by Funa
So long as it wasn’t anything evil.
“So, who are those two?”
“Ah, pardon the late introductions:. This is the artist, Harsoth, and this is the sculptor, Garecles. We all came here together alongside the delegate party sent to visit Balmore.”
After exchanging greetings with my two new acquaintances, I headed over with them to the inn they were staying at to talk things over. The delegates were being put up in guest rooms at the palace, of course, but the craftspeople that came with them were staying at the inn. It made sense, since they weren’t the guests of honor here.
But I did wonder how the delegates felt when the craftsmen they just so happened to bring along could meet with me this easily...
The craftsmen from the empire would stop by often to come and visit me. It seemed they took a liking to me after the peace talks when I provided them with what they needed to build their boats (especially when I gave them the models for the ships and explained what they would need to fit them with), as well as giving them advice on farming and fishing and the like. They had to come to me since I wasn’t going to Aligot myself, but I did kinda want to be around to see the ceremonial launching of their first prototype ship.
They might not even have that sort of tradition here, but I could make it a thing if I was there for it. They should totally get into it if I said it was some sort of ceremony to “give the ship the blessing of the Goddess” or something.
Merliton and the others had taken notes on questions other people asked them to give me, and we all had a good time talking it over as they scribbled down my replies. It was a long trip back to Aligot, and it wasn’t like it was completely free of danger, either. It was the least I could do for them coming all this way to see me.
At the time, I didn’t realize why Merliton had gone out of his way to bring an artist and a sculptor just to meet me. I didn’t even notice the sparkling in their eyes as they looked at me...
It wasn’t until much, much later that I heard rumors the figureheads on the fronts of the Aligot Empire’s fleet of ships all had the harshest looks in their eyes...
After saying my goodbyes to the people who’d come from the Aligot Empire, I was on my way to town when...
“Miss Kaoru!”
“Oh boy...”
The messenger of the crown prince of Brancott had made his appearance yet again. No matter how many times I told him to beat it, he just kept coming back...
“Please, we would be honored to have you visit our country! The prince is very much looking forward to seeing you!”
Well, I’m not...
If things ended up going south, I could end up stuck in Brancott for good. If they steered the conversation and began cross-examining me, I felt like I’d let slip who I really was pretty easily. So, you know. Discretion was the better part of valor and all that.
“I don’t have any plans on going to a country I know nothing about. I don’t know what could happen to me there, and frankly, I don’t wanna know. Well, I suppose it wouldn’t be impossible if the king here ordered me to do it...”
“B-But then you’d claim the king didn’t have the right to give you any order...”
Exactly.
I’d sworn to the Goddess that I’d never listen to what the important bigwigs or the royal family had to say. Which was why I’d just flat-out refuse any sort of order from the king if he ever tried to give me one. So even if the king demanded I go, then I’d use that as the very reason notto. It was a pretty funny catch-22 for me.
Maybe I’d ask the king to try and order me to do something when I got the chance. I said I might think about it if the king gave the order, but I didn’t say anything about actually going. I’d just tell them I wouldn’t attend after thinking it over, that was all. See? That way, I wouldn’t be lying.
Wait, that’s it! If the king orders me to go meet with the prince of Brancott, then I wouldn’t have to see him ever again since it’d break the oath I made to the Goddess... Maybe I will actually try asking him to do that next time I see him.
After I chased the messenger away and headed into town...
“Miss Kaoru!”
Really?
“We would be honored to have you come visit Brancott...”
Seemed this guy was here for something different than the last one.
Apparently, he was the messenger of the crown prince’s brother, Ghislain. He’d heard I was avoiding his big brother, and that maybe this could be his chance to shack up with the angel of the goddess and take Fernand’s place as next in line for the throne.
...Ugh, my head hurts.
This guy had to have heard about me at the palace, right? Then he should already know I had no interest whatsoever in royalty. And besides, the prince was basically conspiring to usurp the throne, which was something that’d only come back to bite him in the end, and hard. I didn’t want any part of that, thank you very much.
“I have no plans to help him usurp the throne. If you try talking to me again about this, I’m gonna take it up with the crown prince himself and tell him that I’m too scared to come to Brancott because the second prince’s messenger is harassing me.”
I wasn’t going to complain to the little brother—but Fernand himself.
The messenger could only stand there, their mouth opening and closing with no words coming out.
Well, yeah. He’d be as good as dead if I really did that, after all.
After driving away both of the messengers, I was finally on my way to the shopping district when...
“Miss Kaoru!”
Gah!
“Are you heading out? Then I’ll come with you, too!”
“Oh, it’s you, Lilil...”
She was the daughter of Johann, the guy who ran the Abili Trade Company, and the girl whose illness I cured using a potion a good long time ago. For some reason, I ended up bumping into her pretty often when I went out.
...Like, really often. She’s not keeping tabs on what I’m doing and waiting for me, right...? Nah, that can’t be right.
I was probably just overthinking things... Probably.
“Ah, Kaoru!”
Agh, the local kids! They were my worthy rivals whenever we played marbles together. So much so that I’d actually lost more than I’d won against them.
“Are you going out, Kaol?”
Oho, she brought her little sister today! Man, little Latori is such a cutie...
“You going shopping, Kaoru?”
“Where you going, Carol?”
“Oh, Miss Kaoru!”
“Kaoru!”
“Lady Kaoru!”
AAARRRGGGHHH!!!
I can’t get through to the shopping district with all you people in the way! Just gimme a break already...
But, you know... It might not be so bad to keep this lifestyle up for a little while longer...
Afterword
Hi, everyone, it’s FUNA. Thanks for picking up the next volume in the series!
...No one just skipped the first volume before buying this one, right?
We covered everything from the war against Aligot, the most action-intense part of season one of “I Shall Survive Using Potions!” to the start of Kaoru’s new journey. What’s going to end up happening to Kaoru and company?
The first volume of this series managed to stay in the top twenty for Oricon’s book rankings after it came out, and it even received a second printing run.
This is all because of you guys! Thank you so much! It’s all thanks to you we got the second volume of this series out. Here’s hoping we can keep this up for volume three and onward...
Actually, two days before writing this, I tripped and smacked my head against the corner of a bookshelf. The area around my left eye got all swollen, and it looked just like those huge black eyes characters get in manga and stuff. Man, did I laugh and laugh... You know, after I was busy being scared half to death.
Eyes and hands are the most important parts for book lovers like m
e...
I’m writing using only one eye right now. Sometimes I’m a one-eyed author, and other times I’m someone else entirely...
Volume one of the manga by Kokonoe Hibiki-san should be coming out around the same time as this book! Get yourself to a place that sells them! Go, go, go!
There’s so many people I want to thank, so I’ll do it all at once.
Thank you to my editors, Sukima-sama, my illustrator, the people in charge of proofreading and revising my stuff, and even everyone involved with printing, publishing, and distributing the book, the bookstores that decided to carry it, the people on the novel site I posted the original story on who would give me comments, advice, and point out errors—and, most of all, thank YOU from the bottom of my heart for picking up this book! Thank you all so much!
I’m looking forward to your support for the manga as well, and I hope to see you all in the next volume!
...There is going to be a next volume, right?
Our real fight starts now!!!
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Copyright
I Shall Survive Using Potions! Volume 2
by FUNA
Translated by Garrison Denim
Edited by Kris Swanson
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Copyright © 2017 FUNA
Illustrations by Sukima
All rights reserved.
First published in Japan in 2017 by Kodansha Ltd., Tokyo.
Publication rights for this English edition arranged through Kodansha Ltd., Tokyo.
All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher is unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property.
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The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher.
Ebook edition 1.0: May 2019