Chapter 69 :

Episode 69 - Escape (3)

No matter how meticulously a plan was made, unexpected variables were bound to arise.

Like the hairy man who had suddenly stormed into the shantytown one day, or the young duke who had suddenly appeared in this prison where it seemed no one would help.

Or the five men guarding the front of the prison where the children had been locked up.

Among them was also the man who had wounded Seya’s arm.

“What? When we came out earlier, there were only two!”

Nihil muttered in horror.

“This is strange. Until now, I’ve never seen more than three guarding it.”

They had already lit the candle wicks and set up devices here and there.

In about 10 minutes, the devices would explode with a loud noise.

They had to knock down all the men before then.

“How many of those emetics you used a little while ago do you have? Do you have anything else?”

It was Plin’s calmness that seized control of the unsettled atmosphere again.

“I have two left. I do have two of something else as well, but I’ve never used them before, so it’s a bit.......”

Mir answered before she realized it, and Plin’s eyes lit up.

“You really have something else? What exactly is it?”

Feeling somewhat burdened, Mir frowned and slowly spoke.

“It gives off light for an instant and blinds the eyes. You know how your eyes hurt if you stare too directly at the sun? It is something similar.”

“You made this too? Yourself?! Then should we call it a flash bomb?”

Thinking that the name was awful, Mir still made a groaning sound and nodded.

Because the main material of the invention that the other person was admiring was none other than the buttons from his coat, she could not bring herself to openly say the name was awful.

The objects wrapped with candle wicks that she had shown the young duke a little while ago were originally failed works from trying to make this.

Since she had supplemented the insufficient materials with precious buttons torn from the coat, it had felt wasteful, so she had not even been able to test them properly.

“This is my first time making it, so I don’t know whether it will work properly. The emetic is not in a sealed space like before either, so its effect will be weaker.”

Seya, who had been quietly listening to the two talk, patted Mir’s shoulder hard.

“It’s fine! Anything you make is always helpful, Mir. And even if it fails, it’s better than dying like this.”

Her shoulder felt as though it would sink from the excessive force, but the words did not feel bad, so Mir nodded slightly.

Among the three who were coming together in spirit, Nihil alone could not keep up with the conversation.

Are they all crazy?

There are five big adults, so why are they talking about attacking, winning, and losing?

He could tell that the one called Mir was more amazing than he had thought.

After all, they had really managed to get this far thanks to whatever that tiny thing had made, the emetic or whatever it was.

The guy he had only found irritating looked a little like the alchemists he had only heard about in rumors, so it was a veeeery little bit fascinating too.

So that’s why she was so confident and had such a rotten personality. She had something to rely on.

“So what are we doing in the end? We lit the fire up ahead too, so shouldn’t we hurry up and get inside?”

Nihil, feeling oddly sulky, spoke bluntly.

At that sight, Seya narrowed her eyes.

But the young duke opened his mouth at once without showing any displeasure.

“Let us use that new invention first. If it has no effect, then we throw the emetic. Let us knock them down while the men are disoriented. If Seya and I bring them down, I think you two should strike the heads of the ones who have not fainted from below. It is not difficult, is it?”

It was a clean allocation of people and a quick, precise explanation.

Nihil flinched at the young duke’s explanation and carefully nodded.

Mir stared at the young duke for a moment, then lit the small sphere and threw it toward where the men were standing.

* * *

The conversation of the men standing in front of the room where the children were imprisoned was serious.

“I’m telling you, it’s true! A huge dog rushed at me!”

“Say something that makes sense. How would such a huge dog get into a place like this?”

If one had to be precise, it was one person’s serious appeal and four people’s serious disregard.

The man claiming he had seen a huge dog was the one who had dragged Seya here, and he was also in charge of dealing with children who did not meet the condition.

That man had suddenly run over screaming and insisted that a huge dog had suddenly appeared and attacked him.

But this place was underground, accessible only through a secret passage.

How could such a huge dog enter a place like this?

The man’s companions thought he had either accidentally let the children escape and was lying, or that he had gone mad.

“Fine, let’s say it really was a dog. Then why did you run all the way here without dealing with that mere dog?”

“I’m telling you, it was an incredibly huge dog!”

It was the moment the man, unable to hold back his frustration, struck his chest.

Thud.

Roll, roll, roll.

Something half the size of a child’s fist rolled over while giving off smoke and fell at the men’s feet.

“What is this? What kind of trash came flying over?”

“Hey! Be careful! Something is strange about this, right now.......”

The man who had captured Seya stopped his companion who was about to pick up the thing that had fallen on the floor.

But contrary to his warning, nothing happened.

The smoking stone-like lump merely lay quietly in place until the smoke stopped.

His companion shook off the man’s arm and got angry.

“Is it that nonsense about the dog again?”

“It is dog talk, all right. Didn’t he say he saw a huge dog in a place like this?”

At his companions’ mockery, the man’s face turned bright red.

“I’m telling you, there really was something!”

“Whatever it was, bring Lord Gude. We have to find the brats. They won’t have escaped anyway, but it’ll be a pain to find them.”

It was not a good choice for them to have a small argument at that moment.

Thud, roll, roll, roll.

Because thanks to that, they failed to notice the second small lump that flew over, burst beside them, and emitted suspicious smoke.

“Ugh, what is this? Uuurgh......!”

“What? Filthy, now...... Ugh! Uwegh!!!”

They sensed something was wrong too late and tried to break through the smoke, but the timing had already passed.

The nausea that began one by one soon spread to all of them.

“D-don’t inhale it! Because of this...... Uuurgh!!!”

A small figure slipped among them while they could not come to their senses.

Whack!

And at the powerful impacts felt in their solar plexuses and vital points, the men collapsed one by one.

Those who fell to the floor once could not get up again.

Because the moment their heads touched the floor, Mir, who had been waiting below, struck them precisely under the nose, leaving them unable to regain consciousness.

“Strike down as if you mean to kill. So they can’t get up.”

Before losing consciousness, a thin but chilling voice echoed in their ears.

* * *

“Is, is it done?”

Nihil, whose breath had risen to his throat and who had eventually slipped into a shallow part of the gas, muttered.

“One left. Those two should be able to handle that much.”

Mir crawled out after him and answered Nihil’s question.

Thwack!

As if proving those words, with one final heavy striking sound, Plin and Seya also appeared.

“Ugh, I-I think we took care of them all. Uwegh.”

Seya, who had inhaled a little gas earlier as well, finally threw up once while speaking.

“Uwaaah!!! Throw up over there! That’s disgusting.”

“You bastard, is that all you have to say to a comrade who sacrificed this body to carry out the mission?”

While Nihil and Seya bickered, Mir checked the young duke’s condition.

Plin, who came out with them, was indeed in no different state from Seya.

The child, covering his mouth and nose with a pale face, took a few deep breaths and then removed his hand.

“It seems no one is hurt, ugh.”

Though he did dry-heave softly at the end.

“Ahem, if you feel like throwing up, just do it. I’m used to it, so I’m fine, but it’s hard to hold it in under normal circumstances.”

Seya, whose sense of intimacy had risen after handling things together, said to the young duke.

“No, I am fine. I took the key too, so now....... Ah!”

While speaking, the child seemed to remember something, took a quick breath, and went into the remaining smoke.

At the sudden action, the children shouted in surprise, but Plin’s figure did not come out from the smoke.

Unable to understand his sudden action in a situation where they were being chased by time, Mir frowned.

The child, who seemed to have bent over and looked over the floor, must have found what he wanted, because he stood back up and hurried out of the remaining smoke.

“What are you doing right now? Did you forget something important?”

When the flustered Seya asked, Plin took out what he held in his hand.

It was Mir’s invention that had become a dud.

“.....You went back to pick this up?”

“You said this was your first time making it, did you not? There must be a reason it did not work properly. I thought it would be better than simply leaving it behind.”

Plin smiled awkwardly and handed over Mir’s half-burned flash bomb.

“......It already failed, so why did you go pick it up?”

When Mir did not take what he held out, the young duke tilted his head and answered.

“I thought you might not want to throw it away.”

It was a clean answer.

And it was also correct.

Mir did not like throwing away failed works.

However, the fact that someone who was even the heir of a ducal family had gone to the effort of picking up such a thing did not please Mir.

The face of her friend looking at him with shining eyes, and herself, who wanted to immediately reach out and receive the small lump he held out, all displeased her.

“It is fine. Just throw it away.”

In the end, Mir politely but coldly refused the kindness Plin offered.

“Hey, Mir. What’s wrong? It’s not like there’s anything bad about taking it.”

The flustered Seya gently nudged Mir’s arm with her elbow, and Mir opened her mouth.

“It is just trash.”

The child, who did not change her words to the very end, firmly closed her mouth after saying that.

Seya knew that if it were the Mir she knew, she would naturally want that failed work.

Because of that, Seya had opened her mouth to ask if it was really fine, but she swallowed her words after seeing Mir’s face.

Because she had an expression as if her hand had been cut by a sharp knife without warning.

“If it feels awkward to throw it away, just keep it, young master. You can think of it as a gift too.”

“A gift?”

The young duke, who had been awkwardly holding the small sphere, looked down at it.

“No, well, you can just do whatever you want! If you felt offended, I’m sorry......”

Only then did it occur to Seya that handing over such trash as a gift could itself be rude, and she flailed her arms as she spoke as if making excuses.

“No, I will gratefully accept it.”

Plin put the dud lump into his pocket.

“Now, we have no time. Let us hurry inside.”

As if to refresh the somehow awkward atmosphere, Seya urged everyone on.

In fact, quite a lot of time had been delayed while fighting with the men, so everyone hurried their steps and entered the room.

The children, who rushed inside, did not notice one squirrel slipping out from among them and choosing one of the many rooms in the corridor to enter.

* * *

A small squirrel poked its head through the slightly open gap in the door.

It was quite a cute sight, but I did not want to see the cuteness of a 1,000-year-old squirrel.

“What are you scheming?”

When I appeared from behind the door, the creature rolled its eyes this way and that, watching my reaction.

“Do not think of lying for no reason. Answer properly.”

“It was not my fault. Young Feedus said he would save the children first.......”

The answer it offered as an excuse did not convince me at all.

Because I knew it was a blatant lie.

“This is your last chance. Tell me what you are scheming.”

When I cut it off and urged it, the creature closed its mouth.

Instead, its face gradually turned fierce.

“......So you did not trust me from the beginning?”

“Not once have I trusted you since the first day you lied.”

The creature’s face visibly hardened, but I did not care and shrugged.

“Thanks to that, I arrived before it was too late.”

How could the young duke, who was supposed to be trapped in the temple, have safely come all the way here without people noticing?

It was all because of this creature’s manipulation.

Guiding the young duke along paths without priests, and watching even though it could have rescued him easily until the young duke was captured here, all of it was intentional on the creature’s part.

Well, I had nothing to say either, since I had tried to test the creature in this way.

“It is not as if I tried to harm the young child of Feedus. And it is not a lie that it was his choice.”

That was not wrong.

Though the creature had released the young duke, it had been entirely the child’s own choice to put on the worn clothes Tollin had prepared and be captured here.

I agreed with the creature’s words and opened my mouth.

“You were an unnecessary character to the protagonist.”

But that did not mean the creature had passed the test.