The four of them walked back along the path at the foot of the mountain.
Because Vera had been a step behind, she didn't know what had just happened; she only felt that the atmosphere among everyone had turned a bit strange.
"Why is it so chilly all of a sudden...?"
Vera looked at Celia, who was walking ahead with a gloomy aura, and then quietly observed Freya, whose gaze was several shades deeper than usual.
She instinctively leaned toward Ansu's side. "Brother, did you guys have an argument?"
"No." Ansu shook his head, and seeing his sister's disbelieving face, he explained with a smile, "Nothing really happened."
Yeah, right, Vera thought as she pouted in dissatisfaction.
Celia suddenly turned her head, her eyes devoid of warmth and her tone flat. "Walk faster. Isn't Professor Duncan in a hurry?"
After saying that, she continued to possessively hold onto Ansu's arm as if trying to completely isolate him from a certain figure behind them, not forgetting to give him a look that contained a silent warning.
"Hey! Why are you suddenly walking so fast..." Vera looked helpless.
Thus, on the way back, Ansu and Celia walked in front, while Vera stayed behind with the clearly preoccupied Freya.
"Sister Freya?" Vera called out softly.
"Hmm?" Freya seemed to pull herself away from her thoughts, responding with a slightly exhausted expression.
Vera looked at her like this, then at the two figures in front who were almost stuck together, and blinked.
She hadn't forgotten the important mission her brother had entrusted to her this morning.
'Good Vera! My dear sister! I'm really begging you today! The future peace of this family depends entirely on you!'
Sigh... what a troublesome older brother.
I guess I'll reluctantly help you out then!
She suddenly grabbed Freya's left hand with her own, took two quick steps, and then grabbed Ansu's free left arm.
"There, that's better!" She looked up with a small, proud expression, as if a difficult problem had just been solved.
Everyone's hands were linked together, so now they were made up!
Ansu turned his head, and Vera immediately winked at him, making him not know whether to laugh or cry.
Almost at the same time, Celia's icy gaze shifted over.
Vera immediately shrank her neck and then let out a giggle, attempting to act cute to breeze through the awkwardness.
Though the atmosphere was momentarily tense, the four of them continued walking arm-in-arm.
Freya was amused by Vera's childish gesture, and the gloom in her eyes couldn't help but dissipate slightly.
The setting sun cast long shadows of the four people onto the stone path, and because of Vera's "forced link," the shadows also merged into one.
The invisible coldness and distance in the air seemed to be diluted just a little because of this...
...
At four o'clock in the afternoon, the four arrived at the office building of the magitech department.
Professor Duncan was now the most prestigious professor at the united academy, so he possessed a large laboratory that was bright and tidy, a world of difference compared to that basement back at the Royal Academy.
As soon as they entered the lab, they saw Professor Duncan guiding students as they calibrated precise alchemical instruments.
"Ah, you're here!" Professor Duncan looked toward everyone enthusiastically. "Quick, have a seat!"
Eddie and Leon also greeted Ansu's group one after another.
"Junior Ansu, long time no see!"
After Eddie said this, Leon immediately nudged him with his elbow and reminded him in a whisper, "Still calling him junior? You have to call him Boss now!"
"Oh, right..." Eddie slapped his forehead. Facing the always easygoing Ansu who didn't put on airs, he hadn't quite adjusted to the change in status yet.
"No need to be so formal," Ansu said with a smile. "Just call me by my name."
Ever since they signed that permanent contract to "change the world with me" with Professor Duncan, the three of them—master and disciples—had belonged to his team.
With generous salaries, flexible working conditions, and even their living arrangements taken care of, all while barely interfering with the professor's research direction, Ansu seemed like a boss running a charity in their eyes.
Besides Professor Duncan's trio, Valger and his daughter were also in the vast laboratory.
"Sister Vera!" Heidi ran over happily.
After becoming familiar with everyone, she was no longer as timid as she was at the beginning, greeting them politely in turn: "Brother Ansu! Sister Freya, and..."
Her gaze fell on the last unfamiliar figure and paused. "And... the gloomy big sister I don't know."
Celia curled her lip. "My name is Celia."
"Um, hello Sister Celia..."
Heidi's words frightened Valger quite a bit, and he quickly pulled his daughter back to his side.
The person in front of them wasn't just some gloomy big sister... she was the legendary "Ash Witch," the current leader of the Echoes of Truth cult.
"Heidi, you should call her Lord Cult Leader!"
"Mm." Heidi nodded obediently. "Cult Leader..."
"There's no need for that." Celia waved her hand dismissively, her gaze already drawn to the massive blackboard in the laboratory, which was covered in complex, intersecting rune structures and various formulas.
"Is this... the magic formula created by Mr. Valger?"
"Yes." Valger nodded respectfully.
After he agreed to join Ansu's team, he had been assigned to assist under Professor Duncan.
Professor Duncan was very interested in his magic formula, and since the united academy already had some crimson marrowstone, they could conduct some tests here.
"Hmm... the structure is indeed very unique." Celia stared at the blackboard, as if rapidly dismantling and reconstructing every rune node in her mind.
"To be able to derive such an exquisite variation based on traditional explosion runes, Mr. Valger's attainments are quite high."
Ansu's gaze followed hers. This magic formula named 【Annihilation Resonance】 reminded him of the endless experiments he had done with Celia before.
When a massive number of magic runes were layered together, any tiny misalignment or interference would trigger unpredictable mana distortion, causing all involved runes to lose control simultaneously... thereby forming a terrifying consequence nearly identical to a 'chain reaction'.
Valger's design utilized this very principle, doing the opposite of what was standard.
He deliberately guided and amplified this collapse, combining it with the violent energy of crimson marrowstone to achieve a terrifying power where 1 + 1 > 10.
"You flatter me." Valger smiled humbly. "Compared to you, Lord Cult Leader, and Professor Duncan, I still have a long way to go."
This wasn't entirely false modesty; his strength lay in pushing the field of "explosions" to its limit within an established framework.
However, the two in front of him were master-level figures capable of founding their own schools of thought in their respective fields.
Ansu's gaze fell on the alchemical workbench, where a semi-finished product—already mostly complete and emitting a dangerous, dark red glow—lay quietly.
The volume of the explosive was very small, but he wouldn't underestimate the power of this thing.
"Is it safe... to just leave this bomb here?"
"It's not safe." Professor Duncan shook his head. "There's always a probability of failure in experiments, even if we've controlled the risks to the minimum."
"That's why we've minimized the yield as much as possible," Valger added.
"I hope this thing can be made controllable and weaponized." Ansu looked at Professor Duncan and Valger respectively. "If you have any needs for resources, feel free to ask me."
"We're already discussing that aspect." Professor Duncan looked at Ansu. "But, Ansu, what are you going to do with this kind of bomb? Are you going to blow up Norvigel too?"
"How could that be..." Ansu knew he was joking, so he also laughed. "I just feel that... it might come in handy when we eventually face off against the demon army."
Barcas likely wouldn't let things go.
From the previous 100-hour simulation, he had learned that Barcas's ultimate goal wasn't just to destroy Norvigel, but rather it was a means to an end.
His original plan was to leave the gateway to the North wide open, thereby coordinating with the monster army and other allies already dormant in the northern snowfields to sweep south during the chaos in the northern Empire.
Although Norvigel couldn't be blown up now, his strategy wouldn't change easily... the Northern Crisis had not truly been resolved.
Rate on N.U.
