Chapter 9

Chapter 9

“Uh...... Uhh.......”

While everyone watched the fleeing bastard blankly, their faces vacant, one person snapped back to his senses. It was the bastard who had been noisily insisting he was the lord since earlier.

“What are you all standing around staring for?! Can’t you see that bastard stealing my magic scroll?! Hurry up and chase him down!”

“Y-Yes......!”

The mercenaries flinched at the shouted order, which was almost like a fit, and hurriedly tried to run toward the fleeing bastard. Then, as if remembering something, they stopped short and began hesitating among themselves.

“Uh, but......”

“Is it really...... all right to chase him......?”

“W-Well......”

Murmur, murmur. Along with their whispers, the mercenaries’ gazes all turned toward me at once. A chill ran through me, and cold sweat began seeping from the nape of my neck.

No, seriously...... why have they all been so desperate to meet my eyes since earlier? At least when I glare at them - of course, I still can’t make eye contact - they quickly shut their mouths, but.......

If I had known this would happen, I shouldn’t have deleted the entire building. Ah, why did I do that? I was so focused on needing to find that magic scroll quickly that I failed to consider the possibility of a situation where people would gather in one place and stare only at me. I had even deleted the building without leaving so much as a single wall, so there wasn’t even anywhere to hide.

I had only done it because searching through the rooms one by one seemed bothersome....... If someone was going to pick it up and run off with it like that anyway, I should have just waited outside and caught only that bastard. Well, complaining about it now would not do me any good.

Anyway...... I should stop there and focus on what I had to do right now. Switching my thoughts that way, I took a deep breath and stared toward the fleeing bastard. Perhaps he had stopped by the stable in the meantime, because before I knew it, he was riding away on horseback.

Maybe because of that, the lord, who had already been noisy, was having an even louder fit.

“Hey, you bastards! Why are you still standing there blankly?! Aren’t you going to catch that thief?!”

“Shit......!”

After wavering in confusion for a moment under the lord’s urging, the 3rd-circle mage among the mercenaries - apparently, that bastard seemed to be their leader - abruptly spat out a curse and deployed high-speed movement magic. To my eyes, it was a formula full of errors, with plenty of improperly designed parts here and there, and it made my desire to tear it apart and fix it surge up fiercely...... but it did not seem like there would be any major problem with catching up to the fleeing bastard right away, so I decided to leave it alone.

Immediately afterward, the other mercenaries also hurriedly began running after the 3rd-circle mage...... and around then, I could not help but feel one question.

Why in the world...... were they trying to chase him down the hard way? When they could handle magic that surrounded the entire domain with stone walls.

Well, it was a good thing for me. I happened to have a research assignment I needed to complete.

***

[Research Assignment] No. 703083-454

＃001. Sample Collection for Analysis of the Formula Used in Fortification Construction

→ Complete!!

＃002. Design Error Correction and Improvement Work

→ Complete!!

＃003. Performance Experiment for the Corrected and Improved Formula

→ If you corrected it, confirming that it works properly is essential!!

Test it while considering the appropriate time and place!!

***

I had been worrying over how to secure that “appropriate time and place” thing...... and now things had worked out this way. Feeling satisfied as I looked into Master’s Notebook, I deployed a formula toward the fleeing bastard and the mercenaries chasing after him. RUMBLE, CRASH. With a thunderous roar, stone walls appeared and surrounded them.

“U-Uhh?!”

“Wh-What is this?!”

What else would it be? It was magic that created a structure to capture a fleeing target. Confirming that the completion mark had been updated in Master’s Notebook, I looked ahead happily. Before I knew it, the stone walls had caught the fleeing bastard, lifted him up, and raised a tall tower. Around it, they had generated reactive stone walls that grew higher whenever someone approached, trapping the mercenaries together.

Hmm, it had picked out and retrieved only the target according to the intended design, then trapped the rest all at once. At this level, it was probably a decent pass. For confirmation, I deployed the formula once more and trapped the lord and a few others remaining nearby at the top of a tower. Then I began walking toward the fleeing bastard. Since the capture was already complete, there was no hurry, so I did not bother using anything like high-speed movement magic. And it seemed the lord was shouting something from the top of the tower behind me...... but it was buried in the wind and I could not hear it well, so I simply ignored him.

“Then, the next thing to do is.......”

Was it only to secure the magic scroll and check the formula? As I thought that far, my steps suddenly stopped. Or rather, my body felt heavy, and I could not readily move, as though weights had been attached to me. My breathing grew uneven from impatience, and my stomach began to churn.

Why are you standing there without moving? You need to go check it already. You have to confirm whether the magic scroll that bastard has really is.......

......whether it really is what I think it is.

Despite the impulse boiling up in a great uproar, I could not easily take a step. Because I was afraid that what lay there would truly be the result manifested through “that formula” I knew.

Two futures overlapped in my mind. One was a future where I learned that my thoughts had been wrong and felt emptiness and relief. The other was a future where I confirmed that it was exactly as I thought. Feeling as if I could not breathe, I found myself touching the left side of my neck.

I want to hurry over and check. At the same time, I do not want to check. What should I do? What should I do?

Whether fortunately or unfortunately, my anguish did not last long. While I hesitated, the 3rd-circle mage flew up to the top of the tower and approached the bastard who had fled.

“You bastard! Hand that over right now!”

“H-Haaah!”

Toward the bastard who scurried away - though since it was the top of the tower, he could not run very far - the 3rd-circle mage swung attack magic. A sickle made of water split the fleeing bastard’s back, and the magic scroll box fell with a thud from the grasp of the bastard as he collapsed in two pieces, spurting blood.

The moment it entered my sight, I deployed a spatial movement formula almost reflexively. My vision blinked once, and the distant tower scenery changed into the scenery of the tower top before my eyes.

“Gah, wh-what?!”

Perhaps startled by my sudden appearance, the 3rd-circle mage reflexively cast attack magic. When I intercepted it whole and returned it to nothingness, the 3rd-circle mage, who had been staring at the crumbling, scattering formula, hurriedly backed away with a deathly pale face.

Meanwhile, I picked up the box rolling at my feet and tried to check its contents. The entire time I opened the lock, my heart pounded and my hands trembled so badly that even swallowing recklessly was difficult.

***

[Research Assignment] No. 703083-453

＃001. Field Investigation of the Location Where the Pillar of Fire Manifested

→ In Progress!! (Investigate without missing any site where even the slightest question remains.)

＃002. Identification and Analysis of All Formulas Involved in the Pillar of Fire Manifestation

→ Formula design state check complete!!

→ Also proceed with identifying defects and seeking correction measures!!

***

The moment I confirmed the physical magic scroll, I ended up squeezing my eyes shut without realizing it. Half of me had hoped it would not be so...... but as expected, my prediction had been correct.

I see. So that was why it looked off.

“This is a formula that was not designed to the end...... an incomplete formula.......”

“A-An incomplete formula?! Is that true?!”

While I was muttering to myself and suppressing the emotions surging up inside me, the 3rd-circle mage, who had been frozen nearby, shouted. Thanks to that, I flinched back to my senses and looked around. Behind the 3rd-circle mage, I saw the mercenaries who had belatedly climbed up to the tower top murmuring among themselves.

“Th-That’s impossible. Wasn’t it clearly said to be a highest-grade magic scroll made personally by the Hustein family?”

“Right! The state of the fire site wasn’t at the level of low-grade magic either.”

“There’s no way that pig bastard used proper magic.......”

“Isn’t that a fake? Maybe the genuine article is hidden somewhere.”

Unfortunately, this was unmistakably real. I could be certain of that. Because I was none other than me.

In the first place, this formula had nothing at all to do with being highest-grade or low-grade. From the very beginning, this was a formula that had no reason to have anything like a quality grade.

A magic scroll was something made by inscribing onto parchment - though it did not necessarily have to be parchment - a formula that temporarily suspended the manifestation of magic whose design had been completed and whose casting had begun, until some later time when it was needed. Perhaps it worked on the same principle as building a dam in a river to block the current, then breaking the dam when necessary so the river water flowed in its original direction.

The key point here was that it did not matter at all whether the person breaking the dam was the one who had built it or a third party. That was because I had designed this formula with the purpose of allowing people without mana sensitivity to borrow and use magic. I had expected that if even non-mages could borrow and use magic, it would be convenient and useful in all sorts of fields.

“......So distinguishing whether it is genuine or fake is meaningless. They should all be incomplete formulas anyway.”

“Th-That...... That is impossible.......”

The mercenaries could not hide their bewilderment and murmured among themselves.

“Th-Then...... does that mean everyone has been using something unfinished all this time?!”

“Isn’t he just lying so he can steal the magic scroll?”

“Right! There’s no way the formula invented by that great mage, Elclid de Hustein, could be incomplete.......”

A hollow laugh escaped me on its own. Elclid de Hustein, a great mage?

“What’s so great about him? All that bastard did was steal someone else’s research.”

“Wh-What......”

“Exactly what I said. This was originally a formula I was making.”

As I answered that, I fumbled at the left side of my neck. The memory always crouching in one corner of my mind became heat, and I felt blood rush to the corners of my eyes.

-Correct it right now. That is my research, not yours!

-A snot-nosed little kid like you dares defy a senior as high as the heavens? And in the first place, who would believe that a lowborn wretch like you designed something like that? It is only because it is me that the high-ranking people are paying attention. Shouldn’t you be thanking me instead? Thanks to me, the formula can finally see the light of day.

-But...... that is not a completed formula yet. How can you present it after roughly glossing it over? Errors will definitely occur.......

-You insolent little bastard, how dare you! You still have not come to your senses even after being beaten like that, have you? Huh? Do you think your senior is a joke? Let’s give you some proper mental training, shall we?

Elclid de Hustein did not deserve to be called a “great mage.”

Because that bastard Elclid was.......

“The bastard who robbed me of my research.”