Chapter 52: As Usual A few days after I found the shocking truth.
I searched through the diary of 【Pharmacist-sama】.
I was confining myself in the corner of the distillation room since morning today, as well.
It wasn"t like I wasn"t opposed to reading someone else"s diary.
But sometimes you have to do things that you would rather not……
This was also for the sake of being able to use the 【Saint】technique.
I was just making excuses to myself while I read her diary.
From the description written in the diary, blessing seemed to be the same thing as the 【Saint】technique.
It was as I"d expected.
And I thought that the 【Pharmacist】was a 【Saint】since she could use that golden magic power.
When I confirmed this with Corinna, she told me that I was right.
Although, it wasn"t known that blessing was the 【Saint】technique.
Because this was confidential information.
Detailed information about blessing was only pa.s.sed onto Klaussner"s feudal lord and the person in charge of the distillation room.
Due to the diary being top secret.
I was worried that I would anger Feudal Lord-sama because I was reading such a doc.u.ment, but I worried for no reason.
Corinna had received permission from Feudal Lord-sama beforehand.
I was relieved to hear that.
If I thought about it carefully, even if Corinna was in charge of the distillation room, she wouldn"t just show top secret information of the fief to a stranger without permission from Feudal Lord-sama.
It was fine for me to advance to the next stage now that I knew about blessing, but there was another problem.
I didn"t know the activation conditions for the 【Saint】technique.
To solve this, I"ve been reading 【Pharmacist-sama"s】diary for the past few days.
I hoped that I would find some hints.
But the progress wasn"t going well.
I couldn"t find any description that described what I was hoping to find.
I stretched while still seated in my chair when I finished reading the diary in my hand.
The writing was beautiful, but my eyes got tired from reading the same text for a long time.
I rubbed the corner of my eyes with both hands.
I looked at the window and saw that the light shining from outside had already reached the back of the room.
From how high the sun is right now, I"d say it was about 3 o"clock in the afternoon.
Come to think of it, I didn"t realise that the bell, that informed the time, had rang a while ago.
I"ve been reading since morning, should I go outside for a change of pace?
I got up from the chair as soon as I thought that.
"Oh my, are you going out?" Corinna called out to me as I was leaving the back room.
"I thought I should get some fresh air." I replied and she returned it with a wry smile.
"That might be nice."
She looked very tired.
She patted my back as if she was cheering me on.
I exited the distillation room and headed to the back of the castle.
There was a small herb garden there for cultivation experiments.
It didn"t smell of medicinal herbs like in the distillation room, but I felt as if I was being healed and it was a nice change of pace.
I arrived at the herb garden and sighed.
I squatted down on the field, rested my jaw on my arms and absent-mindedly gazed at the scenery.
Because my view was low, I could only see the herbs rustling in the wind.
I emptied my mind for a short while and then it was dusk.
Nevertheless, the investigation was more difficult than I"d expected.
The trials and errors of the cultivation were written in fine detail.
So I had hoped that the conditions for blessing would also be written, but that wasn"t the case.
Pharmacist-sama only wrote about other conditions and about the people of the fief.
No.
I might have overlooked something.
I thought. I stared at the herbs and recalled the contents of the diary.
The thing she wrote about most after herb cultivation, was it about the fief"s citizens?
After that, she wrote about her daily life in detail.
Come to think of it, she did name a few people too.
I saw a certain man"s name a lot.
This is just a feeling I got from the writing, but was it her younger brother?
She had written about him more than others, so it left an impression on me.
Oh yeah, the first time she"d used blessing was also for her brother.
She originally cultivated herbs to heal a disease that was spreading throughout the fief.
The symptoms of the disease progressed slowly, but if untreated, the person would get weaker and weaker until they eventually died.
While her cultivation was going well, the citizens fell to the disease one by one, and eventually her brother also fell victim to it.
Then, 【Pharmacist-sama】grew impatient.
The herb was difficult to obtain; I don"t know if she had found it earlier, or if she had cultivated it fast, but 【Pharmacist-sama】wagered on it.
The result was her win.
Her younger brother and the citizens of the fief were able to recover safely, thanks to the potions she had made from the cultivated herbs.
The entry on the day her brother"s symptoms calmed down were wet and blurry.
"Mm, it"s a mystery."
I tried to recall, but nothing of interest came to mind.
Then, the hints are in the parts I can"t remember?
It wasn"t possible to remember the diary word-by-word, so it was a possibility.
But, was it something so trivial that I couldn"t remember it?
Even though I thought about it for a long time, I couldn"t come up with an answerand my legs were going numb, so I stood up.
I stretched my arms.
I"ve been reading the diary the whole time so my back bones cracked.
I don"t know if I was able to change my mood or not, but it"s been a while since I"ve been out, so let"s head back now.
I turned back to head to the distillation room when I heard a crowd of people speaking.
I turned towards the voices and saw mercenaries heading back towards the castle.
I stared intensely at their figures, because it was different from normal. They were in a rush.
I saw someone familiar in the group and headed towards them.
I understood the reason behind their att.i.tude when I got closer.
They were probably on a subjugation because there were injured people.
There were some who couldn"t walk unless they borrowed someone else"s shoulders.
"Are you okay!?"
"Oh, it"s you, Jou-chan."
I ran up to Leo and his expression changed from a mixed one to a smiling one.
I felt like most of the mercenaries were looking at me like, "who the heck is that?", but some people looked at me and their expressions softened.
I knew them because they had come to the distillation room to pick up potions before.
The people next to them asked about me and some people explained who I was, I heard the word "distillation room" from them.
"Are you returning from a subjugation?"
"Yes. Demons that don"t usually appear on the forest edge were there. We were subjugating them. We still have our lives, but we were beaten."
"It must have been tough. Are there a lot of injured people?"
"Yeah. But they"re livelier than ever. It"s thanks to the potions you made, Jou-chan."
The people, who were listening to the conversation between Leo and I, started a commotion.
"Did you make that potion, nee-chan?"
"We were saved thanks to you!"
"Without it, I"d be dead by now."
"The potion you made me drink was amazing!"
My accursed 50% increase was doing a great job as usual.
Leo"s words began the trigger as the mercenaries surrounded me and gave their thanks.
Even though I had gotten used to the 3rd Knight Order, the mercenaries surrounding me were even bulkier than them, so the pressure I was feeling was high.
I felt the ends of my mouth curve, but I want you to overlook something like that because of the pressure.
"Will you be receiving treatment at the castle after this?"
"Yeah. Even though the potions are better than normal, there are still some guys who need more treatment."
"Then, I"ll head to the distillation room and prepare new potions for you."
"No, it"s not something that needs to be healed with potions. It"s enough just to get them wrapped up in bandages."
"But some of them look seriously injured……"
"Ah. That"s right. What should I do……?"
He refused, saying that new potions weren"t necessary, but there were some people who couldn"t even walk by themselves.
When I told him that those people might need it, he was being evasive.
Leo scratched his head, looking troubled.
Rather than wait for it to heal naturally, it"s more effective for them to heal quickly with a potion.
I"m sure Leo and the other know this since they"re pros.
Were they being thoughtful of the herb shortage?
The amounts of potions used in a day might have already been decided.
The potions sold to the mercenaries were always at a fixed number.
Yup, why don"t I quickly use recovery magic here?
It looked like Leo and the others were patrolling and fighting every day, so it"s better for them to be in perfect condition, isn"t it?
Was there no one at the castle who could use recovery magic?
Of course, there weren"t.
I thought it was really odd when I first heard this since this was the Fief Capital, but all the fiefs were like this.
In addition, only a few people could use magic and fewer could use recovery magic. So they all went to the Royal Capital.
Yes, to the Court Mage Division.
The Court Mage Division had a better salary than working for the local castle. Someone told me this.
"Mm, if you don"t mind should I heal you?"
"Huh? If it"s with a potion……"
"Well, not with a potion but with magic."
"What?"
As expected, the mercenaries and Leo all looked surprised.
They probably didn"t expect to find someone that could use recovery magic around them.
"Jou-chan, aren"t you a pharmacist."
"Well……"
Leo had recovered and asked me in a dubious tone. How should I reply to him?
I was a member of the Medicinal Herb Research Inst.i.tute and I did have the pharmacy skill. Would it be fine just to say that I was a pharmacist?
"I"m a pharmacist"
I had a feeling that they were looking at me with eyes that said, "What the heck is this chick saying," but I paid it no heed.
I felt like I would lose if I paid attention to that.
I asked seriously, "What"s wrong?" Leo seemed to have abandoned any thought and replied, "Please."
I received permission so I casted 『HEAL』on the people closest to me.
They were injured but no one was close to death so it was probably fine if I didn"t prioritise who I healed.
It seemed that healing people with magic was rare and a lot of them saw it for the first time, so their eyes shone.
With this number, it was faster to cast AOE magic, 『AREA HEAL』. But I steadily casted 『HEAL』this time.
Because magic with the name "AREA" attached to it required a high skill level.
It was rare to use recovery magic, if they found out I could use a higher level magic then I had a feeling that things would become troublesome.
So even if it was a pain to heal them individually, I won"t use 『AREA HEAL』.
Leo"s words broke my resolution.
"My arms are fine too."
"Are they?"
"Ah. I"ve seen a court mage heal before, but your healing is even better than theirs, Jou-chan."
"Th-thank you."
"Since you"re this good, you"ll probably be called by the Knight Order too."
"Excuse me?"
"They also received heavy damage."
The Knight Order also received damage?
He"s talking about the 3rd Knight Order, isn"t he?"
"Yeah, we came back together but they looked seriously injured."
"Seems they went in deeper than us, so that"s probably why."
"A lot of demons have sp.a.w.ned further into the forest, so it"s more chaotic there. You have to prepare properly before going in."
"Excuse me, is the Knight Order the one who came from the Royal Capital?"
"Ah, yup."
I was filled with dread and chills ran down my spine at the mercenaries" confirmation.
The smiling face of Captain-san always appeared in my minds after the knights.
Then, I saw a scene from the other time.
"Hey!"
"『AREA HEAL』"
Leo was surprised at the rapid speed of my magic power and called out, but his voice no longer reached me.
After casting 『AREA HEAL』on the mercenaries, I left them and ran towards where the knights were on standby. I didn"t even turn back when a voice called out to me from behind.
Translator: Blushy
Editor: Sam