The Novice Alchemist’s Store

Down the cave, it was a scorching space of lava flow.

The surroundings are dyed red by radiant lava, with high temperatures as if they refuse to exist in humans.

In fact, without heat protection gear, you're definitely going to be taking your life in just a few moments.

But Nordrad, who looked around at such a place, raised his voice gladly with his hands wide open.

"This is, this is... It's a typical type of space with salamanders!

"Actually, I was there."

"There seems to be no particular change..."

The difference from the last time I came is that there is no salamander there.

The battle the other day was a gory push by the magic of Sarasa, so there are no claw marks of a fierce fight, anything like that left.

"Yeah, that sounds just right for the experiment. Then hurry up."

Nordrad put the light smelter (artifact) he had on the ground and dragged the lava lizard closer to the lava, dobong one tail into its lava.

I started cruel animal abuse.

Naturally, the lava lizard twists its torso and rumbles with jitter, but Nordrad holds it down...... pulls its tail up.

"For a little while, you don't seem to have a problem. That's right,“ Salamander Back ""

"... uh, Nord? What's that?"

Seeing Nordrad looking a little happy, Iris asks with a slightly drawn look, but answers Nordrad's flat.

"It's an experiment on whether lava lizards can withstand lava, right?

"No, I hear lava lizards are just names, and they can't actually survive in lava?

At least Iris heard that from Sarasa, and he can't actually survive.

"I know that too, but I didn't check it myself." Yes, it was in the book. "So, as a research paper, how sad would it be?

"An experiment for that, is it?

"Unverified research papers are just a drool of paranoia."

And Dobon again.

By the time the time was extended and repeated several times and eventually the tail carburized, the resistance of the lava lizard had become weak.

"You're more resistant to heat than I imagined... Okay, lower body next, let's go!

With such merciless words, even more soaked lava lizards burst out again, but are still held back and restricted in movement.

"Bent over, what's moving in the lava... why not?

………

Repeated merciless experiments.

Even if you look modestly, animals - no, monster abuse.

Ordinarily, the torture landscape.

It's like, 'Kill me with one thought!' But the Iris' conscience is stimulated by the unexpectedly crushed eyes of a lava lizard, who softly strays his gaze.

And into the eye, control experimental personnel.

To cling to the slightest possibility, the two couldn't even forbid tears at its appearance of being wrapped around and managing to escape.

Nevertheless, in retrospect of the hardships necessary for captivity, the idea of letting him get away with it by mistake does not rise above it, and to such an extent that it draws tears into it.

If it's a normal animal, it's still a demon.

Instead, there is going to be tears over there, where many lava lizards caught because of this are consumed without even getting the material.

"- Yeah, for now, is this what the experiment looks like?

But the experiment itself was never fun to watch, and Iris breathed softly into Nordrad's words.

But the next moment, Nordrad nodded satisfactorily, kicking a lava lizard close to full creation into the lava just because he had no use for it anymore.

The ropes, which had restricted the movement of lava lizards, naturally could not withstand lava, burned up quickly and lava lizards regained their freedom, but that was also a small amount of time.

For a while I was swimming to scratch algae in the lava, but eventually its body also burns up and sinks into the lava.

Nordrad observes such a lava lizard with a calm eye and calmly writes down the results in the notebook at hand.

………

Ruthless.

Of course, the Iris understand that there can be no cure for demons...

"Well, let's do it again as a controlled experiment."

So Iris turned to Nordrad, who reached flatly for the other lava lizard that was wrapped around him.

◇ ◇ ◇

"Sorry to keep you waiting! Hey, we got a meaningful experiment! I found something new."

"... that's good to hear"

"Yeah, really... rather, it's over"

The lava lizard's mouth was glue-wrapped with rope, so I didn't hear any heart-shaking screams, but if I still saw Nordrad's glowing smile, the two people I couldn't tell would feel anything for were hard to contain.

"We can't be researchers."

"If you just shoot me normally, I don't have a problem..."

After Iris and the others have killed the demons, he's done something quite blood-scented, like peeling them, dismantling them and cutting them into pieces, or choosing eyeballs if necessary as a material, but not like the researchers do again.

"Even I don't like it, do I? But my research results make it worth it if one less person dies of demonic damage, because I think so."

Looking at Nordrad, who said so with a bitter smile, Iris realized that their words were engulfed with disgust at him, and looked at each other casually, bowing their heads.

"That's... right. I'm sorry. Even the books that we refer to when we collect exist because someone looked into them, so that we can collect them safer."

"... right? Sorry, Mr. Nord."

"Haha, don't worry about it. Because researchers are hard to understand for ordinary people. You look suspicious from around, because I understand."

That feeling is a lot paralyzed even though I thought you were doing something a little cruel, and I'm happy and laughing when new experimental results come out.

Such a Nordrad looks like a psychopath who is delighted to see a demon from the side.

While he understands that himself, he's not going to stop it, so he's still definitely out of line with the average person somewhere.

"Well! Get your mind back on it. We're done with the appetizer, so that's the main thing."

I ask firmly what bothered me, even as Iris grinned at Nordrad for hitting the bread and both hands to change the slightly more subtle air.

"It was a lot of intense appetizer, though?

As a matter of fact, Iris is right because he has spent days investigating lava lizards just around Salamander.

But Nordrad waves his fingers ticklish and laughs niggardly.

"If I lose my hand in an appetizer, it won't be appreciated if the main thing is good, right? Instead, it's a solid selection of appetizers to desserts, so I can tell you that my research is eligible for a prize every time."

"Heh, you had that kind of contact..."

"It's very obvious that you don't get paid to keep in touch or just do what you want to do. I don't know what they want."

Nordrad says it sounds easy, but it's actually not that easy.

Naturally there is some intention there more than the state gives a prize, but if everyone can produce research results that are in line with that intention, there should be more people getting the prize.

In the meantime, Nordrad's winning prizes every time is a testament to his excellence - at least in research.

"Sure, I should have let you in here... there was, there was"

Nordrad, who was talking but clad his luggage, took out a box-shaped object slightly larger than his palm and stared at it.

"What's that, Mr. Nord?

"This is a measuring instrument that allows you to examine the magic around here. It's a luxury product that can check the system too... hmm, naturally a lot of it, for some reason it's biased towards water attributes? I'm sure it's here, it's supposed to be a fire. Could it be broken?

Face to face and shake that gauge Nordrad, but there is no change in the value shown there.

"The fire attributes are high enough, and the amount of magic that drifts is quite outrageous..."

"Oh, maybe that's the effect of the last fight,"

To Iris' words, pointing out as I recall, Nordrad raised his face from the meter.