Chapter Fourteen: The Alchemist’s Temptation 2
“Hah! What nonsense from an F-rank alchemist dreaming of the impossible!”
Sieg threw a pillow at Karen as if to shake off her temptation. The weak throw merely grazed Karen lightly before falling to the ground. Watching the powerless pillow’s trajectory, Sieg clenched his small fist.
Looking down at the frustrated Sieg, Karen picked up the pillow and said:
“I’ll become an E-rank soon enough.”
“Master Sieg, Lady Karen’s magic capacity is D-rank. It’s a miracle she even became an alchemist with that.”
“You can’t even become an E-rank, so how could you possibly publish a paper!”
Responding to Sara’s remark, Sieg raised his voice.
To formally work as an alchemist, one must be E-rank.
Karen was still F-rank.
She couldn’t even reference academic papers, let alone publish them, and wasn’t officially an alchemist.
“I was once praised as a genius for my high magical efficiency. Though my magic capacity is D-rank, if I conserve and accumulate magical power for about a week, I have a good chance of passing the promotion exam.”
To become an E-rank alchemist, one must be able to create at least fifty small healing potions per day. This is the minimum requirement for an alchemist during catastrophic events like the Great Collapse Stampede, and only those who can perform this task were granted the privileges of an E-rank alchemist.
D-rank magic capacity, in truth, barely allows one to produce five small healing potions. Yet, for some reason, Karen could make far more than that. Even so, her magic capacity wasn’t enough to make standard potions alongside her potion meals.
In theory, leveling up—or ascending the ranks in terms of this world—would increase magical power. But to do so, one must defeat powerful monsters. These must be powerful monsters relative to the individual, and the battle must be life-threatening. Simply overwhelming weak monsters won’t work, nor will dealing the final blow to a strong monster restrained by a skilled adventurer.
Only those who overcame trials were permitted to ascend the ranks.
Power leveling was forbidden by the goddess.
Karen’s life as an adventurer ended when she failed to master the long-range magic attack. Not that she had ever dreamed of it anyway.
“Then what have you been doing all this time?”
“Anything I could for my childhood friend.”
“—Ah, you mentioned that before. Your childhood friend also had Bloodline Blessing, right? Then couldn’t he help you? If your research is really going to succeed, you won’t need my cooperation!”
Sieg was breathing heavily.
Though it wasn’t yet time for the fever reduction potion to wear off, his face was flushed red.
“Is this some kind of performance to cheer me up? That’s not a funny joke, Karen!”
He was truly intelligent, a clever child.
Sieg, with eyes clouded by helplessness, spoke, but Karen was fully equipped with sound logic.
“I was actually engaged to that childhood friend, but was recently dumped.”
“What?”
“He became a knight and told me, ‘An F-rank alchemist like you isn’t a suitable match for me.’”
“Um, that’s…”
“Yes. I was taking care of him, which left me no time to rise in the ranks. When I pointed out that he recovered because of me, he threatened to charge me with defaming a knight. That man believes he recovered on his own.”
“…Are you sure he didn’t recover on his own? Without your help, I mean.”
“If that were the case, he wouldn’t have been on the verge of death as soon as I started attending public school and visited less often.”
With Karen’s enrollment in public school, Lyos’s previously stable condition rapidly deteriorated.
In hindsight, it was probably because he began pushing himself for his dream of becoming a knight, even though his Bloodline Blessing hadn’t been fully cured yet. Had Karen been there, she would have stopped him and created beneficial potions for Lyos. But at that time, she wasn’t present.
“I wanted to continue attending public school, and it was truly challenging—going to school during the day, visiting Lyos’s house at night. After being used, to be discarded like this, don’t you think it’s cruel? Normally, shouldn’t someone cherish a childhood friend who has been selflessly supporting them since youth!?”
In the romance novels Karen had read in her previous life, that’s how it would have unfolded.
Though she told herself she did it willingly to avoid burdening Lyos, there were many times when her spirit had nearly broken.
Had Natalia not encouraged her, she might have given up on school.
“I’m not sure if that’s how it should be.”
Sieg said that slightly grimacing.
“Karen, you are serious, do you? You’re really trying to become a renowned alchemist?”
“Yes, I am.”
“Do you genuinely believe I could become the pride of the Ehlertt Earldom?”
“Isn’t it something to be proud of to be listed as a contributor to the research on the Bloodline Blessing that could save countless lives in the future?”
“If your dream-like story becomes a reality, that is.”
Sieg fell silent.
“…Give me a moment to think.”
Cooperating with Karen’s research meant not giving up on his own life. What had been possible because he’d given up would now become impossible. For Sieg, even harboring hope for the future might be painful.
“I’ll be waiting for your answer. Even if you don’t accept this proposal, I promise to help you, Master Sieg.”
But for her own future, she wanted him to accept cooperation. Because in the end, Karen’s efforts for herself would eventually benefit Sieg as well.
Until now, Karen’s life had been one of service.
She continued to serve the person she had compromised to choose, yet she was never rewarded.
This time it differed from when she believed serving her boyfriend or Lyos would eventually benefit her. The sense of effort she put in now, and the weight of the words she spoke, felt different.
This was the weight of taking responsibility for her own life, and the weight of the life she was trying to involve—and Karen felt it for the first time.
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