The next day, there were signs that the room I'd rented at the inn had been ransacked.
Thank goodness I hadn't left my magic bag sitting in the room.
As a precaution, I used [Reverse] to invert my aptitude for storage magic, acquiring [Space-Time Magic] in its place, and stored the magic bag in a personal storage dimension all my own.
Now there's no worry about it getting stolen.
On top of that, the inn caught fire that night.
Or rather, it was probably arson.
I pulled out everyone who'd been too slow to escape, then used [Holy Magic]'s "Area High Heal" to tend to all the injured at once, and everything turned out fine.
The people at the inn thanked me, but it couldn't help feeling a bit like match-fixing.
Incidentally, their old wounds and chronic illnesses apparently got healed too, so they were even more grateful — but I felt I might have gone a little overboard.
◇◇◇
The city guard had apparently been investigating, but it was perfunctory and half-hearted.
Even if a crime occurred, if no noble was harmed, there wasn't much of an investigation.
In my previous life too, the authorities rarely pursued investigations into the upper class.
This time as well, none of the guests were nobles, and the owner wasn't one either.
And, well — I'd actually seen the culprit.
I spotted a figure leaving after confirming the inn was ablaze, so I secretly marked them with dark magic.
Sure enough, they headed back to Count Julius's estate.
I can't forgive dragging innocent people into this besides myself.
I know that's just how nobles are, though.
◇◇◇
"So, how was it? Did you find the adventurer's corpse? Were you able to recover it?"
"No — quite the opposite, actually. Everyone who was injured in the fire somehow ended up fully healed..."
"Hm? What the — ? Well, never mind. Next up is poisoning. Find the inn where he's staying next, buy off the staff, and have them slip poison into his food. Got it?"
Count Messi Julius, far from learning his lesson, was ordering his butler to have Alan killed.
However...
"There's no need for any of that."
Alan appeared from seemingly nowhere.
"What — who are you? Where did you come — FIRE! FIRE!!"
"Wha—!?"
The moment the Count happened to glance toward the window, he saw the estate grounds bathed in red.
"A-Alan-dono... this is..."
The Count was struck speechless by the sight outside, so the butler spoke in his place.
"Since you set fire to the inn where I was staying, I thought I'd return the favor and set fire to this place too. I went out of my way to learn fire magic just for this."
How about we burn down the Count's estate every day from now on?
"Evidence! Do you have any evidence?!"
The Count finally managed to speak.
"Huh? The strong don't need evidence to judge the weak, right? You're a noble, so you should understand that. Well, I do know it was your people who did it, but still."
Alan had captured those he'd marked with dark magic, and using his Divine Eye along with light magic's 'Truth Decryption,' he'd confirmed they acted on the Count's orders to start the fire.
And then, using the Scorching Heat Magic he'd obtained by inverting his fire magic affinity, he set the Count's estate ablaze.
"Don't think you'll get away with this for free!!"
"It's impressive you can still say something like that in this situation. This whole place is about to be swallowed by fire, you know. Dead men tell no tales — and as a noble, you should understand that, Lord Count. Did you really think you'd never end up in that position? Dark Bind. See ya."
With the Count and the others still bound by dark magic, Alan prepared to disappear.
"Wait — please, wait!"
"Lord Count — how many of the wishes of those you looked down upon have you ever fulfilled?"
"W-What do you wish for?! I'll grant anything, so dispel this magic! Otherwise I'll burn to death!"
"Your wish? Hmm...
the
nor
mal
re
sponse,
I suppose. That's all it was, but it's already too late."
"Wait — what do you mean, normal?!"
The fact that those words had already come out of his mouth meant it was too late.
With that thought, Alan finally disappeared.
◇◇◇◇◇◇
Chapter 0 has been posted in the limited update notes.
Skills: [Reverse] [Divine Eye] [Sword God] [Gentleman Thief] [Dark Magic] [Iron Rock Magic] [Holy Magic] [Space-Time Magic] [Scorching Heat Magic]
Rank: Bronze
Thank you for always reading!