Chapter Two Hundred and Fifty-Three: Portable Panacea 2
“The real problem starts from here.”
“The real problem?”
Karen nodded vigorously at the puzzled Thor and his companions.
“Potions are magical medicine. So naturally they break if you put in foreign matter that disrupts their harmony—but you see, curry roux is definitely more delicious when simmered with meat and vegetables than eating it as is. I’ve already solidified it with some minced vegetables added, but it absolutely has more substance if it has big chunks of ingredients in it…!”
“Hey, Sis, hold on?”
“Alright, shall we challenge it once more? —Making real curry with meat and vegetables…!”
“It’s plenty delicious as it is! Also, it’s a panacea, not a meal, you know?”
“If it can be a meal too, that’s twice the deliciousness!”
Clenching her fist as she passionately declared that, Karen spun around toward Thor’s companions, who had been watching. When she smiled brightly, they flinched, their shoulders trembling.
“Everyone should practice too, okay?”
“N-No, we…”
“If we accidentally destroy the precious panacea…!”
“In case Thor can’t move, I’ll need you all to make it, so please practice. It’s fine. This is a useful experiment for me too, so I won’t charge for the panacea!”
Karen forcefully urged the pale-faced group to challenge making curry. Probably because they cooked in dungeons, everyone was indeed quite skilled.
Just like with curry, they chopped the ingredients, simmered them in hot water, and then dissolved the roux. While having her panacea destroyed many times by the tearful Thor and his party, Karen came to understand one thing.
“—I see. Using magical ingredients that can be appraised with the appraisal mirror increases the success rate, doesn’t it?”
Just like when Yuluyana had once succeeded in making a soap potion with magical materials, it was likely because one could understand those materials through appraisal results.
However, not everything succeeded. It also seemed that one type of ingredient was the limit. Since they weren’t alchemists, they weren’t adding magical ingredients as proper potion components.
They could just barely avoid breaking the potion because they understood it and because it was appropriate as curry ingredients; however, something essential that defined the potion was being diminished with each added magical ingredient.
Most likely, Karen’s curry roux—that is, the potion—had a limit to what it could accept. And for equally understood ingredients, magical ones consumed more of that capacity than non-magical ones. However, non-magical materials that couldn’t be appraised and couldn’t be "understood" consumed overwhelmingly more capacity and broke the potion.
“Thor was the only one who managed not to break the panacea even after adding non-magical ingredients.”
After repeating success and failure several times, Thor was now challenging making curry with three ingredients added.
“Onions have an effect that makes blood flow well, carrots have beta-carotene or something, and contain the same thing as lemons… pork has protein that becomes muscle…”
Muttering to himself, Thor stirred the curry containing onions, carrots, and pork.
“Sis, it’s done!”
“I’ll appraise it.”
When she appraised it, despite adding three new types of ingredients, it was completed as a small panacea.
“Amazing, Leader. Even though Ms. Karen explained it to us, we couldn’t do it… This is embarrassing for me as a mage… Alchemy is part of magic, so it should be my field.”
She had also explained the effects of non-magical ingredients to the dejected Wanda and others. However, apparently, just hearing the explanation wasn’t enough to reach understanding, and everyone except Thor had failed at making a panacea with non-magical ingredients added.
“Nah, this isn’t really about your ability, Wanda.”
“Leader?”
“The only non-magical ingredients that don’t break the panacea when added are ones whose effects I remember hearing about from Sis when I was a kid. The ones I swallowed whole without question because it was Sis saying it when I was a kid, and ‘understood.’ Sorry, Sis. You taught me all sorts of other things too, right? Would’ve been nice if I’d remembered it all.”
“No, no. I’m happy you remember even a little. It was when you were small, and besides, I’m the only one who said such things.”
And—thanks to Thor, Karen was now almost certain of a particular hypothesis. That was why the "Children of the Dark Night" targeted children. If they were children, they were easier to make "understand." So they abducted children with little magical power and subjected them to harsh education, making them "understand" things they normally couldn’t possibly understand. They likely indoctrinated them, made them believe—truths that were the exact opposite of the ordinary world.
“Sis, you look like you’re having fun?”
“Huh. No, I mean, having fun, that’s not…”
Karen panicked when Thor pointed it out.
Even though she had been thinking about children in tragic circumstances, Karen had apparently been smiling.
“You had a face like Leader’s when he’s toying with prey to death and laughing, Ms. Karen.”
“…You looked so much like our leader at his worst that I might not be able to treat you as a cute girl anymore, Ms. Karen.”
Wanda pointed it out, and Luis averted his face from Karen.
“As expected of Thor’s sister.”
“People favored by the goddess all have that side to them, more or less.”
Odo nodded repeatedly, and Chris smiled wryly.
Having been thoroughly witnessed, Karen gave up on denying it and decided to acknowledge it.
“That’s right—I found this difficult world interesting and couldn’t help but smile.”
She absolutely hadn’t been laughing at the children. The mechanisms of this world, its mysteries, the hidden truths—she simply couldn’t help how delightful, how utterly delightful it was that they were being unraveled little by little before her eyes.
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