“No matter what that is, what we need to do now is mass-produce that antidote as quickly as possible!”
As he spoke, Grimm gestured for everyone to hurry back to the laboratory, though he couldn't help but feel a tremor of fear in his heart at the sight of the lightning spear in the sky.
To him, rather than a spell, it felt more like...
A divine punishment.
“You haven't even done the verification and compatibility testing, and you're already thinking about mass production? Grimm, what on earth are you thinking?”
Ever since he mentioned Ain, Margaret felt that Grimm had become incredibly strange.
It was like a dragon guarding its rare treasure.
Seeing that she still didn't believe him, Grimm didn't say much more, instead offering a mysterious smile.
“You'll like him.”
...
As the last drop of potion fell into the test tube, the monster's blood suddenly turned turbid and muddy. In just a few breaths, a teeth-gritting sizzling sound rang out, and the blood began to boil violently like scalding water.
Countless tiny magic particles rose like fireflies, separating from the liquid surface, dispersing, and finally fading into nothingness.
Once everything settled, the blood had lost all its strange discoloration, returning to its original state.
“It actually... succeeded?”
“Did that guy really get a hole-in-one?”
Margaret's eyes were filled with shock.
At this moment, Grimm “accidentally” leaned in front of her, putting on a nonchalant front. He pointed to himself and said,
“Cough, my student.”
Margaret paid no attention to the show-off of an old man.
“Where is he? Where is this guy named Ain? Get him over here right now!”
Margaret's gaze locked onto Violet, who waved her hands in a panic.
“Well, he... probably isn't here.”
“Not here? Aren't all the faculty and students of Hermetica and Persephone gathered here? How could he not be here?”
“He, uh...”
How was she supposed to explain? She couldn't exactly say he had only recently enrolled in Hermetica, could she?
Seeing that she couldn't answer, Margaret had no choice but to ask a different question.
“Then where did you find him? How did he make it?”
“Did he catch the monsters himself? Did he dissect them himself? What kind of equipment did he use? How long did it take him? He...”
Seeing Margaret babble on, Violet felt like the woman wanted to strip Ain of all his secrets.
“Professor! Professor Margaret! It's like this, please listen to me...”
Violet explained the general process.
“Huh? On his first try? He just glanced at our lab report, didn't even study the samples, and used the street-side garbage from the potionology laboratory building, and he made it just like that?”
“Yes.”
Grimm leaned in close to Margaret again, whispering with a smug face,
“My student.”
“Shoo, shoo, shoo! With that useless brain of yours, you could teach a student like this? I'd say it's already a miracle if you don't steal his academic research!”
Margaret pushed him away, her face full of annoyance.
But in her heart, she was mostly thrilled.
She finally remembered the name Ain.
She had noticed him back when she was in the spectator stands.
Students who could keep their composure and teach themselves Tier 3 healing magic were rare.
If she hadn't been so busy lately, she would have recruited him to Persephone long ago!
Grimm felt deeply insulted.
When a student submitted a paper to a journal, someone had to recommend them, right?
So, as his mentor, wasn't it perfectly reasonable for me to share some of the credit?
Ignoring his reaction, Margaret quickly set to work.
“Heh, to think he already knew to adjust the dilution ratio when he made this potion...”
“So it's a universal potion.”
“This is truly... a genius.”
“This way, we don't have to worry about running out of potions...”
“By the way, didn't you say earlier that Ain would be here soon? Why hasn't he returned yet?”
Hearing her question, Violet instinctively looked out of the laboratory.
“Oh, right... Why aren't Ain and the others back yet?”
An absurd speculation popped into Violet's mind.
Could they already be...
...doing something scandalous in secret inside the laboratory building?
Instantly, Violet's face blushed slightly.
But isn't this date's time and location a bit too bold?
Oh, junior, junior, appearances really are deceiving. To think you could win over the academy's perfect goddess in just a few days...
If he gets any bolder, wouldn't even I be...
At that thought, Violet immediately sighed in relief.
How could that be?
...
The Tower of Starry Abyss.
“Wesley? What on earth is he doing!”
“Didn't the Titan Prosecution Office guarantee there wouldn't be any issues? Why did they let Wesley go inside now?!”
“And he's even colluding with the Nightingale Secret Order? Is he betraying us?”
A professor slammed his hand on the table in anger, as if he had completely failed to anticipate this turn of events.
“And those people from the Nightingale Secret Order, they've barely shown their faces in the academy!”
“Sevis? Where did this student suddenly spring from?!”
“How are we supposed to make the people below believe that this was an unstoppable riot!”
August, however, pushed up his glasses with some surprise and said, “Rather than that, I feel more gratified.”
“The academy has gained another student capable of shouldering great responsibility. His deeds will spread throughout the entire academy by tomorrow.”
After a moment, a woman who had never voiced her opinion slowly spoke up, “Isn't this a bit too strange?”
“A student? A Tier 4 Mage? Not only was he able to organize a rescue in such a tense situation, but he also captured several members of the hostile forces?”
A smile appeared on August's face; his mood had improved significantly.
“Oh? Are you trying to say he possessed foresight?”
The woman shook her head.
“Perhaps the one who did all this wasn't that Sevis.”
Instantly, most of the gazes in the room fell upon the person sitting at the head of the table.
Among everyone present, the only one who could truly be said to possess foresight was Loretta of the Eye of the Astral Splendor.
The mysterious Tier 6 Mage, a Diviner skilled in Divination Magic.
An old man stood up abruptly, his voice laced with hostility.
“Loretta, did you plan all of this from the very beginning?”
“You never had any intention of executing that witch from the start, did you?”
Loretta smiled softly, her eyes curving like crescent moons, looking exceptionally charming.
“The Council has always determined the rules by vote. I have been very respectful of everyone's wishes.”
“Perhaps Wesley never intended to ally with anyone from the start? What he was calculating on his own was merely how much leverage the fate of that witch could bring him.”
“As for the situation deteriorating to this point, resulting in such a massive accident... To be honest, everyone, my heart is equally heavy.”
Loretta smiled even more brightly.
To those who had voted earlier, this was nothing short of a blatant insult.
It was as if she was declaring that even though she sat here, she could alter their will at her whim.
“You vote your way, and I'll do things my way.”
“Heh, Loretta, since you want to break the rules, there's no need to stop me.”
A middle-aged man stood up, looking as if he was about to walk out the door.
“Wait.”
Seeing Loretta call out to him, the man glared at her with even greater disdain.
“Do you want to stop me?”
Loretta smiled and spread open a letter, replying, “Of course not.”
“I just wanted to remind you.”
“It seems Persephone has already figured out how to deal with those rampaging beasts, and they are all rushing over to Echo Forest right now.”
“If you go over now, do you want to make an appearance? So that the students will all remember you as a...”
“...'good... teacher'?”
The man looked at Loretta in a daze.
“Did you even...”
“No, no, no, I don't know how to make magic potions. Are you going to blame that on me as well?”
Loretta put on a distressed look, appearing incredibly endearing.
But this only made the man even angrier.
Suddenly, lightning flashed outside the window, piercing through the darkness like a sharp sword and illuminating every detail of the room.
“I think you all might want to come and take a look at this first.”
The woman from before had already walked to the window, her gaze fixed on the lightning spear that was large enough to tear the sky apart.
Everyone froze for a moment, expressions of disbelief and astonishment appearing on their faces.
“Is this... magic?”
“Is it that witch? Or Wesley?”
“This scale... it's definitely Tier 5! Or maybe even higher!”
At this moment, August slowly spoke up.
“There are secret records in the ancient texts of Minerva that when the Goddess of Light handed down the ultimate punishment, she threw a lightning spear. And the one that pierced that witch hundreds of years ago happened to be the exact same spear.”
“This is indeed a Tier 5 spell.”
One of the professors frowned at August's words.
“Are you trying to say that Wesley plans to use this spell to finish off the witch, recreating the scene from hundreds of years ago?”
After hearing this analysis, the man from before laughed disdainfully.
“It seems the Dean has been busy all this time, yet accomplished absolutely nothing.”
August shook his head and said, “I think you've all misunderstood.”
“This shouldn't be a spell that Wesley is capable of casting.”
The man was slightly taken aback.
“None of you should have heard of this spell, let alone seen it. There is only one reason it only appears in ancient texts.”
“The conditions are extremely harsh?”
August nodded, indicating that the man was correct.
“The person who uses this spell can only be one blessed by the Goddess.”
“In other words... a God-Favored One.”
Several of the elders gasped.
The man from before also placed a hand on August's shoulder, seemingly unable to believe what he was hearing.
“Are you saying that inside Echo Forest, there is still someone we don't know about?”
“And he even received the blessing of the Goddess of Light?!”
“Are you kidding me! The last one blessed by a deity was that person from thousands of years ago...”
August pushed him away, not giving him a chance to continue. He didn't know whether he should feel relieved or worried.
“Something like that.”
The man instinctively glanced at Loretta, who was still sitting in the main seat, his heart filled with even greater shock.
“This person... Could she...”
“Have known all along?”
Loretta looked down at the Corona Gold in her palm, a faint smile playing on her lips.
As she lightly flipped it with her fingertips, the gold coin shimmered with a faint light, instantly transforming into a Card of Canal.
【17】The Star
“Well done...”
“Little guy.”
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