"I have so good news and so bad news. Which one do you want to hear first?"
Lancel imdiately frowned.
That kind of sentence never led to anything pleasant. Still, in situations like this, it was usually better to hear the bad news first. Better to take the worst hit early and soften the blow with sothing good afterward.
"Bad news."
"Alright. Here’s the gist."
Faust paused for a mont.
"You’re governnt property."
"...Huh?"
Lancel had absolutely no idea what that was supposed to an.
"Now here’s the good news—"
"Wait, wait," Lancel cut in quickly. "Elaborate on that first."
Faust raised a hand.
"I’m getting there. The two are connected."
"Oh."
Lancel leaned back on his seat.
"So here’s the good news," Faust continued. "Angelica doesn’t seem to be after you."
"You’re kidding."
Faust shook her head and briefly explained what had happened earlier that day. She told him about running into Angelica at the academy. About how Angelica had known Lancel was with her, yet she had shown no interest in taking him back.
"...."
Was this really the sa Angelica he knew?
The sa woman who had kept him locked in her basent for a year.
The sa possessive witch who would not even allow her apprentices to touch him, only placing him on display during lectures, using him as a demonstration while keeping everyone else at arm’s length.
It didn’t make sense.
"So what exactly do you an by ’governnt property’?" Lancel asked.
Faust crossed her arms. "You’ve been registered as a research asset."
"And that ans?"
"It ans you’re under official protection," Faust said. "No witch can simply take you by force or claim you without proper registration."
Lancel frowned.
"That sounds like the good part."
"It is," Faust replied. "But there’s another side to it."
She leaned against the table.
"Research assets are reassigned periodically. Once the registration period expires, the subject must be transferred to another witch."
"How long?"
"One year."
"...."
"Angelica already lost custody of you. By the ti I took you in, the registry had already been updated. That ans you now fall under my supervision."
She paused.
"And because of that, no other witch can legally take you from right now. Angelica likely bent the rules and extended her ownership period before I intervened."
Lancel slowly pieced the situation together.
"...Wait."
"This also ans you can’t leave the city."
Lancel’s expression darkened.
"You’re legally tied to Riviere now. If you try to escape, the entire city will treat you as stolen governnt property."
The aning settled in.
If he ran...
Every witch in Riviere would hunt him down.
Lancel leaned back in his chair.
"...So I’m basically a slave."
Faust was... decent. At the very least, she was nothing like Angelica. That much had already been proven.
But Faust was only one witch.
What about the others?
The thought alone made his stomach twist in knots.
"...A year."
That was the ti he had. One year under Faust’s custody before he would be passed on to another witch, like so piece of equipnt being transferred between laboratories.
Lancel clenched his hand.
By the ti that deadline arrived, he needed to be stronger. Strong enough that the city’s rules would no longer matter.
"For now, I’ll oversee your training," Faust said. "What did you accomplish while I was gone?"
"I froze your house."
Faust raised an eyebrow.
"And?"
"That’s it."
"Figures. Show how you did it."
That was how it started.
For the next week, Lancel was subjected to a strict training routine under Faust’s supervision.
* * *
"Lancel, starting today, you’ll be accompanying during my lectures," Faust said. "It will help if you listen to more advanced concepts alongside other learners. Of course, you won’t be registered. You’ll just stand beside as an assistant. Make sure you take notes."
"...Oddly enough, a lot of what you do still reminds of Angelica."
Faust glanced at him.
"What exactly did Angelica make you do during her lectures?"
Lancel answered without much thought.
"Stand there naked while witches sketched my penis."
Faust stopped walking.
"That’s—"
She stared at him for a mont.
"...I’m not doing that. What the hell?"
"I’m just saying."
Faust shook her head.
To Faust, what most witches in Riviere considered normal never quite applied to her. In fact, by the standards of the city, she was probably the strange one.
But to Lancel, she was easily the most normal witch he had ever t.
"Anyway, please behave yourself."
Lancel frowned.
"Why are you acting like I’ve already made a ss of things?"
Faust stopped walking and turned slightly toward him.
"One week, Lancel. I’ve known you for one week. Would I be saying this if I hadn’t already noticed sothing strange about you?"
"...."
There was no arguing there.
There was no arguing with that.
In any case, the two made their way to an apothecary.
According to Faust, during her lecture the previous week, she had suddenly felt weak for no apparent reason. At first, she assud it was nothing serious. Perhaps accumulated fatigue or stress from overworking herself.
Still, it bothered her enough to get it checked.
That was why they were here.
Lancel, however, had his own suspicions.
The timing lined up a little too well. The mont Faust began feeling her mana drain was around the sa ti he had cast Frostnova. It was not confird, but the connection was hard to ignore.
From what he could tell, casting that spell barely consud his own mana.
Which ant the energy had to co from sowhere else.
And right now, the most likely explanation was the woman standing beside him.
If his guess was correct, using Frostnova was not drawing mana from him at all, but siphoning it directly from Faust.
When they stepped inside, the shop was dim and unusually quiet.
The interior was lit only by a few weak lanterns hanging from the ceiling. Shadows stretched across the shelves, and the entire place had a slightly gloomy atmosphere.
More importantly, there was no one behind the counter.
Lancel glanced around.
If a place like this existed in any normal city, it would have been robbed blind by now.
"Are we supposed to wait for the staff... or...?" Lancel asked.
"The staff only appears once you’ve chosen sothing to buy."
"...Seriously?"
"Witches are busy," she said with a shrug.
"That so."
Lancel began looking around the store.
The shelves were filled with strange rchandise. Most of it looked like the kind of things only witches would ever consider useful.
One jar contained a cloudy liquid with sothing floating inside that looked suspiciously like a preserved eyeball. Another shelf held a bundle of dried black herbs, tied with red thread and labeled "Goblin Extract."
Whatever that ant.
On a nearby rack was a small cage holding a single luminescent beetle pulsing with green light. Next to it rested a sealed bottle of thick crimson powder labeled simply Dragon Ash.
Lancel stared at the displays for a mont.
"Ten gold coins..."
Lancel stared at the price tag.
Everything displayed in the shop was completely out of his financial reach.
During his years as an adventurer, he had managed to accumulate a decent amount of savings. Enough to live comfortably for a while, at least.
But not enough to casually purchase anything in a place like this.
Even worse, none of that money was accessible right now.
All of it was locked away in his vault back ho. And ho was very far away from Riviere.
For context, the currency system was fairly simple.
Forty copper coins made up one silver coin.
Twenty silver coins made up one gold coin.
Lancel rembered his usual inco during his adventuring days. On an average day, he earned around fifteen copper coins. If the work was good and he pushed himself, he could sotis stretch that to a full silver coin.
Looking at the price tag again, he quietly did the math in his head.
Ten gold coins.
That was an amount he could not casually spend even during his best days.
Just as Lancel leaned closer to inspect one of the items hanging from the rack, he noticed sothing strange about it.
"My, a curious one, aren’t you?"
Before he could react, sothing tightly squeezed his ass.
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