The Alchemist's Workshop
“I expected as much, but you really didn’t hesitate at all.”
“Gulp.”
I forced myself to swallow the blood pouring out and looked down at my severed tongue. The cross-section was soaked in blood and hard to see clearly, but it was definitely cut quite neatly.
“Slurp… gulp.”
Even the cut surface didn’t hurt. Was the dagger made with alchemy? It seemed it couldn’t include a hemostatic function. Hemostasis should be easier than numbing pain, yet the blood kept gushing, so it clearly wasn’t there.
“Gulp.”
Still, wasn’t this too much blood? I swallowed again. Lifting my head while gulping down the blood, my eyes met Aaron’s. He was staring at me, clearly wondering what on earth I was doing.
“Why are you swallowing it?”
With blood pouring out and no tongue, I couldn’t speak. I tried to convey my meaning with my eyes as best I could.
“Glluulp.”
“If swallowing it made the blood regenerate, no one would die from blood loss.”
“Gulp?”
“Your expression says exactly that.”
Aaron scoffed with another strange sound and shook his head.
“Don’t swallow it. Spit it out.”
So it wasn’t that the function was missing—he just hadn’t added it.
“Bleeeeh…”
I opened my mouth without resistance. Shhhk— Blood poured out, staining the plate that held my tongue. By the time the tongue was half-submerged in the collected blood, Aaron tapped the table once.
A single tap.
The table began to writhe like a living creature. Something that looked like a hand—or perhaps a foot—rose up, carried the bowl containing the tongue over to Aaron, then returned to me and swayed in front of my mouth like a wagging tail. It seemed to be telling me to open up.
I had already closed my mouth and gone back to swallowing blood once the bowl disappeared. Aaron glanced at me and spoke.
“It’ll stop the bleeding while you’re holding it in your mouth.”
When I opened my mouth, the wooden pillar that had been swaying like a cat’s tail slipped inside. As if by magic—or rather, alchemy—the bleeding stopped. Not only that, a faint herbal scent began to rise in my mouth. Was this scent also part of the alchemy, or had the wood used to make the table been mixed with herbs?
While I was lost in idle thoughts, Aaron began doing something. From that moment on, all my attention was fixed on him.
“I’ll explain everything once we’re done. For now, try to watch as carefully as you can.”
What was I supposed to be watching? The question was answered the instant golden light burst from Aaron’s fingertips where they touched the blood.
…?
And then a new question arose.
???
What had I been meant to see? I hadn’t seen anything at all. There was a flash of light, and it was over. Unlike last time, no metals appeared, and the table didn’t move. It just sparkled… and ended.
Blinking in confusion, I watched Aaron, who had been studying my tongue, stand up and approach me.
“Of course you couldn’t see it. It’s actually fortunate. If you had, I wouldn’t have been able to resist the urge to crack your head open.”
Aaron, now standing in front of me, held out the severed tongue. It was definitely mine, yet it didn’t feel like mine. My tongue had never had a tattoo like that.
When I looked at Aaron in confusion, he brought the tongue closer as if to say he would explain later.
“Open your mouth. Wide.”
I opened it so wide my jaw nearly dislocated. The wooden pillar that had been stopping the bleeding withdrew. Aaron placed the tongue in its spot. Another flash of light. The tongue reattached.
I had no idea what was going on, but I was just glad to have my tongue back. Having something you took for granted suddenly disappear and then return felt surprisingly good. The moment Aaron’s fingers left my mouth, I rolled my tongue around inside, testing its familiar texture. It really was back.
I wonder if I’d feel this happy if a lost chili pepper came home someday? If it returned brand new, never used before, it would probably feel incredibly welcome.
“It’s the basic material needed to learn my alchemy.”
So it was like a basic implant.
“Or, more accurately, an Alchemist’s Workshop would be the right term.”
“Ooh…”
An Alchemist’s Workshop. That fit an alchemist perfectly. A shabby hut, air thick with the scent of medicinal herbs, a cauldron always bubbling away, strange-colored liquids roiling inside, and an alchemist studying a book with an intellectual air…
“Then your workshop is on your right hand, Teacher?”
“That’s right.”
“Why is mine different?”
After asking, I came up with the answer myself.
“It must be connected to whatever soul or whatever it was that I ate back then.”
Aaron nodded.
“You could taste things just by looking at them. Before you disassembled the blood, you would have felt a specific pattern of flow on your tongue. That proves your tongue has exceptional sensitivity.”
I reflected the shape of my tongue on the dagger I had used to cut it. As expected, it looked nothing like the one on Aaron’s right hand. While his featured a magnificent dragon, mine had ten strange circles connected by lines. At a glance, it almost resembled a tree—an odd pattern.
Aaron’s dragon was definitely cooler.
“It looks different from yours, Teacher.”
“The pattern is engraved automatically in response to your body and blood.”
“What’s the difference? Don’t tell me I have to press my tongue against things to do alchemy? Or spit on them?”
Aaron gave me a look that said I had far too many questions, but he answered anyway.
“There’s no need for that.”
“Then what about the shape?”
“Don’t try to learn too much at once. You’ll find out in time.”
Maybe he wasn’t being diligent after all.
“So what do I do now?”
The moment I asked, Aaron’s right arm was severed with a clean shhk.
“Hrk.”
What? Was my saliva that dirty? Even so, cutting it off so mercilessly would hurt even me. As I trembled, Aaron’s arm suddenly regenerated. In his right hand was now a glass bottle filled with white liquid.
“Wow. What was that just now?”
“Sub-space.”
Of course our teacher wouldn’t do something so ordinary.
“You made the sub-space with alchemy too?”
Aaron nodded and opened the bottle, offering it to me.
“It’s a potion to replenish the blood you lost.”
The milky-white liquid looked undeniably healthy. I drank it down without hesitation. It was sticky and sweet… no, it wasn’t. Huh. What on earth was this taste? Horrible. “Horrible” didn’t even begin to describe how wretched it was. Still, I tried to swallow. It was a product of alchemy, so my body ought to accept it, right?
Unfortunately, this stupid body kept convulsing, trying to spit the liquid back out.
“Urk.”
“Swallow it.”
“Urghk.”
Aaron’s hand covered my mouth and nose. The only option left was to swallow. Actually, this was good. It was the perfect moment to discipline my arrogant, pathetic body. I forced the vile liquid down along with the rising nausea.
Afterward, I snatched the candy Aaron offered and sucked on it greedily.
“Thank you. That was delicious. But why does it taste so awful?”
“You’ve never had a potion before, I see.”
“No.”
“Every single potion tastes terrible. Without exception.”
“Ah.”
My first goal was set: make a tasty potion. Strawberry flavor would be best, of course.
While I was thinking that, Aaron, who had stepped back, spoke.
“From now on, you will learn my alchemy.”
“Is it different from other alchemy?”
“While other alchemy focuses on creation—”
Aaron clenched his hand in the air. With a brilliant golden light, a metallic clang-clang rang out.
“Mine focuses on survival. In other words, combat.”
When the light faded, a gleaming blue sword stood proudly in its place. I immediately reached out and grabbed it.
“Whoa.”
Thud!
It was heavier than it looked, so I ended up half-dropping it onto the table.
“You haven’t forgotten the sensation of disassembly, have you?”
“No.”
“The first step is to disassemble and categorize this. Once you can classify it perfectly, we’ll move on to theory. Save your questions until then.”
“Can I start right away?”
Aaron shook his head and reached into his sub-space again. This time he rummaged for a while before pulling out his hand, now holding all sorts of glass bottles between his fingers. I stared at them in wonder, yet couldn’t stop the chill running down my spine. The memory of that awful taste from earlier came rushing back.
“…Are those potions?”
“Elixirs.”
“Hrk.”
But that single word dispelled my instinctive fear.
Clink— clink—
They were elixirs, after all. I didn’t know how precious elixirs were in this world, but in most genres, they were treated as rare and valuable.
Clink— clink—
No matter how bad they tasted, I had to swallow them somehow. Since things had come to this, I decided to think positively.
Clink— clink—
Everything was part of the process of learning alchemy. There was no way not to think positively.
Clink— clink—
Still, the quantity seemed excessive.
Clink— clink— clink— clink—
When the count passed twenty, I asked cautiously.
“Is it okay to drink this many? Aren’t these things supposed to be saved for later when they’re more useful?”
“People say that taking them without proper preparation yields no efficiency, and since elixirs are expensive and rare…”
Apparently twenty wasn’t enough. Aaron kept pulling out more elixirs.
“That doesn’t apply to an alchemist who can make them. You just keep drinking until you get satisfactory results.”
“Wow.”
Alchemy really was the best.
But when the number of elixirs exceeded forty, something I’d read in martial arts novels suddenly came to mind. Wasn’t there something about people going berserk or exploding after taking the wrong elixir? Forty bottles. At this rate, my stomach might burst before my body did. I wasn’t sure they’d even fit.
“Teacher, my body won’t explode or anything, right?”
“If you consume more than you can handle, yes. Don’t worry. We’ll solve that by giving you an elixir that prevents bursting.”
“Good heavens.”
Long live alchemy.
In the end, after fifty-eight elixirs, Aaron’s hand finally withdrew from the sub-space. The dining room, once filled with the smell of blood, was now overflowing with the scents of various elixirs. It smelled like morning dew, dawn air, and earth, with a hint of rosemary somewhere.
Aaron came to my side and gestured with his chin.
“Drink them from left to right.”
“Thank you. I’ll enjoy them.”
Pop—
I opened the first bottle. The scent of pine needles wafted out, reminding me of a drink I used to enjoy on Earth. The taste would be horrible, though. Still, the effect should be amazing. Without hesitation, I poured it into my mouth.
“It’ll hurt a bit.”
Gulp.
After swallowing the vile liquid along with my nausea, I looked at Aaron.
“Yes?”
“I’ll assist you from the side. Once you’ve finished them all, you can pass out.”
So I wasn’t allowed to faint until I’d drunk everything. How painful could it be for even the taciturn Aaron to say it would hurt? And he was even giving permission to faint? We hadn’t been together long, but Aaron didn’t seem like the type to say such things. He was the kind who would keep working even if stabbed with a sword. If he was saying this, just how much would it hurt?
I quickly drank the next elixir and asked.
“But Teacher, didn’t you say you fed me elixirs while I was asleep?”
“That’s why you didn’t wake up for four days.”
“Ah.”
Could it really be this simple and straightforward?
“Since you’re awake, it’ll hurt a lot more, right?”
The moment I asked, the answer became clear.
“Kkng.”
They said if it hurt too much, you couldn’t even scream. It was exactly like that. I couldn’t breathe, so I couldn’t make a sound. Trembling, I looked at Aaron with teary eyes. He kindly opened the next elixir and handed it to me.
Fifty-five more to go.