15 Dying From Boredom

In Border Town, Roland was calmly pacing back and forth while observing military practices. He had just created new weapons, namely cannons and guns with saltpeter. The army was diligently and orderly marching back and forth.

Nightingale rushed towards Roland excitedly causing Roland to raise an eyebrow. "What is it, Nightingale?"

Nightingale held up two rocks with one being slightly larger than the other, "Remember that curious rock that you guys couldn't figure out a few days ago?"

Roland asked, "Did something happen to it?"

Nightingale shook her head and handed the two rocks to Roland, "I found more!"

Roland took the two rocks and doubtfully asked, "Are you sure these are special? How do you know?"

Nightingale said excitedly, "Remember how that special rock transformed into marble? I saw two giant dust balls transform into rocks before my eyes! They were both shining with bright, white light just like that rock!"

Dustina, the slightly larger rock in Roland's hand asked Dustin, "How did this happen? Did master figure out how to use rock-level magic?"

Dustin nodded and said, "It seems like it. I felt a surge of rock magic flow into me last night. Unfortunately, it seems like we have been captured. It seems that we can only suicide as we have failed master's mission." Dustin shook a bit as he gathered his magic to explode.

Dustina hurriedly said, "Stop! Stop! Master said we have to do reconnaissance! He didn't say anything about us not being allowed to get caught!"

Dustin's magic rapidly dispersed and he sighed, "Sorry about that. I was a bit hasty in judgment."

Dustina said cheerfully, "Now, we don't have to be carried by the wind and we can be moved by Roland and the other witches! This makes our jobs so much easier! We can also be like master and help gather other dust particles and dust balls to expand the D.U.S.T. network!"

Dustin sighed and said, "How did master do this? I can't talk, I can't move, I can't even do anything productive! At this rate, I might actually kill myself from boredom!"

Dustina 'rolled her eyes' and said, "Dustin, could you just hurry up and get out of your teenager phase?"

Dustin mumbled, "Shut up."

While the two rocks were having that dialogue, Roland nodded to Nightingale and said, "Good work. Give one of the rocks to Anna to study and I'll keep the smaller one."

Nightingale nodded but right before she left, she turned around and carelessly tossed an official-looking letter with the wax seal of the Alchemists Workshop. "I almost forgot to give you this."

Roland unsealed the letter and skimmed through it. He muttered, "An extended loan? Did they find something interesting about it?"