Chapter 256 - Episode Three - The Fierce Leaders of the Fage Territory (2)

If youre just a bunch of amateurs, youre not going to be able to do anything useful. The only one who is decent is Rinoa-san, the deputy leader. The rest of you are not even at the level of learning as you go. Im sorry, but youre going to have to start over from the very basics.

The wandering alchemist I had brought with me, Alta, said this as she turned her cold eyes toward the Fage Alchemy Division.

She is now a special instructor for the Fage Domain Alchemy Division.

Alta sat on a wooden box, crossed her legs, played with her orange curly hair with her fingertips, and let out a sigh.

The members of the Alchemy Division, on the other hand, had no intention of rebelling in spite of being told to do so harshly, and trying to appeal that they are willing, replying Yes! vigorously.

Alta took out a burlap sack and threw it to one of the division members.

Theres a red gem in it. Its a small golem core. Each of you will copy the main points from my introductory golem and start making your own mini golems. As for the materials other than the golem core, each of you should scrounge them up in your territory, seeing if you can find any substitutes. If you have any questions that you cant digest, please ask me. The deadline for completion is one week after all.

Yes, sir! Ill leave it to you, Professor Alta!

The members of the Alchemy Division surrounded Altas introductory golem at once, each taking notes in their own journal.

When I was teaching, their motivation was very different.

Youre so kind, Alta.

I thought she was a bad guy because Commander Abel brought her here, but Im glad shes more sensible than I thought.

I wish she would replace Commander Abel If he continues to be the leader of the division, people will die sooner or later. Im sure Lark is indebted to him, so he cant be replaced.

The members of the division who were copying the book complained about me verbally.

I can hear them, though. It looks like hes talking with the force of a man who wants to be heard.

Ive heard that theyre your disciple and to be honest, I was afraid, but theyre mostly regular. Its just that they seem to have a lot of guts when it comes to tackling difficult problems.

The wandering alchemist Alta.

The real identity is of course the witch Altamir, whose tower was completely destroyed in the aftermath of the battle between me and the collector.

The reason why Altamir had been staying indoors was because she wanted to settle down and study magic, but after all the research results stored in the tower were destroyed, she seemed to have made up her mind to go outside.

She was supposed to have been sealed up for treason against the royal family, so she wasnt really in a position to walk around with impunity, and the real Altamir had been taken away by the High Elves, so it was unlikely that there would be any investigations here.

Over the past hundred years, Altamirs appearance and features have become the stuff of folklore.

There are several paintings in the Fage territory that are said to depict Altamir, but all of them are slightly different from her.

It seems that the negative image of her as a witch has remained strong.

Abel Your not very good at teaching, you know. Im sure that if Abel had given the instructions earlier, he would have said that the quota was ten pieces a day, and if there was anything they didnt understand, they should go back and look at the book, and everything would be written right there. In the beginning, there was a case where a member of the division collapsed for a week because he was forced to cram three days worth of work into one day in order to save time.

Before I could answer, Mea said to Altamir.

When Altamir heard this, she looked at me with disdain.

I thought I wasnt very good at teaching because Im a sensory-type person too, but if you said it that much, its already sickness.

Y-You dont have to go that far

I had a lot of things I wanted to do with the Alchemy Division, too.

But at the current pace, it will take more than twenty years to reach my ideal.

Thats not good enough. No, its not that its not good enough, but I dont want to.

In three years time, we should all be at the level of Altamir.

Thats what the collector said. Hes a bit of a psychopath.

H-he cant speak for others, can he?

I think the collector is still holding a grudge against me.

Its the result of the game, and I think it cant be helped.

I didnt want to destroy as much as I could, but he was fighting me while spitting out all of his treasure, so I had no choice but to do so.

And the value was a bit too out of the ordinary for me to take responsibility for it.

Why dont you just give him back the Great Gods Treasure Book? That one was recovered first, so its safe, right?

What!? N-no that was given to me as a result of a fair game and I was never asked to return it.

Ive seen the collector stare wistfully at me from afar when Im deciphering it.

You thats what about you

Altamir let out a sigh of exasperation.

She glanced at the alchemists who were working on the manuscript, and then continued, saying Speaking of which.

Ive heard that collectors can estimate a persons influence on the world from their attitude and behavior. Have you heard about that?

Yeah, Im pretty sure Ive heard that

He said something about aura or something.

According to the collector, my aura was nothing

In short, youre trying to find out what theyve done in the past by applying their behavior, words, and actions to a pattern to find out their character. People with a certain amount of experience probably do this naturally in a vague way. Its just that the eyes of collectors who have lived long enough and have been blessed with the opportunity to come into contact with big names are much more accurate than those of ordinary people.

I see.

The collectors words were abstract and gave the impression of a fluffy superpower, which I didnt quite understand, but it made sense when I heard it that way.

I guess you cant really feel it when a dragon stomps on a Fogg is what he said, drunkenly complaining.

Oh, so thats how he looked at me