Chapter Three: Meeting with the Client
“So you’re the alchemist who accepted my request?”
“…Yes.”
Karen turned pale as she answered the beautiful man who sat across from her with a smile.
Recently, Karen had impulsively accepted Julius Ehlertt’s request. The next morning, she rushed to the Alchemists’ Guild to withdraw her acceptance, but was told the client had already been notified—it was too late.
For a week after that, there was no contact. Even after accepting a request, clients sometimes reject it—either judging the alchemist’s skills as inadequate or for personal reasons. For example, in the case of a potion for skincare, it might be implicitly expected that it was made by a female alchemist. Although for high-ranking alchemists, gender wasn’t a problem.
Since Julius was the face of this request, women wanting to meet him must have flooded in with applications, regardless of their ability to complete it. Karen had assumed she was just another one who’d been rejected.
However, the client requested a meeting through the Alchemists’ Guild, and now Karen found herself alone with him in the Guild’s reception room.
The man sitting before her was indeed Julius Ehlertt himself. Brilliant golden hair and eyes, gentle features with slightly downturned eyes, a straight nose, and a refined smile. This person’s striking appearance was unmistakably the same as the man Karen had seen at the swordsmanship tournament. Even for Karen, who was used to seeing beautiful people in her previous life’s internet culture, his looks were among the finest. Yet up close, his hair lacked luster, his skin was rough, and his lips were chapped.
Currently, he spent his days and nights fighting monsters in the capital’s dungeon. It made sense his skin would be in such a condition. Karen felt slightly awakened from her idol-like fantasy of him.
“Since you’re an alchemist, I assume you can make medicine to cure my nephew, Sieg?”
“Um, first, please let me apologize.”
As the conversation had casually shifted to the request details, Karen hastily interrupted. Julius raised his eyebrows slightly.
“Apologize? What for?”
“About the completion reward.”
“Ah, you wanted to marry me if you could cure Sieg.”
Facing Karen, who felt like her face was about to burst into flames, Julius spoke calmly while maintaining his smile.
“Due to Sieg’s strong manifestation of the Bloodline Blessing’s negative aspects, our house has decided it’s time to dilute the bloodline. My elder brother has permitted me to marry a commoner.”
“A-Are you seriously considering marriage!?”
Julius looked down at Karen, narrowing his eyes.
“If you can cure Sieg, I’d be delighted to. However, if Sieg is cured, I won’t become the next Earl Ehlertt. So, you’d have to be content with me without the title.”
“I’m a commoner so I don’t care about titles at all… but that’s not the point!”
“Not the point?”
“I accepted the request with marriage to you as the reward, but please let me withdraw!”
“…What do you mean?”
Julius’s voice resonated deeply in the room.
With her head bowed low, Karen broke into a cold sweat.
He was definitely angry.
In this Kingdom of Earthfill—no, in this world—nobles were absolute beings to commoners.
After all, magic existed in this world.
Nobles were descendants of those who had defeated powerful monsters in the past. They continued to level up by defeating monsters, and through marriages with others possessing strong magical power, they grew stronger with each generation.
Literally, they were overwhelmingly superior to commoners.
What happened when a mere commoner angered such a noble?
The history of this world proved it—it was the beginning of a cruel tale.
“So you’re saying you accepted my request as a joke? That you actually lack the ability to complete it, and it was a false acceptance for some other trivial purpose, and now that you’ve achieved that purpose, you want to withdraw?”
When Karen nervously raised her face, Julius’s smile was terrifying in its own way. From his cold manner despite the smile, it was apparent that many women falsely accepted the request just to meet him.
Internally on the verge of tears, Karen said:
“No, I would like to proceed with the request.”
“Oh?”
“I’d just like to change the reward. After thinking about it later, I realized that under the pretext of treatment, I could just provide some random care, and if your nephew somehow survives to age ten on his own, this request would be considered fulfilled, wouldn’t it?”
“Indeed, that’s true.”
Karen had realized this that morning right after waking up. She had thought the client must have noticed too, and apparently, he had.
“However, even to my untrained eye, Sieg doesn’t have long. I’ll be able to tell if your treatment is effective. If your potions work and bring about the miracle of Sieg surviving past ten, I’ll gladly take you as my wife… even if the extended time is short.”
His strained words conveyed desperate hope, like clutching at straws.
While the Bloodline Blessing supposedly becames manageable once a child passes age ten, as the body becomes able to withstand magical power, that changes if the inherited magic is too strong or if the body hasn’t developed fully.
Even Lyos, around age eleven, had his stable condition suddenly deteriorate, with doctors giving him a grim prognosis.
Just because one surpasses the age of ten does not guarantee survival. Still, the fact that even reaching ten seemed miraculous suggested the condition was extremely severe. If his nephew dies, Julius would become the next in line to inherit the title of Earl Ehlertt. That was partly why he ranked first on everyone’s list of desirable marriage partners. However, to Julius, his nephew’s life mattered more than the title.
Karen was the truly wicked one here, demanding marriage in exchange for saving a child’s life from someone desperately trying to save his family member.
Fighting the urge to hold her head in her hands, Karen said:
“I don’t want to set a precedent of gambling with a child’s life.”
“Yet you’re the one who proposed it.”
“Yes, I wasn’t thinking straight then. I had just been rejected by my fiancé, so I impulsively demanded marriage with someone I admired as a reward. I did something foolish. I deeply apologize.”
She couldn’t claim she was completely drunk—that would raise questions about which guild member had approved an intoxicated person’s request acceptance. The one who had approved Karen’s request was Natalia, who had also been quite drunk. Karen had to avoid any situation that might question Natalia’s responsibility.
“Would you allow me to accept the request again with a different reward?”
Though knowing it was a selfish wish, she wanted to at least accept the request. She had noticed this request before. She had been thinking of accepting it once things settled down after Lyos became a knight.
“About changing the reward—what else do you want?”
“Could I… think about that until I complete it?”
She couldn’t think of anything. All that came to mind was wanting lots of expensive spices she’d never been able to afford for curry-making. That seemed far too trivial.
“You’re assuming you’ll succeed?”
Julius smiled softly. It was a sweet smile that seemed to scatter flowers.
“Alchemist Karen, I’ll entrust this task to you, and as you wish, you can think about the reward until completion.”
As Karen was dazed, struck by his sweet smile, Julius’s smile deepened.
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