I activated the 【Saint】technique while taking frequent breaks, and the group separated after I had finished blessing several experimental fields.
Still, I couldn"t bless all the fields that were in my sight.
The seeds needed to be sowed after the fields have been blessed and so my job was done for now.
My job was only to bless the fields, and the gardeners are the ones who will be sowing the seeds.
I entrusted Corinnsan 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 doc.u.ments 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 doc.u.ments 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 has 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 Corinnsan 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.
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 prepare.
"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?"
"The activation condition."
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.
I thought back on what was written in 【Pharmacist-sama"s】diary, which Corinnsan had let me read, to use as a reference for my answer.
【Pharmacist-sama"s】activation condition was her brother, but would he accept it if I say that it"s activated when I think about my comrades?
"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 keep it 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 it was research was probably because that 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."
"No, I want you to hear this as well, Sei. I finished re-organising the groups, so I came here to get it confirmed."
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.
It seems like he came here to get confirmation on the groups, but did he have something else he wanted 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."
"Thanks. Then we"ll go with this."
"Do you also agree, Sei?"
"Eh? Is it alright?"
"I don"t mind. Please confirm it."
I received the paper that he"d written the group plans on. Head Magician-sama nodded after I"d read it.
I thought this would be over after Head Magician-sama confirmed it, but for some reason, they asked me to approve it too.
Captain-san had given his approval so I read the paper I"d received from Head Magician-sama and I somehow understood why they 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 inst.i.tute.
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 also put knights in this 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 instead of the slime forest.
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."
Captain-san explained the situation at the slime forest to Head Magician-sama while I was reading through the group composition.
Head Magician-sama thought about the subjugation while I was thinking about potions.
When I lifted my face from the paper, I saw that Head Magician-sama was in a world of his own.
His expression is that.
It looks dangerous.
I"ve seen it many times before, but he loses self-control every time I"ve seen him like that.
In the West Forest, he had enough self-control not to destroy the forest, but he probably won"t be able to restrain himself this time.
Please don"t reduce everything into ash until we get to the slime forest.
There might still be valuable medicinal herbs left.
I couldn"t help but wish in my mind.
Translator: Blushy
Editor: Sam