Last Gun Alchemist

A group of Young Ghost Crawlers moved through the underground tunnel.

Bodies were covered in webs, and each of them had already wrapped themselves in the bodies of other monsters. From a distance, they looked like dead creatures being dragged through the tunnel, with their forms completely covered from head to toe.

They didn’t make much noise as they moved.

Their direction was straight toward their mother’s nest.

But the nest was still a long distance away.

Back Up...

The sun was now rising over the forest.

Its light spread through the pale sky while snow continued falling from above. However, the snowfall had begun to increase slightly, with more flakes drifting between the Winter Spruces and gathering on the branches.

Ezra and Diane continued running through the forest.

They moved at a high pace, but neither of them wasted Cognis by using more than they needed.

There were still many other types of Monsters living in the area they were passing through, and the two made sure to avoid them whenever possible.

They concealed their Presence with Cognis, keeping their existence hidden from the creatures around them.

At the same time, they had to be careful a bit about their Cognis pool.

They were still only at their current Alchemist ranks, and wasting too much Cognis while moving through the Black Zone could leave them in a bad position once they reached the Ghost Crawler’s nest.

Diane glanced toward Ezra while continuing to run.

Her pace remained steady, and she didn’t seem to have any difficulty keeping up with him.

Ezra kept his face pointed forward.

The hood of his long coat covered his head, while another white scarf wrapped around the lower half of his face. He had changed the scarf after the battle against the Dry Ents.

A faint cloud of cold air escaped through the fabric whenever he breathed.

The two continued running for some time.

Ezra suddenly turned toward the right.

Diane followed him without slowing down.

"You know where you’re going."

She spoke in her usual tired tone.

"You also studied the map, so you should be able to tell that this is the right place."

Ezra replied without turning his face toward her.

Another faint cloud of cold air escaped from beneath his white scarf.

"Hmm..."

Diane continued looking at him.

The two covered more ground.

They passed between the Winter Spruces, jumped over fallen branches, crossed small streams, and continued deeper into the Black Zone.

After a few hours of running, they finally stopped in an open space surrounded by Winter Spruces.

Ezra didn’t need to say anything.

Diane already understood why he had stopped.

They both knew they still needed to rest.

Whatever was waiting for them at the Ghost Crawler’s nest would require them to be in the best condition they could manage.

Ezra walked toward the center of the open area and began preparing their temporary camp.

He placed down the small foldable chair he had bought specifically for this mission.

The reason he bought it had been inspired by Professor Kent’s own foldable chair, and Ezra had decided that having something similar would make resting during the mission easier.

He sat down near the campfire he had already prepared.

The flames moved in front of him, giving off enough heat to warm his hands and the front of his coat.

Ezra took off some of the clothes he had worn the previous day and placed them near the fire.

The melted snow that had soaked into the fabric had left them damp, and he needed to dry them before they became uncomfortable to wear again.

He carefully turned the clothes from time to time, making sure they wouldn’t get too close to the flames.

Ezra also took another dose of the Heat-Stimulating Pills given to him by the doctor who had been treating him before.

He had already also bought more of them for the mission.

They would continue to help him until his heat-stimulating bandage was ready for proper use.

The pills weren’t a permanent solution.

Ezra knew that.

But for now, they were useful enough to keep the cold from affecting him too badly.

The tent behind him opened.

Diane walked out.

She looked as though she had just taken a bath inside her tent.

A few drops of water still remained on her face.

Because of the cold, some of them were already beginning to freeze.

Yet Diane didn’t seem bothered by it.

She didn’t even wipe her face properly.

In fact, the cold seemed to be more pleasing to her than uncomfortable.

She walked over and sat down on a blanket.

Her eyes remained fixed on Ezra.

Ezra continued looking at the flames.

After several seconds, he finally noticed.

"You’ve been staring at me for a while."

His voice remained plain.

His dull black eyes stayed on the fire while he kept his hands close enough to feel its warmth.

"Was I?"

Diane blinked.

She seemed to have only just realized that she had been staring at him for a long time.

She placed one hand against her lips and looked slightly confused.

"Why was I, though?"

She turned toward the fire as if she expected the flames to give her an answer.

For a moment, she simply watched the fire.

Then she remembered Vera’s face.

"You’re almost a lot like Vera."

Diane lazily pointed toward Ezra.

Ezra finally looked at her.

One eyebrow rose slightly.

"Huh?"

His expression showed that he didn’t understand the comparison.

"No..."

Diane lowered her hand and looked down at the snow near her feet.

"I know both of you are plain with the way you look at other people."

She spoke slowly.

"But you’re still different from her in the way you show your emotions."

Her light-blue eyes remained half-open.

"Vera always knows when to react to things that don’t please her and things that do please her."

She paused briefly.

"But you don’t even show anything."

Diane looked back at Ezra.

"That makes it harder to naturally know what you’re thinking."

Her voice remained soft.

"While Vera’s actions tend to contradict her true intentions, which makes her difficult to read in a different way."

Diane had spoken for much longer than she usually did.

By the time she finished, she looked even more tired.

Her shoulders had lowered slightly, and her eyes seemed heavier than before.

Ezra noticed it.

He had already had a question in his mind for some time.

He simply hadn’t cared enough to ask.

Now, however, the conversation had naturally brought him to it.

"Is this tired feeling you always have a sickness?"

He asked plainly.

Diane blinked softly.

Her light-blue eyes remained half-open.

"I won’t call it a sickness."

She replied.

Ezra looked at her with a little more curiosity.

He didn’t understand why she had chosen those words.

Diane didn’t seem bothered by his expression.

"I’m a genius of my family."

She said without filtering her words.

If someone else had heard her say it, they might have taken it as a proud statement.

But Ezra didn’t.

To him...

It wasn’t an exaggeration.

It was simply a fact.

So, he saw no reason to question her about it.

"During my baptism, I was told that the speed my baby body adapted to the massive flow of Cognis was even faster than my elder brother."

Diane continued.

Her voice remained as soft and tired as before.

"And He is presently regarded as Britannia’s best Young Alchemist."

She looked toward the flames.

"And with that phenomenon came the quick awakening of my Cognis without the use of Ese, just like Vera did at the same age when we started training."

Ezra listened without interrupting.

Diane continued explaining.

She remembered when teenage Hermione, some of her other servants, and several family members had often told her that she might have awakened her Cognis even earlier if she had started learning at a younger age.

If that had happened, she might have become even more well-known as the talented one compared to Vera.

But that wasn’t what happened.

Instead, Diane eventually surpassed Vera.

It happened on the day the two of them sparred against each other during a massive social gathering attended by the powerful Noble Houses as well as the Non-Noble Houses in the Royal Palace’s main gathering hall.

The memory remained clear in Diane’s mind.

She had been compared to Vera for a few years when they awakened their Cognis.

Their talents had been compared.

Their progress had been compared.

Their abilities had been compared.

And eventually, they had been given the chance to prove themselves against each other.

Diane had won.

"My Cognis pool is always at the half-star construction stage whenever I move to the next Alchemist rank."

She continued.

"And with the hard training that happens in my family, fighting has never really been a problem for me."

She looked toward Ezra.

"My intelligence in both combat and studying is also high."

Her expression remained plain.

"And with that level of talent..."

Diane stopped speaking.

For a few seconds, she simply watched Ezra.

The fire reflected faintly in her half-open light-blue eyes.

Then she finished her thought.

"I believe it always comes with a weakness."

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