Chapter 206

The sun climbed from the eastern edge of the sky toward its height, and the air began to warm.

An oriole suddenly dropped onto the windowsill of a villa in the Trade Quarter. It shook out its wings, worked its claws left and right, chirped a few lively notes, then sprang into the villa.

A puff of white smoke burst apart, with a trace of black glimmering inside it. Then a tall man with dark golden pupils stepped out of the haze.

Roy drew a deep breath and looked himself over, hands, feet, all of it. Wings and claws were gone, restored as before. Not a single feather had fallen to the floor.

What precise magic.

“I have to try that again someday.” The memory of soaring through the sky still left him wanting more.

“Congratulations, Witcher!” In the room, the man seated at the desk turned his chair around. His wide mouth split into an ugly grin, and the brown goatee on his chin quivered with it.

“This operation was clean and efficient. You did not leave Azar a single clue. Better than I expected, in fact.”

Kalkstein praised him with genuine feeling. “Master Roy, I must say, you have washed away the stain Berengar left behind and overturned my wretched first impression of Witchers.”

“That also owes much to your thorough plan ... then about the debt from before...”

“Wiped clean. According to the terms, now it is my turn to compensate you. Here, this is the Spell Crystal I promised.”

It was a fist-sized rhomboid crystal, its surface flickering with iridescent gleams.

Spell Crystal

Within it, the renowned alchemist Kalkstein had fixed a spell.

Random Polymorph LV1: Consume 100 Mana. After one minute of channeling, transform the target into a random small animal, including but not limited to cats, dogs, lizards, pigs, fish, rabbits, or pigeons. Usable once per day; duration lasts one full day.

Note: If the target resists in any way during the casting process, the spell will inevitably backfire.

Roy’s mouth twitched. He put the Spell Crystal into his storage space.

His gaze shifted to the spyglass standing beside the desk, set with a Scrying Crystal. At that moment, the lens had turned into a shifting, many-colored screen, slowly replaying everything he had seen in the laboratory.

Kalkstein’s right forefinger circled deftly in the air, and an unattended quill copied on its own across the sheets on the desk. The scratch of the pen against paper was enough to make one itch.

“Master, there were some documents in Azar’s laboratory that I am curious about as well. Could I...”

“And how did I stress it before the operation?!” Kalkstein’s face suddenly hardened. It darkened so sharply it seemed water might drip from it.

Roy’s heart tightened. “I do not ask for all of it. Only that last little portion. It would not take much time. At worst...”

“I will remind you once more!” Kalkstein cut the Witcher off. Then, just as suddenly, his expression cleared, storm to sunshine. Roy’s mood lurched with it, and he stared, mouth slightly open. “Scientific inquiry must be conducted in a spirit of open exchange. You barely qualify as a partner of mine, but that still means you may of course read Azar’s experimental journal.”

Those gorilla-dark, gleaming eyes of his shone with strange excitement. Then he crooked a finger at the Witcher. “Come here and read it with me. Just remember, not a word to any third party.”

Azar Javed’s experimental journal: