Adelaide’s eyelids twitched at the flash of light shining through them.

Her mind, beginning to wake from sleep, vaguely recalled past events.

The battle with the Witch of the West. The brief journey in the country of small people. The attack of the golden monkey swarm.

The moment she remembered desperately fighting back but collapsing, unable to overcome the sheer numbers, her hazy consciousness fully awakened.

“Ugh!”

Adelaide reflexively tried to get up, but struggled in vain.

It wasn’t that she couldn’t move due to serious injuries.

No, while it was true that every part of her body ached, the cause was more of a physical constraint.

Only then did Adelaide realize she was tightly restrained by metal devices on a strange examination table.

Moreover, she was completely naked without even a scrap of cloth.

“Kyaaah!?”

In a mixture of shock and shame, Adelaide thrashed about even more violently than before.

But the metal devices binding her body didn’t budge at all.

Even enhancing her body with mana didn’t help.

“Kekeke, such vigor. To be able to shout so energetically after being beaten to such a pulp.”

Adelaide’s head whipped to the side.

A face with black mushrooms growing on it and a hooked nose.

Even a single eye glowing ominously under a large pointed hat.

An old woman with an appearance that was the very stereotype of a “witch” was looking at Adelaide with a smile on her lips.

Adelaide instinctively tried to prepare for battle, but of course, that was impossible with her limbs bound.

Adelaide asked in a trembling voice, “W-Witch of the West, what exactly is this situation?”

“Hooh, you maintain your manners, even in this situation. Not bad.”

The witch burst into laughter, then unexpectedly answered Adelaide’s question straightforwardly, “This is my laboratory. You’re about to become my test subject.”

“Test subject?”

Adelaide didn’t fully understand the meaning of that word.

But she clearly felt the malice in the witch’s subtle tone that sent chills down her spine.

“I’ve long been interested in the Lion Duke’s bloodline. I would have liked to capture dozens and leisurely dissect them, but it wasn’t such an easy task. Their authority had to be quite high for that.”

Pleased by Adelaide’s reaction as she stiffened at the word “dissect,” the witch continued her explanation with a sadistic smile, “Ah, but that’s not to say I couldn’t lay my hands on them at all. While it might be impossible if the numbers were too small, when there are over hundreds of children running around, it’s not impossible to quietly snatch a few. Thanks to that, I’ve learned various things.”

Adding, “However,” the witch approached Adelaide.

The old woman’s wrinkled hand stroked Adelaide’s golden hair and caressed her eyes.

“Those children were mostly ones with thin blood. Unlike you.”

“What… do you mean?”

“I did some checks while you were asleep. The results were very satisfactory.”

The witch lifted a long, transparent glass tube from a shelf in the laboratory.

It was about half-filled with red blood.

Adelaide realized there was a wound on her forearm as if she had been pricked by a needle.

“The Lion Duke’s bloodline has several characteristics. Slow aging and a long physical prime. Strong resistance to diseases. Excellent recovery ability and high physical capabilities. However, with over 200 years of generational changes, there seems to have been some deterioration. Even within the same bloodline, some specialize in aging suppression, while others have physical abilities not much different from ordinary people, showing considerable individual differences. All the children I’ve researched so far were at a pathetic level compared to the rumors circulating. But…”

The witch’s fingers caressed Adelaide’s hair.

The exceptionally bright and vivid golden hair.

Then she stroked her eyelids.

The deep, jewel-like violet eyes.

“…you’re different. Originally born with almost all abilities in abundance, but recently there are even traces of those abilities being strengthened once more. It’s amazing, truly interesting.”

Adelaide couldn’t regain her composure in a negative sense as the witch stroked her head.

The witch’s hand was extremely dry, and not even the slightest warmth could be felt.

It felt like it might be the touch of a crude model hand made by putting sticks in low-quality leather gloves.

Adding a bit of exaggeration, it felt like spiders crawling. The excessive disgust made her skin crawl.

To begin with, she didn’t understand what the witch was saying.

She had heard about having excellent talent a few times before, but it was the first time she’d heard about abilities being strengthened.

As if trying to avoid the witch’s touch, Adelaide squeezed out her voice, “I-I don’t know what you’re talking about! Strengthened? I don’t know anything!”

“It doesn’t matter if you don’t know. Your body will know.”

Saying this, the witch reached for a nearby shelf.

With clattering sounds, various blades, tongs, hammers, and other instruments of unknown purpose gleamed with heavy metallic light.

A short scream leaked from Adelaide’s throat.

The Witch of the West laughed heartily, as if pleased by this sight.

“When I heard you had killed over twenty monkeys, I thought about chopping you up finely and feeding you to the dogs… but if you’re such a lucky charm, I can overlook anything. Be obedient and well-behaved. Your treatment depends entirely on my mood.”

Adelaide gulped.

Anxiety surged about whether something might have happened to her other companions, but soon that anxiety subsided.

There’s no way Sir Knight would lose.

Trust in the Tin Knight lit a fire of courage in her heart.

I need to do what I can.

Adelaide desperately racked her brain.

While no brilliant strategy flashed in her mind, she could at least come up with an ordinary plan like “draw the witch’s attention to make it easier for other companions to move”.

“What are you going to use my body for after examining it?”

At Adelaide’s question, the Witch of the West curled up the corners of her mouth.

In a tone that even seemed caring at a glance, the witch brought up an unexpected topic.

“How was the country of small people?”

“Huh?”

“You spent various journeys there, albeit for a short time. I’m asking for your impressions.”

While finding it difficult to understand the intent of the question, thinking it wasn’t bad to continue the conversation anyway, Adelaide answered honestly, “It was a mysterious place. Both that such small people existed, and that they built a country and lived.”

“Kekeke, I’m sure it was. The small people’s country is one of the more complete works among many.”

“Complete, you say?” Adelaide reflexively asked back.

“I created the small people.”

Like a mischievous adult crushing a child’s dream, the witch revealed the answer, “Now they look like perfectly miniaturized humans, but at first, they were half-mixed between mice and humans and quite ugly. I repeated breeding and improvement many times, made them learn human culture, and made them believe in a fictional history that didn’t originally exist. The small people believe they’ve developed over a thousand years of history and tradition, but in reality, it’s barely been over 300 years since they formed their country.”

Adelaide couldn’t understand the witch’s words. Or rather, she didn’t want to understand.

“They’re intelligent, and being small, they excel at delicate work. Especially impressive is their ability to handle mana. Strong individuals can defeat ordinary humans head-on. However, while the small people themselves are one thing, their country still lacks a lot. To truly imitate human social systems, they need to be equipped with appropriate resources, but while I could adjust plants to their size, animals are still a work in progress. They have no dogs, cows, or sheep. This makes it a bit unsatisfactory to call it complete.”

Only then did Adelaide recall who her opponent was.

Or more accurately, she freshly remembered a fact she already knew.

The Witch of the West. Elphaba.

One of the four most famous and powerful mages on the continent.

And, the greatest and strongest alchemist.

“Homunculus.”

As Adelaide blankly uttered that word, the witch’s single eye and mouth distorted grotesquely.

It might have been something like a smile.

“It wasn’t just the winged golden monkeys. Everything, everything in here was like that.”

Adelaide recalled when she first fought the Witch of the West.

Werewolves with rough fur, crow-men flying in the sky, insect-people containing intense poison.

Beings that appeared in fairy tales and stories Adelaide had read.

In other words, races whose very existence was unclear now except in such stories.

“Why, just why?”

The question that leaked out like a lament contained multiple meanings.

And the witch answered, “Because this is my world.

“I am the master of this place. Here, I am the rules. I am the god of this place. I created them, and I gave them civilization. No king, no ruler from outside, not even heaven itself can be equal to me here.

“Child, do you look to others even when decorating your own room? What reason do I need to fill my world with what I want?”

The single eye under the pointed hat rolled wildly.

To avoid being overwhelmed by that madness, Adelaide desperately squeezed out words, “Aren’t alchemists supposed to love their homunculi like their own children? If all the creatures in this world are your children, why do you crush them along with castles and split them into various countries to make them fight each other?”

“Kekeke, don’t treat me the same as the riffraff out there.”

With an overt sneer on her lips, the witch spewed out venomous words, “Children, you say. It’s not wrong. But while calling homunculi children, using them in the most convenient way is also what alchemists do. Weapons, servants, pets, the methods vary.”

“That’s…”

“As long as the parents are well, children can be made as many times as needed. And it’s also the parent’s discretion to decide how to raise and use the children. In that sense, Franka is too immature. Losing her mind over losing just one, even pointing a sword at her master for having two taken away.”

Clicking her tongue with a “Tsk tsk,” the witch continued, “I’m not very interested in anything outside my world, but to procure various resources, I need to pay some attention to the outside. Franka was quite a useful source of money in that sense… but that’s over now.”

The witch raised the hand opposite to the one she had caressed Adelaide with earlier.

On it was an indigo glove.

“The ‘Gloves of Haider’. And once I secure the ‘Key of Opium’ and the ‘Belt of Amaryllis’ that you have, nearly half of the eight sacred treasures will be gathered. If I sell them to the heavens above, I can receive a very valuable compensation, so there’s no need to rely on the Aglaia family’s wealth anymore.”

For a moment, Adelaide had to desperately manage her expression.

She almost showed an “Eh?” reaction when the Witch of the West didn’t mention the “Chalice of Tuberose”.

Fortunately, the witch seemed too busy with her own words to notice such a change in Adelaide.

“I’m getting tired of accepting various disciples from outside, so I’m thinking of creating the next disciple myself. If I can research your body and utilize the results, surely an excellent work will be created. If things go well, I might even make you a servant, so don’t think about doing anything unnecessary-“

“W-wait a moment. Create, you say? A person?”

“What’s impossible about that? To begin with, your clan itself is practically something someone created.”

“…What? What do you mean?”

“You didn’t know.”

To Adelaide’s question, the witch answered quite nonchalantly, “─Your ancestor, the Lion Duke, Geisel von Lennart was a homunculus.”

***

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