The Academy's Terminally Ill Side Character-Chapter 313: The Crimson Alchemist [2]

I watched as Ryen ran a hand along the blade's smooth surface and Nora's eyes softened when the tiara's vines glowed faintly at her touch.

Yeah. For once, things were going exactly as I'd hoped.

I soon turned my gaze away from Ryen and Nora and looked around the room.

My sister and Professor Lena were crouched near a shelf of reagents, both wary of their surroundings yet carefully examining bottles as if they were picking herbs in a garden — except these were clearly things that explode or kill.

"…How about this one, Professor Lena?"

"Not bad. It looks good for overall health."

"This one seems useful too."

…Right.

Totally for "the team."

They were absolutely planning to use those on themselves.

Leona, on the other hand, wandered with zero interest — until she spotted an old book tucked between dusty tomes.

A sword manual.

An otherworldly sword technique at that.

Her eyes lit up like a kid who just found hidden candy. She didn't even try to hide it.

Meanwhile, Kiera…

"Wow, this decoration is so pretty…"

She was admiring a glittering ornament on the wall with the other seniors, completely unmoved by potions, weapons, danger, or reality.

Yes. That's our Kiera. Unshakable. Consistent. Beautifully useless in moments like this.

Leona wasn't the only one who'd found something.

Just as I was about to call everyone together, a faint clinking noise drew my attention toward the back of the room — the farthest corner, where dust had gathered thick enough to write a whole autobiography.

Someone was moving there.

Of course it was her.

Nora, tiara already tucked into her bag, had drifted farther into the shadows, her hands poking through crates like a raccoon that had just discovered treasure-hunting as a hobby.

"…Nora?" I called.

She jolted.

A very guilty kind of jolt.

Like someone who definitely was doing something she shouldn't.

"I—I wasn't stealing anything weird!" she said quickly.

An innocent person would never start with that sentence.

I walked over.

Inside the crate was…

Ah.

Of course.

A collection of the late Crimson Alchemist's personal research notes — his failed experiments, enchantment drafts, even half-finished formulas.

Stuff normal cadets wouldn't even know how to read.

Stuff Nora could probably turn into something ridiculous within a week.

She hugged one of the notebooks to her chest as if shielding a baby bird.

"Can I… keep this?"

I sighed internally.

Her eyes were already sparkling like she'd found true love, so how could I say no?

"…Fine. But don't blow up the dorms."

"I won't! Probably."

Probably.

Fantastic.

Anyway, everyone else seemed busy with their own discoveries—oohing at artifacts, arguing over documents, or simply wandering around in awe.

And me?

I had a different goal entirely.

Since I already knew exactly where the item I wanted was hidden, I pretended to browse the room like everyone else, stopping here and there just to keep up appearances. Then, slowly, I drifted toward my real destination.

Three things.

There were three things I came for.

First—my fortuitous encounter.

The one chance that would fix this broken body of mine.

Second—the Everdusk Stone, the bait I needed to draw in Professor Alice Draken. She wouldn't be able to walk away from something like that.

And the last one… well, it was stranger than the others. A bit too strange, honestly. But all of them were kept together, hidden away in the same place.

"...Found it."

The deepest part of the chamber.

The Crimson Alchemist had gone to ridiculous lengths to mislead intruders—placing gaudy, attention-grabbing items out front, using meaningless relics as bait, even displaying his lover's keepsakes to confuse anyone who got too close. He'd done everything to make sure people never looked here.

Because this… this was where the real treasures were.

I pressed my hand against the old bookshelf.

It groaned, then slid aside with a faint scrape, revealing a plain, shabby door behind it.

My heartbeat quickened.

I couldn't stop the smile spreading across my face.

I pushed the door open.

Inside, soft light glimmered off a giant glass-like tube—no, a crystal tank—suspended in the center of the room. And within it floated a beautiful woman, her hair billowing gently as though she slept underwater.

On both sides of her, arranged neatly, were the treasures I'd been searching for—objects the Crimson Alchemist had desperately wanted to keep hidden from the world.

The real prize of this dungeon.

And the beginning of everything I came here to do.

The room was deathly quiet.

A kind of quiet that felt… reverent.

Even the air felt different here—thicker, older, as if it remembered every step that trespassed into this place.

I stepped forward slowly.

One… two… three steps.

Each one made my heartbeat pound harder inside my chest. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

The woman floating in the crystal tank was breathtaking in a way that felt unreal — not beautiful in the mortal sense but crafted, sculpted, as if someone had blended alchemy, obsession, and genius until divinity was forced into human shape.

Her eyes were closed, her body perfectly preserved, not a single sign of decay.

Not alive.

Not dead.

Suspended in a state that defied logic.

Here is a revised, more natural, more human-sounding version while keeping your tone, intent, and pacing intact:

---

The Crimson Alchemist's final masterpiece.

"…So you really existed," I breathed.

My voice felt too small for the chamber.

Too soft for the weight of the moment.

Even though I'd anticipated this — even though I'd read she would eventually awaken — seeing her with my own eyes was different.

Completely different.

A living legend.

A forbidden experiment.

A calamity sealed in glass.

Her eyelashes trembled.

For someone who was supposed to be asleep — or perhaps not fully alive — she moved with a strange, eerie grace.

—Who… are you?

The question drifted out, thin and delicate, like she wasn't yet used to having a voice.

Or maybe the concept of speech was new to her entirely.

I swallowed and forced a smile.

"Hello. Nice to meet you," I said, trying to sound calm — but my heartbeat was loud enough to echo in my skull.

Nice to meet you…

Those words felt surreal coming from her.

Her, the girl in the crystal flask.

The homunculus crafted by the Crimson Alchemist himself.

My Villain Comrade Candidate No. 3.

I let the smile grow a little wider — not threatening, but honest enough to be disarming.

"I'm a villain," I said lightly. "So I think we'll get along."

A small human born from alchemy.

A being with no past, and a future only I knew.

A homunculus — and perhaps the most dangerous one ever created.

And now… she was looking at me.