The Empire was rotten.
It was a thought he'd often had back when he lived on Earth, too, but this place was especially rotten.
Coming face-to-face with a new breed of trash every week, Adam sincerely prayed.
Why does God leave a bastard like this alone?
It'd be nice if one of them got struck by lightning and died.
Not that he actually wanted that, of course.
Just as people don't get criminally charged with attempted murder for yelling 'Go die!', he didn't sincerely wish for it to happen.
"Ngh... ugh."
So it absolutely did not mean he'd hoped the white pig who'd tried to kidnap someone else's maid would suffer second-degree burns over his whole body and live crippled for the rest of his life.
"Count Albert!"
"What happened? He's not dead, is he?"
The shockwave the explosion left behind swept the square.
The aghast knights groaned with their hands on the ground, and the maid clutching Adam's collar asked in a trembling voice.
"A-Adam, how did you do that?"
"I'd like to know that myself."
"Y-you really were the Archmage's disciple!"
"Please be quiet, I'm begging you."
Adam had never learned magic since coming here.
He was a slave through and through, 100% pure, and today was the first time in his life he'd even seen a grimoire.
'A grimoire?'
【This book is a grimoire that Mustang Edroy devoted his entire life to completing.
Whoever reads this grimoire, , in full becomes the successor to the explosion magic Mustang Edroy used.】
Goosebumps ran down his spine.
I really learned magic just by reading a book?
It defied common sense, but right now there was no other way to explain it.
Adam coolly took stock of reality.
The ink on the back of his hand had started as a smudge, but now it had turned into a bizarre magic circle.
The culprit behind that explosion was definitely this thing.
From beyond ground zero came the knights' urgent voices.
"Is the Count all right?"
"He's all right!"
Through the blackened smoke, Count Albert walked out of the center of the blast.
Fortunately, it seemed he wasn't dead.
Albert hounded the knights in a voice worn almost hoarse.
"Guard knights. What the hell are you bastards doing? Why aren't you seizing that bastard right now?"
"Y-yes, sir? Him?"
"Yes! Anyone can see that brat's the culprit!"
"That may be so, but a mere slave couldn't possibly be a mage...."
That was the reasonable argument.
Adam was not a mage.
'Even if I am the culprit.'
"Can't you tell from that magic circle? That brat is an Arcanist, more dangerous than a mage. Surround him now! Otherwise we're all dead!"
At the Count's frenzied shout, the knights encircled Adam and the maid.
The maid trembled like an aspen leaf in terror, but Adam desperately racked his brain.
A reason they can't kill me.
What've I got?
Steadying his ragged breathing, Adam opened his mouth.
"Count Albert."
"......"
"First, allow me to apologize deeply for our rudeness. I know it means nothing even if one of my lowly station bows his head a hundred times. Nevertheless, I ask that you consider my sincerity and heed my counsel."
He went on, as servile and yet as firm as he could manage.
"Please forgive us. If you kill me, Aicolman will never let it go. So could you not show us mercy and take a step back?"
"You think I would bow to some thug of a mage who doesn't even hold a title?"
His apology came back as a roar.
It was hopeless.
Before an agitated man of power, a slave's life was like an ant by the roadside.
And just as Adam's spirit was about to break.
Crackle!
Blue electricity rippled from the magic circle on the back of his hand, and a bomb formed once again.
"It's starting again! Block it, quick!"
The Count screamed, and a knight swung his sword without hesitation, aiming for Adam's neck.
Adam grabbed the bomb without hesitation, too.
But the knight's sword was far faster.
The instant the sphere and the knight's sword crossed, he was certain he would die.
That is, until Archmage Aicolman appeared.
"What do you lot think you're doing here?"
***
The knights and the Count froze, their eyes fixed on the figure behind Adam.
"Aicolman, why are you..."
"You make it sound like I need permission to be in my own house."
Aicolman, dressed in a black leather coat and boots, slowly approached the Count.
The Count caught on to his intent and went white as a sheet.
"Wh-what are you doing? Stay back!"
"I-I said I'd arrange a connection to the Imperial Family for you, didn't I?"
"And did I tell you to kidnap my servants in return?"
"You, you're no ordinary merchant. Did you deceive me?"
"I merely tested you before we joined hands. I'm sorry to Adam, though. I'll reward you handsomely later for using you as bait."
The situation flipped in an instant.
A guard knight who'd been watching the two draw closer drew his sword.
If Aicolman was attacked like this, he'd die too.
'In that case!'
Thinking fast, Adam picked up whatever stone was lying nearby and threw it into the middle of the knights.
"That bastard, again!"
"Aaargh! Scatter!"
With nothing more than a stone bouncing, clack, clack, the knights fled all at once.
It was a natural reaction.
Right now, any sphere Adam threw would look like a bomb.
Get caught in an explosion, and formation or no formation, none of it would mean a thing.
"Waaaaagh!"
Not missing the gap left by the collapsed formation, Adam threw himself forward, twisted the Count's arm, and slammed him to the ground.
THUD!
"Y-you mere slave!"
Only after the Count's scream burst out did the knights realize it had been a hollow bluff.
But it was already too late.
Their master was already pinned under Adam's hand, gasping.
"C-Count?"
"W-wait, what about the explosion? Which bastard said another explosion was coming?"
The Count screamed in bewilderment, but the Archmage stood firm at his side.
The battle was completely over.
Aicolman looked down at Adam as if intrigued and said.
"I'm not so wicked a master as to snatch a fish you caught yourself. What to do with your prey, I'll give you that right."
"Thank you."
Adam looked down at the pale Count. The Count trembled and begged.
"S-spare me...!"
"Of course I'm not going to kill you."
Adam wasn't a psychopath, so naturally he intended to spare him.
In fact, he'd even let out a sigh of relief when the man survived the explosion earlier.
Just because the world was rotten didn't mean he wanted to rot along with it.
But what's with this bastard?
This guy went straight for killing us, didn't he?
Is it right to forgive him?
"Noble or not, isn't it a little too shameless to try to kill us and then beg for your life now?"
Adam pried the man's mouth open and pushed the newly formed sphere inside.
"Gahk!"
At that chilling sight, the knights and even Aicolman couldn't close their mouths.
"Y-you, you, what did you feed me?"
"A bomb.... Well, you wouldn't know what that is. It's the explosion magic you saw a moment ago."
The appalled Count gagged and tried to throw it up, but the sphere that had gone down his esophagus slid down the back of his throat without leaving so much as a sensation.
Tears welled up in the Count's eyes.
He seemed to be picturing an explosion going off in his stomach and tearing him limb from limb.
It was a horrifying sight just to imagine, admittedly.
"Count, for your reference, I don't know how this bomb works."
"What?"
"What's certain is that the explosion earlier went off just from me thinking I wanted to kill you."
"...What on earth do you want?"
"What I want, well, for right now I'm curious about how this explosion magic works. When it's made, when it goes off, when it doesn't, I've started wanting to know that sort of detail, so would you be willing to join my experiment by provoking me, Count?"
"You're saying if you think you want to kill me, I die?"
"As expected of a noble, you're so smart!"
"Mommy...."
The Count's face went pale.
"Can you help me?"
He slowly shook his head.
"You can't help me, can you?"
The Count nodded timidly.
"If you can't help, then please get lost. I'd like an apology for trying to kidnap me and the maid, but honestly, I burned you up and made you bald, so wouldn't it be cleaner to call it even? Now that there's a firecracker in your stomach, hanging around me won't do you any good."
Terrified out of his wits, the Count hastily called for a spare carriage.
He wanted to get out of there as fast as he could.
Watching the carriage recede, Adam suddenly felt a chill run down his spine.
But what if the trigger isn't just my thoughts?
What if it goes off just from getting too far away?
Master could probably cover for me, but it'd be a problem if the guy died.
Watching the carriage that had already gone, Adam prayed it wouldn't go off.
***
Aicolman had originally intended to wipe out everyone here.
So as to leave no loose ends.
But thanks to Adam planting a bomb in Albert's belly, he'd gained a safeguard without having to kill them.
"You saved our lives!"
The knights bowed their heads.
"We'll go after our master as soon as we've repaired the carriage!"
Aicolman laid a hand on the wrecked carriage.
Then tree roots sprouted from the floor of the carriage and restored it to its original shape in an instant.
At the miraculous sight, the knights expressed their gratitude over and over.
"Thank you! Thank you!"
Aicolman gave one knight a hearty kick in the backside and turned away.
"I'm in a foul mood right now. The repairs are done, so get out of my sight."
"Thank you!"
He didn't know how the guard knights and Albert would report it, but in any case, the situation had more or less been put down.
After seeing the guard knights off, Adam headed to the office.
The two of them sat facing each other amid a heavy atmosphere.
Aicolman still looked to be in a bad mood.
Probably because of this whole business.
"You're here?"
In the room filled with the scent of fine wood, Aicolman sighed.
"Thank you for what you did."
"Sorry?"
Thank you?
"If not for you, I would've had to kill Albert and his guards."
"Why on earth?"
"Because the man took my slave. If I'd just told him to take her, he'd have looked down on me. Even if I'd only stopped him with words, he'd have looked down on me. But if I'd fought him, the Imperial Family would have picked a quarrel. Your magic neatly settled that whole tiresome chain of cause and effect, so I'm grateful for that."
"No, I'm the one who should..."
Leaning back in his chair, Aicolman asked.
"Adam."
"Yes."
"You read a grimoire, didn't you?"
"......"
He avoided his gaze like a criminal.
His voice sank heavily.
"Yes, I read it."
"I knew it..."
Aicolman let out a deep sigh and closed his eyes.
"Adam, now you have no choice but to learn magic."