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This was already the third time I had filled the cauldron with alchemical water—the mana liquefaction catalyst—and dissolved the five elemental magic stones into it.

In the present day, the transmutation of Blood Grail had apparently been fully automated. But even if I hadn’t possessed the knowledge from my previous life, I probably still would have insisted on doing it by hand rather than relying on complete automation.

Automation could produce the intended result—a synthetic magic stone, Blood Grail—but nothing beyond that.

Hand transmutation, on the other hand, meant thinking through every step yourself and engraving the process into your own hands.

It was by pursuing the small insights gained along the way that alchemy continued to evolve.

My own discoveries had been deciphering the complex simplified formulas left behind by Albion and, instead of using monster blood as magical ink, using my own blood—blood that had developed Aether Overproduction Syndrome after being exposed to Aurora’s aether.

Though, admittedly, my blood was hardly something that could be obtained so easily.

As I drew another slightly revised formula into the completed transmutation fluid—an improvement based on my previous follow-up experiments—I glanced over at Melua.

Engraving such a large number of simplified formulas was painstaking work, but she continued patiently.

“…Phew… finally finished two…”
“You’re making good progress. I’m almost done on my end too.”

When Melua leaned back and looked up at the ceiling, I paused my own work and spoke to her.

“No, no, no! There’s no way I can keep up with your pace, Master! I seriously don’t get how you can take one of Albion’s ridiculously complicated simplified formulas, improve it, and then draw it that fast!”

Perhaps trying to ease the tension in her hand, Melua massaged her right hand with her left.

“Well, this is my third time doing it now, counting Alfe’s magic staff and the follow-up experiments. I think I’ve simply gotten used to it.”

I genuinely had become accustomed to it by now. If Melua ever needed them, I could probably even produce them in quantity.

That was all I meant.

But Melua immediately shook her head.

“Ugh… You say it’s just getting used to it, but…”

Maybe work she wasn’t accustomed to was simply that exhausting for her.

Perhaps I should check what she wanted.

“…If I finish first, would you like me to help?”
“Eh!?”

Melua let out a completely unexpected yelp.

“…Did I say something wrong?”

At that point, I couldn’t quite imagine what had upset her, so I decided to ask directly.

Melua lowered her gaze to the blueprint containing the simplified formulas I had drawn and let out a quiet groan.

“Ughhhhh… I really, really appreciate the offer… but I want to do this myself.”

Even as she said that, Melua looked at me with a smile.

Apparently, I hadn’t made the wrong choice after all.

“Can I ask why?”
“Of course. I mean, this is something I’m giving to Marie, so I want it to be as good as it can be. If I just rely on you for everything, Master, then it won’t really be my present anymore.”
“You’re already providing all the materials. Isn’t that far more effort than simply buying her a gift?”

After all, this was supposed to be a present.

The fact that Melua was faithfully trying to fulfill every one of Marie’s requests was simply an act of kindness on her part.

When I pointed that out, Melua smiled awkwardly and lowered her eyebrows.

“Well, yeah. That’s true. But if that’s all I do, then it feels… kind of lacking as an alchemist. I mean, there’s no way I could’ve taken your ideas and made them a reality this quickly by myself, so asking for your help was absolutely the right call. And seeing firsthand just how amazing you are has made me even more motivated, which is a really good thing.”

Melua rattled all of that off at high speed before suddenly remembering to take a deep breath.

“So really, thank you! I’m so happy to be your disciple, Master.”
“…I’m glad to hear that. But if I ever start overstepping, I’d like you to tell me.”

I hadn’t expected to hear her say she was happy like that, so her words caught me slightly off guard.

Still, I wanted to make my own feelings clear as well.

“That’s never going to happen! If anything, you should be even more forceful, Master! You could push me harder and be way stricter with your teaching! Seriously, you’re just too kind. I’m the lucky one here!”
“…I think I’m the fortunate one for having you as my disciple.”

I simply wanted to express my gratitude.

Melua blinked at me in puzzlement.

“Why?”
“You know when to rely on others, and you know what you should accomplish yourself. You’ve thought that through carefully. That’s something I’ve learned a great deal from.”
“…There are still things you can learn, Master…?”

You’re giving me far too much credit, Melua.

That was my first thought.

But instead of saying that outright, I decided to put it another way.

After all, I had never been very good at letting other people see my own shortcomings.

“I’m younger than you, after all, and I’ve never been very good at relying on other people. I think you’re amazing, Melua.”
“Really? Hmm… But the reason I’m who I am now is thanks to Estea and Marie too. When I first enrolled, because of my family’s wealth and that whole ‘genius alchemist’ title, they put a commoner like me in the noble dorms. The harassment from the other students was pretty awful.”

As she spoke, Melua slowly resumed engraving the simplified formulas.

I followed suit, returning to drawing the transmutation circle.

“…But Estea was your roommate, wasn’t she?”
“Actually, I had a different roommate before her. But… we just didn’t get along.”

She clearly didn’t want to go into the details, and judging by the look on her face, she had suffered far worse than she cared to talk about.

“The ones who treated me like a normal person instead of looking down on me were Estea and Marie. Estea even switched rooms so she could become my roommate.”

I see.

So Melua and Estea hadn’t been roommates from the beginning.

If Melua hadn’t told me, I never would have known. I doubted Estea would have ever brought it up herself.

“But those two were amazing too, so people never stopped talking behind their backs. I hated seeing them get criticized because of me. So I swore I’d prove everyone wrong. That’s why I earned my Special-Class Alchemist certification.”

There was something curious about the way she phrased it.

I had always assumed Melua had enrolled at the academy with the goal of becoming a Special-Class Alchemist.

Perhaps that hadn’t been the case at all.

“…So becoming a Special-Class Alchemist wasn’t your original goal?”
“My attitude back then was more like, ‘If I can earn it before I graduate, great.’ While I was still a student, I cared less about titles and qualifications and more about mastering alchemy itself. But living in the noble dorms made me realize something. In this world, if you don’t have status or prestige, people will discriminate against you without mercy.”
“…Yes. I suppose they will.”

I answered with a bitter smile.

As someone from Class F who was caught in the middle of discrimination against demi-humans myself, I understood exactly what Melua meant.

“And on top of that, even though everyone kept calling me a genius alchemist, the moment I said I wanted to become a Special-Class Alchemist, hardly anyone supported me. That part really hurt.”
“…May I ask why?”

Melua muttered bitterly, but her eyes never left the formula she was engraving.

The determination in her hands seemed to reflect the resolve she had possessed back then, and somehow that made it easier for me to listen.

“Well, of course. A first-year student passing the Special-Class Alchemist exam while still enrolled was completely unprecedented. If I failed, everyone who’d been praising me as a ‘genius alchemist’ would lose face, right? It would’ve become a whole responsibility issue. Even the person who recommended me to the academy kept trying to convince me to wait a little longer. But Estea and Marie insisted I’d definitely pass. They backed me all the way, and thanks to them I finally got the recommendation.”
“…I never heard any of that.”
“Oh, come on. Do you really think anyone would admit they opposed me after I’d already passed? Obviously they’d all turn around and start saying things like, ‘I knew she’d pass all along,’ or ‘My eye for talent was never wrong when I recognized a genius alchemist!’”

Ah.

I see.

So the alchemical community hadn’t changed much in that regard.

People who had already attained status and prestige tended to become conservative, no matter the era.

“Well… honestly, I was terrified too. I kept thinking, What if I fail…? But Estea and Marie never doubted me for a second. They believed I’d definitely pass… and because of that, I was finally able to believe in myself too. I mean, I am the genius beautiful girl alchemist, Melua!”
“Yeah. You are.”

By the time she finished speaking, I had completed the final simplified formula.

Setting down my brush, I spoke the activation phrase.

“…Formula, activate.”

As I held my hand over the transmutation fluid and poured aether into it, the liquid shimmered with golden light, rippled softly, and slowly rose into the air.

“Huh!?”

Melua let out a startled cry.

“Oh, come on! Having the real genius acknowledge ‘the genius beautiful girl alchemist, Melua’ doesn’t make me sound convincing at all~!”

Responding to both the formula and my aether, the transmutation fluid solidified into a round purple gemstone that settled gently into the palm of my hand.

“So… may I hear the rest?”

If I let the conversation continue as it was, Melua would probably start showering me with praise again.

So I gently steered us back to her story.

Melua smiled softly and let out a quiet breath.