12 The Experiment

After class Persephone and Kathina went with Maximillian to his estate. When his parents were imprisoned for treason, Maximillian was able to win over their properties in court instead of having the properties repositioned as assets for the Kingdom. The plan was for Persephone to start training to overcome the negative effects of her hate magic as well as to test the G-Pills. While Persephone still dreaded using her hate magic, she felt relieved that the prying eyes of a certain someone weren't glued onto her.

"Alright Persephone just repeat what you did in the courtyard. I've got an over abundance of training dummies so please don't restrain yourself."

Maximillian calmly explained the plans for the day. He encouraged Persephone to not let her fear of her own magic overcome her, for he and more importantly Kathina are standing by her. He also reminded her that they can use this opportunity to test the reliability of Geraldus' pills. Although Persephone detested the boy simply out of the way he views her as a lab rat rather than an actual human being, she had to admit that she was thankful to him for developing such a useful pill and giving them special privileges as the only people so far to get the product from him.

As she was thought of this, a random question came across her mind.

"Hey Maxxy? You said that Geraldus is an alchemist that simply takes alchemy a step foward... but you never told us how? Now that I think about it, it's an important detail that you just glossed over Maximillian... that's very unlike you... are you hiding something from us?"

"I was hoping you wouldn't bring that up."

"That means you are hiding somethi-"

"Human experimentation."

The air froze at Maximillian's words, a chilling aura ran through the air. Before Persephone and Kathina could say anything Maximillian continued.

"He purchases slaves in bulk and then does all sorts of experiments on their bodies to figure out how the body functions as well as... the effects of numerous 'products' on their bodies."

"That... bastard..."

Persephone heard a soft mutter leak out of Kathina's mouth. Glancing back at her, she could see the tense fire in Kathina's eyes that she saw only once before. No... The fire was burning brighter this time, perhaps through this discovery the contempt Kathina had for that snake has more or less multiplied tenfold.

"I believe that even Persephone would be smart enough to figure out the reason that I didn't tell this specific detail to you guys."

"Maximillian... Just... give me an example of one his experiments."

Kathina's cold voice that broke through the air sent shivers down Persephone's spine. At a loss for words Persephone could only wait for Maximillian to answer.

"Well... which one should I tell you?.. I guess I'll choose one of the more mild experiments... One time he decapitated a couple slaves' heads but preserved them by having a slime familiar attached to their neck which would circulate their blood to keep them alive... all this just to test their reaction as well as to test the 'functionality' of slimes. I don't even want to start on the worst experiments he did..."

Persephone clenched her fists tightly as Maximillian went into detail into one of Geraldus' 'mild experiments.' Persephone didn't think that her opinion of the mad alchemist could sink any lower but to her dismay she was proven horribly wrong. Glancing at Kathina, Persephone could understand that she had a similar reaction. How could a boy who was the same age as them come up with such gruesome and cruel experiments? If this was him at the age of 16, she dreaded to think about the monster he would grow up to be. Just thinking of his 'mild experiment' made Persephone's stomach churn.

"Anyway that's unimportant right now. I would prefer for you to actually start using hatred magic so we can finally test Geraldus' products."

Maximillian decisively changed the subject to calm the cold air. Returning their attention to the original reason why they even came to Maximillian's manor.

"This way we can also go more in-depth in the nuances of your magic as well as minimise the risk of Persephone going berserk in the near future."

With these words Persephone repeated her actions the other day in the courtyard. "Charging" up her magic into her hands again. What made "hate" magic so unique is that unlike conventional arcane magic which manipulated concise mana in the air which had often had pre-defined shapes or elemental magic which like it's namesake manipulated the elements, hate magic were volatile streaks of mana which obliterated everything in it's path. Hate magic couldn't even dream of making proper arcane missiles or elemental spears or swords, due to the lack of knowledge on hate magic. Especially since none were able to master it as of yet.

The thoughts of being the pioneer to master hate magic and elimnate the stigma of the 'hate' trait only made Persephone all the more excited. [Perhaps I wasn't meant to be a glorious warrior like my father but instead a pioneer into an unknown magic.] With thoughts like these, Persephone felt a sense of ease that fate wasn't as cruel as it first seemed. Once again charging up 'Chaos Smites' Persephone grinned broadly as the euphoria of the powerful magic she wielded overwhelmed her once more.