Chapter 83
*I Feel Betrayed*
With the young master’s keys, I headed for the workshop.
In a way, the workshop was where we first met. Where Estella was created.
How about proposing to him here? It was the perfect place to seduce him.
“I’ll decorate the area around the elixir with flowers! It’ll be so romantic! He’ll fall for my beautiful heart in no time!”
I ran to the workshop with Zomrat and Sparrow. Since the workshop was separate from the main mansion, the arrow on the back of my hand pointed in the direction of his room.
The arrow glowed brighter as we approached the workshop. The door was locked.
But I had the keys!
Click, click, click. I unlocked all three locks and stepped inside.
How far along was the elixir?
“Should I steal the completed elixir, become human, and then think about the rest? He wouldn’t expect that. Me suddenly appearing as a human! What do you think, Zomrat?”
“…”
Zomrat seemed indifferent. I decided to take a look around.
But the workshop wasn’t what I expected. I thought it would be filled with elixirs and magical tools, but it was almost empty. It used to be filled with golems, wooden dolls, and other creations. He had seemed to be destroying them all on the day I awakened as Estella.
“It’s really empty…”
There were boxes everywhere, as if he was preparing to move, and everything except for a few tools was in the trash.
There were barely any signs of the workshop being used. That was strange. He had been working on the elixir in the workshop day and night for the past few days.
“He was here all day, so why aren’t there any traces of his work?”
I had initially intended to just look around, but I felt a sense of unease. He must have been working on the elixir. He had been so obsessed with it, so I wasn’t so naive as to not notice.
Then there should be at least some traces of the elixir, shouldn’t there?
It wasn’t because I wanted to steal the elixir. I was just suspicious.
“Where is the elixir? I thought he would have completed it by now. I need it to become human. This is a problem.”
I stretched, pretending to look around. Then I grabbed a broom from the corner.
“Time to clean! I’m a diligent maid! A good doll maid who wouldn’t even think about stealing the elixir, peeking at the ingredients, or looking for notes on how to become human!”
I made sure to have an alibi, just in case someone was hiding.
As I swept the practically dust-free floor, I placed Zomrat down.
“Zomrat, you like the elixir, don’t you?”
He stood on his hind legs and looked up at me with a blank expression.
“Don’t just look at me with that cute, rat-like face. Act like a secret agent. Is there anywhere in here that smells like the elixir?”
I poked him with the broom handle. He started sniffing around reluctantly.
He wandered around the workshop for a while, gnawing on the table leg and eating some unidentified crumbs on the floor. That was all he did.
“Was I wrong?”
I had been so sure that the young master was working on the elixir here.
Just as I was about to give up and check other rooms, Zomrat sniffed the air, his nose twitching.
“What is it, Zomrat? Can you answer me in human language? I think you can.”
Instead of answering, he ran towards a wall.
“Zomrat!”
Thump! He crashed into the wall. Unfazed, he stood up and started sniffing around the wall. It looked like an ordinary wall to me, but it must have been different for him. Had the young master coated it with cheese instead of wallpaper?
“Zomrat, what is it? Did the young master use the elixir as wallpaper? Was he actually trying to create magic wallpaper all this time?”
Zomrat scratched at the wall. I bent down, and Sparrow, who had been quiet until now, also flew down and pecked at a corner of the wall.
“What’s wrong with you two?”
This was definitely suspicious. There was a secret hidden in this wall.
I examined the wall closely, but there were no obvious clues.
I took a random key from the set and tried it on the wall. Nothing happened, of course. I tried different keys, but nothing.
“Is it hidden with magic?”
Then there was no way for me to find it. I wasn’t a mage, so I couldn’t unlock magically sealed doors.
Just then, I saw Sparrow chirping.
Wait, Sparrow was a phoenix! And phoenixes were closely associated with magic. And I also had Zomrat, who was obsessed with the elixir.
“That’s right! My secret agents! You are useful!”
I held Zomrat in one hand and Sparrow in the other and stood close to the wall. I moved my arm, allowing Zomrat to sniff around.
“Zomrat, let me know if you smell the elixir!”
He diligently sniffed the wall. If he didn’t detect anything, he would just twitch his nose. But if he sensed something strange, he would wag his long tail.
That was the signal. I would then hold Sparrow up to the spot where Zomrat had reacted. Sparrow would peck at it, clueless.
And I was right!
When Sparrow pecked at the spot Zomrat had identified, a faint magic circle appeared. If I could complete the magic circle, I could enter the secret room!
“Even the young master wouldn’t have expected this!”
The three of us worked quickly.
When Sparrow finally flapped his wings, the magic circle was complete. It vibrated, emitting a floral scent, then glowed white.
The wall opened, revealing a new room.
It was seamlessly connected to the workshop. There was no unusual furniture. It looked like an ordinary workroom, but one thing was certain.
“This is the young master’s real workshop!”
I was sure of it. Scattered papers, flasks with bubbling liquids, half-finished doll bodies and limbs…
It was filled with traces of his work.
“Well, I never got permission to enter here…”
I looked at the keys he had given me and thought hard.
“Come to think of it, giving me these keys means I have permission to enter anywhere, right? I already have permission. Don’t you agree? Convince me otherwise.”
“…”
“…”
Their silence meant I was logically correct. I put the keys in my pocket and entered the workshop.
There were notes everywhere.
[How to Make the Elixir]
[Carefully Measure Phoenix Byproducts]
[Errands for Estella]
“Where’s the elixir?”
I carefully examined the large desk, looking for any traces of it.
“Chirp!”
Sparrow suddenly screeched and flapped his wings. Zomrat, startled, scurried up my back.
Was this another magic-related incident?
I approached the spot where they had reacted and saw various vials, numerous papers with magic formulas, and torn books.
I picked up a torn book and flipped through the pages. It was the young master’s research journal.
[How to Revive the Dead]
I gasped and looked around. Of course, I was alone. Relieved, I focused on the notes.
Or rather, they looked more like diary entries. His handwriting was messy, but I could decipher it, since we were childhood friends.
As I read through the entries, I couldn’t help but shake my head.
“This is absurd. What are you doing, Young Master…?”
[Treatment 128 complete. Anna hasn’t awakened. I’ve stopped the body’s decay, but I haven’t been able to restore consciousness. Restoring breathing is the priority.]
[Treatment 215 complete. Anna briefly breathed. It stopped again, but there’s hope. Increase the ratio of cliff rabbit heart and reduce the amount of Larvacho in the next dose.]
[Emergency. Anna’s blood reversed flow, and I had to sustain her life force with mana. It would have been irreversible if I hadn’t intervened in time. I need a way to protect her even when I’m not around.]
[I sold a portion of my research to Umbram in exchange for experimental materials from the Subsector cemetery. Was it a reckless decision? But it was necessary.]
[Experiment 243 successful. The corpse briefly regained life functions, lasting for about a day. Discovered that injecting a specific potion imbued with magic can animate a corpse.]
[Rejected Umbram’s proposal to continue the experiments. Further attempts are meaningless. The corpses can move, but they can’t regain consciousness.]
[Anna’s birthday. Planted freesias in the garden.]
[Ordered some clothes for Anna to wear when she wakes up. Deduct from research funds.]
[Treatment 154 complete. No change in Anna’s condition.]
I couldn’t believe what I was reading. Checking the dates, the entries had stopped for a while and then resumed a few days ago.
The period when there were no entries coincided with the time we were traveling as zombie investigators.
So he had been trying to revive Anna until he met Estella.
“I wasn’t… buried?”
I was overwhelmed by the sudden influx of information.
According to his records, I wasn’t dead. Or rather, I couldn’t die. He had been keeping me alive.
Then where was “Anna”?
I suddenly remembered the strange dream I had. The dream where I had awakened in Anna’s body.
It was a garden, filled with freesias…
[Anna’s birthday. Planted freesias in the garden.]
I read the sentence over and over again.
“Could it be… that it wasn’t a dream?”