CH 25

「If word got out about the buff effects, many people would probably come after you for your recipes. If you register them with the guild, nobody can do anything to you though…」

No way!

I felt chills, my face turning pale.

I thought about the dramas where an evil organization would kidnap a person with a secret and try to force them to reveal it.

「Don’t worry. I said I’ll protect you, and I’ll definitely keep that promise.」

Rofas-san placed his big hand on my head.

He patted me gently, like he was comforting a young child.

Ah, he was treating me like a child, that’s why.

「…Oh, I’m protecting all of you too, don’t worry. 【Contract: Promise not to tell anyone about the potions until Yuuri registers the recipes at the guild. In return, I will protect everyone to the best of my limit.】」

Rofas-san declared towards the children.

Gasp.

I understood why now. Until I register the recipes, those who already know about them already would be in danger as well.

I… really didn’t think things through.

「【Contract Complete.】Of course, I won’t tell anybody.」

「Kirika too. 【Contract Complete.】」

Bryce-kun glanced at Rofas-san with a sharp look.

「Rofas-san, can you make a contract with us to promise that you won’t leak the information as well?」

「Ah, no, isn’t it okay if I tell the guild? The guild keeps secrets well, so…」

Bryce-kun shook his head.

「Even if they promise to keep the recipes a secret, wouldn’t they try to urge Yuuri-san to release the recipes to them quickly?」

Rofas-san averted his eyes from Bryce-kun’s awkwardly.

「Well, uh… if that happens, I’ll stop them.」

「Even if it’s an emergency? What if a mob of monsters rushed out from the dungeons in a stampede? Are you saying that the guild won’t demand the recipes, when they know they could use beginner’s potions to make food with healing effects as strong as a high-grade potion? 」

Rofas-san stayed quiet.

「Please keep this a secret from the guild too. There are still too many things we don’t understand about the buffs. In fact, we only know that the effects will run out eventually, unlike the stats you get from equipping something, which are permanent. We don’t even know when the effects stop working. 」

「That’s true. If somebody relies too much on the buffs and it runs out during a battle, things could turn out badly for them.」

「We don’t know if the effects can only be produced by Yuuri-san. We have to make sure that other people’s food will do the same thing if they follow the recipes. Also, if we release the recipes as it is now, how would the guild secure the losing potions needed to make the food? There’s zero circulation of them in the market right now. In fact, securing a supply of losing potions might be more difficult than getting high-grade potions.」

「I see. It makes sense when you put it that way… There are too many things we don’t know yet, and we might be underprepared to take on the recipes… Alright, I understand. It’s not a good time to tell the guild about the recipes.」

I listened to Bryce-kun and Rofas-san’s conversation from the side.

I see, there were too many things we didn’t know still.

I wasn’t sure what a stampede (*1) was, but I understood what Bryce-kun had meant. The recipes would be useful in an emergency situation.

I also understood that you can get many different effects from mixing the potions together.

In that case, I should continue to raise my level as an adventurer, and also「do research to produce the best recipe ever.」

A dish that gave its consumer incredible buffs.

I wondered which mixtures created certain effects.

…I had a lot of experimenting to do.

「Everybody, I’m counting on you to collect more losing potions. Let’s see, a year… I want enough to ensure that it’ll be circulating through the major cities within a year.」

「Mm, okay. Kirika will do her best.」

「I’ll work hard too. We’ll collect potions non-stop. Yuuri-neechan taught us a good technique for getting lots at once!」

That’s right. Even if I had a lot of recipes, I couldn’t do anything without the fundamental ingredient: soy sauce. Soy sauce here was like a high-class ingredient that was out of reach for commoners. There wasn’t a lot, so I couldn’t just freely use them to experiment with.

「Bryce, now that you’re at a higher level, you’d probably want to test yourself in all sorts of dungeons, but can I ask you to do the potion delivery for a while? Since we don’t want other people knowing about potions, I can only ask you to do this.」

「Yes, of course. I’ll raise my level at the closest beginner-grade dungeon from here, and visit the potion field once or twice a month.」

Bryce-kun looked at me and smiled.