I Became the Terminally Ill Character in My Friend’s Academy Novel – Chapter 73

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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: JayM
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The Rose Alchemist.

The world he was born into was a world where alchemy was advanced.

He was a rather unique figure for an alchemist. Perhaps due to his innate handsome appearance and disposition, he always paid attention to cleanliness and appearance, and while other alchemists pursued gold and immortality, he researched beauty and the mysteries of finite life.

Many alchemists ridiculed him for it.

A fool wasting his innate talent.

That was the insult his colleagues used to say to him.

When his colleagues ridiculed him, he would smile and say:

-I like roses more than gold.

He was someone who always insisted that beauty was beautiful because it would eventually fade, and that immutability was worthless.

He, who claimed that a single rose that made people smile was more valuable than gold, and that a field of flowers covering the land was more valuable than a single rose, began to change after he fell in love.

His lover, the captain of the kingdom’s knights, was the first person he thought was more beautiful than flowers, the first person he wanted to touch.

He admired the incredibly beautiful knight captain, and since the knight captain was also interested in him, they quickly fell in love.

“…That was the problem.”

Yes, that was the problem.

-I advise against approaching her. You may touch anything outside, but this is a place that the former master cherished…

“Yes, there are many dangerous devices here. I know.”

The knight captain died.

She, who always said she wanted to perish like a flower on the battlefield, fell ill, weakened, and died.

It was an incurable disease that couldn’t be cured with the medicine of the time.

After his lover died, the alchemist, who had insisted that everything was valuable because it was finite, deeply understood how arrogant his words had been.

He abandoned his lifelong beliefs, abandoned his values, and researched immortality, resurrection, and the forbidden arts that defied fate.

The Rose Alchemist became a madman.

But at the same time, he didn’t cross the line.

Most madmen would sacrifice anything for their goals, but he didn’t.

His goal was to revive his lover, and for her to fully revive and smile at him, everything she loved had to remain the same.

He also loved the people she loved and protected.

He strived not to lose the version of him that she loved.

Some might scoff at his seemingly half-hearted madness, but no.

He was indeed a madman.

Because he had a fanatical belief that his loved one would definitely be resurrected, because he had an arrogant confidence that he could revive her, because he had the realization that he would continue even if he failed, he was able to maintain all of that.

So that he could greet her with the same smile when she returned.

So that she wouldn’t be disappointed by his changed appearance.

Most people would have despaired along the way. They would have fallen into depravity after failing, or given up.

But he was too extraordinary to meet the same end as those ordinary people.

Through countless attempts, he created research results worthy of being called a feat.

He created things that were called forbidden without violating any taboos.

The Philosopher’s Stone, a hidden treasure of alchemy created using the soul and body of a living human as ingredients.

He succeeded in creating it using plants as ingredients.

He tried to revive her using the treasure that defied the law of equivalent exchange in alchemy, but the power that defied fate alone couldn’t revive his lover who had already died years ago.

Next, he created an elixir, a special potion made by incorporating the World Tree’s fruit, which was said to heal all wounds, with his techniques.

But this, too, couldn’t revive his lover.

He knew that as well.

It was merely something he created to prevent losing her again after reviving her.

And after countless attempts, he finally created a homunculus, an artificial human.

He wasn’t trying to settle for a substitute.

If there was truly no way to fully revive her, he intended to prepare a body for her, open the gates of the underworld, and summon her soul.

The alchemists thought he had completely lost his mind.

To them, who believed in technology, the concept of the underworld was nothing but superstition.

But with his innate talent and acquired madness, he eventually opened the gates of the underworld.

And he wished for his lover.

He made a wish to the being that looked at him from beyond the gate.

Thus, the alchemist, who had achieved countless feats and lived for others, crossed the line he had desperately tried not to cross against his will.

Because the god in charge of the underworld in his world wasn’t so lenient.

In exchange for the lives of countless others, he finally retrieved her soul.

Just her soul.

I looked at the homunculus that supposedly contained his lover’s soul.

Floating in a transparent, giant test tube, she looked like a beautiful doll, but she was undoubtedly a living person.

I carefully avoided the traps and things I shouldn’t touch and approached her.

There was a saying about the soul.

When a person dies, one part ascends to heaven, and the other sinks into the earth.

It meant that a person’s soul was divided after death. Simply put, the soul that ascended to heaven didn’t contain the memories and information of their past life.

What he had retrieved by abandoning his beliefs…

…wasn’t her.

She had the same appearance, voice, and soul, but there were no memories in her head, no experiences in her body, and above all, there were no emotions in her eyes when she looked at him.

So he despaired and took his own life.

“That friend of mine… Why did he add such a grand setting to a disposable dungeon? What a lunatic.”

Moreover, this homunculus wasn’t even discovered in the original story.

Originally, Arcadia, who obtained the rewards here, didn’t know about the secret room.

Why the hell did he write it in the settings book then?

I would understand if it was a fortuitous encounter for Lilac to obtain later, like the Saint’s Will, but it didn’t seem like that.

As I leisurely avoided all the traps and approached her, a slightly surprised emotion appeared on the homunculus’ face.

…Although she had no memories, she was a real person with a soul.

She wasn’t an emotionless being.

How did she feel, enduring alone in this hidden room for so long?

All she could do was understand the structure of this place through the knowledge implanted in her head and reminisce about her memories while waiting for a visitor who might someday arrive.

She had only seen one person since she was born.

He was her everything because he had created her, but after a moment of joy, he despaired, and that despair turned into anger, and that anger soon became emptiness, consuming even his life.

What meaning would I, the second human she met in her life, have to her?

I didn’t know because it wasn’t written in the settings book, but I dared to guess that it wouldn’t be a simple emotion.

As I finally reached her, she stopped speaking.

I reached out and lifted the bottle… next to the test tube she was trapped in.

-…?

“Ah, let me grab a few things first. If I rescue you now, this place will collapse.”

-Ah, yes. That’s true. No, I see.

She seemed a little frustrated, but what could I do? I had to take what I needed first.

As I opened the bottle, a sweet floral scent gently spread from it.

Elixir.

The supreme elixir that could revive anyone who wasn’t dead and easily heal most internal injuries.

The miraculous potion created by his wish for the woman he loved wasn’t just a simple elixir.

I swallowed the potion to prevent its medicinal properties from dissipating, and a smooth taste spread through my throat and into my body.

Until now, I had been forcibly dragging along this terrible body, guiding its recovery through training, but that didn’t mean it had fully recovered.

My physique, distorted by the overuse of innate qi at a young age, remained the same, and even with Enhancement and training, the effects weren’t significant.

But things would be different from now on.

My heart pounded.

The liquid that went down my throat began to take effect the moment I swallowed it, its medicinal properties spreading throughout my body.

If it were a simple elixir, it would have just corrected my distorted physique and healed my illnesses and injuries, but this potion was different.

This was the supreme masterpiece that was researched and improved by a genius to keep his lover in optimal condition under any circumstances.

A cool, pleasant sensation, akin to the pain of having all the misaligned bones in my body realigned, spread within me.

-You have consumed an elixir created with heaven-sent talent.-

-All impurities in your body are removed.-

-Mana control speed increases.-

-All physical abnormalities are healed.-

“Oh.”

I lightly extended my fist as a test.

It was light.

I felt lighter than when I recovered my innate qi before.

“Then next…”

This time, I took out the Philosopher’s Stone from the jewelry box kept on the other side.

It was a beautiful stone containing only pure wishes, unlike the cursed Philosopher’s Stone that the Twelve Zodiac had tricked Park Ah-ram with in the original story.

With this, I had everything I needed.

Finally, I looked at the test tube.

A beautiful woman with red hair.

I wasn’t sure if releasing her here would truly be her salvation.

Since it was a buried setting in the original story, I couldn’t be sure what kind of person she would become.

But even if the world was shabbier than she expected, even if she was disappointed and thought it would have been better to stay in her dreams, this seemed right for now.

As I touched the test tube, it started cracking without me even applying force.

-Ah.

Well, it’s a shitty world to live peacefully in, but I’ll try to fix it, so let’s go out and think about it.

And it would be great if you could help me with that.

Ah, right. I had to do that.

“Since I saved you, we’re secret friends now, okay?”

The test tube completely shattered, the liquid inside splashing everywhere, and she, who had her eyes closed, opened them and looked at me.

I made eye contact with her red eyes, the same color as her hair.

“Ah.”

Although it was implanted knowledge, she had intellect and common sense.

She was probably just nervous because this was the first time she had seen another person after such a long time, so she couldn’t speak well.

I was a considerate man.

So I could wait for her precious first words, the first words she would speak in her life, before the collapse began.

“Yes, we’re secret friends.”

Oh, I was glad to get a positive response.

“My…”

Huh?

“Master.”

…No, that’s not what I meant when I said secret friends.

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The person she first met while she was in the test tube.

Thanks to the knowledge implanted in her head from birth, she knew he was her creator.

At first, he had a joyful expression, but soon he despaired, became angry, and then gave up on himself.

Mere seconds after being born.

Even so, possessing a vast amount of knowledge compared to most people, she could understand just by looking into his eyes.

She was a failure, not the one he desired.

Something was fundamentally wrong with her.

It was a distant memory, but she still clearly remembered what he had said to her.

-It’s not your fault.

-Yes, it’s my fault.

-It pains me that I can’t do anything for you, but I can’t endure this anymore.

-Thinking that everything I’ve done so far was in vain, I don’t have the will to do it again.

What should she say?

She had the knowledge that she should comfort him, but since she had just been born, she hadn’t fully learned how to use her body or internalized the knowledge she had gained, so she didn’t know what to do.

-I created you by letting you inherit her soul, so perhaps you can be considered our daughter?

The madman at his limit smiled brightly and cried.

-I’m sorry. I’m so sorry for bringing you into this world like this. I’m sorry I can’t be with you.

He sobbed and swallowed the reagent in his pocket.

The moment she realized it would lead to his death, her heart ached.

That was the end of the first human she had ever met.

No one visited this place after that.

All she could do was organize her knowledge and indulge in delusions.

Would the day come when she would meet another person again?

Would there really be someone out there if she left this place?

Was the knowledge she had from birth truly correct?

Amidst endless doubts and a life where she wasn’t even allowed to end it herself, she started a kind of game.

It was a hobby of imagining the appearance of a visitor who might someday come to this place and imagining conversations with them.

What would they look like?

What would their purpose be for coming here?

Would they be male or female?

Based on the knowledge she had and the information about the hidden room, she concluded:

If they were male, Master.

If they were female, Miss.

It wasn’t difficult to reach the conclusion that these titles would be the easiest way to express her favorable disposition.

There were hardly any men in the books in the library labeled “forbidden” who disliked being called Master.

Similarly, when a female character was called Miss, there were often descriptions of them blushing and implications of reproduction soon after.

But…

…Looking at the expression of the visitor who finally arrived, she wondered if she had learned some incorrect knowledge.

He had said let’s be secret friends, but wasn’t this what it meant?

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T/N – Oh, so he wanted to heal the overdraft his original self accumulated. Logical. I guess getting more innate qi didn’t really fix his body now that I think about it, it only countered his talent’s penalty.

Also, maid getto! Lol at the MC not liking being called “Master”.

If you find any mistakes, feel free to point them out in the comments.