“Uh… maybe later,” I answered, as I wasn’t too keen on telling her about it, especially since I would have no choice but to mention Amelia.

Anyway, I hadn’t come here to catch up on lost time. I wanted to know what she had discovered with the black heart I had given her back then. I wanted to know if she might have made a discovery, and if she didn’t, then I had another plan in my mind that should give me more results.

I would have to go and see an old friend of mine… someone who was even more crazy about research and things of that sort. However, she was a little annoying, so I hoped that I wouldn’t have to do so.

“Alright, alright… then why did you come here for?” She asked with a bright smile.

She was definitely extremely excited to see me and clearly wanted to talk a lot with me. However, I just thought that it would be very awkward, so I was trying my best to keep the conversation going on the demons and less about what happened while I was gone.

“So, did you notice anything weird from any of the professors while I was gone?” I asked, thinking if she had a clue about a demon that was within the Royal Academy.

“Nope, didn’t get the slightest clue about that. So, either, they are very discreet. Or there aren’t any left within the Royal Academy.”

Still, I doubted the fact that Derek was the only one. There was a chance that it was a student. However, I didn’t think so. I was actually almost convinced that it would be a teacher or someone who had some importance to him, and a student wasn’t something that fit in my opinion.

What was good for a demonic being to study at the academy. It seemed like a waste of time, in my opinion.

“I see. What about the black heart that I gave you before leaving. Did you find out something about it?” I asked as this was really what I was looking forward to.

This was crucial. We needed to find a way to cure the monsters of their demonization… or figure out a way to stop it from happening.

However, the latter mostly seemed impossible to do, in all honesty, since they could always find new beasts. We needed a cure more than anything else. That’s what truly mattered at the moment. Everything else was secondary without a doubt in my mind.

“That black heart… uh, it’s complicated. Follow me.”

Then, she walked me through her lab toward the center of it, where I finally managed to get a glimpse of it. I could see that she had definitely run a lot of tests on it because of the state it was currently in.

I wasn’t sure what she had done. But surely, she had worked on the task I had given her.

“I was actually working on it before you entered… that’s why it was a little messy inside my lab.”

‘Just a little?’ I thought, my eyes widening at those words. ‘It was definitely more than a little.’

It seemed that Ava was also picking up on my definition of the word “little”. I had definitely influenced her quite a bit.

“So, what did you discover about it?” I asked with a frown as I continued to stare at it.

“Yeah… that’s the thing, no matter how hard I tried to play around with it. I could never even pierce it and absorb some of the blood inside it, which was crucial to finding something concrete. That’s why I was using all those explosions; I wanted to gather some blood from it. But I just couldn’t, as if it was defending itself against me.”

I clicked my tongue. I didn’t like where this discussion was currently going. As far as I could tell, it was as if Ava hadn’t managed to make a single discovery about it, which meant that the three months I had given her were completely useless all around.

“So, did you find anything that could help us find a cure to return this heart back to normal?”

Ava looked away from me, her shoulders dropping, and honestly, I didn’t need to hear her say anything to know that there was something wrong with her at the moment.

“Don’t be mad… alright?”

“I won’t be, don’t worry.”

“Promise me.”

“I promise; now go on, tell me.”

“I… didn’t find anything that could help you. I’m sorry. I know you counted on me. But no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t find anything interesting about it. You should try asking another alchemist or someone better than me at that stuff… they might be able to find something interesting then.”

I nodded, already expecting such an answer based on how she had just acted. “I see. That’s fine, don’t worry.”

“Really? You’re not mad?”

“Of course not; why would I be? You tried to help, and that’s all that matters to me. Anyway, I’ll just go and ask one of my friends from the war; I think they might find something.”

Ava nodded with a bright smile, happy that her performance didn’t disappoint me too much.

“So… now that’s done, can’t you tell me a little about your adventures in the Snowy Mountains.”

I clicked my tongue and sighed at the same time.

“You know… maybe later. I really have some things to do right now. I need to go and see the director. I need to talk to her about some things, and I’m kinda tired from all this traveling. So, let’s talk later, alright?”

Explore more adventures at empire

She nodded. “Sure… later then.”

With that said, I headed toward the director’s office since my visit to see Ava had taken a lot less time than I had anticipated.

Still, I couldn’t wait to see what Alexandra would have to say once I entered her office. It had better be good; otherwise, she wouldn’t be very happy to see me, that’s for sure.

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