[Royal Magic Academy, Mage Laboratory]
A female mage in a white coat moved busily between the test benches around the room.
Henny wore square-framed glasses on the bridge of her nose. Beads of sweat showed on her forehead as she hurried around the laboratory.
Her spotless white coat swayed with her movements, faintly outlining her graceful figure.
Various crucibles sat on the test benches, brewing colorful potions.
White steam slowly rose from the crucibles and gently swirled through the air.
Countless glass instruments were also filled with different potions reacting with each other. The constant bubbling sounds rang in Henny's ears.
A small red crocodile lying on a test bench frowned. It found the noise extremely irritating.
The complicated bubbling sounds made Leighton feel very annoyed. It wanted to smash the place.
But this "laboratory" seemed to be very important to Henny.
Thinking that, Leighton suppressed the anger in its heart.
Leighton turned its gaze to the side.
There, a chubby little dog was lying on the bench, sleeping peacefully.
The snot bubble in front of its nose expanded and shrank with each breath.
Ever since Henny brought it away last time, it had never woken up again.
Well, as expected of the Sloth Demon.
When Leighton turned its head back again, it saw Henny holding two bottles and carefully shaking them.
"Mix this with this."
Muttering to herself, Henny focused on combining the crimson and glowing green liquids inside the bottles.
The two kinds of monster blood came from a moth demon and a unicorn.
The abilities of these two magical beasts were completely opposite. One was extremely pure, while the other represented ultimate filth.
Now, Henny stared at the bottle expectantly. Her heartbeat sped up, and she even unconsciously held her breath.
But unfortunately, the two kinds of blood could not merge at all.
Watching several clumps of green blood slowly rise from the bottom and float above the crimson blood, Henny sighed.
Perhaps their attributes were too opposite, making fusion impossible.
"So... how exactly did she do it?"
She turned around and looked at Sapphire, who sat behind her with a cold expression.
At this moment, Sapphire sat quietly in her chair, her snake-like vertical pupils fixed on Henny.
Henny rested her chin in her hand and looked at her, lost in thought.
The blood extracted from Sapphire's body contained the aura of dozens or even hundreds of monsters.
But she had already proven that simply combining the blood of two magical beasts was pointless.
How could she reach the same level as Sapphire?
"Forget it, I'll give up for now."
Henny could only postpone her research on Sapphire's body.
Although this was research Professor Viktor had asked her to do.
She still needed to think of another method.
At that moment, her eyes swept across the laboratory.
When she saw Leighton and Puki lying on the test bench, she suddenly had a new idea.
Her gaze locked onto the small red crocodile.
Feeling Henny's somewhat malicious stare, Leighton immediately stiffened, sweat rolling down its forehead.
Leighton looked at the sleeping Puki beside it, seemingly telling Henny to change targets.
But Puki remained immersed in its dreams, completely unaware of Henny's gaze.
So Henny still focused on Leighton and asked, "Do you have blood in your body?"
Demons also needed bodies to move around, and when they did not reveal their true forms, they looked no different from ordinary animals.
So could she extract blood from them? Or perhaps their energy?
As she thought, Henny picked up a small syringe from the table.
She pushed out the air inside with her finger and slowly approached the crocodile.
Seeing the fanatical look in Henny's eyes, Leighton backed away in fear and almost fell off the bench.
"M-Maybe I don't have blood. I probably don't, right?"
However, Henny ignored Leighton's pleading and continued moving closer.
Panicking, Leighton turned to run, only to find the bench growing farther and farther away.
The crimson little crocodile was held in Henny's hand. With one stab, the needle accurately pierced Leighton's butt.
"Awooo!"
A scream instantly broke the silence of the laboratory.
Henny skillfully worked the syringe, extracting some crimson, foam-filled liquid from the little crocodile.
She carefully examined it.
Although she didn't know what exactly had been extracted from Leighton, it clearly wasn't blood.
Just observing the crimson liquid inside the syringe, Henny felt a powerful rage rising from the bottom of her heart.
It almost made her lose her mind.
She nearly fell under the influence of that fury and hurriedly put down the syringe, only then regaining some control over her emotions.
Clearly, this was the power of the Wrath Demon.
Meanwhile, Leighton lay collapsed on the bench, its whole body twitching.
Like a fish stranded on a dried-up riverbed, it helplessly stuck out its tongue, looking utterly hopeless.
It felt as though part of its body had been torn away.
At this time, Henny picked up a new syringe and walked toward Puki.
Swish!
The syringe quickly drew out a tube of milky-white liquid from Puki's body.
Puki was sleeping so deeply that it didn't even notice getting stabbed in the butt.
Then, Henny squeezed some of both liquids into a conical flask.
Simple mixing was the easiest way to determine whether two energies could merge.
This time, the result greatly satisfied Henny.
As soon as the two liquids touched, they twisted and writhed around each other like intertwined snakes.
Soon, an orange-red liquid swallowed the original two liquids and quietly rested inside the bottle.
Now, Henny began to think.
The nature of demons was to draw out the desires hidden in others' hearts.
Did this mean demons themselves could naturally merge with each other?
But then she thought of something else. Demons also possessed the special ability to grant power to others.
Thinking of that, a new idea suddenly came to her.
She quickly picked up the monster blood that had failed to merge earlier.
After drawing out some from both samples, she injected them into the demon energy.
Very quickly, the two monster bloods became restless the moment they touched the orange liquid.
The two bloods became unusually violent and fought each other.
Soon, they completely merged.
A dark blue blood swayed inside the bottle, reflected in Henny's wide eyes full of shock and joy.
The two bloods that had been unable to merge earlier had actually fused together under the influence of the demon's power.
Henny stood there dumbfounded. She slowly turned her head toward the silent Sapphire behind her.
She found Sapphire, pale all over, still sitting in her chair.
She remained expressionless and motionless.
She also had no idea what had just happened.
After witnessing the fusion of the monster blood, many secrets regarding Sapphire seemed to appear in Henny's mind.
But she couldn't speculate too much without evidence.
Still, being able to achieve this much already made Henny very satisfied.
At least when it came to fusing monster blood, they had made great progress.
"I need to tell Professor about this."
Thinking that, Henny quickly put away the glass instruments in the laboratory.
After picking up the two demons and hiding them away, she headed toward the teleportation array.
Seeing Henny preparing to leave, Sapphire also stood up and closely followed behind her.
After the two stood on the teleportation array, Henny lightly snapped her fingers.
The array beneath them released a bright blue glow, and the two instantly turned into countless specks of light and disappeared from the mage tower.
———
The academy was unusually lively today, as though celebrating some grand festival.
Especially outside the teaching buildings, there were many times more students than usual.
Walking along the path, Henny constantly saw students in high spirits.
Their faces were filled with excitement and anticipation as they ran toward the academy entrance.
"Hurry, hurry! If we're any slower, we'll miss it!"
'Miss what?'
Henny didn't quite understand.
Still, some students became delighted when they saw her and ran over to greet her.
"Professor Henny!"
"Good afternoon, Professor Henny."
"Professor Henny, when is your next class? I'd like to reserve in advance..."
Henny responded to each of them with a smile.
Some of the students who greeted her blushed when they saw her smile.
Some shy students even ran away in embarrassment.
Of course, there were also students who, after greeting Henny, curiously looked behind her.
Following behind Professor Henny was a strange woman wearing a robe.
This made the students curious.
But they wouldn't ask Henny directly, since that would be rude.
Still, Henny could hear their questions as they chatted with their friends while leaving.
"Who is that person behind Professor Henny..."
"No idea, but she looks kind of familiar."
As the students gradually left, Henny realized that walking around the academy with Sapphire wasn't a good idea.
Just as she was about to quietly leave, a familiar voice rang out, causing her to stop.
"Henny?"
Following the familiar voice, Henny saw a face she had long hoped to see.
"Erika!"
A trace of surprise appeared on her face, and a curved smile naturally spread across her cheeks.
The two of them hadn't had a private conversation in a long time. They only saw each other during classes.
"Henny, today..."
Halfway through speaking, Erika's gaze fell on Sapphire behind Henny.
Suddenly, an unpleasant memory surfaced in Erika's mind.
Her head buzzed, and her whole body froze. She stared blankly at Sapphire.
Wasn't this the person Professor Viktor brought last time?
Noticing the strange look in Erika's eyes, Henny smiled and gently explained, "This is the assistant Professor Viktor found for me."
"She may look like this, but she's actually a very nice person."
Hearing that, Erika forced a stiff smile.
If this woman hadn't nearly beaten her back then, she might have believed Henny.
Still, she understood.
After all, Professor Viktor had said he would prepare an assistant for Henny.
And this mysterious woman was the assistant.
At that moment, seeing groups of students passing by, Henny looked at Erika and asked, "What's going on today? Why is everyone heading to the entrance?"
Looking at the students, Erika shrugged helplessly.
"The Crown Prince has returned."
"I heard he's here to visit Viktor."