Chapter 220: The Saint's Creativity (1)

Day 3 after the End-of-Term Practical Exam ended.

Erika Nihilrit idly wandered the lodging corridor.

The scheduled exam had been canceled.

Yet they could not simply return to the Academy for safety reasons.

Because of that, Erika's schedule during their stay in the Duchy had completely opened up.

There was no training to do,

no classes to attend,

and no bugs to exterminate.

In those idle days,

Erika's only task was to empty two bowls of breakfast and barge into Yulian's room... no, visit it.

In fact, it was a routine ordinary students could not even dream of.

The place the Ducal Family provided to the Academy group was the West Annex District.

The students were in the innermost dormitory building, while Yulian stayed separately in the Guest Mansion beyond one garden.

It was only natural.

They could hardly put ordinary Academy students and the Saint in the same building, after all.

But Erika had one privilege the other students did not.

It was the privilege of being the Saint's family.

Thanks to that privilege, she did not need to cross the garden; she only had to climb one flight of stairs to stand before the Saint's room.

Today as well, she was climbing the stairs to carry out her after-meal routine.

The moment she rounded the landing, a thick forearm blocked her way.

"Stop. I will verify your identity."

It was the Muscle Holy Knight who guarded the Black Saint, Gregor.

Erika knew him.

He knew Erika too.

They had passed each other and exchanged greetings since their Academy days—how many years had it been?

So this identity check was, in truth, meaningless.

If she laughed here and slipped under his arm with, "Mr. Gregor, your muscles are impressive today too!" he would not stop her.

Rather than stopping her, he was the kind of person who would tear off his shirt, strike a side chest pose, and thank her for the good morning.

But if that happened, the one in trouble would not be Erika, but him.

'Because Mr. Gregor is the kind of person who'd rather write a Written Apology himself.'

Erika knew well how she appeared to others.

A kid with no thought in her words

and no formality in her actions.

The friends she made at the Academy,

the family of the Nihilrit household,

and Yulian too,

All of them liked Erika that way.

Erika herself was quite fond of that version of herself too.

But people liking her did not mean she was allowed to inconvenience them.

Eri knew that "line" better than anyone.

After all, she had been born and raised in a neighborhood where stepping over the wrong line got you found in a sewer as an unidentified sack of meat.

So instead of slipping under his arm, she held out the Entry Permit in her pocket.

"Erika Nihilrit, Entry Permit."

"Confirmed."

Gregor nodded after checking the permit.

Ahem. Ahem.

Then he deactivated his Official Mode.

"Heh heh. Miss Erika, I say this every time, but you do not need to show me that."

"I must have forgotten to take it out after putting it in my pocket yesterday. I brought it, so there's no reason not to show it."

"That is true."

Gregor was convinced as well.

"There are guests, but their business will soon be finished. If you wait a little, you should be able to see him."

"Guests? Again?"

"As you know, there are many people who wish to meet the Saint."

"Then what about waiting inside?"

"That much should be no problem."

Just in case, after getting Gregor to confirm the "line" once more,

she continued up the stairs.

At the end of the corridor, in front of Yulian's room, was being used like a waiting room.

Two priests sat side by side in the waiting chairs.

Beside them, a man in a Board of Inspection uniform stood leaning against the wall with an armful of documents.

All three saw Eri and bowed their heads.

They had come and gone through this corridor countless times over the past few days.

Naturally, they could not help but learn what kind of person Erika was.

"Good work~"

After Eri lightly returned their greeting,

Knock, knock, knock.

She opened the door after a knock that was barely a knock.

On the table in the room she entered, a Crystal Orb was lit. From beyond it, someone who identified themselves as belonging to the Quartermaster Bureau called out an item number.

[Item 9 revision. Supplement regarding the selection method for personnel participating in the project. Over.]

Erika let that report go in one ear and quietly shifted herself to the side.

It was so she would naturally fall at the edge of Yulian's vision.

The plan succeeded.

"Wait over there for a moment."

"Yes~"

The moment he sensed Erika's presence, Yulian pointed to a chair in the corner.

Erika sat in that chair and swung her legs.

After a few minutes of that,

the Crystal Orb's light went out.

It meant today's business with the military was finished.

The remaining schedule would be handled tomorrow, no doubt.

As if the Crystal Orb had been waiting for a break,

the door opened and priests entered.

"Lord Saint. Please treat us well today as well."

"The same to you."

They were personnel dispatched from the Order.

They had come to monitor whether Yulian violated "life magic research ethics."

"Lord Saint. This is merely a formal question, but... have you done anything that violates Article 7?"

"I have not."

"Of course you would not have. This is nothing more than a formal procedure, so please do not take it to heart."

The priests' attitude toward Yulian was noticeably low.

They seemed eager to show as much guilt as possible for daring to doubt the Black Saint.

After finishing today's formal Q&A in that manner,

Yulian, having proven his integrity, called in the next guest.

"Come in."

"I am from the Board of Inspection."

Rustle, rustle.

The Inspector took documents out of an envelope.

She could not examine them in detail, but

even at a glance, the list looked long.

"Please select, from the substances used in the procedure, those whose supply the state should monitor."

There was one reason the Inspector sought his cooperation.

Even if the knowledge leaked, they wanted to block the materials so it could not be reproduced.

"This substance is absolutely necessary for the process."

"Then if we monitor the supply of this substance, can we prevent the misuse of chimera technology?"

"Normally, yes, but......"

"......?"

"If it were me, this substance could be substituted in this way......"

Erika barely swallowed the sigh that almost escaped.

It went without saying, but they could not design a monitoring system based on Yulian.

Fortunately, the Inspector seemed well aware of that fact.

"......For now, I will use this as the baseline. Please submit such scenarios later as an academic paper."

"Yes, understood."

Erika thought another Forbidden Rank was being born.

Around the time the Order and the Inspector were finishing their business,

guests not previously in the corridor came looking for him.

They were employees of the Magic Management Bureau.

When their turn came, they finished their greeting briefly and got straight to the point.

"Lord Yulian. It is nothing else—it was confirmed that this process requires wizards of different specialties, so we came to see you again."

One of the mages turned a notebook around and placed it before Yulian.

At some point Erika had gotten down from the chair and was peeking at the notebook over Yulian's shoulder.

Roughly, mages were assigned by stage: excision, reattachment, engraftment, rejection suppression, and so on.

Yulian checked those roles and tilted his head.

"Does this also need to be subdivided?"

"Normally, no one can perform a Chimera Ritual alone from beginning to end. Originally, this magic is Collective Ritual Magic......"

"But I managed it?"

"......"

The Magic Management Bureau employee shut his mouth.

Erika felt déjà vu at that sight.

'This is just like the Viagra incident.'

Back when Yulian made Sildenafil, that is, Viagra.

The thing he struggled with most was not synthesis.

What actually perplexed him was making the alchemists understand the completed drug's principle and manufacturing method.

"Do I split it here?"

"If you split there, won't the flow be interrupted?"

"Then could you tell me where I should split it?"

"Must it be split at all?"

Yulian looked as if he could not understand why the mages insisted on dividing it.

To him, this request was no different from asking him to dismantle 1 and 1 separately and analyze them in order to calculate the value of 1+1.

It was bound to be difficult for both sides.

"......Then, not by Lord Yulian's standards, but by ours, allow me to ask again."

The Bureau employee pressed his fatigue-worn eyelids and barely continued the subdivision work with Yulian.

After several minutes of that,

the conclusion was reached that creating a Sterile Chimera required knowledge from a very diverse range of professions.

First, starting with Insect Sorcerers, then Chimera Sorcerers, Eastern-Style Cultivation Experts, Healers, Alchemists, and so on.

For one "common" Chimera Ritual as Yulian described it, this many personnel were needed.

The employee who reached that conclusion let out a sigh of relief.

"Whew. Fortunately, there seems to be almost no possibility of this technology being misused."

It was only natural.

Whether academia or business, the more advanced it becomes, the more complexly countless pieces of knowledge intertwine.

The Chimera Release Method project was the same.

If this many personnel divided the work according to their specialties, even if one person had other ideas and stole the technology, reproduction would be impossible.

The most they could steal would be a single cogwheel.

"The Board of Inspection also said they would carefully monitor the Core Materials."

Knowledge was not the only problem.

There was also the problem of raw materials.

As long as the Board of Inspection kept a keen eye on the Core Materials,

even if knowledge or blueprints were stolen, reproduction would be impossible.

"The Bureau is concerned that this technology might recreate the past catastrophe, but as expected, in my view it seems to have been a groundless fear."

Erika agreed with the employee's words.

Unless someone knew substitute materials for the controlled substances, could replace countless experts alone, and even evade the Order's surveillance,

this technology would never recreate the Black Magic Catastrophe of the 13th Magic Tower while evading the Empire's eyes......

"It is practically impossible to break through all these conditions......"

"......"

"Impossible......"

The Bureau employee trailed off.

Before long, he cautiously asked Yulian.

"Um, Lord Yulian. May I ask just one thing?"

"Yes. Ask anything."

"By any chance, is there a possibility that this chimera technology could be applied to humans?"

Erika already knew the answer to that question.

Because she was the one who could steal glances at the research notes in Yulian's laboratory at any time.

In fact, Yulian was searching for a way to apply chimera technology to humans.

Just as he had opened the path to treating Autoimmune Demon Disease with curse magic, he was seeking a new path in this chimera magic as well.

It could truly be called an admirable research spirit.

However, if there was a problem......

"That was a sharp question. Yes, it is possible. In fact, that is the direction of my current main research topic."

"......"

As expected.

Just as Erika predicted, Yulian's vocabulary failed to convey even a bit of those good intentions.