Volume 3 Chapter 19

Volume 3 Chapter 19: Challenges of Transportation

Morning in one of the rooms of the Magic Science Guild, Moka was having a discussion with Sidonius.

「Is it true that you discovered a way to neutralize the poison?」

「Yes. Technically, we succeeded in creating an antidote.」

Hearing Moka’s words Sidonius, who was sitting on the opposite side of the table, became ecstatic.

「That, that is amazing! Let’s immediately use it to cure the God Tree!」

Sidonius was thrilled.

I could understand him, after all, it seemed like the problem that plagued them for a long while was finally solved.

However, I couldn’t bring myself to celebrate. After all—

「However, there is a problem.」

After the test, it didn’t take long for them to create a complete antidote.

Calling Daisy, they managed to finish it in a day.

Most of their theories proved to be correct, so all they had to do is adjust the manufacturing method and it was finished.

At that time guild members also were full of hope.

But after that, they were struck with despair.

「You’ll understand after reading the report over there. ……We did this together with Cosmos-san, so we reached more or less the same conclusion.」

Having said that, Moka pointed to the pile of papers on the table.

Somewhat puzzled, Sidonius opened them, looked, andー

「……I see.」

Looking up to the sky, he breathed a deep sigh.

「This is… Indeed… A huge problem.」

The problem left was so big that even he could notice it at first glance.

「Right? I didn’t think that such a problem is physically possible.」

「Indeed. This is certainly aーHmm?」

Saying that Sidonius furrowed his brows.

「ーーThe last part, here. 『Consulting Axel might provide the possibility of success』is written…… Are those Daisy-dono’s words?」

「Yes. But, I also thought that we should tell Granz-san.」

If someone capable of resolving this problem even exists, it would be legends like Axel and the heroes.

Sidonius agreed with me.

「Yes, I’m of the same opinion. But it might be difficult even for them. Still, we finally came this far. We are just one step away from healing the God Tree. In that case, we should try everything we can.」

「Right. However, we can’t just rely on them for everything, we should think of what we ourselves can do. And in addition, I would like to have a meeting as early as this afternoon, there, we will tell him about the situation. Cosmos-san also was saying that she will call Granz-san to the conference.」

「Agreed. I will also ask him. …We are just a step away. Let’s do our best, Moka-san.」

「Yes. Truly so. Let’s make the last push.」

●

The same day, past noon.

Being told by Sidonius that they want to discuss something up on the tree, I was at one of the rooms of the Magic Science Guild, along with Saki and Berzelia.

A spacious chamber with a round table. Right now, not only Moka and Sidonius were there, but other guild members and knights were also present.

First, Moka bowed slightly to us.

「Thank you for attending the conference of the guild and the order.」

「Yeah, well, coming here is fine. …But, did something happen?」

When I entered the room Moka and Sidonius had pretty grave expressions.

The same could be said about several of the guild members and knights present here.

…Well, I can guess that something bad happened.

Daisy was the only one among them who maintained a composed expression. Perhaps for that reason, Daisy was the one to reply.

「My friend, yesterday, we created an antidote effective for the God Tree. However, it turned into a bit of a delicate situation.」

「Eh, you made an antidote but there is another problem?」

To my question Daisy nodded, both Moka and Sidonius also nodded.

And with that flowー

「First, I want you to look at this.」

Moka placed a certain transparent container before me.

Inside was a pistol-type injector filled with fresh verdure colored liquid.

「This is the antidote produced by our research. Injecting this into the God Tree will remove the poison.」

「Oh, isn’t that great?」

「Yes. thanks to your cooperation we created something amazing. ……Can we use it is another matter entirely.」

「Eh, what do you mean?」

「For now, let me explain everything in order.」

When I suggested that I don’t get what she is trying to say, she brought another transparent case.

Something similar to bark was inside, with black and purple colored things stuck to it.

「This is the poison that currently weakens the God Tree. To make a perfect antidote we need to extract components from this poison and mix them with the medicine. This poison had a certain troublesome feature. …It keeps going through autonomous alterations.」

「Alteration…… So you are saying that it’s composition changes? It’s like a virus-type slime.」

「Correct. So if the poison mutates before we inject the medicine the antidote won’t be fully effective. And if the antidote is not perfect then the poison will once again spread and start plaguing the God Tree anew.」

After saying that, Moka pointed to the poisoned bark.

「This poison mutates every three minutes. In other words, after three minutes, the medicine becomes worthless.」

「Eh, three minutes?…… Can you make the antidote in that time?」

Berzelia asked. I understood her thoughts. From what I’ve heard, all those extractions from poison and such should take a lot of time. The one to answer that question was Daisy.

「I solved that problem!」

Daisy said, slowly approaching me.

「Yes. We owe Cosmos-san for that. At first, making the medicine took all in all fifteen minutes…… But after Cosmos-san helped us with thoughtful optimization and modernization of equipment, we were able to reduce it to only one minute.」

「Ooh, Daisy, that’s amazing!」

To think she was engaged in such activities without me even knowing, I thought, patting Daisy’s head. Thenー

「Ehehehe. Well, knowing that I’ll get such a reward I can do anything.」

She said with a delighted expression. If a problem can be solved by patting then I will pat her as much as she likes. I can’t help but wonder, is it this much of a reward?

And while I kept patting Daisy, Moka looked at her with a slightly awkward smile.

「Really. Cosmos-san was amazing. As a fellow researcher, I have so many points where I can learn from her, this was a very educational collaboration.」

「No no, as long as there is a clear plan for making a medicine, reducing the time to produce it is simple. If it’s not about making something from zero, then a simple look through can help a lot.」

「As a researcher I see it as a terrific boon…… Well, anyway, we managed to reduce the time. ーBut even so. Even if we have time to make a medicine, there is still a problem.」

「There is still something?」

「Rather, it’s where the main problem starts.」

Said that, Moka looked out a window.

Nice scenery that could be seen through it.

「As you can see the God Tree is tall, or to be more precise, colossal. So injecting antidote in just one spot won’t affect the entirety of it. Through we calculated for it and made a fast-spreading medicine…… One spot at the top, two spots near the root, in total, three spots have to be injected.」

Daisy nodded to those words.

「Right. If we inject those three spots the antidote should spread through the tree in time even if we do it at the very last moment. As our calculations showed, that’s the only reliable method.」

「Three spots, huh…… Is that possible time-wise?」

Creating a medicine immediately after the poison mutates will take a minute.

Creating another vial, another minute.

And by the time they make a third one, it’s time up.

「Yes, it’s just as you say, my friend. Even if I do my best, even if members of the magic science guild do their best, we are unable to raise the speed of antidote manufacture any further.」

Saying that Daisy then added.

「However…… To make up for that we did our best and made another machine to produce an antidote.」

「Hm? What do you mean?」

Moka was the one to reply instead of Daisy.

「Cosmos-san dismantled her lab on the lower level, and using those components build the same machine as we have here, as a result, we can make two vials at the same time.」

「But we can’t make the medicine with the ingredients available at the lower level. So it’s nice that we were able to recycle that equipment.」

「Eh, you can’t make it below?」

「Both harvestable raw materials and extractable substances are different after all. And if we try to transport ingredients from the upper floors, the freshness will fall, changing the resulting medicine as well. If can be manufactured only up here.」

So that’s why she dismantled the lab without any reservation and reassembled it. Daisy then added.

「And even so. We exhausted the remaining materials making the second machine, so two vials at a time are the limit.」

「Yes. But Cosmos-san’s help really saved us. Thanks to her cooperation we got to two vials at a time. This solves one problem, but in the end, the difficulty is still there, we still have one spot left. Three minutes…… Or two minutes even, the question is how can we inject the antidote into the roots during that time.」