The lecture had finished and it was already dark outside.
There were still people at the place called the research inst.i.tute, even though work had usually finished by then.
I was also no exception. I returned to the research inst.i.tute when my lecture ended and started researching.
Even though I said that, my research had already reached its limits.
I was staring at the experimental tools absentmindedly, when someone called out to me from behind.
"Oh, my! Is it still not going well?"
"Yes, not at all."
It was a familiar voice so I recognised who it was without having to turn around.
I continued to stare at the tools and shrugged while answering. The Director stood next to me.
"You continuously released your magic power this morning at the medicinal herb garden. Was that also related to this?"
"You noticed?"
"You were continuously releasing magic since early in the morning."
I smiled wryly at being noticed.
It would have been fine if it was water or earth attribute magic, because they were related to planting, but no one would use holy attribute magic on herbs in the first place, so I stood out.
I glanced sideways at the Director, and he was smiling bitterly.
"Did you discover anything?"
"Well…… I only know that plants are also affected by magic."
"Oh."
The Director narrowed his eyes in interest at my answer.
I couldn"t use appraisal, so I didn"t know if there really was any effect, but the herbs looked healthier when I cast 『Heal』on them.
When I told him about that, the Director put his hand on his chin and talked after pondering for a while.
"Holy attribute magic also affecting plants meant that other attribute magic might as well."
I asked, a little curious about the way the Director was speaking, "What do you mean by holy attribute also affecting……?"
"Oh."
He taught me about attribute magic affecting plants.
According to him, many kinds of earth attribute magic affected plants and thanks to that, precious plants, that were difficult to cultivate, could be grown in the medicinal herb garden.
The Director was a.s.signed to the research inst.i.tute because he had apt.i.tude with earth attribute magic and his only job was to cultivate plants.
However, even at the research inst.i.tute, they could only use water and earth attribute magic to cultivate herbs.
There were only a few people who could use holy attribute magic in the first place, and they mostly worked in the court mage division or the knight order.
Therefore, except for me, there was no one in the research inst.i.tute with holy attribute magic. Thus, no one noticed that holy attribute magic also affected plants.
After his explanation, I told him about what I had heard from the Head Magician.
I told him about medicinal herbs having magic power; the fact that I could make more effective potions if I could get the herbs to retain my magic power, and that I was exploring that method.
The Director, who was listening to my story, spoke when I had finished speaking.
"So that"s why you were using magic since morning?"
"Yes. I didn"t get the result I had expected."
"I see."
"You only tried using 【Saint】techniques, isn"t that right?"
"【Saint】?"
The Director looked dubious when the word, 【Saint】had left my mouth.
"Yes. I asked the Head Magician about it when I went to consult him but……"
Of course he would.
I, who has avoided the word 【Saint】, had said the word.
From there, I talked about finding a way to retain my magic power in medicinal herbs. I was even told about that mysterious 【Saint】technique.
"I see. But, a 【Saint】technique, huh……"
"Do you know something about it?"
"No. I know stories about the 【Saint】, but I only know the word on the street."
"Is that so?"
"If that Head Magician Dreves, doesn"t know about it, then no one in the Royal Palace would know about it, now would they?"
I didn"t have any expectations, but I didn"t know what to do if he didn"t know either.
The Director nonchalantly called out to me and drew my attention when I was thinking about how it wasn"t progressing well.
"Unexpectedly, it might be something that can"t be left in writing."
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"The magic we use remains unchanged no matter what it"s called, the effects, or who uses it."
"That"s true."
"So it can be written down in magical textbooks, so that anybody who knows can use it, but I was thinking that maybe the 【Saint】technique isn"t like that."
"In short, the technique doesn"t have a name and the effects differ from person to person?"
"Yes."
Was it something like that?
I thought that it was something that should have been pa.s.sed down, even if the users have nothing in common.
Or maybe there are other reasons for this?
Well, it can"t be helped, even if I think about it.
Let"s think about the 【Saint】technique.
Like the Director said, it might not have a name.
It was called a 【Saint】technique, but it didn"t feel like it needed an aria like other magic.
What about the effect?
The common factor left in the old doc.u.ments is that it annihilated demons.
Were there any other effects?
If there wasn"t, then I"d be troubled.
If there weren"t any other effects, then I wouldn"t be able to bestow plants with my magic power.
But since it wasn"t written down, there was a high probability that there weren"t any other effects apart from annihilating demons.
And what I wanted to know the most, right now, was how to activate that technique.
If I knew that, then I could experiment again.
But, there was no descriptions at all on how to activate it.
No way, do I just chant 『【Saint】Technique』to use it. There"s no such thing……
"How do I activate the【Saint】technique?"
"I wonder. Isn"t it better to ask Head Magician Dreves about this?"
"Yes. I asked him a lot of things the other day."
The Director was quite right.
However, I had persistently questioned the Head Magician the other day.
I felt bad for always asking him things unrelated to the lectures.
But I felt that he was happy to throw ideas around with me, because it was related to magic.
I should think about it by myself for a while, if I still can"t come with anything, then I"ll ask him.
I told the Director that I was going to take a little break and left the research inst.i.tute.
My thoughts are probably going around in circles because I"m shutting myself in a room.
I might be able to come up with something if I break in fresh air.
That"s what I thought.
I went outside with a lantern and the wind blew gently.
It was still a little hot in the daytime, but it got cooler at night when the wind blew.
I sat down on a bench next to the research inst.i.tute, looked up at the sky, and gazed at the moon and stars.
Like a book I"d read a long time ago, there were two moons, as it was another world, but the colour of the moons didn"t change.
The only different thing was that I could see many stars in the sky; probably because it wasn"t as bright out as it was in j.a.pan.
I was deeply moved the first time I noticed how many stars were in the sky.
That was a month after I"d been summoned.
I felt like I didn"t have the time to look up at the sky until then.
I felt somewhat calm, but also not, at the same time.
Well, of course I would.
I was suddenly summoned into another world.
Furthermore, I was neglected as soon as I was summoned.
Furthermore, when I asked the civil official if I could return to j.a.pan, he told me I couldn"t.
I became irritated when I recalled what had happened.
I was busy in the beginning, trying to get things in order so that I could live normally in this world.
I didn"t know when I would have to leave the Royal Palace because of the situation with the prince.
I, myself, also didn"t want to remain here.
I was able to work at the Medicinal Herb Research Inst.i.tute and ended up staying.
That"s right, yup.
I gazed at the night sky from my room when things seemed to have finally calmed down.
That was several months ago.
I rarely think about j.a.pan now days.
I would often get sad in the beginning when I thought that about how I couldn"t meet with my parents, brothers and friends anymore.
Even now, my chest hurt when I thought about them.
But, was it because the original switchover was fast? Or was I was in a daze because of the rare things in this another world……?
I felt the pain gradually decreased.
Am I heartless for feeling like this after just a few months?
It might have been different if I was treated unfairly since the beginning.
But that wasn"t the case at all.
After the prince had left, I met many kind people.
Jude, the Director, the researchers and of course the captain and the 3rd Knight Order. Everyone was very kind.
While being surrounded by kind people, the research inst.i.tute became my residence.
Was it because of that?
I was able to face anything to do with the 【Saint】, even though I was avoiding it that much before.
I always pretended not to notice the t.i.tle.
Because wouldn"t you care if someone you knew was in trouble?
Besides, I didn"t just hear about it, I actually saw it with my own eyes!
That was also the reason why I wanted to research on how to improve potions.
I"m happy if something I did was able to help someone.
I suddenly remembered about the time when the captain gave me his grat.i.tude in his office.
Was it because I was recalling things from the time I was first summoned?
I didn"t do it because I wanted people"s grat.i.tude, but I was happy to receive it.
The area around my chest suddenly got warmer as I recalled that.
Huh?
I gently pressed my chest with my hand.
When someone says that their chest was getting warmer, they were only expressing their emotions. It shouldn"t actually get warmer.
But, it was really warm.
What the h.e.l.l is going on?
The warm feeling in my chest rapidly gushed up while I was worrying, and then it felt like it would overflow from within me.
What"s going on?!
I was nervous at the sudden feeling and I could finally see something gushing out from within me.
A mist spread around me like when I used ranged magic.
The base looks like white particles, this is probably my magic power, the golden lamé was thicker than usual, and rather than a white haze, it appeared more like a golden haze.
What is this?
The mist spread steadily and if it was ordinary magic then it would activate soon.
But, it didn"t look like a normal mist, so I felt that it was different than normal.
Suddenly, the medicinal herb field in front of me caught my eye.
The haze had already eroded into the field.
Only one thought popped up in my mind.
Perhaps, this……
I put both my hands together and prayed, even though I wasn"t Christian.
I don"t know why I took such a pose.
It was just a feeling.
And then, I prayed.
Please go well.
The golden haze got brighter and the area lit up even though it was night.
The instant it got noticeably brighter, the light burst and golden particles fell down from the sky.
It was a magical scene and I gasped in amazement.
When I looked away from the sky, I noticed that the golden particles were covering the patch of medicinal herbs where the haze had been, although, it soon lost its radiance.
"What happened?!"
The Director rushed out, noticing the incident.
Of course he would notice with a light that bright.
"Mhm ~……"
The Director"s eyes narrowed when I smiled vaguely and looked a little troubled.
Now then, how should I explain this to him?
I was stumped on the explanation because I didn"t know what had happened, and I didn"t know how the mysterious phenomenon occurred.
While I was worrying, the Director"s gaze moved from me to the medicinal herb garden at my feet.
The Director looked dubious as he squatted down and gazed at the plants.
Then, he picked up a herb and examined it.
After that, he looked at the surrounding plants on the ground and this time picked up one that wasn"t covered by the haze.
The Director looked at me after he compared the two plants together.
"You, what did you do?"
"That is, I don"t really understand myself……"
It was dark, so the two medicinal herbs in the Director"s hands didn"t look any different.
But I judged that something was different from the Director"s att.i.tude.
But I don"t have any idea of what it could be.
For the time being, I explained what had happened in order and he sighed in amazement.
"Well, what? Let"s go inside first."
The Director said in a tired tone, and we walked towards the research inst.i.tute.
I"m sorry for always acting on impulse.
I apologised in my mind and followed after the Director.
"Is there something different about it?"
"The appearance hasn"t changed at all but……"
The Director wasn"t confident about this as well so he muttered as he told me this.
When I glanced at the medicinal herbs lined up on the desk, I saw that they were the same type.
But apparently there was a different between them if you observed closely.
The interior was different.
What is the interior?
Is it the magic power that plants hold?
I didn"t understand it very well so I"ll ask the Director about it afterwards.
Right now, I was bothered by the alteration of the medicinal herbs in front of me.
"That"s……"
"You, try to make a potion with this."
The Director told me to take the herbs and make a potion each with them.
I worked timidly and I felt the difference in the herbs when I concentrated my magic power into them.
It was an intuitive feeling, but it was very clear.
The difference became clear at a glance when the potions were finished.
"It"s beautiful, isn"t it?"
"Yes, it is."
The difference could be clearly seen when the bottled potion was held up against the light of the lamp.
There were golden particles floating lightly inside of the potion and it shone against the light.
The potions I made until now never had particles floating around inside.
"What is the efficiency……?"
"I can"t tell you without examining it first, but it seems more effective than the potions made thus far."
The Director smiled in amazement and answered.
Please don"t look like that.
It can"t be helped, right? It was made by accident.
As feared, when he investigated the potion at a later time, the potion I had just made was more effective than any other ones I"d made up until then.
It was without a doubt because of the 50% increase bonus effect.
Even this is cursed……
As a result of further investigation, we found that even if somebody else used the medicinal herbs that were strengthened by the mysterious magic, they could create something that was 1.5 times more effective.
The other thing we noticed was that the strengthened herbs would only be limited to that generations. Even if the seeds of the herbs were planted, they would just grow into the same herbs that had been growing up until then. They didn"t grow into strengthened herbs.
Apparently, the herbs wouldn"t strengthen if I didn"t do it myself.
It was a joyous thing for people to be able to make effective potions, but it was a little disappointing that if I wasn"t there then they wouldn"t be able to make it anymore.
The other problem was, how did I activate that mysterious magic again?
I tried to activate it several times but I couldn"t.
I accidentally activated it that time, so I didn"t know the conditions behind the activation.
I tried various experiments while thinking about the things that I was thinking about at that time.
I will have to gradually investigate this matter.
Well, the Head Magician decided to help me with my investigation when he heard about this, so I think that it won"t be long before I will be able to reproduce the magic.
Translator: Blushy
Editor: SenjiQ