The Royal Capital Barga (8)
For several days I diligently researched and verified the process of making Mandrake Elixir. I even ordered Sister Mary to go to the temple and look into the method.
"So that method is the correct one..."
The method Maximilian had explained — having eaten it himself — was the standard approach. Other methods existed, but they were all ancient techniques from long ago.
Now all that remained was the choice. Would I try manufacturing it through alchemical combination... or play it safe with the ordinary method?
"But are you really not going to take any?"
At first Maximilian had suggested we all share it. But Sister Mary and I had given up our portions and passed them to my older sister. After some deliberation, Maximilian had given up as well.
"It was something Miss Julian received in the first place, wasn't it? Thinking about it, it wasn't even given to me — I shouldn't be greedy."
He said that, but he couldn't completely hide his expression. Seeing that, I nodded.
"I'll ask the young master who has eaten it before. If we split this in half to make it, would the efficacy decrease?"
Succeeding on the first try would be ideal, but what if I failed? Failure in alchemical combination leads to waste.
In other words, the expensive mandragora would be gone. But should I recklessly attempt an alchemical combination without proper information?
Wouldn't it be better to split it — try combining half, and if that failed, make the remaining half the ordinary way?
That concern weighed heavily on me.
"Using the whole thing might actually be more dangerous."
Right — he'd said it had toxicity.
"I never ate the whole thing, so I don't know for certain."
Hmm... he'd said even eating one-fifth had shown effects, so using half should still produce an elixir.
It was a gamble, but I couldn't suppress my experimental urge and curiosity.
"Hah, my first alchemy after coming to the capital... Is this the right call...?"
Even after deciding, I kept fretting.
I hadn't known mandragora was that expensive... Being dried had lowered its value somewhat, but it was still worth over five hundred gold.
With that kind of money, a person could truly loaf around for ten years.
I took a deep breath and lit the brazier.
A man needs guts! A woman needs guts too! Once I'd decided, I wouldn't back down!
I set the mandragora on the cutting board and drew my knife. Then I tried to slice it cleanly in half...
"Why is this so tough?"
The knife wouldn't cut through the mandragora.
"Perhaps because it's the corpse of a monster?"
Sister Mary, assisting beside me, offered.
"I-is that so?"
I used holy power to sharpen the knife's edge. When I brought the blade to the mandragora again and applied force, it gradually bit into the body.
Once I'd cut it in half, mana seemed to leak from the mandragora.
"Uh-oh, I'd better use it quickly."
I needed to combine it before the medicinal efficacy faded.
I put the mandragora and various herbs into the prepared pot. The herbs included ones that aided nutrient absorption and detoxifying herbs that could suppress toxicity, among others.
After adding all the ingredients, I stirred while injecting holy power. As the water began to bubble and boil, a reaction appeared inside — the kind of reaction that occurs when a combination succeeds.
"Just as I thought..."
The Mandrake Elixir was a phenomenon of alchemical combination. Ordinarily one would need to inject mana or holy power directly, but the residual mana inside the mandragora had taken its place.
Sister Mary watched quietly, then wiped the sweat from my brow.
After about thirty minutes, rainbow light filled the kitchen, and inside the pot sat a luminous silver pill. It wasn't merely silver-colored — it was genuinely radiating light.
"What on earth is this... It's completely different from the mandragora medicine I ate."
At Maximilian's words I whipped my head around and glared at him. It seemed my holy power had mixed in and produced some kind of anomalous phenomenon.
"Different?"
"Yes. For such a dense aura to pour from a medicine... Just what have you created?"
Indeed, even someone who wasn't particularly sensitive could feel the aura.
"Isn't it dangerous?"
Sister Mary was also cautious, perhaps because of the aura emanating from the medicine.
My older sister...
"Huh? Unnie?!"
She carelessly grabbed the pill with her hand and brought it to her mouth. The motion was so absurd and so lightning-fast that all of us froze in shock, unable to move.
I saw her throat bob as she swallowed.
"Unnie?! How can you eat it without even checking?!"
Worried about my sister's body, I quickly tried to approach and check on her. But my action never completed. Young Master Maximilian seized both of my upper arms and held me still.
"Wh-what are you doing?!"
I snapped at the young master who had stopped me. He looked at me and shook his head.
"You must not approach her right now."
My sister had her eyes closed. And mana was pouring out of her body. Was her power leaking outward? Mana was wrapping around her body, so tangible it was visible to the naked eye.
"It seems she's consolidating the energy."
Consolidating energy? Like what Maximilian and my sister had done when they'd eaten the wild ginseng?
"I-I see."
What would have happened if I'd touched my sister while she was consolidating energy?
Something serious could have gone wrong.
We stepped back from her side for now and quietly observed her condition.
I did carefully set aside the remaining half of the mandragora.
"Honestly, Unnie... If you're going to eat it, at least move somewhere else first."
I wanted to combine the remaining mandragora too, but of course she had to do this right in front of the pot.
"She'll be fine, right?"
"Yes. Judging by the fact that she's consolidating energy, we should consider the medicine to have taken proper effect."
If it had been expelling toxins or if her body couldn't accept the power, she would have shown a different reaction, he said.
"That's a relief, then."
"Seeing how long it's taking, the effect must be quite good."
Hmm? Well, good is good, I suppose?
After about an hour, the power flowing from my sister's body diminished, and her presence intensified.
Maximilian watched her with a serious expression.
"Why are you looking like that?"
"I can feel that she's become much stronger."
He can feel that? Is that the difference between holy power and mana awakeners? Well, I could feel that my sister's presence had grown stronger too. A moment later, she opened her eyes.
A powerful aura radiated from her eyes. I also got the sense that she still couldn't fully control her increased power.
"Uh, Unnie? How do you feel?"
"Yeah. I'm stronger."
My sister checked her physical condition and said so.
"How much?"
Even with the wild ginseng she'd said the effect had been considerable. If this was mandragora, which was better than that? An elixir made through alchemy? How much effect had she gotten?
"Double?"
Her mana quantity had doubled?!
"What?! Your mana doubled?!"
"Yeah. That's the feeling."
I-insane... Just what have I created?
Maximilian, curious, checked various things with my sister and examined her condition.
Leaving those two, I stood before the alchemical combination station with Sister Mary.
"Sh-shall we make this one too for now?"
"It seems there's no problem, so let's do so."
I turned the remaining half of the mandragora into an elixir as well.
Then I fretted over the completed elixir.
"What should we do?"
We sat around the dining table and gazed at the elixir. The brilliantly shining elixir...
Even though some time had passed since finishing the combination, it continued to emit light.
"Uh, Unnie, want to eat one more?"
My sister shook her head.
"Too strong. My body would burst."
The medicinal effect was so strong her body couldn't handle it? Coming from the person who'd eaten it, it must be true.
I looked at Sister Mary. She shook her head.
This was an elixir that increased mana in the first place. Whether it would have any effect on Sister Mary or me, who possessed holy power, was unknown.
Of course it was said to strengthen the body as well, but that would only be half the benefit.
"What about selling it?"
Maximilian looked at me and spoke.
"Sell it?"
"Yes. Given how outstanding the effect is, you could receive over a thousand gold for it."
That was certainly tempting...
"That would be dangerous."
Sister Mary opposed it.
"Mandragora is something that circulates on the market, so that would be fine. But an elixir is different."
Sister Mary's explanation went like this: An unidentified elixir — if someone bought and used it, and word spread that the effect was excellent? Clearly many people would come seeking it.
"If that happened, both Julian's identity and safety would be at risk."
And once again Sister Mary's words were right... Even an effect that was too good was a problem. Leaking the recipe would also be a problem. Honestly...
I looked at Maximilian.
What about giving it to him? He was a companion I'd part ways with someday... but wouldn't that still be better?
"Then it would be best for Miss Julian to eat it."
"Me? What if there's no effect?"
"It was Miss Julian's item to begin with, wasn't it? Even if the effect is somewhat lacking, it should make your body healthier."
I'm already healthy, though?
It wasn't that I felt no regret, but I owed the young master a small debt.
A debt he didn't know about, but I did — the ruins.
"You take it, Young Master."
"Me...?"
"Yes. It'll be more effective if you eat it rather than me, won't it?"
"But wouldn't there be no benefit to Miss Julian?"
That seemed to bother him.
"You're already lending us the mansion, and when we return to the territory later, you'll protect us, won't you?"
"Later?"
"Yes. I live there, after all."
Right — I wasn't going to stay in the capital forever. Once I achieved my goal, I'd return home. And when I went home? I'd become an ordinary resident of the Meyer Territory.
In that case, having the young master — the knight and lord who protected the territory — grow stronger would be a help.
Maximilian fell silent.
"You're going to become the lord, right? And you'll protect the territory's people, won't you? That's the same as protecting me."
Neither Sister Mary nor my sister said anything. It felt like they were respecting my choice.
"Are you truly certain?"
"Yes, so hurry up and take it."
I didn't know how long the medicinal effect would last. Having finished deliberating, Maximilian carefully placed the pill in his mouth and swallowed.
Having disposed of a troublesome item, I felt a sense of relief.
Maximilian entered meditation while still seated in his chair.
"Well then, I'll go attend to some business."
Sister Mary rose from her seat.
"Yuli, I'm going to check on my body."
My sister seemed to want to reconfirm her physical condition.
"Then should I get up too?"
When I tried to rise from my chair, my sister stopped me.
"Why?"
"It might become dangerous. Keep watch."
Not like there's anything I could do just by watching... Wait, no — I can use holy magic, so I could respond to an emergency.
I was about to say, "Do I really need to be here?" and looked to the side, only to find Sister Mary had already fled. I turned my head the other way to ask my sister for help, but she had vanished as well.
"You've got to be kidding me..."
It was just me and the young master left?
I let out a deep sigh.
"Nothing I can do about it, I guess?"
My sister had taken an hour — how long would the young master take? Bored and restless, I spent the time walking around or sprawling face-down on the dining table.
"He really is handsome, though..."
Since I'd been reborn in this world anyway, what if I'd had a face like that? Wouldn't I have been a winner? No, wait — what if I were a commoner rather than a noble? Would I have gotten attacked for having an annoyingly good-looking face?
Even after thirty minutes the meditation continued. And when an hour passed, there was a reaction... or rather, a change. The young master's body was glowing. A completely different phenomenon from what had happened with my sister.
"What's going on?"
His body — the young master's body kept shining and began to vanish from sight. I shielded my eyes with my arm and assessed the situation. Had something gone wrong? Maximilian already had a history of consuming mandragora.
Had the toxicity doubled because of that?
Light began to crack and split from the young master's body. Crack, crack — skin and light began to fracture.
The luminosity grew so intense I could no longer look at it directly.
Wh-what on earth—!
Flash! Unable to withstand the intense light, I closed my eyes.