Never Mind the Heir, I’ll Focus on Healing — Chapter 63
Never Mind the Heir, I’ll Focus on Healing — Chapter 63
‘Come on, no matter how great my teacher is, this has to be impossible.’
Freyania had wondered about making potions from spirit stones herself, but she had always failed.
The issue wasn’t with the potions but with processing spirit stones from the very beginning.
Despite looking like ordinary pebbles, spirit stones possessed tricky properties that varied with each element.
To give typical examples: water spirit stones evaporated instantly if a single droplet of water touched them, and fire spirit stones couldn’t even be heated with ordinary flames.
Wind spirit stones were so soft they crumbled with a little pressure, and earth spirit stones, conversely, were so hard that even grinding them into powder required an immense amount of time.
In other words, processing them was difficult in itself, and they were not easy to handle as they showed an immensely strong reaction only to specific elements.
It was while Freyania was momentarily lost in other thoughts.
“All right, it’s done.”
A clear liquid trickled out of Lion’s distiller.
A distinctive and refreshing scent.
Even at a glance, it was a high-grade Digestive Enhancement Potion.
“Wh-When did that happen?”
How did potion-making become this instantaneous?
…Did I doze off?
Freyania rubbed her eyes.
“Didn’t you see it clearly?”
“I-I’m sorry. Could you possibly make it once more?”
“Sure. I have to make enough for all the customers anyway.”
Lion willingly continued to show her the process.
He dumped in the predetermined ingredients, stirred the contents of the cauldron round and round.
Finally, he casually sprinkled in the alchemy powder, boiled it for a brief moment, and it was complete…
‘Th-this doesn’t make sense?’
Freyania’s jaw dropped.
She hadn’t seen it wrong.
She hadn’t missed anything, either.
It was simply the result of Lion Asteri, her temporary teacher, pouring in the ingredients without the slightest hesitation.
So, how was this possible?
Alchemy was a discipline that tolerated not a single mistake.
Only a well-laid plan and flawless execution.
It was a field that required the thorough exclusion of personal intuition.
If something went wrong, all calculations could break down and something strange could pop out.
Meaning, you could be trying to make a liquid and the unfortunate result of a monster like a Slime popping out could occur.
In Freyania’s case, her Salamander had incinerated it, so it was fine…
‘No, that’s not the point!’
Anyway, it wasn’t a discipline where you could just roughly dump in the ingredients and estimate the alchemy powder by hand and get a successful result…!
But—
It came out perfectly.
And not just that, at an incredible grade, without a single impurity!
That meant every single one of Lion’s actions had been perfect.
“The alchemy I know…”
After that, Freyania continued to watch in a daze as high-grade potions were mass-produced.
Though she was called a temporary disciple, Freyania was someone who had invested and devoted no small amount of time to alchemy.
And perhaps because of that, she wanted to be of at least a little help.
Right, like explaining to Lion that what he was about to try next was a futile act!
“Teacher, I’m asking just in case, but you wouldn’t happen to be planning to process spirit stones, would you?”
“So you knew. Yes, I’m going to process these spirit stones…”
“It’s impossible.”
“Huh? Why?”
Freyania explained the basic properties of the spirit stones she had recalled earlier.
“And… I have also tried and failed…”
Though it was embarrassing, she explained her own failures too.
However, Lion replied nonchalantly.
“Ah, is that so. But I’ll just try it anyway. There are plenty of spirit stones, after all.”
“Pardon? No, it’s bound to fail, so why…”
Does he not believe me?
Seeing his expression, that wasn’t it.
He truly meant, literally, he was just going to try it once.
“You can sometimes realize things through failure. And I happen to have thought of a good method.”
“…”
There was no way to know.
She couldn’t even grasp how many steps ahead Lion’s skill was compared to hers, so she had no choice but to just follow along.
“I-I will learn!”
“Right. But like I said earlier, it might fail?”
“That’s fine! My Salamander can take care of blocking the fog!”
“Okay. Thanks.”
…was what she said,
but Lion’s thoughts were entirely different.
‘I doubt I’ll fail.’
After hearing Freyania’s explanation, he was even more certain.
If he used these spirit stones well, he could create a new, slightly more special potion.
In other words… the recipes Lion had obtained when he hit Alchemy Proficiency Lv. 1.
‘The ones whose recipes I haven’t been able to fully grasp yet.’
One of them had unlocked while he was looking at the spirit stones.
Strictly speaking, it felt more like he had realized it naturally.
He had taken one look and gone, Ah, it’s this!
It seemed that recipes were temporarily locked, mainly for things he didn’t know about or materials he hadn’t seen in person.
‘If I can make that.’
He would be able to resolve this current cumulus cloud situation.
Ssss—
A thick fog had already begun to creep into the room where Lion and Freyania were.
Even Salamander’s protection was gradually reaching its limit.
‘I’d rather not have any more trouble.’
For starters, Lion didn’t want to be involved in such a situation, nor did he want to be the cause of it.
But what could he do when neither of them was acting with bad intentions?
He should just quietly make it.
Lion organized his alchemy supplies and then brought out the spirit stones this time.
The spirit stones he currently had possessed the properties of the four basic elements.
Water, fire, earth, wind.
“Freyania. Have you ever used all four elements?”
“That’s…”
“Have you ever used Salamander’s help?”
“Pardon? Aside from when I heated a spirit stone as an experiment…”
In the end, that meant she had never received any particular help.
If so.
‘It’s possible.’
As long as he followed the order, processing the spirit stones was entirely feasible.
First, Lion placed the fire spirit stones into an unheated cauldron.
Plop, rattle, rattle.
A few spirit stones rolled into the cauldron.
“Can you ask Salamander to heat these spirit stones?”
“Pardon? Ah, yes.”
Freyania snapped her fingers, and Salamander puffed up both cheeks before exhaling with a great ‘Fwoooosh!’
It was like the breath of a dragon, which had gone extinct thousands of years ago.
Except much smaller!
“…”
Freyania nodded her head.
This much, Freyania had also tried before.
Since it wouldn’t heat with normal fire, she had enlisted Salamander’s help.
But after that?
No matter what alchemical solution she used, she failed to change the properties of the spirit stone.
Using different elemental spirit stones obtained through special channels didn’t work either.
Spirit stones did not fuse with each other.
“…!”
Freyania’s eyes widened at Lion’s next action.
Specifically, at the state of the cauldron after he did a certain thing.
“D-Disappeared?”
The fire spirit stones, which had been heated bright red, had vanished without a trace!
Freyania recalled the situation she had just witnessed.
Well, it was nothing special.
Teacher had crushed wind spirit stones and sprinkled them over the heated fire spirit stones.
Then the flames, meeting the wind, had surged…
And disappeared.
“Good. The heating is done.”
Freyania wanted to ask why that happened, but seeing Lion’s expression, she held back the question.
It was… the expression of someone in another world.
Lion smiled faintly and reached for the spirit stones.
Next was earth.
He had used the fire spirit stones strengthened by wind to heat the cauldron.
And into the heated cauldron, he stuffed the hardest, least miscible element—the earth spirit stones.
They said it doesn’t mix. They never said it doesn’t bake.
And as it happened…
Lion looked around.
Unfortunately, the mansion was in a damp state.
The earth spirit stones were also damp.
And…
If you heated damp stones, they sometimes exploded.
The logic was that once those hard spirit stones were thoroughly shattered, they would mix well with the other elements.
Thunk!
Lion clamped the cauldron lid shut and held it down with his hand.
He was glad he had been carrying the gloves from the Parental Devotion Suit, just in case.
Clatter, clatter-clatter!
The cauldron shook violently.
It was different from when he made the fish pill.
While that felt like a live fish inside trying to leap out, this felt like holding a shield against a bomb.
If this hadn’t been a top-grade cauldron, it might have broken.
Once the shaking subsided, Lion opened the cauldron and scooped the contents into the distiller.
A mud-like substance, neither liquid nor solid, was bubbling vigorously…
Anyone seeing it might think it was a failure, but.
[Salamander drools.]
The reaction of Salamander, who was watching from the side, was anything but ordinary.
The process after that was the same as when he made the Digestive Enhancement Potion.
The liquid in the distiller filled a potion bottle.
Its color was a deep caramel, and its consistency was as sticky as honey.
[Spirit Water Concentrate (Unfinished)]
-A highly viscous, dark brown liquid. It is bubbling, but the temperature itself is not high.
-However, it seems one element is still missing.
[Uses - Food, Potions]
[☞Click to view the recipe.]
“Wow, is it complete?”
“You can consider the concentrate obtained.”
Lion took the potion bottle and shook it lightly.
As expected, sticky bubbles welled up vigorously following the movement.
“Eek! It’s going to ex-explode!”
Faced with something unlike a normal potion, Freyania thrust Salamander forward.
“It’s okay.”
Even Salamander didn’t seem to deem it dangerous, tapping Freyania’s fingers with its forepaws.
“Now we just need to mix this with that Digestive Enhancement Potion.”
“M-Mix these two?”
“Yes.”
“Mixing two different potions is…”
Something that should require immense calculations and meticulous work… and yet,
Freyania paused her thoughts.
Despite that,
she was curious.
Just what kind of potion would result from combining those two?
As if he had read Freyania’s thoughts, Lion immediately poured every bottle of the Digestive Enhancement Potion he had made into the alchemy cauldron.
The potion filled the cauldron halfway, emitting a refreshing scent and sloshing gently.
Next…
Pop!
Lion uncorked the bottle containing the Spirit Water Concentrate.
The cap came off with a crisp sound, and.
Trickle!
He swirled it around once, twice.
He poured it in lightly as if he were cooking, then closed the lid again.
It was a bizarre ratio.
No matter how much it was a concentrate made by compressing spirit stones to their limit, was that really all that went in compared to dozens of bottles of Digestive Enhancement Potion?
“Want to stir it together?”
Lion took out another stirring rod and handed it to her.
“C-Can I really join in?”
“Of course. It’s just stirring, so it’s fine.”
“…”
Truth be told, this wasn’t ‘just stirring’ either… Sigh. Never mind.
Swallowing the rebellious thoughts that suddenly surfaced, Freyania began gently stirring the contents with the rod.
And then.
Bubble, bubble!
Even though the cauldron clearly wasn’t being heated, it started foaming as if boiling.
‘Wow…’
Honestly, it was the first time she had done something with her mind so blank.
She had always approached alchemy with the compulsion that her calculations couldn’t be wrong, but now it felt like simply pursuing enjoyment.
It felt like awakening senses through sensory play, like a child would.
Of course, the two liquids in the cauldron were drifting around, separated from each other like oil and water that could never mix.
‘Teacher will solve it.’
Perhaps because of the actions he’d shown so far, an inexplicable faith had grown within her.
As she stirred the cauldron in a trance like that…
A subtle resistance emerged from the contents.
They were beginning to mix.