10-31. Fiend Drug
Satou's here. When I hear the word 'disguise', I remember about the famous thief protagonist who's good at it. I think that a lot of Japanese people remember about the gesture of which he tears off his fake face from the chin. The faces were thrown away thoughtlessly, but in actuality, making them needs some quite laborious works.
◇
Well then, let's find the culprit.
I open the map and search. The search term is [Fiend Drug].
The search discovers three points. Both of the first two points seem to be owned by explorers each. The last one is probably the catch. Nearly 100 fiend drugs are stocked there.
It's the mansion of the noble that I've just met during the viscount dinner the other day, Sir Sokel. I thought that it would have been Baronet Dyukeli's mansion, this is unexpected.
I check on the detail of Sir Sokel's mansion.
I've confirmed that he has the drugs stocked in a hidden room in his mansion. There are slaves with Compounding and Alchemy skills inside that hidden room, so there's no mistake about it.
I mark Sir Sokel, his servants and those slaves. There are 20 people in total. Among them, one is in the downtown with people who have various Reward and Punishment. Those people seem to belong to a criminal guild called [Goblin Claw]. They were a large group of around 60 people, marking them would make my map too busy, so I ended up only marking the boss and the three high leveled ones.
They're probably going to destroy evidences and kill the witnesses. That means the ones in danger are probably Rudaman in the dungeon, the lost thief executives, and the proxy, Besso.
Leaving aside Besso and his cohorts, I'd like to get the carriers and slaves who are working in the labyrinth hideout into safety. However, this one should be fine even if I don't do something immediately. I had searched the lost thieves hideouts when I first entered the labyrinth, they're quiet deep in the interior. If they could prepare a force that could assault such a place, they would have directly attacked the guild to kill the witnesses.
The alchemist in Sir Sokel's mansion is also in danger, but they wouldn't easily kill him. He's an important person who can create the fiend drug, and they shouldn't be able to replace the alchemist so easily.
Now then, I've already finished searching the culprit, let's leave it to the guildmaster to take care of them.
I used invisibility and hiding (skills) like when I was invading the duke castle, and intruded the guildmaster's room, then I left a mysterious document that read "The mastermind is Sir Sokel?" Just in case, I also added a postscript that described the hidden room in Sir Sokel's mansion and the lair of Besso and his cohorts.
After I finished my business, I took Lulu out of the explorer guild.
◇
"Master, where are we going?"
"We're going to the mansion."
It's still 2-3 hours before evening. There's something I want to do before visiting the Marchioness.
"Welcome bacc, bac."
"Welcome back, Lulu-sama."
"I'm back, Hoho and Kitona."
Looks like the children who were doing some work in the front yard could see the carriage coming to the mansion, they ran to greet us. After getting me down in the front yard, Lulu passed the rein to Kitona who had climbed to the coachman's stand, and went to the stable while teaching her how to operate the carriage.
"Welcome back, master."
"Yeah, I'm back. How are the children doing?"
"Yes, the five bedridden children have no problem doing anything besides manual labors. Roji and Ani still have some problem with their speech, but they have a good memory and they're full of motivation above all, they will probably become a full-fledged cleaning lady sooner than I thought."
I was only planning to hire them temporarily, but it might be good to let them continue working under Ms. Miteruna officially. I'll talk about it with Ms. Miteruna if there's no problem in half a moon.
After receiving some more reports, I go to the basement. I instructed Ms. Miteruna to not let anyone get close since I want to concentrate.
I've put books that I've bought in Seryuu city and Duchy capital in the basement study room. Their contents are beginner magic books that are overlapping with each other.
I shut the bolt-shaped lock on the door, and teleport to the Mansion of Ivy.
I informed Lulu that I had teleported to the Mansion of Ivy with Telephone.
◇
"Huh? Are you not with Misanalia-sama? Br-, Satou-dono."
"Yeah, Mia is working hard in the labyrinth. I've come to use the workshop."
I head to the workshop accompanied by Leriril who looks bored.
"Artificial skin huh, another weird thing."
"Yeah, I need it for a bit."
I've come to the workshop in order to make the disguise set. People will doubt the identity of an unknown masked person no matter what. Therefore, I thought of making a fake face under the mask this time. A great person once said that if something is hidden, people will want to uncover it.
The thing about artificial skin is recorded in the Trazayuya document. It's an old record that's written even before the homonculus manufacture, it seems to be developed for living dolls use that work as a nanny.
First, mix the culture fluid.
It was just a world tree sap diluted with 100 times the water, so it was immediately finished.
Next, drop the original somatic cell for the artificial skin to the culture fluid. Since Leriril looked really bored, I took one drop of blood from the tip of her finger.
I operate the culture tank that's connected to the super advanced alchemy instrument. It's actually easy since the detailed procedures are written in the document. Since it needs 30 minutes to complete even with the rapid culture, let's do another work in parallel.
First, the wig. I make it white hair and long enough to cover my eyes. I make only the bangs in black since its purpose is to make an impression.
There's still some time, so let's make the clothes and the shoes next.
I take out a cloth made of Yuriha fiber dyed in black from the storage, and arrange it into clothes. I put some shoulder pads in the jacket to prevent sloping shoulders. For the white gloves, I've gone a bit overboard by sewing pentagrams from the Green Silk thread that has been dipped in Blue Liquid on it. Finally, I prepare the sleeveless inverness coat, and it's complete.
It's the pre-war schoolboy uniform style that would make Arisa drool if she saw it. I had also prepared the hat, but it'd be too overdone if I also put on Geta, so I made sneakers made from whale leather.
The needed area size of the artificial skin had finally been completed when I finished sewing the clothes. I'm in a hurry this time, so making only one should suffice. Before long, I'll make another 4-5 pieces.
This time I'm making a disguise mask by applying process that's similar to special effect make-up with the artificial skin as the base. Another person's face is a difficult thing. Let's make the mask with the face of a famous celebrity on earth as the base. I adopted the face of a young foreign star that won't be associated to me.
The artificial skin alone won't be able to conceal my facial skeleton, so I use a fiber that can expand and one that can harden if I put it with magic power as the mask frame. The material for both fibers are abundant in the storage from the gathered materials there, it should be enough.
During the work, Leriril diligently helped me by preparing the work instruments like an assistant would, or cleaning the fallen materials and scraps.
This disguise mask that I've made has become a magic tool that can change the contour and fat of your face.
Suddenly, it flashes in my mind, "Can't I also manipulate my body figure if I use these materials?"
That might be a good idea.
I can't make it right now since I don't have enough artificial skin though. Let's postpone making the skin-colored leotard for later even though it's been on my mind. Making my body double might be possible if I add it to a living doll.
◇
Now then, let's arrest Sir Sokel all at once with the completed clothes and disguise mask.
I open the map to check the turn of events.
Apparently, the situation has rapidly progressed during my carefree handicraft endeavor.
The lost thieves besides the executive classes in the (explorer guild) dungeon have been moved to the dungeon of the labyrinth army, maybe as a precaution against a raid.
Besso and his friend are in the back alley of the downtown. The two seem to be hurt. When I checked on them with [Clairvoyance] magic, they were being chased by thug-like group of people. They're probably members of [Goblin Claw]. Some male guild staffs are also chasing after Besso and his friend.
And the vital one, the mansion of Sir Sokel has been surrounded by the viceroy's soldier.
Since there are some guild staffs in the mansion, the guildmaster who has looked at that document seems to have urged the viceroy to take out his soldiers. Still, I didn't think that she would raid the mansion of a noble without even a proof. I don't know if it's because the secret maneuver skill is superior, or the guildmaster is quick to act, or the Fiend Drug is too dangerous.
They have gathered all the mansion's servants and the slaves in the entrance hall. Sir Sokel is not among them.
From the marker list in the map search, I tap on Sir Sokel to see his current position. He is in a carriage with his butler outside of the labyrinth city. The alchemist-san in question is also with Sir Sokel.
Judging from the direction they're going, northwest, they're probably escaping to the coal mine town, or maybe they will continue going north to Eluett Dukedom. Since they're outside the map, I use [Clairvoyance] magic to see and check whether there are pursuers. The viceroy soldiers are pursuing them by riding a horse five kilometers behind them, they will probably caught up before they reach the mountain road.
Well then, it seems there's no need to use the disguise set even though I've taken the trouble of creating them.
A [Signal] from Lulu came when I was feeling exhausted.
The content is [Emergency Incident].