"What do you want."

Baron knew that by speaking first, he had lost the initiative. But when your own life was on the line, it didn’t matter who had the upper hand—it was better than being a motionless corpse later!

Bagins sized Baron up, rubbing the golden flecks between his fingers as he thought. "Give me your Westminster Cathedral Holding Ring."

Without hesitation, Baron took off the ring and handed it to Bagins.

Bagins and Don Quixote, who had come over to the side, were stunned. ’That easily?’

The Dwarf Master quickly waved his hands, refusing it. "I can’t accept this. I can’t help you with what you’re asking."

"Master Bagins knows what I’m going to ask?" Baron was puzzled.

’I haven’t even said what I want yet.’

Bagins said, "For you to give me this Holding Ring so readily, it must mean your request is enormous—perhaps even beyond my capabilities."

"I’ve been reading the papers lately. After thinking it over, there’s only one major affair you could be involved in that would exceed my abilities."

He took an old pipe from his robe, packed it with some tobacco, and with a casual flick of his hand, a flame flew from a nearby candle to light it.

The Dwarf took a puff from his pipe, his nostrils flaring. He took a deep drag of nicotine, staring at the young man’s eyes through the smoke:

"You want me to lift the [Time Death Judgment], don’t you."

Baron’s heart skipped a beat. He was about to say something, but the Dwarf Master waved his hand dismissively. "Don Quixote, show him out," he said wearily. "I misjudged the situation this morning. This deal is off."

Don Quixote came forward and bowed apologetically to Baron. "That’s just how Master Bagins is. Once he makes a decision, he never goes back on it... I heard that Mr. Lankao once..."

"Don Quixote! Tonight, you and that stupid dog of yours, Sangji, can sleep in the second-floor wardrobe!"

Bagins rudely cut the boy off. He then yelled at Baron, "Get lost, kid! If you don’t leave, I’m calling the police!"

Baron nodded in dejection. "It seems even the great Master Bagins—the legendary Dwarf scholar, creator of Solitary Alchemy, and author of *Ethereal Soul Splitting*—is powerless against the [Time Death Judgment]..."

"It’s not that I’m powerless, you little punk! Your reverse psychology won’t work on me!"

Bagins took another puff of his pipe and grumbled, "I’ve seen what you’ve done in the news. If it were a simple matter of smuggling you out of the country, that’d be one thing... But Time is a First Law. It’s not something we practitioners of the Second and Third Laws can influence... unless..."

"Unless?" Baron looked up, his eyes shining.

Bagins opened his mouth, then exploded in anger. "Get out! Don Quixote, take his unfinished tea and cookies and feed them to the dog!"

"Even if I have a handcrafted Dunhill briarwood pipe?"

Bagins’s eyes narrowed. "You think I don’t have good pipes? The tobacco I’m smoking right now is the same blend Churchill used!"

"Even if my pipe is a Taboo Item from Westminster Cathedral’s collection?"

Bagins’s eye twitched. "Don Quixote, hold on a moment. Don’t be in such a hurry to send him away. It seems the gentleman hasn’t finished speaking."

He added, "A Taboo Item pipe... that is indeed rare... But you must understand, the Laws are divided from the First Law, which represents fundamental rules, down to the Third Law, which is Professional Law. The [Time Death Judgment] is part of the First Law of Time, which is difficult to control..."

"Even if this pipe’s Authority is to make flames shoot out of one’s nostrils?"

The tight-pursed expression on Bagins’s old face bloomed open like a chrysanthemum. He turned and roared:

"Don Quixote! Look at how you’ve been treating our esteemed Mr. Constantine! By Pulansite! I’ve decided you and Sangji will be sleeping in the wardrobe tomorrow night as well!"

(Note: Pulansite was the first king of the Dwarf Race.)

...

"Da Hong Pao Tea from Wuyi Mountain, China, served with buttered wheat bread. The ham is Spanish Ibérico, from the personal collection of the dictator Franco, you know? And it’s paired with Forest Elf grape jam..."

Baron had clearly underestimated the appeal of a nostril-flaming pipe to a Dwarf Master.

He was now sitting in a mahogany chair said to have been used by Queen Victoria herself, listening as Bagins introduced the delicacies Don Quixote was serving.

Lawrence was right. This Taboo Item pipe that let you breathe fire through your nose worked like a charm!

Baron devoured the food Don Quixote served, not forgetting his main purpose. He then took out the pipe that had Bagins staring, transfixed.

"Master Bagins, since you already know what I want, I won’t beat around the bush."

He pushed the pipe across the long table toward Bagins. Just as Bagins was about to snatch it, Baron pulled his hand back. "You help me solve the [Time Death Judgment], and this Taboo Item pipe is yours."

Bagins looked at the pipe with longing. This time, he didn’t hesitate and said in a deep voice, "I do know one way to solve the [Time Death Judgment]. But it requires a special type of Alchemy Herb."

"What herb? Where can I buy it or find it?"

Baron asked eagerly, his voice trembling with joy.

’Lawrence was right! This Dwarf scholar really did know how to solve the [Time Death Judgment]!’

He was completely lost in the joy of his impending salvation, totally missing the "but" in the Dwarf Master’s words—a word that might change the course of his Destiny.

Bagins didn’t answer directly. Instead, he took out the Goddess of Death Necklace that Baron had seen earlier.

He began to explain it to the bewildered Baron:

"This necklace, aside from the [Instant Death] I mentioned before, also has a special [Life Extension] Authority."

"Life Extension?" Baron said. "But you told me whoever wears this necklace dies."

"That’s because those people didn’t know the other way to use it," Bagins said. "If this necklace is gifted to someone, the recipient can survive for another seven days, even if they suffer a mortal wound that should cause Instant Death."

"Are you planning to gift this necklace to me? To use it to break the [Time Death Judgment]?" Baron analyzed the Dwarf Master’s motive.

"Gift it to you?" Bagins laughed, a humorless, exasperated sound. "Have you forgotten that all Taboo Items come with a price?"

"The price of this necklace is that the giver takes the punishment of death in place of the recipient," he said flatly. "For every extra day the recipient lives, the giver loses ten years of their life. The reason the extension is at most seven days is that after making the gift, the giver typically only has seventy years of life left at most."

’Ten years for one day. Not even a loan shark is that ruthless.’

Baron sucked in a cold breath. "Westminster Cathedral doesn’t have this in its collection? They don’t know about it?"

Bagins caressed the jewel on the necklace like a jeweler stroking a precious emerald. "Of course Westminster Cathedral doesn’t know. Because this necklace is from another world."

’Another world...’ After a moment of thought, Baron offered an answer: "The Outer Side?"

"The Outer Side?" Bagins sneered. "Even if Dwarfs can’t leave the Inner Side, newspapers, television, and radio can still tell us everything about the outside world."

"If One Ounce of Gold was all it took to travel to that world, I imagine the Alchemists would have dug up all the Gold in this one by now."

A bad feeling crept into Baron’s heart. "Don’t tell me the Alchemy Herb you mentioned... is in that world?"

Bagins set down the necklace, and Don Quixote stepped forward to take it. The white-bearded Dwarf then spoke in the tone of an archaeologist reciting a historical classic:

"Time Grass, born from the Star Dust of the Time Law, is the only Alchemy Herb that possesses the properties of Time. It can only grow in the crevices of time itself."

He clapped his hands, and Don Quixote brought over a thick, ancient book covered in dust.

Bagins took the book, blew the dust off the cover, and flipped to a specific page, pointing out a drawing of the Time Grass for Baron.

"This is what the Time Grass looks like, as recorded in the Dwarven Book. The ancient Dwarf Alchemists said it usually blooms in the Stone Pusher’s Crevice."

"The Stone Pusher’s Crevice? Where is that?"

"In another world."

"..."

’So we’re playing riddles, are we?’ Baron retracted the pipe back into his ring.

Bagins’s brow twitched. He quickly said, "To be honest, I don’t know either. The ancient era was tens of thousands of years ago, at least. After searching nearly all of Europe, the prevailing theory among the Dwarf Race’s Alchemists today is that either the Time Grass doesn’t exist, or it only exists in another world that has yet to be discovered by the Old Race."

"What if the Dwarven Book is wrong? Maybe this herb doesn’t exist at all, and it’s just something made up... like a fairy tale?" Baron frowned.

"Absolutely not. The Dwarven Book is the embodiment of one-third of the Second Law, the Dwarven Law. If it were wrong, it would mean the entire Dwarf Race is a malformed existence."

’Laws again... An undiscovered world that no one has ever entered... Is that even Earth anymore?’

"So after all that, you’re saying you can’t actually solve the [Time Death Judgment]?"

Baron summarized the key information Bagins had revealed, his heart heavy as he gave the answer to Bagins... or perhaps, to himself.

The Dwarf Master rubbed his aching forehead and snorted, as if he had just made up his mind. "There is one way, but it requires your cooperation."

"I’ll do anything to survive," Baron said, his voice firm as steel.

At his side, Don Quixote suddenly shivered. As Constantine spoke, Don Quixote felt a surge of golden majesty emanating from him.

It was a majesty he had never seen before, like that of a Dragon.

——————

[Author’s Note: Which is better, endnotes or footnotes? I’m asking for opinions. (Even though I personally prefer footnotes.)]