2.16.

They soon arrived at the engineering premises. It wasn't as grandiose as the enforcer premise but the architecture of the buildings and gestalt of the various design elements made it stand apart from the other places in the campus. The magic engineering faculty, alchemy department and magic development department could be found under the same establishment.

Leticia followed Sequencee as they explored the building. There were more laboratories than there were classes, many curious items caught Leticia's eyes, especially the potions in the potion lab. It wasn't open to the public so the best they could do was look at it from the door. Or that was what they thought when Sequencee bumped into Lottie and Elaine making a ruckus as they pushed a cart of vials, bottles, ingredients, catalysts and chemicals. Of course, Sequencee and Leticia had forgotten their names.

Sequencee and Leticia greet them with a nod. The two paused.

"Morning. What brings you here today?" Elaine asked.

"He happened upon the alchemy building while exploring the campus," Leticia said.

"Ah, is that so?"

"Just the two of you two ei?" Lottie covered her mouth, with her hands, her eyes curled into a smile.

To dodge the topic Leticia added her question of her own, "What are these for?"

"This? It's for potion making. We're going to practice brewing advanced potions–" Elaine said.

"She wants to make a fart potion," Lottie jabbed her side.

"I did not!"

"Yes you did!"

"Ahem. So did you get the scholarship? Yes, right?"

"Only I got it," Leticia said with a hint of regret.

"Eh– so he's self funded huh? Rich."

Sequencee rolled his eyes.

"Good luck with your course then. Sorry for disturbing you two, we'll be off–"

"Hold on a moment, can I ask if there's something like a vault where alchemy ingredients are stored?" Sequencee took the chances.

"A vault? We just came from there. Is there anything you need?"

"Are you busy right now?"

"You mean you need a guide? I don't mind sparing a few minutes, Elaine?"

"If you're going, I'll push the cart into the lab first. I'll wait for you there."

"Gotcha. So, what do you want? If you're here for a mana potion, we recommend you to just stop by the potion station and ask the lady there for a sample," Lottie pointed down the corridor.

"No, I mean, I just want to see what the storage place is like."

"Ei? Isn't restricted for people that aren't part of the course," Lottie hummed.

"No it's not, there's no such rule," Elaine argued.

"Really? I thought Mister Tulmy said to not let anyone in arbitrarily?"

"If the person is just there to fool around, otherwise they're free to visit."

"I don't know. You two just want to take a look right?"

"We're just curious after seeing so many potions after all–" Leticia followed up.

"Okay, okay. Elaine, you bring the stuff to the lab, I'll be back in a jiffy."

And so Lottie guided Sequencee and Leticia to the storage building for alchemy materials. To their surprise, the place looked like a greenhouse, with various plants and small creatures being kept in glass pens and pots. There were many antique-looking furniture with patina-brass embellishments to accent the worn-out colour of the wood. There was a man sitting at the desk, he raised his head to the squeak of the door, his monocle caught light for a brief moment.

"Mister Tulmy, these two want to look around."

"Good morning to you," He stood up and approached them.

"Then I'll be going. Mister Tulmy will guide you around, see ya!" Lottie left like a storm, Tulmy sighed while readjusting his monocles.

"Normally I don't allow students that don't wear their uniforms to enter, but I'll overlook this once. Is there anything you need?"

"We're just here to look around out of curiosity. Sorry for the intrusion–"

"Which course are you from?"

"The enforcer course."

"Should I guide you around then?" He prodded them with his chin.

"Thank you," Leticia said in Sequencee's stead.

And so Tulmy brought them around this garden. As he went, he explained the more common or rarer ingredients that alchemy students used in crafting items. There were many ways one could brew a mana potion, and the end result of quality, taste and administration method would differ depending on the method of procurement. The most common mana potions in the market are made from the Blueshade plant. Their leaves and berries absorb mana from the air and keep it inside the leaves and fruit as a defensive property to deter bugs and pests. That said, as evolution would have it, critters that use mana would gladly bypass the defensive poison of mana and feed on the leaves to survive.

Eyeballs in a bottle of preservation liquid, nails from a dragon, scales of sea sirens and heaps of magic gems for crafting.

"If you have paid attention to the rumors, we have recently acquired horns from a demon lord," Tulmy explained.

"Yeah, I've heard," Sequencee tried his best to compose himself.

"After several conclusions and discussions among the members, we came to the conclusion that the horns came from a domesticated demon lord. From Sir Cabural, he has unfortunately disposed of the person who brought the horn. It's unfortunate that we've lost our only clue in finding the origin of its whereabouts. Some investigators have already been dispatched to trace where the wyvern skin chest was bought from, but it's not easy."

'What? This makes no fucking sense. Me? Domesticated? If they really did their investigations, they should've already found me by now.'

"That is of course, until another rumor sprung up not long ago stating the possibility of the horn being the late Miss Anna's possession. You do recognize her right? The S-rank mercenary who lost her life fighting against the demon lord army?"

Sequencee merely nodded. Leticia remained silent.

"With the note from the late barren which was found within the chest as a hint, if the theory is true, the person who came with the box is most likely.." Tulmy's words trailed off.

He stopped in front of an out-of-place metal door.

"Rare materials like the demon lord horn that I've mentioned are kept inside here. Only those with higher authority can access this site."

'My horns are in here huh?'

Sequencee scrapped the idea of breaking in just to retrieve his horn. It's not like he had any use for them apart from being a memorabilia. Not worth the trouble.

"What can be crafted using the demon lord horns?"

"Plenty of things. It could be grounded into dust to be alloyed inside high grade weapons, or to use as an amplification catalyst in potion effects. And that's only scratching the surface of things."

"I see.."

"I apologize that I'm unable to show you the real thing," Tulmy misunderstood the forlorn expression on his face.

"No, it's alright. Thanks for showing us around."

"It's my pleasure. Please take care of yourself and train well. The demon lord season may arrive soon, I do hope you become strong warriors."

With that as parting words, Leticia and Sequencee left the storage room and eventually, the building. Leticia noticed the silence in Sequencee's gestures. It wasn't like she was oblivious to what he must be feeling. She remained silent, as she always did whenever he encountered a problem. Just being by his side is enough of a consolation.

'My identity will be found out soon enough.'

Judging from the rumors that keep spreading all around, it's likely Grian and Judy had contributed to the rumors, otherwise his mother's name wouldn't have been brought up. It's only a matter of time before news spreads.

'I either need to make sure that they don't find out about my identity, or I secure my position as a harmless demon.'

They approached the medical premise located further away from the central campus.

Before the Last Era, the church, priests, healing and religion were intertwined as one. However, the near extinction of the human race had shattered faith and religion into two distinct groups. The first one were the fanatics, people that found solace in the embrace of the Goddess Ra. These were, in the modern day, considered a group of insane mad men and cultists who have given up on life, becoming deprived people in blind faith as the world despairs.

The second group were people that have completely lost their faith in the Goddess Ra. And among them were priests and priestesses who specialized in healing.

In the Last Era, people realized distinctively that healing and religion had nothing to do with one another, resulting in the separation of the two entities. Also, under Hero Rika's influence, the many priests and priestesses that contributed to the survival of humanity had changed their roles from people who served in churches, to professional individuals who worked in a place known as the hospital, or clinic. It was a concept which existed in Hero Rika's world.

Today, though the church and medical field were two separate divisions, calling someone a priest or priestess may entail different meanings depending on the context. Hero Rika did try to push the new title of 'doctor' to the people, but it wasn't all that well received. Priest and priestess sounded way better– such was the public opinion.

The students studying to become a priest had uniforms that differed from the other students in the academy. It differentiated normal students from those that chose this respected profession.

Sequencee found the announcement board for the enrolment list and went through the names. Leticia couldn't help but find it curious as he didn't stop by the board at the engineering establishment earlier.

"What are you finding this time?"

"Her Highness Evelyn."

"Huh?"

"If she's not here then she probably went to the enforcer course. I want to confirm that here– or do you know if she's in any one of the classes in your sector?"

"The Imperial Princess? She's definitely studying to become a priestess.. why? Do you know her?"

"A little bit."

'What is a little bit supposed to mean?!'

First a succubus, now the royal princess of the empire. Leticia was starting to think that he had met many more capable women in the past. The thought of it made her sulk.

Sequencee kept scanning through the new enlists but couldn't find her name for some reason. It's either that they didn't put it up on purpose or they forgot.

'Today's a Sunday. There's no way she's here.'

Sequencee held off trying to search the premise. If he wanted, he should go and meet with the hero directly through Leticia and reach out to her from there. Though, Sequencee was just curious to see if she would recognize him after three years. After all, the last adventure with his mother happened to be the one where he saved her from being raped..

'She probably forgot. Yeah..'

"Nevermind. Leticia, where do you want to go for lunch?" Sequencee turned to her.

"Lunch? Are you not going in?"

"Nah. I think it would be awkward."

They decided to eat at the cafeteria. There, they happened upon Ro. Lilian was working on the other floors so she wasn't in sight. After an average lunch, Leticia and Sequencee hung out for the remainder of the afternoon practicing magic at the training theater. Even now, Leticia kept the habit of keeping beads under an illusion spell even as she carried out her daily activities.