CH 23

That’s right, I know why!

Even in Japan, you aren’t supposed to let young children have any energy drinks for adults. Children have their own energy drinks they can have. There have been stories of children who drank caffeinated energy drinks like juice and ended up dying because of it…

Just apologizing was not enough to excuse what I had done.

「Don’t worry about it, Rofas-san. We only used two bottles of the beginner-grade potion. Children can have ten bottles of those a day and they would be fine, right? If it’s an intermediate-grade potion, then only two a day, and if it’s upper-grade, then none at all.」

Bryce-kun explained to Rofas-san.

「I’m sorry for making you worry, Yuuri-san. It’s because I didn’t tell you about it ahead of time.」

Bryce-kun looked apologetic.

「Beginner-grade potions? There’s no way, given how quickly it’s healing me… Did I make a mistake? Status open.」

Rofas-san opened his status menu.

「See, my【HP Bar】is recovering rapidly. This is the healing rate of an upper-grade potion.」

When I drank the beginner-grade potion, I was healing 1 HP for every 20 seconds.

Rofas-san displayed his status menu for everyone to see. He was recovering roughly 3 HP per second.

Now that I took a better look, I was amazed at the fact that his total HP was 2300. Meanwhile, I only had 10. Wait, I leveled up, so now it was at 15. 

Did adventurers have that much HP?

「Rofas-san, I know it’s probably hard to tell with how much equipment you’re wearing, but don’t you notice anything weird with your status?」

After Bryce-kun probed, Rofas-san gazed at his status menu in a daze.

「Huh? Wait, what’s this? My defense buff is higher than before. It’s not supposed to go up, but it’s twice as much as before… The buff points for both my HP and defense are doubled.」

「Ehh, so that’s how it works. If you already had buff points from your equipment and whatnot, then its value will double instead. We don’t have any to begin with, so that’s why we all got +10.」

Bryce-kun spoke calmly, but Rofas-san was starting to panic more.

「What is happening? Why did this happen? Wait, this is terrible.」

He said, scratching his head.

Eh? Was that a terrible thing?

「Let’s finish our meal first, shall we? If you’re not eating anymore, I’m clearing your plates.」

I decided to make some onigiri from the leftover rice. Ah, some yaki-onigiri would be nice too. Kakuni-flavored onigiri wouldn’t be bad either, since there was some broth left.

But just as I was thinking that,

「No, I’m still eating!」

Rofas-san then cleared out all of the remaining food. He must’ve had at least three cups of rice. That’s amazing.

Everybody helped with the clean-up afterwards.

「Rofas-san, please wipe the table. He who does not work, neither shall he eat.」

Kirika-chan ordered Rofas-san around like she was his big sister.

「Alright, now can you guys explain exactly what is going on?」

Bottles of potion were lined up on the cleared table.

「If even Rofas-san didn’t know about this, then doesn’t that mean the guild doesn’t know anything either?」

Bryce-kun picked up a black potion.

「This is seasoning. In Yuuri-san’s hometown, it’s called soy sauce.」

「Seasoning?」

Rofas-san frowned.

「That’s right. This one is cooking sake. It’s a type of alcohol used for cooking. This one here is mirin, and this is vinegar.」

At least, I think…

The color of the liquid all looked alike, so it would be difficult to tell them apart if somebody shuffled them around. I should put some sort of mark on them to differentiate them. Maybe different colored ribbons would be good?

I imagined that green would match cooking sake, while orange would match the mirin. The lids on the seasoning bottles I always bought at the supermarket were of those colors, after all.

Vinegar could be unlabeled, I guess.

「Pft, hahahaha!」

Rofas-san suddenly laughed out loud.

「I never thought there’d be someone who used losing potions as seasoning!」

Eh? Was it that strange?

Besides, I didn’t only use losing potions, I used winning potions too. Although, it was to substitute real ginger and sugar.

Since sugar was expensive, I planned to continue using the winning potions as a substitute for them, but…

「But still, why do they not give any effects when drunk, yet they produce results when used in cooking…」

Rofas-san tilted his head in doubt.

I wondered why too.

It wasn’t because of things like how good food gives you strength, right?

「Perhaps mixing medicinal herbs with other ingredients would do the same thing.」

When Bryce-kun said that, Rofas-san clapped his hands together.