CH 212

Everyone’s surprised to see me walking normally, but Chris and the others who know my secret quickly realize why. Leila is just surprised.

We go to Casey’s room, and the maid looking after her tells us she fell asleep.

I try using Appraisal, and see her condition really has changed. It went from 【petrification – stopped】 back to 【petrification in progress】.

I say I’m going to raise a sleeve of her pajamas, and see the petrification is spreading.

“Mia, have you been casting Recovery every day?”

As I get ready, I ask what’s been going on since we got here.

She says she’s been casting Recovery every day, but it hasn’t shown any changes or effect in particular.

First, I make four full potions using potions I’ve made. That goes without a hitch, but what surprises me is that I barely spend any MP doing it. I guess it really was that environment that complicated this process.

Then I move on to making a petrification cure, and… I finish one.

“Try using this.”

I say to Leila, although Casey is sleeping right now. But the pain wakes her up soon after.

“Lady…”

“Drink this, Casey. Sora made it.”

Casey notices us standing behind Leila, and bows while saying thank you. Even those small movements look difficult for her.

Leila helps her drink the petrification cure, and I guess that helps her calm down, because she falls asleep again. I cast Appraisal, and see her condition is back to petrification – stopped.

It looks like when her petrification is in progress, it starts hurting from time to time, so she hasn’t been sleeping a lot, even though they’ve been looking for ways to alleviate that.

But why is she the only one who hasn’t been fully cured?

The only difference between her and the others is that her petrification spread further.

Leila told me she protected her and took the breath for a little longer than the others. That might be related, but I don’t have any way of checking.

The only thing I do know is that her petrification isn’t being fully cured.

“Thank you Sora. You really helped us.”

“I’ll give you three more. They’ll probably stop working after fifteen days, so we’ll have to check that again.”

“I see. I’ll tell that to the people looking after her.”

Also, can I make full potions with ready-made potions?

“I want to use Alchemy to make more potions, is that all right?”

“…You should probably do it here, rather than in another room. I’ll look after Casey, so tell me when you’re done.”

And so, I get to work right away. First I use Appraisal on every potion, and see that some are good, and the rest average.

I’ll start by putting the three good ones aside, and try mixing the others.

I end up with one low quality full potion, and three failures.

What if I mix the good quality ones… That gives me an average quality full potion.

There’s no doubt that the quality of the potions I’m using matters, but are there any other conditions involved? I don’t have enough potions to go by trial and error.

What I do know is that it doesn’t fail if I use the potions I made. My potions are generally all good quality, but so are the full potions.

“Did you learn anything?”

“I’m not an expert, but I think the quality of the potions has to do with it…”

That said, it can’t be that simple. It doesn’t explain why the good quality ready-made potions create average full potions.

But then we hear a knock on the door, and Alto comes in, still dressed like a maid…

“Mish Leila. Masther is calling. You too sir.”

Alto’s voice is trembling, but that’s because of Leila, right? I’m not scary, am I?

“Are the rest of you going to be all right?”

“Yes…”

But they still come along, although they stop before I enter the room, and apparently they’re going to clean the mansion. Wait, does that mean they haven’t been doing that? I don’t know. Maybe I should ask about that.

“Thank you for coming. We have a troublesome fellow here.”

He says while letting out a purposefully big sigh and peeking over at the man sitting next to him.

I don’t know who the middle-aged man with the big beard is, but Jake, the leader of Guardian Sword, is here too.

“Yes, nice to meet you. Sora, correct? I am called Bozen, and I am the guildmaster of this city’s alchemist guild. Do I need a requirement? Do I?”

Another guy that comes off really strong. I guess my feelings are showing on my face, because Will and Jake are smiling awkwardly at me.

“So you want to know how to make potions?”

“Precisely. Those ones. Full potions, correct? And I want to know about the petrification cures you made! Ah, of course, you will be compensated, and you can refuse if you want. Technique and skills are a person’s biggest treasures.”

I thought he was going to be unreasonable, but it sounds like he’s pretty sensible.

“Ah… Bozen isn’t too high-handed, but he is stubborn.”

Leila whispers to me.

The man himself is just sipping tea with an unconcerned look on his face. Like he feels he said everything he wanted to say.

“Yes. If it’s not too much to ask, I want to ask the same. Not to mention how useful it is to have that man owe me one. He is competent despite everything.”

“What are you talking about? I am nothing but competent. That’s why you’re no good, Will.”

Apparently these two are friends. Incidentally, Leila heard from their senior butler that they along with Jake’s father used to be pretty reckless when they were younger.

“Hn… Honestly, there are things I don’t understand either, so if you investigate them yourselves, I don’t mind. Depending on the reward, of course.”

“I see, I see. I like young people who get straight to the point. Well then… We should silence the merchants quickly. And… What do we need? Hn… I can offer you free membership to the alchemist guild. We will even waive the annual fee!”

He says with a happy look on his face. And… I get the feeling that he was looking into my problems with the merchant guild in the Holy Kingdom.

“I see…”

Then I’ll add a few more conditions and see if he bites. I’m sure he has his limits too.