Someday Will I Be The Greatest Alchemist?

Chapter 77: Return to Volton

「Iruma-sama, there were rumors that there was a young man buying large quantities of items at the marketplace.」

「Umm, there were many food that caught our eye.」

「The silver haired youth had taken three beautiful slave girls of the finest quality with him to buy all the things he could get his hands on, said many whose voices were laced with jealousy.」

「Fufu, three beautiful slave girls of the finest quality, he says, Sophia-san.」

「Excluding Takumi-sama who is a man, everyone was praised.」

「Laeva-chan is also a beauty that can’t be seen just anywhere either, you know.」

「Maria-san, for someone like myself to be compared to the two of you…」

「No no, all three of you are beautiful girls rarely ever seen, so please take care so you don’t get caught in any trouble.」

When Tom-san said that, the faces of all three reddened and cast their eyes away bashfully.

Actually, we’re wearing the overcoat that was endowed with 『Inhibit Perception』 and 『Enhanced Stealth』 that have presence concealing effects, so I think we can escape before trouble brews.

We were making smooth progress towards Volton since our departure from Quilbas. Proceeding the same, our carriage being pulled by Tsubaki is in front, so there were seldom any attacks from monsters and thieves. Why I say seldom is because the occasional monster that doesn’t understand the difference in power attacks. Well, Kaede instakills them though.

「Hey hey Master, can I go hunt thieves?」

When we were camping that day, Kaede came and said that.

「Will you be okay?」

「Yup, no presence looks strong.」

「…………If there’s someone held captive, call me.」

「Kay, got it!」

Saying so, Kaede blended into the darkness and vanished.

「If one has Kaede-chan’s stealth skill and that overcoat’s effect, they’ll be the greatest assassin, wouldn’t they.」

「True, if it’s Kaede, then she can approach soundlessly and kill instantly, but it’s still a little worrisome.」

「Iruma-sama, an Arachne is a high ranking monster. Thieves will be no match for her even if they form groups.」

While I was talking to Sophia about my worrying for Kaede, Tom-san asserted that there was absolutely no problem.

「Iruma-sama, you bought a massive amount of foodstuff in Quilbas, do you intend to open a restaurant?」

「No, it’s not as great as opening a restaurant. It’s just to try improving our meals.」

「I heard you also bought quite the amount of liquor.」

This is something I learned later on, but buying numerous casks of wine and ale is at the degree of pubs. Normally, one would buy a porcelain case’s worth. Tom-san said that an individual buying casks of several types of wines and ale for personal consumption like us was unheard of.

「If you don’t spend your money in places like that, it would just accumulate, wouldn’t it.」

I received a large amount of money from the payment for His Majesty and Margrave Volton’s carriages, then lots of platinum coins reached my pockets when sales from the magic bags came.

「How enviable.」

「Even if I give Sophia and Maria their salaries, they just return the full sum, and Laeva remits the full amount of hers.」

「Well, Maria-san is one thing, but Sophia-san staying as Iruma-sama’s slave would be safer in many ways.」

Like Tom-san says, in order to protect the Elf Sophia from various troubles, I believe that being my slave is the best option. Stealing another’s slave is a punishable crime. If Sophia wasn’t a slave, she would most definitely be taken by a noble or a wealthy merchant against her will. And although Maria is a human, she is a beautiful girl rarely seen in this world that is filled with many beauties. As for Laeva, she is a beautiful beastwoman. They would get involved in many a trouble by simply walking around town if they didn’t have their Overcoat of Existence Concealment.

Gasa, gasa.

After some time passed, Kaede returned.

「Purification!」

I cleaned the bloodsoaked Kaede using purifying magic.

「I’m back Master! No one was caught! So I got rid of everyone.」

「I see, good work. So, how many people?」

「Let’s see~ I think 15 people.」

「Iruma-sama, those thieves, they’re most likely the thieves that wandered in from Triaria Kingdom. I believe their numbers were around that.」

It seems that the thieves that Kaede had dispatched matched the thieves from the information.

「Tom-san, it would be best to clean it up, wouldn’t it?」

「Yes. Collecting the guild cards of the thieves, and disposing their bodies is a necessity.」

「Kaede, can you lead me to the thieves’ hideout?」

「Yup! I have some threads left behind so I’ll know soon!」

The next morning, I along with Kaede and Tom-san headed for the thieves’ hideout. Sophia and the others were guarding the merchant unit and on standby.

「This way!」

The place Kaede led us to is a cave, that looked like a bear come out of it, which had a door forcefully attached to it.

There were two thieves on guard duty at the entrance of the cave that had their heads severed.

Inside the cave were more corpses with no heads and corpses whose chests were pierced with claws. Tom-san and I collected their guild cards and stripped them of their armors.

「Did they just arrive? There’s not much loot here.」

「It can’t be helped.」

I used Earth magic to dig a hole, threw the corpses in, and filled the hole back up.

「We will calculate the thieves’ possessions and armor and process them once we return to Volton, then payment will be made to Iruma-sama at the Papeck Company.」

「I understand.」

The post-processing of thieves put us a little behind schedule, but we arrived at Volton before the sun went down.

We submitted the proof of request completion at the Adventurers Guild. Everyone’s rank was promoted publicly.

***