“Alright! It looks nice, good.”
I looked at the shiny leaves that were bathed in sunlight and smiled.
The medicinal plants which had been blessed in the flowerpots were growing nicely.
They might be growing too well.
I feel like they’re growing faster than they would normally.
Corinna-san, who was observing the growth of the plants with me, also said the same thing.
It might be time to move onto the next stage and conduct experiments on a small field.
I would be going back to the Royal Capital once the demon problem has been dealt with so I wouldn’t be in Klaussner forever.
I should quickly advance in the things I want to do.
Reinforcements from the Royal Capital had arrived here unexpectedly, so Captain-san was extremely busy reorganising the subjugation groups.
Head Magician-sama was also part of the reinforcements, but that person was utterly ignorant of anything but magic.
Even until now, he takes a lot of independent actions during subjugations, and he can’t organise groups, or should I say that he has never done it before.
I wondered if such a person should be in such an important position, but there are probably a lot of reasons for this.
Probably.
The court mages also came from the Royal Capital.
However, the number of mages that Captain-san requested did not come.
Thus, it was necessary to reorganise everyone into two groups. A large group of mages to deal with the slime forest and a smaller group to deal with the rest of the area.
Captain-san always organises the groups.
It seemed like he would finish it promptly, but he hadn’t because we also had the 2nd Knight Order for reinforcements.
The 3rd knight order secretly told me, everyone from the 2nd knight order wanted to join the group in charge of the slimes, and things seemed out of control.
How troublesome.
Anyway, we would probably head on the subjugation mission as soon as the groups are reorganised.
If so, then I want to make some progress in my experiment right now.
Strike the iron while it’s hot.
I finished observing the plants, so I decided to immediately go to the distillation room.
Corinna-san and I talked about the conditions of the plants and future experiments.
She also went to check on the plants every day and thought that it would be better to move onto the next stage of the experiment.
My wish of wanting to experiment on a field was readily accepted.
It seemed that she had already prepared a field for me and as a result, we were headed there now.
It seemed like Corinna-san was also excited that the herbs that couldn’t be grown could be grown again.
We walked nimbly towards the field.
“Mm, is it alright for me to use all this?”
“It’s fine. I have Feudal Lord-sama’s permission.”
The place that I was guided to was a wide ploughed field.
I could see the forest spread out way off in the back, but even so, it was quite wide.
If I want to experiment on different medicinal herbs, then I certainly need a wide field.
But, is it alright for me to use a field this big for my current experiment?
I hesitated for a bit, but pulled myself together and decided to activate the 【Saint】technique when Corinna-san said, “Let’s begin.”
It was embarrassing to cast the technique in front of others, but I have to endure it.
I’ve blessed the flowerpots in front of Corinna-san before.
Don’t think about it too much.
I exhaled once and concentrated so that I could cast the technique.
After a while, there was a sign that magic was drifting in the air around us.
I concentrated without paying attention to the magic, and the range of the magic rapidly spread wider.
When the magic spread to a section of the field, I thought, please grow medicinal herbs, as I activated the 【Saint】technique.
“Was that the 【Saint】technique just now?” The surface of the field was shining white and converged as a voice called out from behind me.
Being startled, I turned around and saw the beautiful Head Magician-sama walking our way.
Corinna-san, who was standing next to me, also had her eyes widened in surprise, so she probably hadn’t expected him to show up here.
Well, of course, she would be, blessing the fields was a confidential matter in this fief.
Corinna-san told me earlier that people were under strict orders to stay away from here today.
However, that order didn’t seem to have reached the division heads.
It couldn’t be helped since the command system was different, but this might be a little bad.
“Good morning.”
“Good morning. And what was that just now?”
“It was the 【Saint】technique.”
“I knew it! You can activate it freely now, can’t you!?”
He didn’t let me brush it off with greetings.
I reluctantly admitted that it was the 【Saint】technique and Head Magician-sama’s expression seemed to become brighter.
From Head Magician-sama’s reaction, perhaps, did he not know that I could activate the technique freely now?
“By the way, why are you activating the technique in a place like this?” When I thought that the reaction of Head Magician-sama, who had just heard this now, was strange, he continued to fire difficult questions at me.
Mmm, what should I say…?
It’ll be a problem if I tell him the truth.
“When I consulted with Feudal Lord-sama about where to practice my technique, I was guided to this place.”
“Really?”
“Yes, it’s a big area, and there’s nothing planted here right now. The 【Saint】technique might damage the field.”
“I see.”
Even I thought that it was a poor excuse, but I couldn’t talk about blessing, so I could only avoid the topic.
However, Head Magician-sama seemed to have accepted that excuse.
Is that okay? I looked at Corinna-san, and her expression hadn’t changed, so it should be.
“It doesn’t seem damaged, but it might have influenced the soil.”
“Huh?”
“For some reason, I can feel mysterious magic coming from the soil.” Head Magician-sama grumbled as he put a hand to his chin and looked at the soil.
I couldn’t tell at all, but it seemed like the excellent Head Magician-sama could tell the difference when it came to magic.
Corrina-san didn’t seem to know who Head Magician-sama was and her eyebrow twitched when he spoke.
It’s okay.
Head Magician-sama may know a lot about magic, but I don’t think he knows about blessing.
But he might have sensed something.
Corinna-san glanced at me, so I put those feelings into my nod.
The details probably couldn’t be conveyed to her with that so I will explain it to her later.
Now, let’s return to the subject at hand.
The mysterious magic that he felt from the soil is, of course, the 【Saint】technique.
Well, I did cast the 【Saint】technique on it.
I heard from Head Magician-sama before that living things have magic, but is it normal that inanimate objects, like dirt, don’t?
Soil couldn’t be summed up in one word since it’s possible that microorganism might be in there, and blessing might have affected those things.
Or is it possible that I granted magic to some kind of mineral?
The possibilities would be endless if I think about it, but it seems possible.
When I told them that, Head Magician-sama and Corinna-san both listened to me with interest.
Perhaps, they’re two peas in a pod?
They exchanged their opinions while we were talking and it seemed like they had both reached an understanding.
Somehow, they’re getting along.
That’s good.
That’s good, but…
“So, shall we try it on the next part?”
It might have been a mistake to mention that I was practising the technique.
Head Magician-sama smiled a smile which made women fall for him and requested I use blessing.
He was excited that he was able to observe the 【Saint】technique that he had waited so long to see.
For some reason, Corinna-san also agreed.
Huh? Do I have to activate the technique while Head Magician-sama is watching me?
No, that, it takes time to activate it…
I also, have to prepare myself…
Practice makes perfect?
No, like I said…
Nooooooooo!!!
◊♦◊♦◊♦◊
I activated the 【Saint】technique while taking frequent breaks, and we went our separate ways after I had finished blessing all the experimental fields.
My job was only to bless the fields, and the gardeners are the ones who will be sowing the seeds.
I entrusted Corinna-san with instructing the gardeners and left with Head Magician-sama to where the knights were stationed.
I actually wanted to watch them sow the seeds, but Head Magician-sama had things he wanted to ask me, so it ended up like this.
The thing he wanted to ask about was, in all likelihood, the 【Saint】technique.
He asked me a lot of questions when I was taking breaks between casting blessing.
When we got to where the knights were stationed, Head Magician-sama went straight to the 2nd floor.
I followed after him, and we ended up in a room that wasn’t Captain-san’s office.
It seems like this is the room that Head Magician-sama is using.
In a way, he was the Head Magician of the Court Mage Division, so he got his own room.
The furniture was arranged in the same manner as Captain-san’s office.
The only different thing was the number of documents on top of the desk.
Of course, Captain-san would have more since he managed the knights.
The things on top of Head Magician-sama’s desk are, without a doubt, only documents necessary for research.
I looked around the room, and he suggested that I sit down on the sofa.
After a while, I sat down, and the servants brought us herbal tea and cookies.
Is this chamomile tea?
It smells nice.
When I looked at the light amber liquid and sipped it, Head Magician-sama fired the first shot, “Contrary to my expectation, the 【Saint】technique uses a lot of magic.”
“It does.” I nodded in reply to his words.
As Head Magician-sama said, the 【Saint】technique used up quite a lot of MP.
In essence, AOE magic used more MP in proportion to the range of the effect and the level of difficulty of the skill.
The 【Saint】technique was like AOE magic, thus the broader the scope of the effect, the more MP it needed.
However, the width of a part of the field which I worked on today wasn’t unusually wide.
Nevertheless, I had blessed two parts of the field, and my MP had almost depleted, so the original MP needed for the skill must have been really high.
Blessing had a high-effect so I couldn’t abandon the possibility that it might use a lot of MP.
Therefore, I took a break to recover my MP in between blessing the field.
Head Magician-sama had been restless, but I had to do this.
I could continue to bless without resting if I took an MP potion, but I didn’t want to with the herb storage right now.
Even without using potions, MP and HP would gradually recover over time like stamina.
It took time, but if you wait, by either standing or sitting, then it will recover.
It was better not to use potions if there was no rush.
Both Head Magician-sama and Corinna-san know that there is a herb shortage.
Therefore, I convinced him by telling him that my MP was running out.
But, Head Magician-sama is Head Magician-sama after all.
He asked me a lot of questions about the 【Saint】technique during the break.
Like, what did I realise when he wasn’t around?
“We’ll need to prepare a lot of potions in the next mission. There are more mages too.”
“Yes. There aren’t enough ingredients, but I want to prepare as many Advanced Potions as possible.”
“Shall I train you so that you’ll be able to activate the technique faster? From what I can see, you can’t cast it fast, can you?”
“…”
Head Magician-sama put his hand to his chin, and I reflectively avoided his gaze.
Faster than now?
That’s rather hard.
I have to prepare my mind a lot before I can activate the technique.
But it’s more or less better for me to train.
I can activate the technique now, but the time it takes me to activate it varies.
If I can keep the activation time constant by training it, then it’s better for me to train.
“Speaking of which, what was the activation condition?” I thought about training while looking in the opposite direction, and he launched his next attack.
“Excuse me?”
He repeated himself when I turned around and asked him what he’d said.
Conditions… The conditions?
Say it?
I can’t.
“Errmmmm…”
“………”
His gaze made me uncomfortable while I was worrying about how to answer.
The activation conditions weren’t even written in 【Pharmacist-sama’s】diary, which Corinna-san had let me read.
I could have used it as an answer if she’d written something about it!
“Is it hard to say?” A pursuit question was shot off by Head Magician-sama while my gaze shook from left to right as I thought.
“Uoah…” I got tongue-tied, and he nodded his head as if he’d accepted the situation.
“I see. So it’s hard for you to say it.”
“Uuo…”
“Well, that’s fine. We’ll stop here for now.”
“Huh?”
I knew that this was a positive thing, but I averted my gaze away again because I felt guilty.
Then, he quickly dropped the subject.
He smiled back at me when I widened my eyes in surprise.
“Is this fine?”
“Will you answer it then?”
“No…”
“You don’t have to fret. I really don’t mind if you don’t answer.”
A chill ran down my spine when he smiled really beautifully.
Why?
I heard a knock at the door when I was trembling while talking to him.
Captain-san answered when Head Magician-sama asked who it was.
My heart jumped because the topic that we were talking about was him.
“Come in.”
“Sorry for interrupting your research.”
Captain-san noticed me when he entered the room, and his eyes opened slightly in surprise.
People would generally think that we’re taking a break because of the herb tea and cookies on the table, but the reason why he concluded that this is about research is probably because that is who Head Magician-sama is.
“Don’t worry. So, what can I do for you?”
“Oh, I’ll excuse myself if you’re going to talk about work.”
I got up since I thought it was better if I wasn’t here if they were talking about work, but Captain-san stopped me.
“No, I want you to hear this as well, Sei. I finished re-organising the groups, so I came here to get it confirmed.”
It seems like he came here to get confirmation on the groups, but does he have something else he wants to talk about?
When I tilted my head in curiosity, Head Magician-sama offered a seat to Captain-san, and he sat down next to me.
“This is the plan.”
“…… I also don’t have a problem with this plan.”
Head Magician-sama received the paper with the group formation written on it. He read it and nodded.
“Thanks. Then we’ll go with this.”
“Do you also agree, Sei?”
I thought it would be over after Head Magician-sama confirmed the groups, but for some reason he asked me for my confirmation.
“Eh? Is it alright?”
“I don’t mind. Please confirm it.”
Captain-san had given his approval so I read the paper I’d received from Head Magician-sama and I somehow understood why Head Magician-sama had asked for my opinion.
The reason was that some of the knights from the 2nd Knight Order will also be going to the slime forest.
I see, so it’s those people…
I found some familiar names on the plan and remembered the people who helped me carry books from the Royal Library to the research institute.
Forgive me for looking off into the distance.
There were more mages in the group this time since physical attacks didn’t do much damage to slimes.
All the mages who could use attack magic were placed in this group.
The number of knights has also increased, so it was a much larger group than last time.
According to Captain-san, he added knights in the group to escort the mages.
Of course, the chosen knights were all people known for their defence.
Not everyone was going to the slime forest.
There were also people, who came from the Royal Capital, that would be going to the other forests.
Since we had more people, he decided to do the subjugations at the same time.
The organisation of the groups was different than usual. The groups either had one healer or none at all.
The groups without mages had to do their best with only potions.
It might be better if I make more HP potions than usual.
“Are there a lot of slimes? I can’t wait.” I heard Head Magician-sama’s voice while I was thinking about potions.
I looked up from the paper and saw Head Magician-sama looking ecstatic.
His expression is that.
The dangerous one.
In the West Forest, he had held back, but he might not hold himself back this time.
I’m begging you, please don’t burn the forest along with the slimes.
I couldn’t help but wish in my mind because of his expression.
◊♦◊♦◊♦◊
After talking with Head Magician-sama and Captain-san, I returned to the distillation room.
We will be heading to the slime forest again in a few days since the groups had been set.
I was setting on making potions and preparing for the trip, but I was caught by Corinna-san before I could start.
Corinna-san saw me and beckoned me to her as soon as I’d entered the distillation room.
I followed her to the back room and she closed the door.
Seems like we’ll be talking about confidential matters.
Which means, we’ll probably be talking about blessing and Head Magician-sama.
It seems like she was curious about Head Magician-sama when we were at the fields.
“What’s wrong?”
“I wanted to ask about that gentleman. Looks like he came from the Royal Capital, but who the heck is he?”
Corinna-san wanted to ask about Head Magician-sama after all.
“The man with the dark blue hair?”
“Yes, him. The pretty and important looking man. Looks like you know him?”
“I do. His name is Dreves-sama. He’s the Head Magician of the Court Mage Division.”
“The Court Mage Division’s? No wonder…”
She nodded in satisfaction when I told her that he was the Head Magician of the Court Mage division.
When I asked about it in more detail, it was just as I’d expected.
She was worried when Head Magician-sama had pointed out that there was magic packed in the soil at the medicinal field.
Apparently, she was worried that I’d blabbed about blessing when he’d pointed this out, but after talking to him, she’d realised that I probably hadn’t.
“You haven’t told him anything right?”
“I haven’t, since it’s a confidential matter in this fief after all.”
“Thanks. I’m just asking just in case.”
“I know you had to in your position.”
“Sorry. For a second there, I had actually doubted you and thought you’d told him. But, when I talked to him…”
Corinna-san must have recalled what they had talked about and smiled wryly.
At that time, Head Magician-sama seemed really excited and had gotten really technical when he talked about magic.
It also looked to me as if Corinna-san was having a lot of fun talking with him, but apparently the content was too difficult for her to follow.
Their conversation was a bit difficult to follow, so I stopped listening half way and concentrated on activating the technique.
“But, he’s a real piece of work. It looks like he’d get to the bottom of it even if we don’t say anything.”
“He probably could.”
He’ll definitely get to the bottom of it.
Head Magician-sama had researched a lot about the【Saint】so that he could perform the 【Saint Summoning Ceremony】.
He probably knows that one of the past【Saints】was from Klaussner.
This time, he’d noticed that magic dwelled in the soil after I’d cast the 【Saint】technique.
He would probably suspect the involvement of the 【Saint】if he realises that herbs that can’t be grown in other places could be grown in Klaussner.
From there, he’ll probably realise that 【Pharmacist-sama】, spoken of at Klaussner, and the【Saint】from Klaussner are the same person by connecting all the pieces together.
I’d noticed that she was the saint from the clues in her diary, but Head Magician-sama would probably realise this even if he didn’t have any clues because he’s a talented individual.
Observe the fields and derive the correct answer from it.
It seems like he’d enjoy this process a lot because he loves magic.
Huh?
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing, something’s bugging me…”
What is it? Something’s bugging me right now.
But, no matter how much I thought, I didn’t know what was bugging me.
I wonder if it’ll come to me later.
Anyway, let’s prepare for the next subjugation.
I stopped thinking about blessing and Head Magician-sama and decided to make potions.
We went back to the other room while I discussed the type and amount of potions I would need to prepare with Corinna-san.
I confirmed the stock in the ledger that was in the distillation room and found out that there wasn’t enough herbs to make MP potions.
I was a bit worried over this, but I discussed it with Corinna-san and she decided to pick some up from the distributor at the fief.
Although they hadn’t found the black swamp yet, Head Magician-sama and Captain-san both agreed that it was probably in the slime forest.
From that, they concluded that the subjugation mission was finally coming to an end and that there was no need to be stingy about potions now.
They also considered what would happened if they didn’t find the black swamp in the slime forest and considered getting additional herbs to the fief capital from neighbouring towns.
We decided to ask Feudal Lord-sama to handle the procedure because a lot of herbs were being moved around in the fief.
A lot of preparations needed to be done, so we asked the pharmacists in the distillation room to help me.
Corinna-san instructed the pharmacists one by one, and the distillation room suddenly got busy.
Everyone got busy and started moving: one person went to contact Feudal Lord-sama, one person headed to the warehouse where the herbs were stored, and another prepared the tools for potion making.
I was responsible for setting up the tools so that the potions could be made as soon as the ingredients got here.
A short while after, the person who went to the warehouse came back with herbs.
“Thank you very much.”
“There’s still a lot of herbs. So keep making them and make some space for more herbs.”
“Okay.”
I thanked the pharmacist who’d brought the herbs and he immediately turned to go back to the warehouse.
I had to make a lot of potions so the area reserved for the ingredients was packed with herbs in no time.
I also have to work.
I rolled up my sleeves and threw the herbs into the large cauldron.
When I started to stir the cauldron, I heard a lively voice behind me.
I turned my head around and saw that the mercenaries were helping the pharmacist carry the herbs.
“Hey!”
Leo-san was also with the mercenaries and he raised both his hands to greet me when he saw me.
“Hello, Leo-san. What happened?”
“Ah. I saw someone who looked like a civil official carrying a lot of stuff. I wondered what was going on so I asked them and it turned out they were carrying herbs. We always use the potions here, so we decided to help out.”
“Thank you very much.”
I continued working as we talked and wooden boxes filled with herbs were rapidly being piled up at the wall.
If I don’t work quickly then wouldn’t we run out of space to put the wooden boxes?
I moved my hands quickly and Leo-san spoke to me again, “Anyway, you’re making a lot this time. You don’t usually make this many potions, right?”
“Yes. We have more knights now, and the demon this time is a little unique.”
“Oh, the slime?”
“You also heard about them?”
“Yeah. I’m the boss of the mercenaries even if I look like this. I heard about it from Feudal Lord-sama.”
“I see.”
Now that he mentions it, he is too.
Leo-san is in charge of the mercenaries at Klaussner, so there’s no way he didn’t hear about the slimes.
“Are you going on the slime subjugation too?”
“Yeah. I’m attacking? Well, I can use magic too.”
I questioned whether or not I could call the 【Saint】technique a magic attack. It should be fine since it works on demons?
I thought as we talked and my tone turned into a questioning one.
“Why’re you tilting your head in confusion?”
“Well, my technique is a bit special.”
“Ooh.”
Leo-san immediately retorted, so my answer became muddy. It looked like he’d come up with various assumptions.
“It’s better to have more mages when we subjugate slimes.”
“It is. Physical attack doesn’t seem to work very well.”
“So, the knights who are coming along will be the escorts?”
As Leo-san had guessed, the knights headed to the slime forest were guarding the mages.
But, it would be a problem if I were to tell Leo-san the formation of the groups, so I laughed vaguely to end this conversation.
Leo-san didn’t seem to care that I hadn’t replied to him. He folded his arms and looked as if he was thinking about something.
What’s he thinking about?
I got curious and gazed at him absently.
After a while, Leo-san lifted his face up. He saw that my hands had stopped moving and said, “Your hands have stopped moving.”
“Huh?”
“If you don’t finish making those potions, then we won’t have any space left.”
I looked at the wall and saw that there were more boxes there now.
It looks like we’ll run out of space soon.
Oh no, I have to quickly finish these.
I quickly moved my hands and Leo-san left the distillation room to go get the next box.
In the end, I couldn’t ask Leo-san what he was thinking about, and I didn’t find out about it until the day we left for the slime forest.
Translator: Blushy
Editor: Sam
“Alright! It looks nice, good.”
I looked at the shiny leaves that were bathed in sunlight and smiled.
The medicinal plants which had been blessed in the flowerpots were growing nicely.
They might be growing too well.
I feel like they’re growing faster than they would normally.
Corinna-san, who was observing the growth of the plants with me, also said the same thing.
It might be time to move onto the next stage and conduct experiments on a small field.
I would be going back to the Royal Capital once the demon problem has been dealt with so I wouldn’t be in Klaussner forever.
I should quickly advance in the things I want to do.
Reinforcements from the Royal Capital had arrived here unexpectedly, so Captain-san was extremely busy reorganising the subjugation groups.
Head Magician-sama was also part of the reinforcements, but that person was utterly ignorant of anything but magic.
Even until now, he takes a lot of independent actions during subjugations, and he can’t organise groups, or should I say that he has never done it before.
I wondered if such a person should be in such an important position, but there are probably a lot of reasons for this.
Probably.
The court mages also came from the Royal Capital.
However, the number of mages that Captain-san requested did not come.
Thus, it was necessary to reorganise everyone into two groups. A large group of mages to deal with the slime forest and a smaller group to deal with the rest of the area.
Captain-san always organises the groups.
It seemed like he would finish it promptly, but he hadn’t because we also had the 2nd Knight Order for reinforcements.
The 3rd knight order secretly told me, everyone from the 2nd knight order wanted to join the group in charge of the slimes, and things seemed out of control.
How troublesome.
Anyway, we would probably head on the subjugation mission as soon as the groups are reorganised.
If so, then I want to make some progress in my experiment right now.
Strike the iron while it’s hot.
I finished observing the plants, so I decided to immediately go to the distillation room.
Corinna-san and I talked about the conditions of the plants and future experiments.
She also went to check on the plants every day and thought that it would be better to move onto the next stage of the experiment.
My wish of wanting to experiment on a field was readily accepted.
It seemed that she had already prepared a field for me and as a result, we were headed there now.
It seemed like Corinna-san was also excited that the herbs that couldn’t be grown could be grown again.
We walked nimbly towards the field.
“Mm, is it alright for me to use all this?”
“It’s fine. I have Feudal Lord-sama’s permission.”
The place that I was guided to was a wide ploughed field.
I could see the forest spread out way off in the back, but even so, it was quite wide.
If I want to experiment on different medicinal herbs, then I certainly need a wide field.
But, is it alright for me to use a field this big for my current experiment?
I hesitated for a bit, but pulled myself together and decided to activate the 【Saint】technique when Corinna-san said, “Let’s begin.”
It was embarrassing to cast the technique in front of others, but I have to endure it.
I’ve blessed the flowerpots in front of Corinna-san before.
Don’t think about it too much.
I exhaled once and concentrated so that I could cast the technique.
After a while, there was a sign that magic was drifting in the air around us.
I concentrated without paying attention to the magic, and the range of the magic rapidly spread wider.
When the magic spread to a section of the field, I thought, please grow medicinal herbs, as I activated the 【Saint】technique.
“Was that the 【Saint】technique just now?” The surface of the field was shining white and converged as a voice called out from behind me.
Being startled, I turned around and saw the beautiful Head Magician-sama walking our way.
Corinna-san, who was standing next to me, also had her eyes widened in surprise, so she probably hadn’t expected him to show up here.
Well, of course, she would be, blessing the fields was a confidential matter in this fief.
Corinna-san told me earlier that people were under strict orders to stay away from here today.
However, that order didn’t seem to have reached the division heads.
It couldn’t be helped since the command system was different, but this might be a little bad.
“Good morning.”
“Good morning. And what was that just now?”
“It was the 【Saint】technique.”
“I knew it! You can activate it freely now, can’t you!?”
He didn’t let me brush it off with greetings.
I reluctantly admitted that it was the 【Saint】technique and Head Magician-sama’s expression seemed to become brighter.
From Head Magician-sama’s reaction, perhaps, did he not know that I could activate the technique freely now?
“By the way, why are you activating the technique in a place like this?” When I thought that the reaction of Head Magician-sama, who had just heard this now, was strange, he continued to fire difficult questions at me.
Mmm, what should I say…?
It’ll be a problem if I tell him the truth.
“When I consulted with Feudal Lord-sama about where to practice my technique, I was guided to this place.”
“Really?”
“Yes, it’s a big area, and there’s nothing planted here right now. The 【Saint】technique might damage the field.”
“I see.”
Even I thought that it was a poor excuse, but I couldn’t talk about blessing, so I could only avoid the topic.
However, Head Magician-sama seemed to have accepted that excuse.
Is that okay? I looked at Corinna-san, and her expression hadn’t changed, so it should be.
“It doesn’t seem damaged, but it might have influenced the soil.”
“Huh?”
“For some reason, I can feel mysterious magic coming from the soil.” Head Magician-sama grumbled as he put a hand to his chin and looked at the soil.
I couldn’t tell at all, but it seemed like the excellent Head Magician-sama could tell the difference when it came to magic.
Corrina-san didn’t seem to know who Head Magician-sama was and her eyebrow twitched when he spoke.
It’s okay.
Head Magician-sama may know a lot about magic, but I don’t think he knows about blessing.
But he might have sensed something.
Corinna-san glanced at me, so I put those feelings into my nod.
The details probably couldn’t be conveyed to her with that so I will explain it to her later.
Now, let’s return to the subject at hand.
The mysterious magic that he felt from the soil is, of course, the 【Saint】technique.
Well, I did cast the 【Saint】technique on it.
I heard from Head Magician-sama before that living things have magic, but is it normal that inanimate objects, like dirt, don’t?
Soil couldn’t be summed up in one word since it’s possible that microorganism might be in there, and blessing might have affected those things.
Or is it possible that I granted magic to some kind of mineral?
The possibilities would be endless if I think about it, but it seems possible.
When I told them that, Head Magician-sama and Corinna-san both listened to me with interest.
Perhaps, they’re two peas in a pod?
They exchanged their opinions while we were talking and it seemed like they had both reached an understanding.
Somehow, they’re getting along.
That’s good.
That’s good, but…
“So, shall we try it on the next part?”
It might have been a mistake to mention that I was practising the technique.
Head Magician-sama smiled a smile which made women fall for him and requested I use blessing.
He was excited that he was able to observe the 【Saint】technique that he had waited so long to see.
For some reason, Corinna-san also agreed.
Huh? Do I have to activate the technique while Head Magician-sama is watching me?
No, that, it takes time to activate it…
I also, have to prepare myself…
Practice makes perfect?
No, like I said…
Nooooooooo!!!
◊♦◊♦◊♦◊
I activated the 【Saint】technique while taking frequent breaks, and we went our separate ways after I had finished blessing all the experimental fields.
My job was only to bless the fields, and the gardeners are the ones who will be sowing the seeds.
I entrusted Corinna-san with instructing the gardeners and left with Head Magician-sama to where the knights were stationed.
I actually wanted to watch them sow the seeds, but Head Magician-sama had things he wanted to ask me, so it ended up like this.
The thing he wanted to ask about was, in all likelihood, the 【Saint】technique.
He asked me a lot of questions when I was taking breaks between casting blessing.
When we got to where the knights were stationed, Head Magician-sama went straight to the 2nd floor.
I followed after him, and we ended up in a room that wasn’t Captain-san’s office.
It seems like this is the room that Head Magician-sama is using.
In a way, he was the Head Magician of the Court Mage Division, so he got his own room.
The furniture was arranged in the same manner as Captain-san’s office.
The only different thing was the number of documents on top of the desk.
Of course, Captain-san would have more since he managed the knights.
The things on top of Head Magician-sama’s desk are, without a doubt, only documents necessary for research.
I looked around the room, and he suggested that I sit down on the sofa.
After a while, I sat down, and the servants brought us herbal tea and cookies.
Is this chamomile tea?
It smells nice.
When I looked at the light amber liquid and sipped it, Head Magician-sama fired the first shot, “Contrary to my expectation, the 【Saint】technique uses a lot of magic.”
“It does.” I nodded in reply to his words.
As Head Magician-sama said, the 【Saint】technique used up quite a lot of MP.
In essence, AOE magic used more MP in proportion to the range of the effect and the level of difficulty of the skill.
The 【Saint】technique was like AOE magic, thus the broader the scope of the effect, the more MP it needed.
However, the width of a part of the field which I worked on today wasn’t unusually wide.
Nevertheless, I had blessed two parts of the field, and my MP had almost depleted, so the original MP needed for the skill must have been really high.
Blessing had a high-effect so I couldn’t abandon the possibility that it might use a lot of MP.
Therefore, I took a break to recover my MP in between blessing the field.
Head Magician-sama had been restless, but I had to do this.
I could continue to bless without resting if I took an MP potion, but I didn’t want to with the herb storage right now.
Even without using potions, MP and HP would gradually recover over time like stamina.
It took time, but if you wait, by either standing or sitting, then it will recover.
It was better not to use potions if there was no rush.
Both Head Magician-sama and Corinna-san know that there is a herb shortage.
Therefore, I convinced him by telling him that my MP was running out.
But, Head Magician-sama is Head Magician-sama after all.
He asked me a lot of questions about the 【Saint】technique during the break.
Like, what did I realise when he wasn’t around?
“We’ll need to prepare a lot of potions in the next mission. There are more mages too.”
“Yes. There aren’t enough ingredients, but I want to prepare as many Advanced Potions as possible.”
“Shall I train you so that you’ll be able to activate the technique faster? From what I can see, you can’t cast it fast, can you?”
“…”
Head Magician-sama put his hand to his chin, and I reflectively avoided his gaze.
Faster than now?
That’s rather hard.
I have to prepare my mind a lot before I can activate the technique.
But it’s more or less better for me to train.
I can activate the technique now, but the time it takes me to activate it varies.
If I can keep the activation time constant by training it, then it’s better for me to train.
“Speaking of which, what was the activation condition?” I thought about training while looking in the opposite direction, and he launched his next attack.
“Excuse me?”
He repeated himself when I turned around and asked him what he’d said.
Conditions… The conditions?
Say it?
I can’t.
“Errmmmm…”
“………”
His gaze made me uncomfortable while I was worrying about how to answer.
The activation conditions weren’t even written in 【Pharmacist-sama’s】diary, which Corinna-san had let me read.
I could have used it as an answer if she’d written something about it!
“Is it hard to say?” A pursuit question was shot off by Head Magician-sama while my gaze shook from left to right as I thought.
“Uoah…” I got tongue-tied, and he nodded his head as if he’d accepted the situation.
“I see. So it’s hard for you to say it.”
“Uuo…”
“Well, that’s fine. We’ll stop here for now.”
“Huh?”
I knew that this was a positive thing, but I averted my gaze away again because I felt guilty.
Then, he quickly dropped the subject.
He smiled back at me when I widened my eyes in surprise.
“Is this fine?”
“Will you answer it then?”
“No…”
“You don’t have to fret. I really don’t mind if you don’t answer.”
A chill ran down my spine when he smiled really beautifully.
Why?
I heard a knock at the door when I was trembling while talking to him.
Captain-san answered when Head Magician-sama asked who it was.
My heart jumped because the topic that we were talking about was him.
“Come in.”
“Sorry for interrupting your research.”
Captain-san noticed me when he entered the room, and his eyes opened slightly in surprise.
People would generally think that we’re taking a break because of the herb tea and cookies on the table, but the reason why he concluded that this is about research is probably because that is who Head Magician-sama is.
“Don’t worry. So, what can I do for you?”
“Oh, I’ll excuse myself if you’re going to talk about work.”
I got up since I thought it was better if I wasn’t here if they were talking about work, but Captain-san stopped me.
“No, I want you to hear this as well, Sei. I finished re-organising the groups, so I came here to get it confirmed.”
It seems like he came here to get confirmation on the groups, but does he have something else he wants to talk about?
When I tilted my head in curiosity, Head Magician-sama offered a seat to Captain-san, and he sat down next to me.
“This is the plan.”
“…… I also don’t have a problem with this plan.”
Head Magician-sama received the paper with the group formation written on it. He read it and nodded.
“Thanks. Then we’ll go with this.”
“Do you also agree, Sei?”
I thought it would be over after Head Magician-sama confirmed the groups, but for some reason he asked me for my confirmation.
“Eh? Is it alright?”
“I don’t mind. Please confirm it.”
Captain-san had given his approval so I read the paper I’d received from Head Magician-sama and I somehow understood why Head Magician-sama had asked for my opinion.
The reason was that some of the knights from the 2nd Knight Order will also be going to the slime forest.
I see, so it’s those people…
I found some familiar names on the plan and remembered the people who helped me carry books from the Royal Library to the research institute.
Forgive me for looking off into the distance.
There were more mages in the group this time since physical attacks didn’t do much damage to slimes.
All the mages who could use attack magic were placed in this group.
The number of knights has also increased, so it was a much larger group than last time.
According to Captain-san, he added knights in the group to escort the mages.
Of course, the chosen knights were all people known for their defence.
Not everyone was going to the slime forest.
There were also people, who came from the Royal Capital, that would be going to the other forests.
Since we had more people, he decided to do the subjugations at the same time.
The organisation of the groups was different than usual. The groups either had one healer or none at all.
The groups without mages had to do their best with only potions.
It might be better if I make more HP potions than usual.
“Are there a lot of slimes? I can’t wait.” I heard Head Magician-sama’s voice while I was thinking about potions.
I looked up from the paper and saw Head Magician-sama looking ecstatic.
His expression is that.
The dangerous one.
In the West Forest, he had held back, but he might not hold himself back this time.
I’m begging you, please don’t burn the forest along with the slimes.
I couldn’t help but wish in my mind because of his expression.
◊♦◊♦◊♦◊
After talking with Head Magician-sama and Captain-san, I returned to the distillation room.
We will be heading to the slime forest again in a few days since the groups had been set.
I was setting on making potions and preparing for the trip, but I was caught by Corinna-san before I could start.
Corinna-san saw me and beckoned me to her as soon as I’d entered the distillation room.
I followed her to the back room and she closed the door.
Seems like we’ll be talking about confidential matters.
Which means, we’ll probably be talking about blessing and Head Magician-sama.
It seems like she was curious about Head Magician-sama when we were at the fields.
“What’s wrong?”
“I wanted to ask about that gentleman. Looks like he came from the Royal Capital, but who the heck is he?”
Corinna-san wanted to ask about Head Magician-sama after all.
“The man with the dark blue hair?”
“Yes, him. The pretty and important looking man. Looks like you know him?”
“I do. His name is Dreves-sama. He’s the Head Magician of the Court Mage Division.”
“The Court Mage Division’s? No wonder…”
She nodded in satisfaction when I told her that he was the Head Magician of the Court Mage division.
When I asked about it in more detail, it was just as I’d expected.
She was worried when Head Magician-sama had pointed out that there was magic packed in the soil at the medicinal field.
Apparently, she was worried that I’d blabbed about blessing when he’d pointed this out, but after talking to him, she’d realised that I probably hadn’t.
“You haven’t told him anything right?”
“I haven’t, since it’s a confidential matter in this fief after all.”
“Thanks. I’m just asking just in case.”
“I know you had to in your position.”
“Sorry. For a second there, I had actually doubted you and thought you’d told him. But, when I talked to him…”
Corinna-san must have recalled what they had talked about and smiled wryly.
At that time, Head Magician-sama seemed really excited and had gotten really technical when he talked about magic.
It also looked to me as if Corinna-san was having a lot of fun talking with him, but apparently the content was too difficult for her to follow.
Their conversation was a bit difficult to follow, so I stopped listening half way and concentrated on activating the technique.
“But, he’s a real piece of work. It looks like he’d get to the bottom of it even if we don’t say anything.”
“He probably could.”
He’ll definitely get to the bottom of it.
Head Magician-sama had researched a lot about the【Saint】so that he could perform the 【Saint Summoning Ceremony】.
He probably knows that one of the past【Saints】was from Klaussner.
This time, he’d noticed that magic dwelled in the soil after I’d cast the 【Saint】technique.
He would probably suspect the involvement of the 【Saint】if he realises that herbs that can’t be grown in other places could be grown in Klaussner.
From there, he’ll probably realise that 【Pharmacist-sama】, spoken of at Klaussner, and the【Saint】from Klaussner are the same person by connecting all the pieces together.
I’d noticed that she was the saint from the clues in her diary, but Head Magician-sama would probably realise this even if he didn’t have any clues because he’s a talented individual.
Observe the fields and derive the correct answer from it.
It seems like he’d enjoy this process a lot because he loves magic.
Huh?
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing, something’s bugging me…”
What is it? Something’s bugging me right now.
But, no matter how much I thought, I didn’t know what was bugging me.
I wonder if it’ll come to me later.
Anyway, let’s prepare for the next subjugation.
I stopped thinking about blessing and Head Magician-sama and decided to make potions.
We went back to the other room while I discussed the type and amount of potions I would need to prepare with Corinna-san.
I confirmed the stock in the ledger that was in the distillation room and found out that there wasn’t enough herbs to make MP potions.
I was a bit worried over this, but I discussed it with Corinna-san and she decided to pick some up from the distributor at the fief.
Although they hadn’t found the black swamp yet, Head Magician-sama and Captain-san both agreed that it was probably in the slime forest.
From that, they concluded that the subjugation mission was finally coming to an end and that there was no need to be stingy about potions now.
They also considered what would happened if they didn’t find the black swamp in the slime forest and considered getting additional herbs to the fief capital from neighbouring towns.
We decided to ask Feudal Lord-sama to handle the procedure because a lot of herbs were being moved around in the fief.
A lot of preparations needed to be done, so we asked the pharmacists in the distillation room to help me.
Corinna-san instructed the pharmacists one by one, and the distillation room suddenly got busy.
Everyone got busy and started moving: one person went to contact Feudal Lord-sama, one person headed to the warehouse where the herbs were stored, and another prepared the tools for potion making.
I was responsible for setting up the tools so that the potions could be made as soon as the ingredients got here.
A short while after, the person who went to the warehouse came back with herbs.
“Thank you very much.”
“There’s still a lot of herbs. So keep making them and make some space for more herbs.”
“Okay.”
I thanked the pharmacist who’d brought the herbs and he immediately turned to go back to the warehouse.
I had to make a lot of potions so the area reserved for the ingredients was packed with herbs in no time.
I also have to work.
I rolled up my sleeves and threw the herbs into the large cauldron.
When I started to stir the cauldron, I heard a lively voice behind me.
I turned my head around and saw that the mercenaries were helping the pharmacist carry the herbs.
“Hey!”
Leo-san was also with the mercenaries and he raised both his hands to greet me when he saw me.
“Hello, Leo-san. What happened?”
“Ah. I saw someone who looked like a civil official carrying a lot of stuff. I wondered what was going on so I asked them and it turned out they were carrying herbs. We always use the potions here, so we decided to help out.”
“Thank you very much.”
I continued working as we talked and wooden boxes filled with herbs were rapidly being piled up at the wall.
If I don’t work quickly then wouldn’t we run out of space to put the wooden boxes?
I moved my hands quickly and Leo-san spoke to me again, “Anyway, you’re making a lot this time. You don’t usually make this many potions, right?”
“Yes. We have more knights now, and the demon this time is a little unique.”
“Oh, the slime?”
“You also heard about them?”
“Yeah. I’m the boss of the mercenaries even if I look like this. I heard about it from Feudal Lord-sama.”
“I see.”
Now that he mentions it, he is too.
Leo-san is in charge of the mercenaries at Klaussner, so there’s no way he didn’t hear about the slimes.
“Are you going on the slime subjugation too?”
“Yeah. I’m attacking? Well, I can use magic too.”
I questioned whether or not I could call the 【Saint】technique a magic attack. It should be fine since it works on demons?
I thought as we talked and my tone turned into a questioning one.
“Why’re you tilting your head in confusion?”
“Well, my technique is a bit special.”
“Ooh.”
Leo-san immediately retorted, so my answer became muddy. It looked like he’d come up with various assumptions.
“It’s better to have more mages when we subjugate slimes.”
“It is. Physical attack doesn’t seem to work very well.”
“So, the knights who are coming along will be the escorts?”
As Leo-san had guessed, the knights headed to the slime forest were guarding the mages.
But, it would be a problem if I were to tell Leo-san the formation of the groups, so I laughed vaguely to end this conversation.
Leo-san didn’t seem to care that I hadn’t replied to him. He folded his arms and looked as if he was thinking about something.
What’s he thinking about?
I got curious and gazed at him absently.
After a while, Leo-san lifted his face up. He saw that my hands had stopped moving and said, “Your hands have stopped moving.”
“Huh?”
“If you don’t finish making those potions, then we won’t have any space left.”
I looked at the wall and saw that there were more boxes there now.
It looks like we’ll run out of space soon.
Oh no, I have to quickly finish these.
I quickly moved my hands and Leo-san left the distillation room to go get the next box.
In the end, I couldn’t ask Leo-san what he was thinking about, and I didn’t find out about it until the day we left for the slime forest.
Translator: Blushy
Editor: Sam
