Chapter 80
Chapter 80
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 80
Chapter Title: The Sage's Hut
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Saph discovered the hut and paused for a moment, taking a large breath.
After wandering through the forest where trees grew every other step, stepping into this place suddenly made the air feel clear. Moonlight and starlight filtering through the trees shone especially brightly on the hut.
It looked like a house made of earth, with walls bulging out to the sides like a firmly pressed pumpkin from above, and round bark like an acorn cap covering it instead of a roof. The yellow earthen walls reflected the moonlight, sparkling in various colors depending on the viewing angle.
The door was shaped like a leaf, but it wasn't a leaf. No, even if it were a real leaf, it was a pretty thick one.
Merald, carrying two people over both shoulders, walked up to the hut and kicked the leaf door with his foot. The leaf made a dull thud like wood.
"Granny Sage. It's me."
The front door and windows were also leaf-shaped, all firmly closed. But seeing white smoke rising from the chimney suggested it wasn't empty.
When Merald kicked the door once more, there was a puffing sound, and suddenly black smoke billowed from the chimney.
"Granny!"
Merald kicked the door and entered inside.
Saph had no time to ask what was going on and could only follow behind.
The inside of the hut was filled with a strange smell and black smoke. It was like the sweet scent of strawberries, but also like the musty smell of a rag, and like strong liquor.
A lantern hanging from the ceiling brightly lit the living room with orange light, but it wasn't a candle or oil lamp.
The earthen walls were covered with dried insect corpses and bizarrely shaped plants of unknown origin hanging by their roots. The cauldron boiling over the hearth looked just like the terrifying witch's magic potion from old tales.
From the outside, it appeared to be a mysterious hut of an old person enjoying their twilight years, but the inside was completely an alchemist's laboratory.
"Oh, Merald. You've come?"
A woman approached, waving away the black smoke.
"What were you doing, Granny?"
Saph couldn't accept Merald calling her 'Granny.'
The elf who appeared wearing oversized oven mitts was a young woman who looked at most thirty years old. And she was the kind of beauty that any ordinary man would fall for at first sight.
Her golden hair reached her waist, and her blue eyes sparkled like jewels reflecting the ceiling lantern's light. She had a slender figure and was tall, so Saph had to look quite high up. Even the soot smudged here and there on her flawless face looked attractive.
Like the elves Saph had seen at the pond, her rabbit-like ears, about a handspan long, perked up above her golden hair.
"I knew you'd come, so I was baking cookies. They got a bit burnt."
She flung open the closed leaf window to ventilate.
"You call this 'a bit' burnt? I thought you failed an experiment this time and were about to blow up the house!"
Merald spoke in an angry voice. Even though it was clearly a tone of concern, his rough appearance made it seem like he was ready to smash the house himself.
But the elf woman ignored the orc's rage with a gentle smile.
"Who's this child? Even if the Dark Forest is hot, to be so completely naked?"
The Sage spotted Saph and asked.
"A human woman."
Merald replied.
"I can tell the race and gender just by looking!"
The Sage said as she took off her thin overcoat and gave it to Saph.
Saph draped the coat over herself and spoke rapidly.
"Are you the Sage of the Dark Forest? My name is Saph. Please save Ruby and Jade."
The Sage smiled faintly.
"You speak the common tongue. These days, few humans know how! But Ruby and Jade?"
Merald placed Ruby and Jade one after another on the empty table.
"These two. I'll explain the situation slowly, so treat them first."
"Am I a doctor? Why should I treat humans I've never even met?"
Even as she said that, the Sage was already stripping off her oven mitts and examining the two.
"You have to treat them. These kids are the 'ones' you mentioned, Granny."
Merald said.
The Sage's eyes widened as she looked at Saph.
"Hoo, I can definitely feel an aura different from ordinary humans."
"They know healing magic. But the one who knows annihilation magic is the male."
As Merald pointed with his finger, the Sage examined Jade lying on the table.
"This one?"
Jade was groaning even in his unconscious state.
The Sage placed her palm lightly on the wound on his stomach. Jade reflexively writhed.
"This isn't a serious wound. The emergency treatment was done well. Saph, was it? Come here."
The Sage commanded Saph.
"If you know healing magic, this is your specialty, right? Do it."
Saph did as instructed.
"The problem is this one."
The Sage put on a white glove and flipped open Ruby's eyes, checked her pulse. After a brief examination, she asked.
"Poison?"
"It looks like they got doused in the poison of Duku boa, one of the heads of the Hydra."
Merald said.
"Duku boa's poison? This is a headache. But... you fought the Hydra?"
"This little one?"
"Interesting story."
The Sage marveled and selected potion bottles neatly lined up on a shelf on the wall.
She placed a few potion bottles on the empty table, picked one up, and poured it generously over Ruby's body. For the 'Sage's treatment' Saph had hoped for, it was rough and haphazard.
The Sage went to the hearth and pulled out a tray from inside. On the tray, black charcoal-like lumps were neatly arranged, still emitting wisps of black smoke.
Saph thought they were specially made medicine, but they were the 'slightly burnt' cookies she mentioned earlier.
"Mmm, the shape isn't great, but they'll taste good. Want to try one, Merald?"
"No."
"You're too picky about food. You?"
The Sage offered a burnt cookie.
Saph instinctively shook her head.
"Hmm, right. With your comrades worrying you, now's not the time to eat something like this."
The Sage came over with a small pot in her mouth, a cookie between her teeth. She poured the potion bottles from the table into it.
Saph had heard that alchemists meticulously measure quantities and mix potions by ratios, but the Sage did it roughly. She even stirred it with the stick she used to pick up the cookie. She placed the mixed potion pot appropriately over the fire and came back to Saph's side.
The Sage observed Saph's hands closely and said.
"Oh my. You use healing light very well. High purity. You can stop now."
Saph said worriedly.
"I stopped the bleeding earlier, but it's not improving at all."
The Sage stroked Jade's forehead once and said.
"Losing consciousness isn't from blood loss. It's from internal shock."
"Internal shock?"
"You said he used annihilation magic? Then shock would naturally accumulate. He probably has quite a bit of fatigue too."
"Yes. He hasn't slept properly for days."
"And you? Are you okay?"
The Sage stroked Saph's forehead.
Saph belatedly realized her head horns were exposed. She flinched back and replied.
"I-I'm fine."
She avoided his gaze, worried that covering her head now would make it more obvious.
'Come to think of it, they called me a 'human' woman even seeing these horns. Both the Sage and Merald... Do elves not care about this?'
The Sage brought a box. Inside the box were all sorts of strange tools of unknown use.
"Merald, don't just stand there. This child... what was the redhead's name again?"
The Sage pointed at Ruby and asked.
"Ruby."
Saph quickly answered.
"Right. Go wash Ruby."
The Sage said again.
Merald scowled.
"Me?"
"Should I tell Saph to do it?"
"You want me to wash a man!"
"So you'd like it if it were a woman?"
"That's not it, but..."
"I neutralized it earlier, but poison residue remains, so the wash water must be stored in the chemical vat."
"I'm the guardian of the Dark Forest! Not a nurse!"
Merald grumbled as he picked up Ruby, still wrapped in the leaf, and suddenly asked as if it just occurred to him.
"By the way, I was exposed to this guy's poison for a long time too. Shouldn't I take some antidote? One side of my face is already numb; I don't even have the energy to counter your venomous tongue, Granny."
"Oh dear, looks like you got poisoned too. I haven't spat any venom, yet you're babbling nonsense about not being able to counter! If you wash Ruby clean, I'll prepare medicine in the meantime."
"If it's medicine to eat, no thanks? Your meds are always bitter."
"I'll prepare candy too."
"Sorghum candy? Honey candy?"
"Which do you prefer?"
"Honey candy."
"Oh my! That's all gone. Only sorghum candy left."
"Damn it, bitter medicine and that tasteless candy together?"
Merald's grumbling voice grew fainter as he descended to the basement.
"Actually, everyone here needs antidotes. You, me, Jade too. Oh, want some candy?"
The Sage smiled faintly at Saph and held out an earthen jar. Inside were thumb-sized round yellow pebble-like things.
"What's candy?"
Saph put her hand in the jar and took one out. It was soft and doughy like clay.
The Sage said.
"You don't know? It exists in the human world too? The method is different, but. I mix honey and flour."
Saph popped the candy in her mouth and was startled. The sweetness she had never experienced made her body tremble.
"How is it?"
The Sage asked.
Saph replied, her lips quivering.
"I-Incredibly... delicious."
"Good for fatigue. One more?"
The Sage offered the jar. Saph couldn't refuse and took another.
"Tell Merald you ate sorghum candy. If he knows about this, he'll devour the whole jar."
The Sage closed the jar lid and hid it in the corner, then gave instructions.
"Now go to that shelf over there and bring the potion bottles one by one as I say."
Saph went to the shelf the Sage indicated, candy in her mouth. As the sweetness melted in her mouth and enveloped her tongue again, Saph thought not just Merald, but she herself could devour a whole jar in no time.
"First, bring the white bottle at the very end."
The Sage hung another small pot over the hearth and pointed with her finger one by one.
"Be careful not to break it. If you take that one bottle back to your country and show it to a knowledgeable alchemist, you could buy a whole castle; it's that precious."
Saph carefully carried the indicated potion bottle. Not because it was worth a castle, but because it was medicine to save Ruby.
The Sage began measuring the brought potions with a small spoon and putting them into the pot. This time she put in some effort, so the two didn't speak for a while. Then, at the end, she roughly poured the earlier haphazardly mixed potion into the carefully mixed one, and finished.
The Sage sighed and stretched her back.
"Whew, been a while since I worked up a sweat."
Saph looked at Jade lying on the table and asked.
"Will both of them be okay?"
"This one has no problem."
The Sage looked down at Jade, who was breathing evenly with eyes closed, and continued.
"Your healing magic is perfect. The internal shock will resolve with time, so just let him sleep. The problem is the one taken to wash."
"Is Ruby that serious?"
"Duku boa's poison is the second strongest in this forest. Even a slight touch causes loss of consciousness in half an hour, eternal sleep from which you never wake. Even without a direct bite, doused like that, it's a miracle she's alive. She should have died before arriving here."
"Ruby is strong."
"Physical strength and internal immunity are separate matters."
"Ruby is an angel. So she can endure."
"Angel? Angel..."
The Sage tilted her head for a moment, then suddenly smiled brightly and nodded.
"Ah, that angel! Then maybe there's a slight possibility."
"You know angels? Merald didn't."
"Of course. To you, they're guardians of faith?"
"To us elves, they're destroyers of faith. So never mention angels again."
The Sage said firmly.
Saph shut her mouth in surprise.
"That doesn't mean I won't treat her. Those are separate issues."
The Sage said gently and walked back to the hearth.
"I need to check if the antidote mixed well. Mm, looks good. Boiling too long reduces efficacy."
She took the pot off the fire.
"Is there anything more I can do?"
Saph asked.
"Well, what did you do before coming to this forest?"
"I was at a convent."
"Then you're a priestess of the Catholic Church?"
"Yes. Something like that."
"Then your task is set. Pray."
The Sage smiled faintly. Though it was apt advice, Saph couldn't shake the feeling she was being mocked.