The old man who'd been conversing with me perfectly fine just moments ago.
The branch chief of the Alchemy Guild had suddenly begun screaming. His face had gone deathly pale on top of it.
What came to mind then were the words the branch chief had said earlier.
-- I suppose you can't cheat age. My chest feels like it's being wrung out, and my stomach's churning -- must have eaten something that disagreed with me.
A wringing pain in the chest? Nausea?
'......Those are the warning signs of a heart attack.'
I was fairly sure I'd seen it somewhere on the internet, in passing.
Many people apparently mistook it for indigestion and brushed it off. If these symptoms appeared, the recommendation was to visit a hospital immediately.
"Why is...... my chest being squeezed like this. I can't...... breathe......!"
His legs gave out, unable to hold him any longer.
The branch chief collapsed to the floor.
What on earth had caused the heart attack?
The answer, in truth, was not hard to find.
......The man was over ninety. The medieval average lifespan was somewhere in the thirties. He'd single-handedly lived more than three times as long as everyone else.
If you lived three times the average lifespan and your body still functioned perfectly, that would be the strange thing. Even without the heart attack right now, he'd probably have died from something else before long.
"......You! Wh-what did you do to me?!"
And then the old man suddenly started clinging to me.
I genuinely didn't do anything.
Your body is the problem; why are you blaming me?
He'd been trying to kill me just moments ago, no less.
If his body were still working, he'd have killed me and buried the corpse somewhere in secret. This was a man who would have done exactly that.
And now he was suddenly playing the victim?
"I do know CPR. If you were willing to--"
I hesitated for a moment, then spoke up.
Maybe I should at least make one last offer.
I'd wanted to act as humanely as possible, but.
"Poison......! It was poison. You put poison in the tea I drank just now. You must have...... bribed a guild member...... who held a grudge...... against me!"
The moment I heard that, any thought of negotiating evaporated.
Slapping a false accusation on the person right in front of him.
Well, I was the type to save anyone I could save, but. That thing barely qualified as a person no matter how you looked at it.
'I want to live with a clean conscience, not like a pushover. By the look of him, even if I save him, he'll just try to kill me again. Helping a murderer like that is a bit much......'
Given what he'd done to me alone, I couldn't begin to imagine how many people he'd killed over the years. Why would I save a bastard like that with my own hands?
The man glared at me, grinding his teeth.
"You...... will re...... gret this. Do you think...... hack...... I can't even...... manage a simple...... counter-poison spell?"
Grinding his teeth, the man cast a spell.
......Without even his staff, which he'd dropped when he collapsed.
FLASH—!
A brightly glowing green magic circle.
Even without a staff, using just his hands, a simple antidote was within his reach. He was certainly a powerful mage, I'd give him that.
"......Why isn't it...... working?!"
Nothing changed.
Of course it didn't.
'I never used any poison. What good is a counter-poison spell going to do, old man? Obviously it's not going to work.'
If he'd at least used an offensive spell, he might have had a shot at taking me down with him as a last-ditch effort.
But...... it was too late now.
"AAAAAAAGH!!!"
The branch chief screamed.
In that state, further magical calculation was impossible.
That had been his last chance, and he'd wasted it on a counter-poison spell. The judgment was so poor it nearly made me laugh.
"P-please...... if you spare me, I will offer suitable compen......"
The man grabbed at my trouser leg.
......Was this a joke?
At a time when he should have been groveling for his life, he was trying to negotiate? He still couldn't let go of his pride? How utterly rotten was his character?
Naturally, I was not going to be swayed by drivel like that.
I looked down at him, expressionless, and declared.
"Farewell, former Tower Master."
It was unfortunate that someone was dying. But honestly, at this point, seeing the person before me as a person would have been the strange thing.
If tears had come, that would have been stranger still.
"A foolish choice."
Well, I understood why he'd used a counter-poison spell instead of healing magic.
If it were poison, then healing magic would be meaningless -- it would only restore the body while leaving the poison intact.
But...... to leap to the conclusion that a subordinate had conspired to poison him. How badly must he have treated his people for betrayal via poisoning to be the first thing that came to mind? I truly couldn't imagine.
"Our conversation was not the most pleasant. But I'll at least wish you peace on your journey."
The branch chief's eyes closed for good.
The branch chief was dead. Having lived more than three times the average lifespan, he couldn't exactly complain -- it was a ripe old age by any measure.
What to do from here?
I was mulling it over as I started to leave the office when......
'......Someone was here?'
I ran into her.
The branch chief's secretary.
A woman staring at me, face drained of all color.
And I looked back on what I'd just said.
A former Tower Master writhing and howling in agony.
And me, looking down at him with a blank expression, saying something like "farewell."
......What on earth must that have looked like from her perspective?
'I should probably explain.'
Still, there was no reason to worry too much.
I was fairly good at communication, after all.
***
The branch chief had passed away.
The former Tower Master.
A great alchemist revered by all.
In terms of raw strength, incomparable to anyone in this building. A man who could have fought the entire guild single-handedly.
Such a man had crawled on the floor, begging for his life.
Forgetting all dignity, he had pleaded to be spared.
And...... the secretary had seen it with her own two eyes.
The monster that had looked down at such a man with eyes utterly devoid of emotion, mineral in their emptiness.
The man's voice, calmly pronouncing a death sentence.
Her hands trembled uncontrollably.
Prepare a counterattack? Call in colleagues for a coordinated assault? Normally she would have chosen one of those.
But rational judgment was impossible. No -- it wouldn't have changed anything even if she'd tried.
'......Not a single scratch on him.'
He had fought a former Tower Master.
A human who had once stood at the pinnacle of a mage tower.
Yet the man stood there with absolute composure. Not a single wound, perfectly at ease.
'How?'
She couldn't comprehend it.
What kind of power must one possess to toy with a former Tower Master and crush him that completely?
The expensive coat the man wore. Despite having just been through what should have been a fierce battle, there was not so much as a scuff on it.
As if the blood of such a lowly creature staining his clothes was beneath his tolerance. As if every last effort the Tower Master had mustered was meaningless.
'He killed the person in front of him without even touching them? Some kind of death-related power? No -- is what's standing in front of me even a person?'
A demon wearing a human shape, perhaps. Or a monster of an incomprehensibly higher order still.
The more she imagined, the more the terror surged.
But the most terrifying thing was not the man's power.
The most incomprehensible thing was his demeanor. ......A thing that was not human, mimicking a human. That was the eerie impression it gave.
"......Ah, you saw everything."
Even with the murder scene discovered, he showed no agitation.
As if he hadn't been the one to kill. As if he truly had nothing to do with it whatsoever.
"Don't be afraid. I'm not your enemy."
He was the one whose crime scene had been exposed.
Yet he was the one telling her not to panic. Telling her, of all things, to take a deep breath.
There was not a flicker of disturbance on his face.
A witness, right here? What did that matter?
She was nothing more than a bug he could crush whenever he felt like it. Why would he care what a bug thought?
"The branch chief and I were simply having a conversation. I did nothing to fight or harm him."
The man said it as if it were nothing at all.
......He hadn't fought the branch chief, he said. Who in the world would call squashing a worthless insect a fight?
A fight had never existed to begin with. The gap between them had been too impossibly vast. He'd been hoping for a good match, but once again it ended this easily.
"It was merely an unfortunate accident."
"......An un-unfortunate accident, you say?"
Process it as an accidental death, he was saying.
Saying it as casually as commenting on the weather.
"He was getting on in years, after all. It's only natural that the body weakens. You have my sincere condolences."
There was not a trace of hesitation on that face.
......This sort of thing must be nothing but routine for him.
A lord of the underworld, then? But she'd never heard of any figure powerful enough to casually crush a former Tower Master.
Wait for an opening and run.
That was the only way to survive.
Having reached that conclusion, the secretary was watching the man for an opportunity when.
"......Come to think of it."
The man looked at her.
Studied her with those eerie golden eyes.
The man wore an inscrutable smile and spoke.
"It's unfortunate about the branch chief, but we're in quite a hurry. If it's not too much trouble, could you, as an Alchemy Guild employee, accept my commission?"
He had something he wished to 'ask' of her.
The secretary's face went deathly pale in an instant.
Because she'd seen with her own two eyes what had become of the branch chief after he went in to hear this man's 'request' mere minutes ago.
She swallowed hard and asked.
"A commission...... of what kind?"
"An important guest is going to be visiting our workshop soon. ......Possibly on the way already. So we need to renovate the workshop as fast as possible -- today."
"......Workshop renovation? And in a single day?"
A commission that casually defied common sense.
Tear down and rebuild an entire building in one day? A workload the entire Alchemy Guild would have to mobilize for and still barely manage.
"I'm not asking for much. Just touch up the exterior to look presentable. And if possible, install some security equipment."
On top of that, the cost would be astronomical.
Alchemical construction could shorten the timeline, but. The materials required drove the expense to stratospheric levels.
No -- before even getting to the cost, the schedule was the problem.
Commissions were booked solid for the next five months.
With requests from high-ranking nobles, no less.
Cancel a noble's commission? How would they deal with the consequences? They could never do such a thing.
They could never do such a thing, and yet.
"Oh my, your expression looks a bit troubled."
A voice reached her.
If he'd screamed threats at her, it might have been less frightening. Customers who strongarmed their way into commissions were common enough.
"You look awfully pale. Are you feeling all right?"
But what that expression held was innocence.
Was he genuinely worried about her? The thought crossed her mind, so natural was the expression on his face.
The man spoke with the most guileless look imaginable.
"......You look like someone who's about to die."
A corpse speaking to her.
How remarkable.