Chapter 17
Chapter 17
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 17
Chapter Title: Start
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I won.
A thrilling sensation tingled from the tips of my toes. So this is what victory feels like.
But now that I'd actually won, another thought crept in.
Is it right for me to win?
···She's a professor?
I glanced at Pelliana, who was desperately holding back her tears.
Seeing someone who'd seemed so tough acting like this felt strangely off.
I didn't make her cry, did I?
"Are you okay?"
"···."
No, but I never expected her to cry.
I figured she'd just be mildly surprised and accept it.
I didn't even know when this turned into a proper contest.
Somehow···?
What was it? Alchemy?
"Then I'll be going now···."
With no response from Pelliana, I decided to give her some space first.
It didn't feel like the best choice, but it was the only one I had.
There was nothing I could do right now anyway.
"Wait."
Just then, Professor Pelliana stopped me in my tracks. Her voice sounded somehow hoarse and choked.
I halted mid-step.
"Rain Ortiz, I admit it. You're a genius unlike any other."
She wiped away her tears with her hand and pulled herself up from where she'd collapsed.
Maybe it was the redness around her eyes, but her expression looked much softer now.
"···Come with me somewhere."
"Pardon?"
Suddenly?
I froze for a moment.
Let's think back on everything that's happened so far.
Following Professor Rachel almost made me her assistant, and tagging along with Professor Meriel had me solving an unsolvable puzzle.
Sure, I've already made the new potion this time···.
Who knows what else might happen.
"Sorry, but I have class right after—"
Still, one other thought occurred to me.
Can things really get any worse?
Do I even deserve to dodge this?
"···."
I might not have known before, but this time, it was entirely by my own doing.
Is dodging even the right call in a situation like this?
"···I'll skip it. I still have excused absences left."
'Excused absences' were an academy system that counted you as present if unavoidable circumstances kept you from class.
Twice per semester, as long as you had a valid reason.
"Then let's go."
Professor Pelliana grabbed a box from the corner. It was filled to the brim with healing potions.
There was another box too, but I had no idea what was in that one.
She'd packed away the potions I'd made separately and headed out of the lab.
"I'll carry them."
I snatched up the boxes and asked her.
"Where are we headed?"
"The slums."
···Suddenly?
I was baffled, but I decided to follow.
I didn't know why. I just felt like it.
Maybe because I'd seen the professor cry.
Like that, we reached the main gate.
"Ah, Professor Pelliana."
An academy staffer guarding the gate greeted Professor Pelliana.
"Off to the slums again today?"
"Yes. Could you open the gate?"
"Right away."
The academy's main gate was normally always open, but it had been closed due to the recent demon incidents.
Now ID checks were mandatory for entry and exit.
The academy's great gates slowly swung open.
This was my first time heading out during class hours.
The air felt different to breathe. Fresh, in a new way somehow.
"Not curious why we're going to the slums?"
"Well···I have a pretty good guess."
Just seeing her grab the potions made it obvious.
She's going to help people who can't afford treatment.
"You're probably right."
Doubts lingered all the same.
Why bring me along? That's what I wondered.
But I didn't ask. It didn't feel like the right time yet.
"We're here."
At some point, the buildings started looking rundown. I could feel distant stares peeking at us.
My steps didn't falter despite the ominous vibe.
"This place is safe, right?"
"It's fine."
We finally arrived at what was once a square.
Well, "once" being the key word.
"Set it down here."
I followed her instructions and put down the box, then looked at her.
She seemed like she had something to say.
"I have a question for you. Be honest this time."
"Got it."
"What do you think alchemy is?"
For a split second, her earlier question flashed through my mind.
—Tell me what you think of alchemy.
What had I said back then?
Something vague like it was a great field of study.
"Alchemy is···"
Her asking again meant she wanted a different answer.
I thought it over carefully before speaking.
"I think it's a discipline for healing."
Alchemy started advancing after healing potions were discovered. But these days, it's all geared toward harming people.
Poisons and such.
"Exactly."
Professor Pelliana nodded in agreement.
"Even without talent, even if you're too poor··· it should let everyone enjoy their basic rights. That's what I think alchemy is."
By now, people were starting to gather around one by one, as if she was always here at this hour.
They were all injured and emaciated.
"Rain, sprinkle potions on the wounded as needed. Please."
"Understood."
I opened the potion box and guided the people.
I had them line up in order and started treating wounds one by one.
"This···"
This was the slums.
A place where the poor lived.
They couldn't afford hospitals for injuries, so they handled emergency care themselves.
Infections set in easily, wounds festered and rotted.
In bad cases, even healing potions couldn't do much.
"···Sprinkle this whenever it hurts. It'll ease the pain a bit."
I sent away a patient whose wound had rotted too far. He clutched the healing potion I'd given him tightly.
I shifted my gaze to Pelliana, who was handing out food to the starving.
Bread and milk. That was the second box.
Food worse than the academy's cheapest cafeteria slop, but the people held it like buried treasure.
Time passed.
The boxes emptied quickly, soon hitting bottom.
"Everyone, I'll be back tomorrow, so hang in there."
With Professor Pelliana's announcement, the people started dispersing one by one.
It was astonishing. The slums, and yet they'd been so orderly.
"How long have you been coming here?"
"Before I became a professor."
"That explains it."
Order.
It was the result of all the time Professor Pelliana had poured in.
"Must not have been easy."
"It wasn't."
"Any reason why?"
"Felt like something that needed doing."
Once the people had all left, we headed back out of the slums.
"Professor."
The sky had darkened.
"I have a question."
We walked the streets, each carrying an empty box.
I always think everything's best in moderation.
And right now felt like the perfect time to ask.
"What is it?"
"Why'd you bring me here?"
Professor Pelliana stopped walking. I followed suit.
"Rain Ortiz."
I was struck again by how terrifying human adaptability could be.
To even get used to a professor calling my name.
"I'm listening."
Pelliana hesitated over something.
I stepped in front of her and looked her straight in the eye.
A sign I was all ears.
"···I used to think there was no such thing as genius in alchemy. That anyone could achieve what they wanted with enough effort."
It was quiet.
No wind, no insects.
Only Pelliana Miron's voice rang out.
This space held just the two of us.
"But then you whipped up a new potion in an instant··· and I realized I was wrong. Honestly, I didn't want to admit it. It would've shattered everything I'd believed in and pushed for all this time."
Her words came like a grumble.
Like pent-up emotions squeezed out, her voice thick with feeling.
"That's why the tears came. I didn't want to admit it, but I had to. It hit me so hard, and I was frustrated···"
I just listened quietly.
"Maybe because it felt like you would achieve my life's goal, and I looked pathetic doing it."
I offered no opinion.
"You know, healing potions actually have limits."
I knew.
Healing potions treated external wounds. They boosted regeneration short-term on contact, so they couldn't heal inaccessible areas.
Internal injuries were impossible with potions.
"You saw it today too. People whose rotted wounds left whole limbs useless, people with diseases even healing potions can't touch."
Diseases were the same.
Healing potions just accelerated natural recovery, so they couldn't eliminate bacteria or viruses.
"···Rain Ortiz."
At some point, she was looking me right in the eye.
"I'll admit it one more time. I lost. Sorry for treating you so harshly. And···"
She bent her pride with those words.
"I'm asking you."
A request to me.
"Help with my research. I want to make a medicine that cures any wound, any disease."
It was just like her.
"That's why I brought you. To convince you."
One side's statement had ended. The turn passed to me now.
After a brief silence, I spoke.
"Professor."
"That's impossible."
I'm not the type to chase utopias.
Self-assessment aside, if anything, I'm someone who faces 'reality' head-on.
That's right.
My own dreamed utopia had already become impossible. I'd come too far to settle for ordinary now.
That's my reality.
"But I can help with something else."
Let go of that unattainable goal.
I set a new goal.