The Academy (2)
I stood blankly in front of the inn entrance.
What on earth had the Young Master been talking about? That I was beautiful? Let's think about this objectively. Objectively…
My appearance after becoming a woman was, honestly, pretty enough. That much was true.
But I was short and slight of build, so I was more on the cute side than anything…
What had he been thinking when he said that to me? Suddenly I couldn't stop fretting over it.
"Ugh…"
"Let's head upstairs."
My sister and Sister Mary reacted as if nothing had happened.
I was about to call them out on it, then simply let out a long sigh.
"Fine."
I couldn't make a scene here, so better go up first and ask them once we got to the room.
When we arrived, I tossed my bags down carelessly and turned to the two of them.
"Hey, Sister! Mary! Wh-what was that Young Master even saying?!"
I was so flustered I barely knew what was coming out of my mouth.
My sister quietly averted her eyes and fled, while Sister Mary…
"Hah…"
She let out a deep sigh, sat me down in a chair, poured a cup of water, and handed it to me.
"First, calm yourself."
I picked up the cup in front of me and downed the water in one go.
"Th-that earlier—what was that about?!"
"Just because someone is a noble doesn't mean they're all as kind as Maximilian."
"I know that much."
"No, Julian. You don't know."
Sister Mary said it firmly. It was true that the only nobles I'd met in person were the people of the Meyer barony.
"I told you before, didn't I? About how I nearly got assaulted by a noble…"
Sister Mary spoke with a pained expression.
That was right…
Sister Mary had been targeted by nobles because of her beautiful looks and figure.
"There are men among the nobility like that. Men who think themselves special and treat commoners as little more than toys."
"Th-that's…"
I couldn't say it wasn't true.
Still, that was a matter of the individual person—not every noble was like that… Maximilian himself wasn't, was he?
"Julian, just because Maximilian treats you well, you mustn't get the wrong idea. Men are all beasts and wolves."
"Uh…"
So this is the kind of talk I get to hear now?
That was the sort of thing people with daughters or sisters said out of worry! I might have a woman's body now, but hearing it directed at me left me with a truly complicated feeling.
"Understood? Even if Maximilian offers to buy you something delicious, you must not go with him. Not even if he offers expensive magic tools or rare materials."
Is she treating me like a child a bit too much?
"I know all that already, you know…?"
I tried a timid bit of resistance, but Sister Mary, already fired up, paid it no mind whatsoever.
"As the Saintess, you don't need to preserve your chastity. The Church won't force that on you either. Even so, you must be careful. Men who like women like you, Julian, are an especially dangerous sort."
What on earth is this nun saying right now?!
"Aaagh! I get it!"
To stop the nun from ranting so hard my ears might start bleeding, I just agreed unconditionally.
Apparently that rubbed her the wrong way, because Sister Mary grabbed hold of me and kept right on preaching. Had I dug my own grave…?
Honestly, I don't think I did anything wrong! It was the Young Master who said something weird!
I sat there sulking, lost in thought.
I'd originally planned to start compounding the moment I got back to the room… How did it end up like this?
This was all the Young Master's fault for saying unnecessary things.
I'd have a word with him when he got back.
I pulled myself together and prepared for compounding.
"Mary, please make the attunement agents first."
"Which ones shall I make?"
"Both red and yellow."
"Understood."
While Sister Mary made the attunement agents, I checked the other materials. A few medicinal herbs gathered from the mountain, poisonous mushrooms…, sulfur, oil.
This time, for the experiment, I decided to try combining sulfur and oil.
Oil was a liquid too, so it should work, right?
The combination using only oil and sulfur, unfortunately, failed. After safely disposing of the failed byproduct, I decided to wait for the attunement agents to be ready.
First I tried combining the yellow attunement agent with sulfur. Result: failure. Next I tried yellow attunement agent with sulfur and oil, but that failed just the same.
"Hah, now for the real…"
From the start, red had seemed like it would suit better than yellow. When you think of gunpowder, it's fire-attribute, right?
"I hope you get a good result."
"Nah, I've had too many successes lately, so I'm not expecting anything."
That was what I said, but the truth was I was hoping. An alchemist without bombs? Come on. So I needed gunpowder. Bombs! Serious firepower! I couldn't use them carelessly, but they'd make a fine trump card.
I went into the combination full of expectation.
Red attunement agent and sulfur…
"I was counting on this!"
Maybe because I'd lied about not expecting anything? The feeling of failure hit me right away.
"Kh!"
I quietly cleaned up the waste from the failed combination and thought it over.
Just adding oil wouldn't make it succeed, would it? Sulfur was expensive and I only had a little, so I hesitated. Still, I should at least try adding the oil, right?
I attempted the combination at a ratio of attunement agent 2, oil 1, sulfur 1.
"Tch…"
Failed again. More expensive sulfur and oil gone.
"What a waste of sulfur…"
I understood that losses were inevitable in this process of trial and error…
But I couldn't help feeling the sting of waste.
The remaining sulfur was enough for roughly two or three more tries?
Should I adjust the ratios… or try adding some other material? I was stuck.
"Gunpowder… gunpowder…"
My sister, who had no idea what gunpowder was, tilted her head.
"Gunpowder—you mean that powder that burns, right?"
Sister Mary seemed to have a rough idea.
"Yes."
I'd hoped she might have some knowledge like with the soap, but no such luck.
"Do you really need to make something so dangerous?"
"Uh… just because."
With no better ideas coming to me, I tried adjusting only the ratio of red attunement agent to sulfur.
Result? Naturally, failure.
"Ugh… only one try left…"
The remaining sulfur was enough for one more combination.
What method would work? Gunpowder… it needed to burn. Sulfur had the property of burning, but it wasn't fuel. So did I need to add something that could serve as fuel?
Oil had already failed. Firewood? Something to help it burn well?
"Hmm…"
I spun my alchemy stick around as I thought, then rested it on my lips, then perched it on my ear.
"Mm…"
I had no idea…
"I should take a break."
Quite a bit of time had passed while I was compounding. Over an hour—nearly two hours, it seemed.
When was the Young Master coming back?
As I sat blankly in the chair, there was a knock at the door.
Speak of the devil…
"Is that the Young Master?"
I went to the door to open it. But should I just open it right away?
"Who is it?"
"It's me."
Even through the door, I knew exactly whose voice it was. We'd spent nearly a month together. How could I not know?
Suddenly a mischievous urge took hold of me.
"Even if you say 'me,' I don't know who that is."
"It's Maximilian."
I probably shouldn't tease him any further. I threw the door wide open.
"I was just joking."
When I looked up at the Young Master's face, a sudden wave of embarrassment hit me. I couldn't help looking away.
"Come in."
Pretending to make way, I turned my body and escaped his gaze as I went back inside. The Young Master closed the door and entered.
"Would you like some cool water?"
"I'm fine, thank you."
I'd been thinking of making iced water with magic—what a shame.
"So, did you manage to find anything out?"
"Yes, I gathered some useful information."
Curious what he'd learned, I asked, and the Young Master slowly began to explain.
"First, let's talk about what happened on the roadside earlier."
What I'd seen then was a person in noble-looking clothes lecturing a commoner.
I'd judged it dangerous and run so we wouldn't get involved.
"Whether I should call it fortunate or not… it wasn't just a noble throwing his weight around for no reason."
"Is that so?"
That meant there had been some kind of reason…
"Yes. It seems they were trying to swindle a noble student who looked rather naive."
Apparently they'd tried to jack up the price of something that shouldn't even cost one gold to ten times that and rip him off.
"The problem was that the Academy doesn't only have nobles."
A commoner student who was with the noble had realized what was going on and told him. Then the noble student had exploded in rage and tried to punish the merchant who'd tried to trick him—and a knight who'd shown up after hearing the commotion had stopped him from drawing his sword.
"He was about to draw his sword…"
"Yes. It nearly came to bloodshed."
But this was the fault of the merchant who'd tried to commit fraud.
He probably could have been killed and nothing would have come of it.
How did he think he could swindle a noble? That was the kind of thing that could get your head cut off if you did it wrong.
"So that's why the commotion started."
"Yes. When the guards came to investigate the incident, even more people gathered."
"And the result?"
"The merchant was taken away by the guards."
Ah… so that's how it ended…
"Well, it's not something to look at badly."
Being dragged off to jail had saved him from having his head taken by an enraged noble…
"I see…"
By saying they'd take him to prison and punish him severely, the guards had stopped the noble from intervening…
"The guards had good sense."
"And I also found out when the Academy is leaving."
While walking around near the lodgings where the Academy people were staying, he'd overheard staff saying everyone had reserved their rooms for a week each.
"I see…"
This information was important for deciding how we would move.
Since we were heading to the capital, our path would overlap with the Academy's, and there was a chance of conflict. There was no guarantee that what the noble had done today wouldn't happen to us.
"What will you do?"
"About what?"
"Will you stay here longer before leaving? Or will you depart early?"
Either option was something to think carefully about.