“Who are you!? Who told you you could come in!?”

An irritating voice jumps at me as soon as I open the door.

I see Rihalzam, and the former apprentices of the arms transmutation department. I vaguely remember their names. Tortake, Sabasa, Skihni… And others.

In reality, they were declared missing when the armored salmon attacked the association’s building. I hear their corpses were never found.

Remembering this unconsciously sours my expression.

It looks like they’re in the middle of transmuting.

There are several scrolls hovering in the air, and transmutation materials and tools in front of everyone.

But I pride myself on being knowledgeable as an alchemist, and to my eyes, it all seems very wrong.

I peek at the scrolls, and see distorted magic circuits all over the place, and the way the materials and tools are placed and being used is strange too.

They’re not going to transmute anything good like that. Even Rihalzam’s department wouldn’t transmute like this.

I can’t help but grimace, as Rihalzam, who is still yelling about something, shakes his belly towards me.

He extends his arms to grab me.

I step lightly to the side and avoid his arms, and grab his sleeves.

I pull the sleeves in the direction his body is going, just to add a little more momentum.

Rihalzam steps forward like he’s staggering, and when his foot touches the floor, it kicks it and slips.

If this happened back when I was still here, Rihalzam would have just grabbed me.

As I think about that, Rihalzam’s big body tumbles as it makes a loud sound.

Tortake and the others watch this happen and start making noise. Strangely enough, I can’t make out what they’re saying.

I leave them be, and realize there’s someone in the back of the room I didn’t notice before.

“I’m pretty sure his name is Gahn…”

It’s a face that’s prevalent in the shaman’s memories. Officially, he was a regular customer of the arms transmutation department, and vice-president of the arms association.

He’s looking at me from a corner of the room, with a blank look in his eyes.