Alchemist Karen No Longer Compromises, Chapter 339

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Chapter Three Hundred and Thirty-Nine: Travel Funds and a Pretext (Mark’s POV)

Teresa seemed to know this town well, walking ahead without the slightest hesitation. Slipping deftly through the crowds, she was so quick that Mark had to be careful not to lose sight of her. He gripped Lena’s hand and followed as best he could.

“Little Teresa! You’re too fast!”

The one whimpering at the very back was Michael. He simply had no stamina. Probably because he was a noble—surely he’d never had to work a day in his life. How enviable.

“Sooo slow.”

Teresa stopped, looked down at Michael with disdain, and sighed.

“Whatever. I had business here anyway.”

With that, she walked into a nearby shop. Mark and Lena followed her in.

“Hey, granny, buying today?”

“Hmph. The stuff you bring in is never any good.”

“Got something good this time.”

It was a cluttered little shop, apparently a general goods store, packed with all sorts of odds and ends. The old woman who ran it and Teresa seemed to know each other, exchanging words with easy familiarity. Teresa rummaged through her pack and pulled out a cloth pouch. The old woman took it, peered inside, and her expression changed.

“Where did you get something like th—!”

“Granny, you really don’t know what’s going on out there, do you? Your back’s gotten that bad, huh. Can’t even stand up straight anymore—you’re properly decrepit now. Maybe it’s time to shut up shop and go live with your daughter.”

“Quiet, you. It’s true I can’t get out much, but that’s because of an old wound a monster gave me. It has nothing to do with my age. Don’t go treating me like some old crone.”

The old woman shot Teresa a sharp glare, and despite looking utterly frail, that gaze sent a chill down Mark’s spine. She had surely been an adventurer once.

“More importantly, you didn’t steal this, did you?”

“Got it as a gift. I’ve got a pretty solid sponsor right now.”

“Not some shady type, I hope. I don’t need trouble at my age.”

“Just someone stupid enough to be way too kind.”

Teresa said it bluntly. The old woman widened her eyes and let out an impressed, "Oh?”

“…Interesting. Never thought I’d hear you say that.”

“Also a little crazy.”

“Well, giving something like this to a brat like you—yeah, must be crazy.”

With that, the old woman slowly made her way with her cane through the stacks of wooden crates toward the back of the shop, then returned with a leather pouch.

“There.”

Teresa caught the tossed pouch easily. It made a metallic clinking sound. Teresa peeked inside and let out a whistle.

“If it turns out this was something I shouldn’t have sold, don’t come crying to me later—I don’t want trouble either, so if—”

“Yeah, yeah. Nothing else to do here.”

Ignoring the old woman, Teresa left the shop without a backward glance.

“You insolent girl—!”

A shout chased after them, but the old woman herself, with her bad back, didn’t follow. Teresa didn’t care in the slightest.

“What did you sell just now?”

Michael asked, completely innocently, and Teresa answered in a low voice:

“Small panacea.”

“A pa—mmph!?”

“Don’t shout. You think it’d go well for kids like us if a bunch of people found out what we’re carrying?”

With his mouth covered, Mark turned pale. He understood perfectly well that nothing pleasant would come of it. With the amount of magical power he had, he could already guess roughly how the rest of his life would go.

And thinking about it, the source of that panacea was obvious. Karen. The genius alchemist who had brought a panacea no one else could make to the surface, by means other than dungeon drops—Mark had heard about her from Harald until his ears were practically rotting off.

“How did you end up getting something like that?”

Michael was a noble; Lena was indulged for being small; and Teresa had been given an extraordinarily precious medicine. Why was everyone else treated so differently from him—from all of them? Surely every other child besides Mark had wondered the same thing.

“Because I’m Karen’s lab animal. She’s just made sure the lab animal doesn’t die.”

“Huh?”

Mark was stunned by the unexpected reply, but Michael simply moved on and asked another question:

“So what are we doing next?”

“I hire an adventurer with this money.”

“Eh!?”

“Obviously. There’s no way we can get out of the territorial capital on our own. What do you think I sold that for? Travel funds.”

Teresa explained it to the astonished Mark with exaggerated patience.

In that case, they should have been headed to the Adventurers’ Guild. If the guild staff there grew suspicious—or if Mark could make them suspicious—they’d be held up. Mark could even cause a scene himself, if it came to that.

But Teresa crushed his half-formed plan immediately.

“Guild’s too easy to trace. We’re going to a back-alley tavern. I know a place where bored adventurers hang around.”

Teresa walked with practiced confidence into a narrow, dim alleyway. Was it really alright to go in here? Mark was worrying about it when Teresa stopped.

“Oh, and—”

In the time it took Mark to blink once, Teresa had already drawn the dagger from her hip, and by the second blink, the point was leveled at his throat.

Cold sweat broke out all over Mark.

“You’re thinking about pulling something, aren’t you?”

“N-No…”

“Listen. All I need is for you to not get in the way. If you’re a good little boy, go home now. But if you’re coming, don’t interfere. Get in my way again, and I’ll stab you—so, which is it?”

“Which is it…?”

“Mark, if you don’t want to get yelled at later by Lady Karen, or Teacher Harald, or my Big Sister… Big Brother, no, Big Sister, you should go home now.”

Apparently, in Michael’s mind, being scolded by his sister was scarier than facing Karen or Harald. He had even accidentally called her his brother halfway through.

Those words made Mark hesitate.

He could turn back now and go report to Karen and Harald everything the letter hadn’t been able to convey. In other words, he could inform on them. That way, at least Mark himself could escape blame—just as that thought formed, Lena, still silently holding his hand, tightened her grip just slightly.

That faint pressure struck something in Mark’s chest, and Teresa spoke:

“If you don’t want to get stabbed, go home, chicken.”

A cute face twisted into a sneer, and Mark, unable to back down now, shouted back:

“I’m not a chicken! I’m coming! With all of you!”

“…Whatever.”

Teresa’s interest evaporated instantly, and she lowered the dagger. But she didn’t sheathe it.

“Then for real—if you get in my way, you’ll get stabbed.”

“Y-Yeah, got it.”

Mark swallowed hard at the sight of the bare blade and nodded, resolving that having come this far, he’d see it through to the end. He told himself it was because he couldn’t abandon the others—while burying the truth that he had simply been provoked and wanted to go along with them.

Watching it all unfold, the guardian murmured with something like sympathy: “Well, that settles it—you’re definitely getting a lecture too.”

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Alchemist Karen No Longer Compromises, Chapter 338

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Chapter Three Hundred and Thirty-Eight: Traditional Trial 2

“Don’t go after the children and drag them back, okay?”

Karen held back Harald, Ottilie, and Lily—all of whom looked ready to go apprehend the children at that very moment—then turned to Sara, who had brought her the news.

“If they slipped past the guards, does that mean there’s a gap in the security somewhere?”

The earl’s residence in the territorial capital was enormous. To begin with, the grounds themselves were vast. There was a wall surrounding it, but it wasn’t impossible to climb over. Taking that into account, soldiers conducted patrols and maintained watch across the grounds.

Karen was thinking she should let Helfried know if there was a gap in security—and then Sara shook her head.

“It appears they simply walked out through the front gate.”

“The gate? There are gatekeepers at the gate, aren’t there?”

Karen’s eyes went wide. If anything, that was the most heavily guarded point of entry. And the gatekeepers naturally knew that Karen was sheltering magicless children in the annex. So if unfamiliar children tried to leave, they should have stopped them as a matter of course.

“It seems Teresa left through the gate with a cart, claiming she was carrying goods that you entrusted to her, Lady Karen.”

“…She borrowed a cart and packed Lena, Michael, and Mark inside it. That’s clever.”

“Rather than clever, I believe the right word for this is devious.”

Sara shook her head and sighed as if to say, “Good grief.”

“According to the gatekeepers, Teresa looked to be struggling terribly with the weight.”

Karen burst out laughing at the image of Teresa hauling a cart with a desperate expression.

Teresa had apparently used her status as Karen’s sponsored adventurer to her advantage. The people in this household respected Karen and kept track of her affairs. Many of them knew Karen had taken Teresa on as her sponsor, so a large load of luggage with Teresa wouldn’t have seemed strange.

“What would you like to do from here?”

“Keep watching over them, and let’s see what they’re planning to do.”

Karen had decided to watch and wait, while remaining prepared for whatever might happen. Ottilie stepped forward.

“Please leave any punishment for the children to me when they return. Anyone else might go easy on them out of consideration for my brother’s standing. I assure you I will show no such leniency.”

“No, please leave the punishment to me. They caused a scene in front of Lady Karen—I will not go easy on anyone, noble’s sibling or prince alike.”

“And yet, the difference in rank is precisely what tends to soften one’s hand, isn’t it? You may leave it to me, Harald.”

“Rather than worrying that I’ll go easy on them, you should be worried that I’ll go too far. Or is it that you want the right to punish them because you wish to protect your dear little brother from me, Lady Ottilie?”

Two very formidable individuals arguing over who had the right to punish the children was likely to be quite the trial for those children in itself.

Mark had left some evidence of trying to stop them, but since he’d ultimately gone along with Teresa anyway, a reduced sentence might be difficult to justify.

Now that she thought about it, Teresa had a talent for sweeping people around her into trouble. Even the children who had thrown stones alongside Teresa when they first met seemed, aside from Teresa herself, to have been swept up by her influence.

To drive people toward throwing stones at a noble—something even a child could recognize as clearly wrong—that was the talent of an agitator. One wrong step and she was headed straight for serious crime. Fortunately, Karen held the perfect bait for Teresa in the form of Thor. She would have to reel Teresa in carefully and steer her toward something good.

“Punishment may be unavoidable, but please go easy on them. They’re just poor children, starved of love, doing the only thing they knew how to do.”

Lily said it on her behalf, and Karen gratefully closed her mouth on what she’d been about to say. Up until now, Karen had been the only one holding back the people who tended to go too far, and it had been exhausting.

Things looked like they might get easier from here.

“I’ve made sure the children have protection, so let’s keep watch for now without interfering. Lily, please take care of the children who stayed behind so they don’t get anxious. Harald, coordinate with Lily and keep an eye on them.”

“Understood.”

“Of course.”

Karen saw Harald and Lily off as they returned to their respective duties, then glanced at Ottilie, who had remained. Ottilie’s face was drawn with worry. She had offered everything she had to Karen for her brother’s sake, and her brother had effectively thrown it all away—it was understandable that she would look this way.

Karen gave a wry smile and apologized:

“Please don’t take it too hard, Ottilie. If anything, I’m the one who owes you an apology.”

“Why should you be apologizing, Lady Karen?”

“I could have stopped them before they left. But I chose not to. You would have wanted to stop your brother and give him a proper scolding before he ever walked out that gate. And I prevented that.”

“…Even so, it was Michael himself who chose to disregard your kindness.”

Karen had little intention of reproaching the children for what they’d done. But for Ottilie, Michael’s own mindset was what troubled her. Nothing Karen said at this point would put Ottilie’s feelings at ease.

“That said, I am curious as to why you chose to let it happen. If your intention was simply to allow the children to do as they pleased until they felt better, I think that would be far too indulgent.”

“I wanted to try everything that might have a chance.”

“— A chance, you say?”

“The royal children of the Kingdom of Earthfill are said to face trials without knowing it, watched over in secret, and to climb in standing through those trials, correct? Nobles are much the same. In the same way, perhaps magicless children might also have an opportunity to rise.”

“As for that… Michael has already been put to the test, and since he has no magical power, there was little effect, I’m afraid.”

“Even so—these children chose to face a trial of their own will. Doesn’t that deserve our support?”

Waltride had been forced into a trial, and it had left a scar. Karen had no intention of putting unwilling children through one either. But these children had chosen to face it themselves. It would likely be a trial far crueler and more harrowing than facing monsters.

“I intend to honor their courage greatly, and to watch over them right up to the very edge of what they can bear. If it looks like too much, of course I’ll step in.”

Karen said it with a smile, then turned to look at the blue sky spreading outside the window.

“…I’m sure the goddess is watching over all of them.”

When Karen murmured it, Ottilie thought she caught a flash of rainbow light like an auspicious cloud reflected in those sky-blue eyes—and swallowed every question, every word she had left.

Without saying a word, she lowered her head and walked a step behind Karen silently.

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Alchemist Karen No Longer Compromises, Chapter 337

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Chapter Three Hundred and Thirty-Seven: Traditional Trial

“—It says, ‘I’ll do my best to hold them back, so please stop everyone.’”

Karen looked up from Mark’s note. Harald and Ottilie instantly bowed their heads with solemn expressions.

Harald’s bow had grown more refined in the time since Karen had last seen him do it. He was probably receiving etiquette instruction when Karen wasn’t around. Being within the earl’s residence, there would be no shortage of opportunities for that.

“I should have anticipated that Teresa would cause trouble and taken precautions. This is my responsibility as a supervisor.”

“Lady Karen, please allow me to apologize as well… my brother has acted without permission. I am deeply sorry.”

Harald and Ottilie hung their heads. Behind them, Lily was desperately fighting back tears, her eyes already red.

“Were you not in the annex, Mrs. Lily?”

“I had gone to feed Cyril… I knew I shouldn’t take my eyes off Lena, and I’m so sorry.”

“There just wasn’t enough time yet for your love to reach her.”

Karen nodded and looked back down at the letter.

When Karen had found the note on Mark’s bed, she had immediately called Harald and Lily to the alchemy workshop manor. Harald had apparently been in the annex and hadn’t noticed, and Lily had been absent.

“Little Karen, we have to go get them quickly…! Even for a normal child, the outside world is dangerous—a child without magical power wouldn’t last a moment!”

“Normal children and children without magical power, is it?”

Karen paused briefly at Lily’s frantic words, then let her in on the truth:

“The children will be fine. I actually heard the whole thing, so I’ve been handling it. They were discussing it at quite a volume, after all.”

Having a large amount of magical power enhanced the senses. Karen had been able to hear the escaped children’s conversation. It had also been Teresa’s very first lesson since she’d come, saying she wanted to learn to read and write, so if anything, Karen had been keeping her attention directed that way from the start. She had been fairly sure Teresa would cause trouble.

And sure enough, Teresa had made her move, pulling Michael and Mark in with her. The triggering incident was Lena, to be sure—Karen had missed patches of the conversation here and there, but Teresa’s clear voice had carried throughout the entire conversation.

Karen’s discovery of Mark’s letter hadn’t been a coincidence either. Realizing that Mark was actually writing a note when he said he needed time to get ready, she went to retrieve it.

Lily spoke with visible relief:

“So someone has already gone to fetch them?”

“Well, actually—I haven’t sent anyone.”

“So you deliberately let them leave, Lady Karen? Indeed, children who will not follow your guidance are unnecessary. If someone chooses to leave of their own accord, there is no reason to stop them.”

Harald’s face lit up with a pleasant smile. Lily’s face went the color of ash. Karen looked at Harald with tired eyes.

“I’m not going to abandon her. If I abandoned Lena, the children who are following my lead right now would feel anxious too. If even Lena isn’t cast out, then they won’t be either—I’m sure there are quite a few children who draw comfort from that.”

“If even Lena receives such favorable treatment, some children may think there’s no need for them to make an effort either… It sets a bad example.”

“The children losing faith in me would be a bigger problem, so I won’t abandon Lena. Still, I can’t ignore the negative influence you mentioned, so I’ll think about it.”

“…Indeed, to lose the faith would be unacceptable.”

Karen had the distinct feeling something had gotten lost in translation, but let it pass and looked back down at the letter.

“I wanted to see what the children would do, so I let them go without stopping them. And then Mark left a letter for me. Still, putting Harald aside, they couldn’t even ask anyone from the estate for help, huh? I suppose approaching servants from a noble household would be intimidating…”

“What do you mean, ‘putting me aside’?”

“Because they assumed you’d just smile and tell them, exactly as you said earlier, that if they wanted to leave, you wouldn’t stop them.”

Even if Mark had gone to Harald asking him to stop everyone—would Harald have actually stopped them? He might have stopped Michael for Ottilie’s sake, but there was every chance he’d have taken the opportunity to talk things around and send Lena away on her own.

Harald made a sheepish face. He was clearly well aware of it himself.

Karen gave him a flat look, though she couldn’t quite bring herself to be angry about it. Harald’s views, extreme as they were, leaned toward the general thinking of this world—and it was Karen and Lily who were the unusual ones.

At that moment, there was a knock at the door.

“Lady Karen, the situation has progressed.”

“Come in, Sara.”

Sara entered the reception room of the alchemy workshop manor, gave a bow, and spoke:

“A short while ago, the children left the estate.”

Harald, Lily, and Ottilie all blinked in surprise.

Karen had picked up Mark’s letter almost immediately after he had put it down. Which meant that, until just now, the children had not even left the grounds. Unaware that Karen had been watching over them all along, the children had only now, at this very moment, stepped outside the gates of the earl’s residence.

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Alchemist Karen No Longer Compromises, Chapter 336

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Chapter Three Hundred and Thirty-Six: Secret Proposal

Lena was, in the end, smaller than Mark and the rest. She was quick, and Michael was slow on his feet, but the red-haired girl caught up to Lena in no time at all.

“No! Let go! I’m going home!”

The red-haired girl had Lena pinned to the ground with startling ease, thrashing and all. The whole sequence of movements had been remarkably polished. The fact that someone’s technique for pinning people down could be polished was a bit frightening when Mark thought about it, but he shook his head and pushed the thought aside for now.

The point was, Lena. They had drifted a little distance from the annex, but they were still within the earl’s residence grounds, and no one had spotted them yet. Mark looked around and let out a small breath of relief. If they got Lena back right away, no one would ever need to know.

“Your name’s Lena, right?”

“…? Who? Who are you?!”

Lena had apparently only just realized she didn’t recognize the girl pinning her down. She craned her tearful neck and glared up at the girl looming over her.

“I’m Teresa. Hey—when you say you’re going home, where exactly are you going?”

“Back to Mama and Papa!”

“But your mama and papa abandoned you, and that’s why you’re here. Don’t you get that?”

“Lena wasn’t abandoned!”

“You were abandoned. Even if you went back, they wouldn’t let you in, would they?”

“It’s because Lena didn’t take good care of her little sister. Lena will do better from now on. So they’ll let Lena in!”

Mark put the pieces together and frowned. Lena really was a pitiful child as well. And yet she was also extraordinarily fortunate.

Even without Harald having to spell it out, each of them understood this on their own. They studied and worked according to Karen’s wishes—and even so, it felt nowhere near enough to repay what they’d been given, to a frightening degree.

In this environment, Lena had been doing nothing but shutting herself away, refusing work and lessons alike. At times, she threw fits, cried, screamed, and even tried to break things. And yet she had been allowed to live exactly as the rest of them did. Recently, Lily had been spoiling her, making her even harder to manage.

The adults might have some plan in mind, but Mark had an uneasy feeling that if Lena’s attitude wasn’t corrected soon, things were going to end badly for Lena herself.

As far as Mark could tell, Karen was not a problem. She did not seem angry at all about Lena’s selfishness. Harald was furious, but Karen’s wishes took absolute priority, so that side of things was fine too.

The problem was that the other children were starting to resent Lena. At this rate, as blessed as this place was, Lena would end up with nowhere left in it.

“You’ve got it wrong. You were thrown away because you weren’t wanted. If anything, you might get killed if you went back, you know?”

“That’s not true!”

Teresa’s malicious grin and the cruelty of her words made Lena shriek and burst into tears. Mark didn’t particularly like Lena. Even so, watching someone talk to her like this, he couldn’t help but feel sorry for her.

“So your name is Teresa. Thanks for catching her. We’ll take her back from here—”

“She’s my prey. I’m not giving her up.”

Teresa rejected Mark’s offer.

“P-Prey?”

“I’ll be the one to take you home.”

The red-haired girl—Teresa—whispered it in Lena’s ear, and Lena, who had been struggling and flailing, went completely still.

“I’m an adventurer. Unlike you lot, I can move around freely. So I’ll take you home.”

“T-There’s no way Lady Karen would allow that—”

“Who cares whether Karen allows it or not?”

“Don’t you owe Lady Karen your life too!?”

“I’m not like you lot.”

Teresa dismissed Mark’s words with cool arrogance.

“I can survive on my own. I might die doing it, but until I do, I’m living my life on my own terms. I’m nothing like you cowards who can’t even breathe without someone’s help… but…”

Teresa looked down at Lena and grinned.

“You’re not a coward. No magical power, and you’re still trying to break out of this place that might as well be a goddess’s garden. That takes guts.”

“She doesn’t have guts. She just doesn’t understand anything, Teresa!”

“I’ve been meaning to say—stop calling me by my name like we’re friends.”

“Ugh… Michael, can you say something?!”

Mark appealed to Michael, who had been unusually and persistently silent this whole time. Michael raised his downcast face and spoke:

“…Maybe it’s okay to let Lena go back, as Little Teresa says.”

“Michael!? What are you saying?”

“Because if we drag her back now, Lena’s just going to do the same thing again.”

“But…!”

“Next time Lena tries to sneak out, maybe none of us will notice in time. If that’s going to happen anyway… why don’t we take Lena to her parents ourselves?”

Mark knew well enough that hauling Lena back by force when she hadn’t come to terms with anything would only be a short-term fix. Before Mark could find a response, Teresa spoke up sharply:

“Huh? Why are you acting like you’re coming too? You’d just be in the way.”

“Because I’m worried. About Lena, and about you, Little Teresa.”

“Drop the ‘Little’. Why am I the only one you’re calling that?”

“Because Little Teresa just feels like a Little Teresa!”

“So. Annoying.”

Distracted by the ‘Little,’ Teresa apparently forgot to object to Michael using her name at all—even though she had complained about Mark doing it.

“Mark, you don’t have to come. Could you tell Lady Karen later that we’re taking Lena home?”

“If you’re going to tell her, do it tomorrow. It’ll be a hassle if she tries to stop us.”

“…I’m coming too! I’m not leaving Lena and Michael with someone I don’t even know!”

Whether Lena accepted how things had turned out or not, she remained silent, her pale face completely devoid of emotion.

After somehow persuading Teresa not to drag Lena away immediately, Mark scribbled a letter in the handwriting he had only recently learned and left it in the bedroom. When he got back, he found Michael clinging to Teresa to stop her from leaving without them, and getting kicked repeatedly for it. Mark hurried to pull them apart.

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Alchemist Karen No Longer Compromises, Chapter 335

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Chapter Three Hundred and Thirty-Five: Lesson of First Encounters

“Hello! You’re someone I haven’t seen before, aren’t you? I’m—”

“Hah?”

“Eeep.”

The girl fixed him with a fierce glare, and Michael’s eyes went watery. Mark, who had been watching from the side, hurried to step between them.

Everyone had noticed the unfamiliar girl sitting in on the morning lesson. Since Harald hadn’t said anything about her presence, it was clear she had permission to be there—but he hadn’t introduced her either, and everyone was curious.

She had looked like just an ordinary cute girl while the lesson was going on. But Michael, who had been the first to approach her, had been magnificently rebuffed.

“Michael was only trying to say hello. That kind of attitude isn’t really okay, is it?”

“Annoying.”

The girl cut down Mark’s carefully measured, gentle rebuke in a single stroke.

“I’m only here to learn to read and write. Don’t talk to me.”

With that, she turned away. She was a girl with vivid red hair and red eyes. Her features were pretty, but her upturned eyes carried sharpness to them, and the sullen twist of her mouth inspired a reflexive unease.

But she was still smaller than Mark. Steeling himself, Mark issued a warning:

“Are you from outside? You might not know, but Michael is a noble. His sister has high magical power too. You should drop that attitude.”

“Like I’m scared of a noble.”

The girl laughed off Mark’s well-meaning words with contempt.

“I’m not scared of anything.”

She laughed, those burning red eyes alight. It looked almost as if she was mocking Mark for being afraid, and his cheeks flushed with embarrassment.

“So why did you come to learn to read and write?”

Michael, undeterred, asked again in Mark’s place as he stood at a loss for words.

“Noisy.”

“Hehe, people say that a lot.”

“Huh? Why are you acting shy about it?”

The girl’s expression turned slightly unsettled, but remarkably, Michael no longer flinched at it.

“Teacher Harald’s lessons aren’t open to just anyone, are they? Are you connected to the Ehlertt’s household? Or do you know Lady Karen?”

“What reason do I have to tell you?”

“Awww. But I really wanna knooow!”

Michael kept talking, laughing, going teary-eyed, squirming—a one-man performance. Mark had already been thoroughly defeated, but Michael had an extraordinary resilience.

“I don’t have magical power, but I’m a noble, so I’ve learned to read and write—maybe there’s something I can help you with!”

“…For real?”

Being born a noble apparently meant being raised with some degree of care, even without magical power. He had a beautiful, devoted sister watching over him. On top of that, he had even managed to catch the attention of the red-haired girl.

Mark felt envious, but he lowered his head because he did not want anyone to realize it.

The red-haired girl hesitated, then opened her mouth:

“…Do you know how to write a letter? A proper one.”

“What kind of letter do you want to write? A seasonal greeting? A letter of condolence? Or a letter of thanks?”

“A thank-you… I want to say thank you. To a high-ranking adventurer.”

The girl mumbled it out. The clumsy way she was trying to hide her embarrassment was almost endearing. But pointing that out would obviously invite terrible consequences. Mark pressed his lips together to keep himself from saying anything foolish.

“Oh, you’re being all shy, that’s so cu—guugh.”

Michael said an unnecessary thing and took a palm strike to the chin, tumbling backward. From the second roll onward, it looked like he was rolling on purpose, but Mark helped Michael back to his feet anyway.

“You’re gross, so forget it. Go away.”

When the girl snapped it out like that, there was something about it that made Mark feel he had no choice but to comply. His own spirit was already quite crushed. And yet Michael was writhing around, going "Noooooo" without a shred of repentance.

The last thing Mark wanted to do was envy that, and so he found he stopped envying Michael at all.

His first meeting with Michael had been something like this too—Michael stood out from the others, and Mark had somehow ended up looking out for him, and before he knew it, they had grown close. He’d been quite surprised when he later found out Michael was a noble.

“Hey, what’s that?”

One moment she was trying to find out about letter-writing, then ordering people away, and now asking questions—Mark was quietly irritated by the imperious girl, but he looked where she was looking out the window, and his eyes went wide.

“Lena!?”

“Isn’t that kid trying to sneak out of the annex? You all need permission to leave from here, right? I can come and go as I please, though.”

Outside the window, Lena was unmistakably trying not to be seen. She had ducked her small body headfirst into a hedge and then disappeared entirely from view. Mark half-rose from his chair.

“She wouldn’t be trying to go back to Viscount Bell’s territory… would she…?”

“Go back? You don’t have anywhere to go back to, do you?”

Mark knew better than anyone what it meant to have nowhere to go back to. Everyone here knew it. Even so, wasn’t it a matter of basic decency not to say it out loud?

Mark turned to say something to the girl about her unpleasant way of putting things—and froze.

He found himself looking into the girl’s eyes, which were gleaming like a cat that had spotted its prey. Those red eyes were frightening, and yet the lips that had been twisted in a sulk just moments ago had spread into a wide, blooming smile—and that smiling face was, strangely, quite beautiful.

Beautiful, but a frightening smile. It gave the distinct impression that he was about to be toyed with and torn to shreds for her amusement.

Mark stood frozen like a mouse under a cat’s gaze, and at that moment, Michael bolted out of the room. For some reason, the girl charged after him, and Mark ended up following along behind the two of them.

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Alchemist Karen No Longer Compromises, Chapter 334

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Chapter Three Hundred and Thirty-Four: Sponsor’s Seriousness

“Can you hurry up? It’s not like I’m free all day, you know.”

In the reception room of the alchemy workshop manor, Teresa sat sprawled across the sofa opposite Karen with an air of sullen defiance, her words deliberately grating. That said, her bravado existed only in her words. Her feet dangled and swung restlessly, betraying exactly how unsettled she was.

Even this rude behavior was probably her way of desperately trying to maintain her composure. Being inside a noble’s mansion and whatever Karen was about to do next—everything was undoubtedly putting Teresa on edge.

“Let’s start with the potions.”

With that, Karen began lining up bottles on the table.

“Small healing potion, medium healing potion, large healing potion—”

“Hold on, what? A large healing potion?”

Teresa’s composure collapsed immediately as she lurched forward.

“What are you talking about? Is this a joke? You’re lying, right?”

“Use the appraisal mirror if you don’t believe me.”

“A-A magical tool?”

Teresa probably had almost no opportunity to see even the lowest grade of magical tool in her daily life. Karen had offered her the use of her appraisal mirror, but Teresa didn’t even reach out to touch it.

Karen rummaged through her things, and Teresa, having somewhat collected herself, spoke up again with a half-smile:

“Hey, Karen—aren’t you getting confused about something? Today was supposed to be about giving me potions to support my adventuring. It wasn’t supposed to be a day for showing off what potions you can make, was it?”

“Yes, yes. I know.”

Karen stifled a laugh at the sight of the flustered Teresa and kept laying out more potions.

“Small magical power recovery potion, detox potion, panacea.”

Karen had first been thinking about potions for Thor and the Crimson Thunder. And then she had remembered: Thor’s party wasn’t the only group of adventurers who wanted potions from her. Teresa—just like Thor, an adventurer sponsored by Karen. Of course, Karen had intended to prepare potions for Teresa as well.

But then she had realized something. The potions she wanted to prepare for Thor would also benefit Teresa. And in some cases, the reverse was true as well. Their ranks as adventurers were worlds apart. But they were both, equally, adventurers who challenged dungeons.

She might not have an intuitive sense of what adventurers of Thor’s caliber required, but when it came to what Teresa needed as an adventurer, she had so many gaps that all sorts of things came to mind. And as it turned out, nearly all of it was also likely to be needed by Thor’s party.

“Antibacterial soap, bandages with a healing effect, monster-repelling incense—though I should mention that last one is still in the prototype stage and only has a mild effect, so just treat it as ordinary incense for now.”

If a space devoid of magical power could be created, monsters would be reluctant to approach it. Knowing the principle and making it work in a potion were two very different things.

This was a prototype incense. It was designed to consume the surrounding magical power as it burned, gradually enhancing the incense’s effect. As the ambient magical power was depleted, the result would be a space that monsters would avoid.

—At least, that was the concept. In practice, Karen would have been happy if it worked about as well as a mosquito coil.

“I think my head might break.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment, shall I?”

Teresa stared at Karen in a daze, head in her hands.

“A… compliment?”

“Hmm… You don’t even have the spare energy to insult me.”

Karen laughed, then reached for the last bundle she’d set to one side.

“Use those potions and this together—and come back out of the dungeon alive.”

Teresa took the bundle from Karen with a puzzled look, opened it, and tilted her head. What she held was a piece of clothing made from black leather with red spots—garish and almost toxic-looking. It was a child-sized shirt and trousers, stretchy enough that they would likely fit Teresa’s body perfectly.

“What… is this?”

“Salamander leather undergarments.”

“What!? Salamanders are B-rank monsters!?”

Teresa nearly dropped the salamander undergarment but caught it in a desperate scramble just before it hit the floor, then stood there panting, having worked herself into a panic all on her own.

Before Teresa could settle down enough to hide her shock behind insults, Karen began explaining:

“It’s from a salamander on the twentieth floor of the Ehlertt capital dungeon. Being B-rank monster leather, it’s tough, and it’s supple and elastic, so it absorbs impact too. On top of the well-known fire resistance, it actually has cold resistance as well—which makes sense, since salamanders live in desert floors with extreme temperature swings.”

“Hold on… this is… for me…?”

Teresa had moved past shock into something close to the pure, guileless wonder of a child. Like a child who had never been loved by her parents, opening up for the first time at receiving genuine care from an adult.

But Karen poured cold water on that sweet moment of emotion.

“Even wearing that, conquering a dungeon will be a brutal trial for you, Teresa.”

It was all but the same as calling Teresa hopelessly weak. Teresa flinched, and the tears that had been welling in her eyes retreated.

“Which is exactly why there’s room to climb.”

Battered by an overwhelming flood of gifts, just on the verge of letting her guard down over B-rank equipment—and then brought up short, called weak.

After all that whiplash of emotions, Teresa… smiled.

“Yeah. You’re right. The goddess doesn’t let you ascend if the trial’s too easy. You don’t want to shower me with gifts and watch some dumb kid get excited about it—you actually want me to climb for real.”

“Wear your regular clothes on top. So no one knows you have expensive gear—”

“Stop treating me like an idiot. I know that much. Obviously, I’m going to hide it! Something this incredible on someone like me with no magical power—if anyone found out, it’d definitely get stolen!”

Teresa’s eyes lit up, and her voice rang with excitement. Not the bright eyes of a sheltered, beloved child—the brightness of an adventurer.

“I’ll use your potions where no one can see, too. That’s fine, right?”

“Yes. The advertisement for my potions as your sponsor can wait until you’re stronger. In fact, ‘you becoming stronger’ is the advertisement.”

“Ahaha!”

Teresa laughed with delight. It was the laugh of an adventurer—a kind of brightness that carried just a hint of something wild.

“Thank you, Karen.”

The simple, straightforward words of gratitude caught Karen off guard more than anything else.

“I’ll definitely ascend the step—and come back alive to show you.”

Teresa hugged the salamander undergarment to her chest, smiling quietly. It was the most at-peace Karen had ever seen her look. Karen watched in silence as Teresa, in her own way, settled into a quiet kind of resolve.

A little while later, Karen let the secret out.

“Actually, about that salamander leather—Thor gave it to me. He said I could use any materials I didn’t need for potions however I wanted, so I asked for the leftover scraps—”

“KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!”

Teresa erupted into a frenzy of excitement and went bounding around the reception room, undergarment in hand. Karen watched her rampage freely and exhaled with relief that she had thought to move anything breakable out of the room beforehand.

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Alchemist Karen No Longer Compromises, Chapter 333

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Chapter Three Hundred and Thirty-Three: Laying Groundwork for the Future

“Hold on. Some of these are made from materials I don’t even recognize…!?”

Karen stepped into the alchemy workshop building and stood there, stunned. Even Karen, a regular window-shopper at the finest alchemy supply stores in the capital, couldn’t identify many of the materials used here. In other words, this workshop had been built from materials that simply didn’t appear in ordinary shops.

At first glance, the table appeared to be made from high-quality Treant Seven wood, harvested from the Forest of Abundance on the seventh floor of the Royal Capital Dungeon, where the trees absorbed immense nourishment.

The table, at first glance, resembled high-quality trent wood—the kind nourished by the abundant flora of the fertile forest on the seventh floor of the capital dungeon, a Trent Seven wood. But Karen knew of something far more valuable that looked remarkably similar.

“Could this possibly be… Elder Trent wood…!?”

“From the Elder Trent that crossed its boundary and climbed to the upper floors of the capital dungeon—the one I defeated when you came with us.”

“And this is a single slab cut from the heartwood, isn’t it!? I can actually feel the pathways of magical power running through it…!”

The table was a single plank of deep, reddish wood, polished to a smooth finish. Beyond its appearance, it also possessed magical functions that an ordinary non-magical material table simply couldn’t replicate. Julius watched Karen run her hands all over it with a quiet smile.

“All of the materials that are difficult even for me to obtain were used to make movable equipment. When you eventually relocate to the Himmel territory, please take it all with you.”

Just as Thor had been stockpiling rare materials from his battles to craft gear and potions for his party, Julius had apparently been storing things away for the right moment. And he had used them for Karen’s alchemy workshop.

“I’ve been assured that it’s more than worthy of a B-rank alchemist, but I’m not entirely confident that it’s worthy of someone of your caliber, Karen.”

Julius said that with a troubled smile, the corners of his eyebrows drooping slightly.

“—You will become an S-rank alchemist one day. I would like you to use this for a long time, but please—if it ever falls short of what your alchemy demands, don’t force yourself to make do with it.”

He said it the way one might speak of something just around the corner, as though it were a foregone conclusion. Karen threw her arms around him and held tight.

The fortieth floor of the capital dungeon—Thor’s destination. The real challenge on the way there lay in the thirty-first through thirty-ninth floors, where, by all accounts, a harsh and relentless winter cold prevailed like a trial unto itself.

Thor had explained that he had pushed through the twenty-first to thirtieth floors of the Ehlertt capital dungeon in order to gather materials for cold-resistant gear suited to those conditions. The twenty-first to thirtieth floors of the Ehlertt capital dungeon, apparently, were a world of ice.

One approach was to gather materials floor by floor, leave the dungeon, craft equipment, and then dive back in. However, the materials obtained from defeating the boss of the thirtieth floor of the Ehlertt capital dungeon were rarer and better suited for equipment than the materials found on the thirty-first floor of the royal capital dungeon.

Taking down a boss every ten floors always yielded better materials than grinding through the odd floors in between.

So most capable adventurers refreshed their equipment every ten floors. To push into the next ten floors, they would gather materials in a shallower stretch of a different dungeon with a similar environment and equip themselves for the next descent.

Of course, very few adventurers could even surpass the tenth floor, so the more common approach was to gather materials gradually by defeating monsters one floor at a time.

As a side note, the eleventh through twentieth floors of the Ehlertt capital dungeon—the stretch Julius had tackled—had apparently been a scorching desert. Karen was fairly sure she would have died from the temperature swings alone. Truly, goldfish-brained Karen.

“Is there any kind of potion you’d personally want, Julius?”

Karen turned to look at a corner of the workshop. A comfortable-looking sofa had been placed there. Julius had quietly had a little rest area for Karen—doubling as a waiting room for himself—built right into the corner of the workshop.

Positioned at a distance not to disturb Karen’s work, while still able to keep an eye on her.

“How about making the same potion you made when you went into the Forest Edge Dungeon with Licht?”

“Hmm. I was still cold even with that one… If it was only barely enough for ten floors, it’s not going to hold up from the thirty-first to the fortieth, is it?”

“Indeed. The deeper a dungeon goes, the harsher and less survivable its conditions become for people.”

Julius nodded at Karen’s words. In a dungeon with a cold climate, the twentieth floor was colder than the tenth, and the thirtieth colder still. That was simply how it worked. Coming from someone who had descended to the twentieth floor, it was lived experience, not speculation.

“Even so, it would undoubtedly reduce the strain along the way. The final decision on what to carry would be Thor’s, but I’d recommend it as an option.”

“If you say so, I’ll make it.”

“Also, rather than preparing only for floors thirty-one through forty, it might be wise to make potions for the journey up to the thirtieth floor as well. There is only so much one can do about unknown dangers, but known dangers can be addressed directly.”

“That’s true! For a deep-dungeon route, the path down to the thirtieth floor is relatively well documented.”

The internal climate varied from dungeon to dungeon, but certain floors shared similar environments across different dungeons. The Ehlertt capital dungeon had its desert zone from the eleventh to the twentieth floor, but in the capital dungeon, the desert zone apparently ran from the twenty-first to the thirtieth.

On the twenty-sixth floor within that desert zone, there was an oasis where monster spawns could reportedly be controlled—and a merchant had set up lodgings there. As a result, there was a wealth of information available about the path up to the thirtieth floor of the capital dungeon.

The only inn where adventurers pushing into the deeper floors could rest their bodies. Maintaining this inn was one of the most important functions of the capital’s commercial guild and the merchants affiliated with it.

—Had the Gubert Trading Company continued to grow as it had, it would likely have become one of the pillars supporting that dungeon inn in time. The burden of dismantling it had come full circle, and some of that weight now fell on Thor. But because Karen had brought the Gubert Trading Company down and reclaimed the rights to her soap, she could make the soap Thor would need.

“…I should make soap too. Everyday goods become so much more useful if they’re all some form of potion, don’t they? Compared to ordinary soap.”

“Without a doubt.”

“If one of the children eventually learns how to make my potions using non-magical materials, I’d like to sell potion soap.”

“I’m sure that day will come.”

If only Karen had recognized the value of what she made sooner. If she had realized sooner that her soap could be a potion, gotten others to make it too, built up the capacity to produce it in volume—perhaps her potions would have already been stocked in that twenty-sixth-floor inn.

“…It’s not too late. I have to do everything within my power.”

“Thor is lucky to have a sister like you.”

Karen nearly lost her footing in what-ifs, but she raised her head and clenched her fist. Julius watched her with a look of admiration, as though she were dazzling.

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