While flailing her arms and legs and trying to escape, I grabbed Faye’s ankle, lifting her upside down.
She was wearing white.
“Let… let go! Put me down…!”
“I can’t do that just yet. I need to see where you spent all my money and if it was really on something so valuable that you’d need to ponder how to make cheap black bread taste better.”
“If you’re going to say that, at least look at my face! You’ve been staring at my panties the whole time!”
“Your face is obscured by your chest. And this… it’s instinct…uh…”
My eyebrows involuntarily furrowed.
At that, Faye, who had been yelping loudly, asked with an anxious tone,
“What? What’s the matter? Why are you making such a serious face looking at my panties…?!”
“Senior, did you… wash those panties properly before wearing them?”“…….”
“They look a bit… grimy.”
They were not discolored or anything, just somewhat grimy.
As she turned her head away, Faye’s face turned so red it seemed it might burst, and she began to tremble.
“Oh…”
“Oh?”
“I changed them today! Want to check by smelling them?!”
“If I must.”
As I pretended to lean in, Faye started to panic, thrashing like a freshly caught fish.
“You’re insane! Why are you really trying to smell them?”
“You said I should.”
“It just said it ‘cause I was shocked! And how long are you going to look at them? I’ll tell you! I’ll tell you everything I bought! Just let me go!”
“Alright, then.”
Though I had acted in a fit of irritation, when I thought about it calmly, the situation was quite risky.
Slowly releasing her, Faye scurried on her hands and knees, rushing to a corner.
Perhaps because she was held upside down, her disheveled hair and disarrayed school uniform seemed a bit pitiful.
Now adjusting her skirt, Faye glared at me and snapped.
“You, Junior, are a pervert! The kind of pervert who’d get arrested if reported!”
Now, hearing such words from her in this state… how should I respond?
It was getting amusing.
“Hehe…”
Overwhelmed by my rising, playful spirit, I smirked.
“If you report me, what will happen to your research, Senior?”
“Huh…?”
“Sure, I firmly believe you’ll succeed… but will others do so too?”
With the most devious expression and tone I could muster, I stepped towards Faye.
“Eek! You are showing your true colors! I knew it ever since you played like a puppy in front of the workshop! My body was your objective all along, wasn’t it?!”
“Maybe. Or maybe not.”
Step. Step.
With each step drawing closer, anxiety began to fill Faye’s eyes.
“Listen… Junior? This is a joke, right? Please tell me it’s a joke… I’ve never had friends, so I’m weak against such pranks or jokes…”
“Ha! Appealing to my sympathy now won’t help. Let me clearly tell you what I expect from you, Senior.”
Placing my hand on Faye’s unkempt hair.
“Whimper…! I-I trusted… I trusted you…”
Before I could utter another word, Faye, presuming betrayal, whispered back.
“What I expect from you, Senior, is the Philosopher’s Stone, which you’ll create one day.”
“…Huh?”
Faye looked at me blankly. Then I repeated with a smile.
“The Philosopher’s Stone, Senior. Isn’t the path you’re pursuing about digging deep into one of the core principles of alchemy about transformation?”
Reaching a state where one could create anything with alchemy alone? That was essentially reaching the pinnacle of transformation.
“So, perhaps when you reach the level you aim for, you might be able to create the Philosopher’s Stone, right?”
“Isn’t that too ambitious?!”
As Faye said, the Philosopher’s Stone wasn’t an ordinary object.
And obtaining it wasn’t easy.
Although it was a story within H&A, players had to undergo various challenging quests for Faye.
From acquiring unique ingredients only available in specific dungeons, samples from a Chimera that caused the downfall of an ancient civilization, even predating major wars.
And finally, sneaking into the hidden workshop of the very first great alchemist, Paracelsus, and procuring his research journal.
Given it was a questline leading to the Philosopher’s Stone, the ultimate alchemy item, Faye’s quest was extremely demanding, even for a craft-focused heroine.
However, the Philosopher’s Stone was valuable enough to warrant all these efforts.
To the fully grown Faye, it held even more value.
I was momentarily distracted, recalling Faye’s tear-filled growth story on Earth.
Seeing me lost in thought, Faye cautiously began to speak.
“Junior… what on Earth…”
Feeling awkward under her confused gaze, I quickly shifted the topic.
“So, you should take better care of yourself.”
“Huh?”
“Getting equipment and buying ingredients is good. But it’s problematic if a future great alchemist like you doesn’t eat properly.”
“That’s heavy! Such trust, calling me a great alchemist… Me?”
“Yes. Are you not confident?”
“…Of course, I believe my theory can be realized. But I’m unsure if that leads me to become a great alchemist. Just like how you don’t necessarily believe you’ll become a grand mage while studying magic, right?”
“I do think that way.”
“???”
Considering what I had to do in the future, being a grand mage was a basic benchmark.
Seeing my sincere response, Faye looked at me as if she had seen a ghost.
That was a bit much.
With a hint of playfulness, I tapped Faye’s nose.
“Ouch!”
“How dare you give such a disrespectful look to a sponsor like me? And don’t worry. Both you and I will be called grand mage and great alchemist, respectively, before we graduate.”
“Before graduation…? Isn’t that a bit unrealistic?”
Faye was taken aback by this sudden timeframe. However, there was no helping it. By then, every event would have reached its conclusion.
I couldn’t explain that to her, so I just shrugged.
“Don’t worry. If you haven’t become a great alchemist or produced the Philosopher’s Stone by then… then you’ll just have to repay me with your body.”
“Oh, so that was your aim from the start…!”
Faye’s face lit up as if everything now made sense.
Oh, come on. That wasn’t really the case.
After the earlier commotion, the atmosphere became a bit gentler.
Faye began to show and explain each of the new tools and ingredients she had purchased, as well as the products she made with them. She detailed how much each item had cost.
There was no specific receipt to verify the costs, but they seemed to align with my memory, so she likely wasn’t lying.
To begin with, it wasn’t in Faye’s character to lie.
“Phew… It seems like you only bought what was necessary.”
“Right? I did plan it all out before buying.”
“The problem is that in that plan, there’s no consideration for yourself.”
“Eek…”
Faye shrank back. Seeing her like this, I sighed deeply for what felt like the umpteenth time today.
“Sigh… Well, I can see you didn’t waste anything. I’ll give you some extra living expenses this time.”
“Really?! Thank goodness… At this rate, I might’ve had to eat at a restaurant…”
“…”
Wait? Didn’t the academy provide basic meals for free?
And I heard that the quality of those meals was quite high.
The issue was that Faye tended to avoid crowded places, probably because she had been ostracized for so long.
I should take her to the academy’s dining hall someday. After a few visits, she might get used to it.
If that didn’t work, well… I could always give her extra money.
Thinking like this made it seem like I was fully supporting Faye.
I reached into my inventory and handed Faye 20 gold coins.
This should be more than enough for her to get by until the next sponsorship payment.
And seeing the gleaming gold, Faye’s eyes lit up. So I warned her in a stern tone,
“Just to make it clear, this is for your living expenses. You should spend it on decent food and perhaps change your clothes once in a while.”
“I changed my clothes, you know! …But okay, I got it. I’ll only spend this on myself.”
She nodded, clutching the gold close to her.
At that moment, I remembered another favor I had for Faye.
“Oh, by the way, Senior. As a sponsor, I have a request for you.”
“Hm? Just like before, do you want me to make that potion?”
“In addition to that, I’d like to ask you for this.”
I took out the white herb, the hidden piece from the practice dungeon, and Iona’s pure blood from my inventory.
“…”
Faye’s eyes widened at the sight of the glowing white herb and the deep red blood bead.
“Can you please make an elixir with these?”
“Where did you get these? I mean, the white herb is a mid-tier spirit herb, so it’s obtainable, but this… isn’t this the pure blood of a vampire? And it seems of high quality at that…”
“It’s from Professor Iona, so of course.”
“…Gulp!“
Faye looked at me with a gaze that seemed to ask what insane thing I had done now.
“It’s not what you think! It was given as a sort of reward for the recent event. It’d be beneficial to consume it as is, but it’d be better if turned into an elixir, so I brought it to you.”
“Eep! Anyway, you said an elixir? I’ve got the new equipment now, so I should be able to make it.”
“How long will it take?”
“Um… about a week? The herb is raw, but the blood has been refined, so it should be easier to process.”
“Alright, I’ll come back next weekend.”
“Okay! Just leave it to me!”
Faye seemed excited, probably due to the rare ingredients.
The next weekend was the last day of vacation, so the timing was perfect.
After a bit more chit-chat, I parted ways with Faye as lunchtime was ending.
She still had her next class.
After meeting everyone, from Iona to Helena and Faye, I returned to the dorm.
Tomorrow, I would start learning magic from Carla again.
There were several points of regret that I felt during my fight with Edmerek.
And after some days of training and spending nights chatting with Carla, the weekend I had promised Faye came.
Out of the blue, the academy was abuzz with news that the Sylvan Magic Tower had been caught attempting to summon a spirit.
To be precise, the news was that Elisha, who happened to be in the Sylvan Magic Tower, had also been arrested.
“This is crazy.”
How did this happen?
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