The Sly Alchemist (4)
"F-Fhehehe... h-heeh...! H-Hah...!"
Thud!
Unable to contain her excitement, she had been rolling around on her lab bed when she suddenly slipped and tumbled off.
A sharp ache radiated from her plump rear where it had collided with the hard floor.
The pain snapped her out of her deep reverie, which had taken her all the way back from her first meeting with Rofel to their very first night together.
"Ouch..."
She had read Rofel's reply, which seemed to carry a positive response to her letter, and got so worked up that she had lost herself in thoughts of him.
In truth, this wasn't the first or second time she had lost track of time daydreaming about him.
Sometimes she would recall the moment he threw himself in harm's way to save her during their first meeting.
Sometimes she would reminisce about the peaceful daily life they shared.
And other times, she would indulge in wild, self-indulgent delusions of the night they had basely joined their bodies—even if she had used drugs to make it happen.
That was how deeply the man named Rofel Teufel had engraved himself into the life of Elisio Gremlina.
However, since that first experience, she hadn't been able to feast upon his lewd, alluring body very often.
The drugs she used back then were difficult to brew, and the ingredients were hard to come by. Because the yield was so small, she could only manage to do it once every three months.
In the first place, she had only been able to brew those initial batches thanks to the heavy financial support of her family, who felt guilty that their pushy demands might have dragged her into the academy terror incident.
If only the ingredients weren't so expensive and were easier to obtain,
if only she could brew them whenever she wanted,
she would have made up any excuse under the sun to take Rofel's body to her heart's content every single day.
Of course, even if she had, it wouldn't have necessarily closed the emotional distance between them...
Thinking about it that way brought a wave of loneliness.
Elisio was confident that she had closed the physical distance with Rofel faster and deeper than anyone else.
Yet, on the flip side, she still felt like he didn't view her as a romantic prospect.
"Ah... B-Back then... I thought... it was only a matter of time before R-Rofel was mine..."
Even though their first time was essentially rape—achieved by drugging him without his consent—she had believed she could gradually close the gap between them afterward.
She figured that once they crossed that physical line, it would be much easier for her to approach him.
But his naturally abysmal social skills weren't something that could be cured by that alone.
She still couldn't speak to him properly in conversation. Forget asking him out on a date, she couldn't even bring herself to invite him out unless it was for lunch or a potion-tasting session.
Consequently, the distance between them refused to budge beyond the boundary of mere friendship.
"Ugh... A-And that's not all... The o-other female beasts...!"
As if it weren't hard enough to get closer to him...
Since that day, the number of other female beasts targeting him had only grown.
In other words, more and more women were showing interest in the man she loved.
And none of them were ordinary students; they were all heavy hitters.
Of course, no matter how much she grumbled about the growing crowd of women around her beloved, she had to admit the truth.
Even putting aside his looks, Rofel was a warm person who reached out to others, empathized with them, and always worked hard with sheer grit. He was a thoroughly charming and valuable man in his own right.
It was only natural that other women would flock to someone like him.
But that didn't mean she wasn't frustrated.
There had to be a limit.
If the slutty foxes swarming around him were just common noble daughters from some backwater province, she wouldn't have cared.
If nothing else, she was confident that her status and family background could crush almost any ordinary noble house.
But of all people, the women who seemed to harbor feelings for him were mostly daughters of ducal houses—either equal to her in status, or perhaps even higher.
First, there was Lilit Tistina.
She hailed from the high-ranking Tistina family and was the first love rival Elisio had recognized.
She heard their first meeting started when Rofel helped Lilit, who was in love with another man at the time.
But at some point, Lilit's heart had veered off course and locked onto Rofel instead.
Circumstantially, she must have fallen for Rofel as he earnestly went out of his way to help her.
Though Elisio didn't know the exact details, once Lilit changed her mind, she began calling Rofel out under all sorts of ridiculous pretexts, dragging him here and there.
...From the perspective of Elisio, who merely stalked them from afar, those meetings were unmistakably dates between lovers, both in form and intent.
It was Lilit's provocation that had fueled Elisio's anxiety, driving her to use drugs and pounce on Rofel in the first place.
Second was Seraphina Serion.
She was from the prestigious knightly house of Serion, a noble lady who should have had nothing to do with Rofel, a student in the Magic Department.
However, starting from the sparring exam at the end of their first year, the two had grown rapidly close.
She didn't know the exact reason, but she knew Marc Visus had made insulting remarks about Seraphina Serion, which prompted Rofel to challenge him to a sparring match.
Rofel had been so severely injured because of that!
If not for her potions, it wouldn't have been surprising if he had ended up permanently crippled from the aftereffects.
Anyway, after that incident, Seraphina's skills suddenly skyrocketed, and she began meeting Rofel constantly.
She had even heard rumors that Seraphina had literally, physically pounced on Rofel once!
Always acting so cold and aloof... In a way, no woman was more driven by her emotions and physical impulses than her.
Third was Isabella Kshatri.
According to what she had first heard from Rofel, Isabella had hated him from their very first meeting...
Yet, at some point, she had become a shameless woman who frequently summoned Rofel to her estate.
Word had it that they had even engaged in some strange roleplay(?) while wearing bizarre outfits.
And while it was purely Elisio's intuition... she smelled a faint scent of a kindred spirit on her.
Meaning, she sensed a dark, sly nature lurking within Isabella as well.
...Whatever the case, she was another dangerous rival that Elisio could not afford to let her guard down around.
Finally... though the reason was completely beyond her comprehension or conjecture, Princess Tiara Altarion clearly harbored ulterior motives toward him as well.
Yet, even Elisio, who constantly trailed Rofel, had no idea why the princess showed such favor to him.
Although she was in the Magic Department like Rofel, her specialization was healing magic, meaning there shouldn't have been many opportunities for their paths to cross.
Since Rofel didn't draw much public attention, it should have been hard for her to take an interest in him.
Unlike the other sly foxes, she was the only one whose relationship with Rofel was shrouded in complete mystery.
"...Ah! C-Come to think of it... there w-was one more, wasn't there...?"
The mysterious freckled girl.
She was also a figure shrouded in mystery, not unlike Princess Tiara.
However, unlike the princess, whose secrets remained impenetrable no matter how much one investigated, the girl with the distinct freckles yielded absolutely nothing special upon investigation, other than being an ordinary academy student.
Because she was so plain and left such a faint impression, Elisio couldn't even remember her name properly.
Her name was... Meiru? Something like that. What was her family name again? She couldn't recall a single syllable of it.
She was occasionally seen hanging around Rofel, though not as much as the other female beasts.
Still, Elisio didn't pay her much mind.
Just like other insignificant noble daughters had in the past, she would eventually be pushed out by the pressure of the more aggressive foxes.
As such, the other women targeting Rofel were no pushovers.
Furthermore, Elisio, who kept a constant eye on Rofel to keep her rivals in check, could tell.
The longer their academy life went on, the more ominous the movements of the women lingering around him became.
Perhaps they, too, would make a massive gamble to claim Rofel for themselves.
After all, hadn't Elisio herself used drugs to violate Rofel in the beginning?
Thinking about it, there was no reason those other beasts wouldn't do the same.
...Would it have been better to rush back to the academy to see Rofel instead of focusing on her potion research?
Spending this entire break cooped up in her family home doing experiments might have been a bad move.
Just as she was about to spiral into regret and gloom, the reply Rofel had written to her caught her eye once more.
"When we meet again at the academy, I'll tell you myself.
So... look forward to it, Eli."
"...Heh... Hehehehehe..."
Her head had been hung low in gloom just moments ago, but now, as if that depression had been a lie, the corners of her mouth curled up into a sly, creepy chuckle.
"Hehehe... Y-Yes... N-No matter how high and mighty those sluts fly...! R-Rofel will c-choose me...!
There's n-nothing to worry about...! Heh... Hehehehehe...!
A-And... if this potion I just made w-works out...! Hehehehe...!"
She smirked, staring at a single bottle sitting alone in the middle of the lab.
Its contents were a pink more vibrant than any pink in the world, and heart-shaped steam drifted lazily around it.
It was her ultimate masterpiece, created after locking herself in the lab day and night throughout the break.
The ingredients were so expensive and rare... she probably wouldn't have been able to afford them if she hadn't sold some of the other potions she brewed during this break.
In particular, successfully selling a drug that blurred memories of a certain period of time was a huge help.
She had thought no one would buy a potion with such a sketchy effect.
Fortunately, an anonymous buyer had purchased it for an astronomical sum, which greatly helped fund her production costs.
This new potion boasted not only a powerful aphrodisiac effect but also a hypnotic one.
Unfortunately, the hypnotic effect was only at the level of a weak suggestion.
Still, if taken over a long period, it would undoubtedly yield massive results.
She had already sent a diluted version of it to Rofel under the guise of "nutritional supplements."
Since he trusted her, he would surely drink those potions diligently every single day.
According to her calculations, Rofel would gradually imprint the woman named Elisio Gremlina—herself—into his brain as his ideal female.
Before he knew it, a lewd desire would build up inside him until it reached an unbearable point...!
And if she, the object of that desire, suddenly appeared before him then...!
"Hehehehe...! Hehehehe!!!!"
She was certain that she would obtain a pleasure and ecstasy far greater than even their first night together.
"Ah... Rofel... I w-want to see you soon... ♡"
Pouting her lips, she pressed a deep, sticky kiss right over the handwritten words Rofel had sent her.