Chapter 62: The Alchemist in the Flask

I wanted to leave.

I just, wanted to go outside.

“Hello, Sara.”

To me, who was trapped in a small garden.

One day, a small snake slithered down a tree and spoke to me.

It was a black, sleek snake, the first I had seen in this garden.

Its tongue, which seemed to delve into the depths of my subconscious, was enough to captivate my heart,

And before I knew it, it had become my closest confidant in this small yet vast garden.

“Don’t you want to try leaving this garden?”

“But, Dad said I shouldn’t leave here.”

It was cramped and small, but.

Dad said that outside the garden, a terrible and frightening world unfolded.

He said delicious apples didn’t grow there, and there were no kind and cute animal friends.

Sometimes the ground shook for no reason, but that’s just how gardens are, isn’t it?

“Then. I’ll help you.”

“Help me…. How?”

“We make a promise.”

Nevertheless, my curiosity did not wane.

Even knowing the danger, even having been warned beforehand.

Wanting to see what was outside with my own two eyes, I ended up giving my heart to the snake’s tongue.

“A promise?”

“Yes. In exchange for me protecting you, Sara, you just have to grant me one request. How about it, super simple, right?”

For a moment.

I only intended to go out for a very short while.

I planned to open the only door to the warm garden, just for a moment, go out, and then quickly come back and close it.

“What… request?”

“You don’t have to be so scared. It’s a really simple request.”

The black snake cast an unknown magic on me.

Then, the other animal friends in the garden tilted their heads as if they couldn’t see me.

“Tell me what you saw, what you felt and heard outside when you come back. That’s my request.”

“Okay! I will!”

I carefully opened the garden door.

My heart pounded wildly at the creaking sound of the brown door.

I held my breath, afraid Dad might find out.

The outside, which I opened for the first time with my eyes squeezed shut, was a disappointingly hard space.

Walls of the same color as the door surrounded every side,

And many rectangular things of a very unfamiliar door color were growing there.

That was the moment I saw a box for the first time in my life.

When I turned my gaze forward again, there was another identical door.

‘This time, the outside will surely unfold.’

After opening that door, a salty wind stung my nose.

The first thing that caught my eye was a tree that stretched surprisingly straight.

It was a strange tree with no green leaves, only a very tall trunk.

Instead, something white, very large and taut, was blocking the wind.

Swoosh─

The ground moved greatly.

At the same time, a sudden raindrop hit my cheek.

Wondering what on earth it was, I looked down, and below, an immensely large lake was floating the world.

Like the giant tree rising in the very center of the world.

The lake was also quite different from the one I had seen in the garden.

Unlike the calmly shining lake in the garden, something white was fluttering like the hem of a skirt.

And something like a transparent spiderweb, strung between tree branches, was faintly floating above the lake.

The outside world was smaller than I thought.

I could reach both ends after walking just a few steps.

But it was so mysterious and wonderful.

Beyond the end of the world, what was that floating on the lake?

It was darker in color than the door, and it had something like fine holes, looking like a rotten tree.

A sun made of wood?

Or maybe the moon.

“□□□□. □□□□□.”

“Ugh.”

Then, I heard Dad’s voice from beyond the hazy world.

Unlike the other animal friends, he looked just like me, but he was incredibly tall.

He was so tall that he was incomparably huge to the world I lived in, and his face was too high for me to even see.

‘Dad’s face.’

‘I wanted to see it….’

My disappointment ended there.

If Dad found out I had left the garden, I might get a big scolding.

I had only ever heard his voice, so I was sufficiently satisfied with the truth that he really did look like me, and I tiptoed back into the garden like a cat.

Returning to the garden, I,

To keep my promise, excitedly described the sights I had seen outside.

“In the center, there was an incredibly huge tree. Unlike ordinary trees, it was super tall but thin. And, and, strangely, it had no leaves. Just one, a veeery big, white leaf was hanging there!”

“Hmm. That’s probably something called a sail.”

“A sail?”

But strangely enough, the snake knew the names of things in the world that I didn’t even know.

“The leaves of the outside world are called sails, huh….”

That day, I discovered a new kind of pleasure.

By learning something unknown, a strange sensation of a corner of my heart being deeply filled.

At the same time,

Different from the desires for food and sleep that I had from birth.

A very unfamiliar and different desire began to well up.

‘I want to know.’

‘More, I want to know more.’

After that, whenever I had a chance, I secretly went outside to explore.

As a reward for keeping my promise, the snake always let me revel in new pleasures.

What filled me up inside was knowledge, knowledge.

Starting with learning that the only landmass drifting in the world was called a ship,

By the time I learned everything about the outside, like anchors, anchor lines, masts, bows, ropes, hammocks, beds, cannons, and wheels.

“That hazy sky, what kinds of things are beyond that bottle?”

My interest had, before I knew it,

Turned towards the world beyond the hazy sky.

“…Asmodeus.”

“Yes, what is it?”

“I want to go, outside.”

“Haven’t you been outside to your heart’s content already? Is there still more you’re curious about?”

I nodded at the snake’s question.

Everything in my world was already something I knew.

I had also created new things by combining what I knew, but even that seemed to have reached its limit over time.

My father’s world, spread out beyond the occasionally hazy sky.

What kind of new things could possibly be there?

My curiosity, my thirst for knowledge.

I felt it intensely yearning for the outside beyond.

The child who blindly followed Dad was no longer there.

I steadily built up a plan to break the bottle ship (world) and go out into the outside world.

I looked at the cork plugging the bottle, which the bow was pointing straight at.

That’s right.

I now knew, that it wasn’t a sun made of wood.

“But Sara. If you go out beyond the bottle, you’ll die.”

“Die…? Why?”

“Because you are an artificial life form, a homunculus, that can only live inside this small flask.”

The plan to escape outside was perfectly laid out.

It was laid out… but what was he suddenly saying now?

“Then this time too, you can just protect me.”

“Yes. It’s possible. It is possible. But Sara, for that, we need a bigger promise than before.”

“…What is it?”

The reward the snake desired was simple.

His magic wouldn’t work beyond this flask.

He asked me to build a small rocket, put him inside it, and go out together.

Since I had no intention of leaving him behind from the start, I readily agreed as if it were nothing.

“…!”

“A homunculus…!”

When I executed the plan,

My father and several gods resembling him peeked into the world.

But it was already too late.

The anchor, sharpened over long years, was lodged in the cork like a harpoon.

And when I pulled with all my might, borrowing the strength of my animal friends, a long, huge hole soon appeared in the world.

“The precious experimental subject will die. Quickly, block the bottle opening!”

“Huh…?”

Just as I launched a small boat and rowed with all my might towards the exit.

A flimsy sail—much larger than the ship’s sail—crumpled heavily and flew to block the exit.

“It’s okay, Sara. You did really well.”

Inside the crude rocket I had made myself,

Asmodeus whispered, as if tickling me.

Then, an overwhelming sleepiness washed over me, and I soon closed my eyes.

“This is…”

“Outside. The outside you wanted, Sara.”

The unfamiliar and hard floor was incredibly cold.

…?

My hand….

A large hand, very different from usual.

A high eye level, as if standing even though I was sitting on the floor.

Sensing something was amiss, I began to search for a lake where I could see my reflection,

And soon, I found a clear lake—or something I didn’t yet know—hardened on the wall.

My reflection in the lake was incredibly beautiful.

The woman with long, flowing black hair was strikingly similar to the attire of my father, whom I sometimes saw.

“How is it? With that body, surely, you too, Sara, will be able to adapt to this outside.”

“…A body, can it be changed?”

“Yes. Only those who have made a promise with me.”

While looking around, I found a small flask.

Inside it, a tiny boat, small enough to be covered by my palm, was floating.

“Small…”

Who would have known that the world that had seemed so vast,

Was actually this small?

No, only I didn’t know.

A simple truth that my father, Asmodeus, and perhaps even this woman reflected in the hard lake now, knew.

Only I didn’t know.

Pssh…

As I stepped forward, the walls disappeared to either side.

Is this also a door?

“……A garden?”

Warm sunlight shone down on me as I reached the end.

For a moment, my eyes stung.

‘Why do they sting?’

‘Is the sunlight outside this strong, piercing the skin and making it impossible to see ahead?’

The chirping of birds, familiar yet somehow different.

Unlike the garden I had lived in, the smell of grass, fresh yet mixed with a strange mustiness.

It was the forest, which I had only heard about from Asmodeus.

After that, I,

Learned about the world by inhabiting various bodies.

But, even so, I still yearned and yearned for the next outside.

Village, city, castle, kingdom, continent.

Only the size changed.

This world was still, nothing more than a single flask.

“Great magician Sara. Thanks to you, our kingdom was able to win the war. Therefore, in recognition of your achievements, I shall bestow upon you a title.”

As time passed,

I came to be called by various titles.

Most of them, like the king before me just said, usually regarded me as a great magician or something similar.

“So, I must bestow a family name…. What would you like?”

However, I know now.

I am not a great magician or anything of the sort.

“…Flask.”

Yes.

I am still, still…

“Flask, please name it so.”

“Hmm, a fine name it is. From this day forth, I bestow upon you the name Flask!”

Trapped in a flask,

I was nothing more than a small dwarf.

***

“…Ria!”

When I opened my eyes again.

There was Lin, her face looking as if she were about to cry any moment.

The all-too-familiar sensation of rising from death.

‘Have I, been revived once more?’

“Thanks to Lady Lin bringing you here quickly, you didn’t pass the resurrection threshold, so fortunately, we were able to revive you without any trouble even at our level. Your private tutor has opened her eyes, but it seems she will need to rest for a while.”

“I’m really, really glad…!”

“……Lin.”

While patting Lin, who was crying and hugging me, I slowly looked around.

Asmodeus seemed to have already gone elsewhere and wasn’t here.

At the moment of death, struggling to draw out magic, I had managed to read some of the attacker’s memories.

Ria.

The current body I occupied.

According to fragments of the attacker’s memory, she seemed to be a person who would play a major role as a saint of the empire.

“Lin. Actually, I…”

“I know.”

“……”

“I already, know everything.”

All this time, my senses had been numb.

It might be because my life began by occupying someone else’s body, but that’s just a flimsy excuse.

“Lin.”

“Yes…”

“There’s something I need to tell you.”

We moved to a quiet place, just the two of us.

I decided to return the body to its rightful owner, to whom it should rightfully be returned.

“Cain… you said his name was. The reason that child attacked me was merely an act to revive the original owner of this body, so don’t worry too much about it.”

“Ria…”

“It’s not Ria.”

Above all, the ‘destruction’ I read in that child’s memory seemed to be happening before the planned time.

If that happened, everything I had worked so hard for would come to nothing.

One step, just one more step, and I can reach the true outside.

If I succeed, Lin, you will no longer be bound by the frustrating shackles of this world.

“If only there was a corpse with only its soul dead, I could cross over to it…. But such a convenient story is probably a luxury.”

“W-Wait a moment! What you’re saying now is…!”

“It’s alright. I’ve already, lived long enough.”

As I resolved to die, Lin urgently tried to stop me.

If my soul is not extinguished, the saint named Ria cannot awaken.

If that happens, I cannot send Lin to the final outside.

Of course, I don’t know what Asmodeus might do in the meantime… but I know.

This child will surely overcome… ……Will she?

No, she will overcome it.

She must overcome it.

Wait.

Hold on.

I’m suddenly starting to feel anxious….

No matter how I thought about it, I couldn’t picture Lin overcoming Asmodeus’s temptations.

Leonard had cut him off sharply, but Lin… Lin was a child closer to me than Leonard.

“There is! If it’s a body with only its soul missing, it already exists!”

“……Hmm?”

Then, Lin said there was a body that could continue living without having committed any sin.

It was true that I had lived long enough,

And since I was scheduled to be resurrected by contract anyway—even if that didn’t happen—dying really didn’t matter.

It was just that, I was so worried about this child in front of me.

In the world during my brief absence,

It was so obvious that Lin, whose thirst for knowledge was particularly overflowing, would become Asmodeus’s next victim.

And so.

I prepared to move to the next body that Lin had prepared.

Worried about being detected by Asmodeus, I used a different reincarnation magic that I had learned independently, instead of the power bestowed upon me.

Eventually, when I opened my eyes again….

“Hey. You there, youngest.”

“What is it?”

“No, not you, Exia.”

“Not me?”

“…Are you perhaps talking to me?”

“Whaaat? Are you perhaps talking to meee?? The youngest daring to speak informally to her older sister?”

“……”

“What are you talking about. She’s not the youngest, she’s Mother.”

“Dinavel doesn’t have a mother. Only a Master.”

Reborn as a magic doll, only to be immediately put to work by

Her second older sister—who unilaterally claimed to be so—Dinavel, was there.

“Youngest.”

“…Yes.”

“Older sister is thirsty.”

“I’ll… get some black tea.”

“You have to add a lot of milk, okay? You know older sister’s preference, right?”

‘How would I know that….’

Unfortunately, because her soul had been put into an ordinary magic doll incapable of using magic, Sara had no means of retaliation.

She had no choice but to act as the youngest.

“Youngest.”

“Yes.”

“Have you ever seen Master drink only black tea during teatime?”

Dinavel’s fingers crackled with a jolt.

“…I’ll bring dessert too.”

That’s right.

In truth, Dinavel had been secretly hurt by being abandoned immediately after being created.

In the end, thanks to that, she met the best Master in the world, but that was that, and this was this.

“How on earth are you going to handle the aftermath…”

“Dinavel!! Lives only for today!!!!”

A gentleman’s revenge,

Is never too late, even after several years.