Chapter 304: Conflicted
“Whew… finally.”
Rachel, who had been hiding in her little “laboratory” using all kinds of excuses, had finally succeeded in embedding the alchemy seal into her fingertip.
While the “seed of the seal” was taking root, she couldn’t use any medicine to affect its formation. But now that the seal had stabilized, she could finally apply some medicine to the wound that hadn’t healed all this time.
“Whew…”
She took the medicine bottle out from the storage space inside the seal. This counted as the first real test—well, maybe the second? Since putting something into the seal in the first place could also be seen as a test.
An alchemy seal, at its core, is a specially treated wound. To open it, you have to endure the pain of essentially tearing the wound back open.
Thankfully, what she had now was an improved version.
The one Armand had on his hand was an older version of the alchemy seal, so it probably hurt a lot more to use. Rachel, on the other hand, would never treat herself so harshly. She had made lots of improvements to her own seal. By sacrificing a bit of storage space, she was able to reduce the pain of using it quite a bit.
After all, she was just an alchemist. She wasn’t like those warriors who fought with blades and were used to pain. Rachel wasn’t cut out for that kind of thing.
Even if she had a strong will sometimes, pain… was still something she’d rather avoid. She definitely wasn’t some kind of pain-loving weirdo.
As for the storage capacity...
Right now, it probably couldn’t fit an adult-sized body anymore. If she wanted to create a “one-button escape” backup body for herself, she’d have to stick with a child-sized one.
But shrinking her body again wasn’t a big deal. She had already gotten used to this smaller body. If she suddenly went back to adult size, she’d probably need time to retrain her senses and movements.
So it was better to just stick with this child form, saving space in the seal. That way, she could store more materials inside. Once she escaped, all she’d need to do was find a safe place and use those materials to start a new life.
“...Whew.”
Rachel gritted her teeth and pulled the ointment bottle out from her seal, enduring the pain as she placed the whole thing on the ground.
This was something she had managed to steal from the infirmary, not an easy task. During her time in the manor, Rachel clearly felt her agility had improved.
She wasn’t on Evelia’s level yet, appearing and disappearing without a trace, but she could at least avoid the maids’ eyes now. She even felt a strong sense of accomplishment when completing her “missions.”
If she kept training like this, maybe she really could become a “little assassin”?
While applying the medicine to her fingertip, Rachel couldn’t help but imagine what she’d look like as an assassin.
But after thinking about it more, she gave up on that idea.
Fighting just wasn’t her thing.
She was better off sticking to alchemy. Once she left this place, she would find a quiet spot and continue her research. Somewhere no one could find her, so she wouldn’t be dragged off by the second prince again to do unpaid work.
“......”
But even though she was so close to success now, Rachel couldn’t feel truly happy. She was a little excited at first when she thought about making a few more preparations and finally escaping, but that excitement quickly turned into loneliness.
Even the speed at which she applied her medicine slowed down a lot.
Leaving… should I really leave?
The belief that had kept her going until now was suddenly shaken.
To be honest, even though life in this manor was a bit dangerous because of Evelia, if someone were to ask her whether she liked it here, Rachel would definitely nod without hesitation.
She had only spent a few months with them, but Rachel truly liked the atmosphere here.
This feeling of everyone staying together... this thing called “family.”
Whether it was Armand, Evelia, or Rachel herself, each of them had lost their “home” for different reasons.
And now, the three of them being together felt like fate, each of them helping to heal the other’s lonely and fragile heart.
Evelia and Armand had already ended up together. The two of them were now a couple. As for Rachel, who had sort of become a “bonus” to the situation, she figured it was time for her to quietly leave.
After all, she hated trouble. She hated anything or anyone that brought trouble. And clearly, Evelia and Armand were nothing but big trouble.
She had done a lot to prepare for her escape. She even wrote out a detailed plan using her own encrypted writing system. She had calculated everything, what she needed to do at what time, what materials she could gather in which season and place, and even when she might be able to make something new from those materials.
—Everything was going perfectly according to her plan, except for one thing: her emotions.
Human emotions are just... hard to figure out.
Even after making up her mind, when the moment came, she started to hesitate.
“Ugh… seriously…”
Even someone like her, who had lived for more than a hundred years and claimed to have seen it all, couldn’t help but sigh deeply.
Was leaving really the right choice? She had gone through all this trouble to prepare, but now… was she hesitating? Or was she starting to regret it?
She really didn’t get it…
Feeling a little annoyed, Rachel stood up, tiptoed onto the sofa by the window, and leaned on the windowsill, looking out toward the back garden of the manor.
Since it was getting colder, the flowers had withered, and there wasn’t much to look at in the garden anymore. Armand no longer needed to hide deep in the flowerbeds, which made it easy for Rachel to spot him sitting there in the sun.
Although the tools she had right now weren’t enough for her to properly study Armand’s blood, she still remembered the complex toxins flowing inside his body.
She had never seen anything like it. Armand’s body was basically a waste dump, full of weird, dangerous things, and the fact that he was still alive and functioning seemed like a miracle to her.
But... maybe because Rachel could also be considered a kind of “doctor,” she could tell that such a miracle probably wouldn’t last much longer.
She didn’t know much about Armand’s distant past, but compared to when they first met, he had clearly become more worn out.
He was always sitting there, lost in thought, never saying what he was thinking. He seemed troubled by a lot of things. But every time Evelia came near, the look on his face would soften into a smile.
“...What a dishonest guy.”
Even though Rachel, who secretly kept the most to herself, was probably the most dishonest one of the three, that didn’t stop her from complaining about the other two.
“If you keep acting like this… how could I possibly feel okay about leaving you behind?”