Serena stood in the makeshift laboratory she had set up in Viktor's secondary residence, her eyes fixed on the bubbling liquid in a small beaker on the table in front of her. It was a pale shade of green, which meant it was not yet finished. She sighed deeply and ran her fingers through her hair, lost in thought as she watched the solution swirl in front of her.

A sudden knock on the door interrupted her musings, and she turned to see Alice standing in the doorway, looking hesitant. Her regular maid was standing beside her.

"Ah, it’s you, come on in. I didn’t know you had arrived."

Serena gestured for her to enter, but Alice seemed displeased.

“I would have appreciated it if you had welcomed me in the guest room yourself… I had to speak with Viktor for half an hour.”

“Well, I was working on your artifact, so don’t complain.”

“Hmph. How much did you advance?”

"I made quite a bit of progress."

Alice finally stepped inside, her eyes darting around. The room was dimly lit and smelled strongly of chemicals. The shelves were littered with test tubes and beakers, each containing a different color and texture of liquid.

She peered closely at one of the containers, noticing a label that read 'Ordot's blood'. She wondered what kind of potion it was used for, or what an ordot was. She hoped it wasn’t some cute animal that was hunted for its blood.

Surprisingly, even though Serena was working on a potion, there was no cauldron. All around, Alice only could see glassware.

(Wait. Is that a plastic container over there? I have never seen plastic in this world, so I didn’t think it had been invented yet… Hold on, is that a condenser and its distillation flask?! Its design is quite different than the ones I’m used to, but it has to be!)

“Do you distillate liquids with that instrument? Like, separating liquids thanks to their different boiling points?”

“Eh? I do but… how do you know this?”

“... From a book.”

“A book, huh? Anyway, do you want to try out your potion?”

Alice tilted her head curiously. This shady liquid Serena was holding had turned blue just before she suggested trying it out. It had a thick, syrupy consistency. Just when Alice was wondering if it was even finished, Serena added some other liquid, stirred the mixture with a spoon and the color immediately changed to yellow. That other liquid looked like water but was probably not.

"What is that?"

"It's the solution I'm using for the artifact replica. I've been experimenting with different formulas, trying to get it just right."

"Is it even safe? I mean, I don't want to drink something that'll make me grow a second head or something."

"Don't worry, I wouldn't give you anything that could harm you. You’re too precious to me."

“I would have been quite moved if you were not referring to the money I will earn you.”

“Is that how you see me? A greedy person who only thinks about money? Well, it’s true that financially speaking, it would be a bad move if you were harmed in any way.”

“Hmph. I will try this out, then.”

Serena handed the glass container to Alice, who inspected it closely. It was a light shade of yellow, and it wasn’t bubbling anymore. It gave off a sweet, almost tea-like fragrance. As she peered into the beaker, she noticed how the mixture reflected the light, almost as if it was glowing.

Watching this, Mia decided to ask a question to Serena.

“Do you not have a glass to pour the content? Lady Alice should not drink from the beaker as there might be some remnants of liquids that did not react.”

“Eh? But it’s funnier to drink it directly from it…”

Frankly, Alice agreed with that statement. She thought it was a cool move to do as a chemist.

“A-as there is no normal glass nearby, I suppose I have no choice but to do this.”

“If you insist, I have some clean cups on that shelf over-”

Alice didn’t let her finish that sentence and raised the vial to her lips, before taking a big sip. She immediately recoiled, her face twisting in disgust.

“Ugh…!”

A bitter taste filled her mouth.

The maid immediately glanced at Serena, as if asking for an explication. Now, Mia regretted not taste-proofing that liquid before her master drank it. Feeling like she would get tackled to the ground any second, the blond chemist gestured with her hands that there was nothing wrong with her potion.

“Come on, Alice, say something! I’ll get killed!”

"... That was terrible! Even though it smelled so good…"

"Well, smells can be deceiving. Go ahead, gulp it down."

“I cannot possibly drink all of it! I will throw up!”

“So weak…”

“Ha? What did you just call me?”

“Weak. This is a medical treatment, you know? Even children have to drink those potions once in a while.”

Alice didn’t expect her teacher to not falter, so she started to stutter.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“I-I mean, having to drink it every time I need mana would be a hassle, right? And, look, I have not recovered any mana yet, even after several seconds! If I had to use this artifact in an emergency, it would be useless!”

“Mmh… The solution will react soon enough with the acids in your stomach, and only then will the mana be liberated in your body. But it’s true that it’s not optimal…”

“Is it not possible to make said solution react with an acid inside of the artifact, instead? That way, the neutral mana would be directly available.”

“...”

“Is that impossible?”

“That’s not it. Theoretically, you’re right. Doing so directly in the container instead of your body would make it easier and faster to retrieve the mana, but… Freeing the mana outside of your body will just accelerate its decay even more than when it’s stored inside the solution.”

“As you said before, I am a walking mana factory. That will not be a problem.”

Serena started to imagine every modification that would be needed to adapt this pseudo-artifact. With those changes, it would be even closer to the real deal.

“Alright, I’ll do it. I’ll need two or three additional months, though.”

“T-that long?”

"Trial and error, my dear. Trial and error. I have to adapt the shape of the container, build a mechanism that will open up valves to make the mana-rich solution meet with the acid, and I’ll have to find an acid that will act like those in the stomach. Among other things. You’ll have to be patient."

“I suppose I have to.”

“What do you even need it for, anyway? Between this and all these complex spells that you spend months creating, you sure are hungry for power. Are you planning to become a magic knight or something?”

“...”

Serena had casually asked that question while rearranging the glassware on her desk and had expected she wouldn’t get an answer. Alice’s endgame was as mysterious as ever. When she looked at her pupil, however, she was astonished. This was not the face of someone who wanted to conceal her goal. This was the face of a girl who was only now starting to wonder what her goal even was.

“Alice… Don’t tell me you don’t know what you’re after?”

“...”

“Sometimes, with all this strange knowledge of yours, I forget that you’re actually stupid.”

Caught off guard by the unexpected question, Alice struggled to find words or thoughts. Overwhelmed by the pressure, she snapped and lashed out at Serena.

"Shut up! My goal is none of your concern! I will fulfill my part of the contract by filling your mana potions during my lessons, so you just do your job!”

“D-don’t be so hysterical… Fine, I won’t ask anything more.”

Alice immediately regretted yelling at her, and the atmosphere became terribly awkward. After a few seconds of pure silence, she decided to put an end to her visit.

“Well, then, I will go back to my mansion as I am very busy. Mia, we are leaving.”

“Understood."

The maid bowed to Serena, and then followed her master with a worried glance.

***

Late in the evening, Alice retired to her room. She was feeling restless. She lay on her bed, staring up at the ceiling while her brain was just replaying that incident during which she had snapped at Serena. Sure, being called stupid was not pleasant by any means, but she knew that she had overreacted. As usual, all the appropriate answers were only now coming to mind.

(What is my goal?)

The reason for her wish to get this artifact was obvious: having enough mana to use a perfect mana armor and her body-strengthening spell at the same time. She knew this much, and that was what she had at first wanted to respond to Serena when she had asked that question.

But then, why did Alice want to use both spells at the same time? Again, the answer was easy: to defend against Rachel and strike back. In other words, to be a good match-up.

This was the part where Alice started to get unsure. As long as she had her mana armor at full power, her friend’s punches wouldn’t be able to hurt her. Alice could already do this, so the pain was not in the equation. Why did she want to be on equal footing with Rachel, then? She was a marquis’ daughter and had as a result significantly more mana than Alice, so there was no real reason to spend so much time and effort to defeat her.

(Do I want power that badly?)

This was the answer she had come up with: the desire to have power. Not in the political sense. Not in a specific situation in which she wanted to be stronger than somebody in particular either, but in a more general sense. Might.

However, one could recursively wonder why she wanted to get stronger.

Just flattering her ego by defeating a stronger mage was definitely not the reason. That would be too shallow.

(Do I want to prove that Father deserves his title of count?)

Convincing people of that would certainly be possible if she were to defeat Rachel de Vallmont. But that wasn’t it either. At some point, Alice had said to Serena that she did not want to stand out in the noble sphere. She had been entirely honest at that time. She didn’t want to attract attention, and she was even scared of doing so. After all, she had been told that she would be kidnapped if she were to show the extent of her power.

(Then, why?)

Polishing her magic and obtaining power. Would she really bother to develop incredibly intricate and time-consuming spells for that goal? She was almost sure she would not.

Alice found magic fascinating and did want to try things out with her element. However, knowing herself, she would usually say that there were things that she could and could not do, and that would be it.

There were more interesting things to do, like reading books. If she was really bored, there were a lot of alternatives. She could have spent her time educating her younger brother, Alistair. He had started his own magic lessons a little more than a year ago, so she knew she could be useful to him, just like she had been with Maximilian. She could have even tried to learn more about the magic types of all the people working in the mansion, starting with her own maid's.

The more Alice thought about it, the less it made sense that she would spend so much time at her desk at night coming up with algorithms for spells. She didn't even like coding.

(Something is not right. What’s the source of that desire?)

As far as she looked into her fourteen years of life, Alice found nothing justifying this thirst for power. But then, she had a realization.

(Oh, I see. This is because of her. How insidious.)

This urge to perfect her magic had been so natural to Alice that she hadn’t realized something was wrong with her mind. She never even questioned it.

But now, it made sense. If the goal had an origin, it had to come from her former self.