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Angel of Ruin and Blade of Shadows – Part 03

“Ugh, just thinking about it makes my blood boil! Why can’t anyone make use of my research results?!”

She threw a metal cup against the wall, splashing wine everywhere.

“Eek!”

“Go away! Leave me alone!”

“S-S-Sorry!” The serving girl, forgetting to bow, fled the room.

The hallway was windowless, filled with stagnant air, but the magic lamps provided ample illumination.

“How was it?”

“She’s furious. Terrifying.”

“Let’s leave her be.”

The serving girls hurriedly left.

Inside the room, only a woman in a white coat, Ranna, remained.

“Haa, haa… haa.”

This was Ranna’s private quarters, furnished with a messy bed, a half-empty shelf, and an excessively grand desk, which was littered with scribbles and dubious magic catalysts.

The large dining table had an unrefined, natural woodgrain finish and lacked a tablecloth. Apart from the plates with food, the table was strewn with paper and pens.

“I told them they shouldn’t make antidotes for the Accursed Toxin. And especially not a concentrated one that’s a hundred times more potent! The Empire will come at us strong now.”

She tore the bread on the plate into pieces and shoved them into her mouth. An orange stew was steaming in a bowl.

“A spy capable of bypassing that trap… Is the Empire’s Black Blade here? But he should have retired…” Ranna immersed herself in her thoughts. The Empire’s Black Blade—Unken. “I still think it’s more likely that they figured out the trap after one failed attempt. Ahh, damn it! Fuck, fuck, fuck! Stupid archpriest! We need a valid reason to mobilize knights? Well, because of your stupid knights, the cure got stolen!”

A male staff member passing by the hallway flinched and scurried away.

Completely unaware of him, Ranna continued to vent her frustration. She kicked the table legs, though her small body only caused the table to move slightly. The spot she had kicked had already accumulated plenty of dirt from previous outbursts.

The image of the man who ordered her to increase poison production, the leader of the Knights Templar, appeared in her mind.

“You’re here for one reason: to spread the doctrine. In other words, to bring the defiant Empire to heel and develop weapons capable of killing those Beastmen. If you can’t do that, you Man Gnomes are no different from them.”

His gaze had been filled with disdain. He had declared that she was no different from the Beastmen. With the cure stolen, Ranna had no other choice but to produce more of the poison.

“This nation is useless too. They can’t put my intellect to good use here. Those lot from the Man Gnome village were stubborn, but this place is just full of idiots.”

She took several breaths. “Calm down, me. There’s limited supply for the cure. We can just spread the infection again. As for Einbiest’s Beastmen, an infection should turn the tides, and I’ll get more funding for my research. I just need to be patient. Bear with it as I squeeze more money out of the Church.”

She picked up a bottle of wine and drank straight from it. “This isn’t the Man Gnome village. I must fend for myself.”

Ranna wasn’t particularly resistant to alcohol. Soon, she became tipsy and slumped onto the table, dozing off.

The Man Gnomes, shorter than humans by at least a head, had all cautioned her.

“You may do your research, but you must never touch on which is forbidden.”

“What you’re attempting is forbidden. It will disrupt the peace and might endanger our fellow Man Gnomes.”

“Any further dabbling in taboo will result in banishment.”

“Are you kidding me?!” Ranna had retorted vehemently. “How is this taboo?! I just made a hair growth potion! Many people wanted it. The old folks at the tavern and the apothecary clamored for it.”

“Defying fate is forbidden.”

The Man Gnome village adhered to strict regulations. Daily alcohol intake was limited to one glass, and meat was permitted only once every three days. The entire village maintained an ascetic lifestyle, akin to a monastery.

This was why numerous young Man Gnomes chose to leave. In the so-called normal towns inhabited by other species, alcohol flowed freely, meat was served at every meal, and with money, people could indulge in the pleasures of brothels whenever they wanted. Of course, you needed to earn money to do anything, and there was the issue of having to protect yourself.

Staying in the village guaranteed safety. They could live in peace their whole lives, lives that were three times longer than humans. This peace, however, came at the cost of strict rules, and the villagers, averse to change, were bound by numerous taboos.

“To hell with all that shit.”

Ranna had contemplated leaving the village someday, but before she could make that choice, the village decided to banish her. Her parents, deeply entrenched in the village’s beliefs, chose to abide by the village’s decision.

Ranna’s fixation on research likely stemmed from the “possibilities” it offered, something the village couldn’t provide. Her parents might have suspected that she would eventually violate taboo, but they remained silent, hoping to avoid shattering their relationship with her. A change they didn’t want.

No one sided with her, but she didn’t mind. Though she appeared to be in her teens, she had already lived for fifty years. If they despised taboos, she would cross that threshold fully. That was her vow.

Before the village forcibly kicked her out, Ranna gathered as many valuable research findings and magic catalysts as she could carry and departed.

“Hmm…”

She realized she had dozed off. Her sleeve was damp and cold from drool.

“This is not good. I had planned to devise the mass production system today.”

She rose, stretching her stiff neck as she walked into the corridor. It was late at night, so the hallway lay in utter silence.

“First, I need to check the inventory, then revise the production line.” Muttering to herself, she entered the factory.

As she stepped inside, a space of roughly a hundred meters square lit up. Dozens of magic lamps flickered to life, though some remained unlit, either due to depleted fuel or malfunction.

Several simple, long tables stood in rows. At the center of the room was something resembling an altar, etched with magic circuits. It held numerous bottles radiating a garish purple glow.

It was the mechanism that gave the Accursed Toxin its unique toxic properties.

The poison was concocted on the long tables, and then the curse was infused upon it at the altar.

“The maximum number of vials that can be cursed at once is twenty. It takes about eight hours for the curse to fully take effect. Until now, I’ve prepared the poison during the day and allowed the curse to take hold while I sleep.”

She had believed this to be an efficient use of her time, but if she aimed to increase production, she needed a different approach.

“If I expand the poison-mixing stations and run the altar at full capacity for eight hours each… that should triple the output…”

Her three-shift rotation idea was a modern concept, unheard of in this world where people awoke with the sunrise and concluded their work at sunset.

“Creating another altar will be difficult.”

This altar was custom-made, the balance of magical energy in the rock highly conducive for producing the Accursed Toxin.

“All right, let’s go with that,” Ranna decided, heedless of any possible complaints from the workers.

Suddenly, a fireball materialized in the air with a rumble and struck the altar, setting both the altar and the Accursed Toxin in production ablaze.

“Huh? What? Huh?”

The powerful surge of magic triggered the alarm system, filling the factory with a grating metallic clanging.

In that instant, Ranna thought she glimpsed two shadowy figures slipping out of the factory, but she had more important matters to deal with.

“Someone! Anyone!” she cried out.

Help was not coming soon enough. There were roughly twenty workers living in the lodge adjoining the factory, and they should have heard the alarm ringing from there.

It was ablaze. The altar, an essential component for the production of the poison, was in flames. The powerful spell had likely severely disrupted the delicate balance of magical energy within the rock.

Grinding her teeth, Ranna sprinted toward a heavily locked door deep inside the facility and opened it.

What other methods do I have?

A strong animal smell emanated from within.