Prison Fire

Alchemy was closely connected to the Alchemy School, one of the nine schools of arcane magic, but they were not exactly the same.

The Alchemy School specialized in material transformation, alchemical machine summoning, and emergency concoctions. In terms of destructive power, it ranked among the top three of the nine schools.

Alchemy itself, meanwhile, was a purely academic discipline. No matter how badass an alchemist was, they might very well be too weak to truss a chicken.

It was closely tied to magic. To put it vividly, magic was the game itself, while alchemy was DLC that required an extra purchase.

The creation of all magic-related items relied on alchemy—for example, the shower facilities in the school dormitories that produced hot water from thin air, as well as the streetlamps and signs throughout Curtain Star City.

And those were merely civilian applications. If he could manufacture magical items, potions, and the like himself, it would also greatly benefit the growth of his strength.

Nearly all mages learned some alchemy as well. Besides broadening their knowledge, it could earn them money to support their spell research.

The Adventurer School had taught some basics, but adventurers only needed to know common fundamentals, so it had not gone into depth. Hopefully, the school library had books related to alchemy for him to browse. Otherwise, Pei Renli could only go seek out Teacher Grace.

Honestly, unless it was necessary, he truly did not want to go. That teacher was simply too unreliable—who knew whether what she taught was even correct?

From a long-term perspective, studying alchemy could only bring benefits, no harm.

The only downside was that Pei Renli worried that if he kept grinding himself to the bone, he might actually start losing his hair...

Most of his free time was now spent studying spells. Occasionally, when reading spell materials left him dizzy and seeing stars, he still did not rest. Instead, he read monster compendiums and books about the customs and landscapes of lands across the world. Adding alchemy research on top of that, he really might go bald.

There was no helping it. The only person he could rely on was himself. Going bald was still better than losing his vital signs.

With a sigh, Pei Renli closed his spellbook. The huge full moon had already risen halfway into the sky.

He decided to turn in early, since he had to get up early tomorrow and hurry back to school.

But just as he was about to get into bed, he saw an orange-red glow bloom amid the deep night through the second-floor inn window. Faint, scattered clamor seemed to drift over as well.

"Did something happen?"

Pei Renli was the only one in the room, so it was more like he was talking to himself.

Yet the moment he finished speaking, the shadow by his feet immediately replied:

"Your Majesty, there should be a fire not far away."

Though Naspar was not all that far from Curtain Star City, Lavna still could not rest easy. She had followed him the entire way, hiding in his shadow.

Curtain Star City had originally possessed a barrier against the Demon King of Tyranny as well, but it had been dismantled after the Demon King disappeared. So there was no problem with Lavna following him here.

The Adventurer School's barrier was still in place purely because they had no money.

After all, dismantling a barrier was no small expense either...

He stood at the window and looked out. Judging by the direction, it should be in the lower district, but he could not make out anything more specific.

The inn they were staying at stood right beside the city wall, so he could not see exactly where the fire was. He could only see the hazy red glow.

He did not pay much attention to it and turned to lock the door and sleep.

But at that moment, someone knocked twice on his door with a thump-thump. Before he could answer, they burst in, and Koura's boisterous voice rang out:

"Pei Renli, are you asleep?"

Looking up, he saw that not only was Koura there, but Kaya and Eve were standing in the doorway too.

"Looks like there's a fire outside the city. Let's go take a look."

Why were you all still awake this late at night? And why did you even want to go join the excitement...?

To Pei Renli, Curtain Star City's prosperity was merely something novel to look at. There were far more prosperous big cities on Earth than Curtain Star City.

But to those three girls, Curtain Star City was nothing short of a mental shock. Even after taking a stroll through the streets and returning, they remained so excited that they could not sleep at all.

The moment they saw that somewhere outside was on fire, they all suggested going out to see it. Thus, Pei Renli, who had intended to rest, was dragged out by them.

Unlike Naspar, which shut its city gates every night, Curtain Star City's gates remained open around the clock. After leaving the inn and passing through the gates, they quickly entered the lower district and hurried toward the flickering firelight.

No wonder they had been able to see the glow from the inn's second floor. The fire was not particularly far from the inn, and before long, they were standing near the burning building.

"The thing on fire is a prison? Holy shit!"

The place was covered in barbed wire atop high walls, looking at first glance like a small fortress. With the walls still blocking their view, they could only see scattered flames shooting up over the wall tops.

Curtain Star City's prison was located in the lower district. On one hand, this kept the criminals separated from the city proper. On the other, crime rates in the lower district were high, so placing the prison here made it convenient to toss people inside after catching them.

They were not the only ones who had come to watch the excitement. By the time they arrived, quite a few onlookers had already gathered, and firefighters had reached the scene at once.

Their fire engines were horse-drawn carts hauling water tanks. By using something like a bicycle pump to force air into the tanks, they sprayed water to extinguish the flames.

Though a prison fire was somewhat unexpected, the blaze did not seem particularly large. By the time they arrived, the firelight had already noticeably dimmed, and it would not be long before it was put out.

"We've seen the excitement. Let's head back—we still need to get up early and travel tomorrow."

He did high-intensity physical training during the day, then spent all his spare time grinding through books, severely squeezing Pei Renli's rest time. He was now at the point where he would fall asleep the instant he lay down. If they had not dragged him out to watch the spectacle, he would have been asleep long ago.

"Wait, look over there!"

Koura said, tugging on Pei Renli's clothes.

"What now? Aren't there people everywhere around here?"

"It's not the gawkers. Just now, I saw someone climb over the wall!"

An escape while everyone was distracted?

The thought had barely popped into his head when he saw Koura part the crowd and give chase.

Seeing this, the remaining three hurried after Koura.

"You're sure he came over the wall?"

"Of course I'm sure. And he looked a lot like the guy we caught earlier."

Pei Renli and the others had been hired to capture a lackey connected to human trafficking, then return to collect their payment.

But while that was what the job sounded like, it was not that simple in practice.

After all, they still had to verify whether the person they had caught was truly the target they were looking for. Only after confirming it could they get paid.

If he had really escaped in the chaos, it meant the job had yet to be verified, and naturally Pei Renli would not get his money.

They could not just ignore this.

Pei Renli patted his face to wake himself up. The four of them pushed through the crowd of onlookers and hurried after him.

Koura was a beastkin, and the rabbit ears atop her head were hardly mere decoration. Her hearing was far keener than that of an ordinary human, and she seemed particularly skilled at tracking.

Led by her, the group plunged headlong into the alleys of the lower district.

There were no magic lamps here to provide illumination, and the chaotic buildings blocked out the moonlight, leaving the alleyways pitch-black.

With her extraordinary hearing, Koura could distinguish the fleeing footsteps and had no fear of losing the trail. But that bastard was simply too fast. Pei Renli and the others had lost some time pushing through the crowd, and even after chasing for five or six minutes, they had yet to catch sight of him.

While tracking him, Koura twitched her ears and said, "Something's strange. He has no intention of stopping at all."

Unless he had realized someone was chasing him, he should have slowed down once he entered the dark alleys. Acting so flustered would only make him stand out more.

Yet in reality, that guy had not slowed down in the slightest. He was still sprinting madly.

Hearing Koura say that, Pei Renli immediately realized that the man might not simply be fleeing. Perhaps he was...

"Rushing back to a safe hideout?"

The whole thing had begun when more and more people were found to be going missing, leading to the discovery that someone was trafficking people.

And a vile business like that was obviously not something one or two people could pull off. They would also need a secure place to stay, after all—keeping kidnapped people imprisoned required space.

The guards had never found the exact location. Aside from the fact that they tended to slack off, the other side had also hidden themselves well.

Originally, they had planned to pry the information out of this lackey's mouth. But if he escaped, then that hope was naturally gone.

Thinking of it that way, the prison catching fire was rather suspicious too. It did not seem like a simple accident.

As Pei Renli mulled over these matters, the group followed Koura all the way to a dead end.

It was right beside the city wall, with buildings on both sides that had no entrances or exits at all. Logically, if the man had run into a dead end, they should have been able to catch him. Yet after they entered, they saw no one besides themselves.

"He definitely ran in here. I'd bet my ears on it!"

Koura swore with utter certainty that she had not followed the wrong direction. Pei Renli drew a rune in the air and cast Light, driving away the darkness around them.

By the spell's light, the group cautiously examined their surroundings. There was no sign of anyone, nor was there anywhere nearby to hide. A living person could not have simply vanished into thin air, could they?

"I'll try something. It might work."

Eve, who had been the quietest of them all, spoke up. She then changed her casting gestures several times in succession, and a bright magical radiance burst from her fingertips, spreading in every direction.

As the glow spread, they immediately saw one phosphorescent footprint after another emerge on the ground, extending farther ahead.

The spell Eve used was the divination-school spell Reveal Footprints, which could display tracks left by anyone who had passed through within the last hour. However, if the person being tracked was particularly alert, they could still use certain special items to block this level of tracking.

The person they were chasing was only a lackey, after all. He did not have such formidable counter-tracking abilities, so this spell was exactly what they needed.

To prevent an ambush, Kaya, who was strongest in close combat, voluntarily took the lead, while Koura guarded the rear, protecting the relatively fragile spellcasters—Pei Renli and Eve—between them.

In this formation, they followed the footprints forward until they reached the base of the city wall, where the tracks vanished completely.

But they had not entirely lost their means of continuing the pursuit, because where the footprints disappeared, they found a round manhole cover...