Chemical Weapon Development
The Obsidian.
Once the heirloom of the Sigmund family, this demonic sword had now returned to its original form, aligning with its true intended purpose.
It had become the Conductor of Emotions once more—a holy sword capable of transforming human feelings into power.
The dwarves had agreed to lend this blade, which stood as a symbol of Dagran himself, to the Imperial Academy for a period of three years.
After all, the one who had reforged the discarded demonic sword into a holy blade was none other than Ed Fix. The Blacksmith of Salvation wished to reveal the sword’s full history to the academy.
Besides, since the weapon had served as the Sigmund family’s heirloom until its transformation, many questions of ownership still remained.
By years of use alone, Reina had wielded it for nine years, while the Sigmund family had possessed it for a full twenty-seven.
“We’ll simply forge them a new one!”
And so the dwarves decided to craft a replacement. A sword that would mimic the Obsidian’s properties as closely as possible, yet be improved so it would not harm its wielder.
“So that’s how it turned out.”
When Count Sigmund received the news, he simply nodded in acceptance.
Since his son had committed a grave crime, he had no choice but to swallow whatever verdict came down.
“A new sword, huh…”
Moreover, they promised to preserve the Obsidian’s characteristics as much as possible. The terms weren’t bad at all.
With such a blade in hand, the Sigmund family could one day dream of revival.
“Worthless fool…”
Yet for the family to rise again, Max would first have to stand.
The eldest son—perfect in every way—had lost his life in the great war seven years ago. Now Max was the only child left to carry the family’s future.
“……”
But Max was broken beyond repair.
After his defeat at Ed’s hands and subsequent expulsion from the academy, he had become a hermit, barricading himself in his room day after day.
“Haa…”
Count Sigmund let out a heavy sigh.
Had his methods of discipline been wrong?
Yet it wasn’t as though his son hadn’t been born a scoundrel. He had needed correction, even if it required somewhat forceful measures.
“Why do you never learn from pain…?”
Cairo himself believed that true growth only came after suffering. That was why he had deliberately been harsh with the boy.
Hadn’t he himself grown strong by fueling his rage with the contempt and mockery of his peers, all because he had an incompetent, pathetic father?
Cairo hated it more than anything when his family was looked down upon.
He had loathed his father’s habit of constantly bowing and scraping, clinging pathetically to others for scraps. That disgust had become the driving force that let him rise on his own.
In this world, there was no stronger motivation than hatred and fury.
“Hans… how I miss you…”
But Max had not been born with such qualities.
He was nothing but a wretch who spent his inner anger and hatred feeding his own vanity.
If only it had been the perfect Hans—he would have risen from this humiliating defeat, stronger than ever.
“……”
Once again, Cairo’s anguish sank deeper.
A dark room where not a single ray of light entered.
Max lay curled beneath his blanket, gnawing viciously at his fingernails. The nails were torn and ragged, with patches of raw skin and crusted blood visible everywhere.
His current state was far from sane.
“Heh heh… uhehehe… hehihih…”
The laughter that leaked from him sounded like sobbing.
Ever since his expulsion from the academy, he had spent every day drowning in self-loathing and self-harm.
He had failed to meet his father’s expectations, brought utter disgrace upon the family, and even shattered their precious heirloom. The shame was unbearable.
Now, nothing remained for Max but endless rage and curses.
Rage at lacking the sword talent to live up to his father’s hopes.
Rage at the older brother who had been born with that very talent and monopolized their father’s love.
Rage at never possessing the beautiful swordsmanship that reminded him of that brother—swordsmanship that Enya wielded so naturally.
Rage at Ed Fix, who had stolen the heart of the ice-cold Enya with ridiculous ease.
In the end, everything was an object of fury.
He hated the world. He loathed the family he belonged to. And more than anything, he wanted to kill Ed Fix.
He wanted to impale Ed’s severed head on a skewer and wave it before Enya’s eyes. Surely then the knot of resentment in his chest would loosen, even a little.
“Hehih… heheheh… hehihih…”
Max laughed, dreaming of that sweet moment.
Though it would remain nothing but a delusion, simply imagining it brought him pleasure.
Max’s expression stiffened.
Perhaps because he hadn’t slept lately, he had begun hearing such hallucinations from time to time.
Yet the voice continued, chilling his chest and sending tremors through his entire body, shaking his clouded mind.
Suddenly a thought occurred to him.
What if this voice wasn’t a hallucination?
What if it truly was the voice of a god, and he had been chosen as someone special?
“Heh… hehehehe…”
The thought felt good.
If he could obtain divine power, no one would dare look down on him anymore.
He could cut off Ed Fix’s head, skewer it, and carry it around for all to see.
-Rustle.
Max rose from his bed.
He had nothing left to lose. He might as well follow the voice’s trail.
At this point, that faint sliver of hope was the only thing he could cling to.
The laboratory.
I inhaled deeply, savoring the air that always brought me a sense of peace.
It felt like coming home.
Though work piled up like a mountain, inventing new ideas and bringing them to life was always a joy.
Especially when I was already plotting my next project.
“Well, it’s a necessary step anyway.”
What I was about to undertake was the creation of chemical weapons.
While extracting collagen and producing bio-ink, I had once again witnessed the terrifying power of chemical reactions and decided to make full use of it.
The first weapon that came to mind was CS gas—the only chemical weapon I had personally experienced during my military days.
That stuff was no joke during NBC training. It taught me the true value of clean air in the most painful way possible.
‘Perfect for experimental use.’
CS gas inflicted horrible pain but possessed almost no lethality. That was precisely why it had been adopted for training, and why it suited my purposes now.
“Let’s get started.”
I began devising a method to produce CS gas.
First, I needed to understand its properties.
CS gas was a powerful mucous-membrane irritant. Upon contact with skin or membranes, the body’s defense system registered it as a threat and responded by flooding the eyes, nose, and mouth with tears, mucus, and saliva—creating intense pain in the process.
“It’s similar to Alpendere.”
My thoughts turned to the Alpendere flower.
Alpendere bloomed in the Forest of Death, a high-risk danger zone. When any unrecognized entity approached, the flower released powerful toxins to protect itself. Its stems were packed with condensed mana liquid.
“If I neutralize the toxicity of the Alpendere…”
The flower’s poison was known to cause severe inflammation in the respiratory tract and eyes. If I could refine and filter it properly, I should be able to create a substance with effects similar to CS gas.
“Fix, I’m stepping out for a bit.”
“Beep-boop~!”
I headed out to gather fresh Alpendere.
The market only sold stems with the toxins already removed, so I needed to venture into the Forest of Death myself.
-Whiiiir!
Fully armored in my suit, I tore through the forest and soon located the flowers. When I reached to harvest them, they immediately released their poison, but it was useless against my fully sealed suit—especially one upgraded with purification functions.
-Taat!
After collecting dozens of stems, I returned to the academy. Using a combination of three-dimensional maneuvering and thrusters, I reached the teleport exchange in moments.
“Uwaaaaaah!!! M-monster!!!”
The guard took one look at me and screamed in terror.
Only then did I realize how I must appear.
“……”
I quickly pressed the button on my mask. The helmet began to disassemble, each component retracting and folding back into the mask assembly.
When my face was finally revealed, the guard—who had collapsed to the ground—shifted from pure terror to simple fear.
“W-who…?”
“I’m a student of the Imperial Academy. Here’s my ID.”
I pulled the identification card from my inventory. The guard flinched at the spatial rift, but after checking the card his eyes widened in shock.
“E-Ed Fix…?”
He looked back and forth between the name on the card and my face, then suddenly sprang to his feet and snapped into a crisp salute.
“It is an honor to meet Count Fix!” he declared. He added that he had heard all the rumors and wanted to thank me for the refreshing summer we had enjoyed thanks to my inventions.
‘Even the guards in a remote outpost know me now.’
I felt a bit dazed.
Not long ago I had been just another ordinary academy student. Now even border guards recognized me on sight.
Still, I thanked him for his support and accepted the handshake he offered. The strength of his grip made it clear just how much he admired me.
“Keep up the good work.”
“Yes, sir!”
The strange, unfamiliar feeling of being recognized by a complete stranger lingered as I used the teleportation orb to travel to the empire’s capital.
Even the exchange staff there seemed to know who I was. I caught them stealing glances at me repeatedly.
“It was an honor to serve you. Please visit us again,” the attendant said with a bright smile.
Kindness that came without any effort on my part.
I gave a slight nod and returned to the laboratory. Only then did my dazed excitement finally settle.
“Hmm. Guess I really am a born engineer at heart.”
Being popular was nice, but I preferred quiet research. My somewhat sociable side was merely a skill honed through countless loops. At my core, I was a researcher and an engineer.
Time to make that CS gas.
“Fix, let’s teach those demon bastards just how shitty NBC training feels.”
“Beep-booooop~!”
I took out every Alpendere stem I had stored in my inventory.
After that, it was experiment after experiment.
I mixed various solutions, inducing chemical reactions, trying to create the exact CS gas I wanted.
“Hmm. Not this one either?”
Chemistry wasn’t my main field, so failure after failure was inevitable. The research log was filling with nothing but unsuccessful data.
“This time it should work.”
Fortunately, I possessed the absurdly overpowered skill called Engineering Thinking.
Eventually I derived a successful chemical formula. Inside the flask now sat a substance that closely resembled modern CS gas.
Did it work this time?
“No need to wonder.”
I’d know as soon as I smelled it myself.
I simply smashed the flask.
Thick green gas slowly billowed out. The moment it reached my respiratory system—
“Cough!”
I instantly knew the experiment had succeeded.
The same awful sensation I had felt in the military flooded every sense in my body.
Thud… thud…
Weak footsteps echoed down the hallway.
Shaaaa— Torrential rain poured down as thunder cracked, lighting up the dark corridor for a brief instant.
It was Charlotte.
She trudged along beneath the gloomy sky, almost completely resigned.
Despite countless efforts, not a single flower had sold. Every attempt had ended in failure.
‘In the end…’
Was it truly her fate never to become the protagonist?
She had wanted to shine like Enya or Isabella, yet here she was.
Unable to withstand the looming pressure of tuition fees, she had come to ask Ed for help.
“……”
Charlotte stopped in front of Ed’s laboratory.
How should she even begin the conversation about being hired?
Would she forever remain someone who only received help from Ed?
“Huuu… ueeegh…”
“……?”
While lost in those gloomy thoughts, she heard a strange sound—like someone sobbing.
Come to think of it, the laboratory door was half-open. Ed had probably left it that way for ventilation, but Charlotte didn’t know that. She carefully pushed the door wider and peeked inside.
There, sitting on the floor, was Ed—sobbing his heart out.
“!!!!!”