Chapter 55: The Sinister Plot of First Mage Diggory
Translated by XianPiete
"You have no talent for this, boy, just give it up." First Mage Diggory chuckled at Guy.
Guy frowned hard looking at the bubbling mess that poured out of his cauldron. Guy rubbed his temple and said, "I did exactly what you did, why did I have a different result?"
Diggory laughed and then asked, "Oh? You did exactly what I did, did you?" He snorted and laughed again, "Alright, lets do it together at the same time. I will use the exact pot and ingredients that you used, and you will used the exact pot and ingredients I have been using. Sound fair?"
Guy nodded and then switched places with Diggory who dumped Guy's cauldron into the sink and washed it out carefully. Diggory said to Guy, "Now, do exactly as I do, when I do, if you don't you'll end up with another cauldron of trash." He looked over at Guy and said, "Watch your flame, you have it too high!"
Together they added ingredients one at a time, stirring their pots identically from time to time Diggory would call out to Guy that his flame was wrong, and then Diggory smiled and said, "Now carefully tip your cauldron into the jar, you should have a thin light blue liquid that has the faint smell of berries."
Guy said, "Mine is green and smells like feet."
"You have no talent for this, boy, just give up. You have already ruined fifty batches." Diggory sighed and then said, "How can you be such a genius at nearly everything and yet still be the worst Alchemist in the history of Alchemy?"
Guy frowned and said, "This would be easier if I had an electric stove with temperature control."
"It would be easier if you paid attention to what you were doing is more like it!" Diggory frowned as scolded Guy. Then he looked around and asked, "Have all the women left for the day?"
Guy nodded. Diggory then rubbed his hands together and cackled. He ran to a cupboard and moved a beaker that was way in the back causing the cabinet to reveal a hidden doorway. He looked at Guy and said, "Never reveal what you see here today my boy, now, come see what I have created!"
Guy looked a little irritated but followed behind Diggory. He found that behind the cabinet was a long hallway that lead to another hidden room similar to the one they had been in. This room was behind the clock face that was on the front of the Tower of Magic. It turned out that the clock face was in fact a two way mirror that let Diggory see out but others could not see in to. Guy started rubbing his temple knowing that what Diggory was planning to show him was something illegal and unethical.
Diggory walked over to a box on the table and said, "Come look at this, I call it an autopainter! With it, I have been able to capture images of beauty all over the campus. Here look! Diggory pointed to a wall with a number of pictures on it of girls all over the campus taken from the Tower. Most of them were blurry but a few came out very nice. They were all a sort of goldish brown.
Guy looked a little surprised, "Oh, it seems you have figured out how to make a rudimentary camera, very good First Mage. This is an important invention." He smiled and said, "In my world, cameras ended up being small enough you could hold them in your hand. We could take full color pictures and even motion pictures."
Diggory ran over and grabbed Guy by the lapels, "D-did you just say motion pictures? Like recorded scenes of them moving in real time?"
Guy nodded and said, "I am not sure what you are using to make your autopainter, but I will give you a few hints to try and add color, try thinking in terms of Yellow, Magenta and Cyan, you can also add in Black and by overlapping those colors create the majority of colors the eye can see."
Diggory nodded and then wrote himself a note and then asked, "About the motion picture you stated?"
Guy nodded and said, "Let me show you something, let me have a stack of paper." Diggory nodded and gave him a stack of paper. Guy then started making small marks on the bottom corner of each piece of paper until he got to the bottom of the stack. Then he waved Diggory over and flipped the corner of the stack of paper showing Diggory a ball that bounced up and down.
Diggory gasped in surprise, he flipped it himself several times at various speeds and whispered, "You really are a genius, a genius beyond geniuses."
Guy shook his head and said, "What I am showing you is the common sense of my own world. This represents centuries of research, trial and error. If I were the genius you think I am, I would be able to have invented a working camera myself based on the knowledge I have of how better ones work, right."
Diggory nodded and then said, "Very well, then let me tell you what my master plan will be... I intend to use the autopainter to capture images from inside the women's bathhouses." He cackled excitedly.
Guy frowned and said, "First Mage I am afraid I can't allow that. It is immoral, unethical and down right disturbing."
Diggory wiggled his bushy eyebrows and then asked, "Would you care to see Sixth Mage Doreen's before and after picture when she trialed the beauty potion? She was willing to be completely nude, you know."
Guy stammered, "C-c-completely?"
Diggory shrugged his shoulders and said, "If you don't want to see them I'll understand."
"Wait! I mean, for research purposes, maybe I should at least see if I can spot the differences, I mean, in the name of research." Guy blushed and tried his best not to look eager.
Diggory cackled and then motioned for Guy to come close. He lifted up a box and then opened it up when suddenly Madeline's voice sounded, "Wow, I never knew this was here. What are you guys looking at?"
A moment later Doreen said, "See I told you he had a secret room."
Alicia's voice said, "Oh! I want to see too!"
Madeline peeked over Guy's shoulder as Diggory slammed the box shut and smiled at her, "We were just looking at Doreen's before and after pictures from her test on the beauty potion, Guy was offering suggestions on how I could add color to pictures with my autopainter."
Doreen giggled and then said, "I was totally naked for the pictures, you ladies want to see?"
Madeline turned and glared daggers at Guy who gave Doreen a help me please expression. Doreen dragged Alicia and Madeline over to see the pictures saying, "Look at how remarkable some of the differences are, see? It even cleared up some moles and gave my breasts a bit of an augmentation here and here. Oh, Madeline, you'll like this, see here. I added a couple of inches where it mattered."
Alicia and Madeline got sucked into the pictures so Diggory motioned for Guy to run out while they were distracted. Guy gave Diggory a bow and then retreated quickly. Doreen glanced over after Guy had left and giggled before saying, "You guys should try the potion too, Alicia it did wonders for my flabby belly and thighs, look here." She then said to Madeline, "Look it even helped with unwanted hair here and here, see? I think you would both benefit."
Madeline asked, "But do we have to do these pictures? I don't want anyone other than Guy seeing these things."
Doreen shrugged and said, "I didn't mind, because I wanted to know exactly what changed about my body and also, I kind of felt empowered being naked." She giggled. "I am just odd that way though, just take the potion, the pictures aren't mandatory."
They both blurted out, "I'll take it!"
Doreen smiled and said, "Great, how about we bring it to the bathhouse, I can observe your body changes for you and let you know what changed." She giggled.
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