Lord: Starting from a Goblin Nest

”Here. This set of Alchemy Instruments... he used it specifically for his last experiment. It looks just like this.”

”This powder is the intermediate product from the third step—a red, crystalline powder with a faint fragrance. Don’t just stick your nose in and inhale it! You smell it like this!”

Ron grabbed the goblin, whose curiosity was getting the better of him, and demonstrated proper lab procedure. ”And last, the most important part. This has to be added during the synthesis process. See what’s in the test tube? Memorize it.”

”Why are you making him memorize all this?” Aive asked, baffled, as she watched Ron busy himself at the lab bench. ”You might as well have me do it. I guarantee my memory is better than his.”

”Do you think you’re better suited to infiltrating other perfumeries and workshops?” Ron glanced at her. ”A job like this has to be done by Delaford.”

”You don’t really think Fernando’s family is involved, do you?” Aive said. ”I’m telling you, if he gets caught, we’ll all be in for it!”

”You’re looking down on me!” Delaford protested. ”See how much Ron trusts me? I’ll complete this mission without a whisper. Just you watch!”

”Enough with the useless chatter,” Ron said, turning Delaford’s head back toward him. ”You absolutely must remember everything. If you get it wrong, there’s no telling how much trouble it will cause.”

”When you’re ready, let’s go tell Hendrix and see if he has any other leads.”

When Ron and his group presented the cursed bottle and Jill’s body to Hendrix, the spice merchant was so furious he seemed to swell up a size.

”Outrageous! Simply outrageous!” he fumed, pacing back and forth in the living room. ”It couldn’t be anyone else—it must be them! Their family obviously wants that pampered heir, Fernando, to reclaim their noble title, and we just happen to be competing to develop a new perfume.”

”This is the perfect opportunity to petition for a noble title, so of course they can’t let me get there first! It must be them, the despicable little curs!”

”So they gave Jill a cursed bottle to stop us from continuing our research,” Constance said, sitting to one side and casually toying with the now-harmless long-necked flask. ”But why would they also give Jill a set of research procedures?”

”And you’re planning to use these procedures to trace the clues back to the source—they can’t be that foolish, can they?”

”No, you’re wrong, Miss Constance,” Ron and Hendrix said at the same time. After exchanging a glance, Hendrix proceeded to explain it to his adopted daughter.

”They aren’t foolish; they were forced to do it this way. As an Alchemist who had been in this profession for half his life, Jill had a sharp, professional eye and a wealth of knowledge. If they hadn’t presented him with an equally professional research plan, he absolutely wouldn’t have taken the bait, no matter how desperate he was.”

”And an experiment is usually a rigorous activity, with strong continuity and correlation between steps. You only need to replace a small detail—a piece of data, for instance, or an experimental condition—and no one can tell what’s wrong before actually carrying it out,” Ron continued. ”Obviously, they chose to tamper with the final step.”

”Since Jill encountered no problems during the preliminary stages of the experiment, and since reaching the final step was theoretically possible, he was bound to follow the given procedure for the last step—opening the long-necked flask and releasing a large number of Ghosts.”

”In the ensuing chaos, you wouldn’t have had time to deal with it and could only choose to seal off the workshop. And since Mr. Hendrix is averse to the major churches, the work couldn’t proceed, leaving them with no powerful competitor for the noble title.”

”It seems you’re quite knowledgeable about Alchemy yourself, Mr. Ron,” Hendrix remarked, glancing at Ron. ”Is this a conclusion you drew from the research notes?”

”In theory, yes,” Ron nodded. ”Judging from the recorded data and descriptions, your rivals were making a very risky move.”

”If Mr. Jill had been alert enough to stop at the final step and seek an alternative path, they would have essentially been doing all your work for you, handing over all their hard-earned results on a silver platter. It was an incredibly risky gamble, without a doubt.”

”So you’re saying that now that the haunting is over, I can have my men continue the research down this path?” Hendrix’s small, round eyes widened. ”Can you be sure of that, Mr. Ron?”

”That’s something you’ll have to ask your own men,” Ron shrugged. ”After all, all the information I have comes from Jill’s research notes.”

”If you absolutely insist on my confirmation, you’d be better off consulting Victoria. Her Divination Magic could at least tell you whether the path is auspicious or ill-fated.”

”Well answered, Mr. Ron. You are indeed reliable,” Hendrix nodded in satisfaction. ”It seems, then, that I can entrust this matter to you with confidence.”

He had been in the perfume business for nearly forty years; long experience had made him an expert in his own right. Even if he didn’t understand the specific science, he could tell whether or not Ron knew what he was talking about.

”By the way, our original agreement was for you to solve my haunting problem. Since that matter has come to an end, what kind of reward should I prepare for you?”

”We’d best discuss the reward after everything is completely finished,” Ron smiled. ”Otherwise, I fear you might change your mind halfway through. After all, our expectations will require you to influence the decisions of a few people.”

”I see,” Hendrix grew serious. ”In that case, your concerns are quite reasonable.”

’His own words already carried considerable weight in Rose City, yet they needed him to influence the decisions of other people—this matter was definitely not going to be small.’

To avoid alerting Fernando’s family or other potential competitors who might be watching, Ron and the others didn’t even leave the perfume merchant’s mansion. Only Delaford, as dusk fell, used the cover of the backyard’s greenery to sneak out from the second floor. As for Ron and the others, they stayed behind to await news from the goblin.

”Such agility,” Hendekueros remarked, watching Delaford’s retreating figure flip over the wall. He thoughtfully fiddled with the large gold ring on his finger. ”If I were forty or fifty years younger, I’d definitely lose some weight and join your team.”

”But I’m too old now. I can only provide what little help I’m capable of—and on that note, what do I get out of this?”

A merchant chases profit; business is business. He wasn’t running a charity. And he wasn’t a traveling merchant like Sulina, who would risk losing her entire investment. He had to see a return on his investment first.