"You're asking for the sake of your own amusement. Unfortunately, smiting him brings us no benefits so don't bother," CK said, "It's unpleasant that I'll have to see him later though."
"Tempting," CK giggled, "I'll just have to get the information the Duchess needs. Then we can leave that pathetic place."
"It's like I've been sent to do a child's homework. At least they've got plenty of supplies to spare," CK said and examined her appearance.
"I think I'm ready," CK said and flicked her hair off her shoulder, "Let's go."
CK stopped by the cafeteria when she got to the Academy and went to the potions department, now carrying a tray of coffee cups in one hand. She went over the details in her head, feeling more exhausted the more she remembered.
Frederick sent her the details of her assignment the night before through an information pod–an infopod for short. Its technology uses dream magic in order to transmit information into a person's consciousness. One only needed to attach the infopod behind one's ear.
It was neat technology. However, production of infopods outside the Academia is banned, their justification being that infopods were only made to transfer vast amounts of information among researchers without sacrificing time.
Anyway, using those infopods, CK got her information regarding the dilemma of the elixirs office.
Two months prior, the students were sent on a field expedition near the mountain ranges, which separated the mainland from the northern seas. Some of the students managed to 'stumble' upon the ruins of the underground kingdom, Izelron, and discovered texts that tell of an elixir so potent, it could drag one's body into their sleep.
If her father's intel was correct, those students were actually sent on a mission to that ruined kingdom and brought something back to the Academy. Skipping scholarly jargon and details too difficult to understand, the problem of the office is that they had difficulty recreating a working elixir using the kingdom's recipes.
Recreate the elixirs of the Izelron kingdom. That was the objective of the elixirs office.
'It has been a month since they gave the mission to the elixirs office and the authorities are demanding results already. But then again, with the kind of apparatus used at the department, even I would take more than a month to get any high-quality elixir done,' CK thought, taking one of the cups and downing its contents in a few gulps.
'Let's see Queenie's problem up close,' CK thought. The door to the elixirs office was in sight. Giving a few knocks, CK did not wait and opened the door.
The researchers were gathered together, seemingly in the middle of a hushed discussion until the door opened. Their stares fell on CK, who looked back at them with mild surprise.
"Looks like I interrupted some important discussion. I was right not to wait for someone to open the door," CK mused.
"You must be noble new hire. CK, was it? For someone with a title, your name is...quite colloquial," a woman with short, curly hair spoke bluntly.
"It's an abbreviation. You wouldn't be able to memorize the whole thing," CK said. "Makes sense," the woman said, "One of our teammates told us about you, saying you're sent here to be our...fixer."
"Something like that. But judging from Queenie's...colorful reaction yesterday, I'd like to believe you all have it under control?" CK said.
"It's Quincy," the familiar researcher hissed, but the woman raised her hand to prevent him from saying anything else.
"Wouldn't you want to know?" the woman gazed at CK's tray, "You even brought coffee for us. Charming, but coffee's not our thing. You'll have to give it to someone else."
"Oh, I didn't bring coffee as a gift. I've received the details of your situation from Frederick last night and decided I'll need plenty of help retaining composure. I've tried Queenie's recipe and I've got to say, it's quite delicious," CK smirked, "I even managed to finish a cup or two on the way here. For a group who doesn't drink coffee, Queenie's got a gift for guessing a good blend."
"Hmph," the woman's eyes narrowed momentarily before disinterest resurfaced, "So Mr. Santos has briefed you already. Take a seat then. Our meeting's about to begin anyway."
'Not even an introduction on our first meeting. They really are a flock,' CK thought amusingly, deliberately positioning herself so she sat to Quincy.
Provoked, the young man glared and dragged his chair away, creating a passive-aggressive screech against the floor. Unbothered by his actions, CK drank her third cup as she listened to the restrained discussion of the details.
"They said they want to see progress by next week."
"Next week? We haven't even figured out what went wrong with the last batch. Last I checked, we followed the recipe."
"Perhaps there was a mistranslation in the transcribed recipe? Even the linguistics department aren't too sure they've gotten it right."
"I've sent a request to do over the translation. In the meantime, we have to prepare materials for the next trial."
"But we're out of crystal jelly. We finished it all when we had to gelatinize the calcified stomach enzymes of a felled spirit serpent."
"We're also on the last batch of the Izelron kingdom's wine."
"Shit, that's the most important ingredient."
"Exactly, so we can't screw it up. We can't wait for wine to ferment for 300 years before we can do another test."
"Tsk. It takes days to prepare the base materials and takes even longer for hands-on experimentation. How can we prepare something in a week?"
'Come on. As much as I want to teach them some manners, we don't even know what the Academy needs those elixirs for,' CK replied.
Izelron... The kingdom that thrived underground when Kelter's surface was frozen for a millennia or so. Countless of surface dwellers perished during the planet's shifting and humans were forced underground in order to survive.
A silver lining to this turn of events was that Izelron gave birth to exceptional architects and culinary specialists. Up until today, none could surpass the creation of the fortified ruins. With that said, what kind of elixir would this kingdom create that exclusively needed Izelron wine?
"You look disinterested with the meeting," the woman with curly hair suddenly said, "If you're bored, you're always free to leave."
CK turned to her, realizing she was being spoken to. She smiled.
"You make quick but inaccurate assumptions. That's not a very good attitude to bring into lab work," CK mused, "I'm trying to remember the distinct features of the Izelron kingdom."
"That does nothing to help us figure out what went wrong with the recipe," the woman replied with a frown.
"On the contrary. Izelron was founded at a time of desperation and near extinction of humanity. If its people were to create an elixir, it was going to be something that helps them with their situation," CK responded calmly, "If you understand that, you'll figure out what those elixirs are supposed to do, then backtrack the procedure all the way to the ingredients required."
The team shared looks. The woman's unfeeling stare returned to CK.
"We get what you're trying to say. Sure, a few lessons of history might seem helpful, but this isn't a time for us to stop by the library. Our specialty lies in the methodology of things. We're under tight schedule and we don't need your display of noble education trying to teach us what to do. Understood, CK?" the woman said.
"Loud and clear," CK said and stood up, causing the others to stare at her in surprise. "Where do you think you're going?" the woman frowned.
"Time is quite precious. Since you plan on doing things your way, I won't stay to convince you otherwise. Frederick only asks that I figure out what's wrong with your progress. He didn't necessarily say I should be helping you," CK smiled at them, "Good luck with your plans. You'll need plenty of it."
CK left the office, letting the door shut with a polite click. With her presence gone, the leader of the elixirs office allowed herself to scoff.
"Simply because things didn't go her way, she decides to throw a tantrum and leave?" she sneered. "Not very used to things not going her way or people not kissing her feet," Quincy added.
"Forget it. We have more pressing issues to deal with," the woman said and frowned deeper, "Right now, our biggest trouble is time. If only they could give us more time..."
"...You know, the board won't be angry with us if something happened and it was out of our control," Quincy said conspiratorially.
"This is our mission, Quincy. Everything is under our control. If there is so much as a slip-up, we'll take the blame whether we like it or not," the leader said.
"Not if our research is the only thing that's involved," Quincy said. "What are you even talking about?" the leader stared incredulously.
"Think of it, Collet. Judging from that arrogant princess's attitude, she'll be visiting our lab to get a closer look of the batches we are making," Quincy said.
"That girl bought her way in. There's no way she'll know what goes on in that room," Collet said. "And she'll screw things up. But listen," Quincy's voice dropped to a hush.
"It's not just our elixirs that are inside the lab. The lab is connected to the other offices as well. If we let her do her business inside the lab and she manages to fuck up something, nearly all the other progresses inside that lab will be affected, too," Quincy said.
Collet's eyes sparked with idea, "So you're saying..."
"Exactly," Quincy smirked, "If that happens, the board will expel that bitch and give us more time thanks to the 'casualties'."
"But the other offices–"
"Who gives two fucks about the other offices?" Quincy rolled his eyes, "Our team has always been the best at the department. If they lose some important things inside the lab, it's their problem."
'That's a foul scheme. They don't like nobles but are very good at acting like them,' CK smiled, amused.
Having heard what she needed to hear, CK got off from leaning close to the door and left the office.
'A shame, indeed. However, they're partly right. I need to see their failed batches and need to access the materials they used,' CK replied.
Malphas said. 'And I don't. I'm going to create that elixir myself and get recognition from the right people,' CK smirked.
"And an opportunity presented itself," CK smirked, eyes glimmering excitedly at the turn of events.
She'll visit the library first and find out more about the living conditions and customs of Izelron. Then, she'll see if she can pop by the laboratory, which was the crucial point in the scheme of her new enemies.
Students were gathered in the silent libraries, doing homework or reviewing for an upcoming exam. As for CK, she was there for information. She spent two hours at the library, switching from reading and getting distracted with a few other books on the shelves she passed by.
During this time, she figured a few key points of Izelron: one, nutrients were a huge problem. Underground vegetation was not as bountiful as its surface counterpart, thus the health of the citizens became fragile.
Two: lack of proper land. Proper food could not be cultivated because of the environment. Despite this, however, Izelron was known to be the epitome of both cuisine and architecture.
It didn't take long for our sly noblewoman to draw a conclusion: Izelron had magic that shaped the underground into ideal conditions for their survival. Whatever elixir recipes the Academy unearthed could only be related to that.
"Either something that can shape the environment or something that enhances food quality... Alright," CK muttered. She just needs to find out what ingredients were used.
With her accumulated knowledge in alchemy, CK could've whipped something up with the materials at hand. But where would the challenge be if not in using ingredients from a bygone era?
CK recalled the tour with Frederick and managed to find the way into the laboratories. CK walked in and looked around, trying to locate which sector belonged to the elixirs office.
An entire floor was dedicated to the laboratories, all of which were interconnected through doors: a few smaller rooms for storage and personal use of each office and a main laboratory at the center of the room.
CK eventually found the elixirs section thanks to the labels. Sure enough, there was a rack of glass bottles with pale yellow liquid inside. A note was stuck on the rack: 'Trial 13: failed'.
"Tragic," CK tutted. Taking out the gloves she kept in her pockets, she delicately removed one of the bottles and swirled the contents carefully, observing its viscosity and reaction to turbulent flow.
She checked for the formulation of bubbles, finding a few of them rising to the surface. CK clicked her tongue. Elixirs were supposed to be pure in form and shouldn't be able to make bubbles.
She uncorked the bottle and sniffed the contents, getting hints of alcohol but also an overpowering mix of scents. Careful not to sniff too much, CK began guessing the ingredients based on smell.
The scent of alcohol must be the fermented Izelron wine. CK took out her glass pen and wrote on a scrap of paper she found on the desk, writing down a list of characteristics she got from examining the elixir bottle.
"This is the list of things they most likely got wrong," CK observed her written list. Airy bubbles in an alcohol-based elixir was already a red flag.
She came up empty. Save for a few raw materials inside the storage room, CK found nothing else.
"They kept the recipe to themselves in order to gatekeep their progress and methods from other researchers...not that they're making plenty," CK snorted.
"I could try reverse engineering. I've got plenty of other bottles to run trials with," CK said and searched around, "I just need the equipment necessary..."
CK's stomach growled in the middle of her academic conquest, causing her to pause.
"I need to eat," she said and walked towards the door. She'll just have to stuff herself full since bringing food in was not–
Click!
The door refused to budge under CK's hand. She blinked in realization.
"Oh. They managed to lock me in, after all," she said and gazed at the clock. It was almost nighttime.
"Well, that does it," CK began scribbling on a piece of paper, "Malphas, come out."
The king of crows manifested before CK. CK presented the note to him, "Take this to Marionetta. We obviously won't be going home tonight."
The crow rolled his eyes and disappeared into the shadows. CK's gaze fell on the apparatus, which was currently undergoing a boiling reaction.
CK observed it up close. From the looks of it, they were trying to rid the impurities inside a mud salamander's scales–another lengthy conversion the team must need to accomplish.
"So you also needed salamander scales for the elixir," CK said. She giggled.
"Those poor souls. Haven't they ever heard of catalysts?" she said and flexed her wrists, "Let's finish these children's homework and call it a night."