Reincarnated as the third son of the Duke-Chapter 116 - Weight of Expectations

116 Weight of Expectations

"Why aren’t you saying anything?"

Heide scowled as he met William’s unblinking gaze.

"It’s common courtesy to introduce yourself when someone gives you their name, you know."

William blinked, snapping out of his thoughts.

He had been too focused on analyzing the man in front of him.

"My apologies," he said smoothly, offering a polite smile. "I am William Hern."

"…Hern?"

Heide’s face stiffened.

"The Hern?"

"I don’t know what the Hern means to you," William said, smirking. "But my family’s crest does feature a lion."

Heide visibly paled.

His posture straightened in an instant, and he quickly bowed his head.

"I-I apologize for my rudeness, my lord! I-I didn’t realize—"

"Relax. I don’t take offense that easily."

"Th-Thank you, my lord!"

"If you’re truly grateful, then why don’t we have a chat?"

"A chat…?"

"About alchemy, of course. And perhaps about the current state of the capital."

William kept his tone light and conversational.

Heide, being the type easily intimidated by power, would likely be eager to cooperate.

And sure enough, the moment he realized this was a chance to redeem himself, he nodded furiously.

"I’ll answer anything you ask, my lord! Please, go ahead!"

William took a moment to consider his questions.

He decided to start with the one he was most curious about.

"What’s the current state of the Alchemist’s Guild?"

"…The guild?"

Heide tilted his head, confused.

"It’s the same as ever."

"No recent developments? No discoveries of new potion formulas or properties of ingredients?"

Heide frowned in thought.

A long moment passed before he shook his head.

"Nothing of the sort. There are always new attempts being made, but they all end in failure. If there had been a breakthrough, I would have heard of it by now."

William nodded slowly, but inwardly, he was unsettled.

’The Alchemist’s Guild should start hoarding moonlight grass in about three months…’

Yet, by Heide’s account, no progress had been made at all.

That didn’t add up.

"If there’s no news from the guild, what about the capital itself? Are people uneasy about the war?"

William changed the subject.

It wasn’t because he particularly needed the information.

Rather, he wanted to gauge Heide’s awareness of the empire’s political climate.

Did he pay attention to current events? Did he care about the shifting tides of power?

Understanding a person’s worldview was one of the best ways to understand them.

If Heide was truly the genius who would one day create Nectar, William would have to recruit him eventually.

Knowing what motivated him would be invaluable.

William’s efforts, however, only led to disappointment.

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’Does this man have any opinions at all?’

Heide’s responses were almost all the same:

"I don’t know."

"I wasn’t paying attention."

"I’m not really interested."

At first, William assumed it was the typical disinterest of a scholar.

Many intellectuals avoided politics, preferring to focus on their research.

But this was different.

A real scholar would still keep track of anything that might affect their field of study.

Heide, however, seemed to have no interest in anything at all.

’This is just complacency. As long as the Imperial funding keeps coming, he doesn’t care about anything else.’

The realization made William’s evaluation of him plummet.

"…Did I say something wrong?"

Heide shrank back slightly at William’s expression.

Only then did William realize his irritation was showing.

"No, nothing like that."

He forced a casual tone.

"I was just getting thirsty."

Heide looked relieved at the excuse, but William himself was less than satisfied.

Even without meaning to, his speech had shifted to a more formal tone—a sign of growing distance.

His opinion of Heide had clearly fallen.

Still, he decided to steer the conversation back to alchemy.

"You mentioned earlier that you make potions yourself. Have you had any notable successes?"

At the mention of his craft, Heide instantly perked up.

"Of course! This is confidential, but I recently made some fascinating discoveries by altering a few potion formulas!"

He was clearly eager to make a good impression again.

William listened as Heide enthusiastically explained his "discoveries."

But the more he talked, the lower William’s expectations became.

’This is nothing but recycled knowledge.’

The changes Heide described weren’t new breakthroughs.

They were minor tweaks to existing potions, slight modifications to known effects.

And worse—

’He doesn’t even start with a hypothesis. He’s just throwing ingredients together at random and watching for reactions.’

William wasn’t an expert in alchemy, but he knew that true research took time.

New potion formulas weren’t discovered through blind trial and error.

Yet that was exactly what Heide was doing.

Was he hiding his true knowledge?

William considered the possibility.

But given how freely he was talking, it seemed unlikely.

’Either he really is just a mediocre alchemist… or he hasn’t had his breakthrough yet.’

William decided to test him one last time.

"There’s something I’d like to ask you."

Heide straightened at the sudden shift in tone.

"What do you think of moonlight grass?"

Hoping against hope, William posed his final question.

Heide tilted his head at the unexpected inquiry but answered without hesitation, his tone utterly sincere.

"Moonlight grass? Just another medicinal herb. Some alchemists try to incorporate it into their formulas, but honestly, it’s a waste of time. There’s no point in re-examining ingredients that have already been thoroughly studied."

"What a pathetic man."

Back in his room, William muttered under his breath, unable to hide his frustration.

The so-called developer of Nectar, Heide Fovor, was nothing.

"A researcher in name only, using Imperial funding as an excuse to conduct pointless experiments, never actually refining his work, just throwing things together at random and hoping for a miracle… And he calls himself a scholar?"

"This is exactly what you should have expected from a standard alchemist," Raymond remarked. "Not really worth getting worked up over."

William let out a bitter laugh.

Raymond had a point—by this era’s standards, Heide was an average alchemist.

Had it not been for his future reputation, William wouldn’t have been disappointed at all.

’If it’s not him, then who is it? More importantly, how did he come to be credited with Nectar’s development?’

If things unfolded as they had in his past life, then in about three months, the Alchemist’s Guild would start stockpiling moonlight grass.

Which meant that by now, they should have already been seeing results.