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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 8
Chapter Title: Alchemist Castle Lord
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Krash was Charlotte's younger brother, sharing her exact fierce gaze.
Everyone's attention was inevitably drawn to him.
"Ahaha! So what does a Valheim kid want with me? Did you fall for me at first sight or something?"
Krash ignored her words entirely and cut straight to the point.
"You've been awfully curious about World Erosion lately."
At that moment, Darling's shoulders twitched.
The bright smile that had adorned her face began to slowly shift in her eyes.
While the others showed confusion, Krash flashed a provocative smile.
"That ought to pique your interest, right?"
Darling slowly smiled back.
"What a cheeky little brat."
She stepped right up to Krash.
"You'll have to pay dearly for getting my attention."
Don't worry.
'I'm the foremost expert on the information you're after.'
Krash nodded and turned away.
The king of alchemy, hailed as the world's greatest alchemist of the future.
Alchemist Castle Lord Darling Danphelion.
It was time to forge a connection with her.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Krash and Darling soon found a room alone together.
As soon as they entered, Darling flopped casually onto the bed and smiled at Krash.
"Coming to a room like this already? Aren't you a bit too precocious?"
"Don't sexually harass a kid."
"Kids wouldn't even understand what I just said."
Fair enough.
Krash pulled out a chair and sat down. Darling propped her elbow on her knee and rested her chin in her hand.
"How old are you?"
"You know my sister's age, so you should know."
"Thirteen, right? But you don't look it at all. Your face is still babyish, though."
That was unavoidable.
The soul inside this thirteen-year-old body was an adult who had even graduated from the academy.
"Does that have anything to do with what we're talking about?"
But that didn't mean Krash had to play along.
Winter was already here.
Just two years until enrollment at Raheln Academy.
And he had mountains of work to do before then.
He didn't even have time to waste bantering with her.
"Doesn't matter to me. Go on, spit it out. You came to me about World Erosion, so you've gotta have something from the Valheim family's intel, right?"
Darling wasn't particularly interested in Krash.
She figured a kid like him couldn't know much anyway.
"The method of offsetting curses by using one curse against another."
But the moment Krash hit the nail on the head, Darling's smile froze.
"Specifically, research on erasing the World Erosion curse—something even the scholars haven't solved—using another curse."
Now Darling's eyes began to widen slowly.
"Any progress on that research lately?"
Krash asked.
"Hmmm."
Darling slowly brushed back her hair.
Darling was a born genius when it came to alchemy.
At just fifteen, she had earned a second-grade alchemist certification that even adults struggled to obtain.
Recently, she had been researching curse offsetting at the Danphelion alchemy workshop.
It was her ambitious thesis preparation for obtaining first-grade certification, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't produce results.
Of course not.
'No test subjects.'
No matter how much theory she developed, without subjects to test it on, her research was stalled.
And it would remain stalled.
She would eventually give up, scarred by wounded pride, and pursue other research to finally claim her first-grade certification.
But her research would resume later.
Thanks to her encounter with Krash.
'I owe this guy one.'
He had helped reverse some of the damage from the curses she had recklessly stolen.
"I'll help with your research."
Krash's words made Darling's eyes turn icy in an instant.
"Don't treat alchemy like child's play."
Had he wounded her pride as an alchemist?
She reacted sharply, telling an ignorant outsider not to meddle in her research.
Even Darling, who was always so carefree, got deadly serious about alchemy.
"Relax. What I'm offering to help with is the test subjects you feel you're lacking."
Doubt flickered in Darling's eyes.
Krash had come at it from a completely unexpected angle.
"Test subjects?"
"I can steal curses."
For the first time, a light other than playfulness gleamed in Darling's eyes.
It was the reaction of an alchemist discovering a new material.
"Kid, you serious?"
"I made a contract with a god for it. Isn't that more than enough to help with your research?"
"Enough? It's overflowing."
Darling trailed off vaguely and smiled slowly again.
"You must want something from me. What is it? A girlfriend, maybe?"
Krash paid no mind to her sly attitude, despite her fondness for women.
"I'll be acquiring several curses soon. I want you to make potions to mitigate them for me."
Krash now knew for certain he could steal skills.
But that alone wasn't enough.
Even the Generation of the Sky, with their exceptional skills, hadn't prevented the world's downfall.
So Krash planned to use every trick in the book.
He had already exploited curses in reverse plenty of times.
"..."
Darling stared silently at Krash after hearing him out.
Those eyes burning with ambition.
They weren't the eyes of a thirteen-year-old kid.
What on earth had shaped this boy into this?
Darling had heard plenty about Krash.
Valheim's halfwit.
Not chosen by any god, no talent for any weapon—a total failure.
And the youngest, most often compared to Staron's brightest star, Charlotte.
'Normally, that'd break anyone.'
But some people rise instead.
And this boy before her had risen.
Circles began to form in Darling's pupils.
'Hmmm, I like him.'
Darling's favorites fell into two categories.
One: overwhelming geniuses.
The kind who stood at untouchable peaks.
The other: mutants.
Those with not a scrap of talent, who used every cheat and ploy imaginable to claw their way to the top.
'Both siblings, huh.'
How could they both be so captivating?
Darling licked her lips once, her eyes gleaming seductively.
"Kid, mind if I ask one thing?"
Krash looked at her indifferently.
Darling tossed out the question she'd been holding back.
"You planning to go to the new Raheln Academy?"
Krash blinked at the question, then wore an obvious expression.
Why wouldn't he go, with all those skills to steal there?
"Perfect. That's all I needed to hear. I'll make any potions you want. Curse-related? You're always welcome."
Krash breathed a sigh of relief at Darling's giggling response.
Thank goodness she was the same as ever.
"Oh, right—one more thing I need to ask. It's about potion-making too."
In that moment, Krash remembered the favor he'd forgotten.
"You said you'd do any potion-making, so what is it?"
"You know about Discoloration Disease?"
The incurable illness where the skin turns pitch-black blue and the victim slowly dies.
A rare one, but Darling tilted her head in recognition, so Krash continued.
"Make a cure for it."
Darling stared blankly for a moment at the abrupt request.
"...You know that's incurable, right?"
"Yeah."
"Do you even know why it's incurable?"
Because it couldn't be cured.
"You can do it."
It wouldn't be hard if she seriously researched it.
She had cured hundreds of incurables later on.
Discoloration Disease was definitely one of them.
When Aliod swallowed poison soup and took his own life, Krash clearly remembered the reason—and his daughter's illness.
He had felt a pang of regret in various ways when he heard Darling had developed a cure.
"That's quite the vote of confidence for my ego."
She didn't know when he'd seen her to trust her this much, but it didn't feel bad.
With that, Darling lightly hopped off the bed.
"That cover everything?"
"Yeah. Send word to the Valheim family's Green Pine Pavilion once the cure's ready."
"Coming personally? Big trouble. Guess I'll have to clean my room."
"You wanna say that to a thirteen-year-old kid?"
"Kids don't even get what it means. Cleaning's a pain, so no choice—I'll come myself."
What an odd woman.
As Krash moved to leave now that business was done, Darling sidled up and poked his side.
"My boyfriend spot's open, y'know. Just say the word anytime."
Krash grimaced as if he'd heard something he wished he hadn't.
"Don't you like my sister?"
"I love Charlotte. But that doesn't mean I can't like someone else too, right?"
What kind of nonsense was that?
"...Wait, aren't you into women?"
Krash, knowing her tastes, pointed it out. Darling blinked, then slowly broke into a wide grin.
"I like guys too."
"Huh?"
"So yeah, women, men—doesn't matter to me."
Darling licked her lips lightly while eyeing Krash.
Her gaze was like a predator spotting wild prey. Krash immediately kicked the door open.
"Where you going! My future boyfriend!"
"Crazy bitch."
Having learned Darling's unwanted new preference, Krash fled back to the party in horror.
Thankfully, she was partly joking and didn't chase full-tilt.
'She definitely asked about Raheln Academy.'
Something felt off.
Originally, Darling hadn't followed Charlotte to Raheln Academy—but this time, it seemed she would enroll.
'Whatever.'
He'd achieved his goal here anyway.
No point dwelling on it. As Krash swept back his hair and headed to his seat—
His eyes caught Bianca.
Her wrist was gripped in someone's hand. Krash's eyes narrowed at the sight.
In the next instant, Krash kicked off the floor and appeared before Bianca.
"Lord Krash?"
The moment Bianca called out with wide eyes, Krash kicked the man away.
"Gah?!"
The man tumbled away with a scream. Krash caught Bianca as she was dragged along.
He then checked her wrist.
It was slightly red—clear signs of rough handling.
"Lord Krash."
As Bianca called him again, Krash turned to her with a sigh.
"Let's go get some medicine."
Wouldn't want it bruising.
"I'm fine. More importantly—"
Bianca looked ahead.
Following her gaze, Krash turned to see the boy staggering back to his feet.
He glared at Krash with seething eyes and scowled.
"You bastard, you dared kick me?!"
"And you're the one trying to drag off someone else's fiancée by force. What were you thinking?"
"Wha—by force?!"
Krash scanned the mid-teens boy up and down, then wore a contemptuous sneer.
"Bianca's still just a kid. Only twelve. You into that kinda thing? Disgusting."
"I'm not a kid."
Bianca protested from the side, but Krash continued eyeing the boy like trash.