"Anyway, what happened to your armour?" Azell asked, his eyes genuinely curious.

Yup, that's the cue for us to start our play.

​​

I quickly yet ever so blatantly glanced at Neia. She did the same and we nodded at each other.

Unless Noelle and Azell are blind, they should have noticed that.

Alright, the stage is set. All that's left is to play our part.

"I changed into my regular clothes before coming to meet you."

"Is that so?"

"Yup."

"I see," Azell nodded. "Anyway, this calls for a celebration."

"What?"

Is he seriously thinking of celebrating my action of changing into regular clothes before meeting him?

Just how rude are the people around him that a display of basic courtesy is a cause of celebration for him?

Bruh.

My condolences, Azell.

"Not only did you flawlessly clear your first dungeon, you also created a World Record. It's only natural to celebrate, right?"

"Ah, right."

I knew that, of course. I was just messing around before.

"Noelle, please call everyone from our team."

"Right away."

"Ah, wait," I interjected.

Gotta stop these wankers before they ruin the stage I've set up.

Well, to be perfectly honest, I feel that if I told them that I made an Elixir, these guys will probably go insane and will no longer have the mental capacity to doubt anything I'll say after that.

In other words, I could just say, 'Yea nah, mate, don't celebrate yet, I made a motherfucking Elixir,' and be done with it.

But that would mean letting all my hard work go to waste.

I made a plan and spent all that effort in training Neia within 2 minutes. No way in hell am I letting that go to waste.

Also, I'm bored.

"Yeah?" Azell turned back to me.

"There's something I need to discuss with you."

"Sure, go on."

"In private."

"Oh… why don't you go and prepare the party venue, Noelle?"

"Right away," surprisingly, Noelle relented without so much as a complaint.

Huh, is this woman sick or what?

"As for you, Neia, you can-"

"She has to stay. It's also related to her," I said.

"Alright."

Meanwhile, Noelle left the office while closing the door behind her.

And so, the three of us were the only ones left in the room.

Hmm, but I can't deny the possibility that someone (aka Noelle) is spying on us.

So I snapped my fingers (purely for theatrics as it serves no practical purpose) and erected a sound isolating barrier around us.

"Was that necessary?" Azell's eyes narrowed slightly.

"Very."

"If you say so," he nodded. "So, what did you want to discuss?"

"I'll cut to the chase. I need you to arrange a meeting for me."

"With whom?"

"With all the influential people on our side."

"Hmm?" he frowned. "With all of them?"

"Yes. I want everyone; people who rule this country, masters of the influential guilds and organisations. People who hold sway over politics or whose words can change the public opinion. Basically, anyone you consider important for this war against the Aggressors."

"Why?"

"I'm going to hold a seminar."

"On what?"

"To present the discovery of the millennium."

"Which is…?" he furrowed his brows.

"The one and only, Elixir."

Azell's eyes widened, "An… Elixir?"

"Uh-huh. I have found a way to manufacture it in a laboratory."

Let's see how he'll react.

"Wait, seriously!?" he stood up from his chair with a jolt. "You were able to artificially create an Elixir?"

"Of course."

Does he seriously think that I, a 12-year-old child, would lie to him for petty reasons, like earning his trust or raising my evaluation in his eyes or some shit?

If yes, that would be smart decision making on his part, because that is something a stupid child is very likely to do.

"C-can I see it?"

Oh my, looks like the Elixir is important enough to make even a Regressor excited.

Which makes sense, now that I think about it.

Within the confines of a Class 3 world such as the one we are in (the name of which I still don't know), an Elixir is a divine potion which can bring someone back from the jaws of death.

Of course, even the Elixir cannot resurrect someone, but as long as the person has not crossed the horizon between life and death, the Elixir can heal them with a 100% certainty.

So yea, not sure if I needed to watch Azell's reaction to know that he would be so excited about the prospects of artificially developing it.

But I still hope he will stop being such a baby about it.

"Unfortunately, I don't have it at the moment. The specimen I developed was consumed."

"What? Consumed? What happened that you had to use an Elixir?" his eyes widened.

"That doesn't matter. What's important is I know how to create it."

"No, wait, wait, wait," he waved his hands to stop me. "Seriously, just what happened that you were forced to consume your only Elixir?"

As expected, even Azell simply cannot ignore my statement which implies that we were in a situation that forced us to use a motherfucking Elixir.

"Like I said, it doesn't matter."

"It does, Samur," Azell's eyes narrowed dangerously. "Tell me. What happened."

"I refuse."

Time for Neia to enter the stage.

The household Dragon, by the way, was sweating as her eyes refused to meet Azell's gaze.

"Oh, you're incorrigible!" Azell let out an exasperated sigh. "You tell me, Neia. What exactly went wrong in the dungeon?"

Oh, so he's already assuming that something went wrong.

I mean, he's right, but I seriously hope he can stop jumping to conclusions.

"I-it was just a small accident. You don't need to worry."

Your acting is perfect, Neia.

By which I mean she's not going to win an Oscar anytime soon.

"Yeah, an accident small enough to make you use an Elixir," Azell scoffed.

"W-we…" Neia closed her eyes and took a deep breath to calm herself down. "Samur just wanted to confirm the effects of the Elixir. It was nothing serious."

"If it was nothing serious, why are you hiding it?"

"We are not hiding it," Neia replied while looking him straight in the eyes.

She's doing better than I expected.

"Then tell me. What happened?"

"A-a monster in hiding attacked Samur and he got injured," Neia averted her gaze. "He used the Elixir to treat his injury because he wanted to test its effects."

"Hmm…" Azell scowled at us.

Then he circled around his desk and stood in front of Neia, staring into her eyes as the latter tried to avoid his probing gaze.

"Well, there you have it," I acted my part and tried to divert his attention.

"You're lying."

"What?"

Welcome to trap, Azell.