Chapter Two Hundred and Eighty-Six: Fastest Rescue 2
“Huh?”
His face contorted, Licht glared at Karen with a dangerous look as he protested:
“Karen, monsters aren’t overflowing from the dungeon’s depths. That means Julius is still holding back the monsters—but the fact that he can’t finish them off means it’s bad!”
“You can’t fight a war on an empty stomach.”
“We can eat while walking along the way…! You can eat in the wagon!”
“More haste, less speed.”
While Karen spoke nonchalantly, she quickly began preparing the stove.
Looking down at this, Licht ground his teeth.
“Are you saying you don’t care what happens to Julius…!? I want to reach him while he is still alive!”
“If you went ahead alone, Master Licht, you’d be faster, but you’re waiting for me, aren’t you?”
“I can’t leave you behind.”
Even while trembling with rage, Licht answered Karen’s question.
“I promised Julius. —That I’d protect you.”
“You protect me because you promised Mr. Julius, and because you also promised not to interfere with me, you won’t forcibly drag me along. Really, you’re truly faithful to Mr. Julius.”
“Are you testing me? Because I tested you!? At a time like this—or because it’s a time like this!?”
Watching Karen begin pouring water from a barrel into the orichalcum alchemy cauldron, Licht tore at his hair.
“I’m sorry for testing you! I apologize, so don’t put Julius’s life on the scales!”
“I’m making a potion ‘to advance faster.’”
Karen said while placing the alchemy cauldron on the stove.
Licht gasped.
“…There’s such a potion?”
“I’ll make one.”
“You can do it…”
Whoosh, the sharpness vanished from Licht’s expression.
Since entering the dungeon, though it had only been a few days, Karen had been making potions from any ingredients.
Numerous potions that didn’t fit the framework of existing potions, with effects corresponding to whatever ingredients were brought at the time.
Ingredients that previously only became potions when combined with processed foods like carefully prepared miso or soy sauce had recently begun turning into potions on their own. Karen had surely come to understand something new once again. But she still didn’t know what it was.
That was why she still couldn’t ascend the ranks—but she could make potions. She might be able to make potions with any effect. Licht, too, seeing the results Karen had achieved so far, probably thought “she might be able to make it.”
Karen borrowed several ingredients loaded on the wagon. Potatoes, carrots, and onions she’d brought. Karen considered those the quintessential ingredients for standard curry.
Adding thick-cut bacon to these, she cut the ingredients and tossed them into the alchemy cauldron to make a curry with the most delicious and familiar taste.
After boiling the ingredients, watching Karen add curry roux to the alchemy cauldron, and taking it off the fire, Licht frowned.
“…Hey. Isn’t that a panacea?”
“This panacea is also a seasoning in itself.”
Karen gave an evasive answer and continued cooking.
Licht took out his own appraisal mirror, the same magnifying glass type as Karen’s, peered into the alchemy cauldron, and shouted.
“This is nothing but a panacea!?”
“It’s from here. But for now, could you taste it?”
“As if the taste matters…!”
Though Licht spoke irritably, he still accepted the small plate with a small amount of curry from Karen and put it to his mouth. Even this irritated, he listened to Karen’s words. Contrary to appearances, he was probably the type who couldn’t refuse when asked. And Julius could make requests of him.
Karen carefully observed Licht. He took a bite of curry and was about to spit out some harsh remark—then suddenly, his eyes widened as if noticing something.
“Ah—”
“Have you calmed down?”
At Karen’s question, Licht’s eyes widened in surprise.
The emotion that had clouded his pupils disappeared, and Licht looked down at Karen in a daze.
“…Why was I so terrified?”
Licht’s stern expression softened, and his voice held a firmly calm resonance.
Apparently, he had been dominated by the emotion of “fear.” Now that she thought about it, the knight who had tried to flee to the fifth floor earlier and the other knights’ expressions also seemed colored by fear.
Gottfried especially wore an almost ferocious expression, giving off a terribly unapproachable atmosphere, but apparently that wasn’t because he was dying to kill someone but because he was driven by fear.
From Licht’s confused appearance, Karen realized her hypothesis had been correct.
“A panacea—if drinking a magical potion that cures all status abnormalities calmed that agitation, perhaps that agitation was a status abnormality.”
“Don’t tell me we were… under mental interference?”
Licht’s expression became stunned.
“We haven’t encountered any monsters. But they were there? I never sensed their presence… I didn’t even notice that some kind of magic had been cast on me. Me, of all people. — Are monsters from the lower floors overflowing upward? Or were the monsters simply too weak for me to detect? I want to believe it’s the latter…”
If strong monsters from the lower floors were overflowing, that would mean Julius couldn’t completely suppress the monsters.
To Licht, who held his head, Karen calmly conveyed her thoughts:
“I think it’s the ‘monsters too weak’ option.”
“What?”
“This dungeon originally seems designed to cause mental abnormalities in this cave.”
“Designed to cause abnormalities? How do you know that?”
With eyes sincerely praying for it to be so, Licht’s pupils wavered as he waited for Karen’s answer.
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