38 – Tournaments (2)

* * * *

In the afternoon after the class at the Swordsmanship Faculty was over.

I am on my way to meet Anna in a carriage that cycles through the academy.

There was only one reason why I rode the round wagon, which I don’t usually use much.

This is because the buildings of the Faculty of Swords and the Faculty of Alchemy are located on opposite sides of the academy’s main building.

Here is one of the unique differences of this academy.

It is said that the academy adopts the method of setting a separate area for each department and building all the buildings related to the department, such as the department building and dormitory, in one area.

Arrangements for efficiency and specialization or something.

That’s why in most cases, I rarely had a chance to see students from other faculties, and that’s why Lily always visits my training ground, which is located in the fencing department area.

Since there were many cases where I was training before her,

Rather than bringing me to the Faculty of Magic area in the middle of training, there was a grateful consideration from Lily’s side that she would visit me.

“To think that a relationship would progress as soon as you said you would give up on love…Should you like this or not…”

I sighed and touched the trace changer hanging around my neck.

If I hadn’t been able to find this artifact, the current worry might have become a luxury to me.

The enemy, who was thought to be dead, turned out to be alive and well?

If she faced such a shocking fact, she might become an irreversible villain.

That’s why I’ve been wearing a trace changer almost all the time except when I’m sleeping,

They are paying the utmost attention to prevent the necklace from coming off.

“The fortunate thing is that it doesn’t break with any kind of attack…”

Artifacts are not very common in this world.

One of the reasons was that the charging artifact I used when I fell off the cliff, Reverse Gravity, also boasts a considerable price compared to its limited use.

Moreover, there was an explanation in the work that the use of the trace changer is so limitless that it is worth calling it.

But unless such an artifact is a one-time thing, shouldn’t it be easily broken?

Naturally, artifacts of the same kind as trace changers have the characteristic of not even being scratched by tolerable shocks.

In addition, there was one more reason why artifacts are not common and expensive.

The very same artifact cannot be created.

It is possible to create artifacts with similar abilities, but the same artifacts could not be created, so in most cases it was natural to know the existence of an artifact but not know what it looked like.

So I always

-Berry, do you always remember to wear that necklace? I must have been the chief at the academy… Can’t you buy a better necklace than that now?

to the question.

‘Of course it’s the only keepsake my parents left behind. I want to cherish this necklace as much as possible.’

I answered that, and from a certain moment, I felt that the children were careful not to touch my necklace as much as possible during the sparring in the swordsmanship department.

It’s a sparring, but even if it’s a mistake, he seemed afraid of what would happen if he destroyed the only keepsake of his parents.

The only issue left with this was the tournament, but that also didn’t matter much.

Even though the use of elixirs and artifacts was restricted, it didn’t matter as long as they weren’t caught.

Unlike elixirs and usable artifacts, trace changers have zero fear of being discovered unless the necklace is removed.

Instructors will be standing by at all times to monitor irregularities in the tournament,

I’m not going to suddenly become noticeably stronger, and I’m not at all useful in battle… It was also the necklace she had always worn since the entrance ceremony, so there would be no doubt about it.

“We’ll be arriving at the Faculty of Alchemy soon!”

Lost in thought, I lifted my head and looked out the window.

As befits the Faculty of Alchemy building, it caught my eye that various flask patterns were drawn in the middle of the outer wall of the old-fashioned building.

Finally, it’s time to see the results of the lycanthrope appendages that Anna had requested processing.

In the original work, it was a lycanthrope whose important parts were destroyed by Selina’s magic, so my heart started pounding because I didn’t know what the result would be.

“Still, Anna Phrygia would have created something out of the ordinary.”

Soon after, the carriage stopped moving with a rattling sound, and after giving the driver a suitable tip, they moved toward Anna’s alchemy room.

* * * *

Even in the Faculty of Alchemy, the chief seemed to be treated differently. Unlike the alchemy room of the other students I saw while passing through the hallway, the door that was decorated very splendidly caught my eye.

And even Anna’s exclusive maid who bowed her head to me by the door.

“Hello Barry.”

I had seen it the other day when I was entrusting the accessories of the lycanthrope, but the fact that Anna is a nobleman felt fresh again.

“Didn’t you tell me that you didn’t have to treat me so rudely?”

Even to me, a commoner, he would have said it was okay if he didn’t have to treat me with respect.

The maid shook her head at this and spoke to me while still maintaining her politeness.

“How can I treat the lady’s co-workers without hesitation?”

“ah.”

Come to think of it, it was natural for Anna’s maid to think that way. How can a maid treat me comfortably when I treat Anna with rude words?

He nodded his head because consideration beyond this could have been bullying.

“Then do whatever you want… can I go in?”

When I pointed to the door with my finger, the maid slightly moved away and lowered her head.

“Of course. However, the lady might be surprised…”

“Do you want me to knock?”

The other day, he had been warned about things about him, so he lightly knocked twice and opened the door to Anna’s alchemy room.

“Anna, I came to pick up the finished product… what does this smell like?”

sniff sniff.

I squinted my eyes at the slightly acidic smell resembling vinegar permeating the alchemy room. It wasn’t nasty, but it didn’t smell good either.

“Ah! Mr. Berry…! Hello…!”

Anna greeted me with a happy face and staggering steps.

Until the village of Triang, he seemed to have lost his confidence because he couldn’t help the party much.

As soon as she returned to the academy, she shook her head and shook her head in delight at my request to make something useful in battle as an accessory for her lycanthrope.

‘Maybe he was just happy to be able to do alchemy with precious materials.’

Even though it was the same student council party, it was Anna who hadn’t seen her face in quite a while since she hadn’t had a chance to meet her when she wasn’t on a mission.

Even though he was a child, his short stature seemed to have not grown at all. pitifully.

“Have you been doing well all this time?”

“Thanks. Ah! That… this is the alchemy room, so I can’t serve tea… I’m sorry…”

“I didn’t expect that, so it’s okay. More than that…what the hell does this smell like? It smells a bit like vinegar, doesn’t it?”

Anna was starting to look restless while looking at me, so I quickly changed the topic.

Then, the dodo ran again with staggering steps, and Anna handed me a small flask.

“It’s probably because of this. It’s an elixir made from the liver and heart of a lycanthrope I got from Mr. Berry.”

“okay?”

However, even after holding it in my hand, I didn’t feel the smell, so I put my nose directly into the flask and sniffed it.

“Oh, it only smelled when processing… You won’t feel anything right now…!”

“Hmm…so, what effect does this have?”

Even in the original work, she was the one who created elixirs with all sorts of unique effects, not elixirs that increase strength or speed up the body like normal elixirs.

I wondered what effect the elixir that used the lycanthrope as an ingredient would have.

“For about 10 minutes from the moment of ingestion, the area touched by the shadow is completely healed. However, the range of wounds healed is within 24 hours at most.”

“…Did you test it yourself?”

“Of course, with the needle over there…”

As I turned my gaze in the direction Anna’s finger was pointing, a fairly long injection needle caught my eye.

He turned his gaze back and looked down at Anna. With slightly shaking pupils.

Even though I read the mention of her in the work, I couldn’t believe that such a small girl actually experimented with piercing herself with a needle.

Only then did Anna shake her arms and begin to excuse her actions.

“Hey, I thought I could ask Grace if I had to…! Grace, I heard that you always do volunteer work at the healing room after school…!”

“That, yes…”

I reluctantly pretended to understand, but I also had a deep thought that I should pay attention to Anna in various ways, not to be fooled by her innocent appearance.

In the work, she was using the dragon’s corpse to make an elixir for Ian.

Because the experiment failed for some reason, he became a chimera and ended up being exterminated by Ian.

‘The mind is fine, but the body moving on its own was the biggest problem, right?’

Because her body became a chimera, no one noticed that the horrific chimera was Anna.

In the end, she died in pain and agony from the attacks of those who were her colleagues.

Unlike her body, which ran wild, her mind was intact, so it was Anna’s responsibility to feel the pain.

“Anna.”

“yes?”

“No matter how good alchemy is, don’t get close to dragons.”

“Yes? A dragon?”

Were there any parts of this conversation flow where dragons could come out?

Anna looked up at me with her eyes wide open with such a question.

Unlike Grace, it was difficult to guarantee that just keeping her alive would become a great deterrent to the Demon God, but,

Still, it was impossible to just watch the party members who ate a pot of rice run hard toward the limb, so even if there was something to hunt a dragon in the future, I vowed that I would never share that appendage with Anna.

… I don’t want to fight Chimera for nothing.