At the Gloaurum Institute that exists in Arcazam, a variety of research is conducted day and night.

The institute itself was built adjacent to the west side of Solminati Academy, on the opposite side of Ecross school, which is affiliated with Solminati Academy.

In one section of the institute, Torgrain, a staff member, and Tom, a student of Solminati Academy, were busy.

The two of them first met in a class at the academy. Tom was originally an excellent student in alchemy. In the alchemy class, he was actively asking questions to Torgrain.

Tom and Torgrain, who are both quiet by nature, hit it off and Tom began to visit Torgrain from time to time to talk about various things and help him with his research as his assistant.

This time, Tom and Torgrain were working on creating a magic formation for experiments.

The magic formation was drawn in the center of a large laboratory that could fit an entire classroom. Eight magic stones were placed in circles around the magic formation.

From the magic formation, several lines were drawn in various dyes, extending to a crystal ball placed at a distance.

"Sensei, is this the right formation?"

"Yes, I leave it to you."

Tom drew more magic formation on the magic stones placed around him. Mimuru watched him as she dawdled on the desk recording the results of his experiments.

"Hey Tom, what do you use that for?

"Hmm, this? It's used to stabilize the magic flowing through the magic formation."

"Hee~"

Mimuru replied casually, but there was a smile on her face. It was because her lover, who was absorbed in his work in front of her, had his eyes shining.

Tom is always shy and timid, but when he's working on his alchemy, he's really lively. It made her happy to see him like that.

"It can't be helped", she thought. But Mimuru couldn't stop her mouth from loosening.

Without noticing Mimuru's appearance, Tom continued to draw the magic formation under Torgrain's instruction.

The magic stones placed around him were to make up for the lack of magic power. The magic formation was huge and complex. It must be difficult for a single person's magical power to activate such a huge magic formation.

There was no doubt that the experiment they conducted was going to be a very large one.

"Sensei, what exactly is this magic formation used for?"

"Hmmm. Since you're helping me, I don't feel comfortable hiding it from you, but..."

Tom tried to ask Torgrain about the purpose of this magic formation, but Torgrain's reply was still not good.

It's reasonable. No matter how good a student is helping him, but he can't let his research be known. Naturally, the number of people who can enter this institute is limited.

No matter how promising Tom is, Torgrain can't simply tell Tom, who is only an assistant in the institute, about the important research.

Certainly, Tom is supposed to be Torgrain's assistant in the institute, but the scope of research he can be involved in is limited. In addition, Mimuru, who had nothing to do with the research, was here now.

The reason for this was because Mimuru insisted on going with Tom, and despite with a bitter smile, Torgrain agreed.

As a matter of fact, the only reason she is here is because of Torgrain's good intentions.

"I'm sorry, I asked such a strange question."

"No,?I would be grateful?if you could say that."

Looking at Torgrain who was hesitant, Tom thought it was bad to force him, so he pulled back. In front of Tom's line of sight, Torgrain had an apologetic expression on his face. To be honest, Tom was the one who asked him, so there was no need for him to feel bad.

The magic formation on the ground was not finished yet, and the important parts were not drawn, but from Tom's point of view, it was apparently meant to interfere with the object placed in the center.

It was unusual to see such a huge object, but in the world of alchemy, where the nature of various objects and forces are understood, recombined, and created, it was not particularly unusual. There is no doubt that the key is the magic stones placed around it, and the rest of the formation that will be drawn in the center.

"Hmmm~. I don't understand at all..."

Mimuru, who was watching from the side, had no idea what was going on. In the past, she was not good at using her head in magic or tactics, so she had no idea how the formation in front of her would work.

"Mimuru, please don't carelessly touch anything around you."

"Gosh~. There's no way I would do such a thing~."

"You said that, but... didn't you once spill my reagent and ruin my lab materials? If I hadn't done it right at that time, the reagent would have reacted with the material and caused something terrible to happen..."

"A-hahaha ..."

At that time, Mimuru had carelessly spilled a magic stone powder and a fire lizard's tail. When the magic stones were broken, the magic power stored inside them dissipates, but by following a special process, the magic power stored inside them can be preserved and turned into powder.

However, by following a special process, it can be made into powder while retaining the stored magic power. It can be used to improve the flow of magic power when used as a dye for drawing magic formation and can be applied to various magic tools, but because of its increased efficiency in reacting with magic power, it also has the tendency to release the contained magic power all at once in a short period of time if handled poorly.

The tail of the fire lizard was the tail of a demon beast, and it reacted to magical power to produce flames.

Fortunately, at this time, the spilled magic powder and the fire lizard's tail didn't react, so it didn't become a catastrophe, but if it was handled poorly then.......

Mimuru, with a pale expression, dripped cold sweat. At that moment, her hand on the desk bumped into something.

When Mimuru picked it up, she saw that it was a framed portrait.

A fragile-looking young girl was smiling in the photo.

"Who is this....?"

As Mimuru leaned her head, wondering who it was, Torgrain, who had been drawing the magic formation, let out a small voice. The door of the laboratory opened and someone was entering the room.

"Torgrain-dono, regarding the upcoming experiment ......, hmmm, you are..."

"I-it's bad, ......."

It was Jihad who entered the laboratory. It seemed that he had something to do with Torgrain, but he frowned when he saw Tom and Mimuru in the lab.

"Torgrain-dono. I thought you shouldn't be inviting your students here..."

"Ji-Jihad-sensei. I'm Torgrain-sensei's assistant..."

When Jihad heard Tom's explanation, a look of surprise appeared on his face. Normally, he would not have thought that a student, would be working as an assistant to a researcher at this school.

"But she's not, is she? Torgrain-dono?...."

Jihad's eyes widened, but he quickly turned his attention to Mimuru. In fact, she was not supposed to be in this room, and Torgrain had no choice but to bow deeply and apologize.

"I-I'm sorry..."

"There are some things that are extremely difficult to handle in this laboratory. If you are not careful, Torgrain-dono will be the first one to bear the responsibility. You have to be aware of that."

She is certainly not an assistant. It is true that she is Tom's girlfriend, but as Jihad said, one's should keep their private and public life separate.

And if anything goes wrong, she and Torgrain will be on the hook.

Tom bowed his head apologetically. Mimuru was also depressed and kept his ears down.

"Well now, Torgrain-dono, let's talk about that matter..."

After firmly reminding Mimuru and the others, Jihad seemed to finally get down to the main subject. However, he glanced at Tom and Mimuru who were still in the laboratory, as if he was worried about them, and then looked at Torgrain.

"Tom, I think you've done enough for today."

Torgrain, who understood Jihad's intentions, urged Tom and Mimuru to leave for today.

"I understand. I think we'll leave for today. Mimuru, let's go."

"U-um. Excuse me."

The two of them cleaned up their luggage in a hurry and quickly left the laboratory. After they had disappeared behind the door, Torgrain bowed to Jihad again.

"Jihad-dono, I'm really sorry for what happened today."

"No, it's alright. The important thing is that they don't seem to know about it, so let's not pursue it this time. In the first place, I'm not the manager of this facility either. However, please be careful in the future. If something were to happen, not only you, but they will also have to take responsibility."

Torgrain nodded firmly at Jihad's words.

The reason why Jihad acted like that was because he was worried about Tom, Mimuru, and Torgrain. Even for him, he didn't want to ruin the future of his precious students.

"But we can't really say they are irrelevant in this matter..."

"Yeah, I've seen that report. I knew they were the ones who killed the demon beast..."

Jihad nodded his head at Torgrain's words.

Seeing this, Torgrain made a surprised expression.

"Let's get back to the main subject. When will that experiment be ready?"

"Since Tom helped me with it, the difficult part is pretty much done. Now we just need to complete the formation in the center and we can start the experiment at any time. ......"

Torgrain reported to Jihad and looked puzzled at Jihad's atmosphere.

Jihad muttered, "I see", and closed his eyes for a moment to think. A few seconds of silence enveloped Torgrain in a heavy atmosphere.

Eventually, Jihad let out a big breath and slowly opened his mouth.

"Alright. The experiment will be carried out tonight as planned. Get ready."

Jihad's words echoed in the inorganic laboratory. A plain and clear command. But the words were filled with an unparalleled sense of tension.

=====================================

Nozomu and the others walked deeper and deeper into the forest. Irisdina knew the exact location of their destination, so she led the way, with Nozomu and Feo following behind.

The sun was still in the sky, but it was dim in the forest. Even so, the sun was shining warmly through the trees, and the sunlight shining through the transparent leaves was slightly illuminating the dim forest.

As Nozomu and the others walked through the forest, their ears were filled with the sound of birds singing through the thick branches. Even though this was a forest inhabited by demon beasts, the birds and other small animals seemed to be enjoying their lives.

Nozomu and the others carefully walked forward, listening for signs of their surroundings.

When Nozomu looked around to see how far they had walked, Irisdina, who had been leading the way, looked back at him.

"Nozomu, is your body really alright ......?"

"Hm?"

"No, it's just... you looked a little in pain this morning...."

Irisdina looked at Nozomu in a slightly worried manner. She was probably worried that Nozomu had been exhausted by Tiamat's dream this morning.

"Y-yeah. I'm fine. I'm a little tired from all the staring I've been getting due to the result of special training, but my body is fine and I'm my mind is not having any problems. So I won't slow you down."

"That's not what I'm worried about..."

Irisdina was simply concerned about Nozomu. He tended to keep things that were hard for him to handle to himself.

Maybe the series of events with Lisa and Ken caused him to do so. Or was it just his nature?

He's not like that anymore after telling Irisdina and the others everything, but still, she was worried about him.

Irisdina gazed into Nozomu's eyes.

As if trying to peer into the depths of his mind, the beauty reminiscent of a master craftsman's sculpture quickly approached him.

Her skin is as clean as fresh snow without a single blemish. Her eyes that reminiscent of obsidian were shaking with anxiety.

"... Are you sure you're okay?"

Irisdina's voiced her thoughts as if to confirm. Nozomu nodded slowly as if to calm his own rapidly beating heart.

"I'll be fine. I'll tell you if it gets bad."

"Please make sure you do. You've been pushing yourself too hard."

Irisdina added that it had been pushing himself since the Undead Dragon. As for Nozomu, he could only smile and scratch his head.

"By the way, you weren't with Somia this morning. What's wrong? She's always coming with you..."

"Ah, Somia came to school early this morning. Somia has been very motivated lately. She went to see Ecross's teacher and asked to teach her."

Upon hearing that story, Nozomu seemed to be impressed.

Somia was only eleven years old, and she was probably in the prime of her life, and she probably still had a lot of things she wanted to try.

She is always as bright as the sun. Nozomu was impressed with her attitude of sincerely aiming for her goal. However, he was worried that she might be overwhelmed since she seemed to have had some trouble with her sister at one point.

"Well, maybe Somia has something to aim for..."

Irisdina was looking at Nozomu with some kind of meaningful smile on her face. Not knowing what she meant, Nozomu just tilted his head.

"Speaking of which, Nozomu, you were getting tangled up with a strange guy at the guild a while back.

At that time, Feo, who was walking next to him, spoke to him.

"Yeah, you mean that student named Eldor, right?"

"Yes, that's him. I've heard that he's one of the best in his year. I've heard rumors that he has a crush on the black-haired princess and has even confessed to her recently."

"Hee ..."

Nozomu glanced sideways in Irisdina's direction. The expression on her face was not the same as when she was worried about Nozomu earlier but had returned to her usual dignified expression.

According to Feo, Eldor was one of the most talented freshmen who had entered the school this year.

His father had served in the military, and he had learned swordsmanship from him, and he excelled at using a sword and shield to defend himself.

On his first day at the academy, he fell in love with Irisdina at first sight and confessed his feelings for her, but was rejected.

However, it seemed that he hadn't given up on her yet, as he continued to make a move at her.

"What a bland response."

"What else do you expect me to do..."

"Well, I think you should say, "Why are you messing with my girl?""

"Feo-kun, are you here to help? Or are you here to get in the way?"

Feo grinned and was about to put his arm around Nozomu's shoulders, but just as he was about to do so, the black-haired girl interrupted him.

When he turned to look at her, Irisdina's eyes narrowed and her mouth raised.

At first glance, she looked like she was smiling, but her body was filled with deadly energy.

Nozomu, who is more sensitive to killing intent than most people, couldn't stop sweating. He could even see his master holding a katana behind Irisdina while smiling with an eerie smile.

Naturally, Feo, the one who had instigated the incident, was in a panic and answered to defend himself in a hurry.

"O-of course, I'm here to help! See, here you go!"

In a panic, Feo pulled something out of his pocket. There were three iron rod-like objects strapped to a belt-like band.

"Feo, that's ..."

"This is throwing daggers for Nozomu. Nozomu doesn't like to carry anything bulky, so there are about three of them."

What Feo brought with him was throwing daggers for Nozomu. They were small enough to carry easily, and there were not many of them.

Nozomu took the belt that Feo had thrown to him. He took out one of the three throwing daggers and held it in his hand.

"It fits better than I expected..."

"Of course, since I picked it out myself."

Nozomu was impressed with Feo's discernment in choosing a throwing dagger that would fit his hand better than he expected.

Well, Nozomu himself thought that he was not yet at the stage where he could use his throwing skills in actual combat. So he wasn't sure if he would use the throwing dagger for this request.

Feo would be able to throw the throwing dagger accurately in any situation, but Nozomu was not at that stage yet. He would only be able to throw accurately if he was in a protected position and not exposed to any kind of attack.

He felt bad for Feo who had prepared the throwing dagger for him, but even if he was lucky enough to be in such a situation, Nozomu was not willing to rely on this technique that he was not familiar with.

Feo was so excited as if to say, "What do you think?". But Irisdina's cold gaze pierced through Feo, who was on the verge of getting carried away.

"It looks like you really did come to help. But if you mess around again, I'll sew your mouth shut, okay?"

"Yes, I'm sorry. I'll behave..."

Irisdina glanced at the rapier she had on the scabbard and directed a terrifying gaze toward Feo. Feo, who was exposed to such an atmosphere, immediately flattened his ears, dropped his tail weakly, and shrugged his shoulders in submission to Irisdina. Nozomu chuckled at the sight of the two of them and tied the belt containing the throwing daggers that Feo brought to his waist.

"Well, Feo, now that you seem to have understood, let's go with caution. I think we're getting close to our destination."

According to Irisdina's explanation at the guild, the request was to kill the orcs that had recently taken up residence in the forest or to drive them back to the depths of the forest.

The request came from the hunters who were hunting in the forest. It seemed that some herd of Orcs that used to live deep in the forest had come to live near the city.

Orcs are demon beasts that belong to rank C. Basically, they are larger than humans and use primitive weapons such as clubs.

It's not as powerful as a Cyclops or Triclops, and it doesn't have any powerful abilities, so it's not as threatening as the giants Nozomu fought before.

"Iris, these orcs, have they settled around here?"

"Yes, it used to be a goblin village, but now it seems to have become their home."

Irisdina answered Nozomu's question while pointing to the depths of the forest.

"Hmm. Have the goblins become the dinner of the pig-nosed demons?..."

It was true that goblins were numerous, but they were not much of a threat if they were on their own. If they fought against the orcs in large enough numbers, the orcs would be able to defeat them without the goblins being able to put up much resistance. In fact, it was not uncommon for goblin settlements to be attacked by other demon beasts.

But Irisdina shook her head at Feo's words.

"No, according to the hunters, the goblins in that village were defeated before the orcs arrived. It seems that the Orcs took advantage of the fact that the house was vacant and took up residence."

"Hee...... Eh?"

A goblin settlement that had recently been wiped out. Something stuck in Nozomu's mind.

"The goblins had disappeared, so the hunters had gone to check on the village, but the place was a mess, like after a storm."

"There was such a powerful demon beast? Isn't that a little dangerous?"

"I checked with the guild about the area, but they said that there were no traces of demon beasts in the area. Judging from the fact that orcs are still living there, the demon beast must have left the area."

Certainly, if such a powerful demon beast was still in the vicinity, there was no way the orcs would continue to live there. In addition, there was a possibility that the hunters who made this request to the guild may have been harmed or witnessed it, but no such information had come in.

"Well, it's not that there isn't any danger, so I thought I'd ask Nozomu, who is familiar with the forest, to go with me."

However, that information was not everything. There may be things that were not yet known. There might be some uncertainty, so the person Irisdina could rely on the most was Nozomu.

Irisdina glanced sideways at Nozomu. It was hard to tell in the dimly lit forest, but her cheeks looked a little red.

“........”

But Nozomu was silent, with a complicated expression on his face. He put his hand over his mouth, his gaze drifting in the air as he mumbled something.

"No... no way"

"Nozomu? What's wrong?"

"N-no, maybe the reason why those Orcs settled near the city is ......"

Irisdina tilted her head at Nozomu's strange behavior. Feo, who was standing next to him, was also staring at him with a strange look in his eyes.

What came to Nozomu's mind was the life-threatening escape he did from that black demon beast. Running around in the forest, utilizing traps, and .......

"....ah"

Nozomu felt as if he had a glimpse of the reason why this request had been made to the guild. As he managed to calm his agitation and was about to break the things that had crossed his mind, his eyes were met with a strange sight that was rarely seen in the forest.

"Nozomu?"

"No, look at that..."

Irisdina and Feo turned their eyes to where Nozomu was pointing.

The three of them looked at the sight of two legs growing out of a bush on the ground. In addition, the person behind the bushes was doing something, and the two legs sticking out of the bushes were moving steadily. Nozomu and the others' eyes were shocked at the strange sight.

"Ehh? It's strange ... I'm sure it was here..."

A familiar voice could be heard by Nozomu's ears.

Wondering what on earth this person was doing here, Nozomu approached the leg growing out of the bushes and called out to it.

"...... What are you doing, old man?"

"Fuoooooo!"

The gray-haired old man jumped out of the bushes, startled by Nozomu's voice. Nozomu was taken aback by the momentum and reflexively retreated.

"What the hell, brat? What are you doing in such a place!?"

"That's my line. Why is there an old man in the forest?"

An old man alone in the forest. Certainly, it looked suspicious.

"W-what the hell, it's not your business. Why do I need to tell such a boy about what I did.....?"

"Old man, why are you in such a place?"

"I've lost something very important! and I've come looking for it!"

Zonne suddenly smiled when Irisdina called out to him. As usual, he changes his attitude 180 degrees depending on whether he is talking to a man or a woman. Nozomu was beginning to feel more of a headache than anger at Zonne's lustful behavior as usual.

However, he quickly changed his mind, it would be useless to say anything to Zonne, so he concluded that he should whether just hit him and stop him.

"Something important, what is it?"

"Well, it's something I had ordered from a merchant, but on the way to the city, goblins attacked and stole the cargo."

The goblins ...... were probably the goblins that had previously inhabited the settlement, Nozomu thought. The goblins sometimes stole livestock in the villages and used their small stature to their advantage.

The goblins were not very strong on their own, and when they hunted their prey in groups, it was usually against weaker opponents than themselves, or those who were acting alone, or those who were injured and had fallen out of the pack.

Perhaps the merchant who was attacked had not hired an escort or formed a caravan.

"But, old man, going into the forest is far too dangerous and reckless."

"Oh~. Are you worried about me, young lady? How kind of you to worry about me, unlike that rude little boy over there."

Due to Zonne's words, bulging veins appeared on Nozomu's forehead.

He impulsively reached for the hilt of his katana, but he slowly let go of it while ruminating in his mind, "Calm down, calm down."

"But, old man Zonne. Didn't you ask the guild for help?

"Yes, I did. But it hasn't made any progress. Then I'd better look for it myself."

"You're a reckless, old man..."

It can be imagined how important it must be if he went that far, but even thinking about it again, what he did was a reckless action. Sighs came out out of Nozomu and Irisdina's mouths.

As Nozomu slumped his shoulders and Irisdina looked up at the sky with her hand on her forehead, Feo, who was talking to Zonne, turned to Nozomu and Irisdina.

"So, what are we going to do?"

"Our destination, the Orc den, is near. It would be dangerous to leave such an old man here."

Feo asked them what they should do with this old man. Irisdina told him that their destination was near. This meant that they could encounter orcs at any moment.

To be honest, this was not a place where an old man should be walking around alone. Irisdina thought they should send him back to the city.

"Well, ......, even though he is such a lustful person, has no sense of reason, an "instinct-first" person who feeds his restraint and self-control to pigs for fertilizer, an old man who misunderstood and proclaims he's popular but he has never had a woman next to him..."

"B-brat..."

Nozomu also thought that it would be dangerous to leave Zonne in this place. In addition, he took the opportunity to get even with Zonne for his previous behavior. This time, bulging veins appeared on Zonne's forehead.

As he watched Zonne at the edge of his field of vision, Nozomu shrugged his shoulders while thinking, "you're the first to behave like that in the first place".

"Irisdina is right, we can't just leave him here. This forest is still dangerous."

"You're right. It would be better to go back to the city."

This old man was certainly a person who would not die even if they tried to kill him, but he was a civilian.

In the end, Nozomu and the others came to the conclusion that they couldn't leave such a person in the vicinity of a den of demon beasts.

They decided to take Zonne with them and return to the city. However, Zonne looked uncomfortable, as if he was worried about what he was looking for.

"But, I'm still looking for something......."

"If you want, old man. We'll look for whatever you're looking for in the forest while we work on our request, so you can leave it to us for today."

"Really? I'm sorry, but I'm counting on you. Oh! That means I can take the young lady to the city! Young lady, I'd like to thank you for letting me take you out on a date on our way to the city..."

Perhaps because his search for something important had been put to the side, Zonne immediately asked Irisdina out.

"Sorry, but I already have an appointment today."

However, Irisdina was still able to cut his next words off with a single sentence. She said she had an appointment while gazing at the boy with a katana at his waist.

"Grrrr... So it's you again, brat..."

The image that came to the old man's mind was that of Nozomu, who was being led by the hand of the beautiful black-haired princess. The scene of their date when Zonne had met the two of them a while ago came back to his mind. With his jealousy on full display, Zonne glared at Nozomu with bloodshot eyes as if to curse him to death.

"I knew it. We need someone to watch this old man......"

For Nozomu, the old man named Zonne was the one he never knew what he would do if left alone.

As a result of demonstrating his useless charisma in a strip game at a certain inn. Indeed, he was able to quickly solve a girl's problem by fortune-telling, but still, he tried to make a move on her too at that time.

He was someone who needed to be monitored, or perhaps it was better to hand him over to the military police.

Thus, Nozomu and the others decided to take Zonne back to the city and started to head back towards the way they came from.

"Hmm?"

However, at that moment, Nozomu felt something strange in the forest. The chirping of the birds had ceased, and the atmosphere felt strangely sticky and heavy. Feo, who was standing next to him, was also twitching his ears as if sensed something with his keen beastly senses.

"This is...."

One second later, Irisdina also sensed the strange feeling in the forest and put her hand on the rapier at her waist. In the silence of the forest, Nozomu and his friends were concentrating all their attention on the surroundings. They kept an eye out between the dimly lit trees, felt the sticky atmosphere against their skin with their hair, and listened to the sound of the branches swaying in the wind.

"Kyaaa!"

In the silence that-->>

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