The Demon Prince goes to the Academy - Chapter 255

The Temple’s dedicated alchemy teacher. Aaron Mede is in a bad mood.

There are classes among teachers. He was a teacher who taught only the elite among his students, and as such, the students who attended his lectures were among the best in the Orbis class, or even in the general class.

Personally, I don’t like Royal Class. I’ve seen too much arrogance based on talent alone.

Technically, I don’t dislike the Royal class, but I do like the Orbis class.

I like their desperation.

I love that attitude that you can do anything to achieve something better than what you have now.

That kind of desperation clouds insight, and when you gently reach out to them through that clouded insight, they usually fall for it.

The best minds in the empire, where you can get your hands on the possibilities.

A replenished living lab where you can test your performance in real time.

The Temple is the only one on the continent.

However, the cradle disappeared in one fell swoop.

A royal class madman named Reinhardt’s sudden rampage has led to this.

Technically, the real culprit is a bunch of students and teachers in Orbis’ class who got together and did something weird, but even so, the real culprit is a guy named Reinhardt.

The place that supplied him with his test subjects, especially his most capable ones, had suddenly disappeared.

Whoever messed with my experiment.

You can’t do anything about the mass mayhem caused by the Orbis class.

So, it was lighthearted.

I wanted to do it outside of the temple, as there was a risk that dying inside the temple would cause too much trouble.

I used Order’s sobriety there because I was confident I wouldn’t get caught.

No matter how strong a knight you are, if you get stabbed in your sleep, you’re going to die.

No matter how good you are, you’re still a student. It’s not easy to kill them, they’re cheap.

It also made sense because if he died, it would be the Orbis class that would be suspected, not him.

I am invisible.

But somehow, the gnome recognized the presence of his worm-planted assassin. As he watched his target flee in panic, he felt the need to hold his breath.

Sensing danger, he never stepped out of the temple.

He could have killed Reinhardt inside the Temple, since he was not banned from the Temple like the teachers of Orbis’ class. But he was extremely reluctant to put himself in harm’s way.

You don’t have to take the risk.

As long as he remains in the Temple, Reinhardt is within his reach.

You can’t stay in a temple forever.

The moment you so much as crawled out of the temple, you were dead.

However, things have gotten weird.

Another student, who was with Reinhardt at the time, saw an opportunity when he stepped outside the temple.

Sneak up behind him, subdue him, and use him as a hostage to drag Reinhardt out of the temple.

Royal class, but first grade at best, I thought, stunning and kidnapping would be no problem.

Plus, he’d only use the hosts he was using, so he wouldn’t have to reveal his presence.

But what the heck.

It seemed to know it was being followed, and even encouraged it.

Turns out she’s the greatest monster the Temple has ever seen, though we don’t know the details.

Being a wizard, I had neglected the student information for melee majors.

Luckily, the sobriety Insector he used is an Order-only trick, unknown to the rest of the world.

You can’t use that to find yourself. The evidence is already gone.

An alcoholic beverage used by the Order when they secretly want to kill people.

My anger and irritation kept me from being calm.

How could I have predicted that a first-year Royal Class student would have eyes in the back of his head?

He therefore sought to find a way to kill Reinhardt that would be more certain and methodical.

By the way.

“……Bugs that control people?”

“Yeah, can you alchemize something like that?”

Having captured his host, he comes to his mansion with another student in tow.

What the hell.

Aaron Mede couldn’t believe how well things were working out.

* * *

Aaron Mede didn’t know about Ellen today, but he did know about magic student Herriot de Saint-Ouen.

I was more interested in Herriot than Ellen.

The famous St. Thuan family, the greatest genius in their history. Nay, perhaps the greatest genius on the entire continent.

A child with a talent for “magic” that has never been seen before in history.

He may not realize it, but Herriot de Saint-Hilaire is the center of attention among those who know him.

Of course, there’s nothing close to a crush on Aaron Mede.

They are arrogant by nature.

Like the Orbis class, he loves the struggle of the unborn. He believes that the viciousness and nastiness of those who will do anything to be strong is what puts them at the top of the heap.

That’s why Herriot de Sainte-Anne seems to be a human being who was born beautiful, never lacking, and therefore never desperate to improve.

He doesn’t experiment on his students with power because people are evil.

Very seriously, he considers his experiment a gift.

He gives nothing to those who are not desperate. That’s why Herriot is said to be the best, but he doesn’t care.

It’s just curious.

How this coincidence happens.

The two lures to lure Reinhardt had come to me of their own accord.

They came in royal class, introduced by Mr. Mustang.

The student in front of me, Ellen, is here after a day of running around trying to get to the bottom of a worm that has crawled out of its host.

Unaware that this is the one place you shouldn’t be.

Unaware that there were hundreds of these bugs swarming in the basement of the mansion, the two students had the look of students who just wanted to ask a question.

Two students who are taking an active role in the assassination attempt on Reinhardt.

These two would be very dear friends of Reinhardt’s.

It’s great for bait.

The pleasure of trampling on arrogant buds of the royal class is a bonus.

“Hmmm……. I don’t see anything that doesn’t make sense, and if I do say so myself, alchemists are the kind of people who like to experiment whenever possible.”

Not so fast right now.

When two of his students go missing after being introduced by Mr. Mustang, it is highly likely that he will be framed.

“I think I’ve heard of some guys using something like that…….”

“Me, really?”

“…….”

Harriet’s expression changes dramatically at the suggestion that she might have a meaningful clue. Ellen’s eyes widen slightly as well.

“It’s going to take me a while to research the material, so I’ll send a message to Royal Class.”

“Thank you, sir, thank you!”

Send it back for now. It would be very foolish to try to do anything with it now.

“Since you’re here, have a cup of tea and scratch your itch.”

He pours a cup of hot tea, one for each of his two unsuspecting students.

Send it back, but insure it.

Alchemy is sometimes magical, sometimes not.

In this case, it is not added.

In other words. Dispel doesn’t work.

Aaron Mede was poisoning them both.

A slowly developing poison. Symptoms will appear over a month. The cardiovascular system slowly deteriorates, and eventually the heart stops beating and the person dies.

Without an antidote, you’ll die.

It’s already been proven that it’s a poison that not even divine power can restore.

If you’re in a pinch, you can use the antidote as an excuse to lure Reinhardt in.

Insurance for that.

“Ah, yes……. Thank you.”

Herriot cautiously reaches for the glass.

Drink.

Aaron Mede smiled faintly at the thought of receiving the corpse of the cocky lunatic who had ruined all his experiments in a month or so.

You have an antidote.

So he sipped the poisoned tea he’d poured without a care in the world.

Tasteless and odorless poisons cannot be detected by taste.

Ellen didn’t touch the car. As if she didn’t care.

Harriet took a sip of her tea, then set it down with a slight shake of her head.

“By the way, I have a question.”

Aaron Mede noticed the green earrings dangling from Harriet’s ears.

If it’s jewelry, it’s not really prohibited.

It was a pair of earrings that didn’t look very classy for the Grand Duchess of the Duchy of Saint-Thuan to be wearing.

Herriot set his teacup down.

“Why do you want to know that, why don’t you ask?”

Herriot felt uncomfortable.

Everyone wanted to know.

I started with myself.

When Ellen told me about it, I wondered why anyone would care about such a thing. It’s a dangerous and bizarre story, even for her.

Also, from the Magical Research Society. From Mr. Mustang.

I’ve been asked why I’m curious about the bugs that control people.

Aaron Mede didn’t ask.

That little twinge.

It’s not really a problem. Aaron Mede smiled softly at Herriot’s question.

“Wizards, especially students, want to know everything, so you’d be surprised how many outlandish questions I get. So now, I’m more inclined to answer whatever they ask.”

“Oh, I see.”

Aron Mede’s answer was plausible. Aaron realized that the children in front of him hadn’t even touched their teacups, and he knew they were wary.

They’re not just kids and they’re talented, but they’re also insightful.

Aaron Mede knows that trying to force him to drink tea will backfire. Harriet looks around the manor, not at Aaron Mede, but at the manor itself.

“Also, this place……. That’s weird.”

Herriot looks around with a calm expression.

It’s not that they see their surroundings, it’s that they seem to sense the space itself.

“I don’t feel any of the energy from the veins.”

“Zimac? What does that mean?”

Herriot keeps getting orders from Reinhard to do ridiculous things.

They ask you to study dimensional magic, or to cast spells with mana from outside your body instead of inside.

I haven’t succeeded in all of them, but I’m working on it.

Using it for magic would come later, but she had become very used to feeling and analyzing the mana in the atmosphere. It’s something other mages can do, of course, but focusing on it has made her more sensitive to it.

There is always mana everywhere, just in different concentrations. Even in the same space, the density varies. It’s doubtful that it’s possible to use magic with uniform control over such irregularly distributed mana.

It doesn’t quite reach its true goal, but the quirkiness of the place is well documented.

At the bottom of the mansion, I can’t feel any mana in the veins.

It’s like a giant hole in the middle of a blue ocean.

You don’t know what’s underground.

However, the fact that the accounts are organized to avoid exposure already speaks for itself.

“I know that this is what an arrangement created to avoid detection usually looks like.”

Whatever the reason, there is a place in the basement of the mansion that is magically made so that the outside cannot see in.

“Wizards, especially alchemists, are sensitive to this sort of thing, so it’s not surprising that something like this would be made, and I’m an alchemist.”

Aaron Mede is an alchemist.

Alchemists need to be especially careful about security, and rightly so. You don’t want just anyone to be able to peek into your laboratory. Actually, this isn’t that suspicious. Herriot knows that.

What Herriot finds suspicious is the scale.

The size of the settlement is too large.

Although he is an accomplished alchemist, he has a laboratory in the basement of his mansion that goes down to a depth of about six stories.

“This is a little uncomfortable. I think you guys are here to ask questions, but is it just me or does it feel like you’re interrogating me?”

Aaron Mede didn’t hide his displeasure.

When I let him in, I had a feeling something was wrong and started to doubt myself.

We can’t afford to let this happen.

You need to export it.

You can use it if you want to, but in that moment, all the foundation you’ve laid in your temple is blown away.

I tried to mess with the wrong guy and things went horribly wrong.

Herriot seemed to hesitate a bit in front of the displeased Aaron Mede.

However, Ellen, who had been silent until now, spoke up.

“Does the homunculus disappear when it is dispelled?”

“…… What a rude bunch of kids. Okay, let me answer that. The homunculus is a magical creature. If it is dispelled, it will disappear.”

“…… So, if someone is possessed by the homunculus we were talking about, what happens to them when you cast Dispel on them?”

“…….”

Aaron Mede’s mind seemed to freeze up.

What is this guy talking about?

“Yeah……. I don’t know the details, but the homunculus’ parasite will either disappear or die.”

Aaron Mede knows it’s the latter. The homunculus’ domination of its host is irreversible. If the homunculus dies, so does the dominated.

No, the moment you’re dominated, you’re dead.

“Why are you asking me that?”

Ellen says calmly.

“I’m going to deploy an anti-magic field all over this mansion from now on.”

“……What?!”

“If anyone in this mansion is possessed by that homunculus, they’re all going to be dead. If nothing happens, I apologize, I’ll be disciplined, and if I have to pay damages for property damage, I will.”

Anti-Magic Fields.

It is a large-scale enchantment that goes beyond area dispel to deter magic use.

A student is capable of that level of witchcraft?

Aaron Mede’s eyes widened.

Herriot de Saint-Etienne was the greatest genius in the history of magic, if that’s even possible.

Big deal.

These kids are about to do something crazy.

No wonder so many of the slaves in the mansion would be turned into corpses once the anti-magic field was unleashed. His expression calmed down.

“There are only assholes in royal class.”

I don’t like this one or that one.

Unmask or risk losing everything.

He had to resort to extreme measures.

“Die.”

-Quack!

The fireball from Aaron Mede’s wand was intercepted by the force field Herriot unleashed.

“……I can’t believe it’s really you.”

“Told you so, Harriet.”

Aaron Mede stares in awe at the silver sword that suddenly appears in Ellen’s right hand.

“Threats work better than questions.”

“Right…….”

They had been suspicious of Aaron Mede from the beginning.