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yumemory[Location: Front of Figaro’s clinic, morning]
Figaro stood behind Mitile, with Lennox and Faust coming over behind him.
Figaro: I really freaked out when you started crying. And I knew I've gone overboard after remembering that Rutile gets more excited the more scared he is.
Figaro: Actually, I also prepared a mask with ten eyeballs, but now that I think about it, I'm glad I didn't use it.
Lennox: Not only that, but you had planned to make it rain blood from the ceiling.
Rutile and Mitile: Huh, really? That's...
Mitile: Scary!
Rutile: Interesting!
Akira: Ahaha.
Nero: Real divided opinions you got there, whoa.
Heathcliff: Making it rain blood does sound a bit eerie, though...
Figaro: Well, I wanted to make it as fun as possible, and I guess I got a bit carried away.
Faust: Way too enthusiastic. Were you trying to make them faint?
Figaro: I put some limits on it after that. Sleepover parties really are fun, though.
Figaro: Wait, do you guys also remember the time we made stew together?
Mitile: Of course I do! Brother just put whatever he wanted in the pot...
Lennox: The mix of candies and vegetables was pretty unique.
Rutile: And I cut the ingredients too big, so they didn't get cooked properly...
Figaro: And every time we took a spoonful of it, I could hear gurgling sounds coming out of everyone's mouths.
The Southern wizards laughed in unison.
This was a scene more typical of them. Basking in their warmth and cheerfulness made my heart flutter. I only wished that this moment could last forever.
Mitile: ...I really want to have sleepovers again with everyone like we did in the past. I want to try and grow flowers in the flower bed again.
Mitile: It’s not just for the sake of having memories to look back on, but also because they’re things I want to do for many more years to come...
Figaro: ...Yeah.
Figaro’s gaze was gentle when he said his next words:
Figaro: Thank you both. Thank you for letting me know just how important this place is to you.
Figaro: For now, we’ll hold off giving up the clinic. Let’s first try the method Faust mentioned earlier.
Mitile: ...Doctor Figaro!!
Rutile: Really?!
Figaro: But I’m only giving us one day to pull it off. We can’t delay it any longer than that.
Figaro: If we don't resolve this within a day, we'll be left with no choice but to use the clinic as a medium to stop the curse.
Figaro: ...Leno, you good with that?
Lennox: I am.
Rutile: I'm so glad... Thank you for reconsidering your decision, Doctor Figaro!
Nero: Ain’t that nice, Mitile?
Mitile: Yes!
Heathcliff: So, what's this method that Master Faust brought up?
Faust: In the past, there was a wizard who was buried below the ground along with a swamp called the Swamp of Acid.
Faust: The goal of this approach is to find the cursed object that roused the remnants of this wizard and purify it.
Mitile: ...Swamp of Acid and a cursed object?
Rutile: Are they buried here?
Lennox: Not here exactly, but somewhere more distant.
Lennox: It seems that the wizard's cursed tool is what caused the Swamp of Acid’s mutation.
Shino: What a pain in the ass. Who buried that wizard, anyway?
Figaro: Hmm, who knows? It’s an old story, after all.
Nero: Well anyway, what you're gettin’ at is we need to dig underground and find that cursed object ta resolve this issue ‘ere, right?
Rutile: If that’s the case, let’s start digging right away!
Mitile: Yes! We’ll find it for sure!
Heathcliff: If everyone looks for it, then I’m sure we’ll find it eventually.
Akira: Yes, let’s do our best!
Shino: We just need to work together. I don’t care what kind of cursed object it is, we’ll definitely find it.
Faust: Of course.
Heathcliff: ...Fufu.
Lennox: You’re right.
Shino and Faust’s reliable answer got a little laugh out of everyone.
[Location: Sky, morning]
We then made our way to the place where the Swamp of Acid had been buried.
It was farther than we expected, and we spent about half a day just getting there.
[Location: Rocky mountains, morning]
Figaro: Just right below us is where the Swamp of Acid lies.
We arrived at the middle of a rocky mountain. The landscape was desolate, and there was very little greenery to be seen.
Faust: We’re running out of time. Let’s get to work.
Lennox: What we’re looking for is buried very deep in the ground. Please use your magic to dig, everyone.
Rutile, Mitile and Heathcliff: Okay!
Figaro: If we look around here, we should be able to find a spot where the ground is softer.
Figaro: Then we can dig down through there.
Figaro: Lennox, you should be able to recognize it, so give us any signal if you see anything like it. Collapses are a possibility, so make sure the children get evacuated right away if that happens.
Lennox, Faust and Nero: ……………
Lennox: Understood.
That was only a part of Figaro’s suggestion. The plan that the older wizards discussed beforehand actually went like this:
To find the cursed object, the easiest and fastest way to dig deep into the ground was for Figaro to use his magic.
But Figaro hides the true nature and extent of his magical powers from the younger wizards. He has to work in a way that won’t blow his cover.
As Figaro uses his magic away from everyone's eyes, he’ll wait for someone to say that they've found a spot with loose ground at an unsuspecting time.
That will be the signal to evacuate the children, and only at that moment will Figaro be able to use strong magic.
Figaro: I’ll dig on this part. Faust, Lennox and Nero, will you join me?
Lennox: Of course.
Faust: Nero, stand behind Lennox over there.
Nero: ’Kay.
Figaro: You know, I feel kinda bad for making the delicate Eastern wizard chef help us with this kind of dirty work.
Nero: Nah, it’s all good… I can’t just turn down a weak ‘n gentle Southern wizard’s request.
Figaro: Master Sage, can you check the places we dig up and see if there's anything like what we're looking for?
Akira: Alright.
Figaro: Sorry for making you do this.
His tone seemed a bit apologetic, I noticed. After all, it was his clinic that we chose to save, taking on all this hard work in exchange.
In order to fulfill Mitile and the others’ desire to protect it, as well as his desire to remain as the Southern wizard Figaro in front of the brothers...
It was necessary for all of us to put in a bit more effort.
Mitile: Okay. Brother, let’s do it!
Rutile: Alright! Here we go!
Mitile:《 Ortonik Sealsispilce 》
Rutile:《 Ortonik Setomaouge 》
Heathcliff: Shino, let’s start working too.
Shino: Yeah.
Heathcliff:《 Repsevailvulp Sunos 》
Shino:《 Matzah Sodipas 》
The spirited young wizards chanted their spells one after another.
Holes of different sizes then began to form in the ground, and the adults followed suit:
Lennox:《 Forsettao Meiuvat 》
Faust:《 Satillquinart Mulcreed 》
Nero:《 Adnodis Omnis 》
Figaro:《 Possideo 》
With each spell was a bigger and deeper hole, like the earth was being dug away by an excavator.
But even though they were using magic, going back and forth on this type of land to dig up soil mixed with boulders required a huge amount of tenacity.
And so the wizards continued to dig, beads of sweat sliding down their foreheads.
[Location: Excavated grounds, morning]
Lennox: Doctor Figaro, around here...
Figaro: Not yet. A bit more.
Akira: (Maybe Figaro still doesn't feel like it's time to use his magic.)
Akira: (It’s only natural that Lennox and the others would want to finish the work as quickly as possible for the sake of the younger wizards, but…)
Figaro’s power was what everyone needed to fulfill the children’s desire.
The three other wizards who knew the circumstances would find it difficult to say anything about it.
Heathcliff: ...I can’t find anything.
Akira: Yeah. So far, I can’t find anything like it either...
Shino: We’ve dug pretty deep already, but maybe it’s located somewhere way lower.
Mitile: That only means we haven’t dug enough… Just how deep was it buried…?
Even though the sky we could see from the hole became more and more distant, none of us could manage to find the cursed object or the Swamp of Acid.
It was just as Figaro said. The swamp was lying in a place that was deep enough to make it almost impossible to unearth.
Figaro: How’s everyone? I think we should all take a break.
Mitile: No, I can still go on! But how about you, Doctor Figaro? Are you still feeling okay?
Figaro: Huh?
Rutile: You must have exhausted some of your magic when you treated the baby earlier, right?
Figaro: ......Haha. Thank you. But I want to work hard too.
No matter how many times Figaro asked them to rest, they only shook their heads and kept digging.
I continued listening to everyone casting their spells, including that of the Southern wizard Figaro. It overlapped with the others as he spoke those words quietly and unassumingly.
TL: yumemory | Proofread: Alle
