Aaron was surprised that Harriet was able to easily block his attack magic, and his shock was brought to a new level when he saw the sword Ellen suddenly summoned.

“Lament…?”

How did a student get their hands on a god’s Divine Artifact? Aaron saw multiple things that left him baffled.

Harriet looked at him, her forcefield still unfolded.

“There’s no way that I already know how to create Antimagic Fields or anything like that.”

He felt as if he had been hit over the head with a hammer.

He’d fallen for a little kid’s bluff. There was no way a student could cast such high-ranking magic already.

He held Harriet in such high esteem that he lost his cool when faced with such threats.

It had already happened—Aaron Mede had taken off his mask.

“Well, I don’t know what you two found that led to your suspicion of me, but it seems like you haven’t yet realized your grave mistake.”

Alchemy’s secret arts were the easiest to steal among all magic-related fields. Even those who couldn’t use magic sometimes swiped them and made use of them, and that was why wizards employed heavy security measures around their laboratories.

The dangerous constructs known as ‘dungeons’ were also the handiwork of some paranoid wizards who needed guaranteed security to protect their easy-to-steal items.

“I’ll show you just what happens when you enter an alchemist’s house.”

An alchemist’s laboratory was the most secure of all magic-type laboratories.

-Snap!

“!”

“That’s…!”

Aaron Mede’s body disappeared behind a wall and the door through which Ellen and Harriet had entered vanished while the windows were blocked with opaque protection barriers.

-Clatter! Clatter!

In addition to that, magical crossbows appeared from thin air and took aim at them while blue smoke poured out of mana stones that were embedded in the walls and furniture around the room.

Physical attacks, poisonous mist, and changes to the room itself…

An alchemist’s house was like a dungeon; entering it without permission was akin to suicide.

Harriet laughed.

His identity had been revealed, so there was no need to hesitate anymore.

“I mean, I said I couldn’t personally cast the spell, but did you really think I didn’t have anything up my sleeve?”

Harriet pulled a scroll from her clothes, and the pages automatically turned with Harriet’s hand gestures before a scroll separated itself from the book and began glowing.

Harriet was a wizard, but before that, she was incredibly rich.

-Raise!

The Antimagic Field scroll activated.

***

Before Harriet and Ellen entered Aaron Mede’s mansion…

“I think it’s here.”

“I guess so.”

Ellen pointed towards the faraway mansion.

Aaron Mede’s mansion was on the outskirts of the Imperial Capital. Although the area wasn’t completely uninhabited with no other buildings around, it was still located in a place people rarely visited.

It didn’t seem that luxurious, quite the opposite, it seemed rather simple.

Mr. Mustrang recommended him because he was an expert in alchemy and had excellent skills.

He only mentioned Aaron Mede because he didn’t know about any homunculi that could control people.

As such, they went to visit that Temple alchemy teacher.

Both Ellen and Harriet had some suspicions that they might have to face some uncomfortable truths.

It was weird to suspect a Temple teacher, but there was no reason for them not to be careful. They weren’t playing detective, after all. They were trying to personally get rid of the assassin.

“What do you think?”

Harriet shrugged at Ellen’s question.

“It’s suspicious, but… it’s not that weird. There’s no such thing as a wizard without a few secrets. Now that I think of it, a wizard who doesn’t set up a laboratory or a workshop in their basement would be even stranger. It’s a little big, of course.”

Feeling the massive magic barrier spreading under the mansion, Harriet commented as such.

“Can’t you see inside?”

“I don’t know how to forcibly disarm a magic barrier of that size, also, just my attempt of trying to look into it would get detected. If he isn’t hiding anything bad, the problem would get even bigger because that would mean that I lifted the barrier of another person’s property with no permission or reason.”

The person they were about to meet wasn’t just some normal teacher.

She was being careful. Ellen might’ve been fine as is, but when he told her to get prepared well before going, Harriet quickly grabbed the scroll book her father had given her in case something happened.

The magic spells contained in that scroll book, which could only be opened with her biometric information, were beyond anyone’s imagination. To be frank, she already had as much destructive power as a whole wizard corps with the spellbook alone.

It was priceless.

“Just take a look and apologize later if you think it’s necessary.”

Harriet was so shocked by Ellen’s words that she felt the need to put on the earrings Reinhardt had given her.

Feeling a little calmer, Harriet sighed.

“Would it just end with an apology…?”

“If it’s not enough, there’s nothing we can do.”

Hearing Ellen speak so nonchalantly convinced Harriet that Ellen was starting to resemble Reinhardt more and more.

* * *

* * *

She’s a monster.

Aaron Mede couldn’t banish that thought from his mind.

The Antimagic Field neutralized all magically-operated traps and facilities.

The spell wasn’t omnipotent, and it wouldn’t be able to neutralize everything, but the level of the spell she used was just too high. It was a scroll owned by the young lady of the Saint-Owan Duchy that was famous for its magic.

The magic contained in the scroll was very different from ordinary scrolls one could buy.

Yes, let’s say that’s possible.

There were also mechanical traps that worked using engines in Aaron Mede’s mansion which would still work.

-Bang!

-Bang!

-Bang! Babang!

The students might as well have been monsters as they broke through the mansion’s doors toward her.

He was in a bizarre situation of having to escape from his own mansion.

A single student surrounded by blue flames caused by Magic Body Strengthening broke through various walls and strode towards him.

She simply walked through every wall in her path toward him.

If they didn’t break with just her walking through them, she would cut through them with her sword, Lament.

The Divine Artifact of Mensis, the god of the moon, was said to possess a blade as cold and sharp as moonlight.

Aaron Mede was experiencing the power of that Divine Artifact in a way he least wanted.

Was there any difference between her and a Swordmaster? Attacks wouldn’t work on a body strengthened with magical power, and the Divine Artifact was making up for the characteristic power of a Swordmaster called Blade Aura.

-Thud! Bam! Babam!

Aaron Mede desperately ran from Ellen, who just bashed through walls if she didn’t see any doors.

She was even going in his direction as if she could feel where he was running to without actually seeing him.

He could have gotten away with a Teleport scroll, but that damn young lady’s Antimagic Field was blocking the use of any kind of magic. Of course, she couldn’t use any magic either, but there was a monster completely unrelated to magic following after him.

Even if they weren’t on the level of a Swordmaster, the servants of the mansion could have bought him some time at least, but they all collapsed as soon as the Antimagic Field was activated.

Before he knew it, Aaron Mede entered his own underground laboratory.

The situation there was the same as above. The homunculi he was studying had all either fallen apart or ceased to function.

He went even farther into his laboratory.

It didn’t just contain homunculi, after all.

“…”

After breaking through the reinforced door of the underground laboratory, Ellen carefully took in everything she saw, her body still enveloped in blue flames.

There were all sorts of strange specimens in pots, chimeras that seemed to still be alive, various life forms connected together in fascinating ways, and half-human half-animal chimeras as well that looked like humans with demon-like appendages.

“You…”

Ellen looked at Aaron Mede, her magical flames rising.

“You must die.”

No matter what happened, Ellen swore to kill Aaron Mede.

“He, hehe…”

Aaron Mede’s underground laboratory was built under the vast expanse of his mansion.

It was very wide, and there were many specimens inside of it—specimens that weren’t affected by the Antimagic Field.

—Chimeras.

-Clang!

Aaron Mede pulled a lever to open the pods, releasing the chimeras.

-Grrr…Growl!

Some among them had excellent combat capabilities, and some didn’t.

Either way, they were enough to buy him some time.

Amalgamations seemingly smashed together at someone’s grotesque will squirmed and screamed before her.

Ellen gave them a pitiful look.

Aaron Mede ran further into the basement.

If he was able to leave the area covered by the Antimagic Field, he could escape with Teleport.

He ran towards the secret exit of his underground laboratory.

“Kuaaaaaark!”

Ellen paused for a moment to look over the creatures.

-Swish!

“…”

Then she began to cut them down without hesitation.

***

With me was Sarkegaar in the form of a sparrow, and Eleris was hiding somewhere using invisibility magic.

I didn’t know what would happen, so I just brought all the resources available except for Loyar with me. Aaron Mede was an alchemist, so I didn’t know what he might end up doing.

We didn’t enter using the front entrance.

“Is that the secret passage?”

– Yes, Your Highness.

Sarkegaar, who was sitting on my shoulder as a sparrow, spoke up.

It was seriously weird hearing that mysteriously dreary and dark voice coming from that bird when it chirped cutely.

What was up with that?

He was a being of great darkness, but he was in the shape of a sparrow.

The mansion was built in a remote area on the outskirts of the Imperial Capital, and the secret passage was in the middle of a forest even farther away.

If I looked carefully, I could make out something that seemed like an iron gate among some thick vines buried under some fallen leaves.

We would enter using that passage and capture Aaron Mede from inside the mansion before he could notice.

-The atmosphere around here is a bit weird. I feel like something is going on…

Just as Eleris, who was hiding using invisibility magic, was about to say something…

-Creak…

The iron gate, which shouldn’t have moved, opened, and someone with quite a desperate expression jumped out of it.

“…?”

“!”

When he saw me just calmly standing outside, he looked so surprised that his heart might have even stopped for a bit.

“H-how did you…?!”

“…What?”

I didn’t actually know what Aaron Mede looked like because I had never seen him before.

– This is Aaron Mede.

I only knew because Sarkegaar told me.

That bewildered middle-aged man seemed to be Aaron Mede.

“…Why did he leave like that?”

– I don’t know.

While I didn’t know how that happened, Aaron Mede was right in front of me.

Even Aaron Mede seemed to want to ask why I was there.

He seemed completely shocked when he saw me waiting for him at the exit of his secret passage and talking with what seemed like a sparrow. It was like he decided to just give up on thinking.

That bastard put his hand into his inner chest pocket.

“Fine…”

-Baam!

I thrust my fist into his stomach before he could try to pull something out.

“Kuhuuuuuuuuuuurg!”

“I don’t really know what’s going on, but ** it.”

I grabbed the ragged guy lying on the floor by his hair.

“You have to take responsibility for what you did, don’t you think?”

“Kuh, hukhuk!”

He hadn’t killed us, but I would make him pay the price for trying.

A very high price.

Then…

-Boom!

Someone else popped out from the iron gate after roughly kicking it open.

“Huff… Huff…”

Ellen, breathing roughly, emerged out of it, splattered with flesh and blood. She appeared to be hurried, and her gaze went between Aaron Mede, whose hair I was holding, and me alternately.

“…Reinhardt?”

“…Why are you coming out of there as well?”

What the hell was going on?

Ellen, me, and even Aaron Mede…

Sarkegaar and Eleris weren’t able to say anything either.

All people present seemed to be unable to understand the situation.