Chapter Three Hundred and Forty-Eight: Those Who Watch Over
“Lady Karen, you have a visitor.”
“Me?”
Sara’s voice came through the door, and Karen looked up and responded.
“Is there really anyone in the Ehlertt capital who would come looking for me? Who is it?”
“She said she had something that ought to be returned to you… I beg your pardon. As the visitor is a commoner, I will ask her to come back another day.”
Since Karen had answered, Sara entered the alchemy workshop, only to suddenly stop in her tracks. She must have seen Karen leaning over Julius and immediately tried to make a hasty retreat. However, Karen quickly moved away from Julius and hurriedly stopped her:
“It’s fine! I’ll see her! Julius, you can wait until later, right!? …Right?”
“And just when I had such a rare opportunity to have you make the first move…”
“Julius!”
“Of course, Sara was in no way at fault. When she brought me something to drink while I was waiting, I gave her no indication that this room should be off-limits—and it would be hard to imagine the situation changing so quickly in such a short time…”
Leaving Julius muttering with his face buried in a sofa cushion, Karen followed Sara out of the room.
She didn’t recognize the elderly woman who had been shown to the reception room. She looked like someone who might live in the adventurers’ district—and despite using a cane, she hadn’t sat down on the sofa, standing awkwardly beside it as though unsure what to do with herself.
“Hello. I’m Karen. Please, you don’t have to stand there—sit down.”
“Oh, I couldn’t possibly. Please don’t trouble yourself on my account…”
The old woman said it with a self-deprecating air, then remained standing and, with an expression of considerable tension, began to speak:
“I am honored to meet Baroness for the first time. I am but a humble proprietor of a goods shop. The thing is, through a rather strange chain of events, I came into possession of a potion that I believe belonged to Lady Himmel… and I thought I should return it.”
“…Oh, a potion of mine? Did I drop something?”
Called by the baronial title she wasn’t accustomed to hearing, Karen took a moment to realize she was talking about her. The old woman had apparently come to return a lost item. But what item exactly?
“I have already handed it over to that lady.”
At the old woman’s words, Sara stepped forward and presented a silver tray.
“I am certain someone must have dropped it accidentally, without ill intent. Surely, no one would willingly part with a potion this precious—”
“Oh? This is the panacea I gave Teresa.”
Karen opened the cover of the silver tray and recognized it immediately. She labeled the potions she made for sale differently from those she gave to Teresa, so it was obvious at a glance. She noticed the old woman’s shoulders stiffen and she fell quiet—and the realization clicked into place. The old woman mentioned in Sepl’s report—the proprietor of the goods shop where Teresa had sold the panacea.
“Isn’t this actually the potion Teresa sold to you, rather than a lost item?”
“No, surely not, that—”
“Lady Karen, you’re frightening the shop proprietor with that approach.”
“Hm?”
Sara’s interjection made Karen blink.
“Normally, it would be unacceptable for an adventurer under a noble’s patronage to sell an item gifted to them by that noble instead of using it.”
“Ah. Is that why you came to return it? Even though Teresa sold it to you and received money in exchange? To make sure there wouldn’t be any trouble for Teresa—how thoughtful.”
“I’m sure you genuinely mean that, Lady Karen, but it sounds as though you are slowly backing her into a corner.”
Sara cleared her throat. Karen looked back at the old woman, who had broken into a cold sweat and gone pale—clearly deeply mistaken about what was happening.
“Please don’t worry. I’m not angry at all!”
“Is that so… I am grateful for your generous words. But—will Teresa’s sponsorship be revoked? Even if it is, now that this panacea has been returned to you, surely Teresa’s offense can be—”
“No, no—I have no intention of revoking Teresa’s sponsorship!”
“Then why are you so—”
The old woman trailed off, a look of relief and confusion mingled on her face. Karen watched her for a moment.
“…It seems Teresa has been well looked after by you.”
The old woman averted her gaze as though to escape Karen’s eyes.
“I never did anything kind for that insolent little brat.”
“She is infuriating, isn’t she? With that personality, she’d have a hard time surviving even with magical power. The fact that she’s made it this far must mean someone has been watching over her.”
“Watching over her—I’m just a humble goods-shop owner who had no choice but to buy the junk a girl like Teresa brought in if I wanted to stay in business.”
Karen picked the panacea bottle up from the silver tray and pressed it into the old woman’s free hand—the one not holding the cane. The old woman looked up at Karen with a bewildered expression, and Karen smiled.
“Please use this yourself.”
“But—”
“Teresa said she sold the panacea to fund travel expenses, but she never had the slightest intention of leaving the Ehlertt territory.”
The old woman’s expression shifted to one of complete incomprehension, and Karen kept smiling.
Teresa had wanted to show Lena the reality of the situation—through her own story, through the sight of a magicless child and a parent who had cast that child away. On top of that, she had tried to climb by cutting down her own father. And beyond that, she had wanted to help the old woman who had dealt with her fairly, buying and selling without turning her away.
“That knee of yours doesn’t work, right? The poison from a monster?”
“How did you know…? Ah, but of course. A noble would naturally investigate the background of those around someone they’re sponsoring.”
“The travel funds, the whole incident—it’s possible that everything, even the entire affair, was a pretext Teresa came up with to give you the panacea. She wanted you to have it, and she had to find some way to make it happen.”
Chasing two birds was nowhere near the half of it. Just how many things had Teresa been aiming for at once? Karen may have underestimated her cleverness.
“An incident… So that girl has gone and caused another mess, has she?”
The old woman made a weary face, and Karen laughed and nodded.
“Oh, very much so! Which is why I intend to tease her about all the trouble she went through just to give you that panacea—so please, go ahead and use it. It gives me better material for teasing if you do.”
“Tease her… you say.”
Something in the old woman’s expression finally eased.
“You know that child well, Lady Himmel. She’s not what anyone would call a good girl, not with a clear conscience—but she’s not a bad one either. She’s forever doing foolish things, but… please, don’t abandon her.”
The old woman bowed her head, thinking of Teresa. Karen regarded her warmly.
“I won’t abandon her. Though I intend to treat Teresa as an adventurer, not a child—so it may not look quite the way you’re imagining.”
“No.”
The old woman no longer seemed intimidated by Karen at all, and spoke plainly.
“In fact—from my perspective, I’ve always thought Teresa had the temperament for adventuring. That’s part of why I kept an eye on her.”
“Even without magical power?”
“Even without it, there’s just something about that girl that makes you want to believe she might amount to something. …After all, I was an adventurer once myself.”
The old woman gave a wry grin, took the panacea bottle firmly from Karen’s hand, and bowed deeply.
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