Chapter 293: The Seed of the Engraving
It was like the saying, ‘The parents are true love, the child was an accident.’
Ever since Armand and Evelia confirmed their relationship, Rachel had gained quite a bit of free time.
Now that her mom and dad were busy enjoying their newlywed romance, Rachel, as their child, naturally became someone “outside the process.”
That gave her time to work on her alchemy, to try making a new body she could transfer into, and a soul stone that could carry her consciousness.
She also now had time to research one of her proudest inventions as an alchemist. Alchemy engravings, a method that made it super convenient to store things.
When she first started studying alchemy engravings, she used rare and valuable materials.
After all, these engravings could completely change how people fight and interact with the world. Back then, Rachel had poured all of her best materials into the research.
But reality was much harder than she imagined. Even though her design technically “worked,” it wasn’t something that could be widely used.
The biggest problem was how harsh the conditions were for someone to use the engraving. It simply couldn’t be applied to just anyone.
Even Rachel wasn’t sure whether her own body could handle the engraving she wanted to implant.
That said, her current body was technically an alchemical creation. If you looked at the “materials,” her artificial body should actually be more suitable for engraving experiments than a real human body.
As for where she wanted to test the engraving, Rachel picked her finger. Not somewhere too obvious, just the second joint of her left middle finger, and even then, only the part on the palm side.
The size of the engraving affected how much space was inside it. If she wanted to store a lot of things, she would need to carve a bigger, more complex pattern.
The alchemy engraving on Armand’s palm was one of the earliest prototypes. When it activated, the detailed lines spread across almost his entire palm.
If not for the soft golden glow when it lit up, it would’ve looked terrifying, almost like a creepy curse.
Compared to Armand’s, the engraving on Evelia was a lot more advanced. It could store much more, and even let her customize the design, like a tattoo, it could become a cool decoration.
But Evelia didn’t seem to care about that kind of thing. So Rachel didn’t bother designing a stylish pattern for her. She just moved her original engraving over as-is.
Of course, the process of planting the engraving was not pleasant.
The method was simple and brutal. Rachel had to cut out a piece of flesh, insert the engraving seed into the hole, and wait for it to “take root” in the body. Once she confirmed it had latched on, she could activate it with additional materials.
If she was lucky, the engraving would finish growing in about a week.
If unlucky... well, the seed might rot her finger before it ever grew properly.
And if someone picked a more sensitive area to implant the engraving, the pain from the festering wound would be even worse.
Back in the early days, lots of engraving test subjects couldn’t bond with the seed. And because the process couldn’t use any medicines, many of those cut-up spots ended up infected and rotten.
At that time, the whole area around the alchemy workshop reeked of rotting flesh.
If someone was lucky, maybe they’d just lose a finger or a limb. If they were unlucky, and weren’t worth saving as a test subject, they became dog food for the House of Nightingales’s vicious guard beasts.
Of course, Rachel only found out about that later.
Back then, the House of Nightingales was run by the Second Queen. That woman only brought in successful engraving subjects to continue the next step of experiments.
As for the ones who failed… Rachel only learned their fate from some idle gossip she overheard one day.
She had been terrified. She had started learning alchemy to save lives, but now she realized she had caused so many people pain. At one point, she had wanted to leave.
But by some twist of fate, chasing after money, materials, and the hope of creating even more useful alchemy. She ended up returning to the House of Nightingales, now under the control of the Second Prince.
Thinking back, Armand had once been one of those children she personally cut open, digging into his palm to insert the seed. Judging by his current age, he must’ve still been a teenager back then.
But there were so many test subjects at the time… Rachel couldn’t even remember which one was him.
“…Haaah.”
Remembering all this, Rachel let out a sigh. But the memories didn’t stop her from raising the small wooden knife in her hand, the only knife she had left.
Maybe because Rachel was still considered a “little girl,” Armand didn’t prepare any dangerous items for her, even though he did give her a place to practice alchemy.
For example, he didn’t provide her with any knives. The floor was covered with a soft carpet, and even the sharp corners of the windowsill and tables were padded with foam. The whole place looked more like a baby’s room.
As a result, the only thing Rachel had now that she could possibly use, besides trying to smash something with a bottle, was the small wooden knife Armand once gave her.
That little knife already had her blood on it. During that time when they had to escape, she didn’t get badly hurt, but it still wasn’t an easy time. Maybe for a normal child, even a small cut and a little pain would be enough to cry and scream all day. But for Rachel, who had already lived for over a hundred years—
“—This is nothing!”
With a soft sound, Rachel gritted her teeth and stabbed the wooden knife into the joint of her finger.
She wanted to scream, but she forced herself to swallow the cry.
This wasn’t her secret hideout. Her maid was still waiting outside the door. If there was any loud noise, the maid would definitely rush in, and all of Rachel’s preparations would be ruined. Worse, her true identity might be exposed.
Now that Evelia and Armand had gotten together, they probably didn’t need her around as a “wingman” anymore. Seeing them finally together made her feel satisfied. She could now think about leaving.
Armand and Evelia were clearly destined to be at the center of conflict. But Rachel just wanted a quiet place where she could slowly work on her alchemy.
“Ngh…”
She endured the pain in her finger, just like she had endured a hundred years of loneliness. Using her other hand, she pried the wound open and pushed in a small “low-grade engraved seed” that she had refined from scraps nearby.
Stuffing something into a wound was obviously torture. She bit down on the collar of her high-neck sweater to stop herself from making any sound. Her forehead was drenched in cold sweat as she watched blood gush from her cold fingers, and the uneven golden seed sting the flesh inside.
Next came a few tricks to hide what she had done.
She pressed down hard on the wound, wiped it with a wet tissue, then grabbed a paintbrush and some hard-to-wash paints. On a blank sheet of paper, she randomly drew some dogs, cats, and messy lines. Then she deliberately rubbed her painted hands across the page, avoiding the wounded finger.
She didn’t stop at just her hands. To make it more convincing, she even dirtied her clothes and a small section of the carpet.
She made sure her hands were covered in all kinds of colors, red included. The paint covered the blood and made the wound less obvious. The pigments were the kind that stained really badly. She figured it would take at least a week of daily washing to clean off.
After all, she was just an innocent child. Kids like to draw. It’s normal for them to make a mess, right?
The paints were her cover, not only for the wound but also for the “seed” still buried in her flesh.
The seed would ideally settle into the body in about a week. So she only gave herself that long.
“Phew... I just hope it works.”
Looking at her colorful hands, she silently prayed.
If this worked, she would finally have an alchemy engraving. With that, everything would become easier. She could hide all kinds of things inside it… including herself.
As she squeezed her wrist, she couldn’t help but think about Armand.
Was the poison in his body really beyond saving?
But that thought didn’t last long. The pain from the seed reacting with her body snapped her back to reality as it shot straight into her nerves.
Hah…
I’ll think about it later.