Akasha was fairly excited after coincidentally discovering the uraninite refiner.
The fact that the Saliere family realized the usage of the pitchblende stone wasn’t a good thing, as this might be developed into a weapon that could defeat not only the Great Nine chas including her, but the Demon King as well.
But it was the job of the humanoid Beasts to learn such secrets of the humans. The thought of reporting this accomplishnt had a smile spreading across her lips.
Yet it couldn’t end here. There’d be nothing more wasteful than to return with only a single nugget of gold after discovering a bonanza.
“I knew it; I thought there’d be sothing else.”
The dead of night. She’d been going around the mansion in search of other secrets besides the refiner. After breaking into the storage, Akasha found an intriguing object within.
A large tal container in the shape of a donut.
Familiar texture, familiar shape. This was also one of the weapons that her sister had made before.
“It’s a tokamak.”
That was what it was called when ‘donut-shaped magnetic field confinent device’ in the Imperial language beca an acronym, apparently.
“It doesn’t seem like Count Saliere made this.”
They kept the pitchblende refiner in a secret location but stuffed this in a storage room? It didn’t make sense.
“Well, it’s still a jackpot.”
She brushed the tokamak with a smirk. It was probably her sister who made it and put it here.
She didn’t know why her sister did that, but it was going to be beneficial to take it back to the Tower. Akasha pulled out maneuver scrolls from her inner pocket and charged them with mana.
[Advanced Innate Magic Scroll ─ Transparency]
[Interdiate Innate Magic Scroll ─ Weight Alleviation]
This was a combination commonly used by thieves when stealing sothing. The tokamak didn’t even have shield magic on it so it wasn’t difficult to apply the spells.
“Good.”
After confirming that the scrolls worked properly, Akasha left the storage, closing the door behind her. The storm continued to rage outside the window.
She’d leave once the rainstorm was over. Head to the Iron Tower, gather the Commanders, and tell them everything.
“And....”
Before that, she’ll go screw with that brat a little.
**A few days later when the typhoon was starting to die down.
The two girls went to read in the library after breakfast as usual. She was getting sick of seeing Lotte go through the sa routine everyday
Akasha closed the novel that she was reading and picked out a book on thaumaturgy for the first ti in a while. The book was way beneath her level but it wasn’t for the purpose of learning.
[General Theory of Advanced Fire Magic]This looked seriously boring.
When she opened up a random page and started reading, the girl took the bait. Lotte glanced her way before putting her own book down and spoke.
“It’s interesting, right?”
She eagerly jumped at the bait that was her favorite subject. Akasha’s lips twisted slightly at the girl’s pure academic passion.
“Well, I guess.”
“By the way, why don’t you attend the Academy? You’ll learn a lot of things like that if you co.”
“Why should I?”
Most academies in the Ahrens continent doubled as military schools. They would teach all sorts of combat magic to new students who couldn’t handle even low-level Beasts so that by the ti they graduated, they were able to combat against high-level ones.
“I can beat down Fenrir no problem so why would I go there?”
“Ah, that’s true....”
As if rembering the first ti they t, Lotte hunched in on herself. But the few days that they spent around each other must have helped because it was still better than when they first began living together.
“But you don’t only go to school to learn combat. You can also study....”
“I already learned from my sister. I can also get by on self-studying.”
“If you’re that good, then why did Aether decide to enter?”
“I wouldn’t know.”
Akasha humd for a mont, contemplating what to say next.
“Aether has always been whimsical and would run away from ho frequently. She’d disappear for days especially when she got stuck in her research. Then she’d co ho and finish it not too long after as if she found inspiration from sowhere outside.”
“She’s been researching since she was young...?”
“You know how there are those geniuses among even humans and elves who’d publish papers since ten years old? I’m not one of them but my sister is. That’s crazy even to .”
This was also partly a lie. Her sister’s research had never hit a wall.
Her genius was sothing that even the Demon King had recognized. Despite acting even more willfully than Jǫrmungandr, there was a reason why their comrades hoped for her return rather than shunning her.
Without her sister’s techniques, the King’s reign of power wouldn’t be complete.
Tap.
Akasha took a sip of black tea to quench her throat and continued.
“And so I asked one day where she went, told I didn’t need to know. So I thought, ‘Oh? Why’s she like this?’ and snuck after her one ti to find her lingering in front of Hasfeldt mansion.”
“The Hasfeldt mansion...?”
“The main house is a bit north from here, and it’s by the Elankayas, right? We’d collect herbs around that area sotis in the sumr.”
By this point, Lotte’s pupils were shaking in real ti. As if suddenly parched, she picked up the hot cup and gulped down the tea.
Tap.
“So... so why did she go there? What happened afterwards?”
“I didn’t see after that so I don’t know. I just figured she was up to sothing again and ca back.”
Akasha shrugged and stopped there.
If she shared any more details and caused Lotte to be even more cautious of her, then it’d be for nothing. It was a reasonable decision.
Because she could see that the other had no idea what to do.
**After listening to Akasha, one word ca to her mind.
Flare....
It was the magic Aether had completed. And she found out later that this magic had been under research by the Hasfeldt family for three generations.
When she heard about that, Lotte hadn’t known what to do. Then she’d learned that this kind of thing happened frequently in academia and in relief, she’d been able to forget about the matter. Thinking that of course, the subject must have overlapped sohow.
So it should have been.
─ Aether has always been whimsical and would run away from ho frequently. She’d disappear for days especially when she got stuck in her research. Then she’d co ho and finish it not too long after as if she found inspiration from sowhere outside.
She thought about what she’d heard earlier.
Lotte snuck a glimpse towards Akasha through narrow eyes. The girl had her head lowered, focusing on her reading.
“Haaaahm.”
Or perhaps not.
The title of the book Akasha was reading was [General Theory of Advanced Fire Magic], a book that happened to be highly relevant to Flare.
She took a brief trip back in ti–only three months ago, a full day after entering the Academy.
There had been a dispute between the Second Prince Klion and Miss Klais over Aether. It had been ridiculous to see them try and force Aether to listen by saying they could offer more money.
Indeed, sothing must have happened before that.
She didn’t know what Aether had been doing before coming to the Academy, but she was sure it had sothing to do with those two.
I understand the perverted Prince with his obsession over beauties....
Miss Klais’ attitude at the ti didn’t make sense. She’d wondered if she had wanted to claim a grad student, but that was when they hadn’t even started lessons yet.
Most of all, Miss Klais’ expression at the ti had been rather desperate, as if things could go very wrong if she didn’t get a hold of Aether.
It couldn’t be.
The Flare that her family had been researching, could Aether have....
“Heh.”
“What, why are you suddenly laughing?”
“No, it’s nothing.”
It was useless conjecture.
Lotte hadn’t even known that her family had created a pitchblende refiner, so how would Aether have known that?
Lotte reflected on herself, her doubts, rembering her father’s words saying ‘Do not carelessly suspect others’.
Let’s say that Aether did know what the Saliere family had secretly been working on. Then why did she leave the house imdiately? If anything, Akasha had stayed here longer.
Knock knock.
“Excuse , the master is asking to see your friend for a mont.”
An apprentice maid suddenly ca in and delivered those words. Akash pointed to herself and turned her head.
“? Why?”
“Well, you sent a letter to the master a little while ago, miss, saying that sothing happened and you wish to et him in his office....”
That was strange. Akasha’s brows furrowed and Lotte got up from her chair with a question of her own.
“Why would she ask for an appointnt through a letter when we’re in the sa house?”
“Exactly.”
“A-anyway, the master said that Miss Aether may co to the office now...!”
“I apologize but please let him know that he seems to be mistaken because I never wrote a letter.”
“Ah... yes, miss...!”
The door closed with a clack. After that brief disturbance, the library returned to silence.
“That was weird.”
“We do get wrongly delivered mail like that sotis.“
It didn’t seem to be a big deal. Akasha and Lotte gave each other a brief look and went back to their respective reading.
And beyond the curtains, the world was being colored by seven shades.
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