episode_0024

Rival,

Lilith Tistina is Eligio Gremlina’s certain rival.

That is the conclusion she reached.

“W-What should I do?”

She came into the dormitory and agonizingly pulled the blanket completely over her head.

She fell in love with someone for the first time in her life, and of all people, that person is none other than Lilith Tistina.

She is the young lady of the Tistina family, one of the few ducal families, and with her beautiful looks and her unique personality that is kind and friendly to everyone, she has already been confessed to by countless men even though less than a year has passed since she entered the academy.

As a rival, she was an overwhelmingly, worst opponent.

On the other hand, what about Eligio herself?

Of course, her background is also the Gremlina family, filled with many renowned scholars.

Considering her as an individual… she definitely has the appearance of a beautiful girl and a physique that maximizes her femininity.

Also, she is deeply knowledgeable in alchemy, to the extent that she was called a genius alchemist early on.

But her dreadful communication skills and gloomy personality, which were enough to overshadow all of that, held her back.

She still trembles and even stutters when speaking in front of Ropel.

Furthermore, while it is certain that she has a voluptuous feminine physique with both ample breasts and hips.. she couldn’t know if that was necessarily Ropel’s preferred body type.

If by chance he prefers women with a slender build, victory would tilt towards Lilith.

…

Although Eligio might not even be dating Ropel yet, just friends, she already felt like she was going to lose him to Lilith.

Moreover, according to the answer she asked last time… Ropel himself seemed quite taken with Lilith.

If Lilith were to confess, it would only be a matter of time before the two of them started dating.

..What if the two of them really started dating?

If Ropel and Lilith woke up in the morning and talked to each other affectionately?

If he and she strolled through the streets from broad daylight until evening, their hands affectionately interlocked?

If the two of them affectionately embraced each other and slept in the same bed, under the same blanket?

And finally, if Ropel.. embraced Lilith’s body with a nakedness and face that he would never show her for her entire life…?

“Ugh… Ugh…!”

Just by imagining it, Eligio’s heart crumbled down, and she felt nauseated.

“N-No..! N-Not that..! N-Never!!!!”

She tore at her shaggy hair and let out a small cry of anguish.

Ropel is the first friend she ever made and the first man she ever loved in her life.

She has no intention whatsoever of letting him be taken away like this.

“A-As expected… O-Only that method…”

Although she thought it was a bit premature and foolish…

Eligio thought, no matter how much she considered it, that there was indeed no other method.

To win Ropel’s heart, she had many disadvantages compared to Lilith.

But what if she just thought about taking Ropel’s body first?

The part where she is definitely ahead and superior to Lilith Tistina.

If she used Eligio Gremlina’s outstanding alchemy, that would be possible.

She would use the aphrodisiacs, mild potions, and sleeping pills she had been researching little by little without even realizing it.

And thus, she would take Ropel’s dizzy body however she pleased, gradually dyeing it with her own colors and making him hers.

Gulp

Thinking such thoughts, she swallowed for some reason.

….Certainly not a morally, ethically, or rationally correct method.

But… no matter how much she thought about it, only this method came to her mind.

If possible, she also wanted a fresh romance, starting with meetings, holding hands, or dates, and slowly building progress in a fair and proper way.

However, with such slow and uncertain methods, she would not be able to defeat Lilith.

Although not in the romantic sense, she had already gone on several dates with Ropel.

Of course, that does not justify the actions Eligio is currently planning.

Going around and around, she resolved that in the end, there was no other way.

From the morning of the next day, Eligio frequently went in and out of her laboratory during her free time, except when she met Ropel for lunch.

It was a facility specifically provided by her main family after hearing the news about the terrorist incident that occurred when she first entered the academy.

The fact that she was caught up in the incident at the time was, in some ways, due to them having forced her enrollment, so they showed some consideration regarding the cost of alchemy ingredients and facilities.

Because of this, she could steadily continue her own scheming research secretly, without anyone’s interference.

And it wasn’t long before she could complete it.

A drug that causes the subject’s body to become extremely excited and heated up in a form similar to intense arousal.

A drug that immediately induces a state of sleep in the subject and prevents them from waking up for a certain period of time.

Crucially, a drug that causes memories of events that occurred during a specific time to be hazily forgotten.

However, for all three of these drugs, she made sure absolutely no side effects would occur.

These drugs were solely for her to take the man named Ropel herself, not to turn him into a ruin from drug addiction.

It was her final bit of conscience that she wanted to avoid causing direct harm to his body by any chance.

Of course, at the point where she intended to forcefully take his body with a potion in the first place, whether she had a conscience or not was meaningless.

Anyway, she was able to manufacture these three types of drugs separately.

“Heh… Hehehe..! I-I finished it…! All three types of drugs…!! Th-There are no side effects, so i-it’s perfect…! B-But…”

Far more cost was expended than she had anticipated.

This happened because she mixed various expensive ingredients to avoid any side effects.

Perhaps if her family hadn’t provided support, even this would have failed.

Therefore, the amount of all three types of drugs she had personally created was very small, to the extent that they couldn’t be used many times.

“Ugh… W-With this, how many times… C-Can I use each one m-maybe three times…? N-No..! H-How many times I can use it isn’t i-important!

L-Let’s f-focus on the fact that I’ve completed it first..!”

Even though the amount is small, the effect will certainly be reliable.

For instance, giving him the arousal-inducing drug and the sleeping drug together and taking Ropel’s body in that state however she wants.

Or, for instance, giving him the arousal-inducing drug and the memory-hazing drug together, making him assault her, and then erasing his memory.

With this, she now had various ways to take Ropel.

She was confident in the results of her experiments and her own alchemy skills, so she was certain.

Now, all that remained was to make Ropel drink the potion.

“..! L-Looks like the time is here..!”

As she was researching hectically, before she knew it, it was already lunchtime, the time she had agreed to meet Ropel.

She carefully placed the three types of potions into her pocket and rushed to the place where she always met him.

. . .

As usual, Eligio and Ropel were sitting behind a secluded building, each holding their lunch boxes.

When she continued talking while stuttering, he would sit quietly and listen.

It was an everyday scene just like usual, but amidst this, Eligio was feeling anxious internally.

‘B-But… H-How should I make him drink it…?’

She fidgeted with the potions she had put in her pocket and thought.

It was about how to make Ropel ingest the aforementioned potions.

Of course, making him drink the potion itself wouldn’t be difficult.

Since he trusts her and thinks of her as a close friend, he would probably consume it right away if she mixed it in a drink or food and offered it.

But the problem is from then on.

These potions themselves certainly have no side effects, but wouldn’t cleanup be necessary?

If after consuming food given by someone else, his body suddenly heated up, then he became sleepy, and after eating, his memory became hazy, he would have no choice but to suspect that something had happened to him, unless he was a fool.

Even the drug that makes memory hazy only makes the memory hazy; it doesn’t prevent the person who drank the potion from realizing that their memory has become hazy.

In other words, right now, she needed a plausible reason to somehow make Ropel naturally consume the potion.

“..By the way, Elli, I’m really worried about money problems these days.”

“Uh.. Huh?”

“Well.. While going around helping Lilith with her confession all this time, I suddenly ran out of pocket money, you see?

As you know, I’m a noble, but I’m from an insignificant remote region.. so now my living expenses are gradually becoming dangerous…”

“Th-Then what should you do..?”

“So, I was wondering… Could you possibly find out if there’s a part-time job in the alchemy department or some way to earn money in a short period?

I heard that among the seniors, some apply for things like clinical trials to earn money.

W-Well.. Maybe I shouldn’t ask a friend for something like this?”

“It’s f-fine..! A-And if you need money, I-I can just g-give it to you..!”

Wait

This is a chance

she thought

“..N-Now that I think about it, there s-seems to be some work I can ask you to do..!”

“Oh! Really? What is it!”

“…A-Actually, there are a few p-potions our family m-made..

W-We need someone to ch-check if there are any s-side effects… Would that be alright?”

Her face, which was already gloomy and dark, became even more deeply shadowed and tinged with a scheming pink.