“Aida needs Patrasche!”
Aida was whining in the arms of her father, Count Bradley.
Upon hearing Aida’s whimpering, Count Bradley couldn’t help but beam with a smile that seemed to stretch from ear to ear.
“Ah, so you want a big puppy, my little Aida?”
“Yes! A big dog! Aida likes a big dog that can pull a carriage.”
After recently becoming obsessed with playing the tragic protagonist from her brother’s new fairytale book, ‘A Dog of Flanders’, Aida had caused quite a stir among the household.
Especially since she wanted to play the role of the book’s hero, Nero, yet there was no puppy in the mansion to play the part of Patrasche.
In her determination, she even attempted to drag a cart around herself despite being far too small to do so. There she was, caught trying to deliver milk in a cart loaded with a milk barrel she had somehow gotten her hands on.
It was quite fortunate that Alain spotted her and pulled her back just in time. If he hadn’t, rumors might have spread that the Count’s noble young lady was dragging around a cart by herself.
As her grand scheme of becoming Patrasche flopped, Aida swiftly shifted her target back to her father, Count Bradley.
She knew instinctively that her father, being the doting parent of his only daughter and late-in-life child, could hardly refuse her.
Whenever she nuzzled against him, good things came her way.
“Hmm, a big dog that can pull a carriage, huh?”
Count Bradley pondered whether such a large breed even existed, but realistically, it wouldn’t be found unless it were a monster.
“Guess I can just have someone fetch a big puppy.”
After all, to children, any dog larger than a certain size looks similar, so he decided to have someone from the mansion fetch one while he affectionately rubbed Aida’s cheeks.
“Stop it!”
As the soft flesh of his cheeks turned a rosy red from Bradley’s beard, Aida shook her head to escape—but when her father asked if she didn’t want to see Patrasche, she had no choice but to offer her cheeks in resignation.
Later, after seeing Aida’s flushed cheeks, Count Bradley endured some scolding from Rupert and Alain, but he felt satisfied, cherishing the precious memory with his beloved daughter.
*
“Could it be that the material for the Philosopher’s Stone is human?”
Yustaf and Harun were reading a book together in the study.
Initially, they had planned to buy multiple copies to read individually, but due to its immense popularity, they ended up with just one hardcover and one standard edition.
Even then, the hardcover was fiercely coveted by their student, Jenia, who threw a tantrum that made it impossible for them to keep it, leaving them with no choice but to share the standard edition.
At least it wasn’t of poor quality; luckily, it sufficed for their research.
The real issue lay within the content.
While it hadn’t been precisely depicted in the comic yet, to Yustaf and Harun, both experts in their fields, it was clear that the Philosopher’s Stone involved using human materials.
“To activate this alchemical circle, we must sacrifice a person. How can anyone commit such a monstrous act?”
“We can’t just sit here; we need to check if there’s a rise in missing persons in the Empire.”
The Philosopher’s Stone.
A long-held aspiration of alchemists and a legendary item.
Since alchemy originally developed to create gold, the research into materials that could transform ordinary stones into gold had been ongoing from the inception of alchemy up to the present.
However, so many failures had accumulated that it was now merely regarded as a fantasy.
Yet to find answers in a comic book—this was something even Harun, the Empire’s top alchemist, shuddered at.
Calculations showed that to create the Philosopher’s Stone, one would need to sacrifice an unfathomable number of people, leading to the ultimate realization of why previous attempts had failed.
This was an object that should never be created.
“If we’re going to look into the trend of missing persons in the Empire, we’ll need the royal family’s assistance.”
“Indeed, there’s only so much we can do with our connections.”
“Can we schedule a private meeting with His Majesty?”
Meeting the Emperor one-on-one was no easy feat, even for Harun, the head of the alchemy guild.
“If I cite urgency, I’m sure they will accommodate us.”
However, if it were Yustaf’s request, it would be possible.
He was the former head of the Magic Tower, the principal of the Imperial Academy, and furthermore, the greatest magician on the continent.
But even with Yustaf, while arranging a meeting was feasible, convincing the Emperor remained uncertain.
The evidence consisted of the research findings they had gathered so far.
The trouble, however, lay in the fact that this research was compiled in a comic book.
If the conclusions had been derived from texts submitted by eminent scholars or magicians, the Emperor might have agreed.
But basing their conclusions on the content of a comic book would likely lead to dismissal.
The frustrating part was that to obtain solid evidence, they needed to track down the missing persons with the royal family’s assistance, which turned the process upside down.
“Still, we have to give it a shot; it’s a matter of life and death!”
“Indeed. I will prepare all necessary materials to aid in persuading His Majesty.”
Yustaf quickly exited the laboratory, heading toward the royal palace, while Harun remained behind, preparing to neatly edit the materials he had analyzed and organized.
However,
“No! You can’t take the book…”
To be honest, there were parts he hadn’t properly seen while reading together earlier, and he wanted to review them once more, but Yustaf had taken the comic book with him.
Harun thought Yustaf had unintentionally grabbed it, unaware that he had deliberately taken it when leaving the lab.
*
“I am not a suspicious dwarf!”
“How dare you try to invade the Somerset household and spout such nonsense!”
At the main entrance of the Somerset mansion, a bound dwarf and a terrified girl were surrounded by soldiers.
“Kroon is… not a bad dwarf… I just wanted to meet the author.”
The girl, clearly trembling from nerves, tried to defend the dwarf with a small voice.
However, the guards couldn’t help but feel suspicious.
After all, it wasn’t every day they saw a dwarf, and the first one they encountered happened to be attempting to barge through the front door of the mansion.
Given the recent influx of shady characters trying to sneak into the estate, they had bolstered their security, leaving little room for doubt.
Of course, encounters where they had to chase away fleeing persons were far more common.
“What’s going on in front of the mansion?”
“Captain! Right now, a dwarf is causing a ruckus at the mansion’s front door.”
A dwarf?
Mularus, the guard captain and once the sole knight of the territory, pondered whether his soldiers had taken a swig during their shift.
If it was indeed a dwarf—those small, furry folk—who despised humans and seldom interacted with them, then spotting one was exceedingly rare.
A dwarf causing such a commotion at the mansion’s entrance?
“You must be under some sort of delusion; a dwarf wouldn’t appear in a place like this… a dwarf?”
But upon witnessing the actual bound dwarf, Mularus found himself at a loss for words.
Why on earth was a dwarf—not in the imperial capital but in this rural southern area?
“Quickly, untie me! I must meet the author of the comic book!”
Watching the dwarf shout defiantly even in his bound state gave Mularus a headache.
If he referred to the author of the comic, it had to be Young Master Rupert.
There was absolutely no way he could face an untrustworthy individual.
“Why did you cause this commotion?”
“When I went to the front door, they refused entry, saying unauthorized individuals were not allowed!”
“Well, of course; why would dwarves just drop by a noble’s mansion out of the blue?”
“That’s…”
The dwarf fell silent, his head drooping under Mularus’s valid points.
Meanwhile, Mularus was worried about how to handle this dwarf.
If it were a human, he would have locked them up in an instant to teach them a lesson. However, dealing with a different race was proving to be quite overwhelming for him.
If handled improperly, it could escalate into a diplomatic incident with the dwarf kingdom.
This wasn’t just Mularus’s anxious speculation; there had been incidents in the past where one lord imprisoned elves during a racial war, nearly sparking another conflict.
“I need to report this to the Young Master.”
There were too many variables that could escalate the situation if he made a judgment on his own.
Thus, Mularus resolved to report to Rupert.
However, he felt a strange sense of unease, as he skipped over the still-sound Count Bradley to approach Rupert.
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