CH 214

All that talk and gossip around us is suddenly gone. Is this Bozen’s doing?

He works fast. He even delivered the herbs the very next day, and I managed to make potions with them. They’re not as good, and a couple are actually kind of bad, but I can still use them.

I can’t make full potions with them. But I should be able to use them on myself or sell them.

In the end, I finish nine petrification potions. I made more yesterday and used one, so that leaves us with twelve… That would leave us with enough for a hundred and twenty days, but I also should take one to the alchemist guild as a sample.

Judging by how much of the magic stone and petrification bag I have left, I’d say I probably have enough for three more.

I give the potions to Leila and tell her to use them if the symptoms start advancing again. As for how much they’re worth… I really don’t know. I ask Chris, but she doesn’t know either. Should I ask Bozen? He’d probably pay large sums without worrying about it.

And so, I head to the alchemist guild to get my card and my payment, and give them the sample. I get four platinum coins in my card, and the rest mostly in silver and copper coins.

They figured I’d want to be paid like that, so they had the money ready in advance.

“I see I see. So this is the one!?”

He’s really excited.

I ask how much petrification cures go for, and it’s a pretty steep value. Although the ones I have are incomplete…

They’ve been working on full potions, but things aren’t looking great. As I suspected, they don’t have one person do the whole thing. For example, they have one person making healing potions, and that person pretty much only makes healing potions.

That means that someone who’s been making healing potions isn’t great at making mana potions, and a lot end up failing. Now they’re looking for someone to be the head of this project to increase efficiency.

Then I walk around the city with the girls, and after eating at the stalls, we split into two groups.

Chris and I go meet up with Leila in the Magius magic academy, and the others go out shopping in preparation for tomorrow.

“Are you investigating something?”

“Yes, I want to see if the academy’s library has anything on laurel tree fruit.”

And so, we head to the library.

“Oh~. We have quite the rare visitors today~. Did you decide to join our school~?”

She sounds as listless as ever.

“I want to look up information on a certain item.”

“Is that so~? Those kinds of reference materials are over there~.”

We’re taken to a bookshelf on a corner.

Leila stands a little further back, and starts leafing through reference materials. I can see her face in profile, and she looks really serious.

“Well then, let’s start.”

“Take your time~. And tell me if you need anything~.”

Says Celes before sitting back down at the reception desk. I’m kind of curious about what book she’s reading.

“…Sora, that person…”

“Yes… Can you tell?”

“I couldn’t before, but I can now.”

“…Do you want to talk to her?”

“…I probably shouldn’t. I’m sure she has her reasons too.”

We split up and read silently. Only the noise of pages being flipped fills the air, as time passes.

The books themselves are thin, but they don’t have tables of contents, so we have to go through them one page at a time.

It’s easy to understand how they’re divided when they have illustrations, but they don’t have a set format, so they’re honestly not easy to read.

We get through the mountain of books we brought, and still nothing. I loosen up my stiff body, put the books in their places, and bring more.

I see Chris rubbing her eyes. She’s been focusing too.

Even with the two of us here, we still have a lot of books to get through. I see some descriptions of interesting items, but unfortunately, we still haven’t found what we’re looking for.

“Elixir…”

An item classified as legendary. This would probably cure her, but apparently it’s one of those items controlled by governments. The description says it can even raise the dead, but I don’t know if that’s true.

It says they can be obtained in treasure chests in dungeons…

“Interested~?”

She scared me. I’m not using Presence Detection, but still, I didn’t notice her until she was right next to me. She could be an assassin, moving like that. Actually, even if I use Presence Detection, her presence is very shallow.

After maxing out Presence Detection, I’ve learned that there’s still a lot I can’t see.

“…Yes, this would probably solve our problem.”

“Hn~? Do you know someone close to dying~?”

I glance over at Leila. What is she looking up anyway?

“I’m looking for laurel tree fruit to complete a petrification cure, but I don’t see that in any book.”

“Ah, laurel tree~? Cure~… So, it’s about what happened in the dungeon~?”

I glance at Leila again, like I’m checking with her. Can I assume she knows what’s going on at least to a certain extent?

“Yes, it’s about the cockatrice. There’s one person left that isn’t healing completely no matter what, and I need laurel tree fruit to heal her.”

“…I see~… Laurel tree~… I think you can find that in the Dragon Kingdom~.”

“Really?”

She actually knows!?

“Hum~… I’m not sure, but I’ve heard that before~. No guarantees~.”

I sneak a peek at Chris, and she nervously nods.

Apparently there are records of them being found in treasure chests in the dungeon too, but that was hundreds of years ago.