🔊 TTS Settings
Chapter 34
Aldehyde blinked. He honestly couldn’t remember how he’d ended up inside the pub.
But when he came to his senses, the surroundings were already completely devastated.
“……What?”
Looking at him, Lirier muttered cautiously,
“Is it… all over?”
What—seriously?
By the time he regained awareness, the group carrying out the illegal experiments had already been wiped out.
It wasn’t a big deal. So why did his head feel so foggy?
“This place is the only one left now.”
After saying that rather awkwardly, Lirier took up a position in front of the warehouse door.
She had watched everything. And she had reached a conclusion: Aldehyde was a madman among madmen among madmen.
The moment Lirier wrapped her arm around his waist, he’d gnawed viciously at his lips as if enraged and reduced everything around them to ashes.
He hadn’t even listened to the desperate pleas of the people conducting the illegal experiments.
I mean, it’s right not to listen to the voices of bad people.
But he was definitely not in his right mind.
Lirier hurriedly grabbed the shoulder of the still-dazed Aldehyde and said,
“No—uh, hey.”
“……Huh?”
“Doesn’t that warehouse look kind of—no, really suspicious?”
Among the stories Lirier had heard in her previous life about illegal stabilizer rings, there had been talk of a warehouse where they hid something.
“Maybe… maybe there’s something in there?”
“……Really?”
Aldehyde staggered over to the warehouse and raised his hand.
Creeeak—
With an unpleasant noise, the warehouse door rattled.
And letters appeared in front of it.
“What’s this?”
“……No idea.”
Lirier and Aldehyde both frowned at the same time. Extremely suspicious characters had appeared on the warehouse door.
[10:00:00]
Meanwhile, at the same time.
Bell Dio went to see a dwarf to investigate the disguise-type magic tool.
“So you know ancient magic tools well, do you?”
“Hmmm. How does a noble know about a dwarf’s repair shop and come visiting?”
“I have something I’m curious about.”
He handed over a replicated version of the disguise-type magic tool.
“Why does this magic tool keep breaking?”
“Hmmm… Usually, ancient magic tools have simple repair methods.”
“If I bring you the original, can you fix it?”
When Bell stared at him, the dwarf chuckled briefly.
“Well now, this magic tool seems to be tied to the legend of the mermaid princess.”
“Right. It’s the Mermaid Princess’s Mirror.”
“Heh….”
The dwarf stared at the mirror with great interest.
“This magic tool should produce the same effect as the legend of the mermaid princess.”
“……The legend?”
“Let me take a look first. But tell me, my lord—won’t you need to pay a price?”
Hearing the dwarf’s voice, Bell smiled broadly.
He was confident he could give the dwarf anything he wanted. He was skilled at handling people. The only one in his life he couldn’t control was Siena.
“I’ll pay in gold. Can you find a way to repair it within a week?”
The dwarf looked at Bell with interest, then abruptly turned away.
“Interesting—very interesting. Sounds good.”
“Good. Then find the repair method as quickly as possible.”
“Alright. Though, you know… in the meantime, the disguise might loosen for a bit.”
“……Really?”
“Just a possibility. It probably won’t be a big problem.”
At those words, Bell bit his lip.
…What if the disguise came undone?
He worried about Siena. Far too much.
It’ll be fine for now.
At least he could get through today.
[10:00:00]
“……What is this, exactly?”
Aldehyde and I looked at each other. After a moment, Aldehyde let out a long sigh as if he’d realized what it was.
“There’s a ten-hour time bomb set here.”
“Ah—what? Then… can you defuse it?”
“No. This is a bomb that can’t be disarmed. We have to wait until it goes off. They set it up in case someone broke in.”
“…….”
Then what was the point of coming all the way to the warehouse? But without documents, we couldn’t properly secure evidence to interrogate them. Even if we uncovered the mastermind, without proof it would all be meaningless.
“……Should we run away before it explodes?”
At that, Aldehyde grinned and looked at me.
“There’s a way. We wait here for about ten hours, and at the moment it explodes, I’ll blow it up.”
“Pardon…?”
Is he insane?
“Ah—do you mean your instant-death authority works on bombs too?”
“Not the bomb itself—what’s inside it. The chemicals. Alright, then. If we wait here for ten hours, the door will open.”
Aldehyde casually leaned against the door. I glanced at him.
“……Sitting here?”
“Yeah. You sit too.”
“……But, um, all those crazy villains are passed out over there.”
Aldehyde frowned, as if only just noticing them.
He clicked his tongue, then picked up the lackeys one by one and roughly tore open teleport scrolls over their heads.
“Get lost. Imperial Palace dungeon.”
“…….”
It was… really that easy? And he used precious teleport scrolls like that?
“Alright. Sit.”
Aldehyde pulled a handkerchief with a rabbit design from his pocket and laid it on the floor for me.
“……?”
“What are you waiting for? Sit.”
He really was a strange man. Why was he being so gentle in a situation like this?
[08:00:00]
Two hours passed in front of the warehouse. Aldehyde grew rigid.
What… is this?
He bit his lip and narrowed his eyes. A faint tremor ran through his fingertips where they accidentally touched.
“Yaaawn….”
The problem was that Lirier didn’t have stamina anywhere near Aldehyde’s.
Leaning against the wall beside him, she kept yawning. She hadn’t realized how exhausting it was to simply wait like this.
“This is really boring, huh?”
“…….”
“And honestly, I’m pretty tired.”
Well, that made sense. This small woman would be exhausted.
“Then sleep for a bit.”
“Mm… is that okay? Isn’t it—”
“…….”
“……not.”
She made a strange echoing sound, then shut her eyes tightly, apparently too tired. Watching her head nod forward, Aldehyde sighed.
“……So weak.”
At that moment, Lirier tilted her head and rested it against his shoulder.
“……What.”
He looked down at her with a rough voice, but she remained leaning against him.
Soft breathing sounds followed.
Aldehyde meant to wake her. His shoulder was something only Nyunya was allowed to use.
But then—
Why?
He couldn’t bring himself to wake her. All he could do was stiffen where their shoulders touched.
In the quiet space, only her breathing could be heard.
Lirier was breathing shallowly. And around her, faint halos of light drifted.
Was she unconsciously using stabilization magic?
He’d heard that if stabilizer mages lost control, they could end up scattering stabilization magic around them like this.
Feeling the gentle magical power leaking from her, Aldehyde closed his eyes and opened them again.
“Hah… This kind of thing doesn’t even work on me.”
He casually checked the rampage-rate meter Paul had given him.
But then—
[84%]
