That face is 38 years old?

The world is unfair and life is dirty!

As Serena tried to quickly get off the sofa, a startled Colin Martora prostrated himself on the floor and grabbed Serena’s legs.

“Waaaaaah, Ducheeeeess…!!”

Serena looked at Colin Martora with a pale face.

What on earth is this 38-year-old man doing?

‘How can that face be thirty-eight?’

Is he the only one turning back the hourglass?

Serena rolled her eyes. No matter how she thought about it, she couldn’t believe it.

‘Am I dreaming?’

Serena decided to just deny reality.

Or think of him as some kind of immortal being or something.

“Please, I beg you! I want to research it! If I can do both, I’ll serve as both your disciple and keep my pillar position!!”

Colin Martora clung desperately.

‘No, even so, thirty-eight…’

Of course, if we’re talking about age, Serena was actually older.

She had lived 20 years in that world, 15 years here, and about 11 years under Lemerun.

If we’re just counting age, well…

Serena was quite old indeed.

Although she was actually twenty-six, if you count it all up, she was about 46 years old, so having a 38-year-old disciple wouldn’t be that strange.

‘But isn’t this a bit much?’

How can a person be this childlike?

Serena thought, blinking her eyes.

“…Which tower?”

“Th-the Gray Tower…”

“The Gray Tower… That’s the tower that makes and develops magical tools… We even make scrolls!”

She had heard about it before.

When she was young, that is.

It was a story about some genius young mage who entered the Mage’s Tower and greatly revolutionized the magical tool industry.

Even though she wasn’t particularly interested in worldly affairs at the time, it had still reached her ears.

It wouldn’t be strange if all the magical tools currently being sold in the world came from his mind.

“…I absolutely won’t use it anywhere you don’t want, Duchess.”

Colin Martora, who had been clinging, knelt down.

“I have no intention of using this technology as a weapon or wanting to wage war. It’s just…”

Just?

Serena swallowed hard as she looked at the man who was setting the mood.

“It’s just… I’m so curious!!”

Colin Martora screamed.

With clenched fists and sparkling eyes, he spoke with flushed cheeks.

“So please, I really want to research it just once! I don’t even care if it’s not commercialized! It doesn’t matter to me!”

“……”

“Haah… I’m just so excited I could die at the fact that there’s a new field I don’t know about!!”

“……”

Ah, he’s a weirdo.

Serena thought.

A weirdo among weirdos was right here.

She slowly turned her head.

Hop!

Something jumped up.

“……”

It was Nyx.

Nyx came running over, taptaptap, snuggled into my arms and tapped its notebook.

It seemed it couldn’t write and show me like last time because Drukan was here.

But the reason Nyx suddenly appeared was clear.

Because there’s only one situation where Nyx would suddenly appear.

‘Don’t tell me this person is also a source of evil…?’

Now he started babbling excitedly, regardless of whether the other person was listening or not.

True to his super-weirdo nature, his pupils were properly dilated.

“……”

Nyx tapped my arm. Why does this person seem to have a bigger impact than in the original work, even though I’ve never seen him there?

“…So after making that thing and doing this and that… hehehe, and then experimenting like this… (omitted) Think about it. Everyone, every person, dreams of such things. That prosthetic arm is just a small… So, I want to develop it a bit more…”

“……”

Serena was now scared.

When she glanced at the butler, even the legendary assassin Pamel had taken a step back and was smiling faintly.

‘…A person even the legendary assassin fears?’

Serena felt her heart thump. If she refuses here, could this man possibly…

She shook her head vigorously.

Still, he doesn’t seem to be overflowing with dark energy like the last time, but it does seem to be overflowing with bright red energy.

The energy of madness.

Serena clenched her fists tightly, looking at Drukan and Pamel in turn, feeling very tense.

Of course, Pamel didn’t think much of it.

‘He’s crazy.’

He just didn’t want to deal with such a person.

Pamel, who had been through thick and thin, knew better than anyone how annoying such people could be.

That’s why he didn’t bother to intervene.

He also knew that this type, while annoying, wasn’t really that threatening.

Of course, Drukan knew this as well.

‘…As expected of a skilled person within the Mage’s Tower.’

He might have a setting like a mad scientist driven by madness.

But the problem is that if this person is a ‘source of evil’, we have no choice but to grant his wishes.

‘…Take in such a person as a disciple?’

The man who had been muttering to himself and chuckling and babbling for a while suddenly raised his head.

“So please, I beg you!”

The man lifted his head abruptly.

“…Please!”

Colin Martora’s cheeks were flushed.

To someone who didn’t know him, it might have looked quite cute and shy enough to fall for, but judging by his unfocused eyes, he was just a crazy pervert.

“Please, accept me as your disciple!!”

Thud–! Thud–!

Colin Martora started banging his forehead on the floor.

“Uh, uh…”

Serena turned pale.

“O-okay, stop it!!”

Of course, even with a carpet, it’s still a marble floor underneath, isn’t it?

At Serena’s scream-like shout, Colin Martora abruptly stopped moving.

He lifted his head with his bright red forehead and gave a soft eye-smile.

It was truly a smile that could be called the most beautiful in the world without exaggeration.

“Really?”

“Y-yes…”

“Then I’ll pack my things and come here right away!”

“Huh…?”

Serena asked as Colin Martora jumped up.

Unlike his initially frightened state, he now looked so excited that his mouth seemed about to split.

Serena could finally understand.

Why this seemingly innocent and clumsy young man had risen to the position of headquarters chief of the Gray Tower.

When his eyes go crazy, he can’t see anything else…

‘He’s like that crazy scientist bastard who was close to Lemerun…’

It was because of that crazy scholar’s advice to Lemerun that he developed a machine that could go anywhere.

The two crazy guys always talked about crazy things when they met, so their conversations always seemed sophisticated.

Problems only arose when those two crazy guys got involved.

‘……’

Serena realized.

‘F*ck, I’ve taken on the wrong disciple…’

That more than half of her life plans had gone terribly wrong.

“This disciple, Colin Martora! I will serve the Duchess with all my heart and soul from now on!”

“……”

“Then, I’ll go pack my things and be right back, so please wait a moment!”

Colin Martora, smiling brightly and speaking cheerfully, ran straight for the reception room window.

‘What, like Platform 9 and n/1, does he perhaps have a technique for passing through walls…’

Crash–!

As he threw himself, the glass window shattered with a loud noise.

Splash–!

Droplets of blood scattered in the air.

“Ahahahaha! I’ll be back soon!!”

The guy’s figure suddenly disappeared in mid-air.

It seemed he had used some kind of warp magic.

“……”

“……”

“……”

“What the f*ck…?”

Serena sincerely thought.

No matter how she looked at it, she seemed to have taken in the wrong crazy person.

‘…So much for an easy life.’

For the first time, she felt the absurdity of her own plans.

“Hang in there, Madam.”

“You’ll be fine.”

They say the sister-in-law who tries to stop you is more hateful.

Serena felt annoyed at the casual words of the two men.

* * *

The World Tree.

It was said to be the origin of origins that make up this world.

In the beginning, there was only darkness in the world. One day, God accidentally dropped a seed into the dark world.

God said:

“Oops…”

And,

“…What kind of content is this?”

Serena let out a hollow laugh as she read the book about the origin of the World Tree.

No, what’s with the ‘Oops’. Seriously.

The cover looks so serious and weighty, but the content is as light as though it was written by an elementary school student.

The library of the Kelahinum duchy was wider than expected, so there was no problem finding various materials, but…

‘There’s less information about the World Tree than I thought.’

It was harder to get information about the World Tree than she had expected.

The others were like fairy tale books, so this ‘The Origin of the World and the World Tree’ was the only somewhat book-like book she had brought.

The problem is that this doesn’t seem to be much help either.

‘…Still, it’s thick, so there must be something.’

Serena sighed and read on after the ‘Oops’.

“Oh no, I accidentally dropped the seed of the World Tree. This is troublesome~”

God said again.

‘…No, is this really okay to read? Is it credible? I know myths involve some distortion and imagination, but how do you know what God said?’

Serena felt dozens of retorts rising in her mind, and she swallowed a sigh.

That’s right.

Serena had a tendency to not accept situations that didn’t make sense.