By the time Xavier returned to the Clock Tavern, it was already afternoon.

Carrying the cake box brought back from the dessert shop, Xavier, who had changed into a clean robe, pushed open the door with one hand.

"Yo," Sester, the wine guard, stood behind the bar, wiping his glass, "our newcomer is back, and he's bothering around." Would you like to celebrate with a glass of Baldur Mead? ”

"Wine doesn't need to, honey water is good. More sugar. And..."

"The boss is down there, in the studio." As if guessing what Xavier wanted to ask, Ansest handed over a glass of light amber honey water, and pointed downstairs with a free hand, "I said that I told you to go down there to find him as soon as you come back." ”

Xavier took a sip of the honey water, nodded at Anses, and headed to the basement.

Walk up a narrow staircase to the studio underground. This time, instead of being a stunned traverser who didn't understand the situation at all, Xavier was able to take a good look at the situation. The first is a contoured glass container against the wall, a body soaked in a pale liquid, and the common feature is that they are all humanoids, and... They are all quite handsome in appearance.

In addition to the alchemical utensils on the tables around them, there was also a test bench, which looked like it was enough to lay down a few people.

Aloy Heck was sitting at his desk in the corner of the room, staring at a pile of materials. Hearing the footsteps, she looked up, her purple pupils standing out in the dimness, "It's a little slower than I expected, but for the sake of the cake you've brought back... Just put the body aside and I'll deal with it later. ”

Xavier sat down in the spare chair and tossed the bag a few times, but instead of immediately releasing the body inside, he stared at Aloy Heck.

"What? Looks like you have something to say. Her fingers tapped on the tabletop, tilting her head to look at Xavier.

“… Can you control me? Xavier put down his storage bag and squinted his eyes with suppressed disgust as he looked at Aloy Heck, "Although I already know the answer to this question. But—"

Before he could finish speaking, the dark elf laughed, "Ha, of course. After all, if you hadn't come back to life during the transformation, I would have one more alchemy puppet now. ”

"Am I supposed to be glad I woke up halfway through?" Xavier spoke, with a hint of sarcasm.

"Don't look at me like that, I'm just recycling. Rather than having a body with excellent affinity devoured by a demonic beast, it is better to process it and make something more useful. She laughed enough, took the cake box and opened it, and shook it with a fork in her right hand, "If I hadn't passed by and killed that giant python, when your poor soul woke up, you would only find yourself digested by gastric juice in the belly of a snake." ”

"Recycling... Scold. Xavier snorted, "And about the mission?" It's not recycling, it's the conflict and death you have created, even forcibly..."The rest of the words were swallowed back by him. Although Xavier has a lot of opinions about his forced killing, and he is extremely resentful, now is not the time to bring it up.

"Gee, didn't I say that. Just to get the research materials," Aloy Heck waved his hand, "that human warlock... Oh, what's it called? It doesn't matter - the power of her bloodline is rare. I can't miss this material. As for the 'adventurers', a group of gangsters dressed up in the name of adventurers, they did a lot of things to bully men and women. You don't have to pity them, do you? ”

Hearing this, Xavier remembered that more than ten days ago, at the beginning of all this, he had seen in the dark elf's notebook in front of him, "can be anatomically studied". Thinking of the possibility of the future, he looked at Aloy Heck, trying to see something in her eyes.

But there was no emotion in those purple eyes, as if they were just a shell of nothingness.

"Looks like you have some opinions, huh? Let me think... Oh, you can't be—" Aloy Heck squinted his eyes and leaned over with a playful smile, "You don't like that sorceress, do you?" ”

Xavier's eyelids twitched, and before he could say anything to deny it, Aloy Heck sat back in his chair with a smile: "-Just kidding, are you worried that you will also be used as research material by me?" ”

Xavier, who was hit by what he was thinking, put on a dead fish eye, "That's right. ”

"Don't worry." She waved her hand, "It's good to be dead." But the seedlings who are alive and have a lot of potential like you, of course, must be kept and raised... Hey. ”

“…… I didn't expect you to have this special hobby. Xavier, who kept his eyes like a dead fish, looked at her, "Should I feel honored to be a pet with a lot of potential... Wrong. According to you, isn't that sorceress also very potential? Why not leave her alive. ”

"Nope." Aloy Heck sat up straighter, his still teasing expression retracted, "According to what I've learned, the power of that bloodline contains a lot of human means. It doesn't hurt to tell you, otherwise you kid will be dissatisfied, and it won't be good to poison my cake. ”

"The surname of the noble family that manages Darkforest is Legros. The sorceress you killed was the illegitimate daughter of Baron Legros. She threw out a message in a calm tone.

"Ahh If you want to lie to me, you can change the reason, right? Hearing this, Xavier sighed weakly, and still looked at it with dead fish eyes: "The illegitimate daughter of the local administrator noble, running around the town alone, joining the adventure party and mixing with a group of men, and even fighting for a magic bag? ”

"Do I need to lie to you? That's what happened," said Aloy Heck in a deep tone, "that woman has aristocratic blood in her, but she suffers from being an illegitimate daughter and cannot get the status and resources she deserves. So she used her bloodline talent to cultivate her strength in the shadows, waiting for an opportunity to take revenge. I've helped the Legros family get rid of a hidden danger..."

As Xavier's eyes grew stranger and he was about to interrupt, he saw Aloy Heck laugh, "—you think I'm going to say that?" Of course not. ”

"Ha, that's not the case, although it's a little strange that she's acting like this as an illegitimate daughter."

"I'll look into the specifics, but that's my business," she tilted her head and leaned closer to Xavier's face, "As my test subject, you shouldn't have so many thoughts—what were you thinking?" ”

Xavier stared at her without fear, and now might be a good time to get the word out:

"So, I should report my thoughts to 'you'?"

"First, I can't fully trust you. Second, even if what you say is true, it's still immoral. Thirdly, I have a strong suspicion that after you have achieved your goal, you will 'remove the hidden danger' from me as you did with the sorceress. ”

Aloy Heck's expression changed, but before she could speak again, Xavier continued.

"Fourth, and finally... Forcing me to kill people, I really, really, very unpleasantly....... ”

After a brief pause, the Dark Elf put on his usual smile, "Interesting, you seem to have a lot of backbone - or bluff." As a test subject, this is not obedient enough. ”

"Obedient? You can be too confident. My blood, my flesh, comes from 'myself' and my soul never belongs to anyone else. Even though this body has been manipulated now, it doesn't mean that I'm just like those puppets, just following the threads. ”

Aloy Heck raised an eyebrow, looking a little surprised: "It seems that I did make some mistakes during the remodeling." As a benevolent boss, though, I remind you of one thing, Xavier. ”

She called Xavier by his first name, "Don't forget, as I said, the reason why you are still standing here is all because of me." As long as I want, then you can always shut up forever and become my new beautiful collection. ”

“… Ha. You can give it a try. Xavier asked rhetorically, "Forcing a person to obey by coercion may not necessarily meet expectations." It may backfire, inspiring a willingness to rebel – even to death. ”

"A being who can think and judge is far more useful than a puppet who can only blindly obey. And—" he said, a flame burning in his hand.

It wasn't meant to be a threat or a demonstration, Xavier was just a reminder of her status as a "mage genius"—perhaps in the words of a previous life, "that's the confidence that Intelligence 30 gave me."

Aloy Heck tilted his head to stare at Xavier, his gaze scrutinizing.

"Interesting... Indeed, what you say is not unreasonable. An assertive pet is much more interesting than a puppet. She laughed and stood on tiptoe to pat Xavier on the head, but her height meant she could only pat her shoulder.

"Well... I'll give you a certain amount of freedom, after all, I'm a benevolent boss. But you better not forget that you exist, I gave you. ”

Xavier nodded helplessly as he felt the cold touch on his shoulder. It was already the best result for him, at least it didn't really anger the guy with an unknown purpose and bring himself an uninteresting death.

But that's just the surface. Although agreeing to give him a certain amount of freedom, she is clearly not going to really let go. To get out of control and out of the identity of the subject seems to be a long-term thing.

"Very well, now that there is a consensus. That's the end of our chat trick," she said in a concluding tone, "Now, give me the storage bag." Then you can rest and I'll let you know when there's a new mission. ”

Xavier stood up, sighed exaggeratedly, and tossed the bag containing the corpse back to the first floor.

Ansest was still wiping down his glass—even though it had become shiny.

Paused as he prepared to continue his journey upstairs, he walked to the bar and tapped his fingers on the tabletop. He thought that in order to break the situation of being controlled by others, perhaps he needed to start with the people here.