Departing the room at the top of the tower, we headed down the spiral staircase. Our sudden abduction and censure had left me exhausted. This was too much for one day. I wanted peace.
Walking next to me, Sitri, now recovered, made a face almost like she was a victim here. “My, what a terrible ordeal that was, wouldn’t you say, Krai?”
All you did was catch fake Zs.
It was a sort of uselessness I rarely saw in her. But at this point, it would take a bit more to lower my opinion of her. I looked at her reproachfully, but all she did was make a quizzical face. I couldn’t match her stalwart mentality.
And why did we head towards Seyge’s tower in the first place? We didn’t have any business there or anything. Right. We went because Sitri said so. And Lucia didn’t come with us because Sitri used Killiam to hold her off. Was this whole misadventure Sitri’s fault?
“She sent us home empty-handed,” Sitri complained. “What a cheapskate. You’d think a long lifespan would help a Noble Spirit let go of their greed. We should’ve taken some in secret. Because of Lucia’s stories, I was blinded by my presumption that the professor would share with us. You too, Krai, you should’ve said something.”
I couldn’t tell if she was joking or not.
In the end, I never learned why those professors were so certain I was guilty.
“Before judging me, they should’ve looked into their own first,” I said.
I was certain that the disaster had been caused by some Magus running dangerous experiments.
“Exactly!” Sitri added gleefully.
Well, all’s well that ends well. Let’s go home and have some cake.
Just as this thought crossed my mind, the door next to us flew open, and a figure cloaked in a brown robe darted in front of me.
“I was wrong. I realize that now. I didn’t think you’d send such a fiend! H-Here, take this and forgive me!”
As I stood there, the figure shoved a metal water bottle at me, then climbed over the stair railing and jumped down. I froze for a moment, then frantically peered over the railing. The figure was already gone.
Was that some sort of aberration? This place is scary. I’m never coming here again.
“What is that?” Sitri asked.
“Beats me,” I said.
If Liz were here, she totally would’ve caught that person, though whether or not that would have been a good thing was a different matter.
Seeing the glimmer in her eyes, I handed Sitri the water bottle. Cautiously, she opened the lid. I waited a few moments. She didn’t say anything, and it didn’t seem like it was dangerous, so I peeked inside.
Sifting around inside was an opaque liquid the color of strawberry milk. In fact, the smell suggested that it was strawberry milk. I liked strawberry milk. I drank it regularly and always had some in my refrigerator. But this guy had just suddenly appeared and handed me a bottle of it before running off. Maybe he really was an aberration?
Even my sense of caution was developed enough to tell me not to drink milk received from a stranger. I was at a total loss when suddenly I noticed Sitri was still holding the bottle silently. I poked her shoulder, which seemed to bring her back to her senses.
“This color, this scent,” she said, her cheeks flushed, voice intense. “Could this be the legendary potion, sealed away for its power and the danger it poses? Could this be Strawberry Blaze? I can’t believe it. Supposedly, it was all destroyed? To think some still existed!”
“Ohhh. So it’s something special?”
It has “strawberry” in the name, so this is just strawberry milk, right?
It was unexpected, but it wasn’t impossible for a talented Alchemist to make jokes regarding potions. Taking even more care than usual, Sitri gingerly replaced the cap. I didn’t really get it, but it was nice that we got something valuable. However, that naive thought was followed by some bewildering info.
“It is special!” Sitri told me in a trembling voice. “It’s a peerless, extraordinary thrall potion! One drop is enough to entrap a person’s body and heart. It’s brought three nations to ruin. The Alchemist who made it, their family, and the production method were all supposedly wiped from existence, but despite all odds, some still exist.”
“So it’s something special?”
“If it’s real. If we reconstruct the production methods, world domination might be feasible. Until now, nobody’s managed to replicate such a confounding effect, but if we have a sample—”
“Yeah, uh-huh.”
Out of excitement, Sitri spoke in quieter tones than usual, but her face was brimming with joy. I took the bottle from her embrace, eliciting a look of momentary shock from her.
“Krai,” she said in a sweet voice, “I’ll get my reward this time, right?”
“Yeah, uh-huh. Later.”
“Yay!”
Sitri clung to my arm and rubbed her cheek against me. I nodded along and patted her head.
I definitely can’t give this to her. I’ll get rid of it later.
Apparently, while Lucia was being detained by Killiam, Seyge had passed by and ordered her to wait at the bottom. When we got there, we found Killiam sitting with his legs folded beneath him, and Lucia standing around in a bad mood.
Outside, dozens of Magi were gathering up the fallen ashes. Sitri looked like she might wander off in their direction, so I grabbed her by the arm. It seemed she hadn’t fully recovered from the magic circle.
No. Looking at me with upturned eyes won’t change anything.
As we walked, Lucia told me about the situation. She told me new things while looking like she expected me to already know them.
“Honestly, what a godforsaken mess. The imperial capital isn’t your toybox, you know?! Everyone keeps asking me—”
“W-Well, everything’s resolved smoothly enough, so I think it’s fine.”
“Augh!”
I was breaking out in a cold sweat, but maybe it was a little late for that. It sounded like the source of the Black World Tree was the staff from the Sword Saint. It hadn’t even been activated, yet it started absorbing mana and grew into something massive.
In other words, what Seyge had said was right.
But this wasn’t my fault. It was the Sword Saint’s. Sure, I felt bad about all the headaches Luke caused him, but that didn’t mean this was an okay way to get revenge. Honestly, that guy really was something else.
Sitri was supposed to be as ignorant of the situation as I was, yet she clapped her hands with a knowing look on her face.
“I see,” she said. “That explains why Professor Seyge pulled back. Even this academy wouldn’t want to start a fight with the Sword Saint and his cohorts.”
“Hmm, so one monster saved us from another?”
“Goodness, would you two stop acting like this has nothing to do with you?!”
It just didn’t feel at all real. Looking back on it, this had been an incredibly strange series of events. I had planned to take it easy in the imperial capital for a bit, but then it turned out the sword from Eliza was a Devil Sword? And I gave that away, then got a staff in exchange, which then turned out to be something dangerous? And now, for some reason, a dangerous potion had ended up in my hands.
“That reminds me,” I said, “was there some reason that tree was so focused on that one tower?”
“Unlikely,” Lucia replied. “That tree was just drawn to powerful mana, and a cursory search didn’t find anything. But all laboratories have secrets, and as I understand it, it’s possible something could’ve been smuggled out.”
“Oh. See, Krai, sometimes mysterious things happen,” Sitri said with a broad grin.
It looks like you have something to say.
“Huh?!” Lucia also looked like she had something to say. “Brother?”