Chapter One Hundred and Twenty-Eight: Successful Creation 2
“It’s become a potion, Harald…”
“Huh?”
“It’s become a non-magical material potion! This!”
Karen pressed the appraisal mirror against Harald and tried to make him peer into the cup, but Yuluyana pushed both Karen and Harald aside, peered into the cup himself, and gulped down his saliva.
“This isn’t a potion that Ms. Karen made… right… If it were Ms. Karen’s potion, it would be a fatigue recovery potion, not a minor fatigue recovery potion…”
Yuluyana turned around and looked down at Harald as if seeing him for the first time.
“This, by someone with no magical power…”
“It’s not that he has no magical power, just very little of it, Master.”
Karen corrected him, had the bewildered Yuluyana step aside, and pressed the appraisal mirror into Harald’s hands.
“Alright, now it’s your turn to appraise, Harald.”
Having watched Karen and Yuluyana make such a fuss, he probably had some inkling of what was happening. Harald also swallowed his saliva and held the appraisal mirror over the honey lemon water he had prepared with trembling hands.
“Lady Karen, didn’t I just dilute the potion that you made with hot water…?”
Eventually, Harald said cautiously in a trembling voice.
“Then, bring the honey lemon you used.”
Harald brought the bottle of honey lemon while looking down. Even when they appraised it, nothing appeared.
“Even if the appraisal shows nothing, isn’t it possible that this honey lemon has already been influenced by you, Lady Karen, and started becoming a fatigue recovery potion?”
“Hmm…”
Considering Harald’s cautious words piled upon caution, Karen infused magical power to investigate whether this honey lemon was in the process of becoming a fatigue recovery potion. Yuluyana, who had been peering down from above, muttered quietly.
“It turned into a fever-reducing potion, right?”
“Which means it wasn’t in the process of becoming a fatigue recovery potion.”
“…Could it really be that I made this potion…?”
After a single tear fell, Harald’s tears wouldn’t stop.
“Congratulations, Harald!”
“Thank you, Lady Karen…!”
Harald crouched down on the spot and began crying out loud. Karen gently stroked his back.
Harald cried so much that he became unsteady, so after Karen forced him—who insisted he was still on duty as long as she was awake—into a room to sleep, Yuluyana spoke:
“Ms. Karen, you didn’t seem very surprised. Do you understand why he can make non-magical material potions?”
“I don’t know if this is the correct answer, but I have several theories.”
“…Could you tell me? No matter how much I think about it, I can’t understand it at all.”
Master Yuluyana, with a face showing he was at a loss, asked his disciple Karen for guidance.
“I think it’s because Harald has almost no magical power.”
“Because he has no magical power…?”
“Non-magical materials also have no magical power, Master. How well can you ‘understand’ that state?”
“I see. Understanding of being without magical power…”
“And understanding of the effects of non-magical materials, I suppose.”
“Understanding of effects?”
“Earlier, Master, you didn’t quite grasp that something like honey lemon has effects even before becoming a potion, did you?”
“…I do understand that it has effects. However, I also understand that those effects don’t have much impact on the body as they are. To give an analogy, if the effect when it becomes a magical medicine is one hundred, then as raw material it might be one thousandth, or even less than one ten-thousandth.”
“But for Harald, who has almost no magical power, it’s different.”
Seeing Harald affected by poisonous mushrooms, and actually eating poisonous mushrooms herself in a state with no magical power, Karen had been wondering about something. For people whose bodies were filled with magical power and thus unaffected by the poison of non-magical poisonous mushrooms, how much would the effects of non-magical ingredients actually work?
“Harald clearly knows which ingredients make him feel worse when eaten and which make him feel better. He must have lived his life knowing this painfully well. Even without turning non-magical materials into potions, he knows from experience that there are effects there. I’ve thought for a while that he probably ‘understands’ this better than anyone else.”
“Are you saying that you knew that magicless—I mean, Harald would eventually make non-magical material potions?”
Hearing Yuluyana call Harald by name, Karen grinned.
“I wasn’t expecting quite that much. But it’s a pleasant miscalculation!”
“I see… But how did you come to understand what it means to be with no magical power, Ms. Karen?”
“I—”
Because I have memories of living in a world without magical power in my previous life. But having no intention of saying that, Karen smiled and gave a different explanation.
“I sometimes use up all the magical power in my body. If you tried it too, you might be able to make non-magical material potions!”
“ That would be impossible for me.”
“Well, I won’t force you, but—”
As Karen thought it was unfortunate that if a long-lived being like Yuluyana could make non-magical material potions, it would be reassuring, Yuluyana shook his head to stop her.
“That’s not it. We fairy folk called elves die if we use up our magical power.”
“Eh?”
“Most of this body is composed of magical power. That’s why we’re born with large amounts of it. We simply can’t live without it in the first place. I thought humans were similar, but considering that there are those with so little magical power they’re called ‘magicless,’ I suppose there’s no problem living without magical power.”
“I-I see… I didn’t know that. I’m sorry.”
Though she hadn’t intended it, Karen had essentially recommended self-harm to Yuluyana. To Karen, who bowed her head, Yuluyana said magnanimously:
“No, no, it’s fine. However, you should stop recommending that others use up their magical power, Ms. Karen. Not just fairy folk, but humans can also die if they exhaust their magical power.”
“Y-You’re right. The reason people say using up one’s magical power is dangerous must be because some really can die from it.”
“Yes. Those unusually long-lived for humans often have parts of their bodies replaced by magical power.”
“Replaced by magical power…”
“That’s why many high-ranking adventurers don’t leave bodies behind. Haven’t you heard of this?”
“I-Indeed… I have heard that… but I thought that was just because they die deep in dungeons, so their bodies aren’t found…”
To Karen, who gulped, Yuluyana continued with a smile:
“They simply vanish the moment they die. Leaving only the parts of their bodies not replaced by magical power, and the areas where magical power remains most concentrated.”
“…That’s like how monsters die.”
Monsters also disappear after being killed, and some time passes. Otherwise, dungeons would always be bloody messes. What remains afterward are parts of the monster and magic stones. And if you’re lucky, drop items as gifts from the goddess.
At Karen’s words, Yuluyana’s eyes widened in surprise.
“Rather, when we see someone who leaves a corpse when they die, we fairy folk think, ‘they died like a human.’”
“Ah, that’s right. Elves also pass away in that way. Sorry, I keep saying one thoughtless thing after another.”
Even as Karen zipped her mouth shut, Yuluyana didn’t seem offended.
“No… It’s interesting to learn your honest way of thinking, so I don’t mind. I see, so this way of thinking that places such importance on bodies with so little magical power is the key to making non-magical material potions…”
“This is just my guess, though, so I don’t know if it’s correct!”
She emphasized this to Yuluyana, who was sinking into the depths of thought. Karen decided to end today’s alchemy and began cleaning up.
As she cleaned, her thoughts turned to Harald in the basement room, and once again Karen smiled warmly.
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