I had just closed the door for exactly half a second when it slammed wide open again from behind.
"STOP RIGHT THERE!!!"
I jumped and saw the blue-haired girl who had just grown a pair of mouse ears and a long twitching tail only seconds earlier, one hand tightly gripping the hem of my coat and yanking me back, the other pointing straight at my face with a mix of anger and despair.
"It's your fault! You startled me so the whole formula got ruined!" she yelled, her voice shrill enough to rival an alarm siren.
"Uhm... Sorry?" I tried to explain, thinking to myself 'great, I'm stuck now'.
"Sorry for what?! Do you have any idea how much time I spent making that?! You have to pay for it!" she still refused to let go, dragging me clumsily back into the room.
Wait, how is this related?? She startled herself!!
I was about to keep arguing, but when my eyes accidentally fell on the small mouse ears perked up on top of her head and the long furry tail sticking out from behind her lab coat, I suddenly felt a little... like I deserved it.
'Well, even if it's not entirely my fault, looking at that appearance makes it hard to refuse,' I sighed and just let her drag me inside.
"Alright, alright, I'll stay, stop pulling," I raised both hands in surrender.
She immediately let go, straightened up, brushed off the chemical stains on her coat, then cleared her throat as if she had just recovered a bit of dignity.
"Hmph. That's better. Oh, I haven't introduced myself yet," she pointed at her own chest. "I'm Ellie, grade 11, class Siegfried, and also the president of this alchemy club."
Siegfried? This is the first time I've met a student from that class.
"Igor, grade 6," I answered briefly, eyes still fixed on the mouse ears that twitched with every movement she made.
Apparently noticing my gaze, Ellie reached up to touch her ears, a brief look of embarrassment crossing her face.
"Ah, this? Don't worry, it's just a temporary side effect," she laughed it off.
No, you've got it wrong. That appearance is a bit distracting, makes me want to mess up your hair.
"When will it go away?" I asked, trying to keep my voice as normal as possible even though I still half wanted to ruin her hairstyle.
"Soon. What I was testing was only a draft formula, the effect won't last long," Ellie waved her hand, looking unconcerned. "Alchemy is like that by nature. Failing nine out of ten times is just a daily occurrence around here."
"Oh so it's not my fault then?"
"Of course not— WAIT, ARE YOU TRYING TO DODGE YOUR RESPONSIBILITY?!"
"Tch."
"Did you just click your tongue?"
Just as I was still wondering what to say to dodge the issue, Ellie's eyes suddenly locked onto the pouch at my hip where I usually kept my card case.
"Oh, that..." she muttered, then without a word strode over and yanked my card case out in the most natural way, as if it belonged to her all along.
"???" I panicked and tried to snatch it back, but Ellie had already opened the case with quick hands, rummaged through it, and pulled out exactly the "Frostbite Bacteria" card.
She held the card up close to her eyes, her bright green eyes lighting up with an indescribable surprise, as if this was the first time in her life she had seen something so strange.
"What... what is this?!" she exclaimed, voice full of both excitement and astonishment.
"Have you ever heard of personal belongings and privacy?"
I complained about her casually searching someone else's pouch, but she was so absorbed in examining the card that she completely forgot I existed.
"This is the first time I've seen this kind of bacteria! Where did you get it?"
Before I could open my mouth, another deep, raspy voice suddenly rang out from a corner of the room I hadn't noticed until now.
"What's all the noise about?"
I turned in surprise and only then discovered that on an old sofa tucked behind the piles of messy books, there was a grown man lying stretched out, covered with a thin blanket, his beard growing unevenly and untrimmed, his face carrying a couldn't-care-less expression as if the whole world collapsing wouldn't make him bother to get up.
I studied that face for a moment and then recognized him immediately.
'This... isn't this...'
I recognized him right away, a character whose professional ethics were so vague it was suspicious, a genuine mad scientist, yet one who stood on the academy's side as a teacher. In the game he only appeared as a support character who helped the protagonist craft potions like healing or poison.
Ellie, still absorbed in the card, turned and introduced him in the most natural way, as if having a stranger standing in the room was nothing worth worrying about.
"Ah, that's my uncle. He's also the one who taught me everything about alchemy."
The man named Madden glanced at me from head to toe exactly once, his lazy eyes sliding over my uniform—or rather the lack of it, since I was wearing a fur coat, completely different from ordinary students.
"Special admission student who doesn't need to wear the uniform, huh," he said, his tone showing little interest, as if he had just noticed an obvious fact that wasn't worth any further thought.
"Special admission student? Me?" I pointed at myself, hearing about this for the first time.
"Yeah," Madden nodded casually, then flopped back onto the sofa and pulled the blanket over himself again as if the conversation had already ended there and there was nothing more worth caring about regarding me.
'...He's probably busy with other research,' I scratched my head.
But only a few seconds later, Madden's attention was pulled back by the card in Ellie's hand. He slowly sat up, stretched like a cat that had just woken from a nap, then shuffled over and leaned down to look over Ellie's shoulder.
"Give it here," he reached out and took the card from Ellie, turning it over in his hand, his lazy eyes gradually narrowing into a rare focused gleam.
After a moment of silent observation, Madden dropped a comment that left both me and Ellie stunned.
"In all my life I've never heard of any bacteria that can cause frostbite."
"Huh? Why's that?" I asked, not understanding where the problem lay.
"Because by nature, when bacteria come into contact with freezing temperatures they automatically fall into hibernation to preserve their own lives. Although there are quite a few that can develop well, none of them have the ability to cause frostbite," Madden explained, his tone suddenly becoming serious, completely different from his earlier laziness.
Hearing that, I decided this was probably the right moment to clearly explain the abnormal condition of my body, since these two were the highly knowledgeable type. Who knows, they might give me the answers I was looking for.
I recounted the entire series of events, from the time the "Ice Age Evolution I" card suddenly upgraded and left me exhausted, to this time with the bacteria card also evolving on its own, though much more mildly.
The moment I finished, both Madden's indifferent eyes and Ellie's innocent curious ones lit up at the same time with a fierce enthusiasm that was almost frightening, as if I had just told them about some priceless treasure.
'...Is this club really about alchemy, or is it a research club in disguise?' I secretly wondered, stepping back a little under their gazes.
As if reading my thoughts, Madden spoke up, his voice blunt and without any concealment.
"I personally don't care what I'm researching, as long as it falls into the category of unexplored knowledge, I'll never complain," he shrugged. "As for why the club is called alchemy, it's simply because Ellie's specialty is brewing potions using alchemical methods and she's useless at everything else. I research all sorts of other random things."
"Uncle Madden!" Ellie flushed and protested. "Don't just say it straight out like that!"
"What's wrong with it? It's the truth," Madden shrugged, showing no intention of taking back his words.
Then Madden turned back to look at me, his eyes flashing with the curiosity of a genuine researcher.
"Hey, try releasing that cold air," he ordered, his tone as if it was the most natural thing to do.
I stood still thinking for a moment, weighing whether I should follow along. But looking at the expectant eyes of both uncle and niece, I could only sigh, take off my outer coat, and expose the bare skin that was already starting to radiate the familiar chill.
Within only a few seconds the temperature in the room dropped rapidly, the cold spreading into every corner, causing the moisture in the air to condense into tiny snowflakes floating around.
"Whoa..." Ellie hugged her shoulders tightly, teeth chattering, yet her eyes couldn't hide her interest.
Madden simply pulled the blanket tighter around himself, feeling as if he was experiencing a miniature snowstorm right in the middle of this already messy room.
After the three of us had experienced enough of that "mini snowstorm," I hurriedly put my coat back on, and the room temperature gradually returned to normal. Both Ellie and Madden fell into thoughtful silence for a while, then Ellie was the first to speak.
"I have a hypothesis," she said with confidence. "Your mana is ridiculously huge and abnormal compared to an ordinary human. Only races like Elves, Demons, or Witches possess that kind of massive mana. Maybe because the amount is too large and has nowhere to go, it leaks out naturally, and since your magic element is Ice, it manifests as this cold aura."
It sounded reasonable, exactly like what the first-floor dorm manager had once told me.
But right after that, Madden spoke up to refute his own niece.
"Wrong," he shook his head firmly. "The cold air he just released contained not a single trace of mana."
...He's also right, because that manager had also said I leaked mana but there was none.
"Exactly. If it was excess mana dispersing, I should have been able to sense residual mana in the air, but there's absolutely none," Madden tapped his finger on his chin, eyes highly focused. "So there's only one remaining possibility. This is related to bloodline power, or an innate racial trait of yours."
"Bloodline?" I was a little confused, since this was an area of knowledge outside of what I had known from the "game."
Noticing my blank expression, Madden explained in more detail, his tone suddenly shifting into that of a real teacher giving a lecture.
"There are humans who possess the ability to attract and wield the power of dragons, completely not through talent or training, but because their bloodline has a close connection with dragons from many generations prior," he gave an example. "The Dragton family, for instance. I think that Kaiser kid is in the same class as you, right? That lineage carries dragon-linked blood, so every generation is born with a natural gift for controlling dragon power."
"Here's another example," Madden continued. "the Frozen Elf race, a branch that split off from the original Elves. The entire race carries Ice-related blood, so every member is born already possessing a certain degree of ice manipulation ability, without needing to learn anything extra."
Hearing that, I began to sink into thought. This body of mine, the one I inherited when I "reincarnated" into this world, what bloodline does it actually carry? The past of this body before I took it over is still a complete mystery, and now, with what Madden just said, that mystery seems far more complicated than I had imagined.
'What... am I actually?' I asked myself silently, a vague feeling rising in my chest.
As for Madden, he was also lost in his own thoughts, but in a completely different direction, the curiosity of a researcher who had just discovered something never before recorded.
'A bloodline this powerful that I've never even heard of...' he thought to himself, his gaze toward me now carrying a completely different nuance from his earlier indifference.
Regarding the question of why the cards suddenly absorbed my mana to evolve on their own, Madden also had a private hypothesis, but he found it so absurd that he couldn't be bothered to say it out loud.
'That cold aura he keeps radiating... there's a chance it possesses a form of independent consciousness,' he thought, frowning slightly at the bizarre idea that had just flashed through his mind.
But then he shook his head, deciding to keep that thought to himself and not share it with anyone, not even Ellie or me.
"Anyway, the bloodline matter can be researched later," Madden waved his hand, putting the issue aside for now, then leaned back onto his familiar sofa, pulled the blanket over himself, and sprawled out again as if nothing had ever happened.
I stood there thinking for a while about this bloodline possibility. Although interesting, it also caused quite a few inconveniences in daily life, from having to constantly wear restraining clothing and a necklace, to the risk of activating the ability in front of others at inappropriate times. With that in mind, I turned to Ellie with a request.
"Ellie, can you help me create something that can temporarily stop this cold from leaking out?"
Ellie blinked, then nodded immediately without the slightest hesitation, her green eyes lighting up with excitement.
"Sure! That sounds interesting. Let me try researching a formula!" she cheered, making no mention at all of payment or credits in return. Clearly she was doing it out of pure passion for alchemy rather than personal gain.
Feeling happy and a bit grateful for that enthusiasm, I instinctively reached out to take Ellie's hand in thanks.
But before I could touch her, another hand shot out like lightning and tightly grabbed my wrist, squeezing hard enough to make me freeze midway.
I turned and saw that Madden had somehow already stood up, staring at me with a serious expression so intimidating it was as if a father had just seen some monster trying to kidnap his little princess.
"..." I stayed silent, not daring to move.
"Be careful, kid," Madden said, his voice dropping to a threatening level.
"Y-yes, I only intended to shake hands in thanks," I hurriedly explained and pulled my hand back at once.
Madden looked at me for a few more seconds, as if evaluating whether I really had any other intentions, then finally let go and turned back to the sofa with a face that still hadn't completely dropped its guard.
I let out a quiet sigh of relief and decided this was the right time to withdraw before any other trouble arose.
"Well then... I'll take my leave. Thank you both very much," I bowed and quickly left the alchemy club, leaving the uncle and niece behind.
The moment I stepped out the door I already heard Ellie's voice drifting from inside, clearly sulky.
"Uncle is always like this, overprotecting me so much. No wonder this club only has me as the sole member!"
"Every living creature in this world is a hungry wolf. You can't trust anyone," Madden replied in a completely unapologetic tone.
"How can you say that and still sound reasonable?! I want clubmates!"
"No. End of discussion."
"UNCLE MADDEN!!"
The arguing between the uncle and niece continued echoing behind me all the way down the corridor, making me unable to hold back a soft laugh to myself.
'Looks like this won't be the last time I drop by that place,' I thought, walking while reaching up to touch the necklace around my neck, wondering just what kind of bloodline I actually carried inside, and whether it held a greater meaning than anything I was currently imagining.