Part 18: The Miner Eats the Self-Proclaimed Ice Sage’s Shaved Ice

Part 18:
The Miner Eats the
Self-Proclaimed Ice Sage’s Shaved Ice

THE PARTY WALKED ALONG the main street of the capital city of Shilasia. Just as Riezfeld’s magic had frozen the city in one fell blow, so too had Alan defrosted it with his shovel. As such, most of the citizens seemed unaware that anything strange had happened at all. For the over sixty thousand people living in the city, the whole event seemed to pass like nothing more than an unusually strong breeze. That said, the party did overhear a few odd things.

“Hey, did you see that? There was a guy holding a shovel flying across the sky just now!”

“Well, I mean, look at all this snow. You probably just saw someone doing work on a roof or something.”

“Yeah, I suppose.”

And that was that.

“Thank goodness this is the kingdom of snow. Saves me the trouble of having to manipulate the flow of information,” said Alan.

“That’s not the problem. Look at her.” Catria pointed at the wide-eyed Riezfeld.

“The equation’s been completely undone and there are no lasting side effects? How?!” Riezfeld seemed overwhelmed by the sight before her. This was how most normal people reacted when confronted with the absurdity of Alan’s shovel. “Wh-what kind of magic did you use to do this?!”

“No magic. Just my shovel,” said Alan.

“Your shovel? Is that some kind of new magic tool?”

“Nope! Shovels are the truth of this world,” said Lithisia.

“Er.”

“Lithisia, stuff it. You’re just going to make this more difficult,” said Alice.

“Stuff it… You mean like with a shovel?” Lithisia wore a childish smile on her face.

Two cold seconds passed, during which Alice had a look in her eyes that screamed disdain. “Shut up.”

“Baww…”

The sage was in the midst of a grave misunderstanding, so Alan cleared his throat and decided to set things straight. “All I did was melt the ice with my shovel. See, shovels are a fundamental part of daily life, like when they’re tools used to deal with snow. So it makes sense that a shovel could defrost ice. Anyone could do it with a bit of practice.”

Anyone could(n’t) do it.

Of course, this explanation did nothing to appease Riezfeld. “Hmph, you’re trying to fool me, but there’s no way you can deceive a sage’s eyes!”

Moments later, she smacked her fist into her hand and turned to Alan.

“I understand now. Alan, no, Sir Hero!” Riezfeld pointed her finger at him. Her expression made her look like a proud older sister. “You’re actually a super powerful Disenchanter!”

“A disenchanter?”

“A mage that specializes in nullifying spells and curses. That’s you.” It was as though she was trying to tell him that it was pointless to keep secrets from her.

“No, actually my specialty is shovels.”

“I get it. So you use a shovel as your magical trigger, eh? I suppose it’s not so different from a rod.”

Wow, this misunderstanding is getting out of control, thought Catria. But the whole situation was too much of a bother for her to try and correct anyone.

“Anyhow.” Riezfeld whispered a spell. “La Lebolt.”

The space in front of her cracked open, and from the void emerged a long rod capable of projecting cold air.

“Sir Miner, please use my power to search for the orb.”

“Oh? You know where it is?”

Riezfeld giggled. “Remember, I am the Ice Sage. Shilasia is like my garden!”

“Huh?” Lithisia responded. “Now that I think about it, in the legends you’re referred to as the Ice Witch, not a Sage.”

“Er, well, I’m sure the legend just evolved as time went on.” Riezfeld smiled unnaturally. “I am the Ice Sage Riezfeld, helper of the hero who founded Shilasia.”

The sage placed her rod in front of Alan and gracefully took a knee. “Please use my wisdom and knowledge.”

This was her way of thanking the miner for saving her from her prison of ice. However, the vision of a greeting from naked Riezfeld was still freshly imprinted in Alan’s mind. It made it rather difficult for him to see her as a reliable partner.

“Hrm, although, I suppose when it comes to orb-hunting, Riezfeld…”

“Just call me Riez.”

“All right. Well, what about the evil mage that attacked you?”

During the following silence, a passerby suddenly raised their voice. “Crap! I forgot to buy apples!”

“Ah.” A single sweat drop rolled down Riez’s white cheek, but she nonetheless managed to maintain her older sister-smile.

“Ah?”

“Er, no, um, well…” Riez suddenly looked off to the side. “I absolutely did not forget about my mortal enemy whatsoever.”

“I didn’t say you did,” said Alan.

“The Ice Sage is wise beyond her years. I would never, ever forget something like that.” Riez gripped her rod and puffed out her chest.

She totally forgot.

She definitely forgot.

Shovely shovel!

Both Alice and Catria internally agreed that there was something rather suspicious about this self-proclaimed sage. Lithisia, on the other hand, was currently plotting. Plotting to shovel said sage.

Nonetheless, Riez finally began to speak of the evil mage that had assaulted her. His name was Raystol, and apparently, he was Shilasia’s court mage. According to the sage, he had planned something terribly evil, and by making Riez drink some sort of potion, forced her powers to go berserk and freeze the entire kingdom.

But that was all Riez had in terms of information.

“That’s it?!” exclaimed Catria.

“Talk about vague,” said Alan.

And what exactly about this mage was evil? At the end of the day, the reason the kingdom froze over was still because of Riez’s magical powers going berserk.

“Well, whatever. We can just ask him ourselves,” said Alan. “Where is he?”

“Leave that to me! As the Ice Sage, I can use my powers to find his location,” Riez declared, putting a certain amount of emphasis on Sage.

Riez raised her rod and began to chant a spell. Suddenly, a large ice crystal appeared before her. Blue magical energy erupted from her rod as she glided her left hand over the crystal.

“The northeast… A mountain covered in snow… Somewhere halfway down from the top…”

“More vague information.”

Pretty much every mountain in the country was covered in snow. Not to mention, the distance from the summit to the halfway point of a mountain was about two-thirds of its total size. Alan found this info fairly questionable, but didn’t have long to think on it before Riez’s eyes went wide in surprise.

“Wait, I can sense the Silver Orb!”

“Hrm, then does that mean that it’s in Raystol’s possession?”

“Yes, it does! Hee hee, I can’t be wrong!” Riez clapped her hands together and smirked. “Do you understand now? That was that, and this is this!”

“Er, what are you talking about?”

“I didn’t forget about the mage, not at all! The reason I brought up hunting for the orb is because I knew the mage had it in his possession, and therefore orb-hunting equaled finding Raystol! I just cut down on the explanation! The Ice Sage would never forget something so important,” she explained at a blistering speed.

Oh, c’mon. Does anyone actually buy that?

The sage’s explanation was filled with holes. For example, she had only discovered the presence of the orb moments earlier. But Catria couldn’t bring herself to say anything. Riez was so desperate, and Catria was a kind young woman.

“A mountain to the northeast, eh? Is there any way we can get more accurate than that?”

“As cool of an Ice Sage as I might be, that’d be difficult.” The self-proclaimed Ice Sage looked truly sorry as she shook her head from side to side. “Raystol’s blocking magical searches. He probably put up a powerful magic wall wherever his homebase is. Anyone but me would have a difficult time even performing a search.”

Alan nodded. “Got it. Let me draw up a map using my shovel.”

“Excuse me?”

Alan nudged his shovel into the ground and began to look for the Silver Orb’s location. Images began to form in his mind. Riez was right. The orb was located at the halfway point of a mountain to the northeast. There, he saw a black tower rising from a steep slope, approximately 800 meters in height.

Alan jotted the details of the image onto a scroll and passed it to Riez. “Done. This map will lead us to the Silver Orb.”

Riez blinked her eyes over and over again. Her expression clearly read: Am I dreaming? Is this some kind of illusion?

“Since we had the general location down, I was able to unearth more specific information,” Alan explained.

“Huh? Wha?” Riez looked down at the map, which was a hundred times more accurate than the vague info she had provided, and froze in place.

Catria and the others looked upon her with pity.

This poor Ice Sage’s usefulness has already run dry.

This poor Ice Sage’s usefulness is over and done with.

This poor Ice Sage should become a Shovel Sage!

All three women thought the same thing. Well, maybe not all three.

Riez seemed to read the temperature of the room and mustered up the best smile she could. “I suppose modern location magic is one of the things that’s advanced over the years.”

“I told you. That wasn’t magic. It was my shovel.”

“B-but! When it comes to progressing through the snow, there is no better person to have around than the Ice Sage.”

At that, the party exited the capital city, following behind Riez. Sweat ran down the sage’s face, but she led them through the snow, toward the mountain with determination. It wasn’t long before they came upon a lake filled with large chunks of ice. The lake was vast, and there appeared to be no boats in the vicinity. They would have to make a lengthy detour to get around it.

“Looks like it’s already my time to shine!” Riez declared.

I have a bad feeling about this.

This will not go well.

I have a shovely feeling about shovely scoop scoop!

Riez held up her rod and stepped forward while the other girls internally sighed. Well, save for one of them.

“Oh, powerful tundra, gift us a path forward!” The sage waved her rod once. From the tip unfurled a snowstorm that immediately blanketed the entire lake. It was cold enough to freeze even flesh. After but a few seconds, the water was completely frozen over.

“Wow! That was legitimately amazing!” Catria cried out.

Riez wore a satisfied smile. “This is my true power as the Ice Sage. Now then, please cross one at a time.”

“One at a time?”

“The ice is quite thin. If all of us tried to cross at once, it would break.”

“What if we got attacked by monsters midway through?”

They’d already encountered beasts multiple times on the way to the capital city. Alan fought them back in seconds, of course, but if they were attacked one at a time on the lake, they’d undoubtedly fall through the ice.

That got Alan’s attention. “Hrm. Then I’ll build a bridge just to be safe.”

“Huh?”

Clank, clonk, scoop! In approximately three seconds, a bridge appeared over the lake. It was made of adamantine, and was about as sturdy as the bridge Alan made for the World Tree Castle. A million troops could cross it simultaneously without it buckling.

“Um.” The self-proclaimed Ice Sage stared at the adamantine bridge in disbelief.

Just then, the party’s ears were filled with the sound of wings beating against the wintry sky. They looked up to see the silhouette of a massive condor with a terrifying mouth. This creature was known as the Ruler of the Chilled Skies, a beast capable of expelling a deadly, icy breath.

Riez’s eyes sparkled and she raised her rod toward the Ruler of the Chilled Skies. “Look, everyone! With my anti-air magic, I can take down a threat like this, no problem!”

But before she said another word, Alan raised his shovel as well. In an instant, a brilliant azure light collected at the head of his shovel.

“DIG!” he commanded.

Alan fired his Wave Motion Shovel Blast. A blue beam of light shot through the air. On contact, the Ruler of the Chilled Skies instantly disintegrated. Riez was once more frozen in place with her rod held high as Alan returned the shovel to his back.

“Perfect.”

“UM.”

An uncomfortable silence settled between Riez and Alan.

“I’m starting to feel bad for her,” said Catria.

“She looks like how I felt when my undead army was laid to rest,” murmured Alice.

“I knew it! I really should turn all of our court mages into shovel mages!” cried Lithisia.

Tears began to form in Riez’s eyes. She was on the verge of bawling. Shortly, she gave in. “Ugh… Waaaah!”

Catria felt in her heart of hearts that the sage had done her best. She didn’t have to keep this up any further. Frankly, her magic was genuinely incredible—she had instantly frozen an entire lake. Her problem was that she was trying to get competitive with a freak of nature.

In the silence of Riez’s despair, everyone heard Alice’s stomach rumble.

“?!”

Riez whipped around and fixed on the undead girl.

“Wh-what is it?”

“You’re hungry, right?!” Riez’s voice was radiant, almost as if she’d been blessed by heaven itself.

Overwhelmed by the pressure of the sage’s full attention, Alice nodded her head.

“In that case, leave it to me, the Ice Sage!”

“Are you going to cook or something?!”

Riez set to work with great intensity. First, she grabbed some ice from the frozen lake. She then threw it up in the air and held out her rod. “Ice Blade!”

Magical force carved the ice into a flurry of chips. Another spell saw the results captured in a bowl, also made of ice. Once the bowl was filled, Riez reached into her pocket and extracted a vial of pink liquid. She drizzled the contents over the ice.

“Here! My specially made strawberry-flavored shaved ice!”

Really? At a time like this? Despite the question running through her mind, Alice took the spoon from the sage and began to eat from the bowl.

“Oh… Mm, how sweet. This is quite delicious.”

“Hee hee, right? Right? I’ve practiced a great deal!” Riez offered Catria a bowl as well, a smile stretched across her face. “Do you finally understand how powerful and amazing the Ice Sage Riez truly is?”

What in the living hell is up with this Shaved Ice Sage? Catria wondered as she munched on the sweet treat.