Chapter Two Hundred and Twenty-Three: Panacea Request
“Then I’ll take this man as my disciple! That way I can eat the panacea, right!?”
“This guy…”
Thor’s face showed utter disbelief. Karen also turned a cold stare toward Yuluyana. To Yuluyana, the promise with Ahim truly didn’t matter at all.
He had the resources to take on a disciple. It was just that he didn’t want to accept one because it was a bother, and even that bother was a trivial matter he could take on in exchange for eating Karen’s panacea.
“Ahim, he’s saying this, but do you still want to become this person’s disciple?”
“…I want to.”
Ahim answered with an extremely complicated expression.
Karen let out a sigh and turned back to Yuluyana.
“Since Ahim is saying this, I’ll prepare a plate for you too, Master. But this time you absolutely mustn’t break your promise, okay?”
“It’s a promise I made in front of you, Ms. Karen, so I won’t break it.”
Yuluyana answered in an extremely light tone.
Though there was very little sense of trust, it seemed to be true that he held Karen in high regard, so she had no choice but to believe him for now.
Ahim hung his head dejectedly.
“…I couldn’t find Lord Yuluyana, and I thought if I asked you, I might learn something, but to think you were actually Lord Yuluyana’s disciple. I heard the rumor that Lord Yuluyana had finally taken on a disciple, and when I heard that, I thought it was about me—I’m disgusted with how pathetic I am.”
Ahim spoke with a dry laugh. His eyes looked desolate, but suddenly light dwelled in them.
“…Hm? So that means you’ll be my senior disciple?”
“Heheh. You can honor me if you want, you know?”
“Your B-rank promotion thesis isn’t available for review yet. I can’t judge until I’ve read it. But earlier… did you say something about a panacea?”
Even while being toyed with by the worst master, Ahim had apparently caught the word panacea with sharp ears.
Perhaps it was because, as an alchemist, he was drawn to the very idea of a panacea—Karen found it impressive that he could shift gears and smile even in this situation.
Just as Karen was about to explain, the bell rang again, and Karen closed her mouth.
Harald greeted Urte, who was carrying Aaron on her back.
“Sorry, Ahim, I have to go.”
“Don’t worry about me. I’m the one who barged in suddenly.”
“Wait just a bit, okay?”
Seen off by Ahim, Thor, and Yuluyana, Karen went to welcome Urte.
“I came a bit earlier than the promised time, but if there’s a problem, I’ll wait outside. I got a bit eager.”
“It’s totally fine! Come in, come in!”
“…There seem to be more presences than when I came before—do you have guests?”
“It’s just my master and junior disciple, so don’t worry about it.”
When Karen guided Urte to the reception room, Urte made a puzzled face.
“Dinner time? Sorry about that. I’ll leave right after receiving the panacea.”
“This is your portion, Ms. Urte. This one is Mr. Aaron’s portion.”
“Why…?”
Aaron, carried on Urte’s back, weakly interjected.
Two plates had been prepared in the reception room. To anyone who didn’t know, it would only look like soup with chunky chopped vegetables had been prepared.
Neither of them knew at all what kind of potions Karen made.
While patting the sofa chair to encourage them to sit, Karen said:
“It’s because my potions are cooking potions.”
“So this is a potion? Even so, why is there a portion for me too? I don’t have money to pay for my portion too, you know?”
“The money is fine. As my guard, I thought I’d have you taste my potion once. Uncle Sepl has already eaten it—if you don’t know what I can do, you won’t know what you need to protect me from or how, right?”
“…I see. As a guard, you mean.”
Urte herself didn’t need the panacea. So this was purely prepared to let her know what Karen could do.
“Today’s panacea is Japanese-style soup curry with kelp broth!”
“Japanese-style? Today’s panacea?”
“Well, don’t worry about it. Shouldn’t you hurry and let Mr. Aaron eat?”
Urte gasped and lowered Aaron onto the sofa. After gently laying him down and stacking cushions behind his back to slightly raise his body, Urte picked up the soup plate.
“Let him drink just the soup first. When he gets some energy, let him eat the soft vegetables.”
“The soup first.”
Urte scooped up a spoonful of soup and slowly brought it to Aaron’s mouth. When Aaron took the soup into his mouth, he put strength into his trembling body and eventually managed to swallow it.
Opening his eyes wide, Aaron turned his head while trembling to look at Urte.
“Give me more, please!”
“Y-Yeah!”
Urte nodded with tears blurring her voice and brought the soup to Aaron’s mouth.
Karen let out a relieved breath as she could see Aaron’s body relaxing visibly.
Urte continued assisting with the meal while tears streamed down her face.
Aaron looked up at Urte and smiled.
“Don’t cry, Urte.”
“Shut up. I’ve been holding it in all this time. I can at least cry now…!”
“…Sorry, Urte. Thank you for not abandoning me.”
“We’re husband and wife! When we got married, I prayed to the goddess for the right to be with you for life! There’s no way I’d abandon you over something like this…!”
Aaron slowly sat up, his movements still awkward, and embraced Urte.
Urte clung to Aaron’s back with one hand and began crying out loud.
Karen tried to retrieve the soup plate in Urte’s other hand so she wouldn’t drop it, but Urte gripped the plate firmly and wouldn’t let go.
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