"Ada needs Patrasche!"

Ada was whining as she clung to her father, Count Bradley.

Completely won over by Ada’s pleas, Count Bradley was already grinning so widely that his mouth seemed to stretch to his ears.

"Of course, my little Ada wants to raise a puppy?"

"Yes! A big dog! Ada likes a huge dog that can even pull a carriage."

Recently, after reading her brother's new fairy tale "The Dog of Flanders", Ada had been absorbed in playing the tragic hero, causing no small amount of trouble for those around her.

What frustrated her the most was that she wanted to play the role of Nello, the protagonist of the story, but there was no dog at the estate to take on the role of Patrasche.

Ada even attempted to pull a cart herself, trying to embody the role.

But she was caught just as she was about to set out on a delivery, having somehow loaded milk cans onto the cart, despite being too small to manage it.

Fortunately, Alain saw her and stopped her, preventing rumors from spreading about the young lady of the count’s family hauling a cart around.

When her attempt to become Patrasche herself failed, Ada ran to her brother as usual and pleaded:

"Ada wants Patrasche!"

But he replied:

"No. Do you know how hard it is to take care of an animal? It’s not a toy that you can play with and then throw away when you get bored."

When Rupert, who usually fulfilled almost all of her requests, firmly said no, Ada quickly turned her attention to her father, Count Bradley.

The Count was already wrapped around the finger of his only daughter, and Ada instinctively knew this.

She knew that if she whined in his arms a little, she would always get something good in return.

"Hmm, a huge dog that can even pull a carriage."

Count Bradley tried to think of a dog that could be that big, but unless it was a monster, such a thing didn't exist.

'I'll just have someone get a large puppy,' he thought.

Anyway, to a child’s eyes, as long as it’s a certain size, they all look similar. He decided to order someone from the estate to find a big dog, and while holding Ada, he rubbed his cheek against hers.

"Stop it!"

Ada’s chubby cheeks turned red from the Count’s beard, and she tried to shake her head to avoid it.

But when her father asked if she didn’t want to see Patrasche, she had no choice but to offer up her cheek with a gloomy expression.

Later, Rupert and Alain scolded the Count for Ada’s reddened cheek, but he was still satisfied, having gained a precious memory with his beloved daughter.

"Could it be that the Philosopher’s Stone is made from human materials?"

Yustaf and Harun were in the study, reading a book together.

Originally, they had intended to buy multiple copies so that each could have their own, but due to the high demand, they could only acquire one hardcover and one paperback edition.

Even then, Xenia, Yustaf’s apprentice, had thrown a fit, refusing to part with the hardcover edition, so they had to share the paperback.

Fortunately, the quality of the paperback was not bad, so it didn’t hinder their research.

The problem, however, was with the content.

Although the manga hadn’t explicitly described it yet, to experts like Yustaf and Harun, it was clear that the Philosopher’s Stone was something that required human materials.

"To activate this transmutation circle, a human must be sacrificed. How could anyone do such a terrible thing?"

"We can’t just sit around. We need to check if there’s been an increase in disappearances across the Empire."

The Philosopher’s Stone.

A legendary item and the ultimate goal of alchemists.

Since alchemy itself was originally developed to create gold, research on the Philosopher’s Stone, which could turn ordinary stones into gold, had been ongoing since the dawn of alchemy.

But with so many failures piling up, it had come to be regarded as a mere fantasy.

Who would have thought that the answer would be found in a manga?

Harun, the Empire’s greatest alchemist, felt a chill run down his spine.

After calculating that an unimaginable number of people would have to be sacrificed to create the Philosopher’s Stone, he realized why all previous attempts had failed.

This was something that should never be made.

"We need the Imperial Family’s help to check on the disappearance trends in the Empire."

"Indeed, no matter how wide our networks are, there’s a limit."

"Can you arrange a meeting with His Majesty the Emperor?"

Even for Harun, the head of the Alchemist Guild, a private audience with the Emperor was no easy task.

"If I say it’s urgent, he’ll likely agree to meet."

But if Yustaf requested it, it would be possible.

He was not only the former Tower Master of the Magic Tower and the headmaster of the Imperial Academy, but also the greatest mage on the continent.

However, even for Yustaf, getting a meeting was one thing, but convincing the Emperor was another.

The evidence they had gathered so far came from research based on a manga.

If they had reached this conclusion through a scholarly book written by a renowned academic or mage, the Emperor might agree.

But if the conclusion was drawn from a manga, it was likely to be dismissed.

The frustrating thing was that to obtain definitive proof, they needed the Imperial Family’s help to track down the missing people, so the order of steps was reversed.

"Still, we have to try. People's lives are at stake."

"Yes, I’ll prepare as much data as possible to help persuade His Majesty."

Yustaf left the study and headed straight for the palace, while Harun stayed behind to neatly organize and prepare the materials they had analyzed so far.

However,

"No! You have to leave the book behind..."

Harun wanted to go over the parts he hadn’t had a chance to review earlier, but Yustaf had taken the manga with him.

Harun assumed that Yustaf had taken it by accident, but he didn’t realize that Yustaf had intentionally taken the manga when he left the study.

"I am not a suspicious dwarf!!!"

"What nonsense is this, trying to break into the Somerset estate!"

At the front gate of the Somerset estate, a dwarf was tied up, surrounded by soldiers, while a frightened young girl stood nearby.

"Krunn is... not a bad dwarf... He just wanted to meet the author."

The girl, trembling from nerves, tried to defend the dwarf in a small voice.

But the guards of the estate had every reason to be suspicious.

For one thing, it was the first time they had ever seen a dwarf, and the first time was with one trying to force his way into the estate.

Recently, the number of suspicious individuals attempting to sneak into the estate had increased, so the security had been tightened, making it hard not to be suspicious.

Of course, they caught far more people sneaking out, claiming they were leaving after work.

"What’s all this commotion at the front gate?"

"Sir! Captain, there’s a situation... A dwarf was causing a disturbance at the front gate, and we’ve apprehended him."

A dwarf?

Mullus, the head of security and until recently the only knight in the territory, wondered if the soldier had been drinking on duty.

Dwarves were a small, hairy race that disliked humans and interacted with them rarely, making them a rare sight.

But a dwarf causing a disturbance at the front gate?

"You must be mistaken. There’s no way a dwarf would... A dwarf?"

But seeing the dwarf tied up in front of him, Mullus was at a loss for words.

Why on earth was a dwarf here, in the rural south, far from the Empire’s capital?

"Release me at once!!! I must meet the author of the manga!"

Despite being tied up and captured, the dwarf was shouting confidently, which gave Mullus a headache.

If he was referring to the manga’s author, that would be Young Master Rupert.

There was no way they could let this suspicious individual meet him.

"Why were you causing a disturbance?"

"I went to the gate, and they refused me entry because I didn’t have an appointment!"

"Of course! Do dwarves normally visit other people's homes, let alone a noble's estate, unannounced?"

"Well..."

The dwarf was at a loss for words at Mullus’ reasonable argument and hung his head.

Now Mullus was left wondering what to do with the dwarf.

If it had been a human, he would have thrown them in jail immediately, but since this was a different race, Mullus was unsure how to proceed.

If handled poorly, it could lead to diplomatic issues with the Dwarf Kingdom.

This wasn’t just Mullus’ imagination; there had nearly been a war after a certain lord had thrown an elf into prison following the Race Wars.

‘I’ll have to report this to the young master.’

Mullus decided that the situation was too delicate to handle on his own.

He decided to report it to Rupert.

However, Mullus didn’t find it strange that he naturally went to report to Rupert rather than Count Bradley, who was still the lord of the estate.