Inside a room overlooking the moonlit night sky,
Sheets of paper covered in complex formulas were plastered across the walls.
Various pieces of experimental equipment occupied the desk.
At a glance, it appeared to be a peaceful laboratory bathed in moonlight, but….
The owner of the room was tearing at his hair.
“Ugh…… My mind won’t work. My mind….”
His despairing voice was as thin as his snow-white hair and beard.
His entire body sagged without a trace of strength.
Despite his present appearance, he had once been one of the foremost figures in the Empire.
The alchemist Raunz Murkowski.
Anyone who heard his name would immediately think of a master of development.
But now, he was racking his brain without even sleeping.
“Just a little… It only needs to work a little more. What’s the problem?!”
Raunz’s face looked utterly haggard as he stared into empty space.
It had already been five years since he broke away from the Empire and settled in the Doiten Kingdom.
Throughout that time, he had poured blood and sweat into curing his daughter, Riley.
His own greed had destroyed Riley’s blossoming life in an instant.
For five years, she had barely clung to life in bed.
“Riley…….”
Terrible burns covered her entire body.
There were no ordinary burns. They continued consuming her flesh without end.
Healing through divine power was impossible, and no other method worked.
All he could do was periodically pour regeneration potion over her.
At the very least, that stopped the burning from progressing.
But it also made an ordinary life impossible.
The moment the potion coating her skin dried, the pain returned.
SLOSH—
Thinking of his suffering daughter, Raunz poured the liquid from the test tube away.
Nothing would come from clinging to a failed test tube and agonizing over it.
It was better to use that time to make one more attempt.
And so his several-hundredth attempt began.
Raunz first picked up a sheet of paper that had been folded several times.
Inside it were finely chopped roots from a medicinal herb.
He had cut them that small because even an extremely tiny amount produced a powerful effect.
With trembling hands, Raunz placed one of the chopped roots into a flask.
Then he looked at the flask and took a deep breath.
“Haaaaah….”
There was a reason he needed to compose himself.
One day, he happened to obtain a small herb through the owner of the neighboring shop.
Strangely, the herb possessed the ability to preserve nearby things exactly as they were.
When he first heard about it, his instincts as an alchemist had surged.
The instinct to investigate and develop a mysterious material.
But thoughts of his daughter Riley quickly overwhelmed that instinct.
‘If only the potion coating her skin could be preserved without drying….’
That alone would improve her condition considerably.
The wounds covering her body would remain, but the pain and restrictions would disappear, allowing her to live an ordinary life.
That was why Raunz had paid the neighboring shop owner a high price for the herb.
He immediately began researching it, but….
SLOSH—
SLOSH—
Developing a preservation potion proved far from easy.
Problems continued arising in different parts of the process.
But that was only natural during development.
The true problem was that the herb used as the material was the only one of its kind in the entire world.
That fact placed tremendous pressure on Raunz.
Every failure reduced the chance of restoring Riley.
Then, one day amid his repeated failures, an unfamiliar man came to visit.
‘He said his name was Ben….’
The man who introduced himself as Ben offered Raunz kindness.
He claimed to know that Raunz was developing a potion and offered his support.
He promised not only to cover the research expenses and provide the necessary materials, but also to protect him from those seeking the herb.
He asked whether Raunz could truly care for his sick daughter while also worrying about protecting the herb.
‘His words were polished enough to tempt anyone…….’
But Raunz knew that sweet offers always came with a price.
He also knew that price would never be light.
He had already abandoned his philosophy and convictions once for such a tempting offer and had learned the consequences in the most painful way possible.
Even so, there was no resisting a threat disguised as an offer.
In the end, he had been left with no choice but to accept.
‘How am I supposed to hand it over without knowing what he intends to use it for……?’
Ben’s condition was exclusive ownership of the potion Raunz developed.
In other words, he intended to take possession of the preservation potion.
But the potion’s permanent preservation properties would be as dangerous as they were extraordinary.
Was it truly right to hand it over despite such a risk?
There was no telling who might be harmed because of it.
As the person developing it, Raunz could not permit that.
‘It will be a problem whether I succeed or fail.’
Conflict raged within Raunz several times each day.
He only had to look outside to see how many people were standing guard.
Ben had taken control of not only the front of the shop but the surrounding area as well. There was no chance he intended to use the potion for a benevolent purpose.
A good man would never resort to threats and confinement.
Because of that, Raunz’s mind fell into turmoil whenever he attempted something new.
Even so, he could only steel himself by thinking of Riley.
“I have to succeed… I have to…….”
Raunz was muttering as he reached for a beaker filled with liquid when—
CLATTER.
“Shh. I told you not to make your bones rattle.”
Clatter….
Strange noises began coming from outside the open window.
Raunz froze, removed his hand from the beaker, and quietly stood.
He listened carefully, but his badly deteriorated hearing was little help.
‘Could it be happening again…?’
It had been some time, but there had been others who tried to climb through the window like this.
They had attempted to infiltrate the shop in pursuit of the herb.
But before they could even finish climbing, the guards had swarmed them and captured them.
The same thing would surely happen again.
Several times more guards were stationed here now than there had been then.
Curious about his first visitor in a long time, Raunz approached the window.
Strangely, however, the people guarding the shop showed no movement.
They looked no different from usual.
“Did I… hear something that wasn’t there?”
Raunz blinked and cleaned out his ear.
Then, just as he was about to turn away—
CLACK!
A hand made entirely of bone gripped the windowsill.
“……!”
A skull rose into view with its neck twisted at an angle.
The shadows made it even more grotesque, and Raunz nearly fell backward.
He had seen skeletons occasionally, but he had never expected one to appear so suddenly in the middle of the night.
***
“Hmm.”
Terlo studied the alchemist’s shop while considering how to enter.
The two-story shop stood at the far-left end of a long alley.
A wall surrounded it.
The people guarding it surrounded that wall in turn.
Entering through the front door was impossible.
‘I’ll probably have to go through a window.’
But how was he supposed to reach one?
Ina’s poison magic suddenly came to mind.
Had Ina been here, she could have put the guards to sleep while he went inside.
‘There are times when I miss having her around.’
But he could not ask her for help.
This was something he needed to resolve alone.
After considering the problem, Terlo concluded that illusion black magic was his best option.
‘It takes time to create, but….’
Were they not all staring vacantly into space?
They might fail to notice.
If he was discovered, he could choose another method then.
Having made his decision, Terlo carefully moved dark mana toward the middle of the alley.
Then,
When he chanted the spell, a line of dark mana rose upward and began creating an illusion.
Just as the line drew close to its target, one of the guards raised his head with a yawn.
‘Why now…?!’
But contrary to Terlo’s fears, the man showed no reaction.
Before he finished yawning, the line of dark mana reached its destination and dispersed.
‘Phew.’
Terlo released a breath of relief and moved to the middle of the alley.
Then he created another illusion over the entrance where he had been standing moments earlier.
That way, even if the gang bosses returned, they would not notice him.
The illusion would disperse the moment they touched it, but there should be no reason for them to enter the alley.
After finishing his work at both ends, Terlo waved his hands wildly at the people guarding the shop.
None of them reacted.
‘Good. It formed properly.’
Now that he had created a safe zone in the middle of the alley….
It was time to create an illusion over the wall connected to the building.
Since the alley was long, the area he needed to cover was fairly wide.
Fortunately, everyone seemed sleepy and had lowered their heads.
‘I need to hurry.’
It would be disastrous if someone raised their head as before.
Maintaining both concentration and vigilance, Terlo eventually succeeded without incident.
His delight at having only to enter lasted briefly.
Terlo looked at the dozing guards after an infiltration that had been easier than expected.
‘Why are they guarding the place if they’re going to act like that?’
It works in my favor, though.
Terlo shrugged and summoned a skeleton.
Then he climbed onto its back and whispered,
“We’re going over the wall and through the window up there. You can carry me, right?”
CLACK! CLACK!
“Shh. You can’t make too much noise.”
The skeleton nodded and began climbing over the wall with Terlo on its back.
While practicing illusion black magic, Terlo had discovered that sound was muffled to some degree inside an illusion.
But it only worked on quiet sounds, so caution was still necessary.
Teleporting would have been quieter and easier….
But because Teleport could only take him somewhere within sight, traveling this way was safer.
CLATTER.
After crossing the wall, the skeleton began climbing the shop and made a rattling sound.
“Go slowly without letting your bones rattle.”
The skeleton moved its arms and legs as carefully as possible.
But—
CLATTER.
“Shh. I told you not to make your bones rattle.”
Clatter….
The skeleton turned its head and glanced at Terlo as the noise continued.
Seeing the helpless look in its eyes, Terlo gestured for it to keep going.
The skeleton eventually reached the window and placed a hand on the windowsill.
A startled face soon entered Terlo’s view.
The man’s long white hair and beard were striking, and countless wrinkles covered his face.
‘Is he the alchemist?’
Judging by the abundance of experimental equipment inside, that seemed likely.
The man opened and closed his mouth as his gaze shifted from the skeleton to Terlo.
Just as Terlo was about to greet him, the man hurriedly grabbed a test tube beside him.
“W-Who are you?!”
He placed a hand on its stopper as he spoke, suggesting that the substance inside was dangerous.
“I don’t know how you slipped past the guards, but if you’re after the herb…….”
His gaunt face twitched.
He looked as though it would not be strange for him to collapse at any moment.
Terlo raised both hands.
“I’m not after the herb, so please calm down.”
“……I cannot believe that.”
“I came because there’s something I need to investigate. Could we speak quietly for a moment?”
“…….”
Even then, the man did not appear to trust him.
Seeing him still gripping the test tube tightly, Terlo went straight to the point.
“Ben. Do you know who he is?”
At the time, the alchemist’s pupils shook uncontrollably.
‘He knows something.’
Certain of it, Terlo waited for an answer.
The arms that had been tensed moments earlier dropped limply.
“…I know him. Of course I do.”
“I’m looking for him. Could you tell me anything you know?”
“Why… Why are you looking for him?”
Terlo considered how to answer.
Ultimately, he was searching for Ben because of the mysterious sphere.
But he could not reveal the sphere or the demon-worshiping cult.
‘Most importantly, the leader of More died because of the sphere Ben gave him….’
He would omit what needed to be omitted.
“He killed someone.”
“……!”