Curious Research

It had been quite a long while since anyone besides Majo had seen Mitsuna out of her room after the first incident with the soldiers.

And all the information Majo had provided was that she had come by to buy a bottle of alcohol and left soon after.

The boss, Big Slime, otherwise known as Monstard, was disgruntled while Cassian was slightly worried himself.

The guards had shown up twice after the first incident, neither group even reaching outside her door. By this point, Mitsuna only had two weeks left on her stay at Lemon's Mace and the soldiers who knew of her were getting more annoyed by her behavior with every passing hour.

The most that was ever heard from the room were a few thuds and scrapes along with the occasional creaking of wood. Though no matter who knocked and how long they did so, Mitsuna didn't answer the door. She wasn't even heard walking around.

Cassian wished to check on her but considering how the rules of the place forbade even staff to enter without any type of permission, he was simply left just as stumped as everyone else was about the situation.

All they could do now was wait two weeks for her time to expire and enter at that point.

That was the overall agreed plan.

Until someone who could enter her room and ignore the rules of the place entered the establishment.

It was the General who had spoken to Mitsuna about her recruitment all those days ago.

Cassian had called over good old Big Slime as soon as the General walked into the place with a few soldiers in tow.

The conversation between the General and Big Slime was short. No questions were asked from either side, no demands were given from either side.

All that happened was that Big Slime simply told the group what Mitsuna's room number was.

The General didn't even answer or acknowledge Big Slime's free information dump of 1 sentence.

The General and his soldiers walked up the stairs and soon reached Mitsuna's room.

The General first knocked on the door. No answer came and the inside of the room seemed deafly quiet as if no one was even there.

After a minute of silent waiting, the General let out a quiet sigh before he moved out of the way of the door and made eye contact with one of his soldiers.

The soldier nodded and along with a second slime in iron, the two kicked the door.

*BANG* once, *BANG* twice, *BANG* thrice, *BANG*.

The door flung open, broken off of its hinges, it flew into the room yet it didn't hit the ground.

Pieces of metal hung to the door making it creak in the air.

The door simply floated in the air as it slowly spun in place.

There were magic circles carved into the floor, ceiling and walls of the place which seemingly were causing the phenomenon.

Strange miscellaneous items floated in the air, sometimes crackling with violet lightning. Some were made of iron or steel, others of diamonds or earth and few were made of materials that had never been seen before.

There was barely any natural light in the room. The only things that provided visibility to the room were the flickers of violet lightning coming from the floating items and the few mana lamps that were dimly glowing.

The violet lightning was silent, without a speck of noise being emitted from them.

The dim mana lamps, when close enough, were emitting an audible hum.

The soldiers were the first to enter the room.

(besides the door, obviously)

They took one step, and then another before being blocked by a strange barrier. Pushing out their hands, they felt little resistance as though the barrier was barely even there.

And with a little more of a push, their hands entered the barrier and their bodies were soon after pulled inside as well.

As there were no visible threats inside the barrier, the ones on the outside, General included, also stepped into the room.

They could barely see the walls of the place due to some reason. The only reason they even knew where the walls were was because of the faint glow of the magic circles and spells that were carved into them.

The one and only window to the room was closed, blocked even.

One of the soldiers, wary of his surroundings and slightly anxious, walked over to the window and pried it open, hoping for the light of day to illuminate the room as much as it could. No one tried to stop him, as they were too quite uncomfortable in the darkness.

As soon as the soldier, the slime in iron pried the window open and let the light of day enter, the loud sound of shattering was heard as the barrier broke and noise filled the room.

The humming was loud, the crackling of violet lightning louder, the clinking of crystals now audible and the sound of tinkering coming from a previously unseeable desk could now also be heard.

The light of day barely illuminated the faint silhouette that sat behind the counter. The soldiers, when they noticed the figure, armed themselves.

"You."

The General said, his voice rumbling.

He sounded threatening.

Behind the counter, the silhouette of Mitsuna didn't stop for a second even after the General's threatening voice echoed through the room.

Two magic circles floated near her hands as she tapped away with a scalpel of diamond and a pair of medical tongs made of the same diamond material.

Pulling a thread closed before one of the magic circles sent a small gust of freezing air at the item Mitsuna was tinkering on, Mitsuna placed down the items she held.

Activating the second magic circle, she moved it to the item before liting the magic circle on fire and engraving it onto the item.

Picking it up, she lightly threw it in the air before flicking her fingers and sending a small strand of mana towards it.

The item activated. A floating diamond crystal in a triclinic shape. Carved and scorched onto it were multiple different magic circles that each glowed and hummed as the item spun in place.

Mitsuna, letting out a soft breath of relief as the item actually worked this time, looked towards the General and his soldiers.

"What do you want?"

She said with a slightly annoyed tone.

There were hidden bags under her sharp and unblinking eyes that rested in a half-closed state.

"Your soldiers from a few days back were annoying as all hell you know?

And now here you are, breaking into my room on top of that."

She said with a tired sigh as she tapped the armrest of her chair twice while resting her chin on her other hand.

The chair hummed to life.

Purplish grey lightning flickered into existence as a part of the chair from the bottom dislocated itself and floated up into a backrest that was connected to the main body through only a few strands of purplish grey and violet lightning and electricity.

The legs of the chair which were previously just 4 straight tetragonal sticks had lines of violet running through them.

As the chair itself started to levitate slightly above the floorboards, two of the legs that disconnected from the main chair moved to create a leg rest while the other two stabilised the levitating chair by forming an equals sign below it and slowly rotating in place as purple lightning flickered between them as it did through every piece of technology that was a 'part' of the technologically advanced and fancy floating chair.

"Nice chair. I know."

Mitsuna said as she could clearly see most of the soldiers gazing in her direction and at one of her most prized inventions with even the General taking a few glances.

"Now, what do you want?"

"Hmph."

The General 'hmph'-ed rather loudly as he crossed his arms in front of him and spoke.

"Sniper, I believe we had reached an agreement on you joining the army and fighting on our side against the New West faction.

In return, you would have received a pardon for interfering in a battle without higher permission and insulting an acting General official."

The General narrowed his eyes while pushing away a self-solving fully black rubik's cube that floated in front of his face and blocked his vision.

"Don't touch the prototypes, soldier."

"Soldier?"

Completely ignoring the General's question and making the decision to refuse to call him anything but a soldier or old man in her head, Mitsuna spoke before the General or any of his soldiers could make a single comment.

"You are right in that I agreed to help you out. Not because you commanded me but because I could and chose to. Getting hunted by half a continent because I talked shit to you doesn't worry me, it's just a bother.

Lastly, we never decided on a date to join. All I have to do is join at some point before the New West bombs your half of the continent so bad that it's wiped off the map."

"You-"

"I intend to join when I am good and ready so do your future fellow General a solid and leave me to my research.

Wouldn't want to go to battle unprepared."

Clearly, Mitsuna disrespected the army and the General here. And to the slime in iron and the soldiers surrounding the General, this was an act of treason as the military of this country and especially this capital city was on a reputational level similar to that of the royal families of the West themselves.

So, in a 'proper' response to Mitsuna's words from the perspective of the soldiers, they aimed their weapons and fired.

*BANG* *BANG BANG* *BANG*

Four shots rang out in a jumbled fashion, none being fired at the same time.

Yet before the bullets fired at her could even come close to her chair, the floating diamond item in the air that Mitsuna had just finished hummed and glowed in the dim light of the room.

A reflective shield of mana and diamond was created in front of Mitsuna. As thin as a sheet of fabric yet sturdy enough to deflect the bullets at the walls.

No bullets escaped outside of the room, all being buried in the walls as the protective barrier surrounding the walls of the room greatly lessened the impact.

"Christ old man, can't even keep your men in check? There's no way you're qualified for your position here, are you?"

Mitsuna teased with a smirk as she slowly blinked her tired eyes and yawned quietly after a second.

As the soldiers were about to fire again while one of them pulled out a sword, the General raised his hand.

"Stop where you are."

He glared at his soldiers who acted without permission.

The soldiers slightly ashamed and clearly peeved by Mitsuna put down their weapons as they looked away from the General.

"And you. Stop pestering them to a fight."

The General looked back at Mitsuna.

"Shame."

She rolled her eyes in response as her grin faded.

"And the word you're looking for is 'tease'."

She muttered under her breath.

The General let out a sigh before speaking.

"Let us then place a date for your entry here and now, Sniper."

"Whatever, old man."

Mitsuna turned back to her table and started constructing some magic circles after emptying a glass of alcohol.

A second of silence.

"Well? I'm listening."

She said with boredom evident in her voice.

"Tomorrow then, I will personally wait-"

"Can't do tomorrow, have stuff to do. How about next week?"

Mitsuna interrupted as she observed a pink and green magic circle that she swiped at to make it spin for a moment and took the medical tongs from the table and with a bit of mana, started to remove bits and pieces of the magic circle.

"That is too long of a wait. The enemy will soon be at our doorstep. Thus, we need more soldiers for the upcoming battles."

"The more you waste my time here the more time I need to finish everything you know."

Mitsuna commented while furrowing her brows. She didn't even glance at the group as she was intently observing the magic circle that had now changed colours to a scarlet red and lime green mixture.

"... Hmm. Then what is the fastest you can complete your 'business'? I am willing to wait but not for more than 5 days."

"Ughh."

Mitsuna groaned in response as she tilted her head back with her eyes closed and thought about it while the backrest of the chair supported her head.

"Hmmm."

The magic circle she was working on was now spinning at irregular speeds as its colour was morphing to black with brown spots and the mana around it grew unstable.

Grabbing the magic circle with her hand, her eyes still closed and her head rested, she cracked and shattered the magic circle.

"I guess I could make do with what I need in 4 days and a half. Give or take a few extra hours since even I need my share of rest every now and then."

She muttered as she snapped her fingers and the shattered magic circle reformed itself and seemed to go back through its transformations to its original state before she started to edit it.

"Though I won't be happy."

She added as she opened her eyes and stretched her arms.

"That is acceptable."

"Well, since you're heading out anyways go on and tell Cassian to come get me at the appointed time. I'll be workin' in the meanwhile old man so don't think of sending more slimes in iron to bother me else I'll extend the time I need to two weeks with no discussion. Got it?"

The General let out a sigh in response as he nodded begrudgingly.

"No soldiers will be bothering you as of now. And you must call me General when you register as all soldiers do."

He said while looking at the few miscellaneous items floating around the room with interest.

"Uhuh. Sure, guy. You can leave now."

Mitsuna responded with a casual wave of the hand as she shooed the group away while handling her medical tongs in a way that would make most doctors jealous for a lifetime.

"My soldiers will. I will stay for the time being until you are 'finished' with everything."

"What?"

Mitsuna stopped physically in her tracks as she looked at the group, the soldiers were hesitatingly moving out of the room while the General moved to the side wall to lean on it as he observed the floating items and Mitsuna's actions.

"... You can't be serious..."

"As your future General, I must make sure you don't create something that could backfire and harm any allies."

Mitsuna's face showed a mixture of annoyance and surprise.

"Fuuuuckkk. Whatever just don't touch the bomb section."

She groaned while leaning back before warning the General as she haphazardly pointed to the corner of the room with her medical tongs between her fingers.

The General didn't even look at the direction she was pointing at as he asked almost immediately.

"...The What?"

[Right. Sup. For some reason, I started working on more books on the side, other than this one and Bioweapon's Cultivation.

So that's an update. Happy July 7th or whatever holiday it's been.

- Author]