Never Mind the Heir, I’ll Focus on Healing — Chapter 62
Never Mind the Heir, I’ll Focus on Healing — Chapter 62
Lion picked up one of the stones and examined it slowly.
At a glance it looked like an utterly ordinary rock, but on closer inspection he could make out a faint pattern inscribed on it.
[Spirit Stone of an Intermediate Fire Spirit]
-A substance occasionally produced by the intermediate fire spirit Salamander while casting techniques. The cause of its creation has not been identified.
-Humans cannot ingest it.
-Feeding it to a companion spirit when it is unwell produces excellent results.
-However, the elements must match.
“Oh.”
So the spirits essentially produced their own emergency medicine.
As Lion stared silently at the spirit stone, Freyania flinched and hastily hid the rock in both hands.
“Th-this is something my Salamander made over the entire course of our contract. The ones out there can recover on their own! And once we return to the Elf Nation, spirit stones like these are so plentiful you practically trip over them.”
“Yeah?”
“Yes! Even now the intermediate spirits are throwing a fit, so they’ll probably start dropping to the floor any moment, right? Let them sort it out among themselves and feed the spirit stones on their own! They don’t produce them constantly, so we can’t feed every spirit, but we can at least restore the ones whose spirit energy is severely depleted in a pinch.”
Lion listened to Freyania’s explanation, and one question occurred to him.
“So what happens when a spirit’s energy is completely drained?”
“…They return to nature.”
“You mean they die?”
“By human standards, yes, but strictly speaking, spirits don’t have a concept of death. The elements that formed their bodies simply disperse and permeate nature, and after a very long time they reawaken as spirits once again.”
And yet, seeing her tenderly stroke her Salamander as she spoke, it was clear that plenty of spirit mages felt otherwise, no matter what the theory said.
‘Even if that weren’t the case…’
Lion recalled the time he had crafted the hand hoe.
The fire spirit had unmistakably been suffering.
And once he solved that problem, it had been delighted and grateful.
Grateful enough to bestow a special enchantment on the hoe.
Which meant that, however you looked at it,
spirits possessed emotions—including the capacity to feel pain.
‘And it’s not even their fault they’re hurting. Poor things.’
[Spirit Art talent experience increased by 30 percent.]
Lion yanked the door open again.
“Freyania.”
“Y-yes?”
“Time for your first alchemy lesson.”
“That suddenly…?”
Undeterred by Freyania’s reaction, Lion strode out first.
“The subject of the first lesson is.”
After all, he had already seen the additional description.
That Spirit Stone—
[Usage — Food, Potions]
[☞Click to view recipe.]
It could be put to far more effective use than feeding it to them raw.
Especially in a situation like this one.
“Picking up spirit stones.”
With that, Lion plunged straight into the mass of rampaging spirits!
“Eek… Teacher!”
Unable to protest as her nature demanded, Freyania plunged into the mist after him.
“I can’t see a thing!”
“The elf guests’ spirits seem to be the cause, so it should settle down soon!”
“From what I saw earlier, those guests aren’t exactly in any condition to get their spirits under control!”
The interior of the mist was sheer pandemonium.
Even the servants were in an uproar among themselves.
The fog created by the water spirits had reduced visibility to zero.
If this went on, the expensive paintings and ornaments adorning the mansion would all be ruined.
They had to open the windows, at least the windows—
“Just passing through.”
“Wh-who… Young Master?”
“Good heavens, when we can’t see a thing! It’s dangerous!”
And into this scene entered Lion Asteri!
What was more, he was hunched over, scanning the floor as if searching for something!
If anyone accidentally stepped on him with a shoe…
‘We’re dead.’
Whether at the hands of the Family Head, or the younger young master.
Or even that maid Elvia, who’d only just arrived and yet was already tightening her grip on the household’s reins!
“Everyone, against the wall.”
“R-right! And open the windows!”
The servants of House Asteri swiftly regained their composure and pulled back.
Scrape— screech—
Uncharacteristically, they dragged their shoes across the floor for fear of stepping on the young master, but no one blamed one another for it.
They reached the windows like that…
“E-even outside the windows!”
The mist had already filled the garden outside the mansion as well.
“W-we should open the windows anyway!”
“Yes! Everyone, move!”
Meanwhile.
‘Hoo!’
Lion surveyed his surroundings along the mansion’s broad corridor.
Fortunately, Expert’s Eye was proving its worth even in a moment like this.
With the servants having withdrawn, searching had become considerably easier too.
Glint!
Soon he was able to spot the glittering stones on the floor.
But…
‘The quantity’s awfully small, isn’t it?’
He’d expected a decent number of spirit stones to have fallen, what with the spirits spamming techniques, but there were far fewer than he’d anticipated.
As Lion was reluctantly gathering what spirit stones he could…
Whirr.
Several spirits in relatively good condition circled around him.
“Hm?”
Looking closer now…
They were the ones he’d encountered in the village earlier.
The ones he’d given water to and sheltered from the heat before meeting Embrog.
“You’re doing all right?”
[The Gnome nods its head.]
[The Sylph beats its wings vigorously.]
[The lesser water spirit affirms.]
Perhaps because he’d helped restore some of their energy beforehand, they still seemed to be holding up.
‘Hm. Would something like this work, then?’
Lion glanced around.
Freyania was on her hands and knees in the corridor, fumbling about for spirit stones, and the servants were nowhere to be seen, having likely cleared out of the area entirely.
The elves were naturally absent as well.
In that case, it was a good opportunity to give it a shot, wasn’t it?
“Could you make some spirit stones for me?”
The spirits tilted their heads or twirled around him, apparently not fully grasping what he meant by spirit stones.
“Ah, this. That’s what I mean.”
When Lion showed them the spirit stone in his hand, the spirits each signaled their understanding in their own way.
“Then could you produce some, as long as it doesn’t strain you? I think it’ll help your friends recover.”
The moment Lion finished speaking…
An Undine and a Sylph whirled around and dropped something onto his hand with a soft tap.
Spirit stones.
[The Undine grants your request.]
[The Sylph heeds your request.]
That wasn’t all.
The Gnome, an earth spirit, slipped down into the floor and emerged again, produced spirit stones in both its tiny hands and set them before Lion.
The spirit stones were a bit damp, likely because the surrounding terrain was so moist.
And whether the spirits were somehow communicating among themselves…
They each dispersed, and soon spirits in even marginally decent condition came to him, offered a spirit stone each, and vanished.
They looked exhausted, but didn’t appear to have overtaxed themselves.
[An uncontracted spirit has responded to your noble heart!]
[Spirit Communion proficiency has reached Apprentice Lv. 3.]
The massive experience and level-up were a bonus.
A welcome one, to be sure, but now wasn’t the time to dwell on that.
“Thank you.”
He expressed his gratitude to the spirits and, arms full of spirit stones, headed back toward Freyania.
Just then, a Sylph blew a breeze and cleared his line of sight.
‘Spirits are mostly quite kind, aren’t they?’
He felt he was starting to understand why spirit mages loved them so much.
Meanwhile.
“Ugh, how am I supposed to pick anything up when I can’t even see!”
Even so, Freyania was diligently trying to gather spirit stones as Lion had instructed.
Though between the fog and all, she’d managed to pick up only a handful.
“Freyania.”
“Eep! I really was searching as hard as I could!”
Freyania, apparently convinced he was about to scold her, offered her excuses in a panic.
“Ah, no…”
Just what had happened in my absence for this kid to be this well-disciplined?
Lion chuckled and shook his head.
“That’s not it. We’ve collected enough; it’s fine to stop now.”
“What? But all I have is this…”
Freyania raised the tiny spirit stone fragment in her hand to show him…
And her jaw dropped.
Because Lion’s hands were full to overflowing with spirit stones, practically piled high!
Now, Freyania had been the one to predict that the spirits would drop a lot of spirit stones, to be fair.
But the number she’d expected was generous if it was even ten.
And yet, what Lion now held in his hands…
‘That’s more than my Salamander has produced in its entire lifetime!’
How was that even possible?
There was no way that many had simply been lying on the floor.
Which meant the spirits had willingly fetched and delivered them…
‘H-has he already figured out how to converse with spirits?’
That alone would be staggering.
But obtaining the spirit stones meant he’d gone one step further and actually made a request of them!
And the spirits had granted it!
‘What kind of absurd spirit art talent is that?’
Wasn’t this a level beyond even that of a high elf?
Perhaps it approached the realm of the Elder Elf himself.
Of course, if any other elves heard this, they would denounce it as blasphemy and launch into an endless tirade—but in Freyania’s eyes… it certainly looked that way.
‘I-is it really all right for me to be teaching him?’
Me, a mere intermediate spirit mage?
No, she wasn’t even sure there was anything she could teach him in the first place.
He’d already seemed to occupy a lofty realm in alchemy alone, and now spirit arts as well…
‘Maybe Master Embrog was right after all.’
That Lion Asteri’s true talent lay in the spirit arts.
Freyania gripped her single spirit stone tightly and murmured to herself.
‘Yes. Let me learn as much as I can before this man falls headlong into spirit arts.’
Or so she resolved.
Lion, on the other hand…
‘Why isn’t she getting up?’
Had she tripped and twisted an ankle while following him?
He wasn’t thinking anything of the sort.
In truth, Lion’s mind was entirely consumed by the potion he intended to craft with these spirit stones.
“Are you hurt?”
“Ah, no. No!”
Freyania scrambled to her feet.
“Can I have the one you collected too? It’ll help.”
Though embarrassed by the paltry amount, Freyania gave a light tap as she placed the single spirit stone she’d found atop the heaping pile.
“Right, now let’s go make it.”
“A-already, you want to start making it now?”
“Hm?”
“W-well, ordinarily you’d calculate how much of each ingredient to use, measure everything out, and then begin… isn’t that how it’s done?”
“Ahh.”
Right.
Lion recalled the books on alchemy that his predecessor had read before the possession.
For a solid foundation, that was indeed the proper approach.
Of course, in Lion’s case now,
he simply had a recipe.
“It’s fine. You just give it a try.”
“What?! How would you even…! If even one teaspoon is measured incorrectly, the entire alchemical process is ruined… that’s absurd!”
“Turns out it works.”
This was no time to quibble over procedure, and besides, he’d already demonstrated as much.
Lion decided to commit fully to the alchemy genius persona.
“All right, we’re going to start with a digestive enhancement potion. Have you made that one before?”
“That one’s so basic that I have made it… ah! If it’s that potion, then even without calculations…”
“Then I’ll skip the explanation for this one.”
Lion glanced outside and added,
“The spirits seem to be in considerable discomfort, so let’s move quickly.”
As she watched Lion disappear into the room, Freyania was seized by a certain question.
If they were making a digestive remedy, then why had they collected spirit stones?
‘Maybe he plans to give the elves a plain digestive remedy to recover them, and only afterward feed the spirit stones to the spirits?’
But in that case, why not secure the spirit stones later and make the digestive remedy first, as quickly as possible?
No, surely not.
He wasn’t planning to feed the spirit stones to the elves, was he?