Old Castle by the Lake 6
What we found was a rusted, round metal handle attached to
the floorboards. There was no doubt that there was a basement beneath this. Ashren-sama
stopped me from trying to lift it, and instead grabbed the handle and pulled it
up for me. With a creaking gigi-gi sound, a pitch-black space appeared
beyond it. Stairs continued downward.
「There are stairs.」
「I will go down first. Be careful and
follow behind me, Layla.」
「Yes.」
Ashren-sama
went ahead, carefully descending the stairs while checking our surroundings
with the lamp. The ceiling height was sufficient, to the point that even the
tall Ashren-sama could walk without crouching.
Beyond the dozen or so stairs was a bleak space randomly
paved with stones. I thought it was a basement, but it seemed to be a
semi-basement, as there were windows for taking in light placed near the top.
Under the sunlight shining in, I could hear the trickling
sound of flowing water. Strangely, what was in the basement was something like
a fish preserve, about two meters square. The majority of it was buried in the
ground.
Perhaps because of the water, the floor was slippery with
moisture and moss. Ashren-sama lent me a hand, and as we approached that
preserve, algae and waterweeds grew thickly at the bottom, which was about two
meters deep, and several small fish were swimming around.
「I wonder if it's a fish preserve?」
「In a place like this?」
「A bath?」
「The water is cold, you know.」
It seemed the water was bubbling up from below. If it was
neither a fish preserve nor a bath...
「The shape is a little different from
usual, but could it be a well?」
「It is reasonable to think so. But
why was this much size necessary?」
A normal well is about thirty centimeters square and much
deeper. Compared to that, this is shallow and wide.
The fact that there are living creatures means the water
does not contain poison. In that case, there is only one thing to do.
「H-Hey! What are you doing?」
Ashren-sama
widened his eyes in shock at me, who had taken the water into my mouth without
hesitation. I stopped him with a hand gesture, checked the taste by rolling the
water over my tongue just like I did at the lake, and swallowed it with a gulp.
「Wait! You swallowed it just now,
right? I thought you would at least spit it out, but are you okay?」
「There are fish, so it is not poison.
The worst it will do is upset my stomach.」
「No, no, that is no good.」
「I will prepare painkillers and oral
rehydration solution.」
When having an upset stomach, it is better to let it all out
while hydrating rather than forcing oneself to take anti-diarrhea medicine. I
can easily make painkillers with the medicinal herbs we found in the forest on
the way here, and oral rehydration solution can be made with things in the
kitchen.
Ashren-sama
scratched his head as if to say that wasn't the problem. But, I won't do
anything reckless, you know. I swallowed it because there was a high
possibility that there were no problems.
「Besides, the taste was clearly
different from the lake water. I believe you noticed too, Ashren-sama,
but the lake water felt heavy on the palate and had a bitter taste. The ground
around here probably contains a lot of limestone.」
「I suppose so. Water filtered through
a limestone layer is different from the water we usually drink. It is not undrinkable,
but drinking too much will upset the stomach.」
It's not all bad things, though. Blocks of meat and such
become tender when boiled with the lake water. The rabbit meat being delicious
might have been thanks to that. As long as you don't mistake the intake amount,
there is no actual harm in consuming it. It's just that children easily get
upset stomachs, so the Marquis probably strongly told Karin not to drink
it.
Ashren-sama
naturally knew about those things as well, and although exasperated, he took
the water in his mouth to check the taste, then spat it out with a ptoo.
「It certainly does taste different
from the lake water. But why? The well water at the villa is also inconvenient
for drinking, so if it's bubbling up water, it should have the same components
as the well water.」
「That is true. Why does the taste
differ, I wonder.」
If there is a reason, what is it? A shape different from a
normal well. Waterweeds swaying in the shining sunlight and densely adhered
algae. The color of the algae was a commonly seen green. The waterweeds were a
copper color similar to my eyes.
Could it be.
「Ashren-sama, could it be that this algae or waterweed is turning
the lake water into drinking water?」
The reason the lake water cannot be drunk is thought to be
because it contains components unsuitable for drinking water. Ingesting more
than a certain amount of it upsets the stomach, but what if the algae or
waterweeds are absorbing and breaking down those components?
「I see, it is a possibility. If so,
that also explains the shape of this well.」
The windows for taking in light are to bring in the sunlight
necessary for the algae and waterweeds, and it being wider than a well is to
grow them. It was built underground because if it were outside, animals in the
forest might enter the water and ruin the algae and waterweeds.
「In that case, does it mean the
former feudal lord knew the method to turn the lake water into drinking water?」
「Among folklore, there are things
that cannot be concluded as mere legends or traditions. It is not unusual for
things that were practiced as customs based on knowledge gained through
experience, even without knowing the basis, to turn out to be logical when
investigated.」
They have said since the old days that swallows fly low
before it rains, but that's because the moisture in the air increases, causing
the winged insects that are the swallows' prey to fly lower.
Regarding these algae and waterweeds too, even if they
didn't know the reason, it might have been passed down that if you let these
grow in the water jug, drinking the water won't upset your stomach. It's like a
grandmother's wisdom kind of feeling.
「There used to be a village around
here in the past, but the crop yields were poor, and by the time the Naturi
Marquis Family took over the territory, no one lived here anymore. Now, a
settlement located a little further away makes a living by logging trees around
here and gathering the bounty of the forest.」
「Then, the legend of these algae and
waterweeds might have been cut off at that time.」
We looked down into the water together. The faces reflected on the water's surface somehow looked identical. Both were brimming with an unhideable curiosity, just like children.
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