episode_0045

“It’s good to catch the wizard, but shouldn’t we first decide how to do it?”

At Laurent’s words, we all nodded our heads.

“What if we just break in and capture the wizard after smashing everything?”

“What if the wizard has set up a barrier?”

“Hmm… that’s a problem too.”

At my words, Rotos scratched the back of his head with a sigh.

“What about waiting for the wizard to go out?”

“We don’t know when he’ll come out. Do we just wait until the wizard shows up? I don’t want to wait that long.”

“But we can’t just sit around twiddling our thumbs either.”

“Well… I heard that the wizard usually goes somewhere every night.”

Bingshong, who was beside us, told me about the wizard.

“Maybe he’s going to get some medicine.”

“I’m not sure about that, but I’ve seen him go somewhere every night while doing his activities with the guild.”

“Alright, thanks. Let’s try to catch him tonight.”

“Okay.”

We decided to mess with the wizard at night and went into a tavern to drink and pass the time.

“Look, the wizard is passing by!”

Laurent, who was looking out, tapped my shoulder.

“Oh… really? Did he leave?”

Half asleep, I wiped away the drool as Laurent tapped me, and carefully looked around as the wizard left the pharmacy.

“Selling medicine so boldly in broad daylight… what’s he up to at night?”

“Let’s go.”

At Aramis’s words, we all quietly started following the wizard.

We discreetly maneuvered through the alleyways, and he ended up at the port.

The wizard looked around anxiously, turning his head this way and that.

“Someone’s coming over there.”

Laurent pointed in the direction where the attendants of Duke Orléans, dressed in black with red patterns, were coming out.

“Oh, now they decide to show up…!”

The wizard nervously looked around with trembling eyes.

“Did you sell enough today?”

Duke Orléans’s attendant asked the wizard, inquiring about his performance with no concern for his anxiety.

“Well… I did sell. After selling once, people kept coming back, and it’s selling like hotcakes. But I’m not sure if it’s okay to sell this stuff…”

“You picked up the wizard who was kicked out of the noble houses and helped him set up a pharmacy, and now he’s getting greedy?”

“Oh, no! How could that be?”

“Did you sell the agreed amount today?”

“Yes, I sold everything.”

The wizard took out a money pouch from his robe and handed it to Duke Orléans’s attendant.

“Good, if the performance is good like this, we can increase the distribution.”

“Selling more for increased profits is good, but if you get caught for expanding too much and get caught, what will you do?”

“You have to handle that yourself. Be careful not to get caught.”

At his words, the wizard looked distressed.

“Has it been a while since you started selling this medicine here?”

“Yes, it’s been about six months.”

“Soon, the number of people looking for medicine will increase.”

He handed the wizard two pouches containing Orange Sapphires.

“Isn’t this… double the usual amount?”

“Sell all of it tomorrow and report back.”

“I can barely sell one pouch… isn’t two too harsh?”

“You’ll figure it out with your sales tactics.”

“Eek!”

When Duke Orléans’s attendant raised his fist in a threatening manner, the wizard cowered.

“Anyway, we’ll take the money, and come back tomorrow at this time and give us the money from selling all the drugs, got it?”

“…”

“Answer me! Don’t just stay silent.”

When the wizard looked up with a disdainful gaze, one of Duke Orleang’s subordinates struck the wizard on the head with his fist.

“Ouch…! I understand!”

Adjusting his pointed hat, the wizard grabbed his potion pouch and hurriedly left the port.

“Who should we follow?”

“Let’s follow the wizard.”

In agreement, we all followed the wizard.

“There’s nothing going right in this world. Just when I thought I could finally eat and live a bit, I got caught up with those damn potion sellers who took all my money…”

Muttering to himself, the wizard made his way back to his house.

As we were halfway from the port to the wizard’s apothecary, I suddenly appeared from an alleyway, blocking the wizard’s path.

“Who are you?!”

The wizard drew his staff and pointed it at me with magical energy gathered at the tip.

“The world never goes as you wish.”

“Even if I don’t know who you are, get lost!”

As Laurent revealed himself behind me, the wizard, taken aback by Laurent’s imposing figure, hesitated and stepped back.

Anyone not surprised by Laurent’s larger stature than Rotos would be truly strange.

“Why have you appeared before me?”

“I tried to sell potions to make some money, but ended up losing all my money to those swindlers, leaving me with nothing but debt.”

“Ugh…!”

At my words, the wizard grimaced.

“Just because you sell a lot doesn’t mean you’ll make a lot of money, right?”

“I doubt it.”

Laurent answered my question instead.

Enraged, the wizard aimed his staff at me and began chanting a spell.

“Expectoramus!”

Phew!

As the wizard cast his spell, a sharp arrow-shaped burst of magical energy shot out from the end of his staff.

But when Laurent rushed forward to withstand the magic, the wizard looked bewildered as he gazed at us.

I pointed to the wizard with my finger, indicating that there were people behind him.

“Ugh…!”

The wizard slowly turned his head, only to see Rotos and Aramis behind him, causing him to sit down in shock.

“Are you the ones with a grudge against the Orange Sapphire?”

“Well… something like that?”

I approached the wizard slowly.

“You should come with us.”

“Haha… looks like I’m caught. Very well.”

Realizing he was in trouble, the wizard raised his hands in surrender to us.

Quickly, Rotos and Aramis approached him, grabbing his arms.

“Take him to Bingsoong’s house.”

We dragged the wizard to Bingsoong’s house.

An old, run-down house on a narrow alley in the streets of Kale City.

Upon arriving at Bingsoong’s house, we seated the wizard in a chair.

“Wait… Bingsoong?!”

Seeing Bingsoong’s face, the wizard was taken aback and glared at him.

“Did you set me up for this dirty trick?!”

“It doesn’t seem fitting for someone who distributed drugs throughout the city to say such things.”

Lowering his head at Bingsoong’s words, the wizard relented.

“Let’s stop the chit-chat and just answer our questions.”

I said, wiping the barrel of my gun.

“Ah… understood.”

Swallowing dryly at the sight of my gun, the wizard nodded.

“Why did you sell the Orange Sapphire?”

“I sold it because I had no money.”

“If you were short on money, you could have used your specialty in magic to open an apothecary or work for another noble family to earn quite a bit, right?”

“I was originally a wizard working for a noble family. Rumor had it that I was doing well.”

“Then why are you selling drugs here?”

“I was conducting experiments and got kicked out of the noble family due to an accident. I tried to find another noble family, but the rumors of my failed experiments had already spread, leaving me with no place to go.”

“Even if you opened an apothecary, you would have made money, right?”

“Do you know how many apothecaries there are in Paris? And even if I wanted to open one, wouldn’t I need money?”

“It seems you were fully invested in your experiments.”

“As you say…”

As the wizard let out a deep sigh, I poured rum into a cup and handed it to him.

“Thank you.”

The wizard gulped down the rum in the cup and began to speak.

“While wandering the streets of Paris in despair, someone offered to sell me a potion and share the profits.”

“So that’s how you ended up in Calais selling potions?”

“Yes, at first, we split the money 7:3, but one day, thugs came and said they would split the profits 2:8 with me.”

“Still, selling potions must have brought in a decent profit?”

“What good is profit if, after paying rent for the pharmacy building, all I have left is a pittance?”

“You could have stopped then, couldn’t you?”

“My experiment is not yet complete, I must finish it even if it means going hungry.”

“What kind of experiment is so important to you?”

“A cure for the incurable disease of baldness.”

As the wizard took off his pointed hat, his shiny bald head was revealed.

“Wow…”

I couldn’t help but admire his smooth head.

“Look at this, Maris…”

Suddenly, Rotos grabbed my shoulder.

“What is it?”

“This man… he’s sincere.”

Seeing Rotos’s determined expression, I was taken aback.

“What do you mean?”

The wizard’s gaze was just as intense as Rotos’s.

“You… you’re sincere.”

“Yes.”

“Hah…!”

I burst out laughing in disbelief.

“Don’t mock baldness!!”

“Yes! Don’t make fun of baldness!!”

The wizard shouted at me as if I were mocking him.

But Rotos seemed to be angry with me, I couldn’t tell.

“You are truly great, sir… to go hungry to create a cure for this incurable disease…”

“Sob…!”

It seemed like they both understood each other’s struggles and got along very well.