A day passed, and just before dawn broke.

“Everyone out!”

The man with the scar called the children out of the tunnel.

To avoid being caught using young children for mining, they made them work at night when it was hard to see.

Then, before daybreak, they took the children and made them sleep in hastily erected tents in a secluded, out-of-the-way place.

“Gather here and follow me closely! If you try to escape and get caught…”

The man who was about to say something suddenly grinned with an amused expression.

“If you’re curious about what will happen, feel free to try running away.”

Snickering laughter followed.

Aiden frowned at the sight. He didn’t forget to keep a close eye on Dino and Philip.

“Aiden, elder brother…”

Aiden patted the anxious Dino and Philip.

“It’s okay. We can get out of here. We just have to do something before that, so let’s endure a little longer. Trust me. Okay?”

“Okay.”

Dino and Philip nodded, tightly grasping Aiden’s hands.

They obediently followed the scarred man’s instructions.

The man stopped walking in front of a shabby mountain lodge a little distance from the mine entrance.

“Today, instead of the tents, everyone stay here.”

It was so old and shabby that it was barely worthy of being called a lodge.

It seemed to have been used as temporary accommodation for workers when the mine was first discovered and the tunnels were dug.

The small cabin-like lodge, roughly built with wooden planks, looked like it would collapse with a single gust of wind.

“Don’t even think about taking a single step outside. Today, if you’re spotted, you’ll really die.”

The man warned menacingly as he ushered the children inside and locked the door from the outside.

The number of children gathered inside was more than what was seen earlier.

Even at a glance, there seemed to be about 50-60 children.

Although they were small-bodied children, due to the large number, there wasn’t enough space for them to lie down.

The children had to take short naps crouching in the small lodge.

All the children had dark expressions.

Some were sobbing and sniffling, while others had blank faces, exhausted from the hard labor.

Rumbling sounds of hunger came from the stomachs of several children.

But on the way here, the scarred man had firmly stated that there would be no food because they hadn’t met their mining quota for the day.

Rather, they were barked at to go inside and sleep quietly if they didn’t want to get beaten, so the children were just clutching their hungry stomachs with terrified expressions.

The walls of the old lodge couldn’t completely block out the cold wind.

The children had to huddle together to share body heat and stay warm.

Two guards were standing watch outside the tent to prevent the children from escaping.

But even if the children tried to escape, it was impossible for them to flee through the rough mountain terrain to reach the village.

The guards seemed more focused on watching for intruders from outside or preventing anyone from discovering the children’s presence, rather than monitoring the inside.

Aiden sat down at the spot farthest from the lodge entrance.

After looking after his siblings there, Aiden didn’t sleep and waited for contact from Karina.

30 minutes later. Mikhail made contact with Aiden.

“Aiden. Are you alright?”

A small voice came from beyond the window behind Aiden.

Recognizing Mikhail’s voice, Aiden calmly replied.

“I’m fine. I’ve also found my siblings.”

“That’s good. What did you do inside the tunnel?”

Mikhail asked Aiden for details of the situation just to be sure.

“We broke up the soil with nails and hammers to dig out stones.”

“So it was child labor exploitation after all.”

Mikhail clicked his tongue.

As Mikhail was listening to various details from Aiden, he heard something unexpected.

“I saw a stone I’ve never seen before inside.”

“A stone you’ve never seen?”

When Aiden first came here, he was told it was a copper mine.

So he thought they were mining copper, but it turned out that wasn’t the case.

“It wasn’t copper.”

Aiden roughly knew what copper was, as it was mainly used to make bronze.

Aiden discreetly held out a stone smaller than a fingernail through the gap in the window.

“This is it.”

Mikhail’s eyes widened as he confirmed the stone.

“Did this really come from inside that mine?”

“Yes.”

Mikhail made a troubled expression at Aiden’s affirmation.

The mineral Aiden had brought out was a fragment of mana stone.

As a mage, Mikhail recognized it at a glance.

‘This could potentially overturn our plans if we’re not careful.’

Mikhail’s brow furrowed.

Unaware of Mikhail’s expression, Aiden continued speaking.

“For now, all the children who worked with me are here. There are also some children I haven’t seen before. I think they’ve gathered everyone here.”

Mikhail agreed with Aiden’s words.

He had watched from outside as they gathered children from several tunnels and brought them all here.

After a moment of silent contemplation, Mikhail spoke again.

“We’re planning to go into the tunnel now to examine the inside. Can you guide us to where you mined this stone?”

“Yes.”

Mikhail quietly helped Aiden escape through the window.

Thus, Heistine was left outside to watch over the children instead of Aiden.

Karina, Mikhail, and Aiden sneaked into the tunnel, avoiding the eyes of the sentries outside with an invisibility spell.

Originally, it was to assess the tunnel’s interior and determine suitable demolition points, but Mikhail said he had something more to check.

Inside the tunnel, there were lamps installed at regular intervals.

Despite this, it felt dark and eerie.

The interior was quite chilly due to the cold wind flowing in from somewhere.

Just as they thought they had gone quite deep, a large cavern appeared.

“This is where they seemed to gather the soil and rocks before sending them outside.”

“So this is about the midpoint, then.”

“I think so. Yesterday, we went through that passage over there to mine the red stones inside.”

“Red stones?”

Karina looked puzzled at this unfamiliar mention.

Aiden led the two to where he had been the day before.

But they couldn’t go all the way inside.

“It’s too narrow to go any further.”

Mikhail and Karina stopped at the narrowing passage.

“I’ll go in and bring out the stones.”

Aiden was about to step forward.

“No. That’s not necessary.”

Mikhail stood in place and carefully examined the inside of the narrow passage with magic.

As he surveyed the interior, Mikhail’s face suddenly changed.

“Ah, as I thought.”

Mikhail spoke with a troubled expression.

“Lady Karina. We have a problem.”

“What kind of problem?”

“What those guys were mining in this mine wasn’t copper. They were mining a different mineral. And that mineral is…”

Mikhail showed the small, fingernail-sized stone that Aiden had secretly brought out.

“What is this?”

“It’s mana stone.”

“Mana stone?”

“It’s a naturally mana-infused stone. Specifically, this is a fire stone with fire attributes.”

Karina felt a bit dazed hearing Mikhail’s words.

“Fire stone? Fire attributes in this cold northern land?”

“The surface is cold due to the temperature, but the earth inside holds the energy of fire.”

“I see.”

It was fascinating, but now wasn’t the time for such observations.

“But. Why is this a problem?”

Karina asked for the main point.

“We can’t blow up this mine.”

“Huh? Why?”

Karina looked uncomprehending.

“If we detonate this place, the mana stones will be affected and cause a chain reaction explosion. And they’ll simultaneously release the mana stored inside temporarily. Given the amount of mana stones buried here, the entire western area will be blown away.”

“What?”

Karina’s eyes widened in shock.

“The western area, you mean the entire western village?”

“Yes.”

Looking at Karina’s astonished face, Mikhail continued.

“Since it’s come to this, why don’t we just move the whole thing?”

“Move what?”

“This entire mine.”

Karina was even more surprised than before.

“Don’t say such nonsense.”

Karina spoke seriously, as if telling him not to joke around.

“I’m not joking. It’s not impossible if we use the mana stones here.”

Of course, for any ordinary mage other than Mikhail, this would be considered crazy talk.

But for Mikhail, it was possible.

“Of course, we might have to use about half of the mana stones here, but that doesn’t matter, right?”

His words were correct.

“We want to get rid of this mine, so it doesn’t matter. As long as we’re not caught.”

“Don’t worry about that. I’ll move everything without leaving a trace.”

Mikhail’s smile deepened.

Mikhail, Karina, and Aiden moved to the location with the large cavern from earlier.

“It takes preparation time to move it rather than simply blowing it up. It will take a while, so please wait.”

“Alright. Don’t mind me.”

Karina didn’t want to disturb Mikhail.

Karina and Aiden decided to keep watch at the entrance of the surrounding passages to see if anyone was coming.

Mikhail spent a long time examining here and there, muttering as if measuring something.

And when he seemed to finish his calculations, he started drawing a magic circle on the center of the cavern floor without hesitation.

It took time to draw complex patterns into the fairly large magic circle.

Karina watched the process with curiosity.

Just then, faint footsteps were heard from the passage where Karina was standing.

“…!”

Startled, Karina held her breath and peered into the passage.

The sound of footsteps echoing in the passage and intermittent voices began to grow louder.

“…mining only at night… there…”

“Thoroughly… around… must not be discovered…”

“…please… during the day, workers… are…”

“…then there won’t be any unnecessary suspicion.”

Someone was coming.

Karina quickly signaled to Mikhail.

Mikhail hurriedly cast an invisibility spell to hide the magic circle drawn on the floor and their presence.

“I see.”

“Yes. Don’t worry.”

Meanwhile, the voices of conversation rapidly approached.

Mikhail silently gestured for everyone to gather in one place.

Karina and Aiden followed Mikhail’s signal and pressed themselves against one side of the wall.

Soon, Revals and three men who appeared to be hired workers walked out of the passage.

‘Revals?’

Karina frowned as she recognized him.

“Then how many more do we need to meet the target quota by that time?”

“Well, if we had about half as many children as we have now, there shouldn’t be a problem meeting the mining target.”

“You need half as many more?”

Revals asked irritably.

The hired worker stammered as he spoke.

“The thing is, maybe because they’re young, they collapse quickly. To maintain the current pace, we need to keep replenishing with healthy children. Considering the vacant spots that keep appearing, we need at least half more…”

“Cut the excuses! Double the workload for those who slack off and make a fuss!”

“Ah, yes.”

“Don’t let them sleep either! Do you not understand how important this job is? We must do anything to catch that person’s eye! There can’t be even a single mistake!”

‘That person?’

Karina tilted her head upon hearing Revals’ words.

It sounded like there was another reason for his unreasonable behavior.

“They said they’re sending someone to check today, so we need to prepare thoroughly…!”

Crash!

“…!”

Before Revals could finish speaking, a loud noise came from one side.

Karina turned toward the sound in surprise to see a pale-faced Aiden who had tripped over some work tools and fallen.