Never Mind the Heir, I’ll Focus on Healing — Chapter 53
Never Mind the Heir, I’ll Focus on Healing — Chapter 53
Crisp bedding tidied by the servants, books stacked haphazardly everywhere.
Moonlight seeped through the open window, and a night breeze whispered in.
A stranger would have thought it a room no different from the usual…
“Elvia. Did someone come into my room?”
“Yes.”
Someone had broken in.
The servants always shut Lion’s window tight at night.
They couldn’t risk the frail young master catching so much as a cold.
But tonight the window stood wide open.
Almost as if to announce that someone had been here.
‘If it were a thief, though.’
Had anyone entered with ill intent, Elvia would have seen to it that either the thief’s life or at least a few fingers met their end then and there.
Yet Elvia had allowed the intrusion.
Which meant the person wasn’t dangerous.
“Is it someone I know?”
“No.”
Why let a stranger in, then? While he mulled it over, Elvia added,
“They appeared to be a delivery person, so I left them be.”
“A delivery person?”
Elvia smoothly gestured toward the table.
And there, as a gift…
“This showed up?”
Sumptuous, top-grade potion vials stood lined up in a neat row.
The precisely aligned bottles were thin yet sturdy, even inlaid with breathtakingly fine craftsmanship.
[Top-Grade Potion Bottle (★★★)]
-Where on earth was a glass artisan of this caliber hiding? Perhaps they were locked in a basement and made to do nothing but work. Truly astonishing skill.
-Increases potion duration and effect by 15%.
-Does not break when dropped from below a certain height.
In any case, it was a remarkable bottle, both to look at and to use.
“Hmm.”
Yet the reason Lion felt rather ambivalent…
was that every last bottle was filled with a different colored liquid.
What was more, they had been obsessively arranged in a gradient from warm hues to cool.
‘Whoever did this, they’re not normal.’
[Criminal Underworld Health Potion (★)]
-A work by an alchemist of outstanding potential. Upon ingestion, recovers a very small amount of stamina.
[Criminal Underworld Mana Recovery Potion]
-A work by an alchemist of outstanding potential who has, however, encountered the limits of their craft. Helps recovery of mana to a modest degree.
-With this approach, the rank of Artisan will remain forever out of reach.
-The crafting formula itself is even flawed.
Basic potions.
But for something bearing a star, their effects were remarkably dismal.
‘No. Now that I think about it…’
Lion recalled a potion shop he had once visited in town.
Potions there had proven far weaker than he’d expected.
Which meant the potions Lion made were abnormally exceptional.
‘It was the same at the Magic Tower.’
The recipes and side effects had clearly differed.
Roughly comparing those benchmarks, this alchemist’s skill did belong to a fairly high tier.
Among the work an ordinary alchemist could produce, this was likely the highest level.
And the alchemist had sent more than just potions.
-Counterfeit Gold
-Imitation Copper
-Imitation Silver
Imperial coinage cunningly altered in appearance, along with gemstones of every kind.
They were unmistakably alchemical creations.
To produce not only potions but alchemical items at this level meant they were clearly at the skilled tier.
“Huh? This one’s real, though?”
[Necklace Lost by a Noble Lady]
-A certain noble lady is desperately searching for this necklace.
Lion set that necklace aside on its own.
At any rate…
‘It’s certainly a safe gift.’
Considering how dangerous the source was.
When Lion glanced at Elvia, she was covering her mouth with her hand, looking amused.
She was thoroughly enjoying this.
“Ahem. Did the family enjoy their meal together?”
“You’re not jealous, are you?”
It was Elvia who had declined the invitation, insisting she had to focus on her role.
“A misunderstanding, young master. And aren’t you quite enjoying yourself as well?”
“…Well.”
How to put it—it felt like meeting a kindred spirit who shared the same hobby?
Alchemists themselves were rare, and even then, most were affiliated with the Magic Tower.
And if they’d sent these items…
“Elvia.”
“Yes, young master.”
“Was there a letter?”
“Heh heh. Here it is.”
Elvia handed over an elegant black envelope.
“…”
Just as I thought.
Looking at the black envelope sealed with a red seal, Lion let out a hollow laugh.
Stationery as black as charred paper, and a seal as red as blood.
This gift had unquestionably come from the Criminal Underworld.
“Young master, if it troubles you, I, Elvia, can make it as if this never happened.”
It seemed the mission to infiltrate the Magic Tower had pleased her rather a lot.
Lion deliberately ignored Elvia’s words and broke the seal.
He had to read the letter first to grasp what sort of intent lay behind this gift.
And then…
“Huh?”
Lion tilted his head.
-Congratulations on reaching adulthood, Lord Lion of House Asteri. The enclosed items are a modest celebratory gift. I sincerely hope you will not refuse them.
-P. S. It appears you possess profound knowledge of alchemy. Might you be willing to evaluate my creations?
-P. P. S. In two days’ time, I shall collect the empty bottles. I earnestly request this of you.
“…”
What on earth?
Lion had naturally assumed—had been utterly certain—that these Criminal Underworld schemers had sent him a gift while concealing some ulterior motive.
But to be this brazen about it?
‘Would it be more accurate to call it pure?’
Whether black or white, if a thing skews to one extreme, doesn’t that count as pure?
This time, it was purely pitch-black.
“Are they testing me right now?”
“Perhaps they genuinely want to know. When it comes to breakthroughs, you see—once people like this hit a wall, they’ll seek answers even from an enemy.”
“…”
Isn’t true enlightenment supposed to come from figuring it out yourself?
“What will you do?”
Lion pondered for a moment, then scribbled something on scraps of paper and affixed them to every potion bottle and counterfeit item before moving everything onto the terrace table.
“Done.”
He even made a point of shutting the windows with a loud slam.
Not a single item remained on Lion’s desk.
Except for the noble lady’s necklace.
“Are you refusing all the rest?”
“The sender can decide that for themselves.”
Lion dusted off his hands with a clap and headed for the bed.
It was a remarkably decisive attitude, quite unlike his usual demeanor.
‘I seem to have misjudged him.’
Seeing Lion now, Elvia realized she had been mistaken.
He was so gentle, so endlessly obliging to his family and everyone around him, that she had worried he didn’t know how to refuse and had intended this as an opportunity for him to learn.
But the misjudgment had been hers.
‘Still, what were those numbers he wrote on the paper?’
Rather than ask out of curiosity, Elvia silently vanished into the shadows so as not to disturb Lion’s rest.
* * *
“…Ha!”
She was dumbfounded at the sight of the items that had arrived before her.
Every last gift she had sent to Lion Asteri had come back.
No—not every last one.
He had returned everything except, pointedly, the genuine article!
‘Of course, I was the one who mixed it in to test his eye, but still.’
That he had so shrewdly helped himself to the one real piece was thoroughly galling.
‘Did he even read my letter properly?’
She had no way of knowing.
But the fact that the items had come back, packaging and all—surely that signaled refusal.
Freyania’s eyebrows climbed slowly into a sharp diagonal.
“How dare… he refuse my request?”
And the ones nervously gauging her mood were none other than her subordinates.
‘Damn it! Lady Freyania looks furious!’
‘That doesn’t mean we can just handle it on our own!’
While they exchanged frantic glances—
“Hm? What’s this?”
Fortunately, before she turned her anger on anyone else, her eyes caught the paper attached to one of the potion bottles.
Freyania immediately snatched up the bottle and slowly examined the note.
“10… this one’s 7, this one’s 8… no way.”
Freyania swept the potion bottles aside and rummaged deeper inside the wrapping.
She was practically half-buried in the massive bundle, but no one dared snicker at the sight.
If anything, they were relieved that her full attention was fixed on the potions.
“Sh-shall we take our leave?”
“Do as you like.”
She had even become remarkably magnanimous!
‘W-we’re saved!’
The underlings shuffled backward and slipped away, careful not to ruffle Freyania’s mood.
“Found it!”
From deep within the enormous packaging she pulled out a piece of paper covered in rough scrawl.
It was Lion’s reply.
-Out of a possible 100 points.
-These scores reflect a serious evaluation.
“…”
Freyania stared at the potion
bottles strewn across the floor.
And there… Not a single one had scored above 10!
“Tch!”
The paper crumpled in her grip.
The scores were devastatingly poor.
Single digits out of 100?
Ridiculous.
Was she not renowned as a genius within the Criminal Underworld?
No—not just within the Criminal Underworld. She ranked among the finest alchemists in the entire Empire.
That was precisely why she was entrusted with producing and circulating the Criminal Underworld’s currency!
And yet, what?
“How dare! Hah! Hmph!”
As Freyania boiled over with fury, the subordinates who had been inching away promptly bolted from the premises.
For a long while, she fumed alone—
“Hoooooooh!”
—until Freyania barely managed to regain her composure.
“What in the world is the problem? Isn’t this good enough?”
After denial and rage came the tide of compromise.
She wondered if she should simply ignore it.
Could it be that Lion Asteri had sent those scores only to mock her, to treat her as a joke?
No matter how she thought about it, no alchemist within the Empire could even approach her level.
If that was the case, wasn’t it fine to just settle for where she was?
“…”
By Lion Asteri’s standards, her potions rated a 7, but in the world at large, they were a near-perfect 100.
And that wasn’t all.
They were so groundbreaking that the masses couldn’t even tell the difference.
So wasn’t that good enough?
Couldn’t she just ignore this thirst and carry on with her life?
“…Damn it!”
If that had been possible, she never would have breached House Asteri’s tight security to send that letter in the first place!
Hadn’t he said the scores reflected a serious evaluation?
To him, the creations she had poured her very soul into truly were worth no more than that.
Freyania slapped both cheeks with a sharp crack.
The stinging heat brought her mind snapping back into focus.
“Let’s try again.”
If she looked at it positively, that meant she still had 90 whole points of room to grow!
Snap!
At the flick of her fingers, a small lizard formed of flame materialized beside Freyania.
“Salamander! Heat the cauldron!”
Whoosh!
At her command, fierce flames erupted from the lizard’s back and mouth, and the alchemical liquid inside the cauldron surged to a roaring boil.
Freyania’s lips twisted upward.
“Lion Asteri! I’ll suck every last drop of your skill dry and then toss you aside without a second thought!”
* * *
And so, several weeks passed in that fashion.
During that time, Freyania repeatedly crafted potions, sent them in secret to the Asteri estate—and had them returned.
The scores were…
-12 points.
-9 points.
-11 points.
Still hovering in the low teens.
They had crept up a little from before, but remained a pathetic showing barely exceeding 10.
“What on earth is the reason?”
She simply could not fathom it.
By her own measure, she had achieved a significant breakthrough and made a great leap forward.
And yet, she was still stuck in the low teens.
So she had even completely overhauled the formula that composed the potions.
It was a little embarrassing and a blow to her pride, but—!
She had analyzed Lion Asteri’s beverages to their very limits, reinterpreted and applied the findings, then grafted the resulting formula onto her own work.
After that, the potions’ efficacy had improved quite notably.
And the result was…
-Minus 10 points.
P. S. Do not copy.