‘Wait a moment, come to think of it, I don’t have to search for it myself!’

Rukna Golden abruptly stopped in her tracks.

Just a moment ago, she had kept quiet out of feeling bad for the holy sword, but searching for Bolton’s lab alone in the given environment was too scary.

‘Visby, how much further do we need to go to reach Bolton’s lab?’

“Yes, my lady. You need to go down to the 1st floor.”

‘1st floor? But there were no lights on there?’

“Aren’t you referring to the lab where Bolton Bootke is?”

‘Right. But earlier, the lights were on the left side of the 3rd floor.’

“Guiding you to the destination. Please go down to the 1st floor, my lady.”

‘No way. I’m certain the lights were on the 3rd floor….’

Whoosh. At that moment, something chilling brushed past behind her back.

What the! Rukna immediately grasped her pendant and illuminated behind her.

All that could be seen was just an empty corridor.

‘I think I just saw something white pass by out of sight. Visby, is there something here?’

“Go down right now, my lady.”

Suddenly, goosebumps rose from the nape of her neck and spread throughout her entire body, her head turning pale white.

Ahhh! Rukna ran back the way she came without even looking back.

The pendant hanging from her neck swayed severely from side to side, the light also shaking and unable to properly illuminate under her feet.

Rukna, who barely found the stairs, hurriedly went down the stairs two to three steps at a time.

“My lady, what is the reason you are going down to the basement now?”

‘No way! You should have told me something like that in advance!’

The basement was even scarier. Rukna, who arrived back on the 1st floor panting, ran recklessly in the direction the holy sword guided her.

‘There’s not a single place with the lights on, are you sure he’s in the middle of an experiment? That bastard Bolton didn’t lie, right?’

“Turn right 3m ahead.”

‘It’s pitch black so I can’t tell where 3m ahead is.’

“You just passed it. Move back 1m.”

‘This damn holy sword, really.’

Rukna took a few steps back and immediately knocked on the door to the left.

From inside, a voice saying “You idiot?” could be heard as the door opened.

Only then did light leak out from the lab.

“How can you experiment with blackout curtains drawn, Bolton!”

Rukna, who arrived safely, plopped down right there with the strength drained from her legs.

“I thought I was going to die trying to find you.”

Then, upon seeing Bolton wearing a mask, Rukna was inwardly startled.

With only his eyes exposed like that, he looked virtuous like a naive country lad.

“Huh? It’s the 1st floor so it shouldn’t be difficult at all?”

“How would I know which lab you’re in. I saw the lights on outside and thought you were on the 3rd floor.”

“3rd floor? That lab is closed and no one’s there? Classes aren’t even held on the 3rd floor.”

Startled by Bolton’s words, Rukna sprang up like a spring and clung to him.

And while looking toward the entrance, she was wary of something.

“Y-you idiot?”

“I definitely saw it. The lights were on in the 3rd floor lab.”

“Hey… even if we’re both men, this is a bit.”

“But when I actually went up, the corridor was pitch black… could it be that I was bewitched by a ghost?”

“I’m also feeling bewitched by a ghost right now, you idiot.”

“What?”

“Can you get off me?”

Bolton blushed shyly and lowered his head.

Rukna, who had been clinging to his torso, finally apologized, “Ah, sorry.” and took a step back.

But it was scary to be away from Bolton, so she quietly grasped the sleeve of his robe.

“You must have been really scared.”

Bolton rubbed the top of Rukna’s head roughly.

Rukna just pretended that she had grabbed him on a whim and slowly opened the curtain on the window side.

Oh no, no, no! Bolton ran over in a flurry and closed the window again.

“I’m sorry but I don’t want to let others know I’m in the middle of an experiment, you idiot. It would be trouble if other guys came looking for me.”

With that, Bolton handed Rukna the same mask he was wearing.

It was worn as a precaution in case gas leaked out during the experiment.

“Did you investigate the components of the pond?”

Rukna asked as she put on the mask.

“For now, I think I need to do some experiments to know the exact efficacy. Theoretically, it’s a combination of mana components that draw out the subconscious….”

The explanation that followed was similar to what she had heard from Professor Gale.

Bolton’s face was filled with hope, saying that if an elixir was made with this, it would be an even greater invention than the muscle-boosting elixir.

“Isn’t it amazing? To stimulate the human subconscious and make them honest. If we adjust the quantity well, we could even make a truth serum.”

Bolton held out a capped flask toward Rukna. A murky, green liquid was emitting hazy smoke.

“That component that stimulates the subconscious is in this smoke.”

“The one that stimulates the subconscious? It’s amazing, Bolton.”

“What’s with that genuine admiration. Did you already inhale the smoke, you idiot?”

Hahaha! Bolton burst into loud laughter and ruffled Rukna’s hair roughly.

That’s when the lab door swung open with a bang without warning.

Matian Wiegratz, who had been difficult to even run into these days, was alternately looking at Rukna and Bolton with a stiff face.

About 30 minutes ago.

Matian Wiegratz, who was sitting in front of his dormitory desk, closed the book he was reading.

‘Seems like it’s the same today.’

Sighs kept escaping as his head was filled with useless idle thoughts again.

No matter how much he overworked his body, it was too difficult to quell the rising heat.

‘I need to clear my head.’

Matian left the dormitory again. Earlier he had swung his sword in the training ground, so now he was thinking of running around the campus.

Then, seeing Rukna on the 1st floor of Golden College was purely coincidental.

When Rukna opened the curtain, Bolton hurriedly closing the curtain to block the outside looked suspicious.

‘Just what kind of situation is this?’

His head, which hadn’t been functioning properly these past few days, unfolded the worst possible scenarios.

Even though Matian knew Bolton wasn’t the kind of guy to do something wicked, he became impatient.

Until a few days ago, no, even a few months ago, he prided himself on his patience being the best, but now he was in this state, so how could Bolton remain sane.

‘Get a grip. I shouldn’t recklessly suspect the other person.’

He clearly thought that and took action, but getting a grip, my ass. He had now barged into Bolton’s lab and was expressing an inexplicable emotion.

“What are you two doing here at this hour.”

Matian asked, trying his best to relax his facial muscles.

Was it because he hadn’t looked in the mirror recently? He couldn’t properly make the mechanical smile he had been making for several years.

“What else would we be doing in a lab besides experiments? Why are you suddenly appearing and picking a fight?”

Bolton lifted the eye patch covering his artificial eye as if dumbfounded.

He often did this action to suppress the other person, but he still didn’t know the fact that when both his eyes were revealed, his impression became very naive, reducing the effect.

“I’m asking why you’re doing that with Rukna Golden. In the middle of the night, in a building with all the lights off, with blackout curtains drawn, secretly, just the two of you.”

“Wow, this guy is unbelievable? Whether I do experiments at dawn or in broad daylight, whether I’m alone with this idiot or not, just what is the problem. Did you not get enough sleep these days that your head has gone weird?”

Bolton spun his finger next to his head.

Matian’s lips twitched before he pressed them together again.

He had predicted that one more uninvited guest would appear.

“Ey, what’s this. Isn’t it Bolton and Ruka?”

Chad, who entered from the corridor, poked his head over Matian’s shoulder.

“The president was moving so suspiciously that I secretly followed him, but there’s nothing much. How boring.”

Chad rested his chin on Matian’s broad shoulders.

Then Matian shrugged his shoulders hard without even looking back, chasing away the annoying face.

“So cold-hearted. The president has gotten awfully ill-tempered lately. Is it because you drank too much pond water that day and your head got messed up?”

As Chad crossed his arms and sneered, an answer to that flowed out from another direction.

“I think the one whose head is messed up is you, Chad.”

A wooden hammer struck Chad’s head with a thwack.

Argh, it hurts! As Chad turned around while holding his head with both hands, Aaron, holding an accounting ledger, was glaring at him.

“You bought your jacket with the student council’s autonomous activity funds? Do you know how many times I had to move the abacus beads for 2 hours because the ledger calculations didn’t add up?”

“I said I used that jacket during student activities. So of course I should buy it with autonomous activity funds!”

“Student acti-bities? Since when did you going to meet girls become a student activity?”

As Aaron glared, Chad scurried over to Rukna and hid behind her back.

Although she was too short to be a lengthy shield for Chad, she made a pretty good shield against dwarves.

“It’s true that I met a girl, but it’s also true that it was a student activity!”

Right, Ruka? Chad winked at Rukna with one eye.

What the hell is this guy saying now! Rukna glared and tried to get away from him.

But Chad clung to her like a leech and wouldn’t let go.

“Everything the student council does is a student activity. Don’t be so uptight.”

“Oho. Then me making it so you can never do that student activity again is also part of autonomous activities?”

Aaron fiercely started hammering toward Chad’s crotch. There was murderous intent in the sound of the hammer whooshing through the air.

“Hey! What if I really become unable to be a man because of that?”

Chad, who had been using Rukna as a shield, quickly ran away and hid under a desk.

“Then that would be a success for the student autonomous activities.”

The expressionless Aaron mercilessly swung the hammer toward under the desk.

Chad nimbly avoided it this way and that, running around the lab.

“Both of you, calm down. You’ll end up breaking all the lab equipment!”

Bolton tried to stop Aaron and Chad, but the two were busy keeping each other in check with agile movements.

Bam! Rumble, clang! In a very short time, the lab was a mess.

“Stop right there!”

“As if I would?”

It was perhaps a foregone conclusion that Chad, who was doing an obnoxious turn while leaning on the lab desk, would end up breaking even Bolton’s flask.

“Ahhh, my end product!”

Bolton screamed while grabbing his short hair with both hands.

“What, cough. What is this smoke?”

The hazy smoke that escaped from the flask began to fill the lab.

Rukna pressed the mask she was wearing tighter to her face.

‘We can’t inhale that!’

The so-called smoke that makes you honest. If they inhaled that, there was no predicting what words would spill out of their mouths.