Never Mind the Heir, I’ll Focus on Healing — Chapter 86
Never Mind the Heir, I’ll Focus on Healing — Chapter 86
“If it’s about Rickshel Asteri.”
“Yes. He’s my younger brother.”
“Is this a political matter?”
“It is.”
Clarentia looked at him as if surprised.
That Lion Asteri was making a request for political purposes?
‘A lie.’
Though she hadn’t known him long, Lion wasn’t that sort of person.
“Explain in more detail.”
Lion seemed to consider it for a moment, then added an explanation.
“As you know, Rickshel is not yet an adult, but I thought it would be better if he gradually started going around on his own rather than always with the Family Head.”
So, since you’re around the same age and both from marquess families, couldn’t you get along well? … He rambled a little longer than necessary.
To put it simply, it was, “Please be friends with my younger brother!”
Just as Clarentia had expected.
It seemed he simply wanted to protect his brother more securely.
“Do you truly have no ambition for power?”
“There’s someone more capable than me; why should I insist on doing it?”
Pure, one hundred percent sincere words.
He really seemed uninterested.
That couldn’t have been easy.
“You must care for your brother a lot.”
“Haha… well, I am his older brother.”
Lion answered as nonchalantly as possible, thinking he might be coming on too strong.
At that, Clarentia smiled faintly.
‘How enviable.’
But unexpectedly, she wasn’t all that overwhelmingly envious.
She had servants bound to her more tightly than blood, after all.
Clarentia glanced at Jasper, then smoothly averted her gaze.
“All right. I understand. I’ll do that.”
Lion said that since the deadline was far off, he would send the details through his brother, then returned to his room.
“Haa.”
Lion looked out the window and sighed deeply.
After all the trouble of packing his tools—even his hand hoe—he couldn’t go gathering anything…
That was honestly disappointing.
Wasn’t there a special thrill in harvesting new items?
New shapes, that freshness—the fun of figuring out how to gather them.
That had been a real joy of his…
‘Now I have nothing to do with the remaining time.’
He was just about to wonder if he should go to Andre and learn knitting or something.
“Young master, did something happen?”
Elvia, who had keenly caught the sigh, asked.
‘Did the Marquis perhaps make some difficult request?’
If so, she was fully prepared to take her puppy and return to House Asteri that instant.
“You see…”
Lion, making no effort to hide his dejection, told Elvia about the ‘avalanche.’
“Ah.”
Only then did Elvia conceal her sinister thoughts and smile kindly.
“So they’ve forbidden entry as a precaution, since they don’t know when the snow might slide again.”
Furthermore, all the herbs there were certainly buried under the snow and now unusable.
From Lion’s standpoint, it was a situation worth lamenting.
“…Come to think of it.”
Elvia recalled a scene she had glimpsed while surveying the mountain range.
“Young master.”
“Hm?”
“Oh, it’s nothing, but deep in the snow mountains, in an area unaffected by the avalanche, there were many things that would suit your tastes.”
Elvia mentioned it in passing.
While she was out, she had scouted the snowy mountains and the Bydantis territory in case there were forces aiming to harm the young master.
Fortunately, there was no sign of that, and the avalanche had eliminated even the possibility.
Anyway, on her way back quickly, Elvia had discovered something on a mid-slope between the peaks.
A multitude of herbs.
And…
Elvia grinned mischievously.
It wouldn’t be fun to blurt it out right now.
‘If it’s there, my puppy will be safe to play.’
Even if not, accompanying him would keep him sufficiently safe.
“Things I’d like?”
“Yes. The main one was Mellograss, which you could call the symbol of the Bydantis territory.”
Mellograss?
Lion’s ears perked up.
It was a grass whose fruit looked like marshmallows, and because it grew only in the Bydantis territory, it wasn’t a material one could gather easily.
Hadn’t he regretted not having it when he made hot chocolate?
“Elvia.”
“Yes, young master.”
“Let’s go right now!”
Lion and Elvia exchanged playful smiles.
* * *
Crunch!
Lion’s footprints appeared crisp in the white snow no one had trodden.
Deep within the mountain range surrounding the Bydantis territory.
In a place where not even beast tracks were visible,
Lion set foot, thanks to Elvia’s help.
“Whoa.”
Lion opened his eyes wide and stared at the plants hidden among the white snow.
Every last one of them was glittering.
That meant all of them were harvestable!
‘What is this—no, what herbs are these?’
A whole bunch of new plants he’d never seen before!
As if possessed, Lion pulled out his hand hoe and sickle, and rapidly set to work.
[Obtained Mellograss (★★)]
-Sweet white fruit, soft and fluffy! Soft like cotton, with a slight chewiness.
-Wouldn’t it be even more delicious if roasted?
-Price: 300 Shillings and up
[Usage - Food, Potions]
[☞ Click to view recipe.]
First, he harvested a huge amount of the Mellograss he’d been eyeing.
He gathered the fruit separately, and with his sickle, he cut the stems with little chops and stacked them.
Then…
[Gathering Proficiency has reached Apprentice Lv.9!]
The gathering level that had been stuck for a while shot up all at once!
‘As expected!’
Perhaps because it was a novel sensation he hadn’t felt in a long time, it sent a thrilling tingle from his fingertips to his wrists.
“Oh, what’s this?”
That wasn’t all.
[Obtained Snow Mountain Stone Mushroom (★)]
-A mushroom as hard as stone. So hard that neither humans nor beasts can eat it.
-Cherished by some enthusiasts.
-Price: 250 Shillings and up.
There were mushrooms shaped like king oyster mushrooms but hard as stone.
Lion scoured the snowy field and carefully gathered them.
Watching him, Elvia smiled affectionately.
‘He enjoys it that much.’
She had thought it was because of pressure when he first took up alchemy.
She’d assumed that since magic didn’t work, he had turned to alchemy, which didn’t require immediate mana.
But that wasn’t it.
When he had made a potion for Petrick, and when he had made an even better one for her, the young master had always been joyful.
So there was no way she could not tell him about this place.
A herb patch deep in the mountains, untouched by anyone!
As Elvia was watching Lion, her eyes caught something unusual.
“Young master.”
“Hm?”
“What is that?”
Elvia pointed a finger at a red haze rising among the white snow.
Looking more closely… it wasn’t a haze, but leaves!
And as if they gave off actual heat, only the snow around them had melted, leaving the ground visible.
“…!”
Lion’s eyes widened at the sight.
It hadn’t been sparkling a moment ago, but now it was glittering.
That meant it was a plant newly unlocked when he reached Gathering Proficiency Apprentice Lv.9.
‘Then at minimum, it’s a rare plant?’
The closer to the skilled level, the greater the chance of harvesting rare plants.
And from that point, the plants’ own effects become quite potent.
For example, those flame-like leaves now visible.
[Snow Mountain Flame Grass]
-Danger! May cause actual burns.
-Beware of explosion when harvesting!
“…”
That was a terrifying description.
Probably because the flame grass was actually spewing fire.
And the explosion…
‘It’s got to be linked to the roots.’
It likely meant that if you broke it off carelessly, it would blow up.
But—
“I have these.”
It wasn’t that threatening to Lion.
After all, he now had many good tools.
First, the gloves made from ‘Parental Devotion’ material.
And the hand hoe that had been enchanted by a fire spirit…
“Peep.”
And the ancient spirit Nature, who could use the power of all attributes.
Nature had fluffed up instantly in the cold, looking like a single yellow ball.
Probably its appearance changed a little naturally with the environment.
Anyway.
The conditions were perfect for harvesting this flame grass.
‘Definitely.’
If he harvested this well, he would advance to the Expert stage.
The conditions were perfect.
Lion blew out a white breath and carefully picked up his hand hoe.
The first thing to do was clear the area so that snow didn’t touch the flame grass leaves.
Instead of using the hoe for this…
“Nature. Can you dry out the ground around here?”
The fluffy Nature waddled out of the pocket and circled the damp soil.
At the same time, Lion felt a slight drain of mana from his body.
[The ground dries out due to the effect of Companion Spirit ‘Nature’.]
Though only a small area, the ground around the flame grass dried up completely.
“Nice.”
As expected of an ancient spirit.
Normally, you’d have to summon an earth spirit and a water spirit in turn, but Nature solved it in an instant.
“Thanks.”
Lion tucked Nature back into the warm pocket and picked up the hoe.
Now the crucial part was to harvest it as carefully as possible without damaging the roots.
Even though the ground had dried, the roots would still be holding moisture, so he needed the most delicate work.
Drawing on his experience so far, Lion carefully dug the ground with the hoe, and the flame grass’s roots, quite thin and long, were revealed.
They looked exactly like candle wicks.
Swoosh!
Lion carefully wiggled the flame grass and pulled it up, roots intact.
[Obtained Snow Mountain Flame Grass (★★)]
-A grass as hot as flame, blooming only in the snow mountains.
-Handle with care, or you may get burned.
[Usage - Food, Potions]
[☞ Click to view recipe.]
“Phew!”
Fortunately, no explosion occurred.
Because he had been tensed up unavoidably, the dopamine rush felt even more electrifying.
‘This is it. This is the taste!’
Maybe because he’d harvested a higher-grade plant than usual, the hand-feel was excellent.
And the star quality was superb for a first harvest!
‘This is fun.’
If there was one slight shame, it was that he hadn’t leveled up right away.
But that was fine.
He could just harvest more!
Of course, standing in the middle of the snowy mountains gathering, his body was slowly growing cold, but it was nothing compared to this joy.
Moreover…
Lion scanned the flame grass’s recipe and his eyes lit up.
Though he had to be careful handling it, the flame grass was a very useful item in many ways.
First, if processed properly for cooking, he could extract a spicy oil like chili oil.
And alchemy, needless to say, could make versatile use of it.
‘I thought it was just ordinary flame grass…’
But it had the additional word ‘Snow Mountain’ in front.
That meant it was definitely a higher-quality strain than other flame grasses!
If he used it in alchemy… something pretty remarkable would probably come out, he thought.