The Correct Answer Is Alchemist!
The famous line that capped the finale of the anime I had just started watching was “That’s right—alchemist!”.
The moment I heard it, I couldn’t hold back a gasp of pure awe.
“Whoa.”
After the awe came the lingering aftertaste. The anime kept rolling, but I remained stuck in that haze of resonance, unable to pull myself out.
It was a story about alchemy and alchemists. It felt like it tackled something profound and struck right at the core, yet the meaning seemed entirely up to interpretation, so I didn’t bother dissecting it. Whatever it meant, the important part was that I had enjoyed it—enough to want to try alchemy myself.
So I decided to do exactly that.
My preparations were flawless. A middle-school graduate who had spent two full years studying and read every introductory text three times over. To focus my mind I had even drawn a pointless transmutation circle, but something bizarre took shape.
And so I died.
Trying to create the Philosopher’s Stone right from the start had probably been a mistake. Still, it wasn’t entirely meaningless.
“Wah.”
I had been reincarnated.
Being tossed into an orphanage the moment my umbilical cord was sloppily cut was no big deal. Turning from a boy into a girl didn’t matter much to me either. The only thing that truly mattered was the fact that I had reincarnated into a medieval fantasy world where knights wielded sword qi and mages cast spells.
Knights and mages existed, so it made no sense for alchemists not to. This time, I resolved to become an alchemist.
“Alchemist? Lulu, you can’t say that. Alchemy is against imperial law.”
“What…”
“Remember? In class they said the Third Disaster used alchemy to commit all kinds of evil, so the empire banned it. Were you sleeping again, Lulu?”
“Then I’ll just leave the empire.”
“What?! No way! You promised we’d go on adventures together!”
“Luna, you’re staying in the empire. I’m leaving.”
Even the tiny obstacle of imperial law couldn’t stop me. If it was illegal inside the empire, I would simply practice it outside.
But life as an orphan in this primitive medieval world was far from easy. Though I was much smaller than the other children, my looks and intelligence were so outstanding that I resembled an elf hybrid. I was an excellent product.
“I want a clever girl. No older than thirteen.”
“If it’s a clever child under thirteen, our Lulu is the best.”
“Lulu? Hmph, so all the girls here have names starting with ‘Lu’? Fine. Let’s have a look.”
“Come on, Lulu. Greet the gentleman.”
“The greeting is unnecessary. I’ll take this one. How much?”
“Since she’s no ordinary child, four silver coins.”
“A bit expensive, but her appearance makes it a fair price. Especially those green hair and purple eyes—I like them. Very well. Wrap her up.”
Sold for eight times the price of the other children, I was handed over to a middle-aged man.
“Hello, sir. Where are we going?”
“Outside the empire.”
“What will we do there?”
“You will become material for my experiments.”
“What kind of experiments? Alchemy, by any chance?”
“Alchemy… that word brings back memories. But I am now a black mage. You will bear the children of monsters in my breeding pen. Your face is excellent, so the results should be superb. Since you’re young, twenty might be possible. I’m curious whether their fur and eyes will resemble yours. You may look forward to it.”
“Please spare me.”
Yet my life—or rather, the price of my virginity—was absurdly cheap. For a moment I missed the dick I no longer had.
No matter how I tried to escape the carriage, every attempt failed. The insane black mage was a master at hide-and-seek. He found my hiding spots with eerie precision; I could never stay hidden longer than ten minutes. After failing my sixth escape, my hands and feet were bound and a collar was fastened around my neck.
Fortunately, I never had to give birth to monster spawn. The carriage carrying the deranged black mage and me was ambushed in the border region.
“Uwaaaaaagh!”
“What insane bastard—!”
The carriage flipped. Creepy-colored blades stabbed in from every direction. Thick smoke billowed up. Through the chaos I glimpsed the black mage’s pitch-black magic and, within a flash of golden light, thousands of metals surging upward.
Yes—metals rising inside golden light. Unless I had seen wrong, that was unmistakably alchemy.
I rolled away from the black mage’s severed head as it tumbled toward me, then wriggled desperately toward the man who had attacked the carriage. I wanted to walk, but my legs had gone weak from shock and my bound limbs made even crawling difficult.
Once I reached the black-haired man, I asked in a voice trembling with excitement.
“Are you an alchemist?”
The man had a strange tattoo on his right hand. He might have looked like a thug at first glance, but having seen alchemy, I suspected the tattoo was related.
“Are you not afraid?”
“Of you, sir? Or of alchemy?”
“Both.”
“I’m not afraid.”
The man let out an awkward snort, like someone who had forgotten how to laugh, and took a step closer.
“Why?”
“That black mage was going to make me give birth to monster babies. Twenty of them, he said. If that’s the choice, I’d rather die.”
The man nodded as if he agreed.
“Then die.”
“Before you kill me, could you please show me just one piece of alchemy? Preferably the kind that turns things into gold. If not, the Philosopher’s Stone would be fine. Please.”
The man, now holding a blade formed in his hand, tilted his head.
“So you’re not strange—you’re crazy.”
He stared at me for a long moment, then set the blade down and crouched.
“You’re interested in alchemy?”
“Yes.”
“Even though it is forbidden by imperial law?”
“I can just do it secretly outside the empire.”
“A foolish question, a wise answer.”
Once again laughing awkwardly, the man grabbed my chin and turned my face this way and that, examining it.
“Why do you want to become an alchemist?”
“Because it’s cool.”
“Magic and swords are cooler.”
“To me, alchemy is cooler.”
The man untied the ropes binding my hands and feet and ripped the collar from my neck. Once freed, I tried to stand, fell over twice, and decided to remain seated.
“Thank you.”
“Do you know who I am?”
“Who are you?”
Luna’s words came back to me—the Third Disaster had committed evil with alchemy, which was why it had been banned. The Third Disaster. The name alone sounded like some colossal, terrifying monster, yet the person before me was simply a man. Across all races—humans of the empire, neighboring elves, beastmen, demons, dwarves—seven villains were collectively called the Seven Disasters, and the man in front of me was the third.
But I boldly ignored most of that and focused on a few key words.
The Third Disaster. And alchemy.
Hadn’t they said the Third Disaster was an alchemist so outstanding that even the empire feared him?
“Sir, are you the greatest alchemist in the world?”
“Since I killed most of the others, probably.”
“Then I want to become the second greatest alchemist.”
“I killed every alchemist who existed in this world. Any I missed, and any who appear in the future—I will kill them all the same.”
So the black mage who had just died had once been an alchemist and had been slain for it. Not an important detail.
“After I reach the end of alchemy, could you kill me then?”
The man’s eyes darkened.
“The end of alchemy. What do you think that is?”
“Hmm…”
After a brief pause I repeated exactly what I had felt while watching the anime.
“Something that transcends truth?”
The man’s eyes widened, then he burst into laughter with a bizarre expression. It was just as awkward as before—so much so that I wondered if he simply didn’t know how to laugh properly.
After laughing for a long while, he spoke.
“I will teach you alchemy.”
“Really?”
I shot to my feet, then immediately flopped back down. The shock of nearly dying and being tossed around inside the rolling carriage still lingered, even though my mind felt perfectly clear.
“Master, my legs won’t support me.”
“I said I would teach you alchemy. I never said I would become your master. Do not call me that.”
The man hoisted me over his shoulder like a piece of luggage and began walking.
“Then what should I call you? Third Disaster Teacher? Doesn’t that sound weird?”
He moved his lips for a moment, then said,
“Aaron.”
Even he seemed to find his own name awkward to pronounce. Aaron gave another strange laugh and tore a wisp of pitch-black smoke from the black mage’s carriage.
“Aaron, sir. That’s a cool name. I’m Lulu.”
Saying my own name out loud felt strangely awkward too.
“By the way, what was that black smoke you just tore out? Is that why you killed the black mage? Oh, and the black mage mentioned he used to be an alchemist.”
“This is a material for alchemy…”
Aaron, who had been answering naturally, suddenly stopped.
“What did you just say?”
“What was that black smoke you tore out? Is that why you killed him?”
“You saw me extract it? What exactly did you see?”
“Black smoke? Like some kind of ghost?”
Aaron’s eyebrow twitched. He held up his empty right hand in front of my eyes.
“Can you see anything?”
“There’s nothing there.”
The moment I answered, Aaron brought the wisp of black smoke he had hooked at his waist and held it before me.
“What shape does it have? Do you feel anything else?”
“I can’t tell the shape, but it’s bitter… a smell? No, a taste? I can taste it. It’s a strange flavor.”
The instant I finished speaking, the black smoke in Aaron’s hand was sucked straight into my mouth.
“Ugh!”
I clapped both hands over my mouth, but it was too late. The smoke slid down my throat before I could do anything.
I stared at Aaron with wide eyes. He stared back at me with equally wide eyes.
“Hic.”
The taste was better than I had expected.