Homecoming (12)
I decided that once I got home, I would unpack right away and rest. I didn’t want to worry Sister Mary or my sister, so I kept quiet about going deep into the forest and running into a monster. Priest Daniel, sharp as ever, kept his mouth shut as well.
That night I fully intended to empty my mind and sleep like a log…
“Why are these two piles separated?”
Sister Mary, helping me sort the materials I’d brought back, looked puzzled.
I fretted over how to explain it. Tell her the truth? She might lecture me about going somewhere dangerous. Lying felt just as uncomfortable…
“W-well, the places I gathered them were a little different. They’re special materials, sort of.”
I stuck to the facts—just left a few parts out. Strictly speaking, I only told the truth.
“Is that so?”
Sister Mary examined the goods with a suspicious expression.
“You’re right. I can feel something like mana in them.”
Well, Sister Mary had holy power of her own, so of course she’d notice.
“Yes. That’s why I separated them—to see what kind of difference it makes.”
She still looked a little doubtful, but she seemed to accept the explanation for now.
After we roughly finished sorting the gathered materials, I wiped myself down with a damp cloth and crawled into bed. I’d worked so hard that day that I was out before I even knew I’d fallen asleep.
When I woke in the morning I planned to splash water on my face to clear my head, and the cold water did the trick—my mind snapped wide awake.
“Whew. Lots to do today.”
Should I start with the soap? Still, better to eat breakfast first and then get moving.
I helped Sister Mary prepare the morning meal. She insisted she could manage alone, but I had nothing better to do, so I pitched in.
Just as the cooking finished and the table was set, Priest Daniel showed up.
“Quite a generous breakfast this morning.”
“We used the mushrooms I gathered.”
“Haha.”
Well, a man who’d never wanted for anything would have a hard time getting used to a little village table.
Soft bread? Don’t even hope for it. You’re lucky if there’s black bread.
Soup? Bland as dishwater. At least we still had the various seasonings we’d bought while living in the city, so we could season things a bit more boldly. The villagers, though, were so thrifty with salt they barely used any.
After two—no, three—years of living away from home, the village food didn’t sit right with me either.
And my sister seemed to feel the same way…
“Sis, you’re here?”
“Mm.”
She sat down at the table as if it were the most natural thing in the world and reached for the food. Something about it struck me as oddly cute.
Anyway, we all ate breakfast together, and the moment we finished cleaning up we headed straight into the workshop.
“We do have some Attunement Agent left, but it probably won’t be enough.”
“Sis, can you go around the village and collect some ash powder?”
Ash powder didn’t seem like it would have many uses, yet it turned out to be surprisingly handy. We used it for fertilizer, for washing things… and people threw a fair amount of it away, so this was the perfect chance to sweep it all up.
“Sure.”
“What about you, Daniel?”
“I’ll go around with her as well.”
“Then I’ll leave it to you.”
When I asked with a smile, Priest Daniel set off looking pleased. While they were out gathering ash powder…
I did what I wanted to do.
I set out to examine the difference between the materials gathered deep in the forest and those from the outskirts.
Side by side, it was obvious—the ones influenced by mana were in far better condition. Even after time had passed they still looked fresh and green. Now that I’d confirmed the difference in quality, I wanted to see what difference it made after compounding, so I tried making something.
Using the same ingredients, I compounded two batches of ointment and set the results on the same plate for comparison.
“Hmm…”
“Outwardly they look identical.”
Just as Sister Mary said, you couldn’t tell by appearance alone. Would I have to compare their effects?
It was ointment, so testing efficacy should be relatively easy. But I couldn’t exactly test it on my own body…
“Looks like we’ll have to compare the effects after all.”
“Surely you’re not planning to do it yourself?”
Sister Mary fixed me with a very intense stare. Yeah—hurting myself was probably out of the question.
“Then experiment on Daniel instead.”
“Come on, I can’t do that.”
“He’s someone who can heal himself anyway.”
That was true, but still…
I fretted until my sister and Priest Daniel returned. When Daniel heard the story, he cheerfully offered his arm.
“Are you really sure?”
“Yes. Rather than wound the Saintess’s body, please use mine as the test subject.”
“M-maybe I should just give up on the experiment…”
“I’m truly fine with it.”
With that, Priest Daniel drew a small dagger without hesitation and cut his left arm.
“D-Daniel?!”
“We’re testing these ointments, correct?”
Without waiting for an answer, he divided the two ointments and applied each to part of the wound.
“When I used it before, the effect showed up in about a day. So checking after a few hours should be enough.”
“Yes. I’ll come back then.”
After applying the ointment, Priest Daniel bandaged the wound and went off to do his work.
“Time to make soap, then.”
With the mountain of ash powder we’d collected, I set about making a big batch of red Attunement Agent.
I prepared the large alchemy cauldron and dumped the ingredients in by the armful. Thanks to that huge cauldron, I no longer had to compound everything in tiny batches.
“If the quantity increases, don’t you need to pour in more holy power as well? Wouldn’t it be easier to do it in smaller portions?”
“I don’t know. I want to try it this way.”
Sister Mary’s point was fair. When the volume went up, you had to use that much more holy power, and if you didn’t inject enough, the compounding time stretched out.
It would be hard for Sister Mary or anyone else—but for me, it was doable.
I filled the cauldron nearly to overflowing and began. An ordinary stick wasn’t enough to stir that much, so I used the butt of a spear to mix the contents.
Because of the sheer volume, it took longer than a normal compounding.
I stirred and stirred with everything I had… and then something noisy started up outside.
“What’s going on?”
For a village that was usually so quiet, it was strange. I was indoors, yet the commotion still carried in.
“Um, Sister Mary?”
“Yes?”
“Could you go see what’s happening outside?”
“All of a sudden?”
“W-well, it’s loud out there. It’s never been like this before, so it feels weird.”
Sister Mary, who had been reading in a chair, closed her book and stood.
“Very well.”
I turned my attention back to the compounding.
After roughly two hours of work, the Attunement Agent was finished.
“Whew… that was rough.”
With that much volume, the holy power drain was no joke.
Still, whether I compounded it many times or all at once made little difference to me, so it was a stunt I could pull off.
“First I should portion some of it out.”
I transferred the Attunement Agent into glass bottles and large jars I’d bought earlier.
Once I’d ladled out about half, I prepared the next compounding.
I roughly gauged the amount of Attunement Agent left in the cauldron—no precise measuring—and prepared the foam-herb accordingly.
What was taking Sister Mary so long?
I was curious, but I held back and focused on the work. I dumped the finely chopped foam-herb into the cauldron and started compounding again.
Standing and stirring for so long was starting to make my lower back ache. Just endure it.
I was deep in concentration when I heard the front door open.
“Sister Mary?”
“I’m back.”
“What was it?”
“Soldiers have arrived.”
Soldiers…? In that instant I remembered what had happened the day before yesterday.
“Don’t tell me it’s Young Master Maximilian?”
“Yes. He said he came on patrol and to set up a beacon in the village.”
A beacon, huh…
I’d already made one with magic.
“I overheard that when they light a beacon they use something special so the smoke rises well.”
First I’d heard of it. Which meant…
“They checked our beacon and left us a few of the things they use for lighting it.”
“Really? I feel a little bad.”
The soldiers were going to extra trouble because of us…
“There’s nothing to feel bad about.”
“Then why was it so noisy?”
“Well… because of the person who came with the soldiers.”
I couldn’t look at Sister Mary’s face while I was compounding, but her voice carried a hint of bewilderment—or discomfort—or the sense that something was a headache.
“Why?”
“Young Master Maximilian came in person.”
The words nearly made my hands stop. No—they did stop. Luckily I got them moving again quickly enough that the compounding didn’t fail, but it had been close.
“Y-Young Master Maximilian is here?!”
A noble? The commander of the outpost?!
What on earth was he thinking, coming here?
Surely he hadn’t come just to see me…? No way… right?
If I was that self-absorbed, it was practically a disease.
“Julian? Your stirring seems to have slowed.”
Ah! This was no time for that! Focus on the compounding!
But I couldn’t stop wondering why the young master had come. And I desperately wanted to ask.
“Julian? You need to concentrate.”
“Y-yes!”
I fought the urge to turn my head and kept my attention on the work.
Maybe I’d made too much. The compounding was taking forever. The holy power drain I could handle well enough, but the time—the time was precious.
The noise outside had gone quiet at some point… He hadn’t left already, had he?
Without even seeing my face?
Ugh!
I poured holy power into the cauldron even more fiercely and mixed the contents with aggressive force.
“Hurry up and finish!”
Whether my efforts were heard or not, the compounding began to speed up. Even so, I still had a long way to go.
After more than an hour of stirring I finally succeeded, and a massive bar of soap appeared inside the cauldron.
“Done!”
Without even properly finishing the product, I propped the spear I’d been holding against the wall.
“Sister Mary, please handle the rest.”
Sister Mary looked at me, smiled gently, and bowed her head. I didn’t even wait to hear her reply properly before I stepped out of the house.