keep that promise. Forgive me.” As she met his gaze, she realized that this man with incredible strength had been chosen by the heavens.

She had to ask.

“What…what is it that I’m lacking?” Catria whispered.

“Well…” Alan began, but she interrupted him.

“No, you don’t have to say anything. I already know. I’ve always known.”

She glanced down at his shovel. Alan had toyed with her like a child with that shovel of his. Even if she trained for a hundred years, she knew for a fact that she’d never clear the bar that Alan had set.

There were some walls that couldn’t be overcome by hard work alone. That was what it meant to have talent.

I wasn’t chosen.

And just like she hadn’t been chosen at birth, the path of the blade did not choose her, either. Catria understood that to a painful degree now.

To her, the man standing in front of her was blindingly bright.

“I…I wanted to be like you.” With that confession, the knight turned her back to the man, tears in her eyes, and began to run toward the squad of knights approaching from the hills.

“Now wait just a second!” Alan grabbed her by the collar, stopping her in her tracks.

Catria began to cough after getting grabbed by the neck. “Ack! Wh-what are you doing?! You fool!”

“Don’t get ahead of yourself. I can handle thirty knights myself.”

“Are you a moron?! You might be a former Holy Knight, but you can’t possibly win against those numbers!”

Alan held his shovel up. He had to save this girl. After being dropped into a pit of self-loathing, she was now searching for a place to die.

“Catria. What you lack is not talent.”

“Huh?” What was he saying all of a sudden?

“You don’t need talent to get stronger.” Alan knew this for a fact. “What you need is some mining.”

Catria’s mouth opened wide. “Huh? Wh-what are you saying…?”

Alan continued his explanation despite Catria’s confusion. “Talent isn’t just something you find on the ground. It’s something you mine from deep within yourself. I don’t know much about swordsmanship, but it can’t be all that different from shoveling. If you’ve been training hard like everyone else and you’re still weak, that just means you’ve been mining yourself the wrong way.”

“Mining…myself…?”

“So it’s time to learn how to mine properly. If you can manage that…” Alan looked Catria straight in the eyes. “You’ll become as strong as me. No, even stronger,” he declared with certainty.

Catria froze. Lies. This was madness. None of this made any kind of sense. There was no sense to be made! Her mind was screaming at her, yet her heart wouldn’t stop racing a mile a minute. After all, he was the strongest man she knew, and he’d stated his words as fact.

I can become as strong as he is?

“You just don’t know how to mine yet, and I’m going to prove it to you.” Alan gripped his shovel with both hands and held it up high. “Just by mining day in and day out, a simple man like me can do this.”

Alan’s Shovel Power was increasing. Blue and white energy particles gathered in the area around the shovel at an explosive rate. This was just like when he saved Lithisia, only even more impressive. The shovel’s beam was responding to Alan’s pure desire to save Catria from her suicidal despair. He pointed the shovel at the knights bearing down on them.

“DIG!” he commanded.

KA-CHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMM!!!!!

A giant beam of light shot out from the shovel at high speed. The power released shook the air, and even felt like it shook the world and maybe even space itself. This was Alan’s Wave Motion Shovel Blast, and there was no way that a human or a horse could survive the same force that had pierced an entire mountain. The thirty approaching knights, as well as the fortress behind them, vanished into a blinding flash of light.

“Yaaaay!” Lithisia cheered. “You did it, Sir Miner! What a shovely amazing Wave Motion Shovel Blast!”

“Don’t act so surprised. It’s not like you haven’t seen this before, Lithisia.”

Then it hit her. “Oh, but you killed all those knights…” She lowered her head. “Rest in peace,” she said.

“I’ve killed no one. I changed the beam’s attribute to ‘bury’. They and their horses can be dug up and saved.”

“Amazing! You buried the horses, too?! Your sense of humor is shovely wonderful!”

Alan decided to let that go for now. He turned back toward Catria, who was standing in stunned silence. She must’ve finally understood what “mining” meant. “If you learn to mine properly, you too can tap into that power!” he said with confidence.

Time passed slowly, but finally Catria began to tremble. “I… I can do that…?”

She clenched her shaking fists. A moment passed.

And then something snapped inside of her.

“THERE’S NO WAY I COULD EVER DO SOMETHING LIKE THAAAAAAT!!!!!” Catria screamed to the heavens.

 

***

 

That was how Catria came to travel alongside Alan and Lithisia.

“This makes no sense! Your shovel makes no sense!” She was still trying to make head or tail of Alan’s weird powers as the three of them dug up the ground, freeing the unconscious knights and horses.

“What about it doesn’t make sense?”

“Normal shovels don’t shoot beams! That’s a fact!”

Normal this, normal that, Alan thought. Nobles are sure hung up on “normal.”

“Mrrghh…nonsense! Mining? Talent? All just complete nonsense!” Catria grumbled. Despite her words, she couldn’t help but grin slightly, a tiny spark of hope growing inside her as she considered Alan’s explanation. As for the miner himself, he decided that he had to mine as much talent out of this girl as possible.

“By the way, Lithisia. What’s our next destination?”

“Well, since the fortress is gone and it’s safe now, let’s find a place to stay the night…oh.” Lithisia had just realized something important. “Stay…stay the night…” She hid her face with her red shovel. “U-um, I’m so sorry for the other night. So, um…”

“What is it?”

“If you’re not still upset, maybe tonight…” Lithisia had strengthened her resolve as much as possible, despite her fidgeting about. “We could practice ‘shoveling’ together?”

“Uh, sure, why not?”

The princess’ face lit up. “Thank you so much! I’ll do my best!” Lithisia bowed. I said it! I can’t believe I said something shovely daring!

She was clearly nervous about something, but Alan decided to ignore it for the time being. After all, he already knew that the princess was a weirdo, so what was there to be concerned about?

“I-I’m gonna shovel lots and lots!”

…well, besides how badly each kept misinterpreting the other.