For Sale. Fallen Lady. Never Used.

After class.

Though she appeared to go at her own pace, Iona was surprisingly strict in her role as a professor in front of the students.

Naturally, without the students’ eyes on her after school, she would show a more relaxed demeanor.

Hoping she would reveal more of her weaknesses, I pressed down on my invisible robe.

…Just to be safe, I also used a scent removal potion and silence magic.

Now that I couldn’t blend into a crowd or pretend to be doing something else, I had to be extra careful to conceal myself.

With the mindset of facing a boss mob, I kept a certain distance and slowly followed Iona.

“Hehe~ Hehehe~”

Despite there being no one around to see, Iona hummed to herself, walking with a spring in her step.

As she cheerfully stepped through the corridors, Iona occasionally exchanged nods or brief chats with other professors she encountered.

But there was one exception.

The moment she turned a corner, she ran into Jason, the professor in charge of the Knight Department’s first year Class A.

That balding middle-aged professor, whom I briefly saw during a previous dungeon practice, quickly fled upon encountering Iona.

Hadn’t he mentioned being a former student of Iona’s? Originally from the Magic Department, he was a rare case who realized late that his true calling was in swordsmanship and transferred departments.

Who would have thought that such a stern and serious professor would run away from Iona like that?

How much must he have suffered as a student…?

“Ha! It’s a baldy harvest!”

“S-stop! If you pluck any more, I’ll really become bald!”

He was still being tormented?!

Following Iona, who was wearing a more evil smile than any nomadic invader, I hurriedly ran after them.

“It’s okay! It’s okay! I’ll give you some hair loss treatment! So, just give me five strands of hair for this experiment!”

“Even if I apply the hair loss treatment you give, you’ll just pluck it out again when the time comes! I’m now an adult with a family! I won’t tolerate this barbaric behavior any longer…!”

“Hmmm, hmmm. This is the new hair loss treatment product made in collaboration between Ella Magic Tower and Stein Workshop. Are you sure you don’t need it?”

“…Will five strands be enough?”

At the mention of a new hair loss treatment, he spoke with a voice as meek as a lamb.

Iona, pulling out a fancy bottle from her spatial pocket, shook it towards Jason.

“Kuhuk….”

Jason, as if making a nation-saving decision, plucked his own hair with a spirit that seemed ready to cry tears of blood.

“Why are you taking so much of my hair? Don’t you know that pulling it out like this during treatment will completely ruin it?”

“Well, well. Anyway, it will fall out again in about a week, even if it grows back. Is the treatment really working?”

“Keuk… If only I had reached the expert level before my hair started falling out…”

Jason’s gloomy voice allowed me to grasp the situation somewhat.

It was true that there was hair loss treatment on the Eurelia Continent.

Well… it wasn’t something that ended with just one application; it required multiple applications over a long time.

Though the price of the hair loss treatment was astronomical, it was still somewhere one could get treatment.

Jason’s case seemed difficult, though.

The salary of an academy professor should somehow cover the cost of the medicine.

The problem was that he reached the level of an aura expert only after losing his hair.

An aura expert would begin to show the characteristics of a superhuman, one of which was immense vitality.

You know, stories like fighting for hours with a heart stabbed, or surviving with a head-sized hole in the stomach.

Such feats were impossible for ordinary people but were actually possible for expert-level knights who awakened their bodies and maximized their vitality.

After becoming an expert, aging would slow down significantly for this reason.

However, there was a big problem… the body would consider its state at the moment of reaching the expert level as normal.

So, in cases like Jason’s, the body considered the bald state normal.

No matter how much hair loss treatment was applied, the body, considering hair growth as abnormal, resisted the treatment on its own.

So, that was why he subtly refused when I offered him the hair loss treatment I bought from the auction, asking him to teach me some swordsmanship.

No wonder an average hair loss treatment couldn’t break down Jason’s own resistance.

If only he had treated his baldness before becoming an expert.

Probably back then, he couldn’t afford the cost of the hair loss treatment, or he had suddenly reached the realm of experts through a sudden enlightenment.

For Jason to treat his baldness now, he would either need to use a newly developed powerful medicine, receive direct treatment from a Grand Magician, or achieve a transformation by becoming a Sword Master himself.

The latter two were virtually impossible. The only remaining option was a more powerful hair loss treatment.

The moment Iona pulled out the new medicine, the outcome of this chase was as good as decided.

Poor thing…

Sending a sympathetic glance to Professor Jason was only a brief moment.

I refocused my attention on Jason’s question after collecting my emotions.

“Sigh… fine. But what exactly are you using my precious hair for? I’ve heard you were researching tracking magic, but….”

“Huh? Oh? Didn’t I tell you? It’s not just simple tracking magic, but magic that can track using even the remnants of a body!”

“To be able to track with just remnants of the body… Is that even possible? The moment it’s separated, it becomes a different tissue with no connection to the original body.”

“Hmph! Hmph! I won’t tell anything to a runaway student!”

“Weren’t you the one who said that I’m more suited for swordsmanship than magic, Professor Iona?!”

Jason jumped up in disbelief.

Was it Iona’s suggestion that made him change his major…? Whether it was magic or swordsmanship, it seemed his mindset was just to defeat his social enemies.

Despite Iona grumbling at her former student for a while, she smirked and nodded as if it were all in jest.

“I’m almost there. And don’t feel too bad. I’m using the hair of other professors as experimental material as well, not just yours!”

“That’s a relief… No, wait, there’s a difference in the amount of hair between me and the other professors!”

Thinking about it made Jason, who seemed furious, vent his anger but soon sighed and asked with a calmer voice.

“Are you still looking for it?”

“……”

Iona just smiled without answering, causing Jason to click his tongue softly.

“Tch. I told you to moderate it.”

Of course, Iona dismissed Jason’s words while occasionally striking odd poses.

“I don’t listen to those weaker than me!”

“……”

Perhaps it was because his hair was plucked, but… for some reason, Jason seemed to have aged several years in just this short time.

“Sigh… Right. You’ll manage somehow. Anyway, I’m heading home. These days, my daughter and wife have been cooking dinner together, and I feel bad if I’m late.”

“Yep, family is precious. Take care!”

Jason trudged off on his way, and Iona waved her arms vigorously in farewell.

After parting with Jason, Iona encountered no one else and headed straight to her laboratory.

Following her into the laboratory would surely get me caught, right?

Just when I thought today’s pursuit was over, and I was about to retreat with a sense of regret…

Thunk.

“Oh dear…”

With a sound somewhere between a groan and a sigh, Iona came out of the laboratory.

Seemingly having forgotten something, she hurried back the way she came.

Naturally, as she was heading back my way, I quickly hid under the nearby stairs.

Soon, Iona’s footsteps faded away.

…The lab door. Was it unlocked?

Peeking out cautiously, I saw only Iona’s receding figure in the distance, with no one else around.

Was this an opportunity?

I was curious about something Iona was preparing, as mentioned in her conversation with Jason.

In H&A, Iona was just a significant supporting character, nothing more or less.

She couldn’t be controlled directly, didn’t appear in battles, and wasn’t deeply involved in the story.

Of course, there were plenty of dialogue scripts and illustrations since she appeared often.

And it was possible to obtain document items by guessing Iona’s past from various places.

Yet, Iona remained one of the unattainable NPCs.

My reason for following her like this was because the information available in H&A was limited.

But now, an opportunity to sneak a peek into Iona’s laboratory has arisen?

I couldn’t resist this.

Any fan of H&A would want to check it out, regardless of the consequences.

After looking around one more time and ensuring it was safe, I cautiously opened the door to the laboratory.

Creak.

The door slid open with a slightly annoying noise.

Thanks to the lights left on, I could take in the whole scene of the laboratory at a glance.

Unidentifiable experimental tools. A large desk. Piles of books on it.

And lastly, a portrait of Iona in the center of the wall, asserting its presence.

…Oh my.

Who would hang such a large portrait of themselves?

It felt as if I were hearing a phantom voice announcing, “Iona has arrived!” from the portrait.

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