Episodes 113. Madu Haran

In a house as big as a classroom, Haran led me inside without offering any hospitality. She immediately guided me to a hidden staircase in her home.

I had expected a hidden place, but why here...?

What I meant by "why in a place like this" was that the location used to camouflage the staircase to this hidden room was rather odd.

How could it not be, since that place was...

"Why in the toilet?" I asked with a blank expression.

"Hahaha, because no one would expect it will be here!"

"What about the smell?"

"Don't worry... I've separated the two places, so the smell and the fragrance are quite different even though they are next to each other..."

"Ahh---"

I couldn't argue with Haran; it turns out that when this person does something strange, the strangeness continues. Her level of weirdness is already at the peak of strangeness, more strange than the strange itself.

How many times have I said the word strange?

Oh my... Why am I becoming strange too?

Click!

Haran touched a hidden water tap located behind the toilet door.

Then...

Sleessh...

The toilet room split in two, revealing a step of stairs leading down to a fairly dark underground.

At the end of the stairs was a metal door that seemed to only open with an ID card belonging to that woman.

"Let's go...!"

"Hmm (nodding)..."

Haran started descending the stairs while I followed behind her. Not because I was a coward... It's just that I wouldn't be able to open the door if I were in front. The staircase only allowed one person to pass at a time.

CTACK CTACK CTACK!

The room was so small and quiet that even our steps sounded loud.

Click!

The ID card Haran used was accepted by the detector, and the metal door swung open wide.

When I entered, I saw an all-white room filled with glass equipment.

If someone was careless even slightly, they might make Haran very angry because they would have broken the glassware, which meant they had also ruined the woman's experiment.

"Welcome to Madu Haran's Lab, where everything is well organized..."

Haran stretched her arms up, showing a grin on her face in her all-white lab, adorned with neatly arranged glass equipment.

"So Sis Haran loves white, huh?"

"Hah? I like white? Don't be foolish, I chose white so that when I turn on the light, the room becomes instantly bright."

"Oh, hahaha..."

I forgot that she's strange... So, I need to think strangely too.

"So, with this neat equipment, do you sort it because you're forgetful?"

Here it is, my strange thought... But I bet her answer will be even stranger.

It's impossible she will say she likes neatness, and more impossible if she has OCD.

"My cute junior, are you insulting me?" She looked at me with sharp eyes but didn't lose her grinning smile.

"Uh... Then why?"

Am I wrong, or is my guess not strange enough?

"Hah (sighing)... Didn't you realize it when we were at the parking lot under the flyover earlier?"

"Realize what?"

The previous incident made me angry, so I didn't pay attention to my surroundings.

Did I miss something there?

"Oh right, I remember you were daydreaming when I parked the car earlier..."

Haran held her forehead and shook her head.

"Did I miss something?"

"Let me explain directly, I-I'm (averting her eyes from me)..."

For some reason, I felt a warm aura on Haran's face as she wanted to say that. Her face was red like a fresh tomato in the field.

"I actually have OCD..." She said shyly, playing with her wrist.

"Huh..."

I stood still, rooted to the spot like a fool who had just been bombarded with math, chemistry, physics, and biology lessons all at once.

Why was my last guess, the one I thought wouldn't appear, correct?

Okay, whatever is in my mind is never right with what's in Haran's head.

By the way, I remember she kept explaining something this morning that's still in my mind. But now, it seems it's replaced with the fact that all my guesses about her are wrong.

Is she a mind reader or what?

But fortunately, she no longer seemed angry at me.

Her silent stare on the street earlier really scared me.

"F-forget about that! L-let's get straight to the point...!"

Haran led me to a 100ml laboratory measuring tube.

There, eight tubes were lined up, ready to be filled with a shard of magic from the Anitya users.

However, now that she has found the right person who can even fill all of them at once, without having to pay more people with suitable Anitya.

"Well, my junior... Now release each of your elements one by one according to the picture(mark icon) at the end of the tube hole."

She pointed to the hole where I would release my magic later. There was a symbol of an element there, and I had to insert it according to that symbol.

Without thinking, I did what the woman wanted. Even though I really didn't want to do this, because it was my way of apologizing, I had no choice but to do it.

A fire symbol was the first element in that tube.

The water symbol was the second element.

The lightning symbol was the third element.

The ice symbol was the fourth element.

The earth symbol was the fifth element.

The black stone (dark) symbol was the sixth element.

The yellow orb (light) symbol was the seventh element.

The gold coin symbol was the eighth element.

As I looked at it, it seemed Haran didn't need the wind element because this experiment changed various elements to wind, so the wind element wasn't included.

Wait, what's the gold coin element?

"Sis Haran, what's the eighth element?"

I reflexively asked, filled with questions when I saw it.

"That? Isn't that the gold element? Like Xander used back then..."

It seems the combo attack Xander performed at that time still left questions for many people about whether the combination of light×light that turned into gold was an element or not.

If it wasn't debated, Haran wouldn't bother putting a tube with a gold symbol in it.

"Am I wrong or something?" Haran immediately gave me a sharp look, as if she knew I had the answer she was looking for.

"It seems there's nothing I can hide from Sis Haran..." I will be honest. "Gold is not an element, but merely a regular elemental reaction..." With this, she should understand and continue the experiment as usual.