<Chapter 116>
#13. Seeds of Chaos (5)
“Mr. Durasen must have been going through a lot. But that doesn’t mean what he did was right…”
As Melty fidgeted with their joined hands while making excuses, Calix relaxed his furrowed brows and smiled faintly.
“Why are you being so cautious?”
When Calix planted a quick kiss on the bridge of Melty’s nose, Melty giggled softly as if tickled. Touching the spot where Calix’s lips had been, Melty spoke.
“Because you’ve been like this for a while now.”
Melty tensed his brows, creating wrinkles between them. Calix rubbed his finger over the little bumps to smooth them out and offered a brief comment.
“You look ugly.”
“…Are you talking about yourself?”
“I’m handsome.”
“Eek!”
As Melty shook his clenched fist as if about to hit him, Calix was finally able to clear his complicated thoughts. With a light smile on his face, Calix poked Melty’s soft cheek.
“You did well today and worked hard. Thanks to you, we were at least able to find out why he did this.”
Surprised by the unexpected praise, Melty looked at him with a puzzled expression. Slowly rolling his eyes to look at Calix’s finger still poking his cheek, Melty stared at him with disbelief.
“Your finger doesn’t seem to be praising me.”
“My finger is finding inner peace.”
“Poking my cheek gives you inner peace?”
“Yes.”
This is ridiculous!
Melty couldn’t understand Calix at all. His lips opened and closed silently, as if unable to choose which words to speak from the countless thoughts filling his head. After examining Calix’s face, which was smiling but clearly exhausted, Melty pouted his lips and snuggled into Calix’s embrace.
“I’ll let it go today.”
“Oh? Hehe. You’re letting it go?”
“Because you’ve had a hard time too.”
As Melty’s short arms reached out to stroke his back, Calix slowly closed his eyes.
“But what were you thinking about so seriously?”
“Hmm…”
At Melty’s question, Calix considered whether to share what was on his mind. Slowly opening his eyes, Calix brought up a few questions that had occurred to him during his conversation with Durasen.
“The matter related to Iel Tuanivel will be wrapped up tomorrow. Anyway, the culprit has been identified and others are ready to take action.”
“I suppose so…”
As Melty nodded obediently, Calix brushed his hair aside and spoke.
“The problem is the ‘drought.’ Although I haven’t checked the territorial conditions here yet… if this is where they experimented before spreading Avartia seeds across the continent. Even if we end the drought immediately, the famine issue remains.”
“I didn’t know you were worrying about that far ahead.”
The immediate problem at hand was the ‘drought.’ Melty knew that Calix had taken on that part of the issue at the exchange meeting, but he was surprised to learn that Calix was considering the subsequent problems in such detail.
“Your finger will go in.”
Instead of actually inserting his finger, Calix rubbed Melty’s lips and grinned. At his remark, Melty quickly closed his mouth with a “hap!”
Calix Kuse Padrian wasn’t particularly altruistic. Though he wouldn’t say it openly in front of Melty, he was confident he wouldn’t bat an eye even if half the continent died from disease or whatever else.
However, he detested the increase in annoying tasks that would result. So his current concern stemmed partly from a sense of responsibility and partly from his desire to resolve issues before they created more work. Still, he didn’t want to lose points with Melty by saying things like “Actually, I don’t care if everyone dies.”
“The biggest problem is that there are probably others involved in this.”
“…What problem? Are you talking about Avartia?”
“Yes. It’s unlikely that someone who hardly leaves the mansion would notice the existence of Avartia, which only grows in deserts, and carry out this plan on their own.”
After briefly speaking, Calix stroked his chin thoughtfully.
“Moreover, he didn’t ‘know’ that the Tuanivel family did such a thing, but rather ‘found out.’ That means someone informed him, and there’s a high possibility that they conspired together in this incident.”
The problem was that Durasen himself didn’t know who had given him that information. Nevertheless, he said the anonymous information was quite detailed. At Calix’s reasoning, Melty let out a small exclamation and clapped his hands lightly.
“But regarding the drought, since a solution has been found, isn’t that okay? The famine… hmm, famine is a problem… How long do you think it will take to resolve?”
“Well. It depends on the regional characteristics, but if follow-up measures are handled well, recovery should be possible within a year.”
After finishing his sentence, Calix wrinkled his nose. As Melty mentioned, if each region paid more attention to crops and quickly utilized herbicide made from Tonka, the situation could be somewhat managed. Since they had discovered a solution early, it didn’t seem like it would be a major problem, but an inexplicable uneasy feeling kept bothering Calix.
“One year… Say, Calix.”
“Yes?”
“You mentioned areas that already use herbicide, right? Places adjacent to the desert.”
“What about them?”
“Well, I was thinking… wouldn’t they be unaffected? If so, couldn’t we ask them to share some of their harvest if they have plenty?”
Calix smiled softly at Melty’s cautious suggestion. Although the yield in those areas wasn’t particularly high, it was better to at least broach the subject than to have starving people rioting.
“That’s true. I’ll check the situation there tomorrow as well.”
After speaking, Calix quickly patted Melty’s back. Normally, Melty would have long since closed his eyes and fallen into deep sleep, but today his eyes were especially bright.
“Anything else you want to say?”
At Calix’s question, Melty hesitated for a moment. Having encountered Owen Kun Sarvie today reminded him of their first meeting. From the very beginning, Owen had looked at Melty with an unpleasant expression. Above all, what had deeply embedded in Melty’s mind was the scene he had witnessed then. Now, too much time had passed for him to judge whether it was good to tell Calix about it or not.
Looking curiously at the hesitating Melty, Calix turned to his side and propped his head with his arm.
“What are you thinking about so hard? Just speak comfortably. What is it?”
“…To bring Avartia, it would have to be someone who moves around actively, right?”
“I suppose so. They might know the field well, or they might have wide connections and got help from someone knowledgeable.”
As Calix began to question the still unfinished conversation, Melty cautiously opened his mouth.
“It might be nothing, but something’s been bothering me…”
Seeing Melty hesitantly speaking, Calix smiled slightly and kissed his cheek and the tip of his chin.
“What? Why are you worrying so much?”
Encouraged by Calix, Melty took a small deep breath and slowly began to speak.
“…It’s an old story. On the day of the exchange meeting at the Padrian mansion, I went to the shrine and saw Mr. Owen.”
“Owen… Owen Kun Sarvie?”
At Calix’s question, Melty nodded firmly with a tense face. Since seeing him wasn’t particularly unusual in itself, Calix wore a skeptical expression.
“There’s nothing unusual about him moving around on the day of the exchange meeting… But if you’re bringing this up to me, something must have happened, right?”
“Well… Mr. Owen was with someone. But I couldn’t see who it was.”
“Really?”
So far, there was nothing particularly unusual. While listening to Melty’s words, Calix’s expression showed he didn’t understand at all why Melty was bringing this up. Observing his face, Melty swallowed hard and then recalled the situation from that time.
“…They disappeared in an instant?”
“Yes. I definitely saw them, but Pel said he didn’t see anyone. But they were definitely there before entering the alley.”
Visiting the shrine before the exchange meeting even began was possible for a devout believer. But Owen Kun Sarvie wasn’t particularly known for his firm faith in the Beast God, especially after losing his children one after another.
The Padrian family had taken on the most troublesome part of this incident. So if he had ill feelings toward the Padrian family, there could be sufficient grounds for suspicion. Kamin Patel and Lila had been called by Calix, and several other families had been called by Durasen. Having assessed this far, Calix could easily think of someone who had no intersection point in this incident.
Owen Kun Sarvie wasn’t particularly close to the Botenta family. Of course, there was a possibility that he had simply reached out, but the probability was extremely rare. After frowning briefly while retracing his movements, Calix spoke.
“…That person is certainly capable of orchestrating something like this.”
If, as Melty suspected, he was really the one who committed this act with Durasen, there was a good possibility that he had come to assess the situation. Even as he readily answered Melty, Calix couldn’t shake the uneasy feeling that he was missing something.
‘If I can’t remember it, it’s probably nothing important.’
Calix smiled at Melty, who was staring intently at him, and shook his head lightly to clear his thoughts.
“Anyway, after the meeting tomorrow, everything will be wrapped up. Then we’ll go back to the mansion.”
Calix rubbed his nose against Melty’s. At the same time, Melty’s refreshing laughter spread throughout the room. However, Calix’s plan to avoid troublesome tasks and spend intimate time with his lover after returning to the mansion was hopelessly foiled the very next day.
