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Come midnight, I sneaked out of the room. That said, I still let Den know, since he’d worry if I left without saying anything. I was in my familiar dark blue clothes and cloak. I wrapped my scarf with Purify effect around my head like a turban to cover my face.

The safety wasn’t good in this city to begin with, so there was incomparably low traffic at night to Raum or Stollar. My destination tonight was the guard post. Needless to say, my goal was the small bottle that they recovered.

According to Den, the man drank the contents of it in one gulp, but I doubt it was completely empty down to the last drop. Plus, even something dried and stuck inside of it would work too. I wanted to get to the core of this drug that they were making.

I arrived near the post that was close to the gate, and peered in from a window. The guardrooms were generally near the gates. This was because the trouble was usually caused by people arriving from outside of the city. Of course, in the case of wide cities, they were also spread throughout the area, but this was the closest to the back alley where Finia and Den got into the incident.

“Besides, if I don’t recover it soon, it might get passed to some weird place.”

I didn’t know the true nature of that drug, but they tended to pass it to an exclusive department to appraise the contents of such things. It would just make my infiltration more laborious to sneak into such a facility. And in the worst case, it could even arrive back in Cain’s hands.

If possible, I want to recover it now while I could. That was the reason behind me making a move tonight.

Based on what I saw through the window, there were three guards inside. This city had incessant troubles even during the night, so the guards were constantly stationed at guard posts, ready to deal with the problems.

However, their morale was low and they gave off a languid atmosphere, which was vastly different from Raum’s guards. After some time, two of them entered the nap room, while the remaining one drank water-distilled alcohol while sitting on a chair.

“Now, I just need to deal with that guy somehow, but what should I do?”

The other two were napping so they weren’t a problem. That left the guard that was neglecting his duties and drinking. From what I could see, there was no safe in there, but there was some wicker hamper box.

I wanted to take him out without getting spotted… but then, a sudden idea came to my mind. With a slightly evil smile, I took out a certain tool from my belt pouch.

“This will work.”

What I took out was a powdered something. This was the excess bulrush pollen from the time I was making an anti-injury potion. By running magic power in it and dissolving its efficacy in water, you create a potion. But I remembered how I passed out due to magic power poisoning when I neglected the importance of ventilation.

It was tasteless and odorless until it made you dizzy, so I didn’t even notice the danger. If I used that inside this room, he would also get poisoned and get knocked out.

I promptly filled the small pack of bulrush powder with excess magic power, and threw it in from the window. Some pollen scattered around me too, but I was using a scarf with Purify, so the poisonous elements near my face were purified without allowing any to pass.

After some time, the guard’s face started to hang down while he shook his head and raised it back.

“S̲h̲i̲t̲, did I drink too much… I don’t feel so…”

He spoke while looking unsteady. I remembered that state well. It was the initial symptom of the poisoning. Since it was tasteless and odorless, there were practically no subjective symptoms.

Isn’t this pollen actually quite a dangerous drug if you make it overreact with magic power?

While I was pondering on that, the guard limped over on the table as if collapsing. He didn’t show signs of waking up, so I invaded through the window. I didn’t forget to get rid of the mud on my shoes. Footprints could get me identified, after all.

Once I made sure that he wasn’t waking up, I quickly started my search. Having said that, it was just a guard post so there were not many places to search. There was one chest with documents and small articles, a bookshelf, and a small wicker hamper with a lock.

I judged they would have put the bottle there, so I started to work on the lock. A wicker hamper was a crude box made by weaving vines, so it wasn’t something you’d put valuable items in.

Of course, the bottle was important to me, but the guards who didn’t know anything might’ve considered it nothing more than garbage. Since they took it as a piece of evidence anyway, I could see why they would put it inside this kind of box.

“Well, thanks to that, it made my work easy.”

I took out wire and a needle pick from my pouch and tinkered with the lock for a few minutes. The lock soon opened and I could now inspect the contents. There were clothes that seemed to come from those men, as well as broken swords and such. In the corner, I discovered a small glass bottle.

“Is it this?”

I put on gloves just in case and picked it up. The guards probably touched it all over already, so it was probably pointless, but just in case. I put a potion bottle in place of it inside the box. This was something we used during the potion-making inside the academy, but it could also be bought in the city, so no one should trace its origin.

I erased the traces of my search, put the lock back on, and started cleaning up. I opened the window wide and ventilated the place well, then put the scarf on the fainted guard for a few seconds. With that, the poisoning should be gone and he should wake up after some time.

The reason why this dangerous drug wasn’t deemed dangerous was that the poisoning didn’t endanger a person’s life, and they could easily recover. It would be bad if the two in the napping room noticed the situation and came to check what was going on, so I quickly made my exit through the window.

It would’ve been too risky if I just boldly walked from the front. After all, I looked like a suspicious fellow with the way I had my face hidden under the scarf. I erased the footsteps outside the window, then was about to close it—but stopped. If I closed it, the guard inside could get poisoned once again.

Well, I didn’t leave any traces inside, and there’s nothing missing inside on the surface, so they shouldn’t get suspicious with just a window being open.