“P-please, drink.”
Clack, clack. The boy placed the tea in front of Lucian and Raymond with trembling hands.
Lucian didn’t spare the cup a single glance; he kept his eyes fixed on the boy.
‘Is this boy really the developer of the Nectar?’
Lucian also knew that age and ability didn’t always go hand in hand.
At times, geniuses comparable to Felicia could emerge even in other fields.
But swordsmanship, which heavily relied on instinct and perception, and academic disciplines, which demanded vast knowledge, were two different matters.
Considering that, the boy in front of him was far too young to call himself an alchemist.
“What’s your name?”
“Huh? I-Ian.”
“How old are you?”
“Seventeen…”
“You’re young.”
Lucian voiced his impression bluntly. Beside him, Raymond leaned in and whispered.
“Young master, did you forget your own age?”
“…”
Lucian discreetly ignored the comment and asked again.
“Are you Haide’s assistant? Or his disciple?”
After hesitating for a moment, Ian replied with a gloomy expression.
“I’m… a disciple candidate.”
“What? If you’re a disciple, you’re a disciple. What’s with this ‘candidate’ business?”
“Master said I’m not officially a disciple yet. That if I help him properly, he’ll promote me later.”
“Ha…”
Lucian let out a dry laugh, understanding the situation.
‘If he acknowledges him as a disciple right away, he can’t manipulate him freely. That’s why he keeps him in an ambiguous position—to pressure him.’
The more Lucian learned about Haide, the less he liked him.
After thinking for a moment, Lucian decided to get straight to the point. If the other wasn’t even a formal alchemist, there was no reason to beat around the bush.
“I recently met Haide outside. I was interested in Moonlight Herb and wanted to ask him a few things. But rather than disinterested, he mocked it.”
“…”
“To be honest, I was disappointed. I thought he’d know something, being an alchemist. In the end, I was just going to buy the Moonlight Herb and leave.”
Lucian paused and looked at Ian with a meaningful expression.
“Turns out there are records showing he bought Moonlight Herb on the very day we met.”
“…”
“I don’t like interfering in other people’s matters, but using your master’s money for personal use is a problem, no? Especially when that money comes from state subsidies, tied to His Majesty the Emperor.”
At the word “Emperor,” Ian turned pale. Lucian tilted his chin slightly, prompting him to explain, and the boy spoke awkwardly.
“A-as I said before, it’s a misunderstanding. Master authorized all of it…”
“He authorized it? Haide told you to use his money however you wanted?”
“He said I could use it for alchemy. That as long as there were results, it didn’t matter.”
Lucian could picture it with the imperial subsidy, the portion Haide couldn’t use for personal expenses was dumped on the apprentice.
If something decent came out of it, he could just claim it as his own.
Still, something didn’t add up.
“All that amount?”
“…”
“I doubt it. With that quantity, doesn’t it far exceed what he would’ve allowed?”
Even allowing a disciple to use part of the funds had limits.
Judging by the purchase volume, it was clear even the portion Haide usually skimmed for himself had been spent.
Ian, as if struck in just the right spot, lowered his head with a resigned expression.
“Are you going to tell Master what I did?”
“That depends on your answer. First, I want to know where all that Moonlight Herb went.”
“Well…”
“Body enhancement through mana amplification.”
“…!”
“From what I see, the ingredients would be Moonlight Herb, Red Thorn, Winged Lantern, among others. Right?”
Hearing the ingredients listed so precisely, Ian began to tremble.
Raymond, not fully grasping it, tilted his head.
“What are you talking about? Judging by the names, they sound like potion ingredients.”
“More like a medicine capable of changing the world. If successfully completed, even the most mediocre would go down in history as a prodigy.”
“S-someone else already researched this before me?”
Unable to contain himself, Ian took a step toward Lucian.
Raymond immediately reacted, pressing the scabbard of his sword against Ian’s chest, but the boy didn’t seem to feel pain and tried to get even closer.
Lucian nodded and, gently pushing him back, continued.
“Yes. It was left incomplete. And among the other ingredients was Stem Flower and…”
“Stem Flower!”
At those words, Ian recoiled as if struck by lightning.
“How did I not think of that?! Of course, if I mix in Stem Flower, everything will be resolved! How didn’t I think of that…?!”
In his frenzy, Ian tripped on the leg of a chair and fell to the floor.
However, as if he didn’t feel any pain, he got up immediately and ran upstairs, desperate to test what he had just realized.
Lucian watched his back in silence and let out a bitter smile.
“Let’s go up too.”
“Is it okay? This is someone else’s house.”
“When scholars get like that, there’s no stopping them. If we wait, he won’t come down even after finishing.”
The true scholars Lucian had known were always like that—consumed by curiosity and the urge to test their hypotheses, they abandoned everything else to focus solely on research.
Without someone to rein them in, expecting them to show restraint on their own was pointless.
***
“Bah, well.”
Lucian clicked his tongue as he entered the laboratory on the second floor.
Small papers covered in notes were stuck everywhere, and large sheets were piled here and there with a thickness comparable to several books.
On top of that were empty ink bottles and quills strewn across the floor, while crumpled and discarded research journals occupied an entire corner.
The absurd part was that, in the middle of all that chaos, the medicinal ingredients and some potions were meticulously categorized.
“This is incredible. Who would believe this is the lab of a seventeen-year-old boy?”
Not even a formal alchemist would research with such obsession.
As he walked through the lab and flipped through the records, Lucian glanced over at Ian, who was rushing back and forth.
“Please… please… let it work…”
Ian murmured as if praying, watching the glass flask that was being heated.
A pungent smell began to rise from the vessel—the same reaction Lucian had seen when he had made the degraded version of the nectar.
“Yes… when the smell intensifies and the potion turns red…”
Lucian smiled as he watched the flask, but suddenly his eyes widened. The sharp odor disappeared all at once, and instead, a fresh aroma filled the laboratory.
The liquid, which was supposed to turn red, gradually changed to a deep blue and began to emit a soft glow.
“What is that? Wasn’t it supposed to turn red?”
“I-it worked! It really worked!”
Unlike Lucian, who was bewildered by the unexpected reaction, Ian was jumping with joy, tears in his eyes.
He stopped the heating, took the flask out, and stared at the result, dazed.
While Lucian remained still, overwhelmed by the energy, Raymond approached and whispered.
“Young master, what the hell did he just make?”
“Why are you asking me?”
“Look closely. The magic is resonating around that liquid.”
Alarmed, Lucian focused on the magical energy. Indeed, around the potion, magic spread in waves, as if it was rippling through the air.
“This makes no sense…”
No one had even drunk it yet, and the potion’s magic was already palpable. He couldn’t imagine what would happen upon ingestion.
At that moment, Ian tilted the flask toward his mouth, and Lucian was horrified.
“You’re insane! Stop!”
Smack!
“Kgh!”
Lucian struck him sharply on the back of the neck and snatched the flask away. Ian looked at him with a hurt expression.
“W-why would you do that?”
“You’re the crazy one! Why would you drink it just like that?”
“It’s a clinical trial! If the potion is complete, we have to test its effects!”
“Honestly…”
At Ian’s overly confident response, Lucian frowned.
For a scholar—not a knight—to swallow such an extreme medicine was far too risky. If he couldn’t endure the effect, it could backfire terribly.
“At the very least, someone who’s already opened their mana pathways should take it.”
“Give it back! I have to test it!”
Lucian pushed Ian aside, who tried to leap again, and said.
“If a test is needed, I’ll do it. You watch. What if you take it with that weak body and die?”
“Huh? Really?”
“Young master!?”
Raymond looked at him like he might faint. The energy was overwhelming, and yet he was planning to drink it without knowing its effects?
“Are you out of your mind? Stop! If it needs testing, I’ll do it instead.”
“No, you can’t.”
“Why not?”
“Because I’ll be fine, but you won’t.”
“That makes no sense…!”
Raymond glared at him, furious, but Lucian had no better way to explain.
It was a matter of constitution.
“In my body, any excess magic will be expelled on its own. But not in yours. No matter how much you’ve trained, your magic paths can’t be as clean as mine.”
Magic overload or rebound happens when excess can’t be properly expelled.
In Lucian’s case, that was virtually impossible—his pathways were too wide and pure, and any anomaly would instantly dissipate.
“Maybe it’s arrogant to say… but perhaps this is a potion only I can drink.”
Lucian felt a strange thrill as he gazed at the blue liquid, which might be the prototype of the nectar.
What would happen if a medicine no human could withstand met the one human capable of enduring it?
“Young master!”
Raymond, seeing that words weren’t enough, shouted and lunged toward him. But Lucian had already made his decision and let the blue liquid flow into his mouth.
When Raymond grabbed the flask, only a drop or two remained—the rest had already gone down Lucian’s throat.
“Damn it! Spit it out right now! Do you even know what kind of thing you just drank…!”
Before Raymond could force his mouth open, a blinding explosion of magical energy burst from Lucian’s body and shook the entire laboratory.
BOOOOM!
The violent magical surge turned the lab upside down.
Papers flew into the air, glass bottles shattered, and shelves fell like dominoes.
Faced with the storm-like force, Raymond clenched his teeth.
“Damn bastard! What the hell did you create?”
“Ghh…!”
Raymond shouted with fury toward Ian, but the boy could barely stay on his feet, struggling against the magical tide.
Amid the chaos, the only one who remained calm was Lucian.
“Incredible…”
Lucian barely held back the exclamation threatening to escape.
If he opened his mouth carelessly, the magical energy might blow up the entire room.
“I never imagined it would reach this level.”
The amplified magic boiled like a furnace and rampaged through Lucian’s mana paths uncontrollably.
Any normal person would’ve exploded from the inside, but to Lucian, it merely felt… refreshing.
Every time he blinked, the magic reacted and stirred the air.
“Just blinking causes this? Then what would happen if I swung a sword?”
A small temptation stirred within him, but he held back.
If he did that, Raymond and Ian could die from the shockwave.
Besides, this power wasn’t under control; it was like moving inside lava and causing it to splash with each step.
“If I could fully control it and condense it within my body, I wouldn’t ask for anything more…”
To the current Lucian, it was like trying to hold back a flood with bare hands. But if he let it go, the magic would leak out and the effect would vanish.
While searching for a way to retain even a fraction, a mana path leading from the spine to the head reacted to the overflowing power and shuddered.
It was a route he had avoided because it didn’t strengthen the body and was inefficient for flow.
“Could it be…?”
Lucian opened the path he usually ignored. As soon as he did, the energy rushed up to his head without rebounding, swirling inside.
For a moment, he was startled, but then he felt a clarity unlike anything before.
At the same time, something he had never seen appeared in his field of vision.
“The magic…?”
Without reinforcing his eyes, he could see the magic with complete clarity. Even the magic inside the human body—something he had never been able to perceive no matter how much he trained.
The movements of Raymond and Ian, struggling against the magical surge, seemed within arm’s reach.
As Lucian stood dazed by this almost prophetic vision, a name crossed his mind.
“Felicia.”
The sword genius who saw magic with her own eyes, predicted every opponent’s move, and found the optimal trajectory.
At that moment, Lucian understood what he had obtained.
‘This is how she saw the world.’
____
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