“Is that enough, Master?”
“Yes.”
“What is it with plants, ants, and centipedes……”
Seeing Valletta playing with the things, Reinhardt secretly stepped aside.
“Master…You’re a maniac.”
Reinhardt finally managed to get the words out. His heart thumped in his chest as the centipede turned over completely and swung its many legs around madly.
Valletta glanced at him and then opened her mouth.
“I didn’t know you were afraid of centipedes.
“I’m not afraid of them, Master.”
“Then what is it?”
“…… physiological rejection?”
Valletta lowered her gaze again. The centipede that was moving its legs around like crazy to live, was indeed creepy. Sometimes they were used to make potions, so Valletta was familiar with them.
‘I’ve never used one alive……’
Usually, she would grind up the dried ones or used the dead ones.
It wasn’t a great looking sight anyway.
What was more, Snorta was glaring at the ants trapped in the barrel and rolling the glass bottle around incessantly, as if he had great enemies.
‘I think I’m going to die doing that.’
Valletta drew a circle with a pen on a piece of paper she had bought earlier that was only as big as five palms together. She slowly began to write the formula. Decompose, reestablish, and reconstruct.
The alchemical formula was based on the alchemical formula that she saw in the book and was slightly transformed. The criteria for activating the ancient alchemy formula was difficult. To be precise, it was not activated simply by a command. The ancient one wanted an offering. An offering of a body. If it was life, it was life, if it was blood, it was blood. Or a magical power so great that it could withstand them.
The man named Bertas, the author of ‘The Alchemy of the Beginning’ was short-lived.
He lived to make his name known as an alchemist for only ten years before he died. In other words, he couldn’t leave any of his books to the world other than the one called “Alchemy of the Beginning.”
She didn’t have to think too hard to find out what the author paid for that one book. If this was a taboo, then he had broken dozens or hundreds of taboos. He started out with blood, but he should have paid a much larger price for a larger experiment. One could easily guess what it would have been like.
“Will this be right?”
The basics were brought from Alchemy to begin with. Another addition to it was stability when re-established, an alchemical formula for making the glass bottle disappear, and specifying that it would be the main medium. The centipede would be the main medium for this concoction.
Valletta’s hunting knife slightly bled the tip of her finger. She put it on both index fingers and slowly raised her hand above the magic circle.
Reinhardt put his hand on Valletta’s shoulder. If any problems arose, he would react quickly and take care of it. Valletta took a deep breath.
Activation.
An ancient magic circle appeared in her left eye at the same time as the starting words she muttered in an ancient language. Soon, the glass bottle on the soft dust shattered into pieces and everything disintegrated. It was the beginning of a strange phenomenon.
Valletta couldn’t say anything about the strange things that were happening in front of her. Purple light covered her eyes, and soon something strange was walking around on a piece of magical paper.
The centipede’s body was shaped like three equal parts, like ants, and the numbers on its legs were exactly the same as the centipede’s numbers. On its face, there were plant root-like things hanging down and moving like tentacles, and there were the sharp jaws of an ant. On the back of the strangely shaped centipede, translucent wings sprouted. It looked like a newly hatched butterfly, shaking its wings as it bloomed.
“……Huh?”
The centipede began to shake its wings and flew away while Valletta stopped, unable to grasp the situation. Her body shuddered and she took a step back. She swallowed a breath as she stepped back quickly.
”This is not…….”
Valletta hurried back as the centipede chased her. It was creepy. She hurriedly twisted towards Reinhardt. Then the centipede followed her and flipped its wings in her direction.
“Hey, it’s …….”
Valletta hastily grabbed the hem of Reinhardt’s robe. A normal centipede was fine, but not a centipede with wings. A cockroach was good, but not a cockroach with wings. Furthermore, the centipede that wriggles its numerous legs…..
“Hey, hey! That’s…!”
“Hmmm, didn’t Master say it’s not scary?”
Reinhardt asked with a sly smile.
”This punk………”
She deliberately snuggled up to Reinhardt’s back. Then the centipede, which had folded its body, flew in front of Reinhardt this time. Reinhardt frowned.
“Come on!”
“What?”
“Do something!”
“Should I burn it?”
“No! No! Don’t kill it!”
“Picky Master.”
Still smiling, Reinhardt lightly flicked his fingers. It was the first time she’d ever touched him, but it was also the first time he’d ever seen her with such a scared expression on her face.
A thin needle of ice flew out and stung the centipede’s head and stomach. The centipede, still alive, was constantly moving its limbs like a madman. A gasp came from behind him.
Laughing lowly, Reinhardt lightly flicked his fingers again, it hit the squirming, swingy centipede like a specimen on a flat board.
“Wow, that’s weird. It’s creepy. ……”
“You said the centipede wasn’t scary.”
“A centipede with wings and tentacles is a no. ….”
Valletta clapped her hands lightly with a slightly bored expression. It seemed that she made the wrong choice. She just grabbed what she saw and decided to experiment……..
“He didn’t mention queen ants.”
“As expected, Master is very lucky.”
“Oh…….”
No matter what she wanted to look for, the one that was moving its legs in a sprawling, lifeless manner was not going to die. Valletta just watched it from a distance for a moment.
“How’s your body? Is Master okay?”
“…… A little tired.”
She felt as if her strength was being drained from her body. It was similar to the exhaustion she felt when she made three top notch potions. If she repeated the same thing three or four times, she would definitely collapse.
“Is this what you call a chimera?”
“According to the definition…..I guess so.”
“Can you turn it back to normal?”
“I’m going to try an experiment now.”
Valletta drew another circle on the blank sheet of paper with tired eyes. Reinhardt leaned against a tree as she began to write the alchemy of decomposition and reconstruction, the exact opposite of what she had just done.
“Why are you so desperate, Master?”
“It’s for peace.”
“If peace is so important to you, why don’t we go to another country? Just you and me, where no one knows us.”
The low soaring voice slowed down Valletta’s pen that was drawing the formula. She was silent for a moment, then quickly opened her mouth as she wrote the following equation.
“You have to stay here. There’s the magic tower.”
“If it’s for Master, I’m fine with it.”
“If something goes wrong and we have to leave, I will go alone.”
“I don’t think Master will be able to get rid of me.”
Hsi voice mixed with laughter was always the same. He acted like he wasn’t hurt, but she knew he must have been hurt.
Valletta slowly closed her eyes and then opened them. In the blink of an eye, the boundary between darkness and light was unclear.
“Time is not the same for you and me.”
“…….”
There was a chill in the air in the presence of someone that had been felt from behind. Valletta didn’t turn around and continued writing the complicated formula. The formula, which looked three times more complicated than before, was written in an ancient language that was so tightly packed that it would have taken a large sheet of paper.
“You must stay at the magic tower, you know that.”
“…… What do you mean?”
Valletta eventually had to stop as she could no longer concentrate on writing the formula. She looked down with a frown at the centipede, which was still alive and flapping its legs, then turned around and looked up at Reinhardt as he sat down.
“The average lifespan of a wizard would be three or four times that of an ordinary person. Of course, alchemists aren’t short either, but they’re probably less than you. So don’t get attached to me, you’ll get hurt.”
“No way, not until now……”
“Until now, I was really scared of you. Of course, I’m still scared of you. Still, I’m being a little realistic right now.”
She just thought it was time for a little reality check. They would figure this out somehow. Whether it takes a few years or a few months, the victory will be Reinhardt’s and he will regain his freedom.
“If you stay in the tower, Caspellius will be there, Quilt and Ceylon. I read a book the other day and found out that Snorta will also live a long time.” (Valletta)
“…What does that have to do with me?” (Reinhardt)
The voice that had always been so relaxed froze in place. The pretentious salutation had already disappeared. Unhurriedly, Valletta stared up into Reinhardt’s red eyes.
“I’m going to settle down somewhere after this, or travel far away from here.” (Valletta)
“Where is that?” (Reinhardt)
“Where you won’t be.” (Valletta)
Valletta replied calmly. She hadn’t given him her heart for a long time, partly because she was afraid of the world he would take away, that she would die like the real Valletta, giving him her heart without knowing anything….
Maybe you don’t have this idea at all. The fact that wizards had different lifespans had been mentioned many times in the novel, of course, since the main character, Therion, was of wizard blood. She thought she found some way and Therion and the heroine would be able to be together for a long time, but…
‘I don’t remember.’
Valletta stared at Reinhardt’s face, which had turned cold.
“…… you, you know I’m being cruel now, don’t you?” (Valletta)
“I know.” (Reinhardt)
“Do you hate me that much?” (Reinhardt)
“…….”
Valletta didn’t answer. She didn’t dislike him. She thought he was scary, but she didn’t hate him. If she had really disliked him in the first place, she would have taken whatever steps she could to find. However, Reinhardt smiled bitterly with a very hard expression on his face at Valletta’s silence.
“I don’t hate you.”
***
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