“Good morning, Harold. Have I kept you waiting?”
“No, I also just got here.”
“Gilbert-san hasn’t arrived yet?”
“Yeah, he should be arriving any minute now……but, is that person also your escort?”
Harold noticed Actorius-sensei and asked.
Actorius-sensei answered with a gentle smile.
“No, he is a friend of my older brother, not my escort. I met him by chance.”
“Nice to meet you, my name is Elric Actorius.
I belong to Lindis as a King’s Scholar.”
“Oh~~, Magic Academy City Lindis! King’s Scholar!
Amazing! That means you are a scholarship student!
I am called Harold, nice to meet you!”
Harold offered his hand to shake, and Actorius-sensei responded in a very friendly way.
“Due to some circumstances, I’d like to borrow Harold’s wisdom, is it okay?
I would like you to tell Actorius-sensei about the material store that is open at this time.
I have damaged an important magical key that he uses at work so he must repair it as soon as possible.”
“Magical key, huh……that, unless you were a high-ranking mage you cannot make it, right?
To be able to repair that kind of thing by yourself……awesome!”
Receiving Harold’s full of reverence gaze, Actorius-sensei smiled shyly.
Harold opened his mouth after thinking about it for a while.
“Well, instead of going to an ordinary material store, you should go to Turm Magic Store in Crescent Moon Street.
Since it’s a store with many connections in Hafan, they have most rare materials.
They should be still in preparations, but if you say that you are introduced by Harry from the Wand Store, they should let you in.”
“Ooh, it seems like a nice store. Thank you very much!”
I felt that Harold clearly recommended affiliated stores.
But if it was a mage with a connection to Turm, it should be a store where trust could be placed.
“First off, please cross the canal from this Goblin Street and go out to Crucible Street.
After that, head towards east and cross over about three bridges, and you will arrive at Crescent Moon Street, Student-san.”
“Cross the canal and three bridges in the east, right.”
“Right! And then, a signboard with a scroll on a tower is the landmark.”
“I see, I see, so it’s a scroll on a tower.”
Towards Harold’s explanation and hand gestures, Actorius-sensei was nodding while smiling nicely.
“Thank you very much! Erica-san, Harold-kun!”
On the boat to cross over to the other side, Actorius-sensei was waving his hand.
We watched nervously in case he fell into the river.
Tirnanog who was observing Actorius-sensei’s situation just now muttered.
『He is a busy man……』
“Well……he seems to have a good head on his shoulder, and seems to be a well-raised and well-bred student.”
“Harold’s perspective can also see such things?”
“Ah, the color of his skin and hair are similar to the exiled nobility from Gigantia that I have seen before.”
I was surprised that Harold’s observation was on point.
Although it was a knowledge from the original game, Actorius-sensei was of noble birth.
If he was an exiled noble, it was a reasonable deduction.
However, to be exiled from the enemy country Gigantia, Actorius-sensei also had a difficult circumstance, huh.
“I see……you know a lot.”
“Hehehe, this is nothing.”
『Hm, he seems to have arrived. Isn’t it that carriage?』
I turned my sight toward the direction pointed by Tirnanog.
A carriage drawn by two horses approached our location from the direction of Barker Street.
If I looked closely, the horses’ legs were fitted with golem prostheses.
When the carriage stopped in front of us, Gilbert came down from the passenger seat.
“Alright, it seems that everyone is here. Everyone please get on.”
“Uwaah. A golem-type horse-drawn carriage, it’s a splurge, Aniki.”
『Gilbert. Can we trust that coachman?』
“Aah, he is a person who is favoured by Turm family.
At the very least, he won’t be tattling to my old man if something happens, he is tight-lipped.”
When Gilbert said so, the elderly coachman made a frivolous talk.
“In exchange, this is the last time, Young Master Gilbert.”
“Hahaha, sorry.”
When the atmosphere became more relaxed, we got on the carriage.
Along with the horses’ neighs, the horse-drawn carriage began to run.
Then we proceeded toward the transition magic circle outside County of Argene where the evidence of the Sorcery Tag remained.
☆
“Ah!”
At that time, I was watching the beautiful nature of the northwest part while being shaken by the horse carriage.
Harold, who was sitting across me, suddenly made a loud voice.
“What’s wrong, Harold?”
“Okay. I think I might have understood.”
『What do you say you understood?』
“It’s about wands. I have been thinking about the mass-filling wands that Aniki told me.”
Apparently, all this time Harold seemed to be thinking about wands.
Was this better than being uselessly negative?
On the contrary, it was admirable that he was being positive.
Gilbert, who was sitting next to Harold, had an exasperated expression and put the biscuit that had been brought to his mouth on a handkerchief spread out on her lap.
“Botchan, are you still half asleep?
There’s still time until we reach our destination, so you better sleep now.”
“No, no, my consciousness is clear.
I was sleepy until a while ago, but my drowsiness has been blown away at once.”
While saying that, Harold looked at our faces.
Somehow his dark green eyes were shining brilliantly.
“Last night I was bored since I have finished my preparations, so I was closely observing the mass-filling wands that Master had.
No matter how much I looked at them, I have no idea what kind of structure they have.
But, just now, the answer came to me as if a fog cleared up at once.”
Harold explained that the answer was grabbed by him with a gesture as if turning a potter’s wheel.
“It’s not the time for this, but do you want to try it before I forget it, everyone?”
『Umu, that’s fine.』
“Yes, I also want to see it.”
“Botchan, don’t push yourself, okay?”
After getting our permission, Harold suddenly dragged out a small leather bag from his feet and opened it.
It was an ultra-compact and lightweight mobile storage.
The amount of expansion seemed to be small, but it was made to have a good maneuverability
It was a memento from two generations ago, he said and withdrew a wand from there.
When the spell building and charging were done, a magic circle was expanded and shone.
From the spell that was turned out, it was the magic of Gust.
“Yosh……this seems to be possible.”
Harold had never dropped parts nor failed to build the spell inside the shaking carriage.
With deft hands like a magician, he created a wand.
The spell building would accelerate with each turn, and the delicate magic would be finished in astonishing speed.
As Harold began to concentrate on the creation of wand, Gilbert and Tirnanog began to talk about another story quietly.
The topic I heard when I eavesdropped them seemed to be the story of Gilbert’s father, the store owner of the Turm Wand Store.
『It seems that he missed you very much, he feels regretful. Come back home.』
“Haha, that self-assured old man is……I don’t believe it……”
『You should return home while you have a place to return. You will not always have a place to return forever.』
“I know that, mister.”
Gilbert was rubbing around his eyes with a lot of effort.
Was he glossing over the fact that he was moved to tears, or were his eyes simply tired?
Unlike children, adults couldn’t cry that easily.
“We’re almost reached County of Argene.”
I heard the voice of the elderly coachman.
When I looked around, the scenery had completely changed while I was planning to build a spell of a wand.
Harold had also finished with his wand.
Gilbert and Tirnanog also stopped talking about the story and was looking at the situation seriously.
“This is……the last one.”
Harold exhaled a sigh and finished charging the wand.
“Good work, Botchan. No way, you succeeded it in one shot the next day after hearing about it.”
『Each one was finished in terribly short time, this might be my first time seeing an alchemist like you.』
“Hehehe, that’s just how it is.”
Harold seemed to be very embarrassed, seemed like he wasn’t accustomed to being praised.
Avoiding everyone’s line of sights, he started to put away his tools in haste.
“Oops, we seem to have arrived. Everyone, are you ready?”
Gilbert looked outside the window and said so.
Almost at the same time, the horse-drawn carriage stopped with the horses’ fierce neighs.
I checked the time.
It was an hour and a half since we left Goblin Street.
Since we arrived without spending too much time in transit, I could say that using the golem-type horse-drawn carriage had been the correct decision.
We thanked the coachman and got off the carriage.
Foot of the mine of the County of Argene.
From here on, it was a race against time.
