Chapter 7

The micro-scale powered by magic and the reagent dishes that had been thoroughly dried and cleaned flew quickly through the air.

Now it was time to add the emulsifier. Pyria hesitated between the red sugar and Rose Sweets, then picked up the beaker with Rose Sweets. It seemed best to experiment with the milder ingredient first.

“Oh right, I need to activate the dust prevention magic circle.”

She hadn’t used it during the previous experiment, but this one was for Rose Sweets. If Rose Sweets’s components mixed into the smoke and leaked out, who knew what kind of trouble could arise.

Even the Imperial Food Management Agency had once expressed concerns about her workshop for this reason. So she created and installed a ‘Dust Prevention and Smoke Extraction Magic Formula’. Afterwards, she applied for a patent for the formula and earned a tidy profit.

Once the formula activated, violet glowing characters appeared throughout the second floor of the workshop. After confirming it worked well, Pyria resumed the experiment.

She placed the well-mixed ingredients on the mixer installed in the center of the workshop. Her eyes shimmered as a magic circle began to glow red around the mixer.

‘…Activate!’

Mana gathered at the center of the magic circle and was drawn into the mixer. In an instant, refined mana turned into red lines and shot into the beaker containing the mixed ingredients. The materials began to boil all at once.

Now all she had to do was send magic power evenly. Once the temperature of the substances stayed stable and everything was stabilized, it would be finished.

Finished—or so it should have been…

“Huh? Wait, why is this… Kyaa~~~!!”

Pow! Crash, bang! Pop, pop, pop! Shhh~ Pow!

Once again, a loud explosion shook Pervellum Street. The sound was loud, but the blast wasn’t actually that strong. Still, it was much more intense than Pyria had expected.

She quickly crouched on the floor, crawling behind the large desk to hide. The explosion soon stopped, but the workshop was a mess once again.

Pyria sat in the middle of the workshop with a tearful face. Pink jelly, as soft as water, was stuck all over her body before she knew it.

“Ah, what is this! Why isn’t anything going according to plan!”

Too annoyed, Pyria stomped her feet on the floor like a child. She grabbed the clumps stuck to her hair and threw them on the ground.

After rolling around on the floor for a while, she got up. Tantrums with no one to watch had a very short duration.

Pyria waved her hands and began cleaning up again. Beakers and experimental tools flew around and crashed, breaking with a clatter, but she ignored it. The glass shards floating in the air sorted themselves neatly into the recycling bin.

Then, she suddenly thought of Reinhardt.

“Oh no! The explosion—will he be okay? Ah… maybe it’ll be fine? Surely he wouldn’t be working again after the last explosion. He… didn’t, right?”

Pyria was anxious but forced herself to laugh it off. After all, it was clearly well into the afternoon now. Since he had already barged in after the previous explosion, surely he wouldn’t come again.

The workshop became spotless in an instant. Magic was truly wonderful at times like these. Pyria rolled around on the giant magic circle, then sprang to her feet.

“Ugh, seriously. This just makes me more stubborn, doesn’t it?”

Pyria began revising the ingredient ratios and rechecking each spell formula.

She had strengthened the explosion control formula, yet the explosion had become even bigger. So she decided to supplement the control formula here, reinforce this part connected to it, and…

The way it melted like water was odd, too. So she added a binding formula to make it stickier, lowered its affinity for water, and increased its affinity for cytoplasm…

“Done!”

The spell was completed faster than expected. Her intelligence helped, but it was mostly thanks to her experience handling similar formulas. Once she’d combined enough similar formulas, patterns became familiar, so it wasn’t too difficult.

From there, it was just a matter of adding or removing formulas as needed, and inserting combination formulas. For Pyria, it was as easy as drinking soup.

Of course, ‘easy’ didn’t mean it was truly simple. Adding or subtracting a single formula, or adjusting the experimental materials by one microgram, could completely change the results.

No matter how much pattern recognition she had, Pyria’s ability to combine several magic formulas in just a few minutes was extraordinary.

But as she prepared to run the experiment again, she noticed an error.

“Oh, there’s a problem here. The melting reaction is because of the additives in Rose Sweets, right? Hmm, rosehip oil is essential, but what should I do…?”

She didn’t need to worry much.

“Then I’ll just use red sugar. If I reduce the amount and revise the reaction formula like this… Oh, this should work!”

Pyria smiled brightly and began combining the ingredients according to the new formula. The materials flew through the air and combined neatly. The scale measured out exact quantities, then they were crushed, pounded, and ground.

The prepared ingredients were carefully gathered into the beaker. Now, all she had to do was add the rosehip oil.

Just then, a loud thud echoed from downstairs. Soon, angry footsteps grew louder and louder. Someone was definitely coming up to the workshop.

“Huh? Who is it?”

Pyria’s head turned toward the door. Even though she wasn’t looking, her fingers skillfully picked up the reagent bottle. She didn’t notice that the bottle in her hand had a blue marker instead of a pink one.

Her gaze stayed fixed on the door. After dropping oil into the beaker, she placed it onto the mixer, still holding the oil-filled bottle.

At that moment, the door burst open. Her eyes, which had been focused on the mixer, turned again toward the door.

Pyria’s eyes grew wide and round.

“Mr. Reinhardt?”

“You…!”

Reinhardt still wore his black hood pulled deep over his head. He looked furious, barging in with a stormy expression.

He glared at her with a twisted look, but suddenly, his eyes—narrowed in anger—opened wide.

Pyria realized his gaze wasn’t on her, but behind her. As she turned to check, a large hand grabbed the back of her head and pulled her away.

“D*mn it, get down!”

Pow! Crash! Bang!

Once again, a loud explosion echoed throughout the workshop.

02 I Hate Sweet Things

Reinhardt’s Perspective

Today, there was another explosion. That’s right, another one. This woman seemed determined to cram all the experiments she could ever do into her life, causing explosions every single day.

She must be set on driving me insane. Otherwise, how could she possibly make someone’s blood boil like this?

No, her very existence alone was enough to drive me mad. Just looking at her, as if her whole body were crafted from sugar, made my mouth fill with sweetness. It was so sugary that just staring at her felt like my teeth would rot.

Her fluffy, cotton-candy-like pink hair, red eyes that looked like cherries rolled in sugar, cheeks that seemed dusted with powdered sugar, and even her faintly pink, shell-like nails…

Everything about her was enough to drive me crazy.

XXXX Year XX Month XX Day,

Excerpt from Reinhardt’s diary.

Reinhardt Pendale Baristan was born as the second child of the Duchy. The family welcomed the birth of the second child after the heir with great joy.

The Duchess, who hailed from the Holy Federation, gave birth to the child in the holy city to express gratitude for divine will. In truth, her marriage itself was a product of political union between the Empire and the Holy Federation.

Thus, the child’s birth held even greater significance. The first child would be raised as the heir of the Duchy, and the second child would be dedicated to God, fostering harmony between the two powers.

As the child grew, expectations within the Duchy only increased. Everyone praised him as the future captain of the knight order. His large, sturdy frame and hands and feet, much bigger than other children his age, seemed to foretell such a future.

So when Reinhardt declared he would become a vegetarian priest, both sides were left bewildered.

Even the Holy Federation didn’t welcome this. They only intended to use Reinhardt as political propaganda. When he grew up, they planned to grant him the honorary captaincy of the Holy Federation’s knight order, further solidifying harmony between the two powers.

Moreover, in an era when mechanization and automation of the printing industry were rapidly advancing, the vegetarian priesthood was a declining, sunset profession. Only a handful of elderly priests in remote monasteries barely managed to keep the tradition alive. For the symbolic child of the Holy Federation to pursue that path was bound to cause problems.