Brek cleared his tears, sniffed, and turned around with a wan smile, his eyes still red. “It’s a cruel twist of fate that we finally reunited, but now we’re probably going to be sold off into svery and separated again.”

  Ribbit farted at the import of that grim reality.

  “I see some things haven’t ged,” Daisuke murmured drearily, g the strength to even fan his nose.

  “I ’t help it,” Ribbit whined, snot bubbling above his upper lip. “I get the runs whenever I’m nervous.”

  “’t you just puke and pass out like a normal person?” Garrett chided.

  Pretty sure that’s irely normal either, Daisuke remarked internally, poker-faced.

  Brek stepped forward, his highly sensitive nose wrinkled in displeasure. “If you don’t find a way to somehow trol your… orifices, then fet w i, or even in the fields, the sve traders may actually ship you off to the Colosseum.”

  Ribbit slumped to the floor in utter despair, ging desperately to Daisuke’s leg. “No! Anything but that! Haxks! What’re we going to do?”

  The other children inched closer, turning to their leader to weave another miracle like he always did whehey were caught between a rod a very hard pce. But Brek knew he would merely be setting himself up for disappoi if he allowed himself to follow suit.

  “Don’t worry,” Daisuke reassured with a smile, struggling to maintain his equilibrium. “I’ll get us out of here.”

  “You barely even stand,” Brek argued, somewhat ahat his rival would invite even a modicum of expectation within him. “So how exactly do you io possibly get us out of this predit?”

  “Whatever your method,” Adrian approached while nontly fanning his nose. “I would strongly suggest against it.”

  The ered Slum Sprites watched in terror as the dashing man who had orchestrated their kidnapping stepped into the dim chamber, followed closely by the hulking brute who served as his enforcer.

  “Do you see that metal sphere above you?”

  Daisuke, Brek, and the others immediately gnced up at the curious devi the ceiling of the cell. It was roughly ten inches in diameter.

  “The bars of the cage are equipped with pressure sensors that will trigger that sphere to explode. When it does, you’ll all be skewered by poisonous needles and suffer a slow, painful death.

  And if you tamper with the lock, the cage is rigged to drop into the pool below, where you’ll drown like dogs. So take my advice—don’t try to escape.”

  While everyone instinctively took a step back at the stark warning, Daisuke simply frow the man and his burly hen. “How exactly did you mao find me?”

  Adrian causally ran his index finger along one of the metal bars of the suspended cage. “After you fled the mansion, I assumed you’d seek refuge in the own and focus on earning moo support yourself and your friends. Joining one of the guilds seemed like your best option, so I had scouts keep an eye on both buildings.”

  “And what made you so sure that I would choose Wonderelle?” Daisuke argued desdingly. “Wouldn’t it have been smarter to settle in aown much farther away?”

  Adrian regarded the blemish on his index finger and proceeded to repce his gloves. “The corpses of the soldiers found at Reginald’s mangest they were attacked by some kind of beast. This led me to believe you fled in a hurry during all that chaos, without time to grab anything of value. Without gold, how could you have mao relocate to aown?”

  Daisuke frowned challengingly, much to the horror of his panions. “I could’ve easily made my way to aown the same way I traveled from the manor to Wonderelle.”

  “You mean by fleeing from monsters and sneaking around like a rat,” Adrian taunted with a smile.

  Daisuke snarled. “What made you think the corpses weren’t mangled well after I’d escaped?”

  Adrian flexed his wrist, iing his freshly gloved hand. “The walls of the manor are ented with a natural monster repelnt, so we deduced that the beast somehinated from within the manor. You wouldn’t happen to know something about that now, would you?”

  Daisuke regarded the man with undisguised loathing. You try to justify it all you want, but I’m not buying it. Zephyr and I didn’t notiyog or tailing us, so someone we know must be feeding information to these scumbags.

  It has to be someone who’s been us closely, studying our strengths and weaknesses for a while. My suspis were firmed when we were so easily taken out by that squid earlier—it felt like a trap specifically set to capture us. Someone’s out to get us. The question is, who? Osten? Lyanna? Finnian? Gavric?

  “What exactly are you after?” Daisuke asked after a deep breath. “Are you pnning to pick up where Cedrid Reginald left off by tinuing their research?”

  Adrian’s perfectly smooth skin wrinkled for the first time, evidently appalled by the notion. “Don’t be ridiculous,” he rebuked. “I couldn’t care less about the Percival name or their legacy. Just because we couldn’t plete the impossible task that was bestowed upon us, we were hopelessly o a life of shame and poverty by the whims of the royal family.

  I knew my pce as the illegitimate son,” he expined with a frown. “A shadow that barely existed. But that was fine; I never cared about power or fame. All I wanted was a life of fort and pleasure, but even that was taken from me. So, I joined an anizatioer suited to providing the lifestyle I desire.”

  “A me guess,” Daisuke regarded him with pity, “the currency to sustain this life of extravagance is alchemy.”

  “Bingo!” Adrian raised his index finger with a grin. “You’re a quick study. I like that. After the Percivals were mercilessly crushed beh the hell of the capital, my brother immersed himself in his work.

  I didn’t stick around long enough to know what he was w on, but I do know that he desperately needed funding, whatever the cost.”

  “…I don’t like where this is going,” Brek murmured.

  Ribbit farted again.

  But Garrett was too busy nervously biting his fingernails to care.

  Adrian pulled out a small gss vial from his jacket aly began stirring the tents ihat shimmered like polished salt. “Have you ever heard of mana dust, otherwise knoixie crystals?”

  Daisuke’s forehead furrowed quizzically.

  “…Isn’t that some kind of illegal drug?” asked one of the quieter boys among the group.

  “Where did you learn about that?” asked Brek.

  “I overheard one of the sve traders talking about it.”

  “That’s right,” Adrian firmed dryly. “It’s the most popur brand of narcotic currently on the market. As you may have already guessed, it was created by Reginald.”

  So alchemy be used in that way too, Daisuke thought disappointedly.

  “To keep ers hopelessly addicted and remain a bar above the petitiinald would regurly refihe recipe. Now that he’s dead, it’s imperative that his rept is found.

  And that, my friend,” he gred up at Daisuke, “is where you e in. Now, you either py nid assume your appointed role, or I’ll start feeding your friends one by oo a monster. No pressure.”

  The color instantly drained from Ribbit’s face, then he farted. Garrett swallowed nervously, his eyes quivering, while the other four boys exged horrified gnces.

  Brek watched as their feminine captor departed along with his brawny hen. “Well, fet being sves for the rest of our lives—it looks like we’re all about to end up in some monster’s belly by the end of day.”

  The children started panig.

  “Rex,” Daisuke reassured calmly. “No one’s going to get eaten.”

  Brek felt offended by his input, especially when he could hardly stand on his own two feet. “Sure, you’re not going to get eaten, but the rest of us sure as hell will. By the way, you mind expining to me what this alchemy’s all about?”

  “Yuess is as good as mine,” Daisuke responded bndly before effortlessly summoning a mana potion from his iory and chugging it down, much to the astonishment of the others.

  “Wait a minute!” Garrett excimed in shock. “Did you just hocus-pocus that potion out of thin air just now?”

  “W-Was that alchemy?” one of the others asked.

  “How the heck did you just do that?” Brek gushed with obvious envy.

  “It’s a long story,” Daisuke respoly.

  “More importantly,” Ribbit pushed forward while salivating, all traces of fear gone. “Could you maybe jure up a juicy pieonstron like you did with the potion?? I’m starving!”

  Daisuke regarded the boy in disbelief. “…Pretty sure our priority right now should be getting out of here alive.”

  “That’s right, you greedy oaf,” Garrett reproached, elbowing him in the side. “’t you use your head instead of your stomach for once!”

  Ribbit clutched his ag ribs aed, “didn’t you hear that guy just now? If we attempt to escape, we’ll be killed in one way or another.”

  Having recovered his strength upon ing the potion, Daisuke cautiously made his way over to the lock to i it. “Then, instead of attempting to escape, we’ll get out of here the appropriate way.”