Volume 3 Chapter 260

Volume 3 + Chapter 260: Mysterious Power

“Old geezer.”

 

“……”

 

“Hey, hey, hey~ old geezer, can you hear me? Are your ears not working anymore?”

 

“I’m your great-grandfather. Show some respect, Claire.”

 

An aged elder slowly opened his eyes and looked toward his descendant.

 

He was the patriarch of the Morrison family, Hohenheim Morrison.

 

And the one conversing with him was the most outstanding prodigy of the Morrison family—Claire Morrison, the alchemist known as the Doctor.

 

“Alright, Great-Grandpa~ haven’t you ever heard this saying? ‘An old man who refuses to die is a thief.’” The Doctor teased, “I didn’t call you an old thief. I’m already giving you plenty of face since you’re the head of the family!”

 

Hohenheim let out a sigh. This child really had been poorly taught.

 

But the Morrison family had long grown used to it.

 

The Doctor truly wasn’t much like a normal person.

 

While other little girls were still playing with dolls and dressing them up…

 

The Doctor had already begun dissecting criminals’ bodies with a scalpel, and even fed those criminals the alchemical potions she herself had concocted.

 

Just as ordinary little girls would feel joy when receiving new dolls,

 

The Doctor too would feel joy whenever new criminals were delivered before her.

 

Both were the same—the happiness of gaining new toys.

 

Although such tendencies had twisted her personality, they had also turned her into a genius of her era.

 

In alchemy, her attainments had already far surpassed the level of her contemporaries.

 

Precisely because of this, the Morrison family had long abandoned the thought of “starting over” with her. Instead, they endured her bizarre personality and tried to cultivate her talent.

 

“Claire, how is your work going?” Hohenheim asked.

 

“Not bad.” Claire pulled out a lollipop. “Anyway, those who could be saved have all been brought back. As for the mission from the Templar Order, that’s basically done too.”

 

“And the hybrid experiment…?”

 

“No progress at all, hehe. Our only valuable test subject has already died in Black Swan City. Now the experiment has entered another major bottleneck. We’ll need new research material.”

 

“When will the experiment ever succeed? This body of mine…”

 

Hohenheim was truly irritated.

 

A normal human’s lifespan was about a hundred years at most—that was already considered longevity.

 

But in fact, Hohenheim was already a hundred and fifty.

 

The reason he had lived so long was because of alchemy—he had created a forbidden potion. Though it had indeed prolonged his life, the toxins accumulated from repeated use of the potion had left his body in increasingly worse condition.

 

If the hybrid experiment could not advance, then his own body might very well…

 

“Could it be… that only by finding the legendary Philosopher’s Stone could a miracle be wrought?”

 

“Alright, Patriarch. The tasks you assigned me—I’ve completed them all. So now, can I finally continue studying Ancient Alchemy?” the Doctor said. “Back at the ruins of the ancient human civilization, I know you traded with the Templar Order to obtain brand-new Ancient Alchemy. Who knows—once I study it, maybe I’ll discover alchemy that can truly let you shed your mortal shell and be reborn?”

 

“…Fine.” Hohenheim sighed and agreed.

 

Even though Claire was a descendant of the Morrison family, her thoughts were becoming increasingly unfathomable to the family. She seemed dangerous, already drifting away from the family’s pursuits.

 

But there was no choice. Altering human bloodlines had long surpassed the limits of ordinary alchemists. Claire was the sole exception capable of achieving it, and so she had to be heavily relied upon.

 

“Heehee, Great-Grandpa, you really are the best. I’ll definitely think of a way to repay you—so you can live forever~! Call me if you need me again. See you~!”

 

Claire gave Hohenheim a bow, then departed.

 

Just after stepping out the door, her expression shifted.

 

“Rather than helping you old geezers extend your lives, playing house, I still think it’s far more interesting to personally create a supreme king race that utterly surpasses humankind… hehe.”

 

—

 

After Claire left, Hohenheim flipped open the newspaper, his brow furrowing.

 

“A new Knight King has been crowned? Hasn’t the Glory Knight not died yet? Why wasn’t such an important matter as changing the Knight King discussed together with us Four Great Families…?”

 

Thud!

 

Suddenly, the door was thrown open.

 

A mysterious man walked in, carrying a coffin on his back.

 

Hohenheim’s expression shifted slightly, yet he did not immediately summon the family guards.

 

Because allowing this man passage was a rule of the Morrison family.

 

The mysterious man set the coffin on the ground, then left without saying a single word.

 

This matter was traced back to several years ago.

 

When the Morrison-led Rhine Alchemy sought to conduct a brand-new experiment to create hybrids, among the many proposed targets, one suggestion was, why not create dragon hybrids?

 

The reasoning was simple. Dragons were the mightiest of higher races, possessing abilities far beyond the reach of other races, and their lifespans far surpassed that of humans.

 

Although Rhine Alchemy agreed wholeheartedly with the idea, there was one enormous problem.

 

They lacked the materials necessary for research.

 

Virtually none of the human secret teams dispatched to the Dragon Kingdom had ever returned. Humanity’s knowledge of dragons was simply too scarce.

 

The dragons dwelled in the far northern reaches of the land, an extremely closed-off nation. Humanity’s world lay in the south. The distance between them… one could even call it two separate worlds.

 

Obtaining dragons as experimental material was utterly impossible.

 

At that moment, however, a mysterious person appeared in the human world and provided Rhine Alchemy with a dragon corpse.

 

This had astonished Rhine Alchemy.

 

The mysterious power offered aid with only two conditions:

 

Secrecy, and no investigation.

 

Although they did not know the other party’s true intentions, Rhine Alchemy did not want to let go of such an opportunity. They accepted the aid and secretly began hybrid experiments.

 

From time to time, the mysterious power would provide Rhine Alchemy with dragon corpses, allowing the experiments to continue without end.

 

But due to funding and other difficulties, Rhine Alchemy eventually ran into setbacks and had no choice but to cooperate with the other Four Great Families. They concealed the existence of the mysterious power, and instead claimed they were trying to create “a human hero possessing the power of dragons,” in order to gain support.

 

During this period, Rhine Alchemy, out of curiosity, attempted to investigate the mysterious power. But they were discovered. The dispatched investigators were slaughtered to the last, and a severe warning was delivered.

 

Fearing that aid would cease, Rhine Alchemy dared not pursue the matter further thereafter.

 

The coffin now lying before him should contain a new dragon corpse.

 

Hohenheim stood before the coffin, his expression was grave.

 

“They… who exactly are they?”