After Alice returned to Ethan’s mansion, she let him know that she wanted to do her mana baptism observations now. Ethan stopped what he was doing, wrote a few letters, and gave them to his servants, before excusing himself. This left Alice alone with her thoughts.

Alice figured she could get her first round of observations underway, and then later today she could use {Broken Magic Seed} and {Expanding Comprehension} to investigate more about System magic seeds.

On some level, she found it a little grim that she knew the man she was going to observe today would likely die, and she was already making plans for how to cope with it and move on with her day.

At the same time, since the person was going to undergo a baptism either way, there wasn’t much Alice could do about it. Sure, if the reason this person was going through a mana baptism was poverty, she could save him from the risk of a baptism by giving him a bunch of money. That might remove his motivation for undergoing a baptism and possibly save his life. However, she couldn’t do the same for however many hundreds of people went for a baptism in Illvaria every year. And while Alice’s salary from Ethan was quite high, Alice certainly couldn’t support all of the impoverished people of Illvaria by herself. The best way for her to make a real impact on people’s lives would be to find a way to make mana baptisms safer.

And even though Alice knew this on an intellectual level, she still felt quite bad about the observations she was about to do. Finding a way to make mana baptisms safer would benefit the entire country, and probably the entire human race if the innovation spread. But Alice would still need to watch a man fight for his life first. And he would probably die afterwards.

Alice wondered how many members of the Society felt the same way about their own experiments. Some members of the Society were clearly in it for themselves, but Alice was beginning to wonder if their leadership had a different goal in mind. She seriously doubted the average member of the Society cared about anything besides the massive Levels and economic advantages human experimentation and expedited research breakthroughs could give them; the behavior of the few Society members she had met persuaded her of that fact well enough. However, based on the strange behavior of some of the higher ups that they had found recorded in Society documents, such as the leadership’s increasingly urgent demands that the Society of Starry Eyes investigate dimensional floods, Alice wondered if the leadership of the Society might work for their own twisted version of the greater good. At least in their minds, they might be sacrificing their own morals for the sake of humanity, ignoring their own conscience to do what they thought was right.

And in some sense, at least, the experiment Alice would do today was a step in the same direction.

Which was a terrible feeling.

She swallowed, and pushed that thought away. The difference was that she asked for consent first in her experiment, and had members of the ethics committee here to make sure her experiment today was justified. While this experiment may have some superficial similarities with the way the Society members acted, it was also vastly different from kidnapping a four year old and trying to see if they died or not in a wildly unsafe experiment. Or kidnapping someone like Samantha and ripping out her organs over and over again to investigate what made them unique.

Alice wasn’t even forcing the man to undergo a mana baptism; he was free to change his mind at any time and walk away. She was only paying him to change the spot where he went through his baptism. But despite her logical mind pointing out all of the differences between her actions and those of the Society, a certain uneasy feeling remained in her gut.

As Alice stewed in her thoughts, a group of three people knocked on the door to Ethan’s manor. Alice swallowed a hint of nervousness as she heard the sound, and realized that she was finally about to come face to face with some members of the Ethics Committee. After a few moments, a [Maid] opened the door to reveal three people. They walked in, before giving Immortal Ethan respectful greetings, and then giving Alice a more perfunctory one.

One of them was a middle aged lady, who looked fairly attractive despite her aging appearance. Alice wondered how high her [Charisma] was, but didn’t think much further about the subject. The middle-aged Mage also seemed to be the lowest level member of the group; she was decidedly average in level.

Apart from the middle-aged woman, there was an old man who looked to be at least 60 years old. He wore a pair of spectacles that shone with rainbow mana, making Alice wonder what the spectacles actually did. Based on the flow of rainbow mana, Alice was vaguely guessing that they boosted perception, or perhaps gave the man access to a few vision-related Perks. He was around level 60 or 65, based on Alice’s estimation, and had an amiable grin on his face as he greeted both her and Ethan. He seemed to be the most obviously friendly member of the group. However, something about his smile made Alice think that he wasn’t genuinely glad to see her or Ethan; he was simply trying to be polite and appear amiable.

The final woman was the highest level of the three, probably somewhere in her low-eighties. She was also the youngest of the three, and appeared to be somewhere in her late thirties. Her [Charisma] was barely over 100. Given her age and Level, combined with her low [Charisma], Alice assumed she didn’t like socializing much. The woman had a distinct frown on her face as she looked at Alice and Ethan, and for a moment, Alice wondered if she had done something to offend the woman. Unlike the other two Mages, the younger Mage also had a clipboard with her, and was carefully inspecting a few sheets of paper as she walked into the room.

After the other two Mages finished greeting Ezrien, the youngest female Mage finally looked up from her papers, before she frowned at both Alice and Ethan. She gave Ethan a shallow respectful nod, before finally speaking.

“I understand you’re the one responsible for this experiment today?” She asked. Alice was surprised that the youngest Mage, and the one with the lowest [Charisma], was the first one to speak. Perhaps she had more authority in this group, due to her higher Level?

Alice saw rainbow mana surge into the woman’s eyes, and realized the female Mage was probably using a lie-detection Perk on her.

“Yes, I am, Lady…” Alice trailed off. She didn’t know the name of any of the three.

“I am Lady Etria,” she said, frowning. Her tone was cold and clipped; not quite disapproving, but certainly not approving, either. Alice was a little surprised by how neutral her tone sounded. Even though Lady Etria had been frowning at her and Ethan the whole time so far, she didn’t actually sound hostile when she spoke. She just seemed distant and businesslike.

“Since you’re the one who initiated this experiment, I need you to read these statements out loud, if you please,” said Lady Etria.

She handed Alice a very long list of Statements.

Alice scanned over it, taking a look at the many, many, many Statements on the list, before she glanced at the other two Mages who were standing in the hallway. All three of them now had rainbow mana around their eyes, clearly ready to truth-check any statements she made while reading through the statements.

Alice nodded. It was her first time seeing members of the Ethics Committee of Metsel, but she was more than a little curious about how cold and professional they seemed. The two older Mages didn’t even bother introducing themselves before getting right to business. And they didn’t seem to care about Ethan’s presence at all. While they were here due to Ethan’s influence, they clearly wouldn’t let even an Immortal get in the way of their job. Alice actually felt a bit better about her experiment now; seeing how rigorous the Ethics Committee was, and how little attention they paid to Immortal Ethan, Alice seriously doubted they would let the experiment go through if they felt it was wrong, even if Immortal Ethan was backing her up.

“I am not coercing any participants in this experiment in any way, shape, or form to participate in this experiment. I have no intention of forcing anyone to participate in this experiment in the future, and have no intention of violating any moral boundaries with my research. The participant in today’s observation experiment was, to the best of my knowledge, already going to undergo a mana baptism on his own, with or without my intervention, and the only thing I changed was the place in which he was going to do so…”

On and on the list went. Alice spent nearly three full minutes reading through list of statements, until finally, she reached the end of the piece of paper.

And then, on a hunch, Alice turned it over, only to find a second list of statements, just as long as the first one. Alice read through the second list of statements under the watchful eyes of the Ethics Committee members who had come specifically to oversee her experiment.

When Alice finally finished reading all of them, the two older Mages relaxed. The younger Mage retained her cold and clipped tone, but she at least stopped explicitly frowning at Alice and Ethan.

“Very well then. We may proceed.”

Alice nodded, and looked at Ethan, who simply gestured towards a nearby [Maid]. Seeing the group was finished with the first set of lie detection statements, the [Maid] quickly led the way to another room.

Inside, Alice could see the room that Ethan had set up for her experiment. A specific region of the room was isolated from the rest of the room by a few enchantments, which kept mana inside of the enchanted area. Nearby, a few other enchantments were set up to flood the region with mana the moment they were activated, and after analyzing the Enchantments for a few moments, Alice realized that they would quickly make the mana density of the enchanted area high enough to trigger a baptism within a few minutes.

And sitting inside of this region of the room was a teenager, perhaps seventeen years old. He only had one hand; his right hand was completely missing from the wrist down. Alice was more than slightly surprised to see someone with such a crippling injury; she had grown used to the wonders of Organic Magic, and for an [Organic Mage], healing a debilitating injury like a missing arm wasn’t too difficult. However, after a moment, Alice realized why the boy was missing an arm. [Organic Mages] were expensive. And based on the boy’s demeanor and attire, Alice assumed he had come from the slums. He was likely unable to afford treatment.

The teenager was looking at the room with large, nervous eyes, as a nearby [Psychiatrist] spoke with him in what might be his final moments. Alice assumed Ethan had hired the [Psychiatrist] before the experiment began, as a way to make sure the boy was really determined to go through with this experiment, and also as a way to calm him down if need be. She mentally kicked herself for not thinking of something similar. Luckily, Ethan had done it for her this time.

Alice took another deep breath as she looked at the boy. She just hoped she wasn’t about to witness him fail his baptism and die, even though there was a 96% chance that was exactly what was going to happen.

“We have finished questioning Lady Alice about this experiment, and found no problems. We must also ask the one who is about to undergo the baptism a series of questions, to ensure no foul play is at hand. Are you prepared to answer our questions?” asked the older male Mage, turning his attention to the teenage boy. “Please bear in mind that we will be checking all of your statements for lies.”

The teenager looked at Ethan, and then at Alice and the other three Mages. He shuffled anxiously for a few moments, before he gritted his teeth and nodded. “Please feel free to ask me as many questions as you like, Sir Mage. My little brother is counting on me, so I’m willing to do whatever I need to for him.”

Following that, the Mages started to run the teenager through a list of questions. The list was nearly as extensive as the one Alice had been forced to read, and covered almost every situation imaginable. It included questions such as whether the teenager was being forced or coerced into the situation, as well as more open ended questions such as what specific motivation had led the teenager to join the experiment. Even questions like his name, background, and what kinds of work he had tried to do before joining this experiment were included. Alice learned a wide variety of facts about the teenage boy in the short period of time the Ethics Committee questioned him.

His name was Tavi. He had a younger brother who didn’t have enough food to eat, and had even acquired the {Malnourished} Achievement recently. He had lost his arm in an accident while working at a [Butcher]’s shop, which had led to a huge downward spiral for both him and his younger brother. The two of them no longer had parents, since they had been lost in a monster attack several years ago.

Alice tried not to think too much about the fact that Tavi might die soon.

After several minutes of questions and answers, the Mages finally finished asking the teenager questions. Since the answers were to their satisfaction, Alice swallowed another great, big gulp of nervousness. The more she knew about Tavi, the more she hoped he would live through his baptism. She hesitated, wondering if she should just ask Ethan to give Tavi some money for his brother and send the boy away. Watching him die would leave a sour taste in her mouth. But after a few moments, Alice steeled her heart.

The experiment could begin. And now that the time had come, Alice wasn’t sure if she was ready for this at all. But if she wanted to learn how to make mana baptisms safer, she needed information. And this was the most ethical way she could think of to learn more, even if it didn’t feel great.

“Is everything ready?” Asked Ethan, turning to Alice. “Do you need any last minute modifications?” Alice shook her head. She prepared to use {Lesser Organic Vision} in conjunction with her various mana-sight related abilities, and turned to the teenage boy.

“Are you completely sure you’re willing to do this?” Asked Alice. “This is your last chance to back out. If you change your mind right now, you can still leave. Nobody will have a problem with you just walking out the door and forgetting about all of this.”

The teenage boy’s voice shook for a moment, but he still croaked out his answer.

“I am. Start it please, Lady Mage.”

“If you’re really sure, we’ll hit the switch and start your baptism. You’ll have a 96% chance of dying afterwards, and nothing I do will be able to save you from that point onwards. Are you absolutely sure you’re willing go through with this?”

“Yes, Lady Mage. Please start.”

Alice hesitated one final time, before she nodded, and a [Maid] activated the enchantments on the boy’s half of the room. Mana started flooding the area near the teenage boy, rapidly flooding the area and filling it with mana.

For better or for worse, Alice’s mana observation experiment had begun.