She really should go to bed immediately, but her mind was indeed filled with one thing and another.

While she was immersed in her thoughts, Michel was looking at the rest of the potion and licking his fingers up curiously.

It was somehow a nostalgic and comforting time for Rishe.

I never thought I’d be able to call him ‘Teacher’ again.

She remembered an incident in one of the rooms called the laboratory.

At that time, Michel was holding the ingredients for a certain secret medicine.

It wasn’t an unusual sight, but every time she witnessed all the things related to that secret medicine, Rishe’s heart thrummed.

Perhaps her anxiety often showed on her face.

[“You really don’t like this secret medicine, don’t you, Rishe?”]

Michel once said that and laughed softly.

[“You’re a smart kid. Besides, you have a lot of knowledge, which makes me curious where you obtained them. If you have one flaw as a student, it might be that you only want to use your knowledge and skills to make people happy.”]

The scholar, who has been dubbed a genius, never ceased to smile, which made him seemingly harsh.

“I think it’s wrong for you to determine someone else’s happiness.”

“… Teacher.”

He stroked his fingertips over a piece of paper with the formula of the secret medicine.

“Let me use an analogy that’s easy for you to understand. Isn’t the raison d’être of something that has been born a poisonous drug, according to its role, to make people unhappy?”

There was no real need for Michel to keep a piece of paper describing pharmaceutical procedures.

Even when the master he served had ordered him to do so, he still burned the records.

The only thing that Michel had voluntarily written down was how to concoct that secret medicine.

[“I want to make sure that the medicine of my own making would do its job properly… Maybe this is what you call parental love.”]

Michel laughed jokingly and said to Rishe back then.

[“I respect the teacher, but I just can’t understand something.”]

[“What is it you don’t understand?”]

[“What you said about the raison d’être of the existence of a poisonous drug…”]

In truth, it might have been a mistake to disagree.

But she just couldn’t swallow her voice and continued.

[“Can a poisonous drug really make someone happy?”]

[“…”]

When asked, Michel looked surprised.

However, Rishe was serious.

[“It’s not like you to assume that you were born to make someone else unhappy. Because then it would be as if–”]

[“… Don’t worry so much about it. This secret medicine is still not finished.”]

Michel chuckled and interrupted Rishe.

[“It’s ready as a medicine. But I can’t get the people I need to experiment with it. — I can’t find anyone who will use this medicine in the way I want it to be used.”]

[“What kind of person do you need…?”]

[“Hmm? That’s right.”]

Michel put his index finger to his mouth and smiled extraordinarily beautifully.

[“I’ll keep it a secret until I find him.”]

So that was how that story ended.

With that kind of vibe in his voice, Michel lowered his eyes.

Teacher and I just couldn’t come to an agreement about that secret medicine. In the end, we had to say goodbye and we never saw each other again.

Now that Michel appeared in front of her on her seventh life, Rishe pondered.

I wonder if Teacher found the kind of person he was looking for.

She was on this thought when she heard a knock at the door.

Outside the room, a knight on guard was standing outside over the hallway.

Since there were signs of more people there, the knight who was arranged for Michel must have arrived.

“Excuse me, Rishe-sama. There’s a call for you.”

As she expected, the knight came to inform her. Rishe thanked him and addressed Michel.

“Teacher, sorry for the wait.”

“No, Rishe-sama. It wasn’t the pick-up for Doctor Evan who arrived…”

“?”

Curiously, Rishe looked up and saw a person she hadn’t expected to see standing in front of the open door.

“Rishe, let’s go home.”

“—– Errr….”

For some reason, Arnold was there when he was supposed to be working late every night.

TN: That ending (/◕ヮ◕)/