It was a unique room. A large room with all kinds of reagents and unknown objects scattered here and there.
If I had to pick a similar atmosphere, it would be the kind of room I could see in Anilis’s basement lab, which I saw in Oriac.
Vera asked Miller as he walked into the room, frowned at the skull tower in one corner.
“What is that?”
“yes? Oh, these are the skulls for lectures. I was going to put it somewhere else, but the dean’s old man is disgusting, so why not put it out there?”
A deep resentment flashed across Vera’s face as Miller spoke with a giggle.
However, it is something that cannot be teased.
Vera, who does not know exactly what magic is, vaguely responded to Miller’s grumbling, vaguely thinking, ‘It must have been built up because it was necessary.’
“… You are in a lot of trouble.”
From https://noblemtl.com
Of course, Miller was preparing to weave another long answer into the short answer.
Vera shuddered at the sign, and quickly changed the subject.
“Can you take a look at the dagger first? After that, I have a lot of schedule, so it’s hard to devote a long time to it.”
Let’s just look at each other and break up. At the words full of such intentions, Miller nodded his taste buds as if regretfully.
“Ah, that can’t be helped.”
good bye good bye
As Miller stood in the middle of the lab and began to clear the table, the decorations on his suit began to clatter and rattle.
Another short time passed, and a large map and a flask containing transparent reagents were placed on the table that had been cleaned up.
Miller tapped the flask’s cap with his fingertips and continued the explanation.
“I will start by restoring the dagger. You don’t have to go through a difficult process… Just enough to reveal the original shape.”
Miller stretched his hand forward. Perhaps it means asking for a dagger. Vera drew a dagger from his waist and handed it to Miller.
“Is this taking a long time?”
“It will be over in a few hours. It’s easy enough to reveal the original shape.”
While he was speaking, Miller’s hands were moving in a hurry.
Processes such as applying glue to the handle and covering the top with paper or mixing the liquids in various flasks into a large beaker are done quite neatly.
Are you still a professor? Vera raised his eyebrows as he watched him get the job done, and Miller, ready to drop his dagger into the beaker.
“Now, let’s wait about 30 minutes like this.”
Words made by flipping a small hourglass. Vera nodded at it, but belatedly found the map on the table and looked at it. Then his eyes widened.
“The appearance of the map is a little different from what I knew.”
“yes? Ah, it’s a map of the gods.”
Miller’s complexion brightened. It seemed quite happy that there was a place to chat. He could have just shut his mouth like this, but Vera decided to listen to Miller’s story.
This is because the thought that ‘you should know about the new generation’ came to mind.
That’s right, aren’t you particularly entangled with them after leaving Seongguk?
Terdan, Aedrin, and Orgus. And an ancient species that has not yet been identified as the owner of the serum.
‘… And the Demon King.’
The strange conviction that he might be able to find out the identity of the demon king whose origin and identity were unknown until the end of his previous life, that started to take hold.
Vera was convinced.
‘The Demon King is not an outside existence.’
It wasn’t something that fell from the sky one day, it must have already existed on this earth. So it must have been already showing signs of it all over the continent.
And the most appropriate to explain the demon king were the beings of the gods.
Maybe it’s the existence of an extinct god… .
‘… It could be an ancient species.’
It could have been ancient.
To say it’s just nonsense, the part about ancient species was more hidden than known, so the possibility of this could not be overlooked.
“Isn’t the terrain pretty unusual? Here and here in the canyon, in the past, there should have been an unweathered mass of land, but these two places are more man-made than they are now. In academia, with this, the beings of the God Age would have had superior architectural skills than they do now. I am making such an opinion. Well, it could be that the ancient species simply made a riot. However, if it’s for architectural technology… .”
Uninteresting stories continued, but Vera listened.
Miller, who has been through it for the past few days, has a tendency to shed fatal information in a story like that.
Fortunately, Vera’s wait did not last long.
“… That’s true, isn’t it? Because there is already evidence that the construction technology of the new generation is far superior to that of today. Queen of the Black Season. Because her citadel is in the north, and you can definitely see its bizarre architecture just by going nearby. So there can be no controversy among scholars.”
Vera’s eyes twinkled.
“I think there has been quite a bit of research on nertania.”
“yes? that… choo? Apparently, she is the most active among the active ancient species.”
Vera’s words cut through the gap, and Miller nodded in embarrassment.
Vera looked at Miller’s twitching eyes, realizing that it was time to ask the academy’s scholars the question he was about to ask.
“There is something I want to ask you, Professor.”
“What?”
“To make an ordinary human possess the power of an ancient species. Is it possible?”
The corpses he had seen in the Empire were questions related to it.
You might ask, why are you asking such a question while talking about nertania, but… , isn’t it? The ‘followers of the night’ were the most plausible to explain the corpses. And didn’t Anilis, who made the corpse, who was researching the serum, already know the existence of the Demon King?
If the ancient species and the demon king are related, if the research derived from it is the corpses, then the ancient species most closely related to the demon king is nertania. Such speculation arises.
“Well… .”
Miller salivated.
His fingertips were tapping the map, as if he was continuing to ponder quite deeply. A few moments passed, and then Miller shook his head.
“impossible.”
“… Yes?”
“Impossible.”
It was a solid answer. Vera’s brow furrowed. Miller grinned and added an explanation.
“I know roughly what you’re talking about, but there is a common misunderstanding. The family of Nertania does not share the power of the ancient species that Nertania possesses.”
Vera’s head tilted.
As far as I know, the way to become a member of Nertania’s family is to drink her blood, so that’s how you gain the power of immortality.
Miller read that look in Vera’s face, and then added more words.
“The followers of the night share the ‘curse’ in their blood. In other words, the power used by the followers of the night is a cursed resentment. This is it.”
Miller’s fingertips headed towards the northern corner of the map.
“Have you heard of the reason why the Citadel of the Black Night was built?”
“… A fortress built by Nertania to create her own army.”
“Yeah, she’s building a corps. In order to kill the first dragon Lokrion who placed a curse on his body, to lift the curse and take over the continent. It’s impossible to do it alone, so we needed a legion to deal with the children of Lokrion, so Black Night Citadel was built.”
It was a well-known story.
A conflict between two ancient species in the very distant past. At the end, Lochryon placed a curse on Nertania. The conflict and the fortress built for revenge.
“Her family is also pitiful in a way, because they are infected with Nertania’s thoughts and live to break her curse, right? When the curse is lifted, I can’t stop even though I know that they will die. Well, considering the price for coveting eternal life, it seems like a pretty cheap meal.”
Miller, who had giggled, quickly put things together with those words.
“Anyway, the power of the Ancient Species is unmatched by any other non-Ancient species. You can tell by looking at the outcome of scholars who have tried it in the past. So… .”
Miller knocks. tock. He tapped the map with his fingertips, then raised his hand and pointed to Vera.
“To put it bluntly, the power of the Ancient Species is like the power you have.”
mentioned power.
“Can Sir Vera impart the powers he has to others?”
“… There is not.”
“Yes? It’s the same thing. Neither your power nor the power of the Ancient Servant is based on the blessings of the gods, so you cannot distribute it arbitrarily because you are not the owner of that power.”
Vera’s expression softened even more as Miller finished shrugging his shoulders.
‘Then they… .’
How should these bodies be described?
What to say about the study of applying the serum of an ancient species to humans?
How should Anilis, who seemed to have succeeded in research in the end, spewing out ridiculous powers with serum like that?
My mind started to get complicated.
When I realized that the answer I had thought of approaching was an incorrect answer, a strange sense of emptiness came to mind that I had returned to the beginning.
Maybe he didn’t notice the sign of Vera like that? As Miller was eating again, he suddenly made a happy expression on his face and started chatting.
“There is another story about it. This is a rather interesting point of view, but in fact, ancient bells might not have been the first apostles! Such opinions often come up. Oh, of course, it wouldn’t be a pleasant story from Seongguk’s point of view… .”
*
“It’s done.”
A few minutes later, Miller took the dagger out of the beaker and spoke.
A look of tiredness spread across Vera’s face as he nodded.
It was because of the frustrating speed and dizzying head that all ran away from Miller’s chatter.
“… You suffered.”
“Ah, so much.”
Vera’s expression frowned at Miller’s waving of his hand.
This time too, Miller, who did not notice such a sign, wiped the blade of the dagger with a cloth, and all the rust from the dagger was removed from the inside.
“Now, if you just engraved here, you’re almost done.”
“Then do you get the mystery?”
“Eh? no.”
Vera and Miller looked at each other. eyes collided Vera was frowned, Miller was rolling his eyes with a dumbfounded look on his face.
Meanwhile, Miller said.
“If I get all mysteries by engraving, would I already be an ancient servant?”
Vera’s mouth shut. Because there was nothing to object to.
Miller giggled at the sight of Vera, and added:
“Mysteries cannot be explained in principle. Even with this engraving, the probability of extracting the mystery is infinitely low. Each mystery has a different element to which it responds.”
The dagger gleamed over the candle.
“Some mysteries respond to happiness, some to screams. Others cling to it for no reason. Whether you can get the mystery or not… It will depend on what Sir Vera is going through with this dagger going forward.”
In the end, it was ‘now you do it yourself’.
Vera sighed, feeling steamy, then nodded and continued.
“How do you react?”
“It’s easy. You can feed the dagger with blood.”
Miller handed the dagger.
Vera, without the slightest hesitation, drew the dagger across the palm of his hand.
Duduk-.
I got annoyed and gave it strength, and the blade went pretty deep. Vera frowned at it, and Miller, who was watching from the other side, said with a tired face.
“uh… Just one drop.”
Vera’s head flashed.
Why are you saying that now? I wanted to say something like that, but I was the one who drew it without a word, so it’s an ambiguous situation to blame.
Vera opened his mouth to use healing techniques to heal his palms, with a face full of impressions.
“If you have any other questions, I will come to you.”
“Oh, yes, what. Do it.”
Miller waved his hand awkwardly. Miller, looking at Vera’s face full of impressions, suddenly remembered the contents of a book he had read recently.
‘If you make an impression like that, you will age quickly.’
I wanted to explain, but I resisted.
It was because I had a strange conviction that if I said now, I would be struck by one.