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Chapter 26: The Royal Alchemist

Translated by XianPiete

Guy woke up early in the morning and turned over only to see the grumpy face of the Doctor. Guy stared at the Doctor for at least a minute before he gruffly asked, "Why are you here?"

The Doctor replied in an annoyed voice, "That Prince of yours grabbed me right out of the Tavern."

Guy closed his eyes and then took a deep breath before asking, "No, why are you in my room staring at me while I sleep."

The Doctor replied in a hurt voice, "The little flat board girl tossed me out." He shook his fist, "She had no consideration for my research at all!"

Guy started to look for his sword.

*****

Claude, Alicia and Duke Taillefer\'s rangers harassed the battalion of Lotharios for two days chasing them back into El Pais de Lotharios territory. The rangers ended up with only a single wounded and one dead due to an unlucky arrow sent during the initial attack. The battalion limped back without its leader and more than half it\'s number injured or killed including the loss of seven of the twelve knights. When they returned to the County of Rouvroy they were out of arrows, food and water or they may have inflicted even more losses on the retreating army.

At the trail head they found that Count Rouvroy had not been idle, he had constructed a fortified position with sharpened logs in an earthen mound with arrow towers. A long pit was dug in the ground in front of the towers to stop charging knights. The two knights sent by Duke Taillefer were no where to be seen but the volunteers and force from the keep were prepared for a large scale confrontation. A signal fire was prepared in case a reinforcement force from the keep was needed.

Once Claude, Alicia and the rangers were behind the defensive position Claude explained the last three days of their encounter. Count Rouvroy frowned and said, "To send such a large force, it seems that the food shortages on the other side of the Montagnes d\'ordures must be severe, or..." His father frowned rubbing his cheek anxiously, "I sent for reinforcements from Duke Taillefer, those two lazy pigs left with the scout. We might be facing some real trouble this time. If another force was sent around the long way to meet up with this battalion we could be looking at a siege." He looked out over the plains to the East and called out, "Paul, get back to town, ring the alarm bell. Get the town into the keep. Claude, you keep a force here and prepare in case that troop you harassed turns around. I\'ll take a part of this group back to the keep and prepare for a siege. Claude, if that happens, we\'ll light the signal fire. I want you to go meet up with the Duke\'s messenger, if he couldn\'t send anyone, you\'ll go get help from the capital. We can hold the keep for fourteen days, Claude. That\'s enough time to get to the capital, have a day to arrange a siege relief force and return."

Claude nodded and said, "I understand father, and if a force hits us here?"

"I want you to handle it as best as you can, if it looks like you\'ll be over run, retreat to the keep." The Count said in an anxious yet confident tone.

*****

Olivier was already waiting in his office when Guy, Madeline and the Doctor arrived. Olivier smiled and said, "Ah, royal alchemist Diggory, it is good to see you again."

Madeline and Guy turned around looking for the royal alchemist. The Doctor frowned and said, "He meant me, brats." Diggory rubbed his backside and complained, "These two brats nearly killed me, your royal highness."

"I woke up and you were staring at me, why would you enter a young lady\'s bedroom at night?" Madeline complained in return.

Alchemist Diggory raised a finger and calmly explained, "Research! The other brat knows about it. This one chased me with a sword!" He pointed angrily at Guy.

"Reflex." Guy explained.

Olivier rubbed the bridge of his nose and then said, "Royal alchemist Diggory, the reason I called for you, is that Lord Montfort, Lady d\'Aumont and I have successfully used magic."

"By accident like me, or you mean that you were able to decipher the books?" Diggory\'s bushy eyebrows wiggled excitedly.

Guy smiled and then said, "I can read these books. All of them, and now Madeline and Olivier can also read them."

"Great bee\'s honey! You mean to say, that any spell out of these books can be used?" Diggory\'s face turned red from excitement. "Can I be taught?"

"Royal alchemist Diggory, we were hoping we can hear what happened with your own research." Olivier calmly asked.

"Oh! My research, yes, yes of course!" Diggory closed his eyes, his bushy eyebrows wiggled as he thought, "I have found that the blonds and the brunettes have the nicer figures, but the red heads have this aura that ma..."

"No, royal alchemist, your research with magic. We know that Wütendes Menschenreich is able to use the spell bless, and the spell gate." Olivier sighed in annoyance.

Diggory looked more serious than they had ever seen him, walked over and sat down heavily. He looked up and said, "Your father gave this very assignment to your brother, Prince Andre. Myself, the former head of the great library, the former Chairman of the Academy and several other scholars were handed these same stacks of books and told that we were to figure out how the ancient wizards used the spells. Each of us were given several of the books and tried anyway we could think of to make them work. I approached magic from the angle of Alchemy. I thought it might require some type of reagent to work. I tried everything from blood to rare herbs. When I was pulling my hair out in frustration one night I blurted out one of the words from the book, Bless. The next thing I knew, I had the strength of ten men."

He sighed and then scratched his head, Guy asked,"Doctor, if you activated the spell, why couldn\'t you use the other spells in the books?"

He laughed and ran his hand through his hair, "I couldn\'t be sure what combination of things caused it to work. I was so frustrated when it happened that my notes were incomplete. I had been awake for two days straight. Prince Andre had us under an unimaginably short deadline. I falsified my results. I said that I was able to use the spell by combining certain reagents, memorizing the spell and saying the word, Bless."

Guy nodded and then asked, "And the Gate spell?"

Diggory shook his head and said, "The Prince thought I was making it up, so he asked me to research a random spell, he flipped open a book and put his finger on the first one he saw." He laughed, "I just followed the same set of procedures and failed over and over until I finally just cried out the word Gate from the spell, and it worked. I had no idea why it worked. I couldn\'t reproduce it the same way each time, but when I needed it, it worked in front of Prince Andre."

Olivier asked, "Why was His Majesty told that the experiments were a total failure?"

"Prince Andre took all of our research materials, he said he was turning it over to a more advanced team. The rest of us were fired from our positions and treated as laughingstocks. I was ruined as an Alchemist and was forced to work as a doctor. The current head of the Academy knew me and gave me a job there." Diggory sighed.

Olivier slammed his fist on the desk, "I\'m sorry everyone, I need to speak to His Majesty, I\'ll be back. Royal alchemist Diggory, I promise you, you are still a royal alchemist. I will make this right for you."

After Olivier stormed out, Diggory looked at Guy and Madeline and said, "Please, it would mean a lot to me, what is the secret?"

Guy and Madeline smiled at each other and then pointed at him and said, "Water Balloon."