Never Mind the Heir, I’ll Focus on Healing — Chapter 191
Never Mind the Heir, I’ll Focus on Healing — Chapter 191
As soon as Lion finished the thought, he exited the labyrinth.
Elvia, who had been waiting at the entrance, handed him a clean towel.
“Thanks.”
Lion took the towel automatically and wiped his hands as he asked,
“Did a letter arrive today?”
“Yes. The moment you entered the labyrinth, young master, one letter came.”
“Oh.”
That was welcome news.
Lion had been waiting for a letter day and night lately.
News from Freyania, specifically.
‘I figured a reply would come around now.’
Judging by the way Jack had played tricks on Lion, he was surprisingly hot-tempered.
Or maybe he was simply the sort of person who dealt with irritations first.
At any rate, Lion hadn’t imagined that a man of that disposition would ignore a letter he’d personally sent.
“I’d better check it.”
“Without eating first?”
“I’ll read the letter and then check.”
Lion headed back to his room at a brisk pace.
Just as Elvia had said, a letter lay on Lion’s desk.
The same kind as the first letter Freyania had sent: pitch-black stationery sealed with blood-red wax.
An ominous sight that would probably make an ordinary person so creeped out they wouldn’t even dare touch it.
Slit.
Lion broke the seal without hesitation and read its contents.
Then a subtle smile crept across his face.
- Within two days of this letter’s arrival, I shall visit and bring what you desire.
The handwriting inside wasn’t Freyania’s, but the personal script of the Criminal Underworld leader Jack.
Seeing that the penmanship was peculiarly irritable, he’d apparently greatly disliked the fact that Lion knew the rules used exclusively in the Criminal Underworld.
“But two days, though.”
At that speed, the item matching Lion’s requirements had most likely been completed the instant the letter was received.
‘Looks like the Criminal Underworld has someone with considerable craft skill.’
Even if he’d provided the recipe and a sketch of the desired design, finishing the product from that alone wouldn’t have been easy.
“Young master.”
“Hm?”
“If it’s not presumptuous, might you tell me what you asked of that person?”
Elvia’s expression showed a touch of concern.
She was probably worried that Lion might have demanded something strange.
Lion himself, however…
“Ah, did I not mention it?”
He had mostly just not thought anything of it.
“I’ve been making meju in the labyrinth lately, remember.”
“Yes. You said it’s crushed beans fermented and shaped like bricks.”
“Right. I can make all sorts of cooking ingredients with it.”
“Ho-oh, by using the fermented beans?”
There were plenty of dishes made with beans, but a food ingredient you could produce by fermenting beans?
Even Elvia, a witch, had never heard of it before.
“Might it be something like wine, perhaps?”
“Similar.”
Lion grew excited and explained all about the various sauces, even drawing pictures on paper.
As she listened, Elvia understood one thing.
‘I see, he plans to apply alchemy to create food.’
At first she had wondered if something like bean wine would come out, but this was quite different.
Wasn’t he essentially using one intermediary—this thing called meju—to produce solid, liquid, and semi-solid forms?
‘If so… what our pup asked for is probably.’
Highly likely to be something usable for alchemy and also capable of storing the cooking ingredients the young master made.
“So I asked for something called a jangdok, a fermentation crock.”
Having heard Lion’s continued explanation, Elvia nodded.
Just as she’d thought: he needed a storage container.
‘He certainly has a good grasp of the Criminal Underworld’s structure.’
Back when the first letter came from the Criminal Underworld.
In other words, the time Freyania had shown Lion the crude potion she’d made.
Back then, Elvia had honestly been a little impressed.
Not by the potion the half-elf little brat had made, but by its potion bottle.
It lagged far behind what the young master used, but was crafted more intricately than what the Magic Tower’s exclusive alchemists used.
What was especially interesting was that the bottle had been worked to fit each specific property of how the potion was used.
Some from glass, some from clay.
“You judged it to be superior to the Magic Tower, then.”
“Haha, that’s not exactly it… anyway, I had to make the deal. Killing two birds with one stone.”
“An excellent choice. If you must face them, it is better to gain an advantage.”
Elvia felt relief on another level.
The young master, who was nothing but kind and virtuous, had grown to see this far ahead.
‘I used to worry he might get scammed one day…’
Of course, if a situation like that ever arose, Elvia would have used ‘certain methods’ to end it, but still—wasn’t it a more desirable kind of growth for Lion to resolve things himself?
‘Watching it unfold is more entertaining that way, too.’
Even if the idea of their innocent pup meeting the wild dogs of the Criminal Underworld was not altogether pleasing.
‘Petrick had that in mind as well.’
If what she’d worried about happened, Elvia needed only to give Petrick the faintest, most delicate hint to solve the issue.
“Right?”
Lion, having failed to read Elvia’s inner thoughts, proudly placed his hands on his hips.
“Once it’s finished, let’s all eat together.”
“Ohoho, you’ll include me as well?”
“Of course, naturally.”
Lion nodded and smacked his lips.
After all, isn’t a stew always more delicious when you fill a whole pot and let it boil vigorously, rather than making just a serving or two at a time?
Chop one spicy pepper into the doenjang stew and…
Just thinking about it made his mouth water.
“Anyway, if anyone calls for me, show them to the guest room. Understood?”
“Yes. I shall inform the gatekeeper as well.”
Elvia bowed lightly and left the room.
“Things are going smoothly.”
Lion tidied away the letter and flopped down onto the bed.
The past few days had been one peaceful day after another.
Waking up, tending the garden that doubled as his vegetable patch, checking on the meju.
Sometimes he even visited the village.
A little while back, during the drunken heart-to-heart with Grandfather, he’d found out that the Hero’s last location had been “the North,” but there was nothing he could do about that right now.
How would he even track down traces in the North?
Moreover, even if he did find a trace…
‘If I entered Story Mode.’
In his current condition, his body probably wouldn’t hold out.
He didn’t want to do anything pointlessly reckless.
‘I should at least take minimal precautions.’
Whether by gathering mana to open a new circle, or by raising his Spirit Art to a higher grade.
To do that…
‘Let’s focus on the present.’
After all, he had always grown when he stayed fully engaged with his present circumstances and enjoyed them.
Which meant there was no need to go looking for trouble.
“Right. So, shall we go to Mimir Forest today too?”
“Ppeep!”
Ah, if there was a recently added routine, it was that trips to Mimir Forest had grown more frequent.
‘Not to gather herbs, but to play.’
…Of course, he was diligently gathering herbs and making potions in his spare moments, but still.
More than that, the main objective was going to enjoy the hot spring with Nature and the egg.
Surprisingly enough, the Demonic Beast Egg—maybe because it was resistant to temperature—loved being in the hot spring.
‘The first time, I was genuinely shocked.’
I mean, wouldn’t you be? Submerging an egg in hot water…
Something immediately came to mind, but Lion pushed the image out of his head.
In any case, contrary to that horrifying idea, when the hot spring water touched it, the eggshell only grew shinier and more lustrous!
Just like that time in the past when he’d polished it with divine power.
So he’d been going to the hot spring with the two of them whenever he had time.
“Let’s get something to eat first and then go. Ah, or should we pack a lunchbox?”
The weather was nice, so a picnic would be a good plan, too.
Lion picked up the egg, which was well-wrapped in its blanket.
And then…
Crack.
“…Huh?”
He saw it.
A small hairline crack on one side of the Demonic Beast Egg’s shell.
And then…
Tap. Tap.
He also felt that something was moving inside the Demonic Beast Egg.
“…Uh?”
Like this, all of a sudden?
No, why?
In an instant, one piece of information surfaced in Lion’s mind.
Something he hadn’t paid attention to until now—the Mimir Forest Hot Spring Water had this description:
- The more you bathe in it, the more you feel as if something good is going to happen.
“N-n-no way…”
Was that something good hatching?
Thinking about it that way, it wasn’t strange at all.
The Demonic Beast Egg had built up a fair amount of experience in its own way. It had met them in the Sanctuary, where ordinary people couldn’t even step foot, had been cleansed with divine power, and had even served as a bridge of rapport between Luminis Deer, a rare animal, and its master Lion.
Most of all…
‘Nature was always with it.’
Lion also fussed over the egg each and every day, but even during the times Lion was absent, Nature looked after the Demonic Beast Egg.
Bringing it twigs from morning walks, or picking flowers for it inside the labyrinth.
“Nature, what do we do?”
Lion was flustered.
Possibly even more flustered than when he’d coughed up blood after seeing Story Mode at Easter!
Yes. He had thought that the Demonic Beast Egg might hatch someday.
He had always been preparing himself mentally.
But that didn’t mean he could stay composed in this situation!
If there was one saving grace…
[The Demonic Beast Egg will hatch soon!]
[Please move to a location with abundant mana!]
[※The Labyrinth is not permitted, however.]
…it was that the bare minimum of hints was visible before his eyes.
‘Right. Calm down.’
Lion took a deep breath in, then let it out with a long whoosh, spinning his mind.
Excluding the labyrinth, the place in this area richest in Magic Power would be…
There were two.
One was the training ground for the mages of House Asteri.
‘No. That place is only rich in mana at dawn.’
Now that the sun had risen and was climbing toward its zenith, it wasn’t suitable.
Then the remaining option was the second…
“…No choice. Nature. Let’s go.”
Lion carefully wrapped the Demonic Beast Egg and went straight there.
The place Lion arrived at with quick steps was, of all places…
A spot located in the highest corner of the mansion.
A place where not only direct bloodline members but even Magic Tower Master Hoffman couldn’t enter without permission.
It was, precisely, Grandfather’s personal training ground.
“Huuu.”
Before opening the door, Lion took a deep breath.
Once he opened this door, he would reach a place where giant icicles whirled down like rain.
A single lapse in attention and he would be pierced clean through by a sharp icicle and lose his life.
But he hadn’t come here thoughtlessly.
Lion pulled out the staff Grandfather had given him from his chest pocket.
‘Expert’s Eye was definitely reinforced by two stages.’
And if that were calculated as a magical figure, it would become magic at around the 2nd Circle level or higher.
So, currently at 2nd Circle, if he used all his mana to activate a defensive spell, a shield spell equivalent to 4th Circle would probably be completed.
On top of that…
“Peep, peep.”
Nature fluttered its wings as if telling him not to worry.
With Nature’s help, it would probably be all right.
And his clothes could withstand a fair amount of shock…!
“Alright. Let’s go.”
“Go where, dare I ask?”