Someday Will I Be The Greatest Alchemist?

Chapter 215: Arriving at the capital

We set foot in the Imperial Capital, Divine Empire Sydnia’s largest town, where the head temple of the Light God Faith is located.

「As usual.」

「There’s a lot of people so it can’t be helped nya.」

Akane and Lulu-chan pinched their noses. The imperial capital is a large town with a large population, so that stench was dreadful.

Lulu-chan and Akane, who lived in this town for a short while after being summoned, had to block out the smell.

「I’ve already resigned myself to the smell, but the town’s atmosphere sure is dark.」

Yes, the town’s atmosphere was really gloomy. The people walking in town had no vigor.

Divine Empire Sydnia has a characteristic that does not apply to the other 6 countries in this continent. Small it may be, there are no monster nests within the country, so it wasn’t a necessity to make fortress towns like other countries do. They built walls for their nation’s defense, but it couldn’t possibly be compared to the walls of Valkyra Kingdom and Lomaria Kingdom which have monster nests.

What that means is that the expanse of the farmland outside of the towns hardly takes any damage from monsters. Food productivity is high because of this, and as a result, their population is not much different from other countries despite being a quarter of the size of other countries.

「How strange. There’s little threat from monsters, and there should be few thieves as well. Why is the capital this despirited?」

「That’s true. Villages and towns are taxed heavily, but is it the same for the capital as well?」

「Hmmm, there should have been plenty of affluent people living in the capital though.」

「Akane-sama, there are not very many Beastkin slaves around either nya.」

As Lulu-chan had said, it felt like there’s not a lot of Beastkin slaves around.

In Divine Empire Sydnia, the non-humans are all slaves. Therefore, the capital surely would have had a great number of Beastkin slaves living in it.

「I’m getting a bad feeling about this.」

「The nobility and wealthy merchants would be keeping Elven slaves right?」

「Maria, there’s a handful like that. There’s a number of them from the absurd invasion at Yggurle Kingdom 50 years ago.」

According to Akane, there were around 20 Elves slaves in the capital even now. Practically all of them were kept by either high ranking nobles or wealthy merchants.

「Sophia, do you want to rescue them before we make our escape?」

「Yes, I would like to save my comrades if it is feasible.」

「Roger. Let’s find those places then.」

All of them were illegal slaves anyhow. There’s no need to hesitate taking back the Elves that were taken against their will.

「Then let us split off into groups and identify their locations based on their magic power.」

「Okay, Sophia and Maria, Akane and Lulu-chan, you team up.」

「I am your escort, Takumi-sama. I can not leave your side.」

「No, I have Kaede with me so I’ll be fine. Don’t worry.」

「……understood.」

Sophia didn’t seem satisfied, but I’ll have to make her accept this.

「We’ll meet back here in two hours.」

「「「「Yes.」」」」

We each had a map, erased our presence, and dispersed.

◇

I investigated the section I was in charge of by myself.

I searched for the slaves’ presence and magic power.

Actually, searching for Elves isn’t that hard if one has magic perceptive abilities. That’s because the magic capacity of an Elf is much greater than that of a Human mage. Sophia who can hear the voice of the Spirits will have it much easier.

「This place, it’s such a huge mansion.」

The place I discovered while looking for magic power was likely the mansion of a high ranking noble. A pointlessly large, ostentatiously decorated exterior.

Without being noticed by any of the servants or the soldiers guarding the mansion, I arrived at the room of the Elf. There, an Elven woman wearing very revealing clothes was sitting on the bed.

There were no locks on the door, nor was the Elven woman restrained, but as she was probably bound by a slavery contract, despair could be seen in her eyes.

I put up a soundproof barrier in the room.

「Elf-oneesan. May I talk to you for a bit?」

「？！ Who are you?！…………you’re the protector of the Spirit Tree.」

「So you heard from the Spirits. I was thinking of sheltering you in the Sanctuary or sending you back to Yggurle Kingdom, but how does that sound?」

「I would like to be saved, however, I am unable to leave this town because of the slavery contract.」

「Don’t worry. Please leave that to me. And so, what would you like?」

When I said that, strength returned to the bleak, despairing eyes of the Elven woman.

「Please, save my enslaved companions from this town.」

「Of course, we plan on saving everyone. Right now, we’re in the middle of figuring out everyone’s locations and we’ll rescue you all as soon as we can, so please hold on until then.」

「Thank you.」

I told the Elven woman an approximate time then sneaked out of the mansion to find the next Elf.

When I returned to our assembly point, Sophia and the girls were already there.

「Takumi-sama, we’ve identified everyone’s locations and we’ve confirmed their will to escape.」

「Thanks. We should mark them on the map.」

We then returned to the inn room and marked the location of the Elves.

Now then, let’s start the rescue mission.

***

Sphy’s Note: In an alternate universe, this happened in chapter 215.