Chapter Sixty-one: Excellent Effect
“You’ve finally returned, Master Julius! Ah, I feel dizzy…!”
When Karen and Julius returned, Petra approached with bouncy steps—only to suddenly sway and collapse toward Julius. He avoided her by using Karen as a shield.
“Huh?!”
Petra fell against Karen’s chest, who had been turned into Julius’s shield. Karen swallowed hard at the thinness and lightness of Petra’s body.
Perhaps Petra really was unwell. While there was a possibility she was naturally petite, Karen felt her thin shoulders and sensed that the dizziness wasn’t just a pretext to throw herself at Julius.
“Are you alright, Lady Petra?”
“Why are YOU there?!”
Petra glared sharply at Karen, then straightened herself up as if pushing Karen away, quickly flicked her disheveled twin tails, and returned to her seat with unsteady steps.
Perhaps she was indeed faking illness to throw herself at Julius after all, Karen thought with jaded eyes.
“I apologize, Lady Karen! Petra! You should be thanking her, yet you… Hurry up and tell us about the face powder!”
Scolded by Frank, Petra made a sulky face and began to speak haltingly.
“I don’t remember who recommended the face powder to me.”
Whether it was true or not, Petra began speaking to Julius, but partway through, she shifted her gaze to Karen, as if seeking an answer.
“Is my poor health really because of this face powder?”
“Yes, Petra. When this lady made a potion using the face powder, it turned into a terrifying poison that damages the body.”
Frank spoke before Karen could answer. Visibly frightened, Petra bit her lip hard.
“…Could someone have spread it with malicious intent?”
As Petra spoke with a shudder, Karen offered support as an alchemist.
“In a certain country I heard about, many people used it thinking it was just beautiful face powder, without any suspicion of it being poisonous. But when people started experiencing health problems, they realized something was wrong and stopped using it.”
“Hmm, is that so?”
Petra furrowed her brow—an expression unsuited to her cute face—yet looked relieved. Anyone would be terrified at the thought of being deliberately poisoned.
Just as in her previous life, Karen believed that in this world too, it was probably created by someone pursuing beauty without realizing the consequences.
Frank glanced at Karen and prompted her.
“You made a potion for this, didn’t you, Lady Karen?”
“Yes, I’ll bring it right away.”
Sara pushed in a cart. She arranged teacups on the table and poured the potion from a pot.
“It looks like ordinary tea.”
“Petra, be quiet.”
Admonished by Frank, Petra turned her face away with a huff.
“Please, feel free to appraise it.”
“If you’ll excuse me.”
Frank pulled out something like a monocle from his chest pocket—apparently, it was a type of appraisal mirror—and looked down at the teacup.
“It identifies as a detoxification tea. It says ‘expels toxins.’ A regular antidote potion neutralizes magical poisons, but this one says ‘expels,’ which implies a different effect…”
Lower-grade appraisal mirrors give ambiguous results, but they can roughly indicate the type of effect. He seemed to understand that it was different from an antidote potion.
“…This is an effect I’ve never seen before.”
Petra was also intently examining the teacup through an opera glass-shaped appraisal mirror.
“Lady Karen, could this perhaps be an entirely new potion?”
“Yes. It’s a potion that hasn’t spread throughout the world, and whose exact effects aren’t clearly understood. I don’t know if it will work. It might even have adverse effects.”
A potion that expels waste products from the body. If the body’s filtering function was too damaged, this potion might be like putting gasoline in a car with a broken engine and forcing it to run—it could burden the body further.
“If you have any concerns, there’s no need to drink it. Lady Petra seems to be in good health anyway.”
She didn’t appear to be in any immediate danger health-wise. At Karen’s words, Frank frowned and grabbed his sister’s hand. Petra looked at Frank and his grave expression, then pressed her lips together. Frank confirmed Petra’s true intentions with words as firm as if planting his feet on solid ground.
“…Petra, what do you want to do? Personally, I want you to drink it… I understand that you’re just enduring, suffering far more than you appear to be. But if you’re afraid of an untested potion…”
“…It has detoxifying effects that the goddess has at least acknowledged, so I suppose I could try it.”
It seemed that the results from the appraisal mirrors were interpreted as "the goddess’s approval.”
Indeed, when Karen had hypothesized the ingredients of the powder and created a potion to confirm its nature, it did feel like the goddess had shown her the correct answer.
“I’m going to drink it, alright?”
“Please do.”
When Petra asked Karen while looking at her, Karen nodded firmly.
Although Petra’s flirtations with Julius were irritating, Karen’s desire for her to recover was genuine. She needed Petra to be healthy so she could maintain full vigilance. The same applied to Waltride.
“…It’s bitter.”
“Please drink it slowly. Monitor your condition, and if anything feels wrong, stop drinking immediately.”
“So far, I don’t feel anything particular.”
Petra grimaced as she drained the potion.
“Nothing has changed… Hm? …?!”
Petra’s face changed color as she jumped up and rushed out of the room, accompanied by a supporting maid.
“What’s wrong?! Petra?!”
Frank ran after her.
Karen grabbed Julius’s arm as he was about to rise.
“Karen, if something happened, I should check on her.”
“No, it’s probably just the potion taking effect. I didn’t give it to her out of spite—I genuinely thought it would help her. I had no idea it would work so quickly.”
Julius looked down at Karen with a perplexed expression as she strung together her unclear excuses, but he sat back down on the sofa.
Then Frank returned.
He looked awkward but showed no anger toward Karen for giving his sister an unknown potion.
“…There doesn’t seem to be any problem. Could you wait a little longer?”
“Certainly.”
“Petra might speak unreasonably to you when she returns, Lady Karen, but—”
“This is my fault, so I’ll accept it.”
A potion with the effect of expelling waste products. Perhaps she shouldn’t have given it to Petra in front of Julius. If Karen were in her place, she would never want to drink such a fast-acting potion in front of Julius.
“If I recall, this potion’s effect is… Ah, I see.”
“Please don’t try to understand, Master Julius!”
Karen hadn’t done this out of frustration.
Truly, she had only wanted to help heal Petra.
Karen thought she could hear a shrill voice cursing her from somewhere in the mansion, but she accepted it gracefully.
No comments:
Post a Comment