Chapter 85

“Cole-san, take this.”

I tore my sleeve, tied the buckle and clay to the end of the belt, and lightly tossed it through the gap between the iron bars into the next cell.

The stone wall was not especially thick, and after I heard Cole drag himself closer, he picked it up.

“What… is this?”

“The workshop crest is a fire magic circle. Press the clay against it.”

“What?”

Ignoring his dubious voice, I explained calmly.

“This is the secret of magic stones. Magic stone powder is kneaded into that clay. Clay with magic stone powder kneaded into it beyond a certain ratio functions the same way as a magic stone. They say the common theory is that the giant magic circle remaining in the church is a lie because no magic stone large enough to engrave it exists, but this secret is the answer—”

And at the very instant before I could finish speaking,

There was a high-pitched ringing sound, and after a short delay, I heard the sound of the iron-barred door opening.

“Huh? Hey, what the hell…?”

The one raising a flustered voice was Gerario.

And it was not his usual clownish manner, but genuine panic.

Was that because of the existence of synthetic magic stones?

No, or else…

“…”

Beyond the iron bars of my cell, Cole stood.

Like me, he was barefoot, and while he was wearing his usual fine-looking clothes, his jacket was covered in blood, and his face was swollen like a joke.

But what his hand held was version two of the synthetic magic stone that Kururu and I had evolved.

“Cole-san, you…”

Without letting me finish, Cole raised his hand, and again there was a high-pitched sound and a fierce flash of light.

When I opened my eyes, the iron-barred door was hanging open limply.

The lock had been burned through.

“Magic stones… are not originally pure either. I see…”

The way he tried to somehow maintain his usual affected tone with swollen lips might have been noble vanity.

Yet for some reason, with just that, I could no longer hate Cole.

“Cough… damn it. This is so unbelievable that my head won’t work.”

Or perhaps Cole had simply been beaten so badly that he had a fever.

He placed a hand against his forehead, endured his dizziness, and then said this.

“What I understand for now… is that with this, we can be saved.”

As if called by a spirit, Cole raised his face and staggered away.

I was too dumbfounded to move, but then came three high-pitched sounds and the creaking of iron bars.

When I stuck my face through the gap in the iron bars that Cole had burned through, I saw Cole looking down at Gerario, who was lying on the floor like a caterpillar.

“…A-after this, do something… yourself… stray… mage…”

Cole collapsed on the spot with a thud.

Gerario grinned, lifting only one side of his lips, and crawled out like a caterpillar after all. Then he took the magic-stone clay that Cole had let go of with his hands behind his back…

“Heh. The young master’s showing some guts, isn’t he?”

When Gerario, who had burned through his manacles with magic, said that, Cole, who apparently had not lost consciousness completely, groaned something.

“Still, I’ve got to think about whether to let you live or not.”

Gerario aimed his right hand, on which the synthetic magic stone that still seemed to retain some power rested, at Cole, who was still collapsed.

“This secret’s a little too amazing for you to know.”

“…”

He helped us, so we should help him.

Gerario was looking even beyond such moral talk.

Gerario had immediately understood the great chaos that the secret of synthetic magic stones would bring.

If Cole went outside while knowing this secret, there was no telling what he would do.

But Gerario withdrew the hand he had aimed at Cole.

“Love at first sight, huh? Not bad. A kid’s love is always something they’d trade the whole world for.”

With a chuckle, Gerario called my name.

“Yorinobu, can you carry him?”

Gerario trusted Cole.

No, I understood too.

Or rather, although this might be terribly rude, I was certain of it.

Cole, like me, had no immunity to girls.

To the point that, after searching for an excuse to talk to her, he had teamed up with Nodon and used those transactions as a pretext to go all the way to the island so often.

And in front of the girl he liked, he ended up saying spiteful things.

“The reason they didn’t go as far as torture but kept beating him relentlessly is that everyone knows about his feelings.”

When I lent Cole my shoulder and helped him stand, Cole groaned.

Rather than from the pain of his wounds, it was probably a protest against Gerario’s teasing.

“For now, do you know where there might be magic stones?”

At Gerario’s question, Cole let out a thin, long sigh and said,

“Get out… of the prison. This is… the company’s… private underground prison. They throw in… people who cannot repay their debts… and such. There are four guards. There are… no mages.”

“What about our belongings?”

At that question, Cole coughed and then said,

“The guards’… station. Leave the prison, turn right, at the end… of the corridor…”

“Good. Well done.”

Gerario patted Cole’s head like a child’s and rotated his shoulders.

“I’ll show them the tenacity of a stray mage.”

A small synthetic magic stone.

If one was skilled at delicate handling of magic, it was something that could be used to burn through iron bars.

But the true value of magic was not merely in how convenient it was like this.

Perhaps its true worth lay in being able to grasp the possibility of carving open fate with what was in one’s own hands.

Gerario skillfully made full use of the limited synthetic magic stone and subdued the completely careless guards in the blink of an eye.

And his pension was only two hundred gold coins a month!

I had made the best purchase.

“Now then.”

With his right foot placed on the head of a fallen, groaning guard, Gerario, who had literally been stark naked, put on the clothes that had been taken from him.

Finally, when he fitted the magic stones back into his gauntlets, the wide-eyed, highly skilled adventurer bared his teeth like a wild beast and smiled.

“Time for the counterattack.”

It was extremely reassuring, but I instinctively looked toward Cole, who was still slumped in a chair.

“Can you walk?”

Cole looked at me and stood while supporting himself with hands that trembled like an old man’s.

“There is… no reason… for a commoner to worry about me.”

I understood that if he was not insulting someone, his spirit would not hold.

Gerario had noticed that too, and he said with a laugh,

“You absolutely want to be there when we save Iiria-chan, right?”

Cole glared at Gerario, and his back instantly straightened.

“Do you know where Iiria-chan is?”

“…Probably at the municipal council. There’s a spire there.”

“A captive princess is always at the top of a tower.”

However, Gerario’s smile was bitter.

“We don’t have enough people.”

Gerario was used to battle. He did not think everything could be managed just because he had magic stones.

Cole could barely walk, and I was not a mage.

“Let’s go save Kururu-san.”

I had meant to say it normally, but my voice trembled midway through.

I immediately understood that Gerario was looking at me with a slightly taken-aback expression.

Iiria, though in a bad situation, seemed to be treated as a lord.

But what about her attendant, Kururu?

Where was she, and what was being done to her?

“Yorinobu.”

Gerario struck my shoulder hard, as if to say it would be all right.

“If it’s that cat girl…”

At that moment, Cole, looking dazed, said,

“She is probably… at the Crape Myrtle House…”

“What?”

When Gerario asked back, Cole coughed and then said,

“The Crape Myrtle… House. It is… a brothel used by the company. Women taken as collateral for debts… are always arranged to be sold there…”

I felt the hair all over my body stand on end.

But then the part of my mind that remained strangely calm kept my reason tethered.

“Is it the place Nodon and his people used to go to, by any chance?”

Memories from when I had been a salaryman resurfaced. When playing around on a business trip, one would without question ask a local business partner for recommendations.

“…You know it?”

At Cole’s dubious look, I nodded.

“I know the location.”

Gerario shrugged.

“Let’s go, Yorinobu.”

If he had not slapped my back hard enough to hurt, I might have burst into tears.

Please be safe.

That was all I could wish.

“What about the young master?”

At Gerario’s words, Cole grimaced, took a deep breath, and recovered the familiar Cole, like Iiria when she wore the face of a lord.

“Even someone like me has a few allies. Let us meet behind the cathedral.”

“Yeah. Let’s show Iiria-chan how cool you are.”

He was treating him entirely like a child as he patted his head, but Cole did not get angry. Rather, he looked somewhat relieved. His first-person pronoun also remained informal.

“Our company is famous for how well we handle purchased goods. The person you care about should be safe too.”

For an instant, I almost wanted to say that Kururu and I were not in that kind of relationship, but I was exasperated at myself for wondering what I was trying to make excuses for.

“The cargo from the Bax Company is always perfect, after all.”

After answering that, I took Gerario with me and left the private prison.

It was in a run-down district along the river, and from the spire of the cathedral visible in the distance and the position of the sun, I worked out the direction and ran without hesitation.

Kururu would be all right.

She absolutely had to be all right.