Chapter 170
Chapter 170
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 170
Chapter Title: The Lost Potion Recipes
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“Today marks the historic day when our friend Yoo Han turned Alvheim into a land of purification! Raise your glasses with hearts full of gratitude!”
‘...Why is he like this?’
Ever since I’d successfully cleared up the misunderstanding, Erveim hadn’t stopped hyping me up for a single moment.
Even now, with millions of elves watching.
“Waaaaah!”
“Yoo Han! Yoo Han!”
“Friend! Friend!”
The elves cheered until their throats went raw.
Clang!
Only after a long while did they finally calm down and clink their glasses together.
At last, I felt like I could breathe.
‘I thought I was going to die from the pressure...’
No one could possibly know how I felt right now.
Who had ever received a welcome like this in front of a million elves?
Even back when I’d made a huge splash as the zombie knight, I’d never drawn a crowd this big.
‘...Still, it’s for a good reason, so let’s think positively.’
I pushed the past out of my mind and focused on the festival.
Hard work deserved proper rest—it was the key to efficiency.
I was deep into enjoying the festivities when something caught my eye.
“Hm?”
In the corner, Erebos sat slumped pitifully.
His face was full of worry, for some reason.
Who else would look after the guy if not me? With that thought, I approached him.
He sensed my presence right away and turned his head toward me.
“Ah, Contractor...”
“What’s wrong? Why are you moping like that?”
“...It’s nothing. I’m just lost in thought.”
“Nothing, my foot. Your face is screaming ‘I’m suffering.’”
“Th-that... Transcendents like me never show emotions on our faces.”
“Keep spouting nonsense, and I’m out.”
“...”
He clearly didn’t like that idea, so Erebos fell silent.
‘Why has he turned out like this?’
He didn’t seem like the Erebos I knew.
In the game, he’d had a much cooler image.
Not just in the game—even the first time I laid eyes on him in this world, he’d given off that vibe.
Stern and charismatic.
That was only a short while ago, yet now he was completely different.
‘Is it because of his new form?’
I even had the reasonable suspicion that turning cute had changed his personality too.
...Well, it wasn’t important anyway.
“Spit it out. What’s bothering you?”
“Um, well...”
I kept pressing, and Erebos let out a deep sigh before speaking.
“Truth is, I’ve been worried about the contract.”
“The contract? Why? What about it?”
“I’m just wondering if I judged too hastily and made the contract... like that guy.”
That guy.
In context, there was only one who fit the bill.
“You don’t mean the [Death Knight], do you?”
Erebos hesitated for a moment at my question, then nodded.
“That guy’s expression at the end... it won’t leave my mind. He looked like he regretted his actions immensely. And... I sensed that his action was him forming a contract.”
“So you’re worried you might end up regretting it too?”
“...”
Nod.
‘What kind of worry is this?’
I couldn’t really empathize, but I got the gist of what was bothering him.
The [Death Knight] had been similar to Erebos in the first place.
Seeing a guy like that go out that way, it was understandable why Erebos would worry.
However.
“Look, not every contract is the same.”
No matter how you sliced it, how could he compare the contract he made with me to a demon’s contract?
Mine was downright sloppy compared to their airtight terms.
And I didn’t have their demonic disposition either.
I began explaining to Erebos the differences between their contracts and the one we’d made.
Some time passed.
“...In any case, you haven’t paid any price, so you won’t have any reason to regret it.”
I was about to wrap it up, figuring that was enough, when—
“What do you mean no price? I staked my entire existence!”
Erebos snapped, clearly irked by my words.
...His entire existence.
Did that really count as staking something?
“As long as you don’t break the contract, you’re good, right?”
“Even so, for a transcendent like me to stake my very existence—do you have any idea how difficult that is...? Hah, forget it. You don’t understand my heart at all, Contractor!”
Erebos, who’d been fuming, turned his back on me in a huff.
‘Sigh.’
I felt a sigh building up.
Who could’ve predicted this?
The one called the Lord of Darkness turning out to be such a handful.
We’d only been together a short time, and he was already draining me.
Still...
‘I’d better soothe him.’
Strained relations with Erebos would only hurt me.
I needed to drag things out with his power all the way to the fight with Baal.
With that in mind, I patted Erebos on the shoulder.
“I get what you’re saying, but don’t worry too much. Your existence will never vanish.”
“...You mean that? Can you promise?”
“I can. As long as you don’t betray me.”
“...Understood. Then I’ll place my trust in you, Contractor.”
“Good. Our goals align anyway, so let’s make the best of it while we’re together.”
Erebos nodded, gazing up at me with sparkling eyes.
The moment our talk ended, he bolted to the center of the square like he’d been waiting and dove into the festivities.
“Hey, you there, elf! Pour me one of those too!”
I watched his excited retreating figure and rolled my stiff neck.
‘...I’m beat.’
First Erveim, now Erebos.
The ‘E’ names were wearing me out today.
***
Evening came, the festival’s fiery atmosphere finally dying down.
Rather than heading straight back to my temporary lodging, I went to Erveim’s house.
The misunderstanding was cleared, but one issue remained unresolved.
Her right arm.
“...What do you mean you can heal it?”
Erveim tilted her head as if she’d misheard my explanation.
But she’d heard me right.
‘There’s no way an elf healing potion couldn’t fix an injury like this.’
Erveim had said decades ago that elf healing potion research was complete, but that didn’t matter.
Even the potions from those decades ago could easily heal an arm like this.
Elf-made potions weren’t called ‘water made by the gods’ for nothing.
In fact, most elixirs came from elves.
Anyway.
Despite that history, there was only one reason Erveim couldn’t heal her arm now.
‘Something went wrong.’
An unknown problem had arisen with the elf healing potions.
Proof of that:
“Friend, how exactly do you plan to heal this arm?”
Erveim responded as if she couldn’t comprehend it at all.
She didn’t even know their own healing potions could achieve such a feat.
“Was there a specific reason the research ended?”
I probed for the reason first.
I needed to hear it to decide if I could actually help.
Erveim nodded as if it were no big deal and spoke.
And then.
“It began when Elder Rahila turned to leaves.”
“Yes?”
I was shocked right as the story started.
I hadn’t expected the tale of the healing potions to reach all the way back to the era of the game I’d played.
“...You mean it really started back then?”
Erveim nodded emphatically and continued.
“When word came that Elder Rahila had turned to leaves, Alvheim plunged into unprecedented chaos. We’d never lost an elder like that before. And in the midst of that turmoil... the demon legion invaded.”
Demon legion.
They showed up everywhere, without fail.
‘Then, timing-wise... after I deleted my character?’
All the info I had went up to Alvheim being in chaos.
So the demon invasion must’ve happened after I deleted my character...
‘As expected, something did go down afterward.’
It looked like Baal, unable to settle things properly with me, had gone on a rampage in the human realm.
If my guess was right, it wasn’t just Alvheim—the entire continent might’ve been in peril.
Well, I’d look into that separately later.
“So what happened?”
“Alvheim was reduced to scorched earth, and we elves were pushed back by their onslaught. In the end, we had to cede a few regions.”
“...Hold on. A few regions—you mean...?”
“Yeah, the places you know.”
“...Hah.”
Erveim’s words meant the hunting grounds we’d purified were the regions lost back then.
‘So this is how it all connects?’
I felt amazement—and a twinge of guilt.
In a way, it was because I hadn’t managed to kill Baal.
Alvheim had no doubt weathered countless dangers over the past century.
Even as those thoughts swirled, Erveim kept talking.
“And everything there was burned to ashes by those bastards.”
“What was inside?”
“Alvheim’s herbs, manufacturing methods, and so on. Nothing irreplaceable.”
Erveim shook her head as if it were a great tragedy.
“Afterward, our ancestors tried desperately to restore what was lost, but they failed. They could produce the materials again, but they couldn’t recreate the erased recipes. The elder elves who knew them all turned to leaves during the war.”
“Ah.”
I got the picture.
‘So the demons burned every last potion ingredient and recipe? And killed everyone who knew how?’
The demons had utterly demolished the elves’ potion-making techniques.
The elves had attempted restoration several times but failed.
In that bleak situation, they’d eventually given up.
As I mulled it over, a line I’d just heard popped back into my head.
‘They could produce the materials again, but not restore the recipes?’
That meant the materials still existed.
The moment I reached that conclusion, I asked Erveim.
“Those materials you reproduced—do you still have them?”
“Of course we do. They’re just ordinary plants now, not herbs anymore.”
“...Could you take me there?”
“Hm?”
Erveim looked puzzled.
“Like I said, they’re ordinary plants. No real need to see them in person, is there?”
“It’s fine. Please.”
“...Well, it’s not a big ask. How could I refuse the savior of the elf race?”
Erveim agreed readily and led me there.
The instant we arrived, my mouth fell open on its own.
Shaaaa...
In the heart of dark Alvheim, herbs planted densely like a reed field gleamed with radiant light.
As if vowing to protect Alvheim amid the shadows.
‘...Beautiful.’
No doubt, it was the most dazzling, enchanting sight I’d ever witnessed in this world.
And the crucial part—
“Excuse me, would it be okay if I used some of these herbs?”
“Hm? Used the herbs? For what?”
“I might be able to restore those recipes.”
—was that every single one of them was a herb I recognized.