Chapter One Hundred and Twenty-One: Fire 2
The adventurers, who seemed to be outsiders, appeared taken aback by the residents protecting Karen and struggled to squeeze out their voices.
“E-Even if you say they tried to kill the child, he’s supposed to be without magical power, right!?”
The guards nodded at those men and stood blocking Karen’s entry into the building. To prevent any further damage. Because if someone was without magical power or useless, it didn’t matter what happened to them—
“So what if he is! Our Karen is kind to everyone!”
“That’s right! The moment my knee injury from overwork in my youth prevented me from going to the dungeon for gathering, my son, who had been living off my earnings, threw me out of the house and stuck me in this apartment! But for someone like me, little Karen made homemade poultices and came to visit me! When I applied those poultices, my knee healed. Since old injuries are said to be incurable even with potions, I thought it might be my imagination, but the fact that I could gather in the dungeon again was definitely thanks to little Karen!”
The grandfather with a cane shouted. He was an old man Karen always made poultices for.
Karen listened to this while smiling, then took off her precious alchemist’s cloak with its alchemist’s brooch and handed it to a worried-looking woman who approached her.
“It was the same for me! My morning sickness was so severe I couldn’t eat anything, potions couldn’t cure it, but I couldn’t complain to my husband, who risked his life fighting in the dungeon, and people around me laughed, saying I was being dramatic just for staying home. When I was going crazy from hunger and nausea, Karen tried to find some dish I might be able to eat, some potion that might work, experimenting and making things to bring me! …Thanks to that, I found something I could eat. This child was born thanks to Karen!”
The woman from the second floor embraced a child who looked about Tim and Harald’s age.
Karen tied her hair back with a leather cord and retied her shoelaces tightly. She took a deep breath, did some knee bends, and stretched her leg tendons.
To prepare for running up at full speed.
“I wouldn’t be here now if it weren’t for Karen either! On my first dungeon exploration, I was attacked by a slime and got so scared I wet myself! After that, just trying to enter a dungeon made me freeze up with fear. My party members abandoned me! I felt so pathetic that I tried to kill myself! But Karen stopped me from jumping off the apartment building, made me drink some weird grass tea, saying it was a potion to cheer me up, and forced me to eat her cooking. Thanks to that, I survived! I later learned that because my magical power density was too high, I was less likely to get drunk on dungeon magic than others. That’s why I felt fear so easily. Thanks to that high magical power density, I became an exceptionally skilled mage, and now I’m a C-rank adventurer! This is all thanks to Karen, too!”
The mage from the third floor shouted.
When she helped them, Karen had been moved by the realization that she, too, could save someone. Yes, that’s why she might have started aiming to become an alchemist.
Karen poured the water the mage had prepared in a basin over her head. Her preparations for charging into the building were complete.
If only the guards would clear the way—
“—Long ago, there was a boy named Lyos, grandson of a noble.”
A voice that was all too familiar came from behind, and even Karen, who had been thinking about the shortest route after entering the apartment, gasped and turned around.
“Because he inherited noble blood, because he inherited a Bloodline Blessing that was too strong for a commoner, he had been bedridden since childhood. His mother sought help from her noble family, but was cruelly refused. Everyone except his mother had given up on that child’s life—”
“Lyos.”
Standing there was Lyos.
He had grown taller since Sieg’s recovery celebration. His cheeks were gaunt, his eyes sunken, and he had grown an unkempt beard.
His face showed deep signs of fatigue. He carried a large bag and wore a worn Royal Knight Order cloak. He must have just returned to the royal capital from somewhere.
Lyos was looking up at the blazing apartment.
With a quiet expression that revealed nothing of his thoughts, he continued:
“But Karen didn’t give up. She visited the child’s house, encouraged the child, tried to give him courage, and invented various things for the weakened child. From potions starting with soap to playthings like Reversi… Eventually, the child grew up safely and overcame his Bloodline Blessing. But he thought it was all the result of his own efforts and didn’t think it was thanks to Karen. So he abandoned Karen. He abandoned his childhood friend who had even gotten engaged to him since the time when he was forsaken—Karen, who had remained an F-rank alchemist because she had sacrificed everything for his sake, he thought she wasn’t suitable for him as he became a knight of the Royal Knight Order because she was an F-rank alchemist—but he was wrong.”
Lyos looked at Karen and said:
“Is the person who was late to escape on the seventh floor?”
“Are you planning to go, Lyos? It’s fine, I’ll go. Besides, how long can you hold your breath? You know that even if you can protect yourself from fire with magical power, it’s dangerous if you inhale smoke, right?”
“…Half of the shortest incense sticks.”
“I can do two full incense sticks.”
“Huh!? There’s no way that’s true!”
Lyos could manage about five minutes. Knowing his personality, he was probably exaggerating. He might barely be able to reach the seventh floor, but if he got lost or had trouble searching, he would be in danger too.
Yet Karen could manage about twenty minutes.
Just because someone had a lot of magical power didn’t mean they could survive without breathing—at least, that should be the case. Apparently, among people with S-rank magical power levels, there were plenty with monster-like physical abilities, so such people might be able to survive.
Of course, Karen’s magical power was less than Lyos’s, so that couldn’t have been the reason.
“When you hold medicinal herbs in your mouth, you can hold your breath for a longer time. But I’m the only one who can do this—neither my brother nor anyone else could.”
“If that’s true, then you’d be more reliable than me since I don’t know the exact location or internal structure…”
Back in elementary school in her previous life, Karen used to play that game where you could only breathe while walking on the white lines. A lot of kids did. Karen was no exception. She had continued doing this even after being reborn. While idly playing with medicinal herbs she had gathered in her mouth, she noticed her record had improved.
Taking medicinal herbs from her pouch, Karen stuffed them into her mouth. A bitter taste spread in her mouth, and Karen frowned as she said:
“Well, if her husband’s condition looks dangerous, I’ll jump from the window, so Lyos, catch me. You can do that much, right?”
“Fine.”
Lyos nodded and showed his Royal Knight Order insignia to the guards.
“Let this woman through.”
“Y-Yes, sir, understood.”
The Royal Knight Order was a higher organization than the guards.
The guards following Lyos cleared the way.
Soaking wet, Karen took a deep breath and held it, spread her magical power to cover her body’s surface, then entered the smoke-choked apartment.
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