Chapter Fifty-nine: Cooling Off Research Passion
“So this is poison, Karen?”
“Yes, Master Julius.”
Karen snapped back to attention as she answered. It was Julius who had pulled her from behind.
Karen gently placed the small dish of white powder she was holding on the table to ensure that Julius wouldn’t accidentally come into contact with the poisonous face powder.
“Then wash your hands immediately. You were touching it because you were so focused, and you were breathing it in with your face too close. Are you alright?”
“Oh, really? I think a small amount should be fine, but, um, Master Julius?”
Apparently, her curiosity had led her to lean in too much.
“Quickly, give me your hands. I’ll wash them for you.”
“No, no, I can do it myself.”
Just a little contact shouldn’t cause any harm. Even if there was harm, she could drink a potion. That’s why she wanted to examine the poisonous powder a bit more. Observe it. She wanted to touch it more to confirm the texture.
Karen tried to decline with a smile, but Julius glared down at her. Overwhelmed by his gaze, Karen immediately shut her mouth.
“You, with your eyes gleaming brightly while caressing poison, bringing your face close as if you were about to inhale it? Put your hands in the water basin at once.”
“…Yes.”
It’s kind of unfair how good-looking people become twice as intimidating when they’re angry. Feeling this inequity, Karen obediently extended both hands to Julius. Her hands were scrubbed mercilessly.
“It says ‘poisonous face powder.’ And that it harms the body.”
Waltride was examining it with her own appraisal mirror. Unlike Karen’s appraisal mirror, it seemed hers couldn’t determine the nature of the poison or which part of the body would be affected. While Karen was contemplating whether she should reveal the poison’s identity, she met Sara’s eyes, who was holding Karen’s appraisal mirror to her chest and slowly shaking her head. It seemed she was telling Karen to say nothing.
“To create potions from non-magical materials, one must have an extraordinary understanding of the ingredients… Karen, are you a Child of Anya?”
“A child of Anya? My father had a different name. Oh, but I don’t actually know my mother’s name.”
“Hmm. It seems you are not.”
Hearing Karen’s answer, Waltride came to her own conclusion.
“In any case, this proves that this face powder is poisonous. Thank you, Karen. With this, I can convince local ladies who can’t let go of unidentified face powder in their pursuit of beauty.”
Waltride smiled brightly. She seemed pleased to be helping the Ehlertt family, who were caring for her during her recovery. As Karen nodded with a smile, glad to have been of help and somewhat atoned for her wrongs, Frank knelt before her.
“Alchemist Karen! Could you please tell me how to detoxify this poison!?”
“Huh!?”
“Karen is surprised, Sir Schiller. Please calm yourself.”
Frank, who was helped to his feet by Julius, was trembling and crying.
“Even after giving her an antidote potion, it has no effect! We’ve consulted countless doctors, healers, and alchemists, but nothing works!”
Frank cried out, partially restrained by Julius. Karen was taken aback by his desperate expression.
“It’s my sister. My only sister…! Please teach me how to detoxify it!”
“The antidote potion doesn’t work, you say…”
Karen couldn’t make antidote potions. That meant she knew nothing about them. As Karen tilted her head in confusion, Waltride spoke beside her:
“I recall hearing that antidote potions only neutralize magical poisons and have little effect on physically harmful substances. Perhaps that’s why?”
“Oh, I see. So that’s how it works.”
“Why would an alchemist like you not know this?”
“I’ve just become an E-rank alchemist and have only recently been able to read senior alchemists’ papers.”
She had rushed to read through the papers as soon as she became E-rank and gained access to the permitted shelves but hadn’t obtained much useful information.
“I see. The quality of papers available to E-rank alchemists must be limited. You probably can only read papers about failed attempts. While not meaningless in terms of eliminating possibilities, still…”
“Is that so!? Well, now that you mention it, most of them do feel like that…!”
“Carelessly spreading knowledge would only bring chaos to society.”
Having just seen the mercury-based face powder, Waltride’s words hit deep.
“In a world where anyone can make potions, anyone can create poison as well…”
“Exactly. That’s why the knowledge given to you is restricted and put to the test.”
“What an unpleasant world we live in.”
Karen sighed and began to think based on the knowledge Waltride had shared.
“I believe Your Highness’s guess is correct. The ingredients in this poison are harmful to the body and highly toxic even without being made into a potion. That’s why drinking a detoxification potion to neutralize magical poison has little effect.”
Perhaps the poison that once afflicted Sara might have been similar.
“The only method I know to detoxify this poison is to wait for it to be naturally expelled from the body.”
“No…! Isn’t there some kind of antidote or medicine!?”
The panacea came to mind, but that wasn’t something one could make intentionally. Though tempted to try, Karen held her head and groaned. A doctor from her previous life might know a different method. But all Karen knew was the story of a pregnant neighbor from her previous life who avoided eating her favorite fish due to mercury concerns. That woman had struggled with morning sickness and had even asked Karen to run an errand for her. Fish contained trace amounts of mercury, but it was typically not a problem for adults who could naturally expel it. However, since babies couldn’t expel mercury naturally, she lamented that she couldn’t eat her favorite fish, which was known to have higher mercury levels.
“Please save my sister. She’s my only family.”
Frank had been cooperating with Waltride to help his sister. Calling upon the goddess, Frank clasped his hands in prayer toward Karen, tears streaming down his face.
“First, I’d like to learn about your sister’s condition.”
“Please, I beg you.”
Karen returned to her room briefly to prepare to visit Frank’s sister. While helping with the preparations, Sara said:
“Lady Karen, ‘Children of Anya,’ also known as ‘Children of the Dark Night,’ refers to the name of a certain organization.”
“An organization’s name?”
“…It’s a criminal organization that mainly gathers and exploits abandoned children. They specialize in poisons. They educate children to handle non-magical poisonous materials.”
“So the princess thought I was a member of this organization.”
It was probably because she knew too much about non-magical materials. Although it was frightening to be suspected of being involved with a criminal organization, Karen was relieved that the suspicion seemed to have naturally dissipated during their conversation.
“There’s no way you could be a Child of Dark Night… In that place, to deepen ‘understanding’ of poison, children are given only one type of poison. There’s no way someone like you, with such broad knowledge of non-magical materials, could have come from there.”
“Given only one type of poison…?”
When Karen tilted her head at the strange nuance, Sara nodded expressionlessly. Her purple eyes were filled with darkness.
“The organization gives poison to children. They make them cultivate it, touch it, eat it—using every possible method to deepen their understanding of that poison and ingrain it into their bodies. Only then might a child occasionally emerge who can handle that poison as a potion… though most children die.”
“…That’s terrible.”
Sara gazed at the shocked Karen with emotionless eyes.
“Therefore, please never mention the name of the material. If those in that organization learn about a material that can become poison… new children will be given that poison in attempts to raise children who can handle non-magical poison potions.”
“I’m sorry, I was careless.”
“It should be fine in that situation. Everyone present was trustworthy. But please be careful in the future.”
Sara spoke with no expression and then left the room first, carrying Karen’s belongings. Karen hurriedly followed after her.
No comments:
Post a Comment