The Ruthless Earth Mage (9)

I have no positive associations with the word ‘laboratory.’

If I dig a little deeper and replace ‘laboratory’ with ‘lab,’ the impression it gives me is much like what a combat veteran imagines when someone says ‘tent.’

To put it in terms ordinary people can understand, to Nord, the otherworldly master’s student, a laboratory was much like a ‘barracks’ or ‘living quarters.’

It’s not that I have no good memories, but I have more bad ones.

‘Ugh, damn.’

That was why, when I stepped into the black mage’s laboratory with the guildmasters, I was calmer than anyone else.

I wasn’t bothered by the skulls on the table or the wooden barrels that reeked of rotting corpses. I had not the slightest positive expectation of a place called a ‘laboratory.’

“Beyond my expectations.”

Cromwell said, covering his mouth with a handkerchief. It was an incredibly gentlemanly gesture. I felt a little bad for thinking it didn’t suit his face.

─Swish-swish...