I Became a Tentacle Monster Blooming in the Academy Garden 208

## Chapter 208 – Cradle of Talent (7)

The structure of the workshop building was simple.

Currently, Carla and her group were using the first floor as a lounge.

Since the entrance to the building was located there, a small lobby occupied about a third of the space, providing ample room for visitors.

However, the situation changed as one went upstairs.

Upon reaching the second floor via the stairs, there was only a corridor wide enough for people to pass through, along with several doors.

Small doors for people to enter and exit, and sometimes large doors for transporting bulky items.

Stepping through these doors revealed spacious interior areas.

Since the primary goal of the workshop building was to efficiently utilize a large space, the initial plan was to divide the large area into several small rooms, which explained the presence of multiple doors.

However, as it turned out, the spaces were used as large workshops for alchemy, laboratories for demonstrating magic, and even chapels for gathering people to worship, eliminating the need to divide them into small rooms.

At least until Carla and her group graduated and the magic research lab and chapel vacated their rooms, the workshop building would likely maintain its current form.

So, what all of this was leading up to was the fact that Eloise was pacing the second-floor corridor with a troubled expression.

It wasn’t as if she had come to this workshop building completely unaware.

Eloise had heard that the workshop building she was supposed to go to was divided into several floors and about the occupants already there.

‘The third floor is the theology department’s chapel…

A place where a theology student named Yeriell leads worship…

The second floor was said to be the workshop of alchemy and medical students…’

Places that had nothing to do with her.

Why would the person sending the letters send her here?

At least for now, Eloise could only come up with two possibilities.

One was that someone who sent her to the second floor was connected to the people on the second floor.

Or, like now, they might be rummaging through her lab while she was sent down here, looking for research achievements.

If it was the former, there might be hope for igniting a spark for retaliation later on.

But if it was the latter, it would be the worst for her.

While Eloise was spending time on the second floor, her work was being openly pilfered.

‘If only… it were just that…’

As a talented young professor and researcher in the Department of Magical Engineering, Eloise had a lot of experience in thwarting various schemes against her.

Like the assistant who was trying to steal research achievements for money from an unscrupulous merchant, or the professor who was trying to take her research through subtle rhetoric and lobbying.

Each time, while feeling her faith in humanity crumble, she still wanted to live by trusting and relying on each other as much as possible as a researcher and educator.

Her response to such situations was generally very gentle.

She would try to reason with those who had wronged her as much as possible, and if she approached them with sincerity, how many people were moved by her efforts and reawakened their conscience?

Even among the assistants, although she wouldn’t say who, the assistant who had committed the crime because he needed money at the time was now more focused on research than ever and was helping Eloise.

Sometimes, he would look at Eloise with apologetic eyes, remembering the past.

But this case was different.

There was no room for exchanging words and persuading the other party.

All that came back to her was a letter with just a few short lines of text.

That letter, which threatened her as if human malice had been melted into the letters, was the only channel of communication connecting Eloise and the culprit.

Pacing in front of the second-floor corridor, she was biting her nails anxiously in front of one of the doors.

Mentioning the second floor clearly meant that the problem wasn’t the corridor, but to come into the room.

But how could she throw herself into the tiger’s den, not knowing what was inside?

‘But… if I stay like this…

Nothing will be resolved…’

In the end, Eloise closed her eyes tightly and lightly knocked on the second-floor door.

But just as she was about to reach for the door again in the face of the cold silence that followed.

“Who is it…?”

“Ah…”

The door opened, revealing the face of a young girl inside.

The girl, with her cute short curly hair, was wearing a gown and safety goggles, as if she had been concentrating on an experiment.

“Wel… Welcome…

I’m Eloise de Fantini…

I came down from the fourth floor for a moment…”

“Ah!! The magic research lab on the fourth floor, right!?

I heard you were new!!

Are you a member of that lab?”

“Well, yes… I mean…

I’m a professor in the Department of Magical Engineering…”

“Wow!! You’re a professor?

I’m Carla von Sterben from Barmhausen!!

Could I get some advice on magical elements that can be combined with alchemy…

Sometime? I mean!! Not now, but later!!”

“Su… Sure… But… are you doing something inside…?”

“Yes!! I was in the middle of a molecular compound reaction experiment.

Would you like to see it if you’re interested?”

Concentrating on such an experiment in the middle of the night.

At least on the surface, the girl seemed quite diligent, and the tension in Eloise’s eyes was easing a little.

She still didn’t know why she had been sent to the second floor, and she didn’t know the hidden intentions of this girl she had just met, but at least it might be an opportunity to achieve the goal of going to the second floor.

Following the girl inside, the door to the workshop slowly closed behind Eloise.

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Four pairs of eyes were hiding in a corner of the ceiling, watching the workshop like a CCTV camera.

The spider’s legs, gripping the ceiling with sharp tips, were rustling.

‘Good, good… I succeeded in getting them to meet for now.’

The figures of two women looking at the liquid boiling together in the flask were visible.

Eloise, who seemed to have relaxed and was smiling slightly, and Carla, who had been cheerful from the start, were exchanging all sorts of technical terms.

“Poluzen lye, right? I know it.

I’ve seen it in joint research with the Fusion Magic Department.

It has a high magic preservation critical point, so it’s used in the production of magic charging magic circles…”

“I’ve heard it’s used that way too.

Alchemically, it’s a very stable substance with a molecular structure, so it’s used as a stabilization medium in various experiments.

It will probably show various magical reactions if it’s mixed with magic reactive substances while containing magic.”

“That’s right, it’s a substance with a high magic coefficient.

It’s the perfect medium for stably mixing magic and matter.”

‘Am I stupid, or is it natural that I can’t understand?’

This was the feeling I had when I was listening to lectures in college.

I almost fell asleep without realizing it because of the content of the conversation, which was hard to understand even though I usually didn’t sleep, but when one of my legs fell from the ceiling and dangled, I finally came to my senses and grabbed the ceiling again.

After enduring the storm of sleep-inducing language, the story seemed to be coming to an end after a long time.

“Ah… Could it be that impurities got in…?

Bubbles are forming…”

“Alchemy is a more meticulous field than I thought…

To know that impurities got in from something like that… Ugh…”

Feeling that the time had come, I gently dropped the crumpled paper onto Eloise’s head while Carla was paying attention to the flask.

Eloise, who was startled when something fell on her head without a witch’s hat, found the paper on the floor and hurriedly picked it up and put it in her pocket.

“Ah… It’s getting late…

I should go now.”

The appearance of a new piece of paper meant that she had something else to do.

Eloise, who had learned this to some extent through patternization, was pulling herself away, thinking that she should get out of here soon.

“Ah!! I really lost track of time?

It was fun today, Professor Fantini!!”

“Yes, then…”

But as Eloise turned towards the door as if being chased, a hurried voice was heard from behind.

“Professor…!! If you don’t mind, next time too…

I still have things I want to ask…”

“A student from the alchemy department looking for a professor from the magic department.

It’s unusual, but it’s good, Carla.

If time permits next time, I’ll stop by.

You can come to the lab on the fourth floor if you need to.

Then, goodbye…”

Eloise, who liked hardworking students regardless of whether they were from her department or another, forced a smile and nodded.

Having established a relationship with Carla in that way, Eloise left the workshop and quietly closed the door.

And Eloise looked back at the closed door with a worried expression.

Confirming that it was safe, she took out the piece of paper she had put in her pocket and held it up to the magic lamp that was lighting the corridor with a dark illuminance suitable for the night.

『First floor, women’s restroom.』

Come to think of it, Carla was next to her when this note fell.

But unlike what she had worried about, Carla didn’t seem to know anything about it.

‘What are you thinking…?’

Whoever it was, the person sending these letters seemed to want to control her as they pleased.

If they were going to go to the trouble of threatening her to move, there had to be a reason.

Eloise’s eyes were filled with anxiety because she couldn’t find any connection between the instructions she was receiving.

This time it’s the women’s restroom.

‘A ghost…’

Remembering the ghost of the magic building’s women’s restroom, she was moving her trembling steps with one conviction that was coming in this time.

Among the instructions that someone was giving, the only command that she hated to death but her body would say otherwise.

She hated it, she hated it to death, but nevertheless, the pleasure that was gradually being engraved on her body and becoming clearer.

Remembering that, Eloise was moving her steps with a subtle mix of anticipation and primal fear.

Just as she opened the door to the women’s restroom and entered, she lost consciousness and collapsed to the floor of the restroom with a stinging pain in her neck.

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