by Kiri Komori
“Ah…You’re right…” I said, checking the page.
“Yeah, scraps from a bloodied shirt probably didn’t fit the bill,” Gina pointed out.
“R-Right…”
The book gave a hint: “Make sure to use a clean cloth. Using a cotton handkerchief or a gauze is advised.”
A gauze…like the one they use for first aid? Ugh, but I’m out of ingredients…
I’d already picked everything that grew around the inn.
“Oh, you guys are still awake?” Mina walked down the stairs, carrying a plate.
“How’s Grandpa doing, Mina?” I asked.
I looked at the plate, only to find the food was mostly untouched. Apparently, he didn’t eat anything…
“He said he can’t eat. Swallowing makes it hard for him to breathe, apparently.” She frowned. “Anyway, what are you guys doing? Why’s there a pot sitting on the counter?”
“Oh, yeah! Listen, Mina, this kid’s amazing!”
Aaron and Gina excitedly told Mina about how I’d performed alchemy and crafted a tonic like they were bragging about a younger sister or something.
I-It was a fluke, and it only worked because I had the right ingredients. Don’t hype me up so muuuuch!
“Wow, really?!” Mina gazed at me with round eyes. “Can you teach me how to do it, too?!”
“H-Huuuh?!”
“I mean, if I could just make us tonics, we won’t need to haggle with merchants anymore! If anything, it could even make us money! It sounds awesome!”
Wow. Grown-up greed.
“I-I’m sorry. I used up all my ingredients already…” I said apologetically.
“O-Oh… Oh, I see.” Mina dropped her shoulders in disappointment.
“We’re going to collect Solan flowers tomorrow,” Gina said. “Why not look for some Duana while we’re there, Mina? That’s what you need to make a tonic, right?”
“Um…yes,” I answered. “To make a low-grade healing tonic, you need Duana flowers. Solan flowers are for antidotes, and antipyretics need Lilith flowers… That’s what the book says.”
“Wait, you…you can make antidotes and fever medicine too?!” Mina asked.
“You can probably sell tonics and antidotes to adventurers, and most people need fever medicine. Why not start selling them?” Gina suggested.
“…U-Um…”
I don’t think they’ll sell…
We lived far away from any towns. Behind our house was the mountain, and ahead of it was the lake and our field. We were miles away from the highway. It was an odd place for an inn.
But of course, having the mountain and the lake a stone’s throw away was convenient because it offered a gorgeous view. And it meant we had plenty of nature’s bounty to live off, and we had fresh vegetables in our fields. So long as one ignored the fact it was a long trek to get here, it was a pretty idyllic place. Well, Dad’s cooking skills were probably average at best… I think. It was tasty to me, but “average” likely summed it up.
Anyway, if I could sell anything, it’d only be when a caravan stopped by. Maybe I could produce medicine, build up a stock, and sell it all at once… But I decided to think about it some other time. There were more pressing issues.
“…I’ll go check on Grandpa!” I said.
“Oh, all right!” Mina nodded.
For now, the most important thing was to make sure Grandpa got better. There were still five more days until Dad returned home.
Dad, do your best!
♣♣♣
THE next morning, I left Grandpa in Sirius’ care (who simply grumbled a “Hmph. Bothersome” in response) and went hiking up the mountain with Gina, Mina, and Aaron. I never went too deep into the mountain when I came with Dad.
The flower field where the Solan flowers bloomed was near the foot of it. It was a spot I’d been to often. If I recalled, Solan, Lilith, and Duana flowers all bloomed year-round, which was also true for vegetables… I had to wonder if this world even had seasons or if mana simply explained away all oddities.
“Whoa, this place is so pretty!” Mina exclaimed upon seeing the field.
I couldn’t blame her. All these flowers were beautiful. There were actually beehives scattered about in the trees, and bees collected nectar from all the flowers. The trees around here were cut for kindling and construction purposes, after which the stumps were removed. The ground was then plowed so these flowers could be planted.
If someone were to climb halfway up the mountain, they could find natural flower fields, unlike this one, but those were full of herbs. I’d like to see it someday, I thought.
“Hey, there are swings and a slide here too!” Aaron exclaimed.
“Oh…Dad and Grandpa put them up, I think,” I replied.
I always helped out at the inn, so I rarely had the time to assist with outdoor projects. It made me a little sad, but there was no one else left to handle the laundry and cleaning after Grandma passed away. Dad was bad at it to the point where I decided I’d be better off doing it myself.
I guess that’s not his fault. Doing it with a prosthetic arm must be hard…
We didn’t have too many customers, so it didn’t take too long for me to clean, but if we ever get a lot of customers, I couldn’t see myself keeping up… Though apparently, laundry was a cinch with magic. I wanted to learn magic because of that, but Dad said it’s really hard and dangerous.
“Wow. Hey, wanna swing for a bit?” Mina asked.
“Yeah, let’s!” Aaron was all for it.
“What are you, kids?” Gina asked. “Don’t forget what we came here for.”
“I-I don’t mind,” I said. “But, um, Mina, how do you use magic?”
“M-Magic?!” Mina looked taken aback.
She said she wasn’t very good at it, but she technically knew how to use it, didn’t she? So I asked her, but she only twitched nervously.
“Wh-Wh-Whyareyouasking?” she blurted out, each word running into the next and not making much sense.
“Erm, Dad said magic is a very hard tecthnique to learn,” I said, lisping on one of the words. “But you can use magic, right? So I wanted to ask.”
Mina fell into petrified silence.
…Wh-Why are you clamming up like that?!
“Uh, little miss, you need to understand that magic is difficult for humans to learn because we don’t have a lot of mana.”
“We don’t?”
“Well, uh, basically there are these things called Spherits… How do I explain it…? Well, basically, they’re like souls, and they’re the ones who actually create magic. Magic is done by offering them mana, I think? That’s how you do it. Demi-humans and beastmen can see them, but humans like us don’t have enough mana to see them.”
“Spherits…”
This really is a fantasy world… Like, sphere spirits? So magic is done by giving them your mana? That’s pretty cool!
But what they told me matched what the book said. People didn’t have a capacity for mana, so that’s why they invented alchemy. Thinking of it that way, alchemy was a crystallization of human wisdom… So while part of me admired magic, I felt like learning alchemy might be worthwhile, too.
But wait, that means…
“…So you’re bad with magic, Mina?” I asked.
“Ugh!” My question seemed to have physically wounded her.
“Ahaha… That sounds about right.” Gina gave a sardonic smile. “But humans can use magic too. There are techniques people can learn to rapidly recover mana, and you can carry stones called Spherit Stones to help with casting spells. Mina’s just a slacker, so she doesn’t practice enough. And Spherit Stones are really expensive…so she’s saving up for one right now.”
“Oh, so that’s why…”
No wonder she was so greedy earlier. But if that’s the case, why not just practice more?
“Hey, aren’t these Solan flowers?” Aaron asked, presenting me with a few flowers he picked.
“Ah, yes!” I nodded.
While we were speaking, Aaron went and picked the right flowers. I thought he was a useless bum, but it turns out he’s pretty useful!
I picked up the basket we brought with us and put the flowers in there, covering them with a cloth. We had collected about twenty flowers…which would hopefully be enough, even if I failed.
“Anything else we need to gather while we’re here?” Aaron asked.
“Yes, Solemayu fruit.”
“Oh, by the way, what’s your name?” Mina asked.
“Oh, I’m sorry, I forgot to introduce myself…” I bowed my head apologetically. “It’s Tinaris.”
“Little Tinaris!” Mina exclaimed. “Okay, Tinaris, let’s take some Duana flowers too. You can make some more tonics, and we’ll sell them! Since the ingredients are pretty much free, we’ll just take a handling charge, but you’ll get most of the sum! They’ll sell for sure, so c’mon, let’s do it!”
“Cut it out, Mina,” Gina griped at Mina, grabbing her by the scruff of her robe.
“Awww! Come on, it’ll go well!”
“Sorry about her,” Aaron said with a sympathetic smile.
“I-It’s all right…” I muttered.
They were an easygoing group, that was for sure. But I really didn’t mind, since this wasn’t anything too serious. But with that money-oriented attitude of hers, maybe she was better off being a merchant than a mage…
Maybe I should actually learn from her… I mean, I am an inn proprietor’s daughter.
“Let’s go look for a Solemayu tree, then. You know where to look?”
“Yes, we use Solemayu leaves for cooking, so I’ve helped pick them every now and then.”
Solemayu trees were pretty short. Their leaves were said to have healing properties and were often used to apply fragrances too. Their aroma wasn’t very strong compared to other herbs, but they had a faint, vanilla-like scent. Its fruits were dark-red and small, about the size and shape of a walnut.
If I’m going to use their cores, I guess I have to split the fruit.
They were also as tough as walnuts, so splitting them was pretty hard.
“I think it was around here… There, that’s the tree.”
We left the flower field behind and climbed a bit higher up the mountain to where Solemayu trees grew. But on closer inspection, it seemed there were mostly only flowers blooming on the tree. Small, dark-red flowers similar to lilies in shape. This was a problem. I needed the tree’s fruit, not its flowers.
“There’s some fruit under the tree!” Aaron exclaimed, swiftly picking up a small fruit.
“Oh!”
Amazing! He actually had some talent for foraging! What a surprise!
“So, how many are we gonna need?”
“Um, as many as we can find…”
I didn’t know how long it’d take me to properly dry the Solan leaves, and Grandpa and Sirius didn’t tell me how much of the medicine we’d need. Having a lot of ingredients on hand couldn’t hurt.
“I hope you can make that medicine for your grandfather,” Gina said encouragingly.
“Me too…”
Can I really do it though…? I’m a kid who only started learning about alchemy yesterday… And I couldn’t dry the leaves properly…
I was anxious. The book didn’t have the recipe for the medicine Grandpa needed. Did I need to set it in water, cover it in a cloth, or maybe use another method? Maybe it didn’t require a pot and a spoon? What if Grandpa doesn’t know how to make it…?
“Ugh…”
No, I have to repay him for everything! He accepted me like I was his own grandchild! Maybe I can’t heal his disease, but I can at least make him feel well enough to eat again! I have to do everything I can!
I’d just have to ask about its traits, look for something similar to it in the book, and try my best to imitate the right way to make it. It might not be exactly the same, but it should be close enough! I hope!
“Let’s take this much and head back home,” Gina said. “Oh, there’s some Bimash here. Can we take some of that too? Maybe I can make some Bimash pasta for lunch.”
“Oh, sure. That’s fine.” I nodded.
That morning, Sirius had made us some soup and bread. Gina was going to make us lunch…which I was honestly looking forward to. But my first order of business upon arriving back home was to ask Grandpa about his medicine.
Wait for me, Grandpa! I’ll do it!
♣♣♣
BASED on what Grandpa told me, his medicine was a type of powder. He also scolded me.
“You performed alchemy…?! Don’t be reckless…!”
Ugh… Don’t look down on me just because I’m a kid! I’ll do it perfectly. Just you wait! I’ll pay you back for all the kindness you showed me; you’ll see!
“Whoa!” Mina took a surprised step back upon seeing what was coming.
We thrust a pile of books onto the desk with a thud. I’d asked Aaron and Sirius to bring them over. All the alchemy manuals in Dad’s study were for beginners, so I assumed looking for one that focused on powder medicine would be simple enough. Or so I thought, but once I actually started looking, I couldn’t find anything.
The table of contents didn’t list anything regarding powders. Maybe only the intermediate or advanced books dealt with those? Maybe one of the other manuals did? To that end, I decided to hit the books! Figuratively speaking, of course.
“Whoa… Tinaris, are you going to read all this?” Mina asked with a frown.
“Yes.”
“You should take a page out of her book,” Aaron told her half-jokingly.
“Put a sock in it, Aaron.” She glared at him coldly.
“Quite a surprise, though,” Sirius said, closely examining a tonic I made yesterday. “This little lady made something like this on her first try?”
“Yep, she sure did! Amazing, isn’t she?” Aaron boasted as if I was his own daughter.
Gina was in the kitchen, making lunch. I was at the coffee corner’s counter, leafing through the pages of a book with Aaron and Sirius standing around me. Mina was sitting here before I showed up.
Grandpa was currently resting. Sirius used some basic healing magic to relieve some of his pain, but…magic can only temporarily alleviate a disease’s symptoms. His breathing still came out in audible, pained wheezes.
Sirius held up a bottle of the tonic I made at eye level and rubbed his beard as if impressed. Was it really that unusual? Making it was easier than I thought.
“…Hmm, marvelous. You’ve got talent in alchemy, little lady.”
“Really?”
“Yes. Controlling mana is quite difficult for humans, since they have limited mana reserves. If you learn and practice techniques to recover mana, you could become a high-ranking magician. If you’re interested, why not consider going to Saikeorea? It’s a country of scholars. I have some acquaintances there and could write you a recommendation.”
“Wait, Sirius, what?!” Mina looked at him with her mouth wide open. “You never said anything like that to me!”
“That’s because you’re no good at magic, Mina,” Sirius replied coldly.
“You wanna say that again to my face, mustachio?!” she fumed at him.
“U-Um!” I said, talking over Mina’s protests. “I appreciate the offer, but I think that was just a coincidence…”
That was the only kind of medicine I managed to create, so being complimented that much felt wrong.
“Hehehe… A coincidence, eh?” Sirius repeated my words, regarding me with one eye closed. “I see, a coincidence… This was your first time, yes?”
“What’re you implying, Sirius?” Mina asked, still somewhat touchy.
“My appraisal spell says that this low-grade healing tonic is of extremely high quality. The freshness of the ingredients was no doubt a factor, but the mana used in its creation must have been quite pure as well. Little lady, I believe you’re ‘magician material,’ as they say.”
“The mana was pu
re…?”
What does that mean?
At my question, Sirius placed a hand over his chest and proudly explained it to me. In this world, Wisty Air, mankind worshipped multiple gods. But aside from them, the demi-humans worshipped someone called Saint Akari-Berz. It was said that in ancient times, she purified monsters and turned them back into normal animals. She had holy mana capable of counteracting the evil mana that polluted the monsters.
That…really sounds like something out of a fantasy novel.
The holy, primal mana was said to be lost today. Mankind needlessly created new religions, which created “unnecessary factors” that mixed into the world and changed the mana’s quality.
“B-But that makes the gods mankind worships seem like ‘unnecessary factors’…” I muttered bashfully, as if dreading to say the words.
“Yes, that’s exactly what it means,” Sirius confirmed.
Talk about being nonchalant!
“B-But…Dad always talks about the ‘Gods of De Marl.’ Are they unnecessary too?”
“All the gods made by humans since the time of Saint Akari-Berz, including the Gods of De Marl, caused the building blocks of the world, the primal mana…the Air, as it is called, to change. That made the Saint’s holy mana stop functioning, and because of that, any who are polluted by evil mana—humans included—cannot be purified anymore.”
I fell into pensive silence. Something that was there to begin with had changed and stopped functioning… New information made something old useless.
It’s like a software update ruining an old feature. So maybe there’s an update that can fix the holy mana function again?
“So if the holy mana were to adapt to the current age’s Air, we’d be able to purify monsters?”
“Wonderful! That’s exactly right, little lady,” Sirius praised me.
“I see…!” I beamed.
“Calm down, geezer.” Aaron pulled Sirius back by his shirt collar.
R-Right, Sirius is an archaeologist. Is this what he’s looking into? He explained it like a teacher and said he knows people in that scholar country… Maybe that’s his real job.
“Aah, my apologies.” Sirius broke into something of a sheepish smile. “But a girl of your talents is hard to come by…! At least, that’s what I think. That said, the purity of one’s mana is indeed quite important. You understand, yes? The quality of this world’s Air itself is degrading.”