A character with extreme difficulty to master and has the worst performance in almost everything. Val Ashbluff was considered a trash character in the game because he couldn't use magic in a fantasy world where everyone else could.
[Due to the 'Inc...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Hattie's 'private lab' was attached next to the Alchemy lecture practice room. Most students regarded it as merely a storage room. In fact, Professor Hemlock often used it to store teaching aids, essentially turning it into a warehouse.
Yet, Hattie even appreciated such a place. Compared to her days of secretly experimenting in semi-basements and attics without proper research space, this modest storage room was a blessing, as it offered enough space and no need to hide her research.
The reason she endured Professor Hemlock’s constant bullying and harassment was that she had this cozy little haven of her own.
Here, she could dream of the future.
“Hattie, hand over the paper you wrote this time.”
When those words were spoken, Hattie felt the inevitable had come and hung her head.
Professor Hemlock had said, "I will give you the opportunity to participate in the seminar."
Opportunity.
Yes, it was an opportunity.
A chance for the small, unknown alchemist Hattie to finally spread her wings and soar high.
Using the pretext of ‘opportunity,’ Professor Hemlock was holding Hattie's wings down, preventing her from taking flight.
However, there was no other option.
“You have another chance next year, don’t you?”
“…Yes.”
Professor Hemlock spoke in an unusually soft tone, as if coaxing a child, like an adult taking away a strawberry-flavored candy from a child.
She was trying to take away Hattie's paper.
Hattie clenched her fists, trembling, but there was nothing she could do.
It had been five years.
Five years? It might as well have been her entire life as an alchemist invested in this research.
She was happy.
In her semi-basement, in her rented room, in her moldy attic, she felt joy each time her research made even a small step forward.
When she finally completed her paper, it felt like giving birth to a child.
She felt ecstatic, as if she created a masterpiece that's groundbreaking enough to be revealed to the world
But Professor Hemlock… she tortured her by giving her hope, only to snatch her masterpiece away.
“Do you understand? I’ll help you properly prepare for the presentation next year.”
It was a lie. She wasn’t capable of that. Next year, Thelma would take her results again. Then the year after that. It was a never-ending cycle of stealing.
