CH 450

《Third world: Takes place between the 52nd and 53rd chapters》

“P-president! We have a problem! Something is outside. I think it’s monsters.”

“What’s all this ruckus? You’re one of Rihalzam’s… Apprentices, right? Like monsters would just show up in the capital. Hmph.”

The president of the alchemist association leans back and keeps smoking his pipe, after peeking at Tortake and giving him an annoyed answer after he ran in.

“No, but, hum, that…”

“I see people under Rihalzam turn out just like him. Say things that suit them, and then it all turns out to just be talk. Is everyone in the arms alchemy department like this? Hey, apprentice. I’m a busy man, so hurry up and…”

“Hum…”

Tortake starts mumbling, and points to the window with his hand shaking.

The president turns around with an annoyed expression on his face.

“…What’s that thing!? Hey, what’s going on!?”

A seemingly endless number of something black covers part of the sky outside the window.

Sky salmon. About as many as the ones that attacked the camp where Rust and the others are.

Most of them look like they’re headed straight for the alchemist association.

It’s like they instinctively know there is something in the alchemist association they want. Those things that were given wings to swim through the sky, and were reborn into something new.

They steadily get closer, like salmon swimming upstream. And slowly, people in the alchemist association can get a good look at them.

“Fish with wings! I’ve never seen monsters like those.”

“S-Sabasa says they might be variant species of armored salmon. His family are freshwater fishermen, so…”

“What are the master ranked alchemists doing!? Why is no one coming to protect me?”

“Everyone is out dealing with different kinds of trouble. There are only apprentices like us here. So, hum… What do we do, president?”

The president was panicking and speaking very quickly, but he closes his mouth tightly.

“All right, here are your orders. Distribute all the weapons available to the other apprentices. The arms alchemy department must have something, right? Use them to protect the alchemist association!”

“B-but…”

“They’re weapons of the alchemist association! They should have no problem dealing with monsters!”

“…Understood. Hum, so what weapons can we use?”

“I don’t care.”

“And, hum, president? Can you come out and give instructions to…”

“I’m busy. This is a matter of life or death for the association. Just go!”

“U-understood!”

Tortake is rushed out of the room by the president’s angry yells.

After checking to see that he’s gone, the president quickly locks the door.”

“This is bad, this is bad. My career has been going so well. I even managed to use the change in government to throw that Halhammer out and take his position! No, that’s enough. It stopped going well recently because that damn Rihalzam keeps messing up.”

The president says as he nervously paces back and forth in front of the door.

“Yes, I don’t need to be in this place anymore. All those apprentices are going to do is buy time anyway. I should hurry and…”

The president rushes to his desk and takes out a key. He uses it to open a safe behind the desk, and shoves its contents into a bag.

“It’s a little early, but fine. Retirement. I’m retiring! This is retirement. With retirement money included.”

He declares to no one, while dragging an overstuffed bag behind him.

But then, the building violently shakes multiple times.

It’s like something very heavy is crashing into it at a high speed. Again and again.

“Dammit. What are those apprentices doing!?”

Curses the president while staggering due to the weight of the bag.

And the moment he steps out of the building, a dark shadow passes by him.

His arm disappears, along with the bag.

It’s a tackle by a sky salmon, and its teeth that are like dull blades.

It tears off the arm from the shoulder and takes it with it.

The one lucky thing about this is that the sky salmon takes the arm and keeps going until it crashes into a building.

And it just so happens that the wall had been weakened by scavenger slime, so the sky salmon disappears completely.

But the impact also sends the president flying into a nearby alley.

He is sent flying with a shocked expression on his face, hits the ground, and rolls on the stone pavement. His shoulder wound scrapes against the stone pavement many times.

Wailing escapes from his mouth, but he quickly quiets down, seemingly running out of strength.

By the time his tattered body stops rolling, he’s pretty deep inside the back alley.

A shadow is standing there. A man wearing a hooded robe, that covers his face.

“Oh my, I came here to see how things were, and find a material rolling my way half dead. Let me see.”

The man stretches his spider leg like fingers and lifts the president by grabbing his head.

“How awful. It’s rare to see something so worthless. Truly a paper thin personality. Vanity, self-deception… The rest seems empty. This is the head of the alchemist association? Good grief. Even checking was a waste of effort.”

The man shakes his head in disappointment, and casually lets go of the president.

By the time he hits the stone pavement again, the fire of life has already gone out inside the president of the alchemist association.