Never Mind the Heir, I’ll Focus on Healing — Chapter 45
Never Mind the Heir, I’ll Focus on Healing — Chapter 45
The revised contract boiled down to two major changes.
-‘Witch’ Elvia’s permitted range of movement shall be restricted to the vicinity of House Asteri territory, but the range may be temporarily extended in consultation with ‘Lion Asteri.’
-Should ‘Lion Asteri’ fall into danger, all of the above clauses may be disregarded, and priority shall be given to securing ‘Lion Asteri’s’ safety by any available means.
“The terms have certainly improved, but… they’re still disadvantageous to you.”
“Not at all. This is enough for me.”
“Hm.”
Lion silently gazed at the parchment.
Even so, wasn’t this essentially the worst-case scenario merely downgraded to the least-worst option?
It remained an utterly unfair contract.
After mulling it over, Lion picked up the fountain pen and added a clause below the terms written on the parchment.
-Upon the death or disappearance of ‘Lion Asteri,’ this contract shall be terminated.
“…”
Elvia wore an expression that said she deeply disliked it, but Lion held firm.
“If the contract stays in effect even after I die of old age, that’d be a bit much, wouldn’t it.”
Lion deliberately posited a scenario in which he had lived out his full natural lifespan.
Bringing up an accidental death like mana shock or the labyrinth would surely have made Elvia refuse to accept it.
“…Understood. I shall accept it.”
Elvia let out a sigh, then bit her finger and let the blood fall onto the parchment.
Plip— plop—
As the Witch’s blood struck the parchment with a dull sound, the magic circle drawn inside it flared to life in dark crimson.
“I should offer blood too, right?”
“There is no need for you to do so, Young Master. This is my contract, after all.”
“…”
Hey, normally a contract requires both parties!
But Lion refrained from pressing the point.
Anyway, if Elvia said it was fine, then fine it was.
“Shall we move, then?”
“No.”
“…?”
“Please finish your meal first, Young Master. We may proceed once the basics of food, clothing, and shelter are settled.”
Somehow it felt as though she was acting even more willfully than before.
But that suited Elvia’s true nature, so Lion was glad to see it.
He nodded and bit into the sandwich Elvia had brought him.
* * *
The day after Elvia secretly visited the Magic Tower.
Naturally, the Magic Tower was thrown into an uproar.
One of its largest projects, the Hero’s Potion restoration effort, had just been hit with a red flag, after all!
“Did you hear? About that potion…”
“Ah, I heard. There was a flaw in it, wasn’t there?”
“If they’d sold it as is, it could’ve been a disaster.”
The one saving grace was that Hoffman Asteri had identified the flaw during his final review and ordered the mass production plan scrapped entirely.
“But how did he catch it, they say?”
“I don’t know. Rumor has it a scream was heard that night?”
“I also heard a rumor that Sir Rickshel Asteri tipped him off…”
“Hey, hey! Ahem!”
While they were chattering away like that.
A fellow mage listening in elbowed them in the side.
“Seems you’re having quite the interesting conversation.”
“Hurk.”
Hoffman Asteri had appeared.
The mages shut their mouths and ducked their heads awkwardly.
“Save the idle talk and see to your own duties.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Especially, I would advise you not to spread talk that could become problematic—whether inside the tower or outside.”
It was a situation where a furious dressing-down wouldn’t have been out of place, yet Hoffman, oddly enough, let them off rather gently.
‘Wh-what a relief…’
‘He must not be in a bad mood.’
The mages made hasty bows and tried to slip away from the spot as quickly as possible.
Just then.
“Also, I suggest you reflect once more on who possesses the deepest expertise in alchemy within House Asteri.”
“…?”
Hoffman finished speaking and passed through their midst.
“What… did he mean by that?”
“The person with the deepest alchemy expertise in House Asteri?”
“Lord Lion does make potions these days. He even gave out fatigue restoratives this time, you know.”
“Oh, come on, no way!”
Watching the mages buzz amongst themselves, Hoffman boarded the transportation device heading for the top floor.
“…Good heavens.”
Rickshel? What utter nonsense!
Of course, Rickshel was undeniably a genius among geniuses.
Had he studied alchemy with interest, he might perhaps have identified the problem.
But—
In such a short span of time, it would have been impossible for him.
“If it hadn’t been for that child…”
Just thinking about it made his head spin.
Hoffman secretly swept a hand over his chest and recalled the night before, when the incident occurred.
He had happened to return to the tower that evening, having remembered some documents he’d left behind.
But, strangely enough, a light was on in the restricted-access area—off-limits to anyone not directly involved.
A place where no one but himself was permitted entry.
‘Don’t tell me… another Magic Tower?’
Hoffman gripped his staff and stepped inside.
And there he discovered it.
The scene of someone in the act of switching out the potions and the research materials!
Crackle!
Before he could shout, Hoffman immediately struck at the intruder with an electrical-type spell.
But…!
The magic barely affected the intruder at all.
Though Hoffman was famed as a healing mage, his offensive magic was also rated top-tier.
Yet he couldn’t land so much as a scratch on the opponent?
‘If that’s the case, the opponent’s skill must be on par with the Archmage, Lord Petrick Asteri—or perhaps even greater.’
Gulp.
Hoffman swallowed hard.
If the intruder tried anything reckless, he was prepared to cast a spell primed to blow the entire top floor of the Magic Tower sky-high.
But then.
“It would be best if you refrained from pointless actions.”
The intruder said only that, then continued the substitution work without paying Hoffman any further attention.
As if that weren’t enough?
Step, step.
They even walked right up to Hoffman and pressed a set of documents into his hands.
“What is this foolishness?”
“Why don’t you see for yourself.”
“…”
Only then did Hoffman realize something was wrong and check the documents.
And then he understood.
The potions they had developed until now had a fatal flaw.
And there was even a recipe explaining how to solve it!
“What in the—!”
In an instant, Hoffman forgot the intruder’s very existence and swiftly reviewed the recipe.
If implemented, the effect would indeed be weaker than the original, but with further development and research, the possibilities for this potion were limitless!
“How on earth…”
Who in the world would do such a thing?
And in secret, at that?
“I merely delivered it. The rest is your responsibility.”
The intruder who had infiltrated Hoffman’s laboratory, Elvia, replied nonchalantly and made to leave.
The disguise was flawless, and measures had been taken so that her voice revealed neither male nor female.
This was precisely as far as her little puppy wished the matter to go.
Once she returned, this incident would be resolved.
But…
‘Hmm.’
Something didn’t sit quite right with her.
That is to say—Lion’s good-hearted nature had certainly touched her.
But wasn’t there a lack of compensation?
Goodwill is ordinarily an act performed without expectation of reward.
Yet Elvia wished for Lion to gain something from this.
Lion might not have known it, but Elvia was not the sort of person who moved out of goodwill.
What goodwill could a Witch possibly possess?
She moved solely with regard for the one individual named Lion.
As Elvia hesitated briefly, Hoffman immediately fired off a question.
“Who are you! No one who knows of this plan keeps a trusted subordinate of your caliber. If not…”
Hoffman faltered and lowered his staff.
“…Was it on the Family Head’s orders?”
The deduction was plausible.
The only place capable of commanding a mage of Elvia’s caliber as a subordinate was the prestigious mage house of Asteri, after all.
“Shh.”
Elvia raised a finger.
Then, appearing to deliberate for a moment, she soon smiled.
“If you try to dig any deeper, you will see blood.”
“…”
At the sincerity in that voice, Hoffman shut his mouth.
She was clearly an ally.
That much was certain.
If she weren’t, he would no longer have been among the living.
That was how skilled she was.
This oppressive presence—it didn’t feel human.
“My Master instructed me to carry this out in secret… but I was not told not to say this much.”
The intruder muttered to herself, then whispered as though bestowing a favor.
“Checkup.”
“…A checkup, you say?”
“It seems that is all I can offer you. Farewell.”
Without hiding her laughter, Elvia melted into the darkness and vanished.
In an instant, the restricted-access laboratory stood empty, littered only with discarded solutions and the fatally flawed documents strewn across the floor, creating an air of disarray.
“Just who engineered all this?”
The clues were not many.
An expert of unknown identity.
Alchemy.
And the word ‘checkup’ that the intruder had spoken.
‘A checkup…’
A health checkup?
A single person’s face surfaced in Hoffman’s mind.
Golden hair tied back, amethyst-colored eyes, and skin as white as snow.
‘Could it be. Lion Asteri?’
Lion.
Yes, it was definitely Lion.
In Hoffman’s mind, every thread of the puzzle unraveled.
“Ha, haha. Lion, of all people.”
Lion had learned of the Hero’s Potion project only today.
Which meant that in that brief span, simply by looking at the items in the laboratory, he had produced this result.
“Another genius has been born…”
Hoffman arrived at the top floor and stood for a long while inside the device after its doors had opened.
At the time, he hadn’t understood why Lion would go to such lengths in secret, but after some thought, a clear reason presented itself.
Rickshel Asteri.
Lion had no desire to covet that child’s position as heir.
“…An admirable young man.”
Once he realized that, even the fastidious Hoffman Asteri couldn’t help but wish, in his own subtle way, to make Lion’s greatness known.
Even if indirectly, he hoped the achievement wrought by the eldest grandson of Asteri would spread far and wide.
Of course, Lion himself, resting comfortably at home, had not the faintest inkling of any of this. Regardless, the rumor began to spread faintly outward from the Magic Tower.
* * *
And then.
“This is new information coming from Asteri Territory.”
The rumor traveled via covert routes and flowed into the Information Guild.
The Information Guild.
A guild that gathered every affair occurring across the entire Empire and sold the information for a suitable price.
From the personal matters of street thugs to the corruption of lofty nobles high above.
In the Empire, information was power.
A guild executive, naturally, could not expect to be treated poorly anywhere.
Even standing beside a noble, no one would dare treat an Information Guild executive with disrespect.
Save for just one place.
The guild executive, with all deference, handed a personally compiled report over to someone.
The edge of the paper he had been holding was crumpled and damp with sweat.
“My apologies. I shall wear gloves next time…”
“Quiet.”
The executive promptly closed his mouth, rolling his eyes to steal a glance at the other party.
Gulp.
He swallowed hard despite himself.
“…”
Amid the lengthy silence, only the sound of paper turning could be heard.
One must never be loud. One must never be caught off guard.
The executive kept the Guild Master’s admonishment firmly in mind and bowed his head as still as a mouse.
There was a reason why a man of his standing—an executive of the great Information Guild—was this tense, even when delivering information in person.
The person before him right now was…
‘A power broker of the Criminal Underworld.’
The right hand who knew the face of the Criminal Underworld’s leader, received commands directly,
and freely managed the Underworld’s capital—the mad alchemist, the half-elf Freyania.
“Isn’t this merely a rumor?”
Having finished scanning the documents, Freyania dropped them onto the floor with a disinterested look.
The guild executive tidied the papers again.
Even so, this was not a bad reaction.
It was rumored that anyone who crossed Freyania would burn to death without a trace, with no one the wiser.
“Yes. I, too, assumed it was just a rumor, but…”
The executive steadied his trembling voice with some effort and produced a small bottle from his coat, placing it onto the table.
“What is this?”
“It is a beverage that Lion Asteri is said to have distributed when he came to the Magic Tower.”