Always Beware of Explosions

A grimy prison cell, dotted with dried bloodstains and furred with moss.

In a place so foul that if you strained your ears you could hear the squeaking of rats and the screams of someone being tortured below, I diligently patted Sera on the back.

"So what happened to you?"

"Waaah…"

"If you keep crying, someone irritated by the noise might come looking and do something awful. Do you want to end up screaming like whoever's being tortured down there?"

"Hic…"

"Please answer me. Why were you caught? More importantly, your hair looks lovely. It's light pink. Had you been dyeing it brown all this time?"

"Y-yeah… it stood out too much… hic…"

"Good. Next question. Why were you brought here?"

"I-I… hngk…"

Sera wiped her tears and snot on my clothes and forced the words out.

She went on and on, hiccuping and sniffling through a story so long, rambling, and miserable that I will summarize it briefly.

While buying an entry ticket, she got so thoroughly overcharged that she complained. The seller offered to lower the price if she let him feel her chest once. She cursed him out—and the men lurking nearby swarmed her and dragged her here.

She must have taken a few hits along the way; her cheek and forearm were flushed and swollen.

"Why didn't you fight back?"

"…If I used black magic for no good reason and the Imperial Knights showed up, it'd be summary execution, right? S-so I figured getting caught for now was better than that…"

"That makes sense. But once you were locked up, couldn't you have summoned the World Tree Bow and shot your way out?"

"…My mana's blocked. Completely useless."

"So if the user's mana is suppressed, the World Tree Bow becomes an ordinary bow."

"Pretty much. Snff…"

Sera sniffed hard and asked,

"So how did you end up caught here…?"

"Same as you, more or less."

"They hit you too?! Where do you even hit a tiny kid like this?! Th-those pieces of trash!"

"I wasn't hit, actually."

"Oh. Really?"

"Yes. I didn't resist. I came along quietly."

"Thank goodness…"

Sera started sniffling again and yanked my face straight into her chest as if she meant to smother me.

"Waaaaaah… what are we g-gonna do… uwaaaah…"

"Sera, snot is dripping onto the crown of my head."

"Snff… th-that's not snot, hic. No. It's tears."

"Please let go. If we just sit here crying, we'll be dragged downstairs and something terrible will happen to us."

Sera's restraints came off in a single motion.

Then the restraints on my own hands came off as well.

Sera's eyes went round as saucers.

"Wh-what the—?!"

"Alchemy."

"No way! These are Mana-blocking Restraints!"

"Apparently power drawn from mana residue isn't recognized as mana."

"Huh? What does that even mean?"

I opened my mouth and showed her the mana residue sitting on my tongue.

Sera recoiled in horror at first, then crawled right back on all fours and began interpreting my words.

"Ih-ih mahnah reh-joo…"

"This is mana residue."

"Ih c'n eah ih…"

"I can eat it."

"Denn ih c'n uje ih powah…"

"Then I can use the residue's power."

"Jus' ahe waj pincher-jaw an'rejidue… so I c'd cu'… whoa! Holy crap!"

"What I just ate was residue from a pincer-jaw ant. That's how I was able to cut through— hurk! Incredible!"

Sera nodded and lifted her still-bound hands to shut my mouth for me.

"I got it! So you can free me too, right?"

"Of course."

I dismantled the scrap iron shackling even my feet, then promptly dismantled Sera's restraints as well.

"That's my Lulu! I can't live without you!"

I shoved the lunging Sera aside and examined the restraints.

"Strange, though. For something called Mana-blocking Restraints, they don't block mana coming in from the outside."

"There are ones that do, but those are crazy expensive. The materials alone are rare and priceless. And honestly, even these probably weren't ordinary restraints."

"I see."

Just in case, I pocketed them.

With a little modification, I was fairly certain I could turn them into restraints that cleanly blocked incoming mana as well.

"Shall we go?"

I reached for the bars.

A moment later I pulled my hand back and looked at Sera.

"This must be that expensive material."

Dismantling had no effect.

"…What do we do?"

"Sera, do you mind if your clothes get dirty?"

"O-of course not!"

"Good."

"Why? Should I take them off? Hmm?"

"No, that won't be necessary."

If dismantling wouldn't work on the bars, we would simply dig under them.

They had clearly never imprisoned an alchemist before; they hadn't bothered with the floor.

"Follow me."

I dismantled the earth at once and opened a narrow passage. Above it I layered a reinforcing synthesis so the tunnel wouldn't collapse while we crawled through.

For now it was only about two Lulus wide, but we could widen it further as we went.

I squeezed myself into the passage.

Sera, however, only stuck her head in.

"Why aren't you coming in?"

"M-my chest is stuck."

I had no choice but to widen the tunnel a little.

"How about now?"

"…My butt won't fit."

I widened it a little more.

"Ah! That did it! Thanks! Alchemy is the absolute best…!"

"So your eyes are open now."

Sera and I crawled forward on our hands and knees.

Once we cleared the bars we could have simply climbed up and walked, but there was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠always the chance of running into someone, so we agreed to crawl until we found a safer spot.

"By the way, Sera, do you know where your bow is?"

"Yeah, I do. Now that the restraints are off, I can sense it. Want me to check?"

"Please. Just give me the direction. I suspect my pack is there too."

"Huh?! Wait—Lulu, your pack!! What if—what if they take everything?! Hey? This is no time to be leisurely! H-hurry! Move!"

"It's fine."

Sera shoved at my rear with her head, but I refused to be rushed and crawled along at my own pace.

Schwan, the cartel member in charge of supplying goods to the black-market auction, shuddered with a nameless unease.

Catching the big-chested girl had been fine. Better than fine—a stroke of absurd luck, really.

In all his forty-three years, Schwan had never seen merchandise with a finer, more magnificent chest.

The second girl they'd grabbed afterward was the same story. No need to even discuss that one.

In all his forty-three years, Schwan had never seen merchandise prettier, prettier, and still prettier. You could call her the finest human on the entire continent and not be wrong. She was beautiful enough that he half-wondered if she might be a half-breed of high elf and vampire.

If he just got that girl to the auction house without incident, the performance bonus would be enormous. On top of that, he would never have to do this dangerous supply work again.

And yet he couldn't shake the anxiety.

Hey. I'm asking nicely.

Yes. I'll come with you.

…Wh-what? You'll come along?

Yes, I'll come with you. Is Sera there as well, by any chance?

Who the hell is that supposed to be?

She has a large chest.

Could you at least give a basic description—wait, chest? Aah. So ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠that pink-haired girl was your friend?

Pink hair?

Yeah. She'd dyed it brown before. Don't play dumb with me.

If it was originally brown, then yes, that's her.

Fine. Come along. I'll get you two reunited soon enough.

Yes.

It really had been far too easy, far too docile an abduction.

At this point it barely even counted as a kidnapping; she had practically handed herself over.

It felt like one of those mad high-ranking mages who decided, for amusement, to "experience the lives of the lower classes."

Of course that couldn't be it. If she were a high-ranking mage, the streets would have been in an uproar from the moment she entered the Empire.

Still, just in case, he had clapped Mana-blocking Restraints on her and stripped her of everything she was carrying…

And the unease still wouldn't leave him.

"Tch… yeah, I don't think we should just leave them."

"Boss, if you're that nervous, want me to go down there and snap their arms and legs myself?"

"Snap—? How many times do I have to tell you we have to sell them, you dumb bastard. Merchandise. They're merchandise. You want damaged goods? Huh? Did you even look at that girl's face? We put her on the black market and we can quit this whole racket!"

"I mean… you're the one who keeps going on about it, so I just…"

"I keep going on? What exactly am I going on about? Say it. You little shit. You think I'm doing this just for myself? Huh? Just for me? This is so you and your family and me can all live well, damn it!"

At the sudden bellow, the underling deflated and stuck out his lip in a pout that did not suit his bulk.

"…Sorry."

"Forget it. You got any other ideas?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

Schwan almost cuffed him across the back of the head, then held back and sighed.

"We've still got some of that sleeping draught, right?"

"We do, but if you give them that they throw up the whole way to the auction house. It's a pain in the ass."

"Then you wipe it up, dumbass."

He says that like he's the one doing the wiping. I'm the one who always cleans it up.

The words rose all the way to the underling's throat.

"Tch… fine. I'll go dose them."

"Don't hit them. Don't touch them. Just get the dose into them. Got it?"

"Yeah, yeah."

"Answer me once."

"Yessir."

Alone in the room after the underling left, Schwan heaved a long sigh and started going through the captured merchandise's belongings.

Being the supply runner meant taking risks during delivery—but it also meant you got first claim on whatever the goods were carrying. Everything here was as good as Schwan's.

"Heh heh… little things are loaded, too."

The irritation that had filled his face moments before smoothed away.

First of all, both of them had been carrying an absurd amount of money. Not just a lot—an absolute fortune. They looked like greenhorn adventurers at a glance. He couldn't help wondering what kind of commissions they'd been taking to pile up cash like that.

"And what's with the bow?"

The first girl's belongings, though, were nothing but money. The bow she'd been carrying on her back was a sorry-looking thing. No arrows, either, which made it even more useless. If there'd at least been arrows, he could have stripped the heads and sold those.

Well. Good thing they were packing this much coin.

Schwan nodded in satisfaction and moved on to the pack belonging to the second girl.

It looked shabby and light from the outside—but Schwan was the kind of thrifty man who would sell arrowheads. Leaving that pack unsearched would have been a personal disgrace.

Licking his lips, he opened it.

There was a soft pop, but it wasn't enough to draw his attention.

"A-a subspace…?"

It was a full-fledged subspace pack.

Even a small one started at a single platinum coin—an ultra-high-end artifact.

"Oh. Ha. Ha… hahahahahaha!"

This alone was more ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠than enough.

If he quietly sold just this subspace pack, he could loaf for the rest of his life on the proceeds.

But he was a man who collected arrowheads to sell. He wasn't satisfied. He shoved his hand deeper into the pack.

Then, out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a potion bottle tied to the side of the bag.

Oddly, the stopper was already open—probably snagged and pulled free by the pack's strap when he undid the flap.

"What kind of potion is this?"

Schwan read the writing on the bottle.

"…Explosion Potion? A potion that explodes? Isn't that just a bomb?"

Frowning, he read on through what appeared to be the usage instructions printed on the front.

"Fifteen seconds?"

Schwan had no idea how much time had already passed. Who in the world counts in seconds during ordinary life?

So he had no idea that thirteen of those seconds were already gone.

Because of the ridiculous name—Explosion Potion—he didn't think it warranted any real response. He was Level 4. He wasn't some nobody who would die to a petty little blast.

Of course, if he had known it was a potion that had blown a mid-class monster to pieces, he would have run on the spot.

"What a load of horsesh—huh? Why is the mana flow—"

Those were Schwan's last words.

KRAAAAAAANG—!!

A crimson explosion swallowed him from the waist ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠up.