Viktor sat inside the carriage, waiting for the servant's notice. Beside his ear came Vega's low, chattering voice.
"You're interested in that dead volcano?"
The one-eyed crow was grooming its shiny feathers again. Maybe it was too fat, because its beak could no longer reach the feathers on its back.
Viktor glanced sideways at Vega.
"How did you find out?"
Vega lifted its head proudly and said confidently, "Otherwise, you wouldn't have come looking for that fiancée of yours."
Viktor didn't respond, which was as good as admitting it.
Before long, it was Viktor who still had the patience, Vega, on the other hand, couldn't hold it in anymore.
"Why hasn't anyone come to call us in yet?"
The soft rustle of turning pages stopped. Viktor closed the magic book and spoke calmly.
"Think about it. Suppose you're a very beautiful woman, alone at home, and late at night someone wants to see you, that someone being your fiancé. What would you do?"
Vega tilted its head, thought for a moment, and rasped, "Dress up nicely and meet him looking your best?"
"I get it, she saw you coming and is putting on makeup! And you're patiently waiting for her."
"Wrong. She'll just think that kind of man is sick, and find him annoying."
Viktor's expression didn't change as he denied it, and Vega clearly wasn't convinced.
"Why? In those storybooks it's always like that. Maybe you just don't understand women?"
"It's you who doesn't understand Gwen."
Viktor turned his gaze toward the Delin family's courtyard gate.
That holy knight, she had never once seen herself as a woman.
Well, truth be told, Viktor didn't really understand the current Gwen either.
But he believed that at this point in time, Gwen probably hated him.
After all, what woman would like a man with a constant scowl, petty to the bone, and who's done plenty of bad things?
Their engagement, that label of "fiancée", was likely nothing but a stain on Gwen the knight's record.
So after Viktor's death, she never remarried.
"Get ready. We're going in."
He lowered his head and reminded the crow on his shoulder. The crow quickly straightened up, putting on its best "I'm just a pet" look, standing lazily still.
After a while, a maid came to the carriage and respectfully informed him that Miss Gwen was ready and invited him inside.
Viktor stepped down from the carriage, followed the maid through the gate, and was led to the meeting hall.
As soon as he entered, he saw Gwen.
She sat on a soft sofa, not dressed up at all, wrapped tightly in a bathrobe that covered her completely, not showing an inch of skin.
It seemed she had just finished bathing.
But then again, she didn't need to dress up. To Viktor, even with no makeup, that delicate, perfect face of hers could capture any man's heart.
"It's so late. What are you here for?"
Gwen's tone was neither warm nor cold, with a trace of distance.
Viktor sat down across from her unceremoniously. His tone was equally flat as he got straight to the point.
"I heard you're taking a mission, gone for half a month."
Gwen didn't bother asking how he knew. She simply nodded honestly.
"Mm. I leave in a week."
"Can you take me with you?"
Gwen, "…"
Her reaction to that sentence was… subtle.
At first, some confusion. Then a frown, as if double-checking what she just heard.
Finally, she leaned back, disbelief spreading across her face.
Gwen pressed a hand to her forehead, lowered her head, and asked in disbelief, "Repeat what you just said."
"Can you take me with you."
Without hesitation, Viktor repeated himself.
"Ha…"
Gwen exhaled softly. She really felt like his brain must've been damaged.
"Your reason?"
"If there's no good reason, I can't bring you."
Viktor said, "I know the topography of the surrounding mountains very well, including the weak points of the monsters nearby. If you take me, counting the round trip, you can be back in seven days."
Hearing him, Gwen didn't even lift her eyes. Who knew whether she was weighing his usefulness or simply ignoring him.
Viktor wanted to say more to raise his value in her eyes, but Gwen cut him off first.
"I want the truth."
Viktor's eyes grew colder as he looked at her and said slowly, "...You used your ability on me."
As a holy knight of justice, Gwen Delin had shown her unique gift since childhood, she possessed a Heart of Justice.
Whenever she wished, she could clearly tell whether someone before her was lying.
She could freely control this ability, and under normal circumstances, she wouldn't use it.
But now, she hadn't trusted herself.
Viktor didn't feel angry. On the contrary, it was more or less what he expected.
Because that, in itself, proved just how much Gwen disliked him.
In their conversations, Gwen would even use her Heart of Justice to judge whether he was lying or not.
"I don't trust you."
Gwen said it bluntly, without further explanation.
Suddenly, Viktor let out a faint smile.
He thought for a moment, then said again, "There's a type of monster in Mount Vesuvius that produces a unique crystal. I need that to make a magic tool."
As he finished, Viktor's eyes gleamed with a strong sense of desire.
[First-Order Magic: Self-Suggestion]
Effect, Casts a hypnotic suggestion on oneself, temporarily raising one random ability by one level.
Dealing with Gwen's Heart of Justice was simple.
He just had to tell the truth.
Even if the "truth" was something made up on the spot, as long as Viktor believed it himself, it was the truth.
Mages had their own methods, flexible morals and clever minds.
Gwen finally looked up at Viktor.
"Looks like you really do know that volcano. Otherwise you wouldn't say something like that."
"To achieve your goal, you even managed to get the Royal Knights to serve as your escort."
"As expected of you, selfish Viktor."
For once, Viktor didn't wear his usual poker face, he smiled and nodded.
"I'll take that as a compliment."
Gwen never doubted Viktor's selfish motives, because that was exactly the kind of person he was.
And she knew that to achieve his goal, Viktor would only cling to her more tightly.
Since that was the case, she might as well agree.
"I'll put in a request for a mage to accompany us. Be at my place that day."
Seeing that Gwen had agreed, Viktor smiled politely and said, "Thank you. Even for someone as selfish as me, you're still willing to help, Gwen."
"In that case, I'll get everything arranged within the week. I won't trouble you further."
Saying that, Viktor rose and left.
Gwen nodded and watched him go.
But in her mind, the image of Viktor's smiling, flattering face lingered.
'Had Viktor… ever smiled like that before?'
Back in the carriage, Viktor leaned quietly against the seat. His jet-black eyes stared blankly into the distance.
"You're angry?"
The crow asked curiously.
"What makes you think that?"
Vega, "Just a hunch. After staring at that poker face for so long."
"If you weren't feeling something big, you wouldn't be smiling like a blooming chrysanthemum."
[T/N: 'Chrysanthemum' is a flower']
'Angry?'
At that, Viktor thought for a moment.
Maybe it was that deep-rooted part of him that wanted to be a good person, but then she had called him "selfish" in that righteous tone of hers.
And the only way he could gain her approval… was by pretending to be exactly what she thought he was.
Angry? Not really.
It just made him feel… a bit sick.
———
In the following days, Viktor taught at the academy by day and buried himself in his underground lab by night, studying magic potions.
As long as he had enough materials, he could make around a hundred bottles a day, all of which he handed to Liya to sell.
Liya said that once the shop renovation was done, those potions would go on sale, and for now, that would be their only product.
They needed to make the shop's name first before introducing other magical goods.
Of course, Viktor knew that once a consumable like this hit the shelves, it would be snapped up immediately.
So he told Liya not to sell them all, limit it to fifty bottles per day.
Scarcity marketing.
Liya, being a merchant, understood instantly.
As for the academy, Viktor kept busy too. He spent time planning his lecture topics, and made a new decision.
From now on, during every class, he'd have Henny sit in and observe.
Officially, it was to "gain experience."
Erica, meanwhile, came to his office every night, always full of questions, and more and more of them lately.
Viktor found it annoying, but Vega patiently answered each one.
To stop Vega from constantly chattering in his head, Viktor simply relayed everything to Erica, and learned a bit of magic theory himself in the process.
After secretly learning from Vega, he realized that Erica truly was a genius.
The complex, abstract concepts Vega explained, he couldn't understand them at all, but Erica picked them up instantly.
And even then, she still seemed to have countless questions waiting to be answered.
Viktor couldn't help but sigh.
With talent and diligence like Erica's, if she didn't get first place in the exams, who would?
Everything went smoothly for a while, until the sixth day after his talk with Gwen.
Henny followed quietly behind Viktor. Today, as usual, she'd be sitting in on his lecture.
She still didn't quite understand why Professor Viktor wanted her to sit in, it was her course, after all.
But when the two of them reached the classroom door, she finally understood what Professor Viktor had been planning all along these past few days.
"Today," Viktor said, "you're going to go in yourself, and use your knowledge to teach this class."
Henny, "???"
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