Five Dilutions
After waking from the dream, the first thing that entered my field of vision was the lady lying on the bed.
Would be nice if I could take a flower pot later.
Having recovered a reasonable grip on reality, I stood up from the chair to stretch.
"Jamie."
"Yes."
"How long has it been?"
"Twenty-three minutes and twenty-four seconds."
The conversation with Lady Deola had not been that long. Generously speaking, ten minutes. Reality, however, had let twice that much time slip by.
It seemed the leisurely temperament of the dream's owner had left its mark.
"Did you meet my wife?"
"Yes. I also delivered the message you asked me to pass along, and brought back her answer."
"What… did she say?"
For the first time, hesitation crept into the voice of the man who had been pretending everything was fine.
"She said she wants to live a long, long life with you, Mr. Coltech."
"Is that… so. Right."
When I answered, he wiped his scarred, thick hands over his face a couple of times, over and over.
"Thank you. If there's anything else you need, just say the word. I'll gladly help."
"Then I'd like one moderately warmed cup, please."
"A cup?"
"Yes. Body temperature would be perfect."
"Hmm. Well. All right."
Coltech had his personal maidservant bring a cute mug engraved with flower designs.
"Will this do?"
"It's sufficient. Then could you give me the water bottle I requested earlier?"
"Here it is."
I politely accepted the bottle he had carefully wrapped in his own coat and passed it to Jamie.
"Hold this carefully."
"Yes."
After opening the bottle's cap, I drew from my coat the crystal vial containing Nectar.
"W-wait!"
Coltech, who until now had barely shown emotion beyond a brief hesitation, urgently seized me for the first time.
"What's the matter?"
"That! Don't tell me… th-the drink of the gods?"
"It's called that as well, I hear. Though I don't know whether you actually enjoy drinking it yourself."
"Crazy."
I brushed his hand off my shoulder and said,
"I need to concentrate, so I'd prefer you not touch me anymore."
"……"
He didn't answer. But he also didn't grab me again.
Even a fingernail's worth nearly killed Vita.
First I dropped a single drop of Nectar into the water bottle the maid had brought. The Nectar—looking like a half-and-half mix of bright sky blue and emerald—faded a little when it hit ordinary drinking water, yet still dyed the entire contents of the bottle the same color as itself.
"Pour half of this in here."
At my instruction, Jamie carefully poured exactly half of the refreshingly colored water into the mug in my hand.
I dipped my pinky into the liquid and brought it to my tongue.
Zzzzt—!!
The moment the diluted Nectar touched my tongue, a tingling current spread through my whole body from that point outward. All fatigue vanished as if I'd been injected with some kind of stimulant, and my head became crystal clear.
Even the slight stiffness in my lower back from dealing with Jamie the night before cleared right up.
"Bring me three glass bottles like this one, filled halfway with water."
"Ah—understood!"
Anyone who wasn't an idiot would have realized why I was doing this right here, and fortunately Coltech was no idiot.
"Here they are!"
So excited that he ran and fetched them himself despite having a maid, Coltech set the bottles on the table as carefully as if handling a newborn.
First I poured all the diluted Nectar from the mug into the first glass bottle. Then, same as before, I dipped a finger and brought it to my tongue.
This level…
The tingling sensation was gone, and the stimulant-like effect had diminished considerably.
I held out my left hand and instructed Jamie to cut it with a dagger.
"Excuse me."
She gripped my wrist and drew the blade across very quickly.
At first I felt nothing. Then a thin red line appeared and blood began to flow. Only then did the burning sensation reach my brain.
Gulp.
I swallowed a mouthful of the twice-diluted Nectar.
My heart began racing madly. Heat rose through my whole body, and for a moment my vision spun.
"Pri—"
"—kay"
It wasn't only my eyes spinning. The sound rang out as if someone were shouting from deep inside a cave, so loud I couldn't make out a word of what anyone was saying.
"Hah!?"
"Priest!!"
With the sensation of being hauled up from the deep ocean, I came to and found Jamie looking down at me with a deathly pale face.
"How long was I out?"
"Two minutes."
Supported by Jamie, I got up and sat back in the chair. Then I checked the palm where the wound should have been.
"It's healed."
"Priest."
Jamie called me, but I shook my head instead of answering.
I poured the twice-diluted Nectar into the second glass bottle.
And I repeated the same process two more times.
"Almost no stimulation or stimulant effect, yet the wound heals diligently. Nice."
After a total of five dilutions, I finally reached a level where even I—firmly within the category of ordinary human—could drink without any problem.
"No wonder they call it the drink of the gods."
A single drop the size of a fingernail only became something an ordinary human could taste after no fewer than five dilutions.
The five-times-diluted Nectar had lost its original refreshing color, scent, and taste, becoming much closer to ordinary drinking water—so in effect it wasn't water diluted with Nectar so much as a recovery potion that simply tasted like tap water.
"Mr. Coltech."
"Speak."
His manner of speaking hadn't changed from the start, but his attitude had become considerably more respectful.
"Honestly, I can't guarantee that Lady Deola will wake up even if she drinks all of this diluted Nectar."
"Of course. Hoping for that would be greed. I know."
There seemed no need to say more, so I tore a few pages from my notepad and stuck one on each glass bottle.
"One sip a day should be enough. Any more than that and it will likely become poison. I've shown you myself, so I trust you won't commit such an atrocity."
He nodded so vigorously I worried his neck might snap.
"This one you can give as is. This one needs one more dilution, this one two, this one three. I've noted it, so don't forget."
"I—I'll do it myself, so don't worry."
"As you wish. That'll put your mind at ease. And before I go, just in case, I'll have her take one sip first."
Right in front of Coltech, I scooped a spoonful of the five-times-diluted Nectar and let it flow between Lady Deola's parched lips.
…Gulp.
Fortunately her body accepted the diluted Nectar without rejecting it, and after waiting about ten minutes, no special symptoms appeared either.
"Her complexion has brightened noticeably."
"…Thank you."
Coltech wrapped his thick hands around mine and finally revealed his true feelings without hiding them. And facing his sincerity, I purely marveled.
It was astonishing that a human could hide their emotions so thoroughly.
No matter how well you hide them, they tend to show through minor actions or the eyes—yet the man before me had concealed his feelings perfectly.
"You're remarkable."
"What do you mean…?"
I gently released his hand and smiled.
"Everything."
Acting out emotions you can't relate to at all, versus thoroughly hiding your own. Which one is harder, I wonder.
Hard.
Hoping that someday I would reach my own conclusion on the matter, I bid farewell to Coltech and left his mansion with Jamie.
On the road toward Sector 12.
"Jamie."
"Yes."
After organizing my thoughts while looking out the window for a while, I rested my head comfortably against the seat back and took in the side of her face as she focused on driving.
"When Mr. Coltech first told me about the commission. I was certain he'd done that to his wife for some reason."
"Ah. So that's why you said if we'd made a bet, I would have won."
"That's right."
Originally I hadn't planned to tell her, but my conversation with the lady had shifted my thinking a little.
"Personally I think it was an understandable misunderstanding. What do you think, Jamie?"
"Boss Coltech's love for his wife was quite famous, so I'm afraid I can't relate to your thinking at all, Priest."
I took out a bundle of one-million-Mora bills from my coat, undid the front of Jamie's shirt, and tucked it between the fabric.
"On second thought, it seems it was a situation where you could easily have misunderstood, Priest."
"So Jamie's convictions are worth one million Mora."
"I simply judged that one million Mora is more than enough for the degree of empathizing with someone."
"Certainly. If you could earn a million Mora just by saying a few words and nodding a little, most people would do that."
"That's what I'm saying."
I pulled the bill bundle back out from her shirt front.
"Priest. There's nothing more vicious than giving something and then taking it away."
"When did I ever say I was giving this to you, Jamie?"
"……"
Jamie opened her mouth, then sighed soundlessly.
Only then did she realize she'd jumped to conclusions and fallen for the atmosphere I'd created.
I conspicuously tucked the bill bundle—still warm from her body heat—back into my coat, reclined the seat, and said,
"Even without making a bet, Jamie, you always just lose."
"…I need to focus on driving, so please don't talk to me."
Since an accident would be troublesome, I closed my eyes comfortably as she wished until we arrived in front of the house.