As Roselle watched Beyonder ingredients such as the "Mountain Yeti's brain core" and the "Library Shadow Spirit's crystalline substance" go into a small brass pot and form an icy-blue liquid, he felt an absurd sense that he was crafting a potion in a game.
Only minutes ago, these things had seemed completely unrelated. Yet the instant they touched inside the pot, they swiftly fused into a potion free of impurities.
No heating or stirring required...? Roselle stared at the liquid slowly swirling in the pot and couldn't help muttering inwardly. Then he remembered that he was dealing with a potion, not a mixture in chemistry class.
Standing across the long table, the captain of the Machinery Hivemind team picked up a graduated glass and poured the liquid from the small pot into it.
He was a middle-aged man of no great height, with streaks of gray in his black hair. He wore a dark work jacket with the cuffs rolled up, and a brass-framed magnifying glass hung from his chest. Had Roselle not already known who he was, he might have mistaken him for an experienced mechanic.
"Before you drink it, let me remind you once more," the man said, apparently oblivious to Roselle's scrutiny as he handed over the glass. "Don't savor its texture or taste. Just swallow it."
Roselle took the glass and immediately caught a pungent smell completely at odds with its appetizing appearance. He felt that the warning had been very necessary.
"Afterward, you may feel dizzy, hear ringing in your ears, see chaotic images, or find mysterious knowledge appearing in your mind. These are all normal. As long as you rein in your spirituality using the method I explained earlier, nothing will go wrong.
"Whatever you do, don't try to remember or analyze that knowledge."
I know. It's just indescribable knowledge, right...? Roselle listened to the man's instructions, but his attention had already settled entirely on the glass of icy-blue liquid in his hand.
A moment later, he took a deep breath, raised the glass to his lips, hesitated briefly, then tilted his head back and drained it.
As the cold liquid slid down his throat, Roselle couldn't even make out its flavor. It felt as though he had swallowed an entire mass of compressed freezing mist. Then the chill exploded in his stomach and rapidly spread through his blood vessels and nerves to his whole body, especially his head.
The long metal table, small brass pot, and captain's figure stretched and flattened before his eyes. Countless sounds crowded his ears: rustling pages, classroom bells, tapping keyboards, his father Leon Gustav's deep voice explaining the etiquette of Intis nobility, and his mother's voice calling him to dinner from the kitchen before his transmigration.
Then more things surged up.
Illustrations of levers, pulleys, and pressure from his middle-school physics textbooks; reaction equations from high-school chemistry that he had long since mostly forgotten; difficult mathematical concepts he had crammed for university exams; information he had casually looked up while arguing online about the history of steam engines; improvements to papermaking, gunpowder, glass, soap, and movable-type printing mentioned only in passing in certain transmigration webnovels...
It was as if someone had emptied those memories out of an old warehouse, box by box, organized them, and stuffed them into his mind, making his scalp prickle.
"Take deep breaths."
The captain's voice came from far away.
Roselle wanted to answer, but found he couldn't speak. He could only instinctively follow the meditation method he had just learned, sketching a sufficiently simple, stable shape in his mind.
As the image gradually stabilized, the clamor in his ears finally began to fade. The knowledge churning through his mind no longer threatened to drown him, instead sinking deeper, waiting to be retrieved later.
He slowly opened his eyes and found himself still standing before the long metal table, his right hand gripping the empty glass and his left pressed to his forehead.
The Machinery Hivemind captain was watching him nervously. Only after confirming that nothing was wrong did he nod and say:
"It seems to have gone reasonably smoothly."
Roselle opened his mouth and said hesitantly:
"I feel like there's a lot more in my head now."
"That was your knowledge to begin with," the man corrected him. "Savant won't instantly turn a fool into a scholar. It merely makes it easier for you to understand, remember, categorize, and make connections. Things you learned before but forgot in the depths of your mind will also become yours again."
That sounds like a teacher saying, 'The knowledge you learn will always be yours'... Roselle instinctively recalled his homeroom teacher's reprimand in a middle-school classroom. Then he discovered that he had actually remembered the contents of that lesson almost immediately. Even the illustrations in the textbook slowly surfaced, growing increasingly clear.
Uncontrollable excitement welled up inside him. Those grand declarations he had written in his diary, those inventions he had racked his brains over without finding a way forward-all of them suddenly seemed so close!
But in the next instant, another memory that abruptly surfaced interrupted his thoughts.
It was the memory of the day he had transmigrated, and it belonged not only to Huang Tao, but to Roselle as well... His breath caught, and his expression changed. Only when the captain gave him a puzzled look did he rein in his thoughts and carefully reply:
"It's nothing. I just remembered some useful knowledge."
The captain stared at him for a few seconds, then reminded him:
"Don't drink alcohol when you get home. Get some rest early, and report here tomorrow morning. We'll teach you the most basic mysticism knowledge and the confidentiality regulations."
Roselle nodded and steadied himself against the edge of the table. His body felt utterly exhausted, but his mind was clearer than ever.
By the time Charlotte arrived at Raoul's study, it was completely dark outside.
Compared with the painting studio almost entirely covered in oil paintings, the baron's study finally looked more fitting for a nobleman. Account documents and quills lay on the desk, while bookshelves stood against the wall, sparsely filled with books that had never been opened. There were still a few landscape paintings on the walls, but not an excessive number.
Raoul sat behind the desk with a freshly opened letter in his hand. At the knock, he looked up. When he saw Charlotte enter, confusion flashed through his eyes, followed by a hint of wariness.
He probably thinks nothing good ever comes of me seeking him out... Charlotte grumbled inwardly, but maintained the well-behaved expression she had worked hard to cultivate over the past few days.
"Father, there's something I'd like to discuss with you."
Raoul didn't answer immediately. He merely set the letter at the side of the desk, motioned for her to sit, and said in a low voice:
"When you say that, you've usually already made up your mind and are only here to inform me."
Charlotte looked a little embarrassed. She realized that the "credit" she had built up might not be worth as much as she had imagined. Still, she sat down across the desk and tried to sound candid:
"I need to take part in an operation with the Church."
Raoul's expression immediately darkened, but he didn't lose his temper. He simply waited for an explanation.
"The Church of the Eternal Blazing Sun hinted before that if I continued cooperating, provided leads, and accumulated enough contributions, I'd have a chance to obtain a potion." She paused to observe her father's expression. "I think this is the best opportunity."
Of course, Charlotte was already an Arbiter. She was only saying this to pave the way for eventually revealing to him that she was a Beyonder, making up for her earlier lies.
"What operation?"
As Charlotte had expected, Raoul showed little reaction to the word "potion" and merely pressed for details.
"The Church searched the ritual site in the Old District again and investigated many leads connected to Etienne and the attack on the Printing House. In the end, they identified a City Hall official whom they believe is directly involved in that series of murders," Charlotte explained, sticking to what Viève had allowed her to reveal. "The arrest will be carried out in secret. They want me to participate, but not as a combatant. They hope I might recover the memories I lost that night during the operation and provide more leads, so they can eliminate all the hidden threats in this city."
After hearing her out, he said nothing for a long time.
The further explanations Charlotte had prepared felt rather feeble in that silence.
"Is it necessary?" Raoul finally asked. "Must you obtain a potion and become a Beyonder?"
Charlotte raised her head and noticed that her father's eyes held none of the anger she had expected. Instead, there was more weariness and worry.
"You can remain a daughter of the Sauron Family, work on that newspaper business with Roselle, and learn accounting, law, and estate management," Raoul said, his tone mild. "Even if you really want to become a Beyonder, the Church isn't your only option."
His words surprised Charlotte a little:
"You mean..."
Raoul leaned back in his chair, as though finally bringing up something he had been reluctant to mention:
"The Sauron Family-by which I mean the royal branch-possesses a complete potion pathway. Its Sequence 9 is called Hunter."
Hunter?
After Assassin, Lawyer, and Warrior, here comes another potion with its profession written all over it... If Father had told me this sooner, perhaps I wouldn't have needed to become a peripheral member of the Church... Charlotte felt a little regretful, then realized that given her circumstances at the time, knowing this wouldn't have made much difference.
Instead, she asked curiously:
"What abilities does Hunter have?"
"I don't know much. I've only heard that it enhances strength and the senses, makes you good at tracking and setting traps, and gives you considerable knowledge related to hunting and survival."
So it really is a hunter in the literal sense... It sounds well suited to tracking cultists and fighting, too. Unfortunately, I've already become an Arbiter, so I can only continue down this pathway... Charlotte pondered.
Watching her thoughtful expression, Raoul sighed and continued:
"In fact, I once had an opportunity to obtain a potion myself."
Charlotte froze, then sat up straight in curiosity.
Raoul's gaze passed over her and settled on an oil painting of the old Sauron residence on the wall:
"I was still in Trier then. An elder of the family thought I could try becoming a Beyonder. But at the time, I didn't want to be drawn into those unknown dangers. I also felt that with my status and abilities, I didn't need to rely on a potion to change anything.
"Only later did I learn that I was merely one of the candidates competing for that opportunity. That elder even remarked regretfully that I was actually very suited to becoming a Beyonder and might be able to master the potion quickly.
Father stood at the threshold of the Beyonder world when he was young, too, but never stepped through in the end... Charlotte felt a little wistful, thinking of herself when she had first transmigrated into this world and faced the choice between fleeing and confronting the threat.
Then, as though recalling the elder's expression at the time, Raoul added quietly:
"In his words, I was very suited to acting as a Hunter."
Acting? The word made Charlotte's eyes light up.
Henri had also reminded her not to treat a potion merely as something that provided Beyonder abilities, but to make herself more like a true Arbiter.
She had been thinking about this all along, and the word her father had mentioned in passing gave her inspiration:
Could acting be the real key to mastering a potion?