"What now?"

I wondered and walked over to the counter to my left. Over there, in a vial, was

liquid mercury. I had brought the book along with me and stared at the vial.

"What am I supposed to do with this?"

When I muttered that, the old blacksmith, perhaps having seen me walk over, came

next to me. He had his hands behind his back, and his eyes turned into small,

thin lines, his bald head shining splendidly.

"Good eye, lad. That’s liquid mercury."

I read that from the tag.

"It’s very sensitive to temperature. I would recommend it if you want to build

some special tools for alchemy."

"A tool for alchemy?"

"Yes. Haha, it’s pretty common in alchemy workshops. I bought this mercury from

an alchemist, too; I was hoping to make a weapon out of it."

"Could you?"

The man shook his head.

"Unfortunately not. No mana went into it, and it wasn’t very receptive to magic

stones, either. The problem with that is not the fact that it’s bad for mana;

it’s actually a great conductor."

"It’s unable to handle temperature?"

"Aha. Correct. It’s impossible to use as a weapon. Know what? Do you need it?

Making something alchemy-related?"

I wasn’t; I really wasn’t. I looked at the book in my hand.

[Get it. Get it. It’s perfect. The mercury is exactly what you need for the next

step.]

What next step? The public stuff again? Don’t give me that bullcrap.

"I am not sure what for, but I do feel I’ll need it."

"I’ll give you a discount: half the price I bought it for."

"Is this all you bought?"

"All that’s left over," the blacksmith laughed. "I tried a lot of ways to make

it work, you know!"

I could understand where he was coming from. Whatever the Grimoire had planned,

I didn’t know, but I decided to take it with me after all.

After making all the payments, I went to the door. Only Delka was there.

"Miss Witch said she’s going to that bookstore there." Delka pointed at a shop

down the block. I gave him my hand, and he held it as we started to move. "I was

waiting for you."

"Thank you."

Even though he was still a little kid, this boy had been forced to be more

mature than his age. I was quite enjoying seeing him act like a child sometimes.

We were crossing the road; many more people had started filling the streets by

now. Probably later than usual considering how the sun was overhead even in the

cloudy gray skies.

—Sniff.

Delka stopped.

I felt a light tug at my hand.

"What is it?"

He looked behind. A figure in a hood had just passed us by. His face started

contorting.

"That..." He turned his head nervously.

"Just walk normally and speak if you’re worried. I’ll hear."

I should teach him Morse code and another language for times like these.

"That person..." We continued walking toward the bookstore. He whispered very

softly, and I ignored every sound around except his voice. "They were sick."

"Sick?" I asked, just as softly. It was like speaking under our breaths. For a

beastkin, his senses were already heightened, and as a thief, it was important

that I kept such standards as well.

"They were sick. Like me. From back then, I am sure."

I looked back as well.

"Corruption? How can you tell?"

"I-I don’t know... perhaps the smell? It’s just something."

The hooded figure from behind us was gone.

Even though Serenia had witnessed an event with many corrupt coming out of their

bills and wreaking havoc, what they hadn’t confirmed was what the source behind

this corruption was.

Yesterday, while drinking, some of them said that it could have been the Grim

Palace. The word on the street, though minor, was to that effect as well.

I gulped.

Even with Delka, I had wondered what was behind the corruption, but at that time

those matters had nothing to do with the Grim Palace. We didn’t give a fuck.

Heck, Weiss frequently met demons once a year now. Little did I care whether one

of them lived or died.

"Let’s go."

"We..."

"I know how you feel, little Delka, but we can’t help that. Let’s get inside

first."

Delka pressed his lips and nodded. He understood that we couldn’t be emotional

and just help anyone willy-nilly. We didn’t even know if this person was truly

corrupted, and I was not willing to test it out like this.

We headed into the bookstore. Weiss was standing at the end, holding a novel.

I walked up to her.

"Butler," she said. "Many Witches before me built an expansive library, right?

Maman never did it, but I’d like to."

"Hmm, if you’re going to buy books." I pulled one out and flipped through it. In

my other hand was a book both Weiss and I had become familiar with. When she saw

it, she stuck her tongue out at the Grimoire and the Grimoire fiddled in my hand

as if teasing her back.

"[Role of Butterflies in Teleportation Magic.] We need to take this."

"Teleportation magic? What’s the use of that? Just run instead; not like you can

take too many."

"Trust me, Weiss."

If she had read Chapter 1, she would understand me, too.

"Well, what else?"

"Let’s look around?"

And so we did; we explored the bookstore a little more. When I picked up some

tomes on magic, the Grimoire acted surprised. Treska and I went to get the

billing done for this haul as well, while Weiss and Delka decided to step

outside the shop.

We were getting each book billed.

Suddenly, Treska felt his back straighten up.

"Sir... I think there’s something wrong."

"What do you mean?"

"We must go outside."

I dropped the books, and the two of us rushed outside the shop. Treska had been

training under John and Jake; he had a lot of credibility.

Credibility we could have used earlier...

For Weiss and Delka were not outside. And we couldn’t find them anywhere,

either.