Investigation

After greeting the protagonist group, Arthur, or rather, Johan, was walking along with his wife "Mari" through the huge corridors of the mansion.

"They didn't even send a servant to guide us."

"Yes, that's how bad the situation is.

Normally there should be servants in charge of guiding us through the mansion or picking up some heavy object we were carrying with us, but that was not the case; just by being Christa's guests, we had already lost all that courtesy.

"Lucky, she gave us a detailed map indicating where her room was."

Livia pulled a neatly folded piece of paper from her pocket, on which was crudely drawn a "detailed" map of the mansion, pointing the way with a red line.

"This could take a while."

"I'll leave it to you."

"Yes."

Thanks to Livia's outstanding abilities and keen eye, we managed to reach Christa's room using the confusing map she had provided. Once in front of her door, I extended my hand and knocked.

Knock-knock-knock-

The door opened a few seconds later, revealing Christa, who smiled when she saw us.

"Ah, you're here; I'm surprised you didn't get lost."

"If I wasn't good at reading maps, we wouldn't have arrived."

Livia said directly.

"Hahahaha, sorry, sorry, I'm not good at drawing."

Stepping aside, she allowed us into her room, which was really no different than any other room. It had a bed only big enough to hold one person, a bedside table next to the bed, and a large closet. There was nothing else.

To a normal person this room might look cozy, but to a count like Schmetterling, even the servants had better things than this.

"It's very simple, isn't it? Even a bit small, but it's comfortable, so I'm not complaining."

Christa said casually and started walking towards a door.

"You know, while this may be small, it has its good points too."

She said before opening a door and walking inside. Livia and I followed her, and on the other side we could see a much larger space, but this one was filled with test tubes, monster parts, silver mortars, and cauldrons, as well as many other things that were necessary for alchemy.

"Welcome to my humble workshop; this is where all the magic happens."

"Impressive; I've never been to an alchemy workshop before."

Livia said as she looked around curiously.

"Well, it's not really that impressive, nah, who am I kidding? Yes, it is impressive."

Christa said as she rubbed her nose.

"Anyway, I have to keep working on my project if you guys want to check it out."

"What's your project about, Miss Christina?"

"Oh, you'll see."

She said in a mysterious tone as she walked over to one of the smoking ovens in the room. Putting on some gloves, he opened it, and it released a large amount of steam.

Pulling out a tray, in it were three crystals, one of an intense red color, one of a blue color, and one of a light green color.

"Looks like it went well."

"What are those?"

"I call them Elemental Crystals."

She said as she grabbed the red-colored crystal, after throwing us a look as if to say, "See this.". She threw the crystal into a corner where there was no fragile material nearby. The crystal crashed to the ground, shattering and releasing a small flame, but it only lasted a few seconds before it was extinguished.

"Oh... well, I guess we could consider it a success for being the first attempt."

She said as she pinched her chin and mumbled things like, "Maybe a little ruby dust would help with potency" or "A little salamander blood would help with intensity and duration."

Livia and I standing next to her could only watch her as she lost herself in her mumblings. After a while, Livia asked her again.

"So...what was that?"

Christa seemed to remember that we were in the room; after laughing and apologizing, she began to explain.

"As I said before, I call these little elemental crystals, and, to put it very succinctly, they are vessels that hold within them elemental mana that is released when they break."

"Something like a scroll?"

"It's natural for you to think that way, but no, a scroll is a spell engraved on a special paper that is activated when broken; these little ones don't store any spells, but the pure power of the elements."

"How can they encase something like the elements?"

"Well, that's more complicated to answer. Let me ask you something: Do you know anything about alchemy?"

Christa asked, and both myself and Livia nodded in agreement.

Livia learned alchemy while studying about various poisons and antidotes, and my classes with Vivian also included alchemy, so we both knew at least the basics.

Christa, seeing that we confirmed knowing something about alchemy, seemed a bit surprised, which was normal. Alchemy is an expensive subject to learn, as monster parts, precious jewels, and high-quality materials are used to make the mixtures. 

For the most part, only members of wealthy noble families could learn it, so it must have been surprising that the owners of a tailor shop knew about it.

This would have raised questions or suspicions, but Christa only looked surprised for a few seconds before she quirked a smile and kept talking as if she didn't care to know; she was someone who never meddled in other people's lives.

"Alright, the fact that you know about alchemy makes things easier; you know about elemental essences, right?"

"Yes."

Elemental essences are, so to speak, a special type of mana possessed by some monsters called elemental mana.

Mana, while having no shape, color, or properties, is easily influenced by its environment. For example, in a volcano or in extremely hot areas, the mana is often different from the mana present in a jungle or a frozen tundra.

This is why monsters like salamanders or dryads have these characteristics, because since their birth they have been absorbing the mana of those areas unconsciously and adapting to them differently than humans.

In fact, there are studies that show that the environment is a very determining factor when it comes to acquiring affinity for certain elements. People who live in mountainous areas have shown a greater affinity for earth magic, and people who live in cold places tend to have a greater affinity for ice magic.

"Well, that's the main point of this; by combining various ingredients with the same elemental essence and extracting them with various processes, we end up with a pure elemental power that is ultimately encased in these crystal vessels."

She explained as she looked at one of the crystals in her hand: it was a light green color, and after examining it for a few seconds, she finally threw it towards the same place where she had thrown the red crystal earlier.

Swoosh~

"..."

"..."

"..."

That was... lamentable.

The glass, upon shattering, released something that couldn't even be categorized as a small breeze. It was only able to move a few inches of dust around him.

But Christa, instead of looking embarrassed, looked with interest at the place where the crystal had broken.

"It seems that the method of preparation cannot be the same for each crystal; these prototypes I made following one and the same formula, but it looks like I will have to change my approach."

"Excuse me for saying this without knowing much about the subject; but aren't these crystals theoretically useless?"

Livia asked, and Christa looked at her with interest. Seeing that she did not interrupt her, she continued speaking.

"One of the fundamentals of alchemy is symmetry and balance; every action must have an equivalent reaction. What you are doing here is extracting elemental mana, causing saturation of it, and mixing various ingredients with the same elemental essence. After that, you condense it and try to stabilize it so that they don't break the container in which they are stored. But that's the problem: you're trying to store pure elemental power in a glass container; you'd have to subtract a lot of power so it doesn't end up exploding in the alchemical furnace or put it in a much harder container, but that would prevent it from releasing its contents effectively, so they're practically useless."

Livia wasn't being rude; she was just giving her most sincere opinion from her point of view, and to be honest, she wasn't wrong; anyone who was knowledgeable about alchemy would agree with her. These elemental crystals were, in Christa's words, a storage of elemental power that was released by breaking their container. If they wanted to make this more effective, the container would have to be much harder, but as Livia said, that would only make it impractical, as releasing the contents would become difficult.

Christa smiled at Livia's explanation and nodded as she pinched her chin.

"Well, well, you seem to know more than I thought; thanks for the honest critique. But those weak points you pointed out earlier...".

With a snap, she pointed at Livia, as a smile and confident look appeared on her face.

"Those are exactly the things we're looking to overcome in this investigation!".

"But... as I said before."

"Yes, yes, theoretically they are useless, and it is practically impossible to make them work properly, but that is the point, my friend; theoretically, alchemy is the art of turning the impossible into the possible."

Theoretically, it is impossible to lift a certain curse, but it turns out that there is an elixir that makes it possible to remove it.

Theoretically, it is impossible to cure this disease, but there is a potion that can cure it.

"Countless similar cases have appeared throughout the history of alchemy, and it's thanks to various madmen that those impossible things became possible. Well, I'm going to be that madman now and plow this functional!

She said as her gaze denoted unwavering confidence and will.

This was Christa Schmetterling.

A madwoman who wouldn't stop until she got the results she wanted, and that was exactly why she was one of the best alchemists in the world.

"I want to help you."

I said, and Christa looked at me.

"I know a little about alchemy, just like my wife; if it helps make something impossible possible, I'd like to give it a try."

"You sure? I'm not going to pay you a salary, you know?. I'm broke this month."

Christa said cautiously, fearing for what little savings she had left.

"Hahaha, you don't have to worry about paying me; I have enough money, and I'm only participating in this out of curiosity; besides, we're friends, aren't we?"

Christa stopped as she heard these words.

Friend.

She had never really had one; her sister didn't count, as they were more like people who had sympathy for each other as they went through similar situations.

Although she never really thought about it, she did get to feel somewhat lonely sometimes, in this huge mansion or in her workshop, repeating the same thing over and over again with no one to talk to or share her interests with.

"Friend, I guess it's not so bad."

She thought to herself, and a smile appeared on her lips. She reached out her hand towards Arthur and looked him in the eye.

"If you want, it's fine with me; no one would turn down someone who works for free."

"Hahahahahaha, you're making it sound bad."

Arthur laughed, but shook Christa's hand anyway.

And so, what should have been a visit to discuss the making of a garment ended up becoming two friends working on a theoretically impossible project.

***

It was night and the moon was shining overhead, yet despite its brightness, darkness was still dominant.

In a luxurious room stood a fat man with a glass of wine and two women on either side of him.

"Then finally the bastard got down on his knees and licked my shoes while crying for mercy! hahahahahaha!"

The man laughed at the brutal story he had told the women, who despite trying their best to put on their best smile still looked uncomfortable, but since they were paid so much to accompany this man, they couldn't complain.

"But I finally ended up taking your daughter with me to collect his debt; hahaha, you should have seen her face of despair, it was very funny, hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!"

The man laughed again, and the women laughed with him, trying their best to hide their disgust.

This fat man was Herman Ancel; he was someone who was in the loan business. However, his loans had an exorbitant interest rate, but his advantage was that you could borrow any amount of money you wanted from him, and without collateral, so many desperate commoners went to him for money. But most of them were unable to pay the exorbitant interest rates, so they usually ended up falling victim to his atrocious debt collection methods.

"If you resist being tortured for two weeks, I will forgive you."

"Lend me your wife for a month, and I'll forget about the money you owe me."

"Your daughters look healthy; if you sell them to me, I might consider writing off your debt."

Those were some of the things he used to say to the unfortunate fools who came to ask him for money. He never let a debtor escape him; thanks to his wide network, no one could hide from him in the city. He even sometimes got help from the Schmetterling family to catch a slippery debtor, although unfortunately he had to hand over 40% of what he earned every year so that he wouldn't get caught.

But that didn't matter to him; as long as he could continue his twisted fun, a little money was insignificant.

Herman stopped laughing abruptly, becoming completely silent; the women found this strange, and one of them mustered up the courage to speak.

"Umm, Mr. Herman, is everything all right?"

"You fat creep..."

"Huh?"

The man mumbled something the women couldn't hear, but the man kept mumbling things.

"You fucking pig... You disgust me... You smell like shit... Your money is the only good thing you have... That's what you're grieving for, isn't it!? You filthy sluts!"

Suddenly he shouted with his face distorted by anger, scaring the women.

"You think you're better than me, huh?! You think whores like you are better than a nobleman like me!? You ungrateful fucking whores! Not only do I pay you a fortune, but you dare to think such things of me!!!"

The man continued to scream as the women lay huddled in a corner, trembling with fear and their faces tinged with terror.

"Yes! yes! yes! yes! That is the expression that whores like you should have in front of a nobleman like me! Show me more... Show me more! Show me more of those pathetic faces of yours!"

Suddenly he grabbed a knife and lunged towards the girls; they screamed and shut their eyes tightly in fear, but strangely, what they expected never came.

Slowly they opened their eyes and could see the man who a moment ago had gone insane trying to kill them, standing motionless with his eyes wide open and staring blankly.

Thud-

"Ah...ah..."

Suddenly the man's head fell to the ground and rolled to the women's feet; they witnessing this finally could not cope with the shock and fainted with tears in their eyes.

In the silent murder scene, there was no sign that anyone had entered the room.

Well, actually there was something, something that would be fatal to any assassin who tried to murder the nobleman in secret, but this particular assassin wanted to leave evidence on purpose, a simple object but one by which he would be very distinguishable.

On the table on which it rested, a spilled bottle of wine. There lay a single lock of deep red hair.