Never Mind the Heir, I’ll Focus on Healing — Chapter 97
Never Mind the Heir, I’ll Focus on Healing — Chapter 97
I knew I was in a position to be scolded, but actually getting scolded made me feel unjustly wronged.
I mean, come on…
I pushed myself because I was trying to do my best…
“All right. While you’re being scolded, you’re going to help me out.”
“…Understood.”
“First, change into this.”
Lion handed over a set of clothes he’d prepared in advance.
“This is…”
[Sauna Suit Set (★)]
-Perfect for wearing in hot places.
-Naturally dyed with loess, which is good for the body.
It was a sauna suit.
Lion had easily made it in his room while staying in Bydantis Territory.
A sauna without one just wouldn’t be the same.
“It certainly does seem to be perfectly suited for wearing in a place like this.”
The short-sleeved shirt and shorts format was a little bewildering, but it looked good in terms of mobility.
Rickshel immediately put on the clothes and was slightly surprised.
‘This is far more comfortable than I expected.’
There was no part that constricted the body, and the fabric seemed to absorb moisture well, putting no strain on him at all.
What’s more.
“Here.”
Lion rolled a towel into a shape and placed it on Rickshel’s head.
‘Nothing beats sheep-heads for a sauna.’
I hadn’t really done the sheep-head thing once I became an adult, but back when I went to saunas with friends as a kid, the sheep-head was one of those things you absolutely had to do.
It had been trendy at one time, and more than anything, it was adorable!
Rickshel prodded the sheep-head a few times as if it felt awkward, then walked over beside Lion.
“What shall I help with?”
As he asked, Lion opened an alchemy cauldron.
And inside it were nicely roasted…
“…Aren’t those eggs?”
“They are.”
Rickshel looked a little taken aback at the sight.
I mean, no matter how you looked at it, wasn’t this an alchemical device?
Was it all right to cook food in it?
He had some fundamental questions.
“Are you perhaps in the middle of some new research?”
“No? I just roasted them?”
Lion fished out a piping-hot egg, placed it in a bowl, and handed it over.
“Peel the shells for me.”
“The shells?”
It wasn’t a difficult request.
Even Rickshel knew how to peel a boiled egg, after all.
However.
‘…Now that I think about it.’
It didn’t seem like he had ever peeled one by himself, with his own hands.
“Understood.”
In any case, he just had to separate the shell from the inside perfectly, right?
Rickshel put on a solemn face and pulled out his staff.
“Huh?”
Lion was the one flustered by that.
Why so dramatic? And why did he take out his staff?
“Using magic seems like the best way to peel it perfectly.”
“That’s not it.”
True. For perfection, that would indeed be the best way.
He wasn’t wrong.
By using magic, you could indeed peel it more reliably, without a single fleck of shell remaining.
But wasn’t that a bit much for a mere egg?
‘Besides, his body probably isn’t fully recovered yet.’
The hot spring water might restore wounds and stamina, but it couldn’t recover mana.
If it had recovered mana too, then it would no longer be a hot spring but something like an ‘Elixir Bath.’
“Put the staff down. I’ll show you a demonstration.”
In the end, Lion couldn’t just watch any longer and personally showed him how to peel an egg.
“See? Like this.”
Lion tapped the egg against a clean stone to crack it, then rolled it on its side.
As he did, the well-roasted eggshell made rhythmic cracking sounds as it fractured.
He lifted and peeled away part of the finely shattered shell with his fingernail, then peeled the rest off in one long strip as if unwrapping a package, revealing a well-roasted, firm, glossy brown interior.
Smooth, with a sheen that glistened and a savory aroma spreading, it looked perfectly cooked just by its appearance.
“Ohh, the color is brown. I’ve never seen such a thing before.”
“That’s because it was roasted a long time. Want to try a bite?”
“Yes. I will.”
Rickshel took a large, unhesitating bite of the roasted egg.
Bouncy!
“…!”
“How is it? Different, right?”
Unlike an ordinary boiled egg, the white of a roasted egg could be described as having a distinct firm bounciness as its defining characteristic.
Moreover, because Lion had generously sprinkled salt on it before roasting, the flavor had soaked in well, making it easy enough to eat even without any additional seasoning.
And since the hot-spring water, imbued with the scent of flame grass, had been added to the process, a uniquely refreshing fragrance was also infused.
“It’s truly delicious!”
It was undoubtedly a wholesome flavor that placed no burden on the stomach, and yet he kept being drawn back to it!
That was the hardest thing to achieve, and it had been done just by roasting an egg.
‘I’m glad he’s eating it well.’
Lion felt a surge of quiet satisfaction and rubbed the tip of his nose.
“Anyway, it’s easy to peel them this way. You can do it while you eat, so I’ll leave the task to you.”
“Yes. Understood.”
Having thus imparted the method of egg-peeling to Rickshel, Lion decided to prepare another snack.
That was none other than…
‘This stone mushroom.’
Ordinarily, it was so hard it couldn’t be roasted, but Lion had once succeeded in roasting it deliciously.
The secret to that was nothing other than using the power of a spirit!
Since it had roasted even with a lesser spirit’s enchantment, it would surely be possible with just a little help from Nature.
“Can you do it?”
A revitalized Nature looked ready to breathe fire from its beak as if to say “just trust me”…
But it stopped short.
Then, after a moment of deliberation, it stretched one wing out toward Lion, didn’t it?
As if demanding something.
[Your companion spirit ‘Nature’ is asking for a snack.]
“…”
“…”
For a moment, silence fell between Nature and Lion.
A breathless psychological battle began, and Lion opened his mouth, pretending not to notice.
“Okay. Shall I give you some spirit water and a spirit stone?”
Shake-shake.
Power gathered in the wing.
[Your companion spirit ‘Nature’ is asking for a snack!]
An exclamation mark had been added.
Lion stared at Nature for a moment.
[Caution: Giving too many human snacks can lead to bad habits.]
A past cautionary message surfaced in my mind.
Was this what it had meant?
If it were an ordinary animal companion, I might have agonized a bit.
Setting aside bad habits, there was a high chance it would be unhealthy.
But…
‘Isn’t it fine?’
Whatever else you could say, hadn’t this fellow been loyal enough to protect me using even its own strength when I was truly in danger?
It’s not as if it refused to eat spirit stones or spirit water, and it didn’t seem to have gained weight. It just looked like a little yellow potato, that’s all…
“Peep!”
Sensing the rude thought, Nature flared up in anger.
“What a temper. Fine.”
Lion picked up a s’mores sandwich he had made before Rickshel arrived.
“If you help out, I’ll give you this.”
“Peep.”
Once Lion consented, Nature’s voice softened to a thin note again.
Then it stood in front of the stone mushroom, opened its beak, and shot out a flame.
And so…
[Grilled Snow Mountain Stone Mushroom (★★)]
-A stone mushroom roasted by a special method.
-Chewy like meat and full of a unique savor. A taste that men and women of all ages will love!
As expected, it was roasted.
And much more golden-brown than last time, at that.
The outside had taken on a deep brown hue, and when sliced with a knife, clear mushroom juices trickled out and pooled.
‘Looks delicious.’
Swallowing his saliva, Lion skewered the mushroom for easier eating.
“Well done.”
As promised, Lion handed the s’mores sandwich to Nature.
“If you heat it up a bit, the inside will melt again, so warm it up nicely before you eat.”
“…!”
Nature accepted the sandwich with sparkling eyes and began to expertly roast and peck at it on its own.
I don’t know whose spirit it is, but it really is clever.
It was a sight that naturally brought a proud parent’s smile to my face.
“Brother. I’ve finished!”
While he’d been watching Nature, Rickshel had neatly peeled the eggs, placed them in a bowl, and brought them over.
“Oh, perfect timing.”
Lion arranged the well-peeled eggs on a flat stone and went to fetch Petrick, who was still enjoying the hot spring.
Petrick seemed to have taken quite a liking to the hot spring, as he was steaming his body in a relaxed posture.
“Grandfather, have some snacks.”
“Hmm!”
Petrick dried himself with the towel Lion handed him, changed into the sauna suit, sat on a flat stone, and soon began to enjoy the snacks Lion had prepared.
“If your mouth gets dry while eating, you can drink this.”
Lion took out the spirit water and set it down in front of the two of them.
“This is…”
“Wasn’t it something that only spirits or spirit mages can consume?”
“You’ll only benefit from the effects if you’re a spirit mage, but eating just eggs will make your mouth dry, so there’s nothing better for that.”
They might not benefit from the digestion aid or spirit affinity, but its refreshing coolness was on par with cider, so it seemed well-suited.
‘Originally it would be sikhye!’
It had taken a little time to prepare the malt powder.
Regretfully, I decided to make that another time.
For now, let’s focus on eating.
“Please eat.”
Once Petrick was the first to lift his food, the other two also began their meal.
They ate the well-roasted eggs, and picked up grilled stone mushroom skewers and popped them into their mouths as well.
“Hmm.”
When their throats became dry, they drank the spirit water.
Fortunately, the spirit water performed its role excellently as a slightly sweet, refreshing beverage.
After eating like that for a long while, Lion opened his mouth.
“Now that I think of it, I forgot to say congratulations.”
“Pardon?”
“You became a 5th Circle Mage. Congratulations.”
Rickshel’s face flushed red, as if he hadn’t expected to hear such words.
“Indeed. Congratulations.”
Grandfather echoed Lion’s congratulations.
“It is nothing so remarkable. I still have far to go. Did you not achieve the 5th Circle at an even younger age, Family Head?”
Petrick set down his beverage and spoke seriously.
“The age at which you achieve it is not what’s important. What matters is how much the intervals between circles widen.”
To summarize, the longer the gap between circles, the harder it was to gain the next breakthrough.
Listening to the story, Lion asked tentatively.
“Then which interval was the hardest for you, Grandfather?”
“It was probably the period in which I was forming the 6th Circle.”
That was the path Rickshel would now have to walk.
“…!”
“I did not say that to pressure you.”
As Rickshel stiffened with tension, Petrick slowly began his explanation.
It was less an explanation, and more a story of days gone by.
“I became a 5th Circle Mage at a very young age. At that time, I was arrogant.”
It was a talent worthy of arrogance.
Petrick had mastered the 5th Circle before the age of thirty.
‘Mastering the 5th Circle is what lets you use illusion magic, I think.’
He meant the illusion magic that had given Lion such a hard time in the labyrinth.
“I thought I could endure everything perfectly well on my own. And so I genuinely moved alone, and paid dearly for it.”
Grandfather briefly closed his mouth, then tilted his head to the side to fully reveal his neck.
Amidst the wrinkled neck was… a scar so vivid that anyone would have recognized it as a fatal wound.
“This is…!”
It was a scar that even Lion and Rickshel were seeing for the first time.
Now that he thought about it, Grandfather had always preferred clothing that covered his neck.
Could this have been the reason?
“It was a fatal wound, in the truest sense.”
“How did you survive?”
“I received help.”
Petrick chuckled softly and reminisced about the past.
* * *
At that time, he had been in a situation where he was tracking and had to kill a high-ranking demon.
However, the demon’s schemes were vicious, and Petrick was soon isolated and faced death.
He had barely avoided instantaneous death, but blood endlessly gushed from his neck, so death was only a matter of time.
He regretted it.
To die in a place like this.
But there was no undoing it.
It was a deep place where summoning help was difficult.
Even while dying, Petrick acted cool-headedly.
He pressed one hand to his neck to staunch the blood and with the other hand wrote a testament.
At the very least, he had to inform his fiancée and his comrades, who were waiting for him, of this situation.
Just as he was about to place the final period, he heard it.
“You crazy, smart aleck little brat!”