Magic Tools Are Selling Too Well

We were gathered in front of the well Morphine had discovered.

Morphine must have followed my instruction to report anything unusual, but from the moment I heard his words, I was somewhat certain.

It’s this well.
This well is the cause of the poison.

Because of the poison that suddenly appeared in the well, Morphine’s mother and her colleagues, who had been drinking water here normally, collapsed from poisoning.
Without a reason like this, it wouldn’t make sense for them to suddenly die after working in the same environment for 10 years.

Naturally, the question about the hero party was also solved.
The reason why the hero party, who had no connection to the factory, died from poisoning after stopping by the factory was because they drank water from this well.

“I’m sure. It’s because of the water in this well. I feel the same mana I felt when diagnosing Morphine’s mother from this water too.”

I exhaled a sigh after finishing sensing the mana of the well water I had drawn up.

The special mana I felt when examining Morphine’s mother.
That mana was being felt much more strongly from this water.

Morphine looked at me with an overwhelmed expression.

“S-Senior, then…”
“Yeah. Now I can make an antidote.”

I didn’t have any sophistry like I found the cause, but I’m not sure about the antidote yet…

I was confident that I could make an antidote for any special poison if I just had the causative poison.

After my older sister, the eldest daughter of the family, struggled between life and death from being poisoned by a special poison a few years ago, I had experience in manufacturing antidotes for almost all special poisons that exist in this world.

At that time, after manufacturing over 100 antidotes, I finally realized.
That there’s a certain mechanism in making antidotes for special poisons.
So if I could just know the causative poison, I could make an antidote for any poison.

Therefore, I can say without a doubt now.

That I can certainly cure Morphine’s mother.

“Thank you! Thank you, Senior!! I’ve received help many times, but I don’t know how to repay you for helping again. Thank you… really thank you… This kindness…”
“Foxtail. Take him out of the factory and wait outside. I have more to do. I’ll be right there.”
“Yes, Senior.”

I entrusted Morphine, who was bowing his head to me with uncontrollable emotions, to Delia.

Thanks to these juniors who know no shame, the embarrassment is my share.
That guy would probably keep doing that endlessly if not controlled.

Delia grabbed Morphine’s collar and dragged him out of the factory.
Foxtail…
Although she’s very shy, she acts without restraint towards people she’s become close to.

“……”

As the two disappeared from sight, I looked at the well with complicated feelings.

Actually, sending Delia and Morphine away first wasn’t just because it was embarrassing.
While sensing the mana, I discovered a few suspicious points about this well.

I had been constantly asking questions since I learned that the cause that put Morphine’s mother in bed was ‘poison’.
Why poison?
Why did his mother, who was going to the factory normally, suddenly get ‘poisoned’?
Why did deadly poison suddenly spread in this ordinary well?

And those questions were completely solved only after I sensed the water in this well, or more precisely, the mana contained in the water.

The poison dissolved in the water, the mana contained in it was not ordinary mana.
It was creepy and chilling mana.
It was unpleasant and dirty, yet terribly familiar mana.

This mana that felt sticky to a terrible degree was…

“Demons…”

It was ‘demon mana’.

I started scooping up the well water and filling a large basin I had brought from the factory.
Since the factory had become ruins and no new water had been supplied, the water in the well quickly began to run out.
After scooping about eight times.
Finally, I was able to scoop out all the water in the well.

“…I can’t see.”

The well with all the water emptied, revealing the bottom.

But perhaps because it was too deep, it was pitch black and I couldn’t see the bottom at all.

I rummaged through my magic bag.
There was a life magic tool I had made in advance for times like this.
It was [Light Stone], a stone that emits light and brightens the surroundings.

With a clunk- clunk- sound, the [Light Stone] fell into the middle of the well.
Due to the great depth, it rolled for a while before illuminating the bottom.

I leaned my head in to look inside.

“……!”

And a shocking sight came into my narrow field of vision.

Black and red intertwined, with a bizarre color and shape…

A gate.
There was a gate at the bottom of that well.

As if it had eaten black flesh and shed red blood.
So grotesque and horrible that it was hard to face.
A crimson gate was opening its mouth towards me.

It was the moment when ominous signs and suspicions became certainty.

The rimless glasses that had been wandering finally settled on the tip of her nose.
It was the result of processing documents while ignoring fatigue.
Her black eyes, shimmering like jewels, were pleading that they had reached their limit.

Rapury Melaine briefly took off her glasses and pressed her temples firmly.

“You can take a short break, Sache…”

Melaine stopped midway through her habitual words towards her student assistant.

Because he, who was always in the seat next to her at this time, was absent from his seat.
He had requested a day off, saying he hadn’t slept at all last night making magic tools.

Melaine gave a bitter smile.
Her memory seemed to be quite bad.
Considering she was talking to herself like this, forgetting something she had given permission for just a few hours ago.

Perhaps because she had been doing everything alone for a long time, she had become too quickly accustomed to working together.

“……”

Melaine had always been alone.
Whether working or studying.

She always went around alone in the department and graduated early in 3 years, and even in the research institute, she conducted research alone without having a specially assigned professor.
Even after taking on the title of professor, she was accustomed to and comfortable working alone.

And it was quite an efficient way of working.
It was faster to process work alone than with several people.
Studying alone worked better than having someone hold onto her and help.
It was possible because she had never missed being an elite from her youth until now.

She was a person who was more comfortable with individuals than groups.

“It’s a first. Thinking that a group is comfortable.”

To begin with, Melaine had no intention of hiring a research assistant.

There was no way there would be a researcher who could understand her unique philosophy on alchemy, and she, who was comfortable alone, didn’t need an assistant to share her work even more.

But on a day not long after the semester started.
She was notified by the department head that a student assistant had been assigned.

Melaine thought she was given that student because of her low experience.

A student assistant was literally a scholarship concept of helping with work at the undergraduate level.
Most professors didn’t prefer it because it wasn’t much help whether they were there or not.

That was about it.
It didn’t matter whether he was there or not.
She would do the work anyway.

“It should have been just that…”

But this student assistant with a sly personality had already deeply permeated Melaine’s professor life.

He had extraordinary comprehension and processing ability.
If you threw him one thing, he would accomplish three or four.
If you threw three, he would come back with six or seven.
He naturally blended into Melaine’s solitary way and was achieving the most efficient work sharing.

Even setting aside his title as the department’s hope who sells magic tools, he was already a complete elite.

“…I’m tired.”

It felt like fatigue was rushing in all at once today.

It wasn’t just because the workload increased due to the absence of the student assistant.
Originally, there would be meaningless conversations around this time, but without that time, she felt somehow empty.

Without his pointless jokes that he threw out every day, somehow she didn’t feel like working.

Melaine pulled out a sheet of paper she had set aside.
And she showed a faint smile.
It was a small punishment for the impertinent student assistant who ran away without working.

This participant applies to participate in the Academy Colosseum during the festival period.

The participant pledges to be able to withdraw at any time during the competition and not to protest against small injuries that use potions.

Participating Student: Sacher Philip (Alchemy Department 2nd Year)
Recommending Professor: Rapury Melaine (Alchemy Department)

The midterms ended last week.

And shortly after the first semester midterms end, the academy holds a festival.
The ‘Academy Colosseum’, where students duel each other, was the main event of this festival period.

Usually, it was standard to go through preliminaries and advance to the finals during the festival period, but up to 10 students per department could go straight to the finals with a professor’s recommendation.

Sacher was one of the 10 undergraduate students going straight to the Colosseum on Melaine’s recommendation.

Of course, it was an application made without his consent.
He would probably get furiously angry if he heard, but he was someone who did well when pushed.
While grumbling, he would probably show a good performance in this competition too.

Melaine smiled slightly.

She was curious what expression Sacher, who protests about trivial things almost every day, would make this time.
When he comes to work tomorrow, she was thinking of showing him the application form as if giving a simple work processing report.

‘This is exploitation, I tell you, exploitation!’

Somehow, she felt like she could already hear his voice.