Chapter 61

Chapter 61
## Chapter 61

“H-here, please accept this.”

Clink.

With hands that would not stop shaking, the youth set the tea service down before Lucian and Raymond.

Lucian didn’t give the beverage a passing thought, his concentration locked entirely on the teenager.

Is this child truly the mind behind Nectar?

Lucian was well aware that maturity wasn’t always a prerequisite for talent. Every so often, a prodigy on the level of Felicia might surface in various crafts.

However, the path of the sword, which demanded raw intuition and physical feedback, was a different beast entirely from academic pursuits that required massive study. Taking that into account, the boy standing there seemed far too adolescent to claim the title of an alchemist.

“What do they call you?”

“Huh? It’s… my name is Ian.”

“And how many years have you seen?”

“I’m seventeen…”

“You are quite young. I questioned it just to be sure, but it is exactly as I suspected.”

As Lucian allowed his candid thoughts to vent, Raymond leaned over from his side and muttered under his breath.

“Young Master, have you perhaps misplaced the memory of your own age?”

“…Are you an assistant to Heide? Or perhaps his pupil?” Lucian inquired, smoothly brushing past Raymond’s jab.

After a beat of uncertainty, the boy, Ian, replied with a shadowed expression.

“An apprentice candidate.”

“Pardon? You are either a student or you are not. What exactly is an ‘apprentice candidate’?”

“The Master claims I am not yet a formal apprentice. He told me if I serve his interests well and assist with his labors, he will grant me the title later.”

“Ha.”

A dry, mirthless chuckle left Lucian’s lips as he connected the dots of the arrangement.

Heide didn’t want to grant him official status so he could keep the boy under his thumb. He was dangling a non-existent promotion over the kid’s head just to bleed him dry.

The more Lucian uncovered about Heide, the more he loathed the man.

After a moment of reflection, Lucian chose to cut to the heart of the matter. Since his companion wasn’t a licensed alchemist, there was no point in dancing around the issue.

“I crossed paths with the alchemist Heide just a short while ago. I held an interest in Moonlight Grass and sought to ask him a few things. But that individual wasn’t merely indifferent; he looked upon the subject with utter scorn.”

“…!”

“Frankly, I was let down. I assumed a man of science might possess some insight. I intended to simply purchase the Moonlight Grass and depart, but…”

Lucian paused, pinning Ian with a sharp, meaningful stare.

“There exists a ledger showing that he acquired Moonlight Grass at the precise moment he was in our company.”

“….”

“I am not one to poke into the affairs of others, but isn’t the theft of a master’s capital for private use a significant issue? Particularly when that coin is a government grant, meaning it involves the authority of His Majesty the Emperor.”

At the mention of the sovereign, Ian’s complexion turned a ghostly white as he gaped at Lucian.

When Lucian gestured with his chin, silently demanding an account, Ian started to trip over his words.

“A-as I mentioned, it’s a total misunderstanding! The Master gave me his blessing for all of it…!”

“His blessing? That Heide told you to scatter his coin however you saw fit?”

“To be exact, he stated I could employ it for alchemy! He said it was acceptable as long as it produced fruit!”

I see.

Heide must have offloaded the portion of the imperial grants that couldn’t be easily pocketed for his own vices onto his trainee. That way, if any worthwhile breakthroughs occurred, he could simply claim the glory and publish them as his own.

However, Ian’s logic didn’t explain the whole picture.

“All of it? Such a massive quantity?”

“….”

“I find that hard to believe. This sum appears to go far beyond any logical allowance a mentor would grant, does it not?”

There was a ceiling to how much a teacher would let a student burn through. Observing the records, it was evident Ian had even used the funds Heide intended to steal for his own lusts to stock up on Moonlight Grass.

As if Lucian had struck a nerve, Ian’s shoulders slumped in defeat.

“Are you going to report what I’ve done to the Master?”

“That hinges on your transparency. To start, I wish to know what you intended to do with that much Moonlight Grass.”

“That’s….”

“Physical enhancement through the magnification of internal mana.”

“…!”

“By the look of things, the components are Moonlight Grass, Red Thorn, Winged Lantern, and the like. Am I hitting the mark?”

Ian began to shake as Lucian rattled off the specific list. Raymond, unable to grasp the technicalities, tilted his head in total bewilderment.

“What are you discussing? Those sounds like the makings of a common tonic.”

“To be precise, they are the building blocks of a serum that could alter the course of history. If perfected, it could transform even the most mediocre failure into a legendary genius.”

“H-has someone else been looking into this besides me?”

No longer able to contain his fervor, Ian lunged toward Lucian. Raymond, acting as a bodyguard, immediately intercepted him by jamming the sheath of his blade against the boy’s ribs, but Ian didn’t even seem to notice the impact, desperate to get closer.

Lucian gave a nod and softly guided Ian back.

“There was someone. Though the pursuit ended in ruin. Other components included the Stem Flower and….”

“Stem Flower!”

At Lucian’s mention, Ian flinched back as if he had been struck, letting out a sharp cry.

“How did I miss that! Yes, if I incorporate Stem Flower, the puzzle is complete! Why didn’t it dawn on me—urk!”

Crash!

In his manic state, Ian hooked his foot on a chair and hit the floor. However, as if he were made of stone, he scrambled back up and sprinted for the stairs to the second floor. It was clear he intended to verify this new lead immediately.

Lucian stared at the boy’s retreating form and offered a weary, bitter grin.

“Let’s follow him up.”

“Is it proper to just barge into someone’s residence like this?”

“Once men of science reach that fever pitch, there is no stopping them. If we remain down here, he won’t resurface even after his work is done.”

The true intellectuals Lucian had encountered were always the same. Propelled by obsession and the need to validate their theories, they would discard the rest of the world to drown in their work. Expecting them to be polite without someone to force a pause was a waste of time.

“Well, look at this.”

Upon entering the upper floor, Lucian clicked his tongue at the state of the workshop.

Scraps of parchment were drowned in tiny script, and massive diagrams were piled high, some as dense as encyclopedias. Empty inkwells and quills were scattered across the floorboards, and a corner was overflowing with crumpled, aborted research logs.

Ironically, in the middle of this mess, the medicinal plants and various vials were sorted with surgical precision.

Stunning. Who would believe this is the workshop of a seventeen-year-old kid?

Most recognized alchemists wouldn’t be able to commit to their craft with such raw heat. After surveying the chamber and flipping through the logs, Lucian turned his attention to Ian, who was moving with frantic energy.

“Please, let it work… please let it be right…!”

Ian whispered as if he were begging a god, his gaze anchored to a glowing glass vessel. A pungent, biting aroma began to drift from the glass as the contents reached a boil. It was the same chemical reaction Lucian had witnessed during the creation of the flawed Nectar.

Correct, as the scent intensifies and the solution bleeds red…!

Lucian, who had been grinning while observing the flask, suddenly snapped his eyes wide.

The biting smell evaporated, swapped for a scent so crisp and clean it felt freezing, saturating the entire workshop. The fluid, which had been on the verge of turning crimson, slowly bled into a deep blue and began to radiate a soft luminescence.

What is that? It should be turning red, shouldn’t it?

“I-it’s done! It worked! It actually worked!”

Unlike Lucian, who was stunned by the completely unexpected result, Ian leaped for joy where he stood, actual tears escaping his eyes.

Cutting the flame and lifting the glass vial, Ian stared at his work with a glazed expression. While Lucian stood frozen, captivated by the boy’s sheer focus, Raymond stepped closer and whispered.

“Young Master, what in the world did that brat just cook up?”

“What do you mean?”

“Look at it. Mana is vibrating around that fluid.”

Jarred by Raymond’s observation, Lucian pushed mana into his vision. Sure enough, he could perceive mana swirling around the potion like crashing waves.

This is madness…!

To sense mana radiating from the tonic itself before it was even swallowed—he couldn’t even begin to guess how potent the results would be if someone actually drank the stuff.

Just then, Lucian’s face drained of color as he saw Ian bringing the vial to his lips.

“You reckless brat! Stand down!”

Thwack!

“Gah!”

Lucian moved like lightning, striking the back of Ian’s neck and seizing the glass. Ian looked up at him with a wounded, angry face.

“W-why did you do that!”

“What are you thinking? Why would you attempt to drink it without a second thought?”

“A trial! If the serum is complete, I have to verify the results myself!”

“Good heavens.”

Lucian scowled at Ian’s furious shout. A researcher, not even a trained soldier, dumping such a violent concoction down his throat? There was a massive risk that his body wouldn’t be able to contain the overwhelming energy, leading to a fatal collapse.

At the very least, a warrior who has cleared their mana channels needs to ingest it for the true potential to manifest.

“Hand it back! I have to know!”

Lucian shoved the lunging Ian aside and stated, “If you require a clinical trial, I will be the subject. You just observe. What if you drop dead after drinking this with that weak frame of yours?”

“Huh? Truly?”

“Young Master?!”

Raymond stared at Lucian with a face full of horror. To drink a medicine radiating such terrifying energy without knowing the consequences!

“Have you lost your senses?! Cease this at once! If someone must test it, I will be the one to do so!”

“No, that is out of the question.”

“And why is that?!”

“I am certain I will survive it, but you will not.”

“That is ridiculous…!”

Raymond glared at Lucian as if he were speaking gibberish, but Lucian had no way to explain the nuances. This was, at its core, a matter of physical makeup.

With my biology, any mana that passes the threshold will be bled off naturally. But that won’t happen for Raymond. No matter how much he has worked, his mana paths cannot be as pristine as mine.

Mana overloads or internal ruptures happen when energy exceeding the body’s limits cannot be vented. Thus, with a body like Lucian’s, such events were mathematically impossible. His mana channels were so broad and unobstructed that even if a crisis occurred, the overflow would be ejected in a heartbeat.

It might sound vain, but I am likely the only soul on this planet capable of surviving this medicine.

Lucian felt a strange pulse of adrenaline as he stared at the Nectar—or perhaps the true, primal form of Nectar. What would occur when a serum no man could endure met the only man who could?

“Young Master!”

Realizing that talk was over, Raymond barked a warning and dove for Lucian. But Lucian, having already made his choice, drained the blue fluid into his mouth.

By the time Raymond managed to rip the vial away, every drop but a tiny smear had already vanished down Lucian’s throat.

“Curse it! Cough it up! Do you have any idea what that stuff is…!”

Vroooom!

Just before a frantic Raymond could pry Lucian’s jaw open, a blinding explosion of mana roared out of Lucian, rattling the very foundations of the workshop.

Rumble!

The savage gale of mana flipped the laboratory upside down.

Notes took flight like birds, glass jars holding rare herbs shattered, and heavy shelves toppled over like falling trees. Raymond clenched his teeth against the pressure, which felt like being caught in a hurricane.

“You little devil! What did you create?!”

“Uuuuugh!”

Raymond bellowed at Ian with murderous fury, but Ian was too busy trying not to be swept away by the cyclone of mana to give an answer. In the middle of the wreckage where everything was being shredded, Lucian was the only one who didn’t move an inch.

My god.

Lucian choked back a shout that wanted to burst from his chest. He felt that if he even parted his lips, the pressure of the mana might level the entire building.

I never dreamed it would be this intense.

The supercharged mana boiled like a volcano, tearing through Lucian’s channels with terrifying speed. Any normal person would have been vaporized instantly, but to Lucian, it felt merely like a cold splash of water.

Inside the horrific tide of mana, every time Lucian shut his eyes, the energy rippled in response, making the air thrum.

This much power from a mere blink. What would happen if I drew a blade?

For a split second, a tiny voice urged him to try it, but he held back. There was a chance that Raymond and Ian might be killed by the shockwaves.

More than anything, this strength wasn’t something Lucian could fully command yet. It was like standing in the middle of a lava flow; when he shifted his weight, the fire simply moved with him.

If only I could harness and compress this within my core…

For the Lucian of right now, it was like trying to hold back a tsunami with his bare hands. However, if he just let it sit, it would bleed out of his pores and the benefit would be lost. Just as Lucian was pondering if there was a way to capture even a fraction of it—

Twitch.

One of the mana circuits linking his spine to his cranium pulsed in response to the drowning power. It was a route he had avoided for the sake of fast flow, as it didn’t offer much in the way of raw physical power.

Could it be?

On a sudden impulse, Lucian threw open that dormant path. Once the gate was gone, the roaring power flooded through it and hit his brain in a flash. The mana climbed without any resistance and began to spin within his consciousness.

Lucian was shaken for a second, but soon he felt a level of mental clarity that made his previous thoughts feel like fog. At the same time, he perceived something he had never actually seen before enter his sight.

Mana?

Even though he hadn’t forced energy into his eyes, he could see mana as clear as day. He could even perceive the mana flowing inside the bodies of Raymond and Ian, who were fighting to stay upright in the storm. Their every twitch felt so slow that he could reach out and stop them with a finger.

Lucian was stunned by the sensation of possessing a god-like perception.

Felicia.

A single name surfaced in Lucian’s mind. The master of the blade who could perceive mana itself, predict every movement of her foe, and find the perfect strike.

Only then did Lucian grasp what he had gained.

So, this is the world as she sees it.