TDAA Ch 1

Siol’s laboratory was a fortress.

He preferred solitude, and the king, cherishing his talents, desired to protect him. Siol wished for no outside contact, and the king preferred Siol’s skills to remain secret. This confluence of desires resulted in Siol residing in a fortress-like castle deep within the forest. It was akin to confinement, but it was what Siol desired.

Some might question how one could crave confinement, but Siol truly did.

Siyoon, the Earthling, had lived a life constantly threatened by monsters. Siyoon, the Guide, had always to embrace and soothe the burning, near-berserk abilities of others. After the Guiding, they would mock and scorn the trembling Siyoon. They, who only became functional after using tools crafted by Siyoon the Alchemist and receiving the Guiding offered by Siyoon the Guide.

Siyoon, who had ended that wretched life, no, Siol, now wished to live only as Siol the Alchemist.

The king of this land understood Siol and made arrangements for him to live in safety, utilizing his alchemic abilities.

Siol would provide the king with the power to win the war against monsters;

The king would provide Siol with a safe and prosperous environment to focus on alchemy.

This life was the result of a fair trade.

“Master Siol. I’ve brought your meal.”

The maid, Ladie, announced from outside the door and entered, pushing a tray.

The neatly dressed girl wore an eyepatch over one eye and prosthetics on her left arm and right leg. She was someone the king had saved from near death after a monster attack and sent to this castle.

When Siol first met her, he was speechless. The battered woman, with one eye blazing fiercely, had crawled to his feet, vowing to do anything if she could annihilate those monsters.

Siol crafted prosthetics for her, and now she served as the head maid of the castle.

Siol stopped his work and sat at the dining table, rubbing his forehead tiredly.

“I’d like some apple juice.”

“…I apologize. We’re out of fruit since the supply hasn’t arrived.”

Ladie replied in a somber tone.

A supply wagon visited Siol’s laboratory once every two weeks. It provided various ingredients, alchemic materials requested by Siol, and other supplies necessary to maintain the laboratory. The king covered the costs; Siol and Ladie only had to compile and send a list of necessary items.

But the supply wagon was now four days late.

Something that hadn’t happened in the past ten years.

“The supplies haven’t arrived yet?”

Siol tilted his head.

He didn’t distrust the king. However, the interruption of the consistent supply meant something had happened. He had dismissed the first day or two, assuming there were issues on the road or a monster attack. Now, it was time to investigate.

“Strange… I’ll contact Nathaniel later, so don’t worry too much. Assuming the supplies don’t arrive, how long can we last?”

“Probably about ten days.”

Nathaniel was Siol’s only apprentice, an alchemist who now resided in the royal palace after coming of age. He worked as Siol’s proxy in the royal alchemy department, representing his reclusive master. He was polite and competent.

It had only been about two years since he left the laboratory, and he seemed to have already taken control of the alchemy department. Thanks to him, Siol only had to create the tools Nathaniel requested, nothing more. He didn’t even have to explain to the king why something wouldn’t work. Nathaniel handled all those tedious tasks.

Ladie’s face relaxed in relief.

“A more immediate concern is that.”

KABOOM!

An explosion shook the air.

Siol shrugged lightly and picked up the sandwich Ladie had brought. Thinking the vegetables looked a bit wilted, he chuckled. On Earth, this would have been nothing. It was amusing that he had become someone who complained about such trifles after ten years of a luxurious life.

“It’s been going on for a while now. I thought there weren’t many monsters around here.”

The sound was the interception alarm from the fortress defense system Siol had created. The system, which converted solar energy and stored it to intercept anyone approaching the castle without permission, had made this castle an impregnable fortress for nearly a decade. It was also the reason why the knights stationed by the king had nothing to do.

“The attacks have been frequent lately, and the knights have found it strange. I heard them say that we might need to relocate the laboratory. They said they would speak to His Majesty when the supplies arrived….”

“Is that necessary? No matter how many monsters attack, nothing short of a dragon can penetrate the defense system.”

Ladie looked as if she wanted to say something, but she nodded obediently.

Siol assumed it was just her fear of monsters and didn’t press further.

He disliked change. He didn’t like people changing, nor places changing. He only desired to live peacefully in the forest, practicing alchemy. That was the only life he wanted.

After his meal, Siol sat on the sofa by the window, leisurely sipping his tea.

As he did so, the crystal ball on the table began to shimmer. It was a communication device directly connected to Nathaniel. He had been planning to contact him after finishing his tea, but Nathaniel had contacted him first.

Siol touched the crystal ball to accept the connection.

“Nathaniel, it’s been a while.”

“Master, how have you been? Are you well?”

Siol’s heart warmed at his apprentice’s cheerful voice. He wasn’t fond of meeting people, but there were a few exceptions. His apprentice, Nathaniel, was the exception among exceptions.

He had taken the ten-year-old boy as his apprentice and raised him diligently for eight years. Even a heartless person would have developed a bond over such a period, and Siol, prone to forming deep connections with a select few, had become even closer to Nathaniel. He now regarded the orphaned child as his own son.

If he hadn’t seen Nathaniel as his own, he wouldn’t have allowed him to leave for the royal capital two years ago. At the time, Nathaniel still had much to learn as an alchemist. If Nathaniel had been merely an apprentice, Siol would have been concerned about sending him out into the world with insufficient skills.

Siol, believing he shouldn’t hinder the child’s future, let Nathaniel go, and Nathaniel performed his duties admirably in the royal capital.

Nathaniel’s talent lay not in alchemy, but in dealing with people.

Siol was proud of Nathaniel.

“I’m always the same. How are you, Nathaniel?”

A gentle laugh came from the crystal ball.

“I’m doing well. His Majesty seems to acknowledge my abilities.”

“I’ve heard you’re doing a great job. Indeed, His Majesty seems to trust you a lot. These days, he even contacts you to relay messages to me.”

“That’s right. He says it’s faster and easier to communicate through me.”

“That’s understandable, since you’re by his side.”

It had been over a year since the king and Siol had communicated directly.

“Any other news?”

“Ah! I’m so happy that a long-planned project of mine is finally coming to fruition today.”

“Sounds like you had a breakthrough in your research.”

“No, it’s not research. It’s not about research, but about my life.”

Siol tilted his head.

“Your life? You never told me about any plans related to your life?”

“Well, if I told you, Master, everything would be for naught.”

“…What?”

KABOOM!

At that moment, the castle shook violently, and a tremendous roar echoed. It was different from the interception sounds of the fortress defense system he had heard before. The ground trembled, and the castle was collapsing. Siol lost consciousness as the window next to him shattered and a stone pillar crumbled.

A high-pitched ringing filled his head. His vision swam as he sat up. Siol realized he was lying on the floor. The area was filled with broken pieces of stone. The hand he reached out to steady himself was cut by shards of glass, dripping blood. But he felt no pain.

Amidst the chaos, he realized he was holding the crystal ball.

“Nathaniel, the lab, the lab is under attack….”

His terrified voice was met with a cheerful response.

“It seems to have begun, Master.”

“…What?”

“Now that things have come to this, the Death Squad won’t let you escape. Farewell.”

The crystal ball lost its light after those words.

His mind went blank. His brain seemed to have stopped thinking.

As Siol fumbled with the crystal ball, trying to reconnect, someone grabbed his hand and pulled him up. The loosely held crystal ball slipped from his grasp and fell to the floor. Siol reached for the cracked, rolling crystal ball.

But the person who had pulled him up firmly tugged him away.

“Master Siol. Get a grip.”

Only then did Siol look back. It was Ladie, the maid. Her body was covered in soot and cuts. Despite bleeding from her numerous scratches, her gaze was unwavering.

“Ladie? What in the world…?”

“Follow me.”

Ladie grabbed Siol and started running without a word. The castle was ablaze. Furniture was overturned, and the floor was uneven. They didn’t have many escape routes, and as they stumbled along, Siol only knew that Ladie was leading him underground.

The castle’s basement had originally housed a prison, but after the castle was converted into a laboratory, it became a storage area and utility room. In one corner of the prison was a pit for disposing of dead prisoners. The pit led to the forest, but since that area used to be infested with monsters, any escaping prisoners would only meet their deaths there, so it wasn’t completely sealed.

“Ladie, Nathaniel… Nathaniel…”

“Master Siol. If you make it out of here alive, look at the world.”

As soon as they entered the doorway leading underground, Ladie carefully closed the door, blocking it with a decorative window frame from the wall. Only then did she speak. Ladie’s eyes shone fiercely, and for a moment, Siol felt as if he was facing the girl from the day they met, growling with grief and vengeance for her lost family.

Siol closed his mouth, stunned.

“Master Siol, you don’t know the world. You must know. You must know how much you’ve been deceived, and by whom.”

She seemed to be choking back tears. Rambling, she continued to pull Siol’s hand, leading him further and further down.

“I heard your conversation with Nathaniel… no, that son of a bitch! He’s the reason why the supplies haven’t arrived, and why the Death Squad knows the location of the lab!”

“Why… why would he do that?”

“Without Master Siol! He can become the head of the Alchemy Department, not just the acting head.”

Siol groaned.

He finally felt like his mind was starting to work again.

“I raised him so preciously, why would he…?”

The confusion remained, but at least he grasped the situation.

The enemy had attacked the laboratory after receiving information from Nathaniel’s betrayal.

“It’s not just Nathaniel. The king, whom Master Siol trusted so completely…!”

Ladie hesitated, unable to continue, struggling to find the right words, and finally blurted out what she had been holding back for so long.

“…I was also sent to deceive Master Siol….”

With a pale face, Ladie confessed and closed her mouth.

Siol, without a word, descended the stairs. The deeper they went underground, the darker it became. Although he could barely see, fortunately, the walls and ceiling hadn’t collapsed in the basement, allowing them to navigate. Ladie, accustomed to fetching ingredients from the basement, walked as if she could see clearly.

She guided Siol through the darkness, holding his hand tightly.

“At first, it was like that. But at some point, I couldn’t bear it any longer, wanting to tell you. Master Siol, in this world, monsters don’t just emerge from the darkness like you think. They crawl out from connection points to the demon world, or animals become monsters when consumed by magic power. More than anything, we are not fighting monsters.”

Standing in front of the pit where bodies were discarded, Ladie spoke. She spoke fluently, as if reciting a story she had long contemplated. As if pouring out, exploding with pent-up stories.

Those stories poured into Siol’s mind, swirling in chaos.

Although he couldn’t see anything in the darkness, Ladie chuckled as if sensing Siol’s confused expression.

“I’ll tell you in detail. If we survive. Now, let’s hurry and escape.”

The entrance to the pit was very small. It looked as if only a straight, lifeless body could be thrown through it, making Siol wonder how they disposed of the bodies. He then realized the soldiers wouldn’t have handled the corpses with care. They would have bent the bodies roughly, even breaking bones if necessary, to dispose of them.

Siol put his feet in first and stretched out his body. His shoulders got stuck, but with Ladie pushing from above, he slid down. Fortunately, the pit was shaped like a slide.

However, what awaited Siol at the bottom of the slide was a giant dragon.

“Master Siol…?”

Siol quickly untied the pouch on his waist and handed it to Ladie, who slid down after him. He then placed the feather that had been tucked into the pouch as decoration into her hand and broke it. Magic power surged out, and with a puzzled look on her face, she vanished.

“Alchemist Siol, I can’t tell you how long I’ve searched for you….”

The dragon said with a sigh. He didn’t seem to care that Ladie had disappeared before his eyes. His target was solely Alchemist Siol, the Death Alchemist who had helped turn the tide of the war and caused tens of thousands of casualties.

The dragon, the color of ice, gracefully extended its upper body. Its gently outstretched foreleg covered Siol’s body. Though a light gesture, Siol felt as if he were being crushed by a massive wall. It wasn’t something he could dodge or escape. The feeling of facing a natural disaster rather than a living being bound him.

The dragon slowly put its weight on its foreleg.

“I will carve a curse upon your soul. You shall never find a mate, you shall forever decay, and you shall forever be with death.”

In excruciating pain, Siol could only accept the dragon’s curse.

⋆୨🔮୧⋆

He opened his eyes to a world filled with blue magic water.

With the homunculus’s body dead, his soul had returned to its original body.

It would have been perfect, except for the agonizing pain that gripped his entire body, threatening to kill Siol again. It wasn’t bad for a first-time spell. He had defied death, so this much was nothing.

When he left this cabin at the king’s request over a decade ago, he couldn’t muster the courage. Compared to his life on Earth, life in this cabin was so peaceful and relaxed that it felt like heaven. To abandon this heaven and go out into the world was impossible for Siol. So, after much deliberation, he created a homunculus. He transferred his consciousness to the homunculus and placed his original body in a glass tube filled with magic water. As long as it remained in the magic water, his body wouldn’t age or decay.

The success of his alchemy and spell was a joy, but also a painful testament to his death. While enduring the pain in the magic water, he thought about his apprentice, with whom he had spent nearly ten years. When did the boy decide to betray him? Could it have been a lie from the very beginning?

Numerous questions arose, but no answers came to mind.

He only felt heartache.

The next person he thought of was Ladie. He had helped her escape, but even Siol didn’t know where she had gone. He could only hope that she had landed somewhere safe and escaped successfully. With the items in that pouch, she should be able to start a new life anywhere.

He wanted to hear more of her story.

What did she mean when she said they weren’t fighting monsters?

It had been about 15 years since he arrived in this world, and this was the first time he felt curious about it. At first, he hadn’t wanted to know, and later, it didn’t seem to matter. No, he thought he already knew enough.

The world he had lived in for 15 years felt unfamiliar. All the time he had lived as a homunculus felt like a lie.

Siol was writhing in anguish when the barrier he had placed around the cabin shattered with a sharp sound. There was an intruder. Siol, who had just been killed by the dragon, jumped up in terror. He examined the wounds on his body.

The magic inscription he had carved to ensure his soul could return to his original body was densely packed from his neck to his chest. The wounds from the inscription, which should have healed while in the magic water, were now red and bleeding, having been activated. But within the magic inscription was a symbol Siol didn’t recognize. Filled with a violet color, the symbol was barely visible, hidden by the magic inscription, but it was clearly the shape of a dragon.

Damn it.

Siol muttered through gritted teeth in the magic water.

This was definitely the dragon’s curse. It had said it would carve it onto his soul, and when his soul returned to his original body, it left a mark here. He didn’t know what kind of mark it was, but he hoped it wasn’t something that would reveal his location to the dragon. It would be pointless to have come back to life only to die again.

No, that wasn’t the issue right now. Footsteps were approaching.

Siol swam upwards, struggling to turn the lock on the glass tube. However, his body, unable to find purchase in the water, couldn’t exert much force. His soul and body weren’t fully integrated yet, so he couldn’t grip properly.

Meanwhile, the intruder entered the cabin. Terrified, Siol looked back. He could see them rushing towards him from beyond the glass tube. The one in the lead drew his sword and raised it above his head.

This is bad. I’m going to be cut.

Siol squeezed his eyes shut and covered his face with his arms. To die again after struggling so hard to live, without even surviving a day, was too horrible.

The glass tube shattered, and the magic water splashed onto the floor. As Siol stumbled, thrown suddenly into gravity, the man caught him. He was skillfully lifted out of the glass tube.

“It’s alright now. The alchemist who threatened you is gone.”

The man whispered in a low voice.

Siol gasped and tried to pull away from the man, but his hands, pushing against the man’s shoulders, simply slipped. His legs trembled, unable to support him. He couldn’t even breathe properly. Blood oozed from the inscription, staining his naked body red.

The man groaned as if he couldn’t bear to look and removed his cloak, wrapping it around Siol.

“I’ll make sure you get home. For now, stay at my place until you recover.”

My home is right here. Muttering the words he couldn’t say aloud, Siol closed his mouth tightly.

“Get some rest for now.”

Although he couldn’t sleep, Siol obediently closed his eyes and leaned his cheek against the man’s chest.

It seemed the man thought Siol had been kidnapped by an alchemist. Did he suspect he had been subjected to human experimentation? An alchemist wouldn’t do something as barbaric as human experimentation. That was the kind of evil committed by those who had abandoned their humanity, like necromancers.

Siol inwardly scoffed at the man’s absurd imagination.

As the man carried Siol out of the cabin, a group of knights rushed towards him.

“Was he inside?”

“He was trapped in a glass tube.”

“That alchemist…!”

“Quiet.”

The man firmly stopped the indignant voices from rising.

“I’ll take care of him in my castle for the time being. You’re in charge of collecting everything inside.”

“Yes, understood.”

Collect all my things? Startled, Siol wriggled, trying to get up, but the man simply adjusted his hold and patted Siol’s bottom with the hand supporting his knees. Humiliated, Siol gritted his teeth and went still again.

Come to think of it, there was nothing he could do even if he got up. He didn’t know who these people were, but they seemed to be quite skilled knights. There was no way he, an alchemist without any tools and naked, could fight against them. If his identity as an alchemist were revealed, he felt he’d be beheaded on the spot.

Until he found an opportunity to escape, he had no choice but to play the role of the alchemist’s victim and bide his time.

To have his belongings stolen right in front of him and be unable to say anything…

Siol strained his blurry eyes, trying to focus. About ten people were going in and out of the cabin, carrying things. Various tools made by Alchemist Siol, herbs, stones, and metals prepared for use. There were also various preserves and jams.

“?!”

Siol trembled as he looked closely at the knights carrying his belongings, nearly falling from the man’s arms, but the man deftly caught him again. Looking down at Siol’s wide eyes, he smiled gently.

“Is this the first time you’ve seen so many of your kind?”

“…My kind…?”

“Yes, we are all of the same kind. There are some classifications, but no one really cares about them.”

“The same kind…?”

The man looked down at Siol, who kept muttering, with a puzzled expression, then sighed.

“It seems you don’t even know your own race. Have you never manifested before?”

“Manifested…?”

“Oh dear… How long have you been here? You don’t even know what manifestation is….”

Siol, dazed in a state of panic, unconsciously answered the man’s exasperated voice.

“Since… 15 years ago.”

“…You’re saying you’re 15 years old?”

The man looked down at Siol with surprised eyes. Siol finally looked up at the man.

He had gentle eyes, blue as a glacier. His dark pupils widened in surprise, then narrowed sharply into a diamond shape. They were truly the eyes of a beast. His hair was the same dark blue as his pupils, long and loosely flowing. It seemed absurd for a warrior to have long hair, yet it strangely suited him. He wore leather armor, also crafted from bluish-white leather.

Siol had thought leather armor was usually worn by hunters or mercenaries, but on this cold, handsome man, it didn’t look cheap at all. Rather, the coordinated colors made his battle attire seem quite beautiful.

Next, Siol noticed the horns on his head. The horns were the same glacial color as his irises, shaped like curved branches. They were so naturally placed that Siol was unconsciously captivated by them.

He thought he had understood that the man wasn’t human from the shape and color of his eyes, but seeing the horns on his head gave him a different feeling.

Horns. Horns?

Meanwhile, the man pulled back the cloak and examined Siol’s body thoroughly. His expression darkened.

“So small for a 15-year-old….”

“Small…?”

Siol finally looked at his own body.

He had thought the man was strong because he could lift and carry him so easily, but it seemed that wasn’t the case. His hands were small, and his arm length and eye level felt strange. Come to think of it, even if he was being carried, if he were an adult male, his head shouldn’t be at the man’s chest, should it? He couldn’t understand what was happening.

“I would believe you if you said you were about 10. Don’t worry. You’ll grow if you eat well.”

The man whispered soothingly and continued.

“Wolves tend to have quite explosive growth spurts. I have a few wolves in my knight order. They’re very skilled and have fierce temperaments, so no one underestimates them. But they’re also very loyal and intelligent.”

“Wolves…?”

“Yes. Wolves like you.”

Misinterpreting Siol’s speechless reaction, the man looked down at him with pity and gently stroked Siol’s ears—the pair of furry ears on top of his head.

Siol finally became aware of his ears. They twitched and instinctively flattened against his head. He felt something on his backside, too. A tail, it must be a tail.

When he left the cabin in the homunculus’s body, he had been an adult human. What had happened to turn him into a child with animal ears and a tail? In his bewilderment, Siol desperately racked his brain and recalled the dragon’s curse before he died. Perhaps it was all because of that curse. No, it must be related to the curse.

Siol looked again at the knights carrying things out of his house.

A man with bird wings exited the house, shaking his wings, and brushed against a man with animal ears. The man with animal ears mercilessly swatted at the wings, and the winged man was about to retaliate with his fists when a man with deer antlers intervened. They were generally rough and violent. Seeing them bickering, Siol unconsciously cringed.

The same kind. He called them the same kind?

The man glanced down at the trembling boy and then gestured toward the quarreling knights. It was a slight movement, but something flowed from his fingers, forming ice spears that rained down between the knights.

“You’re scaring the child.”

The knights shut their mouths with a “Yes, sir” and focused on ransacking the house.

Siol also closed his mouth.

He had thought magic didn’t exist in this world. The king had said so.

He had thought other races didn’t exist in this world. The king had said so.

But now, he was here, a member of another race, held in the arms of someone who used magic.

Suddenly, he felt exhausted.

“Captain, we’re ready.”

“Alright.”

Those words meant that everything in Siol’s house was about to be plundered. Siol looked towards the group with a disgruntled expression. There was a large basket-like object attached to a device, with what looked like large handles. After all the knights climbed into the basket, the man handed Siol over to a subordinate. When Siol looked up with a puzzled expression, the man smiled gently.

“This is called ‘manifestation,’ little one.”

The man glowed with a blue light and transformed into a huge blue dragon.

He grasped the basket in his forelegs and, with a light flap of his wings, soared into the sky.

Oh my god, this man was that dragon.

The dragon who had crushed him to death, who had cursed his very soul.

Siol stared blankly at the sharp claws holding the basket, then fainted.