At last, Nicolas seemed to notice Harley's bewildered expression, and an awkward smile appeared on his face.
He gave a light cough. "Sorry, I got carried away and said a bit too much. Just remember that Chinese and Japanese have similar characters."
"As for more information, you can look it up in a Muggle library once you're back in Britain."
Harley nodded silently. "So what happened to those alchemical items?"
Nicolas was glad to see the conversation back on track.
"The 'essence' inside those alchemical items—their most essential part—mysteriously disappeared.
"I also realized my own limitations, because I couldn't figure out why those core components had vanished.
"But my intuition told me they seemed to have returned to the world itself—or, rather, that the world had absorbed them."
The world had absorbed them? Harley somehow felt that this was very important, but she didn't know why.
After making a note of it, Harley pressed him for more details. "So how was it resolved in the end?"
"It wasn't." Nicolas spread his hands and shrugged. "If I couldn't resolve it, who could the Beyonder Apothecary Association count on?
"In the end, the Beyonder Apothecary Association decided to have some of its members use the method I provided to enter, using specific Portkeys to ease the strain on those alchemical items.
"As for the alchemical items that were completely ruined, they gave me half of them, hoping I could figure something out through research."
As he spoke, Nicolas casually pulled a crystal ball from his pocket.
The crystal ball was filled with shimmering blue liquid, with a tiny disk engraved with alchemical runes floating inside.
"What I have here is one of those alchemical items. What a remarkable creation!
"The so-called essence inside this alchemical disk has completely disappeared, which is why