Chapter 241: A Quick Stop
"Are you sure you don’t want me to come?" Cedric asked as he looked at his sister.
It was a day after the Headmistress had shown them the way to finding the founder, and they were now prepared to leave.
"You intend to abandon your guest?" Renelle asked with a raised brow, causing Cedric to awkwardly scratch the back of his neck.
Renelle just chuckled at his reaction before turning towards her mother, who was standing by the Grand Duke with a small smile on her face.
"Mother," she softly said.
In response, the Grand Duchess just smiled and said, "Make sure you return safely."
She had said all the goodbyes needed the previous night; dragging them out again would only make leaving harder.
Renelle simply walked forward and gently hugged her mother.
"I will."
The Grand Duchess returned the embrace without hesitation.
"I know you will."
Grand Duke Boreas looked towards Adrian before saying, "I’ll be leaving her in your care."
"Yes, Master Boreas," the butler responded as he gave a polite bow.
After their various goodbyes, Renelle and Adrian turned towards the waiting car, inside which the Headmistress and Isla were already waiting.
Since the academy was Alvíss’s biggest customer, the Headmistress acquiring a car was quite simple.
The two walked inside and comfortably took a seat as the car started moving.
Renelle silently watched as the mansion slowly receded behind them, with the Grand Duchess watching them go.
She then let out a sigh, leaned back and looked at Isla sitting in front of her, causing all her worries to immediately melt away.
A cute face truly did heal everything.
The little girl looked toward Renelle, and after receiving a small nod from her, she immediately hurried over.
Adrian watched as a small, satisfied smile appeared on Renelle’s face as Isla got comfortable by her side.
He then turned towards the Headmistress, who was also looking directly at him, her red eyes slightly glowing.
She gave him a small smile as their eyes met before she glanced at the snowy landscape passing by.
Adrian was certain that she had seen something, but since she said nothing, he chose to ignore it.
Instead, he focused back on Renelle and Isla; after all, there was no sight outside as beautiful as his lady was.
For some reason, he felt seeing her relax this much would be rare.
Or perhaps it was because they were about to face a dungeon, and they had no idea of how dangerous it would be.
He had first considered using the puppets he had invested in so far, but neither was ready just yet.
Isla still needed to master control over her abilities, Alvíss wasn’t done with Conan just yet, Darius was needed at the East, and finally, Marion still needed a proper body.
So that meant only he and Renelle could face the Dungeon.
Adrian could just ask the Headmistress to accompany them since she still owed him a favor, but he had a suspicion that the favor would come in handy in the future.
So he decided to save it for now.
The butler then looked away from the two and towards the scene outside.
Isla eventually rested her head against Renelle’s shoulder, happily looking out the window as the endless white landscape passed by.
Renelle absentmindedly stroked the little girl’s hair while Adrian quietly observed the scenery outside.
The car continued through the snowy plains with barely any obstacles in its path.
The few that they did end up encountering were easily run over without the driver bothering to even look back.
***
The journey back to the capital lasted a while, but they eventually reached it, and both Renelle and Adrian found themselves strolling through its streets.
They soon came upon the door that led into Alvíss’s workshop, and without hesitation, they walked in.
"Welcome to...ah, it’s the Ice Empress," Elias, the kid who had created the submarine back in the dungeon, was the one who greeted them, "and Mister butler."
"Where’s Alvíss?" Adrian simply asked.
"Master Alvíss is currently in the lab," Elias said before he grabbed a folded piece of paper before him and asked, "Would you like to see what I have been working on? It’s similar to the underwater vessel, but this one flies."
Adrian glanced at the piece of paper before nodding, and the boy unfolded it with excitement. "I call it... the Skybreaker!"
Elias proudly held the blueprint out between them.
Renelle leaned forward with mild curiosity while Adrian simply accepted the paper and unfolded it completely.
The drawing was surprisingly detailed.
Unlike the submarine, this machine possessed two enormous wings extending from either side of a metal body.
Several mana crystal arrays had been drawn along the wings, while a rotating propeller sat at the front.
The butler was quite impressed that the kid could come up with this all on his own.
It was basically an aeroplane, something this world did not have.
He folded the paper and handed it back before saying, "Impressive."
"You think it’ll work?" Elias asked.
"It might," Adrian answered, knowing fully well that it definitely would.
His answer seemed to satisfy the kid, as a wide smile appeared on his face.
But before anything else could be said,
BANG!
An explosion echoed from deeper inside the workshop, followed by several loud crashes.
"...
"..."
Without even reacting, Elias sighed.
"He’s testing the new prototype again."
"A prototype?" Renelle curiously asked
"Hmm," Elias nodded, "master seems convinced that he can make a living weapon with just a beast core."
Well... at least that was a shift from his original intention of merging humans with weapons to make them.
BOOM!
An explosion went off, this one causing the entire shop to tremble.
A couple of minutes later, the door that led to the back of the shop and into the lab opened and out came a dwa—erm, Alvíss.
He had a dark frown on his face and a shattered crystal in his gloved hand, one which he immediately disposed of before acknowledging Adrian and Renelle’s presence.
"Lady Renelle," the old man greeted politely, and Renelle returned the greeting with a polite one of her own.
He nodded before turning to Adrian and saying, "I’ve got what you asked for."
"That was fast," Adrian muttered since he had put in the request only the previous day.
"Of course," the old man replied, "who the hell do you think I am?"
Though his tone sounded harsh, the irritation on his face disappeared, replaced by the smug grin of a craftsman showing off his finest work.
"Come."
He gestured for the pair to follow.
Elias quickly returned to the front counter while Adrian and Renelle followed the old man through the door and into the workshop beyond.
Unlike the tidy storefront, the laboratory was complete chaos, with half-finished machines littered every available surface.
The most obvious machines, though, were the countless broken weapons lying all around.
Probably due to his latest project.
The three stopped in front of one of his work desks, and Adrian was presented with exactly what he requested,
A compass.
Well, his request was a magic tool that was capable of tracking a specific mana signature.
Since the founder’s drawing skills were....questionable, Adrian had instead asked Alvíss to create something that would track the residual mana that the founder had left on either that circular rock or the parchment.
The old man picked up the compass from the workbench and placed it into Adrian’s hand.
Unlike an ordinary compass, it lacked the familiar north-pointing needle. Instead, a thin silver needle floated freely above a circular mana crystal embedded at its center.
Its outer casing was engraved with intricate runes that pulsed faintly with blue light.
"Give it the target," Alvíss said.
Adrian nodded before retrieving the founder’s ’map’ from his [Shadow Vault].
He unfolded it and carefully placed it on the workbench.
The moment the compass was brought near the parchment, the silver needle began trembling violently.
He watched as the tiniest bit of mana was pulled from the piece of paper and deposited into the compass.
The silver needle continued trembling for a while before it suddenly stopped and pointed towards the North.
Adrian studied the artifact for a moment before carefully folding the map away.
"This will save us quite a bit of time."
"Of course it will."
Alvíss’ expression became slightly more serious.
"One more thing."
He walked over to another bench before picking up several palm-sized mana crystals.
Unlike ordinary crystals, each one had dozens of tiny writings carved across its surface.
"I figured you’d need these."
He tossed them toward Adrian, who caught them effortlessly.
"These are?" He asked curiously, looking at the object, his glasses picking up the mana coming from it.
"Snacks," Alvíss simply said before adding, "now then, since we’re done here, get the hell out of my store."