How long must we endure this?
Sprouting buds, bending rice ears, branches bearing sparse fruit.
Nothing remains on the land swept by catastrophe masked as disaster. Only the vast earth where nothing can be attempted anymore remains.
Swarms of locusts devoured every stem and leaf, and inexplicable droughts, blizzards, cold waves, and floods visited this land countless times.
How much more effort must I make...
To feed everyone on this land abundantly?
"Mister!"
"I know!"
The brief moment of rest vanished quickly.
The rain had stopped, but the water pooling on the ground, accompanied by the eerie sensation of falling raindrops, slowly rose to cover their ankles.
Yujin gritted his teeth and looked at the water pooling in the fields.
Murky. To say it was simply mixed with mud felt like an understatement; it felt like a malicious calamity.
"Theresis, if we leave it like this, both the paddy and the field are ruined. The crops are done for."
"…Dammit, what should we do?"
Unlike his usual self, Theresis looked anxiously at Yujin and the busy farmers. The farmers were trying to pump the water out, but the water level didn't decrease; instead, only bad news increased.
Humans felt so powerless in the face of nature's calamity.
While Theresis and Shining stood still, moving sandbags to help the farmers build a wall, Yujin instinctively moved away from them toward another place.
The water level rose rapidly. Almost maliciously.
Then, what happened to the dam that was supposed to control the water level?
Yujin passed several people as he ran. Construction workers were also cursing, carrying water and building embankments. When Yujin hurriedly arrived at the dam, an ominous sound was already audible.
While everyone was concerned about the rising water level.
Crack, snap...
If Yujin hadn't caught the faint sound of something catching and breaking.
Shu and other agricultural Tianshi were there too. They probably came to close the dam's sluice gates and control the situation in response to the suddenly rising water level.
"Shu, get out—!"
"Y-Yujin?"
As Yujin shouted and rushed in, the Tianshi with Shu looked at Yujin in surprise. Before Yujin could throw himself, the collapse had already begun.
BOOM!
As if blocked water burst through, the dam collapsed, and water poured out like a waterfall instantly.
"Get down!"
Shu tried to respond using Arts, but it was too late. Just as spilled water cannot be gathered again, river water colored with Originium burst out, collapsing to sweep away Shu and the Tianshi.
In an instant, a body reinforced to the limit with Arts kicked off the ground and charged. Yujin swung a shovel he picked up from somewhere roughly, dyeing the river water with platinum light.
While other Tianshi sensed something wrong and tried to dodge, only Shu remained, trying to respond with Arts. Perhaps she intended to protect others even if she were swept away by the water. Knowing that, Yujin swung the shovel and embraced Shu.
Splash!
Water sprayed, and the river water was struck back and deflected. Sharp ore fragments in the flowing river water scratched Yujin‘s cheek and forearm, but Yujin held Shu tightly in his arms and did not retreat.
"Just... get lost—!"
Roaring roughly, Yujin held on. He only needed to hold on for a short time. Just enough so that the other Tianshi wouldn't be swept away. As Yujin gritted his teeth and held on, the pouring water gradually subsided, and as the water pressure weakened, Yujin finally withdrew his Arts and planted the shovel in the ground.
"Huff, huff. Seriously... the rain stopped."
"Yujin, that's not important right now...! Your arm and cheek!"
Shu, in Yujin‘s arms, looked up at him with deer-like eyes, then was startled seeing the wounds on his arm and cheek.
Shu had also seen what flowed out in the river water for a split second. She didn't know why, but they were unrefined Originium fragments. And if injured by those...
Naturally, one would contract Oripathy.
"That's not important right now. We have to stop the dam from collapsing further..."
"Yujin!"
Yujin prioritized others, but to Shu, Yujin was also someone to protect. As she gripped Yujin‘s arm strongly enough to leave handprints, Yujin also looked at her.
"Go to the clinic right now. Get tested first. If you get Oripathy like this...!"
"No. Restoration is the priority."
Of course, this confidence came from Yujin knowing he wouldn't catch Oripathy, but Shu, unaware of this, felt her insides burning black.
If Yujin caught Oripathy, it would be the result of throwing his body to protect her.
Before Shu could say more, a veteran Tianshi ran from afar and delivered the news.
"Lady Shu...! Gasp, no... that is."
The problem was that the two were sticking close to each other. Until just now, Shu was in Yujin‘s arms, looking up at him without moving a step away, holding his arm. To others, they were soaked, so it might have been an embarrassing sight.
"What is it?"
Although something was strange, seeing Yujin act like a superior, the Tianshi bowed his head and spoke.
"We checked because of the dam collapse just now. It seems an Originium vein upstream exploded and collapsed due to the heavy rain. Fragments passed through the sluice gate and got caught in the turbine, causing a large hole!"
"What about closing the dam?"
Shu asked the Tianshi with cold eyes from within Yujin‘s embrace.
"I'm sorry, I don't know if other machines malfunctioned as the turbine broke, but the sluice gate won't close at all."
Shu bit her lip and looked at the Tianshi. Heavy rain alone might have been manageable. But suddenly an Originium vein exploded too. There had been no unusual Originium reactions, and the water level had been normal this year.
"…Shu, the current is fast because it's the rainy season. If Originium fragments from the dam flow into the fields like this, it's over."
Yujin looked calmly at the fragments that had scratched his arm just now. Originium fragments.
The moment crops are contaminated, not only must the crops be discarded, but in the worst case, the farmland where the crops were grown might become unusable. They had to stop those fragments from flowing into the fields by any means necessary.
But the sluice gate wouldn't close, and the dam was collapsing and leaking.
Worst-case scenario. While Yujin, Shu, and the veteran Tianshi were thinking with serious eyes, other Tianshi were trying to fill the gaps in the dam with Originium Arts somehow. Although melting metal filled some gaps.
The water stream, as if possessing malice, attacked the weak parts and continued to leak through the metal gaps.
"…Here comes the Great One."
If a woman with red tail wearing sunglasses calmly hadn't appeared.
"Nian?"
Shu looked at Nian. But Nian smelted the metal lumps the Tianshi were struggling to block with and metal brought from somewhere, instantly filling the gaps in the dam.
"Sister, but how about separating from Yujin for a bit? It's embarrassing to watch."
Everyone knew, but no one pointed it out. Shu hurriedly looked up at Yujin, realized they were too close, and moved away instantly.
"Ah."
"…Nian, how much longer can you hold out?"
While Shu let out a short scream and moved away, Yujin asked Nian. Nian looked back and forth between Yujin and Shu, shrugged, and said to Yujin.
"Forever. Blocking this much is simple, but if I do this, I can't help elsewhere. You have to handle the rest."
"That's enough. It's most important that no more Originium fragments flow in."
Yujin shook off the blood as if the wound on his arm was nothing, grabbed the shovel again, and ran out. Without giving Shu or Nian a chance to say anything. Using Arts, he disappeared quickly.
"Strange, other humans would make a fuss the moment they get scratched by an Originium fragment."
Nian said so, but Shu couldn't say anything. Yujin getting hurt was her fault. Plus, this work that everyone was running around to solve...
She needed to solve it herself.
As the livestock panicked and ran wild, Shining focused on calming them down. Others built embankments to block the water flow and prevent contaminated water from flowing into the fields, and Theresis continued to carry sandbags to help the farmers.
If only the sky hadn't suddenly cleared up.
Just as the heavy rain poured without reason, the sky cleared up without reason, and the dark clouds disappeared.
The farmers cursed at the heartless sky, and Theresis and Shining also looked at the sky and ground with suspicion.
A gentle breeze blew again. The summer warmth returned to its place, and the huge water streams split into several branches, becoming thin enough for people to control. And the water began to flow as originally planned.
"…Seriously."
Shining sighed with hands on her hips. It felt like someone had played a malicious prank from the sky. It wasn't entirely good. She couldn't estimate how much damage the farmers had suffered from this incident.
Meanwhile, Yujin, who had been running around shouting warnings in case anyone entered the water or got hurt by Originium fragments, looked at the cleared sky. Just as the heavy rain fell a moment ago, the sky changed as if by someone's will.
"Surely not, right?"
Just talking to himself.
But was it just his imagination that he felt Shu‘s presence in this gentle breeze?
It hadn't been long since they separated, but Yujin started walking again to find Shu.
"…No, if it goes like this."
"Everyone is at their limit. Even for Dahuang, this is hard to endure."
"Still, since it's an unexpected disaster... helping everyone like this is the right thing to do, right...?"
Raising a hand to the sky. Shu, shielding the sun in the clear sky with her palm, felt dizzy.
A miracle that an ordinary human could never perform.
Shu, the person responsible for such a miracle, felt exhausted as if life had been drained from her.
"Haa, ha. Ti, red..."
Let's sit and rest a bit. The moment she thought about walking, Shu lost consciousness and collapsed.