Chapter 148 - Cap 147: Missing Alchemist

At the end of the night, I brought everyone together for our daily night meeting, I started to really enjoy these meetings as at this point we can all share our thoughts on various topics, but it's a shame that some people never say anything during the meetings, these people are Ibuki, Alice, Nolan, Caryna and Leo. 

When I asked them why they didn't participate more actively in the meetings they each gave a different reason, Ibuki said the issues were too difficult for her to understand, Leo said her opinions are very similar to Diana's so there isn't much to add in the things under discussion, Alice and Nolan said the same thing, they said that as commoners they didn't have any kind of understanding about the things we talked about during the meetings, before they came here they didn't even know how to do simple math, in Alice's case it was even worse since I couldn't even read or write. 

They said that they only know how to speak the common language because this is a city that most of the population are merchants or adventurers, so even commoners end up learning the common language along with the Trigan language as they grow up. 

But Alice and Nolan told me it's been taught by Irius and Irina, they've now been training in reading simple books to practice, for now, I won't interfere, but I plan to teach math to everyone in the mansion, one of the things I realized was that this one was a type of knowledge that normally only the Nobility is the merchants learned, but I want to teach this to others as well. 

After getting everyone together I first went over all the preparation we've been doing to start exploring the Dungeon, I did it to confirm that nothing else was missing. 

Afterward, I confirmed how everyone's day has been and if there was any news, having almost finished I call Kira to tell me more about her report, I read it all but I would like to hear some parts of it from her mouth to make sure I didn't leave spend anything. 

"Are you sure when this Alchemist is in your lab no one else enters?"  (I) 

"Yes, I watched him for a few days, I wanted to try to bring him to you, but the clandestine organization he belongs to keeps him well protected, even the building where the laboratory is located is well guarded."  (Kira) 

"I noticed that from your report, I could also see that you mentioned that the lab windows have magical barriers."  (I) 

"Can you tell me more about them?"  (I) 

"I thought I could enter through one of these windows, but then I discovered this barrier, it prevents the entry of magic items, it prevents the entry of things above a certain speed, it prevents the passage of spells and it prevents the entry of objects larger than a little bird."  (Kira) 

"You mentioned this in your report, but how did you discover this bird information?"  (I) 

"The barrier wasn't very strong, but by the time breaking the barrier would alert the Alchemist and the security guards around him, I was getting frustrated when I saw that a bird managed to break through the barrier and land on the window."  (Kira) 

"(Just as I thought, it looks like my plan might work.)" (I) 

"I thought I could do something with it, but the moment I attached a small magic item to the bird's leg it couldn't get through the barrier anymore, its leg was stuck out."  (Kira) 

"(This is also good information that wasn't in the report, I just need to make a small change to the plan.)" (I) 

"Thank you so much for the information, Kira."  (I) 

"I've already thought about how I can get this Alchemist, I'll tell you my plan."  (I) 

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After an hour of explaining my plan everyone understood, Diana and Kira said it was a good plan, Irius was furious to hear about the activities the Alchemist did use orphans as guinea pigs for his potions and drugs. 

Alice for some reason had dangerous eyes as Érica had at the time, but neither of them spoke the reason for that, Freya didn't show it on her face, but I could feel a slight bloodlust coming out of her when Kira spoke the part where the orphans they were used as guinea pigs, Leo had the most violent reaction, for a moment he even transformed into his lion form and began to roar furiously. 

After we managed to calm Leo down we learned that the only thing he never stood for was crimes against children, in fact, he said he always killed other bad guys who did bad to children when he found them, even when he was a bad guy he never did any harm to children, Sophia surprised me by having a weak reaction just like Irina and Nira. 

When I asked why they were so calm they gave the same reason, that there was nothing they could do about this kinda thing, I could understand that because it was the same thought I had, but I also felt less guilty about what I would do to this Alchemist, if I were in my old world I would be called a monster for what I will do with it, maybe even in this world it is difficult for others to accept what I will do, so I didn't go into details about what I will do with the Alchemist. 

After everything was resolved I told everyone to go rest and calm down, for those who were impacted by the Alchemist's information I said they didn't need to worry, I said he would be dead tomorrow. 

After that I went to my room while talking to Layla, unlike the others, she was having several ideas on how to make this Alchemist suffer, listening to her I even wondered if she was really a fairy, because of the scary things she was saying while she had a smile on her face I was wondering if she was a Demon disguised as a Fairy. 

As she was already saying such scary things I told her my plan in more detail as I will need her to. 

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Pov of a former Grade -C adventurer: 

I'm a former adventurer, I earned well as an adventurer, but I got tired of being in danger fighting monsters, I considered myself lucky not to have participated in that special mission to fight the undead that happened a while ago, after hearing how dangerous it was, I decided not to take that kind of risk. 

But I had a big problem, I was broke and in debt from gambling, I had to look for a way to make money, but it was difficult. 

But a week ago a person who claimed to be part of one of the places where I played gambling came to the tattered inn where I was living, he offered me a simple job of protecting a certain Alchemist within the city, when he said that I would receive ten gold coins a week as payment I accepted right away. 

I started to work the next day, there were nine more people protecting this Alchemist day and night as security guards, as a former adventurer I could see that they had similar strength to mine, I started to wonder about the identity of this Alchemist. 

Over the days I learned that this Alchemist had a shit personality, he was arrogant, authoritarian, narcissistic, and loved to talk about himself, he thought he was very handsome when in fact he was a middle-aged and very fat man. 

But I quickly learned not to displease him, I saw him kidnapping a married woman or to be clearer, forcing us that we should only be his security guards to kidnap the woman and take her to the small mansion he had, that woman's screams could be heard throughout the night, he even allowed the guards to stay with her the next morning, I and two others refused, but others accepted with smiles on their faces and thanking the Alchemist, this happened on the second day of work. 

When I thought I had seen the worst about this Alchemist, it was when I found out that he was much worse, on my third day of work the other guards and I accompanied him to an abandoned building where he said his laboratory was, he didn't let anyone in. in the room where his lab was, so we patrolled inside the building and around the building, but there was also always someone at the lab room door and under the lab window. 

I hated being on guard outside the lab, the first two days I heard screams coming from inside, some of the screams sounded like children, in the days that followed I saw the man who hired me come to the building with two middle-aged men, an elderly woman and a couple of children, all were wearing chains on their arms, legs, and neck. 

The man entered the Alchemist's laboratory with the five of them and left in a short time alone, soon after screams started to be heard from inside, that day was when the regret of having accepted this work began to consume me, but I can't get out of it anymore, I was never the smartest person but even I can say that if I say I want to leave they will kill me if I report this to the guards they will also come after me, I have no choice but to remain silent and try to ignore the screams. 

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Today completes a week that I've been working for this Alchemist, I must say it's been a strange day, today I'm on guard at the laboratory door, I can usually hear moaning moans and sometimes screams coming from inside the laboratory, but no screams are appearing today, after some time even the regrets began to fade. 

I had a bad feeling and I called another security guard to talk about what was going on, he also thought it was weird and we were arguing whether to go in to check when an explosion threw us away, as an ex adventurer I reacted quickly by getting up and pulling my sword and cutting through the door that is coming towards me flying by the explosion, the other security guard was also with a sword in his hand ready for combat, we both ran to the source of the explosion that was the Alchemist's laboratory. 

As soon as we entered the lab we saw that everything was on fire and we didn't know what to do, we tried to look for the Alchemist but we couldn't find him, soon the other eight security guards showed up and two of them could use water element magic they used to put out the fire, after erasing everything we started to look for the Alchemist, we saw several burned bodies but none were the same height or weight as the fat Alchemist, we searched for a long time but found no clues about him. 

Before long the man who hired me met with us and brought with him five more people who seemed stronger than me, he asked everything that happened and that's when I realized how strange everything was, I was in the only entrance to the laboratory and no one passed me, the two guards who were under the window outside said that nothing came near the window today, and when we entered we also saw that the walls were still in place, they were just cracked by the explosion, but for some reason, the Alchemist's body was nowhere. 

No matter how hard we investigated, we weren't able to find any clues, it seemed like the Alchemist had just disappeared. 

I also heard the man who hired me say that there were several things missing. 

I took advantage of this to resign after proving I had nothing to do with it, so I decided to leave the Kingdom and go to another one, I decided to rejoin the Adventurers Guild to not mess with these types of people anymore.