Chapter 24

****

After taking a sip of the tea that Laura offered, Filina opened her mouth with a gasp.

“You don’t have enough ingredients?”

Hugh, sitting across from her, scratched his forehead with a humble look.

“Originally, the general materials were managed by apprentice wizards. But I didn’t know it would be this much.”

He raised a corner of his mouth with a look of embarrassment.

It was just yesterday that Filina promised Hugh one wish as collateral if he made a potion.

It was said that it takes an average of four days to make potions if calculated by the aging period. He said he could prepare it before the entrance ceremony of the Swordsmanship Academy.

However, suddenly, less than four days later, he visited Filina’s mansion and uttered the most outrageous words.

Filina let out a small sigh.

“How much are you lacking? Is it hard to get?”

“If it’s so easy, why did I come to you to tell you? At any rate, the most urgent items are the mermaid’s tears and the Avarance flowers, but these two are complicated to obtain.”

“Then, what should we do? We don’t have much time, do we?”

Filina frowned.

“I don’t care if it’s a little less effective, just make another potion.”

Hugh shook his head at her words, looking somewhat puzzled.

“No.”

Filina frowned at his determined voice.

“I don’t know why not. I still have one left that you made before anyway, and honestly, I don’t need a potion that strong.”

The potion Hugh had made was for emergency use, and one bottle was enough.

In fact, it was so powerful that she couldn’t handle it well.

If there was a potion that could be used more casually, that seemed to be more useful.

“I made it very clear before.”

Hugh shrugged his shoulders lightly and opened his mouth.

“You won’t be satisfied if you take something else.”

Filina’s brows wrinkled.

“That’s why I’m asking you a favor, not any other wizard. There must be something you can make with the ingredients you have now. Or give me what you’re selling right now.”

“No, that’s not what I meant.”

Huey, who had been speaking in a calm voice at her words, continued to speak.

“If you take the potion I made only once, it will cause an addiction. It’s a kind of tolerance, but if the level is lower than the one you originally took, it won’t have any effect. The least side effect is to keep taking the same thing.”

“What do mean addiction?

Filina had never heard that term before.

She felt a strange sense of unease and took a moment to catch her breath.

Then she turned to Hugh and asked cautiously.

“So what is the level of the potion I drank?”

He raised his lips in a thin line and answered.

“Almost the highest level.”

“…How many potions will be effective from now on if they are top level?”

“…Very seldom.”

“?”

Filina looked at Hugh with suspicion in her eyes, wondering if she had heard wrong.

His red eyes folded neatly into a crescent pattern.

‘Is he joking?’

Otherwise, he wouldn’t smile so brightly, letting out such an out-of-the-blue voice. Filina managed a smile and parted her lips.

“Are you playing with me?”

Hugh erased his smiling face and recited it sadly.

“Unfortunately, it’s true.”

Filina felt her blood pressure rise. Her head was throbbing with pain.

After all, his words meant that Filina had reached the limit of the potions she could use, and for the time being, he couldn’t even make them due to lack of materials.

She muttered in a sighing voice.

“Ha, should I go to the temple?”

‘Wouldn’t attending mass help me control the stress that is building up so much?’

Hugh replied with a noble look on his face as he shook his head.

“No, I’m against it. I don’t get along with people who are religious.”

“Your opinion doesn’t matter.”

Filina said coldly. Then she sighed and asked helplessly.

“Then how long will it take you to get the missing materials?”

Filina said further in a lowered voice.

“The exam result will be announced soon. I don’t know if I’ll be able to get into the military academy on my own, but the problem will be you.”

Hugh asked with a strange look on his face.

“Why me?”

Filina frowned in frustration.

“You applied to the military academy, didn’t you? It’s the same as living in a camp, isn’t it? You won’t be able to make potions there.”

Filina said irritably while roughly flipping her red hair.

“What kind of idea did someone like the Magic Tower Lord have to support that place in the first place?”

Hugh replied with a faint smile.

“I’ll answer that later. Please get to know each other better than we do now.”

In his safe voice, Filina nodded as if to say do as you please. Hugh, who had been staring at her intently, tilted his head and said.

“And just because I’m in camp doesn’t mean I can’t make potions.”

Filina raised her eyebrows.

“What do you mean? Don’t tell me you’re secretly making potions at the academy?”

Hugh stared at Filina and smirked.

“You haven’t forgotten that I’m a wizard, have you?”

“If I forgot that, why am I having this conversation with you?”

“Well then, use your brain and think about it. How can a wizard make potions while living in a camp?”

Filina looked at Hugh with a disgruntled look, then quickly asked in a curt voice,

“What, are you going to travel through space?”

He lifted his lips and smiled at the words she had just spat out.

“You’re right. So you don’t have to worry about making potions.”

She looked inwardly mystified.

‘While I’ve been back five times now, this is the first time I’ve come face to face with a wizard.’

“For now, the key is to get the materials as quickly as possible.”

Filina, who got up from her seat as if the conversation was finished, looked at Hugh and asked,

“Are you going to look for the ingredients now?”

“Yes, first we have to get mermaid’s tears. It’s not that difficult.”

As Hugh was walking toward the door of the parlor, he suddenly looked back at her and asked.

“Do you want to go with me if you’re curious?”

Filina answered resolutely.

“No.”

In spite of her refusal, Hugh was undaunted and asked again.

“Don’t you want to see a mermaid? You can see them if you come with me.”

He sounded like the kind of sly talk one would use to kidnap a child.

Filina replied with a further distortion of her impression.

“I don’t want it.”

At Filina’s cold voice, he opened the door with a disappointed face.

But Hugh pretended to go out and disappeared from the scene using the space travel magic.

****

“Princess, are you all right?”

Filina asked in a cautious voice, and Hestia, mounted on her horse, nodded with a look of wonder.

“It’s not as scary as I thought.”

She ruffled the horse’s shiny brown fur in a friendly manner.

“I wonder why it stays so still when people are on board. It’s gentle too.”

“Animals attach great importance to companionship. They know that Princess is a good person.”

Filina, who was holding the reins of the horse by Hestia’s side, replied skillfully.

When Hestia heard her words, she kissed the horse’s neck briefly, looking pleased.

“Princess!”

It was then that she heard Cecilia’s voice, who was some distance away.

Filina turned my head and saw Cecilia astride her horse alone, without anyone’s help. She looked at Filina with glowing emerald eyes, as if she wanted to be praised for doing so.

Filina, who was staring at Cecilia, asked with a curious look on her face,

“Cecilia, have you ever ridden a horse before?”

Cecilia nodded, smiling shyly at her question.

“In fact, I like to take a walk on horseback with my escort. If I had known that Lady Filina and I shared the same hobby, I would have tried riding with her a long time ago.”

Filina stared at her astride the horse. In all 5 lifetimes, she had never seen this before.

But the words “we have the same hobbies” were words she didn’t know for sure.

While Cecilia seemed to simply enjoy strolling around on her horse, Filina enjoyed riding as fast as she could over the open fields.

She loved the moment when she could face the strong wind head-on and run like crazy, looking only ahead.

“Why is this moving so much? Hold it tight, Alec!”

Filina turned to look at the voice coming from behind her.

“I can’t do it. I’m going back.”

Fabien and Sharon spoke in uneasy voices, despite the fact that the escort knight held the reins of the horse steady.

Filina, who was watching them closely, sighed and opened her mouth.

“Horses are timid animals. When people are scared, the horses get anxious along with them.”

At the sound of her low voice, their gazes glanced hatefully at Filina for a moment, their faces resentful of her for creating such an occasion.

Hestia, who had been staring at them beside Filina, said in a disappointed voice.

“If you are going to give up, I suppose it is inevitable. I’m going to continue riding, so you can go home now.”

Sharon and Fabien waved their hands hastily.

“What are you talking about, Princess? Giving up is not an option. This is just the beginning for me.”

“Of course! It’s interesting to ride all the way. This horse is very pretty too!”

Sharon’s hand stroked the horse’s neck awkwardly. Then the brown horse, which had been moving all over the place, slowly began to calm down. Sharon’s eyes, which had been trembling with anxiety, gently widened.

“Look at this! It looks like the horse finally recognizes its master!”

At the sound of her voice, Fabien also touched the smooth hair of her horse straight away. As the warmth hit it, the horse became meek, as if it had regained its stability.

Fabien and Sharon’s faces were also slowly relaxing over time.

Hestia, who had been watching them closely, sang in a faint voice.

“So, let’s move a bit towards the forest, shall we?”

Filina nodded and handed the reins of her horse to the knight guarding her. She then mounted the brown horse that was waiting nearby.

Cecilia, who was quietly watching Filina from behind, let out a small exclamation.