Alchemist Karen No Longer Compromises, Chapter 278

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Chapter Two Hundred and Seventy-Eight: Motivation 2

“Master Licht, aren’t you worried about Mr. Julius?”

“Well, I do wish he’d at least said something before leaving.”

Licht shrugged his shoulders.

“I’m worried, sure, but if Julius is fighting to overcome his past, all I can do is cheer him on, right?”

“…In other words, no matter what happened in the past, an unexplored dungeon around the tenth floor isn’t actually any threat to Mr. Julius’s abilities, is it?”

“Obviously. The fact that such a question even comes to mind—are you really Julius’s lover? You really don’t know him at all.”

Karen frowned slightly at his scoff as she appraised the potion. The appraisal mirror’s result showed it was a medium healing potion. Karen opened her pouch and refilled the empty bottles with the potion as she spoke:

“I’ve made a medium healing potion. If you have empty bottles, feel free to refill them, Master Licht.”

“What’s the charge?”

“Right now, it’s no exaggeration to say we’re in a kind of emergency situation with a cooperative relationship, so there’s no charge.”

Karen said with a bright smile and looked around.

“Everyone, I’ve made a medium healing potion! Those of you with empty potion bottles, feel free to refill them! We’re comrades who’ve eaten from the same pot, so I won’t charge you!”

“Really!? Is that okay!? The potion I have is a small healing potion! Can I swap the contents for one?”

“Of course, Lady Petra. In fact, let’s swap them all out!”

At a speed that the knights and Rosine, who were hesitantly exchanging glances, couldn’t possibly match, Petra immediately came rushing over.

Defeated by the sight of Petra refilling her bottles without the slightest reservation, Rosine followed suit, and after that, the knights swarmed in.

Karen distributed potions with an amiable smile.

“Please don’t hold back. Everyone’s in a difficult situation, so let’s refill our potions while we can!”

“How generous. Should I say you’re too much of a good person?”

To Licht’s exasperated comment, Karen raised her ladle with a smile.

“How about a cup for you too, Master Licht?”

“I’ll pass. Unfortunately, I don’t have any empty bottles.”

Gottfried, who approached from behind the shrugging Licht, frowned and looked down at Karen.

“Miss Karen, you shouldn’t sell your skills so cheaply.”

“I don’t intend to sell them cheaply, Knight Captain.”

When Karen answered with a smile, the two of them looked dubious.

Once the potions had been sufficiently distributed, Karen headed toward Sepl and Urte. Taking the two of them to a place where the nobles couldn’t overhear, Karen spoke up:

“I want to go to the tenth floor of an unexplored dungeon, but could you two take on being my escorts?”

Sepl scratched his neck as he answered:

“I’m D-rank, Little Karen. In other words, I’ve never cleared the tenth floor. It’s fundamentally impossible to escort you, who can’t fight, while diving into a dungeon.”

“Well, figured as much.”

Karen looked at Urte, but Urte shrugged her shoulders.

“I’m C-rank, but it’s equally impossible for me, Karen.”

“I expected that from Uncle Sepl, but even you can’t do it, Urte?”

“Yeah.”

Urte nodded confidently.

“Diving into a dungeon while escorting someone who can’t fight is incredibly difficult. The tenth floor, especially, is out of the question. I’m not refusing because I’m a supporter. I’d refuse such a request even if I were an adventurer.”

“It’s not like I’m asking you to clear the tenth floor boss. I think we’d be following after Mr. Julius, and there probably wouldn’t be that many monsters.”

“Even so, it’s impossible, Karen. There’s no way I could do it alone, and even if Sepl and I joined forces and risked our lives, protecting you would be difficult.”

“I see.”

Karen nodded.

It was the answer she’d anticipated.

“How many adventurers with about Uncle Sepl’s level of skill would we need for you to take me down to the tenth floor of an unexplored dungeon?”

“A party of six… Ideally, I’d want about ten people. Even with that many people, I’d still decline to clear the tenth-floor boss.”

“I see.”

“Karen.”

Urte called Karen’s name in an admonishing tone.

“I can understand wanting to see your lover when you’ve just started dating. But even if you went, you’d just be in the way. That man is strong. There’s nothing at all for you to worry about.”

Urte didn’t know about Julius’s past of being left behind in that dungeon. Yet even Licht, who did know, remained relaxed, convinced Julius would be fine.

Karen probably would not be of any help.

In the first place, Julius most likely didn’t even need help.

Gottfried and Licht, who should have known the circumstances best, weren’t particularly worried or anxious.

Surely there was no meaning in Karen trying to follow Julius into the dungeon.

No matter what she did, she couldn’t make it in time anymore.

“But even now, I want to go meet him.”

The young Julius who had been left behind back then—

At Karen’s murmur, Sepl and Urte frowned.

Even without understanding the meaning of the word "meet," it seemed to have conveyed that Karen hadn’t given up on diving into the dungeon.

Whether they intended to lecture her or persuade her—

Before the two could continue, Karen abruptly turned her back on them.

When she quickly escaped to the nobles’ area, the two frowned but didn’t follow.

With light steps, Karen headed toward the gloomy shade of trees where the knights huddled together with hunched backs.

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Alchemist Karen No Longer Compromises, Chapter 277

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Chapter Two Hundred and Seventy-Seven: Motivation

After returning, Karen began her alchemy work.

With an orichalcum alchemy cauldron, a World Tree ladle, and this being the very edge of the dungeon’s sphere of influence—a location that could practically be said to be almost entirely outside the sphere—medicinal herbs grew everywhere.

As Karen had gathered herbs on her way back and immediately started making healing potions upon her return, one of the knights approached her side.

He was a man with dark navy hair who often received instructions from Gottfried on behalf of the knights. He seemed to be a leader-like figure among the knights. Though he looked young, his unshaven beard made his age hard to tell. The knights serving at Helfried’s side maintained crisp appearances even during their camp life, but the grooming of the knights Gottfried brought with him showed conspicuous signs of disorder.

“Miss Karen, I heard you were summoned by His Lordship the Earl earlier—did something happen?”

“It was nothing significant.”

Helfried had been concerned that continuing the hunting festival would create a situation that disregarded commoners, and out of consideration for Karen, who was a commoner, he had taken the trouble to provide her with an explanation. For the knights, who were nobles, consideration for commoners was probably irrelevant. They likely thought the protesting merchants should simply be killed and done with.

When Karen gave a brief explanation, the man hung his head.

“I see… So he said nothing about us.”

“Ah, um, when we parted, I told him I would also keep an eye on all of you, and I think Lord Helfried nodded, you know?”

Probably, Karen added in her heart. To the parting words she had said as if to hide her embarrassment, Helfried may or may not have nodded.

The knight showed a dark smile tinged with shadow.

“To His Lordship the Earl, we were nothing but a nuisance from the start…”

Though Karen hadn’t said anything of the sort, the knight jumped to his own conclusion, turned his back on Karen, and returned to where his companions were gathered. As Karen watched the knight’s melancholy retreating figure, Licht approached and spoke:

“Seeing you get summoned by Earl Ehlertt, he was apparently hoping their situation had become a topic of discussion.”

“Even if he expected that… if he was going to discuss the knights’ treatment, he’d call the Knight Captain, wouldn’t he?”

“Those guys understand that too, but they’re probably anxious. They were originally people who, even if not exactly opposed to Earl Ehlertt, were thought of as difficult to handle. Their loyalty to Ehlertt and their desire to use their strength for him are genuine, which is why they’re being kept under protection like this.”

By keeping them isolated in a separate location, they were being protected from becoming scapegoats if something happened. However, from Karen’s perspective, they only appeared to be neglected and rotting away. The knights themselves probably felt the same way.

Looking down at Karen resuming her potion-making, Licht sighed.

“The way things are going, they’ll probably quit being knights after the hunting festival ends.”

“Is that so?”

Karen said while stirring the contents of the alchemy cauldron in circles. Licht looked at Karen sharply and said:

“You don’t seem interested, do you, Karen?”

“From my perspective, I have no thoughts other than ‘if they want to quit, they should quit’…”

“How cold-hearted. Weren’t you asked about them by the Knight Captain? You were, weren’t you?”

“That’s why I’ll watch over them to make sure they aren’t falsely accused.”

If they quit being knights, would they no longer be falsely accused? Or even if they quit being knights, would they still fall victim to someone’s divisive schemes? And if so—would keeping them as knights be good or bad for Ehlertt?

What could Karen possibly do for them when she understood nothing? If Gottfried was relying on her as family through Julius, she did feel like doing something for them. However, she particularly didn’t feel like doing anything more for them than preventing false accusations.

“Speaking of which, why were you called by Earl Ehlertt?”

“I received an explanation about a commoner merchant who died in the recent attack, and that they would continue the hunting festival despite it. Since I’m also a commoner.”

“I see. Consideration for you, then. The Earl is concerned about you.”

Karen explained to Licht, who had been arranged by Helfried to act as a promoter for her panacea. Besides, Licht would surely be very interested in the next topic.

“Also, apparently Mr. Julius is currently conquering a nearby dungeon.”

At the whereabouts of Julius that Karen kindly informed him of, Licht’s expression changed.

“Julius is in a dungeon? Don’t tell me—it’s the so-called ‘Forest Edge Dungeon’?”

“So-called? Um, Lord Helfried only told me it was a nearby dungeon.”

At Karen’s words upon her return, Licht put his hand to his forehead and looked up at the sky.

“If it’s nearby, that’s the only one it could be.”

“…Is there something about that dungeon?”

Helfried had told Karen as if it were nothing of note. From his attitude, it was clear that to Helfried—who trusted in Julius’s strength—it wasn’t worth worrying about.

Karen’s heart, which had wavered with anxiety even at that time, began to pound loudly at Licht’s meaningful manner. Licht looked at Karen with a bitter expression.

“It’s that dungeon… the one where Julius’s old man cast him into.”

“What…! Why would Lord Helfried…!”

“Earl Ehlertt doesn’t know the details of Julius’s circumstances.”

Karen caught her breath.

“I see… so Lord Helfried doesn’t know about that either…”

Since Licht hadn’t activated the magical tool to prevent eavesdropping, Karen spoke vaguely. Julius had said that Helfried didn’t know the secret of Julius’s birth. Whether he knew they had different mothers or believed them to be full siblings, Karen hadn’t yet learned the details.

Helfried didn’t know that Julius had been thrown into a dungeon by his father’s hand and subjected to a life-or-death trial.

“According to you, the dungeon incident isn’t even a secret for Julius, but if Julius doesn’t talk about it, I don’t intend to go out of my way to speak of it either.”

“…That’s true. For Mr. Julius, it shouldn’t have been something to hide from me. But even among other things I know, there seemed to be things he didn’t want his family to know, so I don’t feel like saying anything either.”

There had once been an assassin who poisoned Karen’s curry and targeted Sieg and other members of the Ehlertt family. Ever since Julius fought that assassin and, suffering from magical power intoxication, tried to hide himself from Helfried and everyone, Karen had felt that although he loved his family, he was still keeping some kind of wall between them.

Just how far that wall extended, Karen had yet to understand. If Helfried didn’t know Julius’s circumstances, she would have no choice but to act.

After infusing the potion with extra magical power to complete it, Karen stood up.

“It must be a harsh place for Julius mentally… but if he chose to delve into it, then he’ll likely be alright.”

Saying this, Licht sat down on a nearby tree root, and Karen’s eyes widened.

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Alchemist Karen No Longer Compromises, Chapter 276

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Chapter Two Hundred and Seventy-Six: Softhearted 2

Karen tilted her head slightly and addressed the group of merchants:

“If you don’t have any means to protect yourselves, you shouldn’t leave town until you’ve prepared some. Can you fight?”

“W-Well… no…”

“If you can’t fight, have you hired escorts? And are those escorts strong enough to approach an uncleared dungeon that keeps triggering Great Collapses?”

“That’s… well…”

The merchants exchanged glances. It seemed they either hadn’t hired escorts at all or the ones they had hired weren’t nearly strong enough.

Uncleared dungeons caused Great Collapses. They unleashed monsters into the world, then fell silent again, only to unleash more monsters in time. Walking unprotected up to a monster production factory—of course, that ended in death.

“B-But we were camping where the Earl’s people directed us, and that’s why the monsters got to us—!”

“It’s only natural for people to die when they enter a dungeon beyond their ability to handle. Yes, there are parts of dungeons where you’re less likely to run into monsters, and people who’ll tell you where those are. But if you go in, encounter a monster, get attacked, and die—you can’t blame anyone else for that. That’s on you. Going near the Enchanted Forest is the same thing, isn’t it?”

At Karen’s words, one of the men twisted his face in anger and shot to his feet.

“What would a little girl like you know—!”

“I think Little Karen’s right, though.”

Sepl, who had been standing beside Karen, leaned out from behind her shoulder and spoke. The man, who had been about to thrust his fist at Karen, flinched and froze.

“If you can’t fight, isn’t it your own fault for coming somewhere like this?”

Sepl said it plainly, and Urte, who had drawn closer, nodded in agreement.

“Why are people who’d die without someone protecting them even here? If you’d hired guards, that’d be one thing—but if you didn’t, were you planning to pin it on someone else? …If so, then dying was only natural.”

Urte looked down at the merchants who had been kneeling in appeal and spat the words out with undisguised contempt. The men flushed scarlet and fell silent—apparently, she had hit the mark. Karen turned and looked up at Helfried.

“This is a pretty typical opinion among us commoners, Lord Helfried. So please, don’t let it trouble you.”

“That’s less a commoner’s opinion and more an adventurer’s, I’d say.”

Helfried’s expression carried a trace of exasperation, but the exhaustion in it seemed somehow lighter than before. Karen, Sepl, and Urte looked at one another—he had a point.

There were those who entered dungeons assuming someone would rescue them, inevitably found themselves in a desperate situation, and then hurled their resentment at whoever hadn’t saved them. Adventurers had nothing but contempt for that kind of weakness. Julius, who had once saved Therese, had simply been far too kind to people like that.

After sending the merchants off, Karen and everyone left the tent where the dead had been laid. When they returned to the front of the tent, Helfried let out a long sigh.

“You have my thanks, Karen. That helped.”

“You were right to hold firm, Lord Helfried. We don’t even know if those men were truly the victim’s family. They could have been thieves after the dead merchant’s belongings—investigating their identities properly afterward was absolutely the right call.”

“If that’s what they were, it was a convincing performance.”

The sight of them not fearing to protest before a noble had indeed been remarkably persuasive. If it had been an act, they might have known that Helfried placed great importance on family bonds. Watching from the side, Karen also thought that someone like Helfried, who understood love for family, might be swayed even by commoners. Someone who knew him that well had to be behind it.

Who else could possibly know such a thing? It was true that the sacrifice Helfried had made for Sieg was widely known, but it wouldn’t be unreasonable to read it as mere attachment to a powerful heir. Just as Winfried had once been.

—If those men had been acting, who would know Helfried’s character well enough to orchestrate it?

Karen had sunk into the depths of that thought when Helfried said, as though it were nothing of particular note, "Speaking of which—”

“It seems Julius intends to clear an unexplored dungeon within the next two weeks.”

Helfried said it with a grin. Karen’s eyes went wide.

“What?! Is it Julius who’s been clearing that dungeon—the one that nearly caused a Great Collapse?! He’s in a place that dangerous—!”

Karen was stunned. This time it was Helfried’s turn to smile with easy composure.

“Julius will be fine. Anyone else would’ve required organizing a rescue party—but a B-rank adventurer can clear a dungeon solo up to the fifteenth floor. Didn’t you know?”

“I do know that, but…”

“Then you understand there’s nothing to worry about, surely? Julius said he wanted to win at any cost—for your sake. And if he clears a dungeon, no one else can possibly beat him. You’d do well to prepare yourself to be crowned Queen of the hunting festival, Karen.”

Even with the teasing note in his voice, Karen didn’t fluster the way she usually would.

“Is there no chance it’s someone other than Mr. Julius clearing the dungeon?”

“Everyone else has been accounted for. Julius is the only one we haven’t been able to reach.”

The means of communication would be magical tools. Which meant the only person unreachable was someone inside a dungeon, where magical tools couldn’t communicate with the outside. The magical power Karen had channeled into the earring had most likely not reached him either. She sighed.

“I know perfectly well that Mr. Julius is strong… so why am I this worried?”

Karen tilted her head, muttering to herself. Helfried smiled at her gently.

“When Julius comes back, tell him how you feel.”

This time, there was no teasing in Helfried’s voice, and Karen blushed before hurriedly saying, “I’ll keep an eye on the knights over there, so don’t worry!” and quickly leaving the scene.

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Alchemist Karen No Longer Compromises, Chapter 275

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Chapter Two Hundred and Seventy-Five: Softhearted

“But Captain, if a Great Collapse can truly be triggered deliberately, that would be a serious matter indeed.”

“No. It wasn’t that I sensed the Great Collapse itself had been deliberately caused. Only that something was going to happen—that was all.”

Karen found Gottfried’s answer to Licht’s question puzzling, and asked:

“Captain, how did you go from that feeling to predicting that your knights might be framed for something?”

“Less a prediction than a response to things already happening. Several troubling incidents had occurred around them—incidents that looked like attempts to pin false crimes on them. I felt they couldn’t remain where they were, so I obtained Lord Helfried’s permission and led them away from the looming threat.”

“Pin false crimes, you say.”

The knights under Gottfried’s command had apparently chosen to remain in the order, knowing full well the disadvantages of belonging to families associated with the former earl’s faction. But they had been accused of stealing things they had never touched, or had woken up in restricted areas—perhaps drugged with sleeping agents—facing charges for deeds they had never committed. The incidents had mounted one after another, and friction within the order had followed.

“I have a talent for seeing through lies. Especially from people I know well—there’s very little they can deceive me about. At first glance, it looks like a petty power struggle, but I could tell my men were being framed. And whoever was behind it didn’t appear to be operating from within the order. I think it should be treated as an attack on the Ehlertt Earldom by some malicious outside party.”

“A campaign to drive a wedge between you…”

“The question is—what do they want? Who are our enemies, even? Not knowing is what unsettles me.”

Someone was sowing seeds of discord throughout the Ehlertt territory. Without knowing what they were truly after, Gottfried had followed nothing but intuition in taking his men and fleeing.

And then he had turned to Karen for help. What on earth could she possibly do for any of them?

“What would I need to do to actually help you all?”

“Well…”

“Well?”

“I’m not sure myself. What I do know is that I need to breathe some life back into these men—they’ve lost ground, and it shows. Do you have any ideas?”

The knights sat gathered around the fire, talking and laughing among themselves, yet their expressions carried a shadow to them—as though the weight of their situation was never far from their minds. Karen tilted her head.

“Nothing comes to mind, I’m afraid.”

“I thought as much.”

Just what did Gottfried’s so-called intuition want Karen to do? Gottfried shrugged his shoulders, as though admitting he had no answers.

The following morning, Karen responded to Helfried’s summons and visited the tent that had been re-pitched in a new location.

“Thank you for coming, Karen… The truth is, there were casualties in yesterday’s monster attack.”

“Do you need potions?”

Karen had started to move, thinking she had been called upon as an alchemist—but Helfried shook his head.

“No, potions have been taken care of. But there’s something I need to explain to you…”

Helfried broached the subject with evident difficulty.

“If a noble were to die at a hunting festival, it would be considered a complete failure. The festival would be canceled immediately, and the deceased given a proper farewell.”

“The hunting festival would be canceled? Even after all that preparation?”

“It won’t be canceled. The person who died this time was a commoner merchant.”

Karen blinked, and Helfried elaborated with a pained expression.

“When nobles hold a hunting festival, merchants of unknown origin tend to gather, seeing it as a business opportunity. Among them—if a noble dies, it’s a problem, but if a merchant I never invited dies, it’s not considered an issue. It may be unpleasant for a commoner like you, but that is noble culture.”

Helfried had just finished saying this with a look of discomfort when a commotion broke out outside. Karen and Helfried paused their conversation and stepped out of the tent. Moving toward the source of the noise, they found Ehlertt’s knights standing guard around one of the tents, and a group of commoner men facing them. Judging by their appearance, the men appeared to be merchants.

“What is going on here!?”

“The Earl is here!”

“Please, let us give our companion a proper farewell!”

“At least let us take back the body!”

Helfried, faced with the pleading men, grimaced.

“I have already told you it cannot be done. If the body of someone killed by a monster isn’t disposed of properly, it could turn into a wandering dead. We’ll handle the disposal later, identify the body, and notify the family, so don’t cause a commotion.”

“That’s outrageous! If you leave him, the body will rot! Stop the hunting festival right now and confirm that we’re his relatives!”

“…That cannot be done.”

To nobles, it was a trivial death. That was why there was no need to stop the hunting festival—the very idea would be unthinkable.

“Then we’ll handle it properly ourselves! Please, let us take him! We want his family to see him one last time!”

“We intend to compensate his family. Be patient.”

“No amount of money brings the dead back to life! A man died because of your decisions, Earl! Does that mean nothing to you!?”

“Or are you saying a commoner’s death doesn’t matter?!”

“That’s not—”

Helfried’s face was a picture of misery as the merchants wept and shouted at him. As a high-ranking noble, he could have easily ignored men who were, by any measure, D-rank at best—yet because of how deeply he valued family, he felt what they felt, and could not look away. Karen had been watching Helfried’s pained profile, and she turned her gaze to the men and spoke.

“If you had no power to fight monsters, why did you leave town in the first place?”

“What…?”

The men stopped crying and looked up at Karen with expressions that said they hadn’t expected anything of the sort. Their eyes were wet with tears, but there seemed to be something oddly flat in them too—a coolness that made Karen frown.

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Alchemist Karen No Longer Compromises, Chapter 274

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Chapter Two Hundred and Seventy-Four: Pot-au-feu with Wine and Root Vegetables 3

“To get straight to the point—a Great Collapse Stampede occurred at a nearby dungeon. But it seems to have settled.”

Licht had returned after gathering information from Helfried’s group and reported to Gottfried.

“Someone must be clearing that collapsing dungeon. Right now, Earl Ehlertt has sent up signal fires to call the participants back, so whoever hasn’t returned would be the ones clearing it.”

“Hmm. The hunting festival was originally a celebration for expanding one’s territory by conquering nearby dungeons. It makes sense if someone aiming for victory decided to attempt a dungeon clear.”

“Let’s hope whoever is doing it has the ability to see it through. If the effects of a Great Collapse are reaching this far out, it wouldn’t be surprising if monsters from the deep floors have crossed over.”

“…Could the Great Collapse have been caused deliberately?”

“Deliberately?”

Licht’s expression turned puzzled at what sounded like Gottfried talking to himself. Gottfried then activated a magical tool to prevent eavesdropping and spoke:

“I just have a… feeling.”

“Your feeling, is it…”

As Karen approached with a bowl of pot-au-feu, Licht, who had been wearing a grim expression, pressed his lips together. It seemed there were things she wasn’t meant to hear.

“Root vegetable pot-au-feu. Please, help yourself.”

“I had some earlier—it was excellent. It even turned into a potion. Something about strengthening one’s body. Good to know my wine was put to use.”

“Your wine?! Karen, you used Gotthard in a dish?!”

“It came together as an exceptionally expensive pot-au-feu, one bowl at a time. Please, do try it.”

Licht took the bowl with a look of astonishment, brought a spoonful to his lips with an expression of exasperation—and his eyes went wide.

“…It’s delicious.”

“I think it’s largely because it was such fine wine that it turned into a fine dish.”

“I could understand a fine potion, but a fine dish…”

Licht gave a wry smile and ate his way through the steaming, fluffy potato chunks, chewed through the thick slabs of bacon, savored the tender carrots against the satisfying bite of the lotus root, and slurped up the meltingly soft onion along with the broth. His nose had gone red at the tip. He let out a contented breath and said:

“If you and Julius end up together, this is what he’ll be eating for the rest of his life.”

“That’s how it will be, yes.”

“…How can I not root for him, being fed something like this?”

He sighed, then drew a magical tool for blocking eavesdropping from inside his coat. It seemed he had been trying to have a conversation earlier that could only be had with Gottfried, so Karen began to step away—but Licht stopped her.

“I’d like you to hear this too, Karen—if you don’t mind, Captain.”

“I have no objection, Sir Licht. Miss Karen is as good as family to me.”

“Earning his approval—what on earth did you do?”

Karen felt they had bonded over Gottfried’s love talk, but the Knight Captain likely didn’t see it that way. So she kept her mouth modestly shut.

“Well, whatever. The Knight Captain, you see, has exceptional intuition… It was the Captain who found Julius back then.”

“…Found him?”

Sensing something ominous in Licht’s hushed voice, Karen furrowed her brow. Gottfried picked up where Licht had left off:

“That man pursued every woman of high magical power he could get his hands on, and when he discovered that one of them had borne him a child—a boy named Julius—he abducted the child and threw him into an uncleared dungeon. What I found was Master Julius, having escaped the dungeon on his own. …If this instinct of mine were some kind of true ability, I would have wanted to feel it sooner. A useless power, in the end.”

“That isn’t so, Captain. Because you came to the entrance, Julius would have known, at the very least, that someone had come for him.”

“I took him into my protection, only for Winfried to snatch him away immediately… After that, there was nothing more I could do.”

“What was Winfried after?”

Karen spoke his name plainly, without any respect, but neither Licht nor Gottfried took issue with it.

“That man wanted strong children. He kept Lord Helfried in place as his heir, while conducting his experiments—the weak ones would simply die inside the dungeon, the strong ones would survive. When he saw Master Julius come out alive, the man was overjoyed.”

“In other words, the Knight Captain’s intuition—his premonitions—are accurate.”

Licht said it loudly, as if to keep Karen from sinking too far into her thoughts, and looked over at her.

“Don’t get too caught up in Julius’s past, Karen. He’s already looking forward—toward the future. Toward a future with you. That goes for you too, doesn’t it?”

“…Yes.”

Karen nodded. Licht had hesitated over whether to tell her this—and in the end, he had chosen to. He must have trusted that she wouldn’t let herself stay trapped in the past.

But being told not to dwell on it was one thing. She couldn’t help but think. Karen turned her gaze in the direction she guessed Julius might be, and couldn’t help but let her thoughts drift to him.

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Alchemist Karen No Longer Compromises, Chapter 273

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Chapter Two Hundred and Seventy-Three: Pot-au-feu with Wine and Root Vegetables 2

Surprised by Gottfried’s words—from a man she had assumed disliked Julius—Karen nonetheless shook her head.

“No… I’m worried about Mr. Julius, so that condition is fine. I don’t want anything else.”

“In the first place, Master Julius is only away because the hunting festival is still underway.”

Gottfried studied Karen with a searching look. His eyes seemed to be trying to see through her, and Karen tensed slightly.

“If Master Julius is aiming to win, he’ll have gone deep into the forest by morning. He won’t be back easily—and most likely, he hasn’t even noticed anything is wrong on this end. Are you sure you want to use that as your condition?”

“I sent magical power through the earring that transmits heat, so it wouldn’t be strange for him to come back at any time.”

She hadn’t sent that heat due to this disturbance, but the timing had been almost too good. Gottfried, however, tilted his head at her words.

“The Enchanted Forest is thick with magical power. So if he has gone deep enough, there’s every chance the magic never reached him. It isn’t a dungeon, but the area outside a dungeon’s sphere of influence is practically the same thing. Even herbs grow there.”

“So what you’re saying is, even if Mr. Julius were calling for help, it might not reach me.”

It was a painful, open secret Julius had never even tried to hide. Rather than hiding his wounds, he seemed not even aware of his own pain—his dullness made her chest ache unbearably, and now this. When something went wrong, how much would Julius take care of himself? She had been at the very moment of doubting that she could trust him in that regard—and then this had happened. Karen let out a long, heavy sigh.

Gottfried narrowed his eyes at her and spoke:

“If Master Julius appears to be held up in the forest for some reason, of course, I’ll go help him. For now, have some wine. It will calm your mind.”

“…Thank you.”

Gottfried poured from his flask and handed the cup to Karen. She couldn’t very well refuse, so she brought it to her lips. The aroma was extraordinary. She took a sip—and her expression shifted to something puzzled.

“This is a remarkably good wine. I feel like I’ve tasted it somewhere before…?”

“Have you had Gotthard before? Perhaps Lord Helfried gave some to you?”

“What?! Gotthard—the ultra-luxury wine!?”

Karen’s eyes went wide. It was the label Sara had once brought to a celebratory gathering, saying it was a gift from Helfried.

“It’s just a hobby of mine, homemade. I can’t produce much, so the price rises.”

Karen swallowed hard. Between her irritation at being dragged into Gottfried’s affairs and the very real danger it might bring, she had tossed the wine carelessly into the pot-au-feu when he offered it. It hadn’t been in a labeled bottle, so she’d had no idea. Inside the orichalcum alchemical cauldron, an extraordinarily expensive pot-au-feu was quietly reaching completion.

Gottfried poured a cup for himself, took a long swig, and turned back to his knights.

“Each of you, have a cup! You may open one of the barrels from the carriage!”

“Thank you, Captain!”

The knights erupted in a cheer, and Gottfried exhaled quietly beside Karen.

“I’d like nothing more than to make wine in peace and spend my days quietly at home with my wife—but Lord Helfried won’t allow it… and now I can’t very well abandon my men either. A troublesome business.”

Karen took a small sip of the wine herself. It was fragrant and delicious, and unmistakably right for the pot-au-feu. The pot-au-feu in the orichalcum cauldron was nearly ready now. Karen gave it a slow stir, ladled a little into a small dish to taste, and sighed.

“What’s wrong? Did it not turn out well?”

“It turned out beautifully. It’s warm and nourishing, exactly as I hoped… I just found myself wishing Mr. Julius could have some too.”

A single sip of the nourishing hot soup eased her, warmth spreading through her body and tension leaving her shoulders. Even cooking over an open fire, the cold crept in steadily once the sun went down. And yet, how cold must Julius be right now? Even if his body was strong thanks to magical power, what should she call this desire to feed him something warm?

“Please, help yourself. You did provide the ingredients, after all.”

Gottfried accepted the bowl of pot-au-feu from Karen and said:

“Whatever you come to know about him, you intend to live alongside Master Julius, don’t you, Miss Karen?”

“Of course.”

“Once you have chosen Master Julius, there is no going back.”

She felt a pressure emanating from Gottfried, and a faint sweat broke out across her skin. It wasn’t overflowing magical power—just the intensity of emotions boiling within him reaching her.

“That’s exactly what I want.”

Karen answered with a smile, even as a bead of sweat traced her brow. Gottfried exhaled, took a spoonful of the pot-au-feu, and murmured:

“…It certainly warms the body. I started making wine myself because I wanted to warm my wife—she tends to run cold.”

He turned to face Karen fully and bowed his head.

“I’m sorry for dragging you into this. If you are truly prepared to accept every side of Master Julius, then you are as good as family to me.”

Karen’s eyes went wide at his words.

“As the price for pulling you into my affairs—if you ever have troubles of your own, you are welcome to pull me into them as you would family.”

“…As family?”

From the very beginning, Gottfried had made his proposal not to her as an alchemist, but to Karen as an individual who would marry Julius. Repeating his words, Karen asked with wide, round eyes:

“Were you treating me as family from the start when you involved me?”

“If you were willing to accept all of Master Julius, then as family. If the information I hinted at led you to give up on him, then as a neutral, well-meaning third party. That was how it would have gone.”

Gottfried exhaled.

“Master Julius is not easy, Miss Karen. The despair of clinging to life with everything he had—that experience has, without question, twisted his heart. And that twist will manifest as an obsessive attachment to the woman he has given his heart to.”

“Obsessive…”

“I haven’t had experiences as harrowing as Master Julius, but after carrying out my duties at the edge of death, the change that came over my feelings toward my wife was something I can only describe as frightening. In that, Master Julius resembles me.”

Karen felt something click into place. Gottfried had not disliked Julius. He had been testing her—for Julius’s sake.

“You’re worried about Mr. Julius too, Captain.”

“I’m not sure ‘worry’ is the right word. I am, however, concerned about Master Julius’s future…”

Gottfried looked down at her, his eyes growing quiet and measured.

“Because of Winfried’s foolishness, Master Julius went through something truly devastating, and it left its mark on him. It may not show—but what feelings he has come to harbor toward someone like you… You may not be able to feel the full weight of it yet, but when the day comes that you see that attachment for yourself, I can only hope you will have the resolve to truly accept it.”

Karen swallowed nervously.

“So that means I’m guaranteed to be overwhelmingly loved…!?”

“That is not what I said.”

“But the way you’ve been talking, Captain—you love your wife very much, don’t you…?”

“I won’t deny that what I feel for my wife falls in the category of love, yes.”

“And you’re saying Mr. Julius is like you…!”

Karen’s eyes lit up. Gottfried’s face went completely blank.

“That is not something to rejoice over. At the very least, I have no intention of ever letting my wife escape.”

“Kyaa!”

Gottfried looked down at Karen’s delighted shriek with an expression of utter disappointment.

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Alchemist Karen No Longer Compromises, Chapter 272

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Chapter Two Hundred and Seventy-Two: Pot-au-feu with Wine and Root Vegetables

“Don’t let anyone stray. As long as you stay within my sight and Miss Alchemist’s, we’ll be able to overturn any accusations that come our way later.”

“Yes, sir!”

As the sun sank toward the horizon over the plain, Gottfried issued instructions to the knights who were briskly setting up camp. Karen, who had been included in those instructions without anyone asking her, wore a sullen expression as she stirred the contents of her orichalcum alchemical cauldron with her World Tree ladle.

“Smells incredible. What kind of soup is that?”

“Just a pot-au-feu, Uncle Sepl.”

It was an autumn root vegetable pot-au-feu—carrots, potatoes, onions, and lotus root. Some of the ingredients Sepl and Urte retrieved from the luggage left behind near the tents, dodging monsters that had poured in, while others had been gathered from the edge of the Great Forest.

The horde of monsters that appeared had reportedly been subdued by the nobles present. The damage was said to be minor, but since the monsters had appeared close to the tent area, Helfried had issued an order for everyone to spend the night even further from the forest than usual.

Karen had tried to return to Helfried’s group, but Gottfried had held her back—and so here she was, apart from the place where most of the nobles had clustered together. It was so that, no matter what happened, she would not be involved—and could serve as a witness.

Licht had stepped away to gather more details about the monster incident, and both Petra and Rosine had gone back to check on their respective relatives.

The knights who had ventured deep into the forest for a multi-day hunt had not returned. Whether they were unaware of the disturbance or simply too far in, Karen couldn’t say. Julius was one of them. She had channeled magical power into the earring, and yet he still hadn’t come back. He must have ventured very deep into the forest indeed.

Karen found herself staring at the orichalcum ring on her left ring finger before she even realized it, and shook her head vigorously.

“Still, it’s strange. Finding such perfect vegetables growing wild like this…”

Muttering to herself to keep her mind from wandering, Karen stirred the large-cut ingredients as they bubbled away. In addition to the vegetables, she used wine and chunky bacon provided by the knights, cutting them into pieces and stewing everything together.

When she tasted it, the aroma of the wine was remarkably fine. Seasoned with nothing more than salt, pepper, and bay leaves, the sweet fat of the thick-cut bacon from some bovine-type monster had melted together with the wholesome depth of the root vegetables, creating a savory taste that warms you to the core.

“It’s true—finding good ingredients that fast, and not even in a dungeon. You’ve got a real knack for it, Little Karen.”

“It’s not really a knack. They’re definitely appearing because I want them.”

“Appearing?”

Sepl tilted his head with a puzzled look. Karen, for her part, found herself equally puzzled by his reaction.

“Like, when you’re looking for an ingredient or a material, doesn’t it just… turn up, as if it suddenly materialized right in front of you?”

“If you’re searching, it’s normal to find them, isn’t it? And there are plenty of times when you don’t find them at all.”

Urte chimed in, blinking in genuine bewilderment. Karen looked up at her with a confused expression.

“Well… but sometimes things appear out of nowhere that shouldn’t be there at all, right?”

“Things that shouldn’t be there—what do you mean by that?”

Urte and Sepl gazed down at her with curious eyes, and Karen drew a sharp breath before her expression shifted to one of quiet contemplation.

“Right… if you grew up with this as your normal, of course, it would just seem normal…”

In a dungeon, for instance, in any environment where plants grew, you could generally find whatever plant you were looking for. Season meant nothing—in the same forest, on the same day, you could pick spring rapeseed blossoms and autumn sweet potatoes side by side. Any herb you could think of was findable if you searched, even if some were harder to come by than others.

Dungeons were places where strange things happened, so she had always let it pass as "just how things are." But if the same held true in forests outside dungeons, then perhaps this world itself was simply built that way.

Perhaps only Karen, having known a different world, could recognize how deeply wrong it all was.

“And once again, it’s become a potion. Honestly, your ability is astonishing every time.”

Urte peered through her appraisal mirror as she spoke. It was the same magnifying-glass type as the one Karen carried.

The hunting festival was noble territory, and up until now, Urte and Sepl had held back at a respectful distance, just as servants would—but given what was happening, of course, they had taken their place at Karen’s side.

“What’s the effect?”

“It says ‘strengthens the body.’ Does that mean eating this will make you stronger in the arms?”

“Strengthens… Oh, maybe it boosts immunity?”

Karen took out her own appraisal mirror from her pouch and had a look. Sure enough, the effect that came up was “boosts immune function”, exactly as she had expected. Through Urte’s mirror, it had apparently come through as the vaguer “strengthens the body.”

“It means it strengthens the body’s ability to ward off things like colds—so no, it won’t increase your arm strength, Ms. Urte.”

“Ward off colds… well, in a situation like this, the last thing any of us needs is to fall ill.”

Root vegetables were rich in Vitamin C, which helped build up the immune system. Given the circumstances, it was true that she had chosen the ingredients partly with that effect in mind.

“Come to think of it, it’s almost like the knights are here as your personal guard.”

“Oh, now there’s an idea. If we had said we came to escort Miss Alchemist, do you think we’d have been welcomed with open arms?”

Catching Urte’s whisper, Gottfried jokingly played along. If that had been their stated reason during this incident, Karen wouldn’t have been able to brush them off. But in truth, they were only sticking close to Karen to prove their own innocence.

“Well, telling lies doesn’t sit right with me. If it ever came to light, it would damage trust.”

As he spoke, Gottfried leaned over and peered into the orichalcum alchemical cauldron with a series of approving nods. Karen looked up at him.

“Knight Captain, I don’t mind being caught up in your affairs, but I have a condition.”

“Oh, so you’ve finally come around. What condition?”

“If Mr. Julius doesn’t return, please help me go look for him.”

She wanted to go herself if she could, but in a place where monsters appeared, Karen was helpless. She couldn’t ask too much of Sepl and Urte—they were there to protect her, not to risk their lives for her sake.

Karen gripped the World Tree ladle tightly as she spoke, and Gottfried tilted his head.

“Hmm.”

“Please. If Mr. Julius doesn’t come back by the day he’s expected, then…”

“Now, hold on. Master Julius is my grand-nephew. If he doesn’t return, I’ll go after him myself, whether you ask or not. Why not think of a different condition?”

“Huh?”

At Gottfried’s unexpectedly decent reply, Karen raised her head, which she had begun to bow, and blinked at him.

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