Chapter One Hundred: The Master’s Teaching
“Today, I’ll be making potions. What should I have you two do in the meantime?”
Cleaning, laundry, or washing dishes?
Thanks to having them do chores every day, the entire house was sparkling clean.
“Can I watch the alchemy?”
Tim asked while Karen was pondering what work to assign them. Harald immediately bulged his eyes.
“Of course not, you…!”
“When you’re working in an alchemist’s house, wouldn’t you want to see it at least once? I totally understand that feeling…!”
“W-Would that really be okay?”
“Sure, sure! But with this one thing, you can’t get in the way. I’ll let you into the alchemy workshop, but once inside, stand against the wall by the door and don’t move from there.”
“Th-thank you very much…!”
Harald stammered his thanks.
His cheeks were flushed, and it was obvious he was excited. Even the mature Harald seemed pleased to be able to watch alchemy.
Tim, on the other hand, wore an indifferent expression despite being the one who suggested it.
“Tim, aren’t you interested in alchemy?”
“Nah, alchemy’s probably impossible for me. Even if I have enough magical power, I don’t really get what you are doing, Karen. But since we might have an alchemist join our party, I thought I should know the procedures.”
“That’s good thinking.”
Karen led the two into the alchemy workshop.
It was surprising that Harald was the one with visibly sparkling eyes.
“First I’ll make a potion to reduce fever, then with the remaining magical power, I’ll work on cosmetics. The ingredients for the fever-reducing potion are this, this, and this.”
“Oh, these are all things I’ve seen before.”
“That’s because I’ve had you guys gather them in the dungeon.”
“Honey and lemon…?”
While Tim was getting excited, Harald was staring intently at Karen’s hands.
“Today I’ll make potions with these ingredients and water. It’s the well water you two drew.”
“Hey, for potion water, wouldn’t spit work?”
“Of course not! Are you joking?”
Though Harald glared at him, Tim didn’t flinch at all and said with a serious expression:
“I’ve thought before that if you get injured by monsters and can’t move, but there are medicinal herbs growing nearby, it would be convenient if you could chew them and make a potion in your mouth. The ingredients for healing potions are just herbs and water, right?”
“That’s an interesting idea. But yeah, saliva’s a no-go.”
“What’s the difference between saliva and water?”
For Tim, who had never studied saliva, they seemed pretty much the same.
Harald said with disgust:
“Saliva is dirty. Water is different.”
“That’s right. Saliva contains water, but it’s water with extra stuff in it. It’s conceptually closer to muddy water.”
“There’s… muddy water… in my mouth!?”
“Well, muddy water and saliva are still different things.”
Tim looked relieved, while beside him Harald was grinding his teeth.
“Stop bothering Lady Karen with nonsense. Water is water.”
“…Well, well water isn’t pure either. It definitely contains bacteria… yet potions can be made with it… so why not with saliva? Maybe I’m just assuming it won’t work?”
“Lady Karen?”
Called by Harald, Karen snapped back to attention.
“I need to make these potions quickly or my recovered magical power will go to waste!”
“I apologize for the distraction! If Tim speaks again, I’ll pinch him to shut him up!”
“Whaat?!”
“No, actually, if I space out, please call out to me! In fact, keep talking! When I find something interesting, I tend to get lost in thought and lose track of time.”
“If that’s the case… um, if saliva is water with extra things in it, then what would be water without anything extra? You mentioned well water contains things too… and I assume river water wouldn’t qualify either.”
“That’s right. Both well water and river water contain impurities. They’re just invisible to the human eye.”
“Then what could be considered pure water?”
Karen continued working while pondering Harald’s question.
“How should I put this… For example, if you divide a drop of water into two, both parts are still water, right? And if you divide those again, both are still water. Humans can’t divide it past a certain point by hand, but let’s say it’s possible. If you keep dividing it in half, removing impurities, until the water reaches its smallest possible state. The collection of those would be what you could call pure water.”
“I see. So pure water isn’t something that exists naturally in springs, but rather a concept.”
“Right, it seems difficult to create. But maybe with magic or magical tools, it could be produced… Perhaps water created by magic is pure water?”
“Lady Karen, your hands have stopped.”
“Oh! Thank you!”
As Karen was hurriedly filling small bottles with the blended tea potion, a bell rang.
Tim, who’d been dozing off while standing, woke up and said:
“I’ll go see who it is!”
“That guy ran away even though he asked to observe…”
“It seems Tim was bored.”
Tim quickly returned with the visitor.
The visitor entered the alchemy workshop without reservation.
“Ms. Karen! I’ve returned with a gift for you!”
“Master!”
With a grimace like he’d just bitten into something sour, Tim led in none other than Karen’s master Yuluyana, who had thoroughly scolded Tim the other day.
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