Chapter 70

Two days later, an eccentric person visited the D’Vialis mansion—someone who wore a messy brown mop of hair, cut roughly and left hanging loose.

Her name was Miss Hannah, a Disassembly Mage affiliated with the Royal Research Institute.

An Academy classmate of Sabina’s, she had entered school as Second in Class and graduated as Second in Class. She might have felt inferior to Sabina, but her own inner world and pursuits were clear, and by not caring about external evaluation, she had been able to become Sabina’s friend.

“It’s been a long time—‘friend’ hardly fits.”

Hannah flashed her teeth in a wide grin. Sabina, unshaken, shot back.

“I think a true friend is someone it isn’t awkward to meet even after a long time, Hannah.”

“Well, sure.”

Hannah scratched her head and yawned. Mitchell didn’t seem to like Hannah’s rude attitude. Her nostrils had flared—her habit when she was barely holding back something she disliked.

Needless to say, Hannah didn’t care in the slightest. If she cared even a little about other people’s eyes, she wouldn’t go around looking like that.

“So why’d you call me? You’ve got business, right?”

Sabina nodded.

“It’s something interesting.”

She knew how to bait Hannah. Hannah began rubbing her palms together, interest already rising.

What tied the two together as “friends” wasn’t an emotional bond. If Sabina had even one friend to share her heart with, she wouldn’t have lived so shaken after Walter’s Death.

What linked Sabina and Hannah under the name of friendship was the fact that both women had enormous scholarly curiosity. The difference was that Sabina was a conventional model student, while Hannah was packed with eccentricity and sometimes even looked like a madwoman.

That showed plainly even in their research tendencies. Sabina always prioritized ‘whether it was feasible,’ ‘whether it had practical use,’ and ‘whether it would negatively affect society.’ Hannah, on the other hand, put her own fun and pleasure first.

Hannah was the type who grew more excited the harder the assignment was. She eagerly awaited the moment the unknown that refused to yield would finally submit to her and hand over an answer. And she liked touching taboos.

Sabina had found it surprising that Hannah joined the Royal Research Institute, but also fortunate. If she was affiliated with the Royal Research Institute, law and ethics would protect people from her madness.

And yet, to call her over because of something Sabina didn’t particularly want the state to know about. Sabina’s mouth tasted bitter.

Sabina sent Mitchell out. Only the two women remained in D’Vialis’s parlor.

“So what is it?”

“Magical medicine of unknown origin.”

“Ooh.”

Hannah’s eyes widened as if they might pop. Already, her appetite seemed to be gulping past her throat.

“Where’d you get it?”

“Abroad. You know I went to Letona.”

Sabina deliberately concealed who the owner of the medicine was. In any case, it was obvious Hannah wouldn’t pry into detailed origins.

“Show me. Hurry.”

Hannah’s voice was lively with excitement. Sabina nodded and handed over the bottles she had already placed in the parlor drawer.

“Two kinds?”

“It’s a pretty complex compound. I couldn’t tell at all what the raw materials were.”

Without any fear, Hannah opened a bottle and sniffed it.

“There’s no smell.”

“There’s a solvent reaction. It’s magical medicine.”

“Huh. But it’s in Letona?”

“That’s why I brought it.”

Before Sabina could stop her, Hannah dropped one clear drop onto the tip of her tongue. Smacking her lips for a moment, she frowned.

“There’s no taste. It’s like water. Do you know what it’s used for?”

Sabina shook her head. She didn’t know exactly.

“The black one feels like a painkiller.”

“A painkiller? If it’s a painkiller, there are tons of established products with proven effects and almost no side effects. Why would someone use an unknown medicine like this?”

“I don’t know exactly. I didn’t ask the user.”

Hannah had a lot she was curious about, but she never asked, “So why are you curious about this, Sabina?” That was one of the reasons Sabina had concluded bringing Hannah into this was the best choice.

Hannah dropped two clear drops and two black drops onto the table’s glass surface. Then she covered them with both hands.

Crackle.

Sabina leaned forward over the table. Hannah slowly lifted her hands away.

“Well, d*mn.”

What appeared was a mess of blackened, burnt powder, dirtied into the clear solvent solution.

“It’s not working.”

Sabina spoke as if she had expected it.

“I told you it’s a complex compound.”

“It won’t work here. I’ll have to take it to my lab.”

Greedily, Hannah snatched up the bottles. Sabina didn’t stop her.

She didn’t want others to learn of the medicine’s existence, but if it was Hannah taking it, she didn’t have to worry about it being exposed outside.

No matter what Hannah shut herself up in her lab to play with, most people would just think, ‘Here she goes again,’ and not even pay attention.

Besides, Hannah hated it, to an extreme degree, when others showed interest in her research, and she didn’t ask for help either. As said before, she was a person who lived for the thrill of solving difficult problems.

Stuffing the bottles into the inside pocket of her jacket, Hannah grinned broadly. She looked pleased.

“How long do you think it’ll take?”

Sabina asked as Hannah began preparing to leave.

“It won’t be late.”

Sabina nodded. She understood that meant Hannah would definitely bring results within a week.

* * *

At the same time, the Prince’s Palace also had a guest.

A secret guest. A detective Reyes had sent to Letona to investigate Ashton Bryant’s background.

But things weren’t going well.

“You do know every single word you say is only proving your incompetence, right?”

Unlike usual, the Prince’s voice split high, like a tortured rat squealing. It was hysteria, plain to anyone. The detective lying prostrate at his feet repeatedly apologized in a cringing manner.

But he seemed wronged, too.

“However, Your Highness, it truly is strange. His birthplace is recorded as a remote valley village in the Shafong region. The records say he lived there for fourteen years, then lost his adoptive parents and went to Berna to do odd jobs.”

That much was fine. The problem was what came next.

“It’s certain he lived in Berna. But in that remote valley village in Shafong—Zelua—there isn’t a single person who knows him. In a remote mountain village where the members don’t change, where they just grow old as they are!”

And that wasn’t all. In a remote mountain village, the population was small, and everyone knew everyone’s business. It meant that even how many chicks had hatched from the neighbor’s eggs would be known to every resident within half a day.

In a place like that, there was no way they wouldn’t remember a noticeable child like Ashton.

Reyes looked down at the crown of the detective’s head as if it were absurd. Of course there would be no one in Zelua who knew Ashton. He was a mage from Brinita.

But that wasn’t the part the Prince was taking issue with.

“The identity of that old gentleman! You couldn’t dig into it properly?”

“That is….”

The detective looked troubled.

A boy named Ashton Bryant had lived in Berna for over a year together with an old gentleman named ‘Robert Milo.’ This man called Robert Milo seemed to possess staggering wealth. As soon as Ashton arrived in Berna, he had a house, and not long after, he even acquired wasteland that became prime land a few years later.

Naturally, a person named ‘Robert Milo’ did not exist. The detective inferred it was an alias. It was an obvious and excellent approach. But then the question remained—what was Robert Milo’s real identity?

The figure called Robert Milo was “born” at Reedblon Station. With forged travel papers and an ID, he left without trouble. Like those who attempt a not-so-honorable departure often do, he chose a complicated route—passing through Letona, Silav, and Dejivisha—before going to Millum.

It was where Millum International Bank—the holy land of money laundering—was located.

The detective truly tried. In a bank where security was life itself, he managed to uncover whose account Robert Milo had withdrawn a massive sum of cash from during the week he stayed in that country.

Some specific accounts at Millum International Bank were protected by high-grade security. To withdraw cash from such accounts, the account holder had to visit in person. And any withdrawal attempt required a complicated authentication process.

Walter D’Vialis, the wealthy man of Brinita, was also one of the customers of such security services.

And ‘Robert Milo’ withdrew money from that very Walter D’Vialis account. After that, he passed through Dejivisha and Silav and settled in Letona.

“There’s no way someone called Robert Milo is Walter D’Vialis. That’s where you went wrong!”

Reyes shouted with irritation in his voice.

“But……. clearly Walter D’Vialis himself….”

“Walter D’Vialis was in Reedblon the entire time during that same period!”

“Forgive me, but Walter D’Vialis is a Clone Mage, so if he cloned himself, then perhaps….”

“Hah! To think I’d hear something that stupid.”

Reyes snorted.

“Walter D’Vialis was a genius. He cloned all kinds of things. He was a great mage who even knew how to clone another person’s magic and melt it into paper fibers. But there was one magic that even Walter D’Vialis could not succeed in—life cloning.”

It was a famous story.