Boundary Labyrinth and the Foreign Magician

The dispute between the Knight and Adventurer groups was a little bit worse than it seemed.
I put off the Adventurer"s Guild for now. After tidying up the equipment and loot that we got from the Labyrinth, we returned to our house and relaxed for a while, until a guest appeared.

"My name is Viola, it"s nice to meet you. Is this the residence of Theodore Gartner-san?"

A dwarf woman greeted me with a bright smile. Although her gaze was level with mine, she was a proper adult.

"Yes, I"m Theodore."

"Well, I"ve come here as Alfred-sama"s messenger. He said that he wanted you to come and see the workshop at least once."

"Oh? The workshop has been completed already?"

"That"s still being renovated, but the Potion Room is already finished."

"Hmm, shall I go check it out for a bit then?"

I gathered all the necessary materials. I had thought about buying lots of equipment for mixing potions on the days when I didn"t enter the Labyrinth, but then Alfred said that he was going to prepare a workshop.

"With that said, I"ll be heading out. What are everyone"s plans?"

I asked everyone in the house.

"I have to prepare tonight"s dinner. Will you return before then?"

Grace tilted her head slightly as she asked.
Well, she had already decided on it. Grace"s food was always delicious. I wouldn"t call her cooking crude like the Kushiyaki bought at food stalls and Kaiyaki.
(TN: Kushiyaki: grilling meat and skewering it, and Kaiyaki: cooking sh.e.l.lfish in sh.e.l.ls)

"Yeah, I"ll definitely return."

"Okay."

Grace happily smiled at my reply.

"What about Ashley?"

"Rosetta-sensei said that she"ll be coming over. I promised Sheila-san that we would train in the courtyard until then."

"You"re still working hard, even after going to the Labyrinth…"

"I"m in great shape thanks to Theodore-sama."

Was this a result of the Circulation Refining or from leveling up in the Labyrinth? Ashley"s condition was fine right now. She had used healing spells to restore her endurance, and I felt that she had become quite diligent in her studies and training. Speaking of her training, she had been doing k.u.mite, which was actually used for combat.
Although they wore defensive gear and struck each other using light wooden sticks wrapped in cloth, the training should be suitable, since her opponents were either Rosetta or Sheila. Grace looked sad because she couldn"t join in on their k.u.mite, since it was too difficult for Grace to properly adjust her power.
(TL: k.u.mite is grappling)

"It has been quite interesting lately, so I can"t let my guard down. You"re now able to ready my next move and meet my attacks head on."

Sheila said as she listened to Irmhild"s lute. Irmhild was cooling herself off near a tub that stood on some ice pillars, which were created for that purpose. It was a big deal if Ashley was able to keep up with Sheila"s movements to some extent.
As far as I was concerned, it was likely that Irmhild would spend some time here in the house before returning to the Western District, since Sheila was training with Ashley.
Since that was the case, perhaps I should go there for a bit. Maybe it"s better to ask Alfred about the matter regarding the Knights and the Adventurers, too.

"Thank you for waiting."

After Viola put the necessary luggage into the carriage, we headed towards Alfred"s workshop.

"Viola-san, what do you do at the workshop?"

"Me? I do various things like smithing and sewing. Just when I was trying to become independent from Master, Young Master Alfred called for me and asked whether I could work at his Magician"s Workshop."

As she said that, Viola rolled up her sleeves and looked at me.
I see. So she was a retainer blacksmith under the Magician"s Workshop? Moreover, if she could process metal or leather, she could probably create various things. It appeared that Prince Albert was steadily continuing his preparations.

"If that"s the case, I wonder if I should address you as my colleague."

"Definitely! I look forward to working with you from now on!"

In my case, I felt like a test pilot that got involved with this because of my Control.

Alfred"s Workshop was in the Eastern District. It was close to both the school and my house. The house was on a large plot of land. It seemed that it was still under renovation, since construction materials were piled up in the courtyard.
Alfred was also in the courtyard with a woman, and he was eagerly explaining many things to her. He smiled broadly at me, and then at Viola, as I got off the carriage and we approached him.

"Yo, I"ve been waiting for you. Welcome to the Brightwelt Workshop."

"Hey."

"The woman beside me is my friend, Feela."

"Nice to meet you."

Alfred greeted me in high spirits and introduced the lady beside him to me. The girl, Feela, grabbed the hem of her skirt as she greeted me…. Well, if I were to make a conclusion, she was probably Ophelia in disguise. She was wearing a ring that matched Alfred"s, which was used for concealment.
Either way, the Brightwelt name appeared here.

"Well, my life has been a bit messy. Since I"ve been busy recently, I have been unable to continue preparing the workshop, but the end is finally in sight. Several facilities are still under renovation, but the smithery and the pharmacy are ready. I wonder if you can try it out and give me your impressions."

Perhaps the Palace had been really busy searching for and translating ancient doc.u.ments. Alfred would have been forced to halt his progress because of work related to that, and would have been stressed as well.
Alfred led us to one of the rooms in the residence.
Scales, mortar and pestles, gla.s.s bottles, a cauldron on top of a stove, display shelves, and other necessary equipment were a.s.sembled in the room.

"Well then, I"ll start using them immediately. Will you be watching me work?"

"Will that be fine? Isn"t your work considered a secret?"

"No. Even if you know the recipe, you would have to secure the supply of materials. Also, it"s difficult to learn recipes just by watching others."

The magical process involving potions was performed using Magic Circles, so there was no need to listen to chants and imitate them. I could gather the raw materials for potion ingredients on my own in the Labyrinth. My sales route ended by bringing these to the Adventurer"s Guild. If I did not need to sell them, I could use them myself. It was easy for me.

Well, for potions… There was a wide variety of them, such as Healing Potions for healing wounds, Magic Potions for restoring mana, which would be on the top of my list, Physical Potions that restore your stamina, and Resist Potions, which were effective against other Spells.
Depending on the kind of potion, the process will be time-consuming. Even though it would be difficult to raise the quality, the biggest problem would probably be gathering the necessary ingredients in the recipe for brewing them.

On that point, I had known some potion recipes from the beginning, and even though I only gathered herbs at the Twilight Forest, I was able to create several kinds of potions.
Although my cla.s.s wasn"t related to production, since I would be able to procure items locally in order to brew these potions myself, it would be convenient to memorize the recipes and learn the minimum skills required.

Now then, from the several kinds of potions that existed, I could make a number of them… but above all, the ones that I thought would be most profitable were Magic Potions.
Although I had done research on these before, they were not often sold often on the market. Few recipes were available, probably because the people who could do this kind of work were limited to those who could mix Potions.

After putting the herbs we picked and the other materials that we bought into the mortar, in the proportions that I had decided on, I began to grind them.
At this time, it was necessary to knead a sufficient amount of Mana into the materials in this mixing technique. If this couldn"t be done, an appropriate amount of powdered magic stone chips needed to be prepared and then ground together with the materials… but if this was done, the material costs would rise and the amount of profit would fall.
Due to that, the demand and cost for magic potions were almost the same, so it wasn"t really profitable to make them..

"He can use Magic Circles at such a young age?"

"Yeah, he"s the rumoured Demon Killer, you know."

"Eeeh."

Viola looked at me in amazement.
While that was being said, I finished my preparations. After putting them in pure water, then boiling them down on the stove, a change would occur to its appearance.
Since I felt that today was going to be a test drive, the amount was less than I would normally use in a large cauldron.
I remained on standby after placing a small cauldron over the fire. Since nothing unusual happened while I was watching it, just in case it started to boil over, I thought about talking to Alfred about the Knights.

"I see. There was a conflict between them?"

Alfred scratched his head with a troubled look.

"There were problems with the Adventurers who caused trouble as well. Thanks to Greg"s faction, there was a foundation that made it so the Knights couldn"t be treated favorably as a whole. Although Lady Mercedia said that she would try to take preventive measures so that it wouldn"t happen again, I think that more problems will occur. It seemed unreasonable to have her step into this."
Even if Greg became useless, he was still a vice captain of the Knights. Mercedia probably served under him.

"That may be the case. Was putting pressure on the Adventurers effective?"

"If some kind of notification was handed out by the Adventurer"s Guild, I think that it would keep them from acting too rashly. They"ve given their thanks to the Knights, so I don"t think that anyone would want to deliberately stir up trouble with the Knights."

If I were to talk about Mercedia, then I would describe her as an honest person.
Rather than taking the trouble to return to the Adventurer"s Guild to talk about it and stir up trouble within the Labyrinth, I thought that it was easier to reach a peaceful conclusion if the Guild discussed it in public.
That troublesome fellow called Jasper, made use of the Adventurer"s anger, put the blame for his mistakes onto them, and tried to force his way out.
That was why, on top of the large incident that happened because of his face, I watched him try to retreat when the winds turned against him.

"Greg has been in a hurry ever since Sir Chester left him."

"Was Sir Chester that important to him? Even if he said that he was talented in several areas, Sir Chester is a common Knight, right?"

"In his case, what"s important are Sir Chester"s connections. Sir Chester is favored by Her Highness Rosemary."

"…Umm, that"s the second Princess, right?"

"Right. The Princess Rosemary. Sir Chester had curried favour through the princess, which was why he was able to go into the Labyrinth. The Princess seemed to have no use for Greg by himself. She has been refusing visitors recently, you know. The n.o.bles that follow are basically waiting for opportunities."

Haah, that was a critical problem. Although Chester struck at me with the problem of vested rights, Chester himself ended up defecting and, unfortunately, caused his chief support to waver.

"So, Greg wants to earn achievements in the Labyrinth in order to prove himself?"

"Well, yeah. He lacks the idol image, and don"t you think that he will try to teach another Protege Knight to become a good Hero?"

Although Alfred said that with a smile, his smile suddenly vanished and was replaced with a serious look as he said,

"…Hmm. I"d like to apologize to you now."

"About what?"

"I"ll at least inform His Highness Albert about this. Her Highness Rosemary and Greg have a somewhat poor compatibility with His Highness Albert."

"Oh."

In other words, Rosemary and Prince Albert didn"t have a good relationship. It was because Prince Albert"s own influence in the Palace was weak. It wasn"t like trouble would come flying his way, and like myself, it wasn"t like the Prince was personally involved with this. Therefore, it was hard for a direct confrontation to happen.

"This time, I"m just sharing information. Wouldn"t the situation improve just by having the Guild send out a warning to the Adventurers?”

It seemed that the potions had been completed as we were talking. After removing the cauldron from the fire, a liquid with a deep violet color formed. Once I cooled this down and divide it into small bottles, they definitely wouldn"t be inferior to the Magic Potions on the market.

"Looks like it turned out fine. I think we should try to increase the production of these, as well as Healing Potions, for storage or for selling."

Since there was a lot of supply and demand for Healing Potions, it wasn"t like I would be introducing them into the market to generate income. If I were to store them for later… they would be useful in times of need.