Chapter One Hundred and Seventy: Each Person’s Role
No sooner had Julius drawn his sword than the Elder Treant lashed its branches like whips and struck at him.
Julius leaped back to avoid the branches.
Despite the many other adventurers and knights in the vicinity, the creature’s movements targeted Julius alone with pinpoint precision, as if recognizing him as the greatest threat present.
The sword Julius had drawn was different from the one he’d used in his duel with Thor.
“This is the first time I’ve seen Sir Julius fight seriously.”
Hearing Therese say this with excitement, Karen snapped back to attention and tore her gaze away from where it had been fixed intently on Julius, turning it instead to the mithril pot before her.
“Lady Therese, please focus on the patients.”
“O-Of course!”
Karen scolded Therese despite having been just as distracted herself.
Therese turned back to the patient before her with an embarrassed expression, but after treating about five people, she drifted off toward the battlefield.
“Lady Therese?”
“My magical power has run out, so I’m going to check on the situation.”
“I’ll give you a magical power recovery potion.”
“…Thank you.”
Therese, who apparently wanted to go watch Julius fight, looked somewhat displeased. Still, she accepted the magical power recovery potion from Karen and resumed working once her magical power was restored.
However, it seemed her magical power had run out again.
“Lady Karen, if you don’t have any magical power recovery potions, I shall go help retrieve the injured.”
“…Please do.”
Karen still had magical power recovery potions, but using them to restore Therese’s healing magic seemed inefficient, so she gave up on detaining her any further.
It took more time for Karen to make potions, but with the same amount of magical power, she seemed able to heal far more people.
After seeing Therese off, Karen raised her voice outside someone’s tent that had been turned into a treatment area:
“A pot of medium healing potions is ready!”
“Thank you, Lady Karen!”
“I’ll transfer the potions to another pot!”
Those tending to the wounded were the attendants the nobles had brought with them. The attendants the knights had brought handled the wounded with practiced ease.
An adventurer who had been lying nearby after hitting his head watched this and muttered:
“…I thought those noble bastards were taking this too lightly, bringing attendants into a dungeon, but they sure know what they’re doing.”
“They’re knights’ attendants, so naturally they’re experienced. Most of them are comprised of knight apprentices.”
Irmlinde approached the adventurer and unwrapped the bandage stained with blood from his head wound, then poured some of the potion Karen had made on it.
The adventurer said as he received Irmlinde’s treatment:
“You look like a noble lady, but you sure know your stuff.”
“My father is a lord, and our domain is in the western frontier. Since it’s not a land popular with adventurers, all the nobles are knights, and the children are raised as knight apprentices as well. I, too, once worked as an attendant while training as a knight apprentice.”
“I see… and you’re about the same age as my daughter, yet you go to the battlefield…”
“Please close your eyes and rest for a while. The wound has closed, but you look pale.”
“Yeah…”
Though the adventurer’s wound had healed, his face was pale as he closed his eyes.
Was it because he’d lost too much blood, or was it the miasma from the monsters?
“Lady Karen, would it be possible for you to create more potions?”
“Yes, I think I can manage.”
One of the servants who had been working frantically called out to Karen.
When Karen nodded, he said with a relieved expression:
“Then please make them. Actually, even when we poured magically imbued water on the Elder Treant’s flames, we couldn’t extinguish them. However, when we poured your medium healing potions on them, we were able to put them out.”
“…I see. Then it sounds like we’ll need even more.”
The Treant’s flames continued burning with magical power, so they needed to be neutralized with magical power as well. However, it seemed that flames ignited by the Elder Treant’s oil, unlike those of ordinary Treants, couldn’t be completely extinguished with simple magic-infused water.
Karen wanted to watch Julius fight. She wanted to see and confirm that Julius had the advantage, to feel reassured. If something happened, she wanted to rush to his side—but that wasn’t Karen’s role.
Karen retied her hair and steeled herself.
“Alright! I’ll make medium healing potions like crazy!”
The attendants emptied the giant mithril pot and filled it with fresh water. They gathered medicinal herbs and bundled them one at a time, arranging them for Karen’s convenience. With their help, Karen concentrated on her work as an alchemist.
Hearing a deep, booming cheer, Karen realized that the battle had ended in victory.
“Sir Julius appears to be unharmed.”
“Thank you for telling me, Lady Dorotea.”
Dorotea, who had come out of the tent where Waltride was hidden, informed her.
Karen thanked her while dripping with sweat.
The attendants took Karen’s potions to those who had been set on fire by the Elder Treant to extinguish the flames. Gradually, those who had been set aflame began coming to Karen themselves, even while burning.
They protected their bodies with magical power and held their breath as they burned, waiting for her potions to finish. For their sake, Karen kept brewing medium healing potions without rest.
Thanks to the mithril pot, she was able to make more than she’d expected, but only one magical power recovery potion remained. If this had dragged on any longer, there might have been people who burned to death.
Once she somehow managed to finish making one more potful of potions, Karen rolled over on the spot.
“Haah, I’m so glad that worked out.”
“Excellent work, Lady Karen. That was a magnificent sight. I feel proud to work alongside you.”
Irmlinde offered words of comfort as she gently wiped Karen’s sweat.
“I’m honored to hear you say that, Lady Irmlinde…”
When her tension released with relief, exhaustion washed over her.
Just as Karen was about to close her eyes and fall asleep, Dorotea said:
“Something seems to be… with Sir Julius—”
Dorotea said with a hint of bewilderment, trailing off.
Karen’s eyes, which had been closing, snapped wide open. She sprang up from the ground and ran toward Julius.
She descended from the elevated area where the tents were set up and reached the barrier of knights and adventurers surrounding Julius and the Elder Treant.
Then, among those who noticed Karen wanting to go forward, mainly those who’d had their fires extinguished made way for her.
Karen wove through the gaps and rushed toward the wide-open center.
There, Julius was laughing.
“Ahahahahaha! Hahahahahahaha!! Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!”
That laughter had been audible even before she crossed the barrier of people.
However, until she actually witnessed it herself, Karen couldn’t believe that was Julius’s voice.
But it was Julius who was letting out that wild laughter.
He kicked at the shredded remains of the Elder Treant still lying there, his eyes gleaming brilliantly as he laughed with terrible glee.
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