Greatest Alchemist? Chapter 163

 I can’t devote myself to designing

Now then, the ship I have in mind is an extra large warship spanning 100m in length, 18m in width, larger than even the Carrack or Galleon, large ships from the age of exploration, as well as the ships in this world by a wide margin. The overall design, unlike the warships of this world, is supposed to be SF-like, but I was fixated on adding a stern tower. I think the people from my generation in my previous world would understand, but a certain space pirate’s space battleship had a stern tower like that of a Galleon even though it was a space battleship[1]. I loved that ship that had a Jolly Rodger.

Well, the ship I’ll make can’t fly in the sky though.

As for the design of the ship, it was a pleasant miscalculation that Golan-san was a first-class shipbuilder. Apparently, Samandour Kingdom’s Magic Ship is his work. It was but a godsend that I consulted Golan-san at the start, though I couldn’t get the Great Spirits to concentrate. The Spirits do as they please.

「Hey hey, Takumi, there are kids heading for the Sanctuary. I think they won’t last even 2 days in the savage lands, so pick them up please.」

……………see?

「It’s the usual thing you sprung on me, Sylph, but……… Haa, well, I know I have to go though. Where are they?」

The fact that the Great Spirit Sylph had asked me to protect them means that those children are qualified to enter the Sanctuary. If so then I won’t hesitate.

At any rate, for them to head to the sanctuary by even passing through the dangerous savage lands…
The life of the street children in this world is severe. I can’t possibly not want to protect children abandoned by their parents, lord, and country. We need a plan to prevent children like these from running to crime, rather, we should protect them from being victimized.

I hastily put on my usual overcoat, leaving the Sanctuary together with Sophia while being guided by Sylph.
With high Stealth skills and wearing Overcoats of Existence Concealment with 『Inhibit Perception』 and 『Enhanced Stealth』 effects, we were undetected by the troops stationed in the outer edge of the Sanctuary.
In fact, when we activated the presence-erasing Stealth skill and with the effect of the overcoats this time, the soldiers didn’t perceive us. When we take the kids back, we’ll return by teleportation so there’s no need to worry.

Having left the sanctuary, we repeatedly used Short Warp and, with Sylph guiding us, rushed to the place where the kids were at.

10 children were walking on the grassy plains of the savage lands. Every child was skin and bones, wearing tattered clothes, and didn’t even have any footwear.

The eldest is Tom. He is a 12 year old boy, with a 7 year old younger brother and 5 year old younger sister, Rod and Julie. The three siblings worked together to live.

When their parents were alive, they were still okay even though they were poor. That went amiss when their father was killed when he had been attacked by thieves. Their mother worked without sparing time for sleep to raise their 3 children left behind. Having worked too hard, she eventually harmed her health and contracted a disease. The repeatedly overworked mother soon lost her life.

Tom wasn’t permitted to grieve the loss of both his parents. He worked earnestly for cheap wages, doing odd jobs in town like carrying baggage to support Rod and Julie.

Driven out of the home they lived in, they snuck into abandoned buildings and lived there.

The children here were all street children with similar circumstances. As the eldest, Tom became their leader and they helped each other to live, but that life has its limits too.

「Do your best guys!」

Carrying Julie on his back, he called out to the other children to encourage them.

5 year old Julie was exhausted, and Tom was carrying her. One reason why Tom is making a desperate wager of heading to the Sanctuary is because of Julie’s illness.

He heard rumors about the Sanctuary at such a time.

Tom had no choice but to hang onto that.

Although he was tried persuading the street children he was taking care of that he wanted to take them along but it was a dangerous journey that he didn’t know if they would reach, the children wanted to go together. After all, the children realize that if they stay behind, what awaits them are only starvation, cold, and death.

Crossing the national border, their first two days were miraculously uneventful and they were able to make progress. But the children’s feet were slowly reaching their limit.

It was at such a moment.

Approaching Tom’s group in the grasslands, a pack of Forest Wolves attacked.

「Ah! Everybody! RUUUUN!!」
「Uwaaaaaa!!」
「Kyaaaaaーー!!」

The Forest Wolves were surrounding their prey, as if to torment them. Their rank was low for monsters and even a novice adventurer party could defeat them, but to the children, this situation warranted hopelessness.

「Ack!」

His frantically running little brother, Rod, had tripped on his own foot and fell. Thinking it was over, Tom embraced Julie tightly and shut his eyes. The children around him were overwhelmed with fear and clung onto Tom.

And yet…nothing.

Tom, wondering why they haven’t been attacked no matter how much time passed, timidly opened his eyes, and he couldn’t help but be overcome with surprise at the scene before him.

The pack of Forest Wolves that attacked them were defeated, not a single one remaining.

「You alright?」
「Fue?!」

As Tom was dumbfounded, someone suddenly called to him and he let out a weird sound in surprise. When he turned his gaze towards it, there was a kind-looking silver haired oniisan and a very beautiful elf oneesan smiling.

Haa, I’m glad we made it.
When Sophia and I ran to the actual location at Sylph’s guidance, the kids had been surrounded by Forest Wolves that were just about to attack.
I hurriedly covered the children with an attributeless Barrier magic. When Sophia confirmed this, she instakilled the monsters by using Wind Cutter simultaneously.
It would have been good if we rescued them a little bit earlier. If we had, then the kids wouldn’t have felt afraid. I saw Sylph when I was thinking such, and she had an expression that said “we saved them so isn’t that a relief?”.

Well, it’s out of the question now.

Sophia and I approached the kids and, as best we could to not scare them, called out to them gently.

「You alright?」
「Fue?!」

The boy was surprised. He was carrying a small girl on his back, but the girl was dead tired. When I used the recovery magic Heal and Cure several times, her complexion improved.

「Is anyone injured?」
「U-um, thank you for saving us.」

Even so, it would be difficult if situations like this increase. There’s no way we could respond to all of these, and it’s unsettling to think that children played by the Spirits might appear.

「Takumi-sama, the children seem to be weakened, how about we take them back first?」
「Ah, un, you’re right.」

As I was brooding, Sophia urged me to teleport them. Yup, she’s not wrong.

Taking the kids, I teleported to the Sanctuary.

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Footnotes:

1. Reference to Space Pirate Captain Harlock’s ship, Arcadia. Image here.[↩]
2. I added the line “And yet…nothing.” because I really thought it was missing something without that.