by Funa
Oh, and I advised them to disarm all those traps we had prepared but ended up not using. I didn’t want the villagers to accidentally get caught in one of them, after all. They may have gone unused this time, but setting those traps was a useful experience, so it definitely wasn’t a waste. Failures and mistakes are useful, so long as they contribute to the next attempt. Nothing in life is a waste. All those times I had to clash with my shitty superiors and supervisors helped me level up my patience and ability to ignore irritating things, so they weren’t wasted.
Yeah, I’m sure of it!
＊ ＊
Francette seemed to be deep in thought as we walked down a mountain path that was little more than an animal trail.
“Is something bothering you?”
“Oh, no... I was just thinking about that village...”
I tried talking to her, but it seemed she wasn’t too deep in thought. It was just on her mind a bit.
“A small village manages to survive by enduring exploitation from bandits, and without handing over their food and their girls, but now that they’ve learned to fight back, you’re worried about whether they can keep it up. Is that it?”
“...Yes. Once they start fighting back, one mistake will lead to the destruction of the entire village. And there’s no guarantee that it will always go well like it did this time...”
That much was obvious. Fortune decides the outcome of any given battle.
“They may all get wiped out some day.”
“Y-You say that so dryly...”
Francette’s eyes widened, but it was the truth.
“Depending on the scale they’re dealing with, it’s up to the villagers to decide to fight or do as they’re told like before. It’s not as if they always have to fight. And no matter what they choose and how things end up, they now have the freedom of choice. All we did was give them a free trial run with a safety net this one time, and one extra option moving forward. Whatever they do now isn’t our concern, and we can’t be responsible for it. That’s all there is to it.”
“...”
Francette was rather hardheaded and obsessed with justice.
Even though she’s around thirty... Whoa!!!
Yeah, I had just narrowly avoided a boomerang thrown at me. That would’ve been fatal...
Anyway, it was all over with. There was nothing we could do now. So, we were going to spend some time at the hot spring and depart after enjoying another soak in the morning.
After all, the goal of this entire trip was to go on a staff vacation and visit hot springs. It was an episode of “Witnessed by the Housekeeper! College Girls Hot Spring Gourmet Timetable Murder Case!” Yes, the hot spring was all that mattered! Everything else was the whims of the Goddess.
I had just so happened to come across someone and decided to help them through their trouble. It was a singular, fortunate event. It absolutely didn’t mean I would take care of them forever. That’s just how it was.
We arrived at the hot springs, so I shooed Roland and Emile away and immediately got into the water.
What’s that? The women got to go in first last time too? Women take longer, so maybe the guys should go in first, you say? I don’t care! Hmm, Francette seems to be deep in thought. I think I’ll modify the lion head to increase its healing effects and add a relaxation effect, too. And... there.
Hm? Wait a minute. I feel like I’m forgetting something... Oh!
“Belle, Francette, can you come over here?”
And as the girls and I enjoyed the hot spring together...
“Who goes there?!” Francette called out in a low, sharp voice. She immediately picked up her sword, which lay next to a nearby rock, taking a fighting stance with her sword’s point toward the shadows.
Belle and I positioned ourselves to protect Layette and backed up a bit, with our bodies still in the water.
Then...
“What happened?!”
“Lady Kaoru!!!”
Roland and Emile popped out of the bushes behind us, swords drawn. Then they froze, standing bolt upright, their faces tight...
There was nothing and no one in the direction Francette was pointing her sword.
Francette’s face turned toward Roland and Emile.
Likewise, Belle, Layette, and I also turned toward the two men.
Roland and Emile turned pale in response.
Our faces distorted in anger, and our bodies were neatly covered with towels.
“I wonder...where have you two been, and what were you doing? Why did you think there was trouble when Francette spoke in such a low voice? When the villager kids appeared the first time, how did you show up so quickly? I wonder... I wonder... I wonder...?”
“Gya...”
“Gya?”
“Gyaaaaaaaaagh!!!”
And so, the trial had begun.
“Guilty!”
“Guiltyyy!”
“Already?! That was a quick decision!!!”
It was time for Roland and Emile to receive their punishment. If I had let Francette punish Roland and Belle punish Emile, they would have gone easy on them, so I made them swap. Then, I whispered in their ears.
“Belle. Roland tried to peep on you and I while we were naked.”
Tching!
Belle’s face contorted with rage. Then...
“Francette. Emile tried to peep on you and I while we were naked.”
Fwsh...
All the emotion drained from Francette’s face.
Roland and Emile turned chalk-white.
“W-Wait...”
“H-Help...”
Not my problem!
In fact...
“Did you two think I wasn’t mad, too?”
“But we aren’t interested in you and Layette...”
Snap!
“Gyaaaaaa!!!”
...I messed up. I had turned up the hot spring’s healing effects for Francette, so when Roland and Emile went in later, they recovered right away.
Damn...
The next day, we had another leisurely soak in the hot spring and made our way home, full of energy...
Completely forgetting that I had set the lion head to increase the water’s healing properties and relaxation effects, without ever removing it...
Extra Story: Roland’s Melancholy
What can I do...?
One day, Francette had suddenly come to the royal palace and said that she would follow Kaoru, and that she wanted to cancel our engagement. Surprised, I had asked her what it was about, and she had informed me of the earth-shaking news that Kaoru was departing from the kingdom! Actually, that she wanted to cancel our engagement was an even greater incident! I had asked her for details in a panic, and I found out that Kaoru’s reason for her journey was to find herself a partner! If that happened, Kaoru would stay wherever she found her partner, and our kingdom would lose the protection of the Goddess.
Not only that, but there were sure to be rumors about our kingdom driving away the Goddess, or that we had been abandoned by the Goddess, and those would quickly get out of hand.
Plus, Francette would likely follow Kaoru and stay wherever she ended up! That’s just how she was! This meant our nation would not only lose our Goddess, but we would lose Francette, who was known as our ‘great hero,’ the ‘guardian of the kingdom,’ and, of course, ‘Fearsome Fran.’
...And I would lose my fiancee. I, a man of the royal family, would be one-sidedly abandoned by my betrothed.
Gyaaaaaaaaa!!! I-I can’t let that happen! I-I must prevent that, no matter what!
But I couldn’t use my station or physical force to stop Kaoru.
Wh-What should I do...?
I know!!!
“I will go with you!”
“Huh...?” Francette looked at me, wide eyed, but I didn’t care!
There’s no escape! I won’t let you or Kaoru get away, Francette!!!
...And so, here we are.
As Kaoru’s companion, Francette
and I were on an eventful journey with two kids and a younger child.
Emile is sixteen, so he’s not a kid anymore? Sixteen is still a little brat! Definitely a kid!
Francette was now sleeping next to me.
...In the bed next to mine! She said we wouldn’t share a bed until we were married, but I knew what she was really thinking. If she got pregnant, she wouldn’t be able to continue traveling with Kaoru.
I mean, unlike commoners, nobles and royals sought purity and celibacy from their marriage partners, so she wasn’t wrong to hold out until marriage. Bloodline was everything to nobles and royals.
But we were engaged, so how about a little, you know...
Damn it!
Then when would Kaoru’s journey end so we could return to the kingdom and get married? And if Kaoru decided to live somewhere else, would Francette come back to the kingdom? And would Kaoru, who didn’t look any different after all these years and could have been tens of thousands of years old but still hadn’t found a marriage partner, be able to find someone to marry in the next ten or twenty years? Would her marriage partner even be human? If she was looking for a god roaming the human realm like herself, maybe it was going to take hundreds, if not thousands, of years.
...Francette and I wouldn’t be alive that long! Wait, I’d known Francette for over four years now, but it didn’t seem like she’d aged since... No no no, I was concerned about that before and asked Kaoru about it behind Francette’s back once.
She told me, “I don’t think I added an anti-aging effect to that potion...”
That’s what she said, anyway. Her questionable phrasing made me a bit anxious, but I chose to believe it didn’t have any such effects...
Anyway, this was a troubling situation. Pretty bad, in fact.
The way Kaoru was looking to other countries for procreation, how Francette always followed Kaoru around, the way I always got brushed aside, everything! All I could do was sabotage things from behind the scenes to prevent Kaoru from hooking up with someone from another country, but Francette stuck her head out from the alley to watch over Kaoru’s shop every day. From morning to night... No, even through the night...
Francette seemed to have limitless energy, but I felt like she was looking a little tired as of late... Wait, when did she sleep, anyway? Oh no. Come to think of it, the situation may have been worse than I imagined.
If Francette fell ill... well, I guess we had Kaoru’s potions. If Francette made a mistake due to fatigue and lack of sleep, getting injured as a result... well, I guess we had Kaoru’s potions. I mean, even if she did slip up from being so tired, she’d probably get away with a minor scrape. It was hard to imagine Fearsome Fran would sustain an injury from an enemy force of less than a thousand men.
Those who aren’t from our kingdom seem to think that that’s some story we made up to make her seem like a hero, but Francette would actually pull it off. She’d take on one or two thousand with relative ease...
She hadn’t gotten her nickname for nothing.
Anyway, this was bad! No matter what anyone said, this was a dire situation! Francette and I had been training Emile to get stronger, but he had a long way to go. He could probably take on five or six common thugs at once. If we were dealing with trained soldiers, or Rank C hunters or higher, maybe two or three opponents at once would be the best he could hope for.
Belle? She may have managed to take out one person in exchange for her own life, or stop a knife by being a human shield, but that would be it. Kaoru would never let that happen, though. Realistically, all Belle could do was watch over Layette.
Anyway, there’s no need for Francette to be so worried about Kaoru in the first place. Francette has seen what Kaoru is capable of, many times, with her own eyes. Those who have tried to harm Kaoru have had their heads blown up, have dropped to the floor spitting out blood, and been struck with lightning. We’ve even seen her run through the chest with a blade and still be fine...
I tried to convince Francette not to be so extreme with her attempts to protect Kaoru, primarily by arguing that Kaoru would be saddened if something happened to her from overworking herself, but she responded, “What if something unexpected happened to her?!” and “What if Lady Kaoru abandoned humankind because we upset her, and she ascended to heaven?!”, firming up her resolve even further...
Ahhh, what was I supposed to do...?
It had been problem after problem, lately, and the only good thing that had happened recently was Kaoru gifting me a sword...
I had been trying to convince her to do that every single day, and she finally granted me the divine sword Exhovud upon declaring, “Aaagh! Shaddap! Fine! Just leave me alone already!”
It may have been inferior to Francette’s Exgram, but was comparable to the swords bestowed to the four royal guards, the Exhrotti. Unbreaking, unbending, easy to maintain because it repelled blood, and it never lost its sharpness. Truly a weapon made for the lazy. Its ease of maintenance was one thing, but the fact that it never broke despite how rough it was treated gave it a great sense of reliability.
Kaoru had indicated many times that the fact that a member of the royal line had received a divine sword must be kept a complete secret, but that much was obvious. Even an idiot would know it would be bad if word got out that a member of the royal family had received a divine sword from a goddess. Some would scheme to take advantage of it, and the religious factions like the Temple of the Goddess would start making political moves, and most of all, my brother Serge’s claim to the throne would be in danger.
It was very unfortunate that I couldn’t brag about my sword, but this was one secret I had to keep. The fact that I had a divine sword still remained, so I had no reason to complain.
A divine sword...
The weapon I had always wanted, granted only to heroes chosen by divinity!
Ahh! Ahhh! Aaaaaahhh!!! Haah... Haah... Whew, I got a little excited...
＊ ＊
Soon, we were going to arrive at Beliscas, the town where we planned on staying next.
“Kaoru, I wanted to ask you for a favor...”
Hm? Francette’s asking Kaoru for something.
“What is it?”
“I want to be someone who can live with you in your next ‘backstory.’ It’s a bit too difficult to keep watch over you at all times when we live in separate residences...”
“Of course it would be difficult! What did... Wait, why were you watching me at all times in the first place?!”
Was she crazy?! I couldn’t believe she was planning on watching over Kaoru all day while living separately. Anyone other than Francette would have fallen unconscious from fatigue by now.
But now, Kaoru would likely accommodate Francette’s request in her backstory. It would all be fine now... Wait. Wait a second! What did Francette just say?
“I want to be someone who can live with you...”
“I want to be someone who...”
“I want to...”
“I...” “I...” “I...”
Why “I” and not “we”? What about me? What about meeeeee!!!
Afterword
This is FUNA.
Thank you so much for reading volume four of I Shall Survive Using Potions! Season one of Potions ended with the publication of volume two. The series was originally expected to end in one season, but we shattered those plans with season two going strong! And the overseas version is ongoing too! This is all thanks to all you readers. Thank you again! Kaoru and company have arrived in a new city.
This time, she will start a normal life... or so she thinks.
But trouble just seems to always come find her.
Geezers, horses... and bandits! And in volume five, some annoying people to deal with...
Kaoru: “Here we go!” Francette: “Ah... They’ve made Kaoru mad...” Volume three of the comic version is out along with this book, and volume four of the light novel and volume three of the comics for Saving 80,000 Gold in Anoth
er World for my Retirement are also out now! The FUNA festival is going strong! The ongoing comic version is updated every first and third Monday on the web comic magazine, “Suiyoubi no Sirius”! (http://seiga.nicovideo.jp/manga/official/w_sirius/) If you forget it’s updated on Mondays and don’t keep up with the series... In the name of the Mo(o)n(day), I’ll punish you! As long as this series is still ongoing, I get to go to the annual Kodansha Ranobe Bunko anniversary party and eat free food! (Ranobe Bunko and K Ranobe Books have the same editing department.)
And along with Potions, I will use the anime adaptation of Didn’t I Say to Make My Abilities Average in the Next Life?! to increase my sales even further! And so, I’ve moved another step closer to my ambitions...
To my editor; the illustrator, Sukima; the binding designer, the proofreader, and others; the printer, distributor, and bookstores; the light novel submission website, Shōsetsuka ni Narō; everyone who pointed out errors or provided advice in the feedback section; and everyone who picked up this book, I appreciate you all from the bottom of my heart.
Thank you! I hope to see you again in the next volume...
FUNA
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Copyright
I Shall Survive Using Potions! Volume 4
by FUNA
Translated by Hiroya Watanabe
Edited by William Haggard
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.