Episode 26.10-11

"O Master, Master. Our talk yesterday had truly piqued my interest. However, this ignorant me is yet unenlightened on what herbs truly are. I implore you to step further into the core today."

"Right, well. Yesterday we covered how the differences between soil, grass and people make life, so today let's get beyond that and think about what life really is. You know salt, don't you."

"Sadly, I cannot say that I comprehend the true nature of salt."

"Oh you dodged that one nicely. If we classify salt by yesterday's method, it'd be soil. You got this one, no?"

"I understand."

"Yesterday, I told you how grass eat soil and people eat grass. That is not wrong. And yet, salt is indispensable to people's lives. Wonder why that is."

"O Master. Salt helps solidify people flesh, and supports the source of people mobility. Such was what Master once taught me."

"That knowledge is not wrong. It's also surface-level. Forget about it for now. And think. Were people a perfect being, they would not need to take in nor cast away anything. Exactly like metal."

"However, people eat and excrete matter. Is that proof of people being imperfect."

"They are, and they are not. Think about it long and hard. Metal is unchanging. Not gaining nor losing also means not waning nor growing. That might be perfect, but do true beauty and true functions lie there. Between something that's supremely beautiful and functional yet cannot become any more beautiful or functional, and something that must discard its present self to become even more beautiful and functional, which one do you think possess true beauty and true functions?"

"I think the one that aims for even higher heights is beautiful. And the one that aims for even better functions looks more functional to me."

"That's what mankind is. That's what life is. People are a being that keeps growing. That's more perfect than perfect. Then just what makes life distinct. Taking a seed from a particular plant and planting it somewhere will grow a branch there. In short, to live is to sway. That swaying is the most straightforward proof of what living is."

"What is swaying. And what is life."

"Swaying is letting things run their natural courses without choosing, but it carries another meaning in this case. People live yet a portion of them keeps on dying. And keeps on getting reborn. Human body is not a fixed object, it always takes in new matter and renews itself."

"Oh, what splendor."

Scribe, scribe, the record keepers keep on scribing.

<TLN: Catch the latest updates and edits at Sousetsuka.com >

"Pardon me."

A butler of the town lord's family came in.

"We have your lunch prepared. If you would please transfer over to the dining room."

The group moved to the dining room. That is, the next room.

All chairs except two have been removed. Everyone besides Shira and Skalabel are having a buffet.

This period is the only time the priests and apothecaries in the entourage can go in the guest house. It's been arranged as such to give chances to those who can't go in the lounge to listen to the conversation between Shira and Skalabel.

All the priests and the apothecaries were already in the room when Lecan's group entered.

And they were at a loss for words.

The elderly Skalabel who could barely walk straight is now walking briskly.

Not only that. His pure white complexions have regained the fleshly color of a healthy person.

Just what's going on.

Since it's attracting too much attention, someone has to say something here.

The one who spoke up in the quiet dining room was Amamir.

"During Skalabel-sama's conversation with Shira-sama, the guide had opened a new possibility for <Purification> hitherto nobody else arrived at. As a result, Guide Skalabel has firmly regained his health. Praise be to great gods."

The room was rustling at once.

Some gestured a holy mark, some shed tears, some knelt down near Skalabel, to closely see the now clearly different Skalabel.

Some also sidled up to Amamair and demanded an explanation.

Everyone was wrapped in shock and joy. A proof of how much Skalabel is looked up by them.

Skalabel asked what Shira will be eating, which she answered with a furnish-less soup and a slice of sandwich. Then Skalabel went to fetch sandwich from his side of table, put it on a plate, received soup from the maid and put them in front of Shira. And then he got the same menu for himself.

As Lecan watched the two quietly having their meals, Amamir went to talk to Lecan.

"Shishuku."

"Quit it with that nickname."

"Haha. Right right, Lecan-dono."

"What is it."

"Do you have the materials to make Stamina Restoratives on hand?"

"Hm? I've got a few on me."

"Please pardon me asking, but will it be possible for you to demonstrate the making of one in front of everyone here."

"Amamir."

Skalabel spoke with a reproving tone.

"Oh let him do it."

"Master."

"So many apothecaries came here en masse from the capital. Gotta give them some entertainment. Lecan."

"Yea."

"You've got materials for Mana Restoratives left, right?"

"Yea."

"Good. Well then, all of you. Go get your meals done quickly now. Lecan will show off how to make Stamina Restorative and Mana Restorative once the table's been cleared. I've imparted Lecan with my best technique. Feel free to consider Lecan-made medicine like it's mine."

(Like hell I could make medicine on your level.)

He wished Shira didn't drum up expectations there.

Lecan savagely faced his meal.

He swiped a plateful of smoked meat and stuffed his mouth full.

He put a lump of sandwich on his plate and made a short work of it.

He chewed on raw vegetable, and drank down soup to get ready for battle.

The dishes and extra tables were put away.

Lecan stand alongside the wall, with a small table before him.

Skalabel and Shira sitting to the opposite of him.

Everyone else is completely surrounding the table.

The priestess Marlia standing in the front row had a scary look in her eyes.

Seemingly getting wind of what's happening, the Royal Knights' Vice Commander and two temple knights have come in as well.

Followed by the three mages a bit later.

(Tch.)

(We've got some uninvited company.)

Lecan is going to show off a display of mana control that demands his full unfettered focus. He doesn't mind if the apothecaries see it. But the mages watching it could mean laying his hands bare to them. That said, he can no longer backtrack now.

(Can't be helped.)

(Fine, go ahead and watch.)

He took out small plates, a tureen, the materials, then Lecan went on to make Stamina Restorative first.

Next he made Mana Restorative.

When the completed Mana Restorative pill fell down the tureen, the dining room was wrapped in silence, with nary anybody made a sound. As if the people there even forgot to breathe.

Eventually someone took a deep breath, and someone else clapped.

And then Lecan was met with an applause by everyone in the room.

Apothecary Cawin lent his hand to Skalabel. Skalabel stood up and deeply bowed at Lecan.

"I appear to have mistakenly thought of you as my junior. As it turned out, you were my senior."

"Guide Skalabel. That can't be right. I'm sure you can make something far better than the medicine I make."

"Truthfully, I had a slight doubt when I heard you mastered both magic and medicine making. I don't believe anyone is capable of achieving such a feat. But now that I have witnessed your medicine making, one thing is clear to me. One must master the pinnacle of mana control in order to master the pinnacle of medicine making."

"Please raise your head, Guide. I'm just a fledgling who's just got done learning medicine making. A novice who knows nothing about illness and healing wounds."

"However, had it not been for you, Master's highest technique may get lost in time. I cannot help but wonder how you command such a precise control at such a young age, but I do not believe anyone else could inherit that technique. I am bowing to that fact."

"Leave it at that. Lecan is troubled, see. Now then, I'm headed back to my room. Being surrounded by so many folks tires someone who usually lives alone like me."

"Lecan-dono. Would you be willing to bequeath us these two pills?"

"Sure."

"We will now be returning to the lounge. I'll leave these pills here, inspect them closely."

Marlia and another priest reverently lifted up the tureen where the two pills at.

Lecan himself wanted to get his tureen back, but the atmosphere was not fit for him to mention that.

This group could only be at the guest house during lunch time, afterward they must return to the town lord's mansion, and then to their lodging at noble houses by evening. Hence they're going to closely inspect the Stamina and Mana Restorative at the town lord mansion now.