Chapter 1: The Perils of Magical Chemistry

The Royal Magic Academy, in the capital of the Violet Kingdom.

Deep within the academy grounds, a forest of mage towers rose from the earth, their spires piercing the clouds.

These were no ordinary structures; they formed the very core of the academy.

Each tower belonged to a grand mage of exceptional power and talent, all of whom served as the institution’s mentors.

Lia stood at the foot of one such tower, surrounded by a few other new students who had also come to register.

The others craned their necks, their faces filled with awe, but Lia’s expression remained placid, even a touch bored.

Seriously, what kind of skyscraper hadn’t she seen before her transmigration?

A tower built of stone, aside from its height, held little to shock her.

As for the academic atmosphere, she was, after all, a Ph.D. in cutting-edge physics.

Her days had been a blur of experiments and reports—work that, to the average person, might as well have been magic.

She had been far busier than any of these mages.

“Name.”

A cool voice pulled Lia from her reverie.

“Lia.”

“Gender.”

“…Female.” Lia’s eye twitched. ‘Did they really have to ask?’

“Please wait a moment.”

The slender, bespectacled girl across from her merely waved a hand, and a sheet of yellowed parchment materialized in the air, floating with perfect precision to hover before Lia.

It was covered in a dense script detailing the rules of the mage tower.

“These are the rules established by Master Klein. Your uncle specifically requested him as your mentor. I presume you were informed.”

Lia pursed her lips.

Of course, she was informed.

Her dear uncle, in his bid to legally seize her inheritance, had gone to great lengths to place her, the sole rightful heir, under the tutelage of the one magical mentor in the entire kingdom infamous for having the lowest apprentice graduation rate—Klein.

Rumor had it this mentor’s standards were so perversely strict that most apprentices wasted their youth under him, never graduating, only to end up as menial servants within the tower.

Her uncle’s scheme was as clear as day: as long as she never graduated, he could “safeguard” her rightful inheritance until the day he died.

To that end, he had concocted a noble-sounding excuse: ‘Only by becoming the finest of mages can our lady restore the glory of our declining family! And any who graduate under Grand Mage Klein are truly the best of the best!’

Lia had even heard that Grand Mage Klein hadn’t accepted a new apprentice in years and couldn’t care less about such matters.

Her admission was solely due to her “good uncle” pulling strings, spending a fortune, and performing a tearful drama of “familial sacrifice” right before him.

Unfortunately, her memories had yet to resurface back then, so she had actually believed his nonsense and, in a moment of rashness, allowed herself to be sent here.

If the carriage ride hadn’t been so violently bumpy, causing her to knock her head hard and jarring her past-life memories loose, she would likely still be in the dark, happily counting money for someone else.

A line on the parchment pulled her back from her thoughts.

“Daily reviews, weekly tests, monthly quizzes, quarterly exams, plus mid-term and annual exams? And starting from the second year, a quarterly report on cutting-edge academic theory? Failure means rewrites, and multiple failures will directly affect graduation?”

Lia’s voice shot up, as sharp as a cat whose tail had just been stepped on.

“So many exams?! Is he a monster?!”

Hearing her shriek, the other new students nearby began to whisper amongst themselves, casting sympathetic glances her way.

“Tsk, tsk. Of all the mentors to choose, she had to pick Grand Mage Klein. Isn’t that just asking for trouble?”

The bespectacled girl across from her frowned slightly, clearly displeased with her outburst.

“Miss Lia, please calm down. According to the regulations, you have the right to refuse. However, the two thousand gold coins you paid for enrollment are non-refundable.”

Two thousand! Gold coins!

Lia calmed down instantly.

She asked through gritted teeth, “What happens if I fail?”

“Failing tests and quizzes means you need to review more thoroughly. Repeated failures will result in a personal conference with Master Klein. Failing a major exam means you will be held back a year.

If you are held back too many times, you will never be able to graduate and will remain in the tower, assigned to the filthiest and most strenuous chores.”

Lia took a deep breath. ‘Oh, well. I’m already here, what else can I do?’

The carriage ride from the capital back to her small estate would take half a month alone.

“Give me the pen.”

After she signed her name, the slender girl led her formally into the mage tower.

“My name is Adèle. You can call me Senior Adèle,” the girl said, her voice still cool. “I’m responsible for handling the tower’s affairs, so I suppose that makes me your most senior apprentice.”

Lia listened as she took in her surroundings.

The tower’s interior was surprisingly austere, devoid of any decorations meant to flaunt status.

A massive, open atrium ran through the center, from which a long, narrow crystal chandelier descended from the ceiling.

It cast a soft, orange-yellow glow, illuminating the corners of every floor.

The tower had four floors, connected by a spiral staircase that hugged the inner wall.

The first floor served as a common area, with a large blackboard on one wall and a sparse arrangement of chairs below it.

The second was a library, lined with a solid row of floor-to-ceiling bookshelves; the dog-eared pages of the books showed they were frequently read.

The third floor housed the apprentices’ quarters, but the hallways were deserted.

The few people she did glimpse turned and fled the moment they saw Adèle, as if she were some terrifying beast and they were mice.

‘It seems this senior apprentice is Klein’s enforcer,’ Lia thought.

Finally, the two arrived at a door on the fourth floor.

The door was made of a fine material, clearly of higher quality than those on the floors below.

Adèle stepped forward, knocked respectfully, and then stood silently to the side, waiting with patience.

There was no response from within.

Lia was growing impatient and was just about to ask if Master Klein was out when the door before them creaked open on its own.

Adèle, unsurprised by this, gestured for Lia to follow.

Stepping into the room, her view opened up dramatically.

It was like an isekai version of a chemistry lab.

One side was dominated by three massive, floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, crammed with heavily worn tomes.

On the other side, a desk was buried under a mountain of books and research materials, many of which lay open as if their owner had just been consulting them.

Directly opposite the entrance stood a wide laboratory bench and several rows of cabinets filled with labeled jars and vials.

A figure stood at the laboratory bench, engrossed in their work.

He looked remarkably young.

Unlike the typical image of a mad academic lost in their experiments—unshaven and disheveled—he was meticulously groomed.

He wore a standard black mage’s robe, and his short, dark hair was impeccably neat.

A magical grimoire filled with dense script floated in the air before him.

His deep blue eyes were intensely focused, giving the impression he hadn’t even noticed their arrival.

Lia’s first impression of him wasn’t bad; at least his appearance didn’t scream ‘cantankerous old fossil.’

Her gaze shifted downward, focusing on what he was doing.

She watched as Klein poured a heap of white powder into a large beaker of clear liquid, stirring until it dissolved completely.

He then carefully filtered out any excess undissolved particles to obtain a pure solution.

Next, he meticulously poured the solution into a large, mounted U-shaped tube.

Inside the U-tube were two black rods.

The parts of the rods extending above the liquid’s surface were connected by two wires to a peculiar device.

The next moment, a magic circle in Klein’s hand flashed, and a concentrated bolt of lightning was precisely channeled into the device.

Lia’s eyelids twitched violently.

‘This whole process… why does it look so familiar?’

A sense of foreboding washed over her. She had to be sure.

“M-Master Klein, what is that liquid in the tube?”

Klein looked up at her question, a hint of annoyance at being interrupted on his young face.

He seemed curious as to why a new student would care about such a thing.

“Saltwater. It’s the same salt we eat, though I’ve purified it. This is a solution of high-purity salt dissolved in water.”

A thunderclap exploded in Lia’s mind!

‘Electrolysis of saturated saltwater!’

‘This was the exact experiment she had been secretly conducting at home when she died of chlorine gas poisoning and transmigrated!’

She whipped her head around, scanning the room.

It was hermetically sealed—not a single decent ventilation duct in sight!

‘Dammit! I don’t want to die again! Who knows if I’ll be so lucky next time!’

Fear seized her heart in an instant.

In a flash of panic, all thoughts of rules and etiquette vanished from her mind.

She lunged forward, leaped up, and yanked the two wires with all her might, simultaneously wrenching the two black rods from the solution and flinging them away!

Liquid splashed everywhere.

The two carbon rods rolled twice across the floor, and the experiment came to an abrupt halt.

Klein stared in astonishment at his first new apprentice in three years.

He seemed completely unprepared for the fact that she would dare to physically sabotage his experiment less than a minute after walking through his door.

After a moment of shock, he collected himself.

Clear displeasure spread across his handsome face, and his voice, tinged with a thin layer of anger, rang out.

“What are you doing? Is this some sort of attempt to get my attention?”