2. The Secret of Al-Khazaf
I locked myself in the library at once.
Countless scholars came all the way here to persuade me, but everyone had to give up and turn back.
And so, a day passed, then two.
A month went by, and after three or four months had flowed past.
I could feel the gazes on me gradually growing colder.
That was what I had wanted.
No, in truth, it was maddeningly enjoyable.
So much so that I wondered if God had guided me to *Al-Khazaf* to save my life.
Inside it lay the answers to everything I had been agonizing over.
I read through countless books.
To better understand Al-Khazaf, I studied basic alchemy, of course, and to comprehend the meanings of the ancient words and ingredients that appeared frequently, I learned ancient languages and symbols.
On top of that, there were ancient, mysterious alchemical research texts so dizzying they could hardly be distinguished from magic.
I explored the traces of magic circles that now remained merely as transmutation circles.
To forge my own destiny.
Only four years remained. The hourglass was constantly running low.
Before the remaining sand ran out completely, I had to flip the hourglass.
Since alchemy was, after all, a recognized field of study.
Obtaining materials and experimental apparatus was easy.
However, because human experimentation was strictly forbidden, I had tested alchemical drugs and elixirs on my own body, so my hair had turned white, but—
“Arhan, aren’t you wasting far too much time these days? I heard you didn’t even attend the academic conference this time.”
“They called you a prodigy, yet you’ve only buried yourself in useless studies… Tsk, tsk.”
“What good is that sort of alchemy? You know as well as I that there’s no way to turn pebbles into gold. You should learn from Ethan!”
Finally, even the few scholars who had placed their hopes on me gave up and switched over to Ethan.
The one who actually came to see me wore an inscrutable smile and offered words of encouragement, but—
Even while enduring the mockery of the other scholars.
I silently continued my research, expanding my domain even into herbology.
Because properly utilizing alchemy required knowledge surpassing that of a mere herbology specialist.
Of course, scholars who knew nothing of war, who had never even smelled blood or sweat, had no interest in alchemy or herbology.
No, rather than lacking interest, they subtly looked down upon them.
The perception was widespread that they were merely necessary for potion-peddling merchants—those who pursued filthy coin, utterly unrelated to their noble selves.
At best, herbology was slightly better off due to its deep connection with medicine.
I was the only one in this tower who recognized the true potential of alchemy.
In that sense, meeting Great Scholar Adriel, a master of alchemy and herbs, had been a tremendous stroke of luck.
* * *
“Great Scholar. Do you remember the rat I fed the J-104 potion to?”
“No, I say, Arhan! Do you know how many potions you’ve told me about? There’s no way I can know them all. Now, which potion are you talking about? Are you referring to the regeneration potion that grants regenerative abilities like a troll’s?”
“No, Great Scholar. The one that combined enhanced strength and physical reinforcement, remember?”
“Aha. Yes… that’s right. What became of that rat for you to bring it up?”
I grinned and held out the report.
“I killed it. It seems it caught and ate the goblin I’d locked in the cage next to it.”
“What? The rat… a goblin? No, wait… it broke through the iron bars?”
“Yes. It’s the goblin I caught with Maise last time. They’re not difficult to catch, so it’s no great loss.”
Adriel sprang up from his seat and opened the laboratory door with a slightly uneasy expression.
The cage made of iron bars had been torn away. In front of it lay a giant rat with its head cleanly cut off.
It was easily the size of a rather large wild dog.
“Remarkable… Ah, and I’ve checked the list of transmutation circles you compiled. To think you found such connections in the forbidden tome index. Just as you said, alchemy and magic were once connected! Even I couldn’t fully decipher *Al-Khazaf*.”
Adriel was praising me with an expression filled with admiration.
However.
“Then… ah, if you’ve checked it, I would appreciate it if you burned that thesis.”
“Hah! Are you in your right mind? You know the value of that thesis better than anyone!”
“Yes. Master, this is the Warring States era ruled by the Ten Great Clans, is it not? Imagine if even a bit of this technology leaked out. Everyone would be massacred.”
I made a gloomy expression and hung my head. Thanks to practicing beforehand in my room, my gestures were perfectly natural.
*‘And above all, it’s because everything is already in my head. I must monopolize this technology, Master.’*
“Even so… asking me to burn it. No matter how dangerous some parts may be, isn’t it too much of a waste? Your achievement… something that could easily advance the history of alchemy by fifty… no, eighty years. This?”
I carefully snatched the bundle of documents from Adriel’s hands and burned them directly in the candle flame on the table.
Adriel looked exceedingly reluctant.
“If this technology falls into the hands of those outside the tower, disaster will strike. They might track down the source of the medicine, and the Holy Knights could come to interrogate us. It will take a long time to explain it away as simple alchemy.”
Adriel nodded, yet continued to gaze at the burning papers with eyes still lingering with attachment.
I, too, made a melancholy expression and lowered my head.
Of course, this was merely an excuse to monopolize my technology.
Holy Knights?
They were a group that branded even perfectly healthy people as witches. They were trash who could frame anyone if they wished, alchemy or not.
But I was confident I wouldn’t get caught.
At the very least, I just needed to grow strong enough to overcome them even if I were caught.
The naive scholar Adriel couldn’t possibly realize he was being deceived right now.
*‘But in Adriel’s eyes, I must have appeared as a brilliant genius with character to match, an unparalleled paragon concerned for the Tower of Knowledge.’*
Adriel shook his head and looked at me with a somewhat bitter expression.
He seemed to recall that I would soon be assigned and leave.
At this point, only a few days remained before I was to be assigned as Administrator of House Evolgue.
House Evolgue in the eastern continent must have already sent a carriage all the way to this place in the central continent to fetch me.
Rumors had already been circulating in the tower for months that I had been internally selected as Administrator of House Evolgue.
Reading between the lines, Adriel seemed to have tried to pull strings behind my back, congratulating me to my face while working to keep me from leaving. But it must have gotten him nowhere.
Because this was the Tower of Knowledge. Troif.
Was that why?
Though I was gathering various rare materials from Adriel’s laboratory when I no longer even had time to research, he now asked nothing about what I took.
He merely spoke of other things.
“I asked Great Scholar Orus about your fate, Arhan.”
“You mean Great Scholar Orus… the expert in astronomy, the study of sovereigns, and prophecy?”
“Yes. It seems he had been watching you without your knowledge. Anyway… with the war in the east looming, I asked Orus to divine your prophecy, whether it was right to send you. Hoping it might help you even a little. The next day, Orus told me in surprise. He said your fate had split into two.”
Without stopping my hands, I listened with interest to what followed.
“A fate can split into two?”
“Yes. He said it is an extremely rare case, which is why Orus was astonished. One… is that you die after being defeated in the war. The other is—”
Avoiding my master’s eyes, I placed an alchemy book into my bag.
Such books could be easily obtained in the Tower of Knowledge, but outside, acquiring them would be no easy task.
Yet there was one book I hesitated to pack in my bag until the very end.
The alchemy *forbidden tome*.
*If the Holy Knights caught me with this… it would be straight to the stake.*
The alchemical grimoire *Al-Khazaf*, the only one remaining on the continent after the First Emperor eradicated all traces of magic.
The chill of the gallows rope wrapping around my neck still gripped my throat. However.
*Now things are different. I can twist fate.*
On a continent where brilliant magic had vanished, because I had grasped alchemy that rivaled such magic.
I packed Al-Khazaf into my bag.
“Then my fate must be the second one.”
I gave my worry-laden master a confident smile.
But Adriel was already looking at me with a melancholy expression.
Even Adriel, who secluded himself in his study, could not be ignorant of what it meant to go to a territory on the brink of war.
Even if by chance he survives.
He would be severely traumatized.
Of course, since this is the Second War, that doesn’t apply to me.
“Go to Maise’s room. He was looking for you.”
I gave up on comforting my master and offered my farewells.
And of course, with Maise, the retired knight who had been my swordsmanship master, after a long conversation, I left what might be my final farewell.
After a long time, I spent the night talking with Ethan.
And so, the last night seemed to pass… or so I thought.
Just before finally leaving the Tower of Knowledge.
While doing a final check of my bag and stuffing it with various alchemical materials—
Vrrrm—
A faint vibration began to emanate from somewhere.
Al-Khazaf was vibrating.
As if the book were alive.
The moment I placed my trembling hand on the vibrating cover.
A strange old man’s voice struck my ears.
[*In accordance with the covenant, I request a contract.*]
“…!”
Startled, I pulled my hand away and stepped back.
*The book… can talk?*
The moment I removed my hand, the book began to buzz as if having a seizure.
Fearing Ethan in the next room might come in due to the strange vibration, I hastily grabbed the book.
[*Do not remove your hand! I have little time remaining.*]
“A-a ghost?”
[*Can you be so foolish! Did you read Al-Khazaf to the end without realizing who I am?*]
The old man’s roar rang fiercely as if striking my ears, but—
The vibration didn’t spread to the floor or surroundings.
It was clearly a voice only I could hear.
I didn’t know how this was possible, but—
While striving not to lose my composure, I began observing Al-Khazaf.
“What the… since when could you speak?”
[*How amusing. I have watched you for a long time, so drop the foolish act.*]
Tch.
Would I have to be careful even when alone from now on?
[*Your expression is most impertinent! Do you know who I am, yet act this way? You must have found me according to the covenant as well. How can you be so rude and lacking?*]
Look at this bastard.
It seemed this “Mr. Al-Khazaf” had no idea how the world had changed.
It would be no exaggeration to say that the lineage of alchemy had nearly been severed since the Emperor. Even in the Tower of Knowledge, if not for me, it would have died out with my master as the last.
Covenant?
I didn’t know what that was, but it must have ended already.
“Old man. I don’t know what you’re talking about, but keep it brief. I don’t have time to chat leisurely with a ghost clinging to a book. I’m busy packing.”
[*W-w-w-wait! Wait!*]
As I ostentatiously peeled my fingers away one by one, the voice grew quite desperate.
In this battle of wills, the victory was clearly mine.
“…So what do you want?”
[*Impudent wretch! Are you not an alchemist? Surely you didn’t read me without knowing who I am?*]
As if I didn’t know.
But I was playing hard to get because you clearly seemed desperate.
[*You, do you know of the Homunculus? The pinnacle of alchemy that creates life. The transference of the soul into matter was discovered in this process, you half-baked—*]
“Keep it brief.”
[*Make a contract with me! Even your master Adriel is a mere fledgling to me. Are you not curious about true alchemy? I can turn everything you touch into gold. Just look at me, a house of gold… diamond wine glasses… a pen made of ruby… blah, blah… a wizard who fell into lichdom… perfect and pure soul transference… I am a genius…*]
My, what a talkative old man.
But it wasn’t a bad proposal.
*Isaac. Why wouldn’t I know?*
Born in the golden age of magic, the one said to have handled alchemy more mysterious than magic itself.
Though he never stepped onto a battlefield, he killed more than anyone else.
And without ever setting foot in a clinic, he saved countless lives.
He grasped and systematized the forces and dynamics of the world.
The legend of alchemists.
He had disappeared at some point when the Emperor’s persecution began; it seemed he had sealed his soul within the book.
But now, when even in this Tower of Knowledge the line of alchemy had been severed, and no one took interest in the old library.
I was the only one who could call forth this ghost.
*In other words, I hold the absolutely advantageous position.*
“The price.”
[*The price is… your bo—*]
“Rejected.”
I threw the book onto the bed and resumed packing. I ignored the violently ringing vibration.
While carefully checking various materials, potions, and experimental tools, the candle had nearly burned down before I knew it, leaving only a faint, flickering light.
When I placed my hand on the faintly ringing book.
[*You merely need to move me to the world outside this book! I wish to see the world through your eyes! That is all!*]
“Is that truly all?”
[*You have read Al-Khazaf, so you know! The First Law of Alchemy.*]
“The Law of Equivalent Exchange.”
[*The Law of Equivalent Exchange.*]
Our voices rang out simultaneously.
As if having given up on seizing the initiative, a sulking voice revealed his true feelings.
[*Th-that’s right. The condition I desire is to see the world through you. …I don’t know how much time has passed, but having been trapped in this book for hundreds of years, I am nearly driven mad.*]
“What do I gain?”
[*In return, you gain the knowledge of Al-Khazaf, and my precious learning and advice. Yes! This is not written anywhere, not even in Al-Khazaf…*]
The knowledge of Grand Alchemist Isaac regarding Al-Khazaf.
In exchange for my eyes?
I didn’t know whether I would lose my eyes or simply share my sight, but—
I had nothing to lose.
*The Law of Equivalent Exchange regards an alchemist’s own body as the most noble material, so at most, one eye should be sufficient.*
Right now, when I must depart for the battlefield tomorrow.
Any means to twist fate was welcome.
Perhaps he hadn’t been lying about being short on time.
Isaac’s chattering voice was gradually fading.
“Fine. I accept.”
[*The contract is established. One material for one material. Flesh to light, light to flesh. This, too, follows the mystery of nature.*]
A faint light rising from the book instantly drew a multicolored magic circle.
Blinding radiance enveloped the room.
“Ugh…!”
A flash so intense it could blind even with eyes closed.
My mind grew hazy.
Enduring the dizziness, when I opened my eyes, Al-Khazaf had vanished.
Isaac’s voice, now familiar, resonated in my head.
[*Allow me to formally introduce myself.*]
[*I am the last master of the Wittelsbach throne and the final alchemist, Isaac Newton.*]
* * *
Isaac watched Arhan through the book and let out a short sigh.
However desperate he had been, to make a mistake that got him trapped inside the book like this—he had done something more foolish than Nemus, who tried to become a Druid but ended up as an Ent—a tree spirit of the forest.
However.
Isaac smiled with satisfaction at the nearly completed recipe.
At any rate, meeting this hot-blooded youngster was enough. He was more capable than expected; if Isaac played his cards right, he would be able to escape this book someday.
Along with a quite satisfactory body.