11
Chapter 11
Most of Leo's clothes, which I had bought with in-app purchases, had the subtitle 'Madam Oleng's Work.'
When I was playing the game, Madam Oleng didn't appear, so I just thought it was part of the setting.
But after looking into it, Madam Oleng was a real person.
She was a master artisan who supplied clothes exclusively to the Royal Family.
So, let's think about this for a moment.
This world is both a game and reality.
That means the paid items I bought in the game exist somewhere in this world, and there's someone who can create those paid items.
All the paid items, shining brightly with in-app purchases, are tempting, but the one I'm aiming for is…
'The Spring of All Things.'
'No matter what, I have to get my hands on ‘The Spring of All Things’.'
The top-tier healing potion that can even bring the dead back to life and make them cheer.
In <Hirome>, when the protagonist dies, they revive, but some stat points drop significantly.
That's why users buy 'The Spring of All Things' with in-app purchases, just in case.
This revival potion, of which you can only get five even with heavy spending, had a description that only users could see.
[Item] The Spring of All Things
A masterpiece that embodies the wishes and extreme skill of the Wizard Vivian.
It heals even lost body parts, like a lizard regrowing its tail.
That's right. In this world, 'The Spring of All Things' was created by a Wizard named Vivian!
And luckily, I knew who Vivian was and where to go to meet her.
* * *
"Alright, line up. There's plenty of food."
"Oh, thank you, Priest."
A free food kitchen for the poor, set up in a corner of the Grand Temple.
I watched the people in line with my eyes practically falling out.
I knew Vivian sometimes visited the free food kitchen, but I didn't know the exact time she would appear, so I had no choice but to camp out near the Grand Temple like this.
I was so glad that I had given Leo a gold coin and sent him to attend the worship.
Boring time passed.
Before I knew it, the long line at the food kitchen had shortened, and the crowd had thinned out.
'Is today a bust?'
Yeah, things can't go well from the first day.
Just as I was about to give up and turn around.
A dark cocoon joined the food kitchen line, wriggling.
No, not a cocoon.
It was a person wearing a dark hood so that not a single strand of hair could be seen.
'That's her!'
I knew it the moment I saw it. That cocoon was Vivian.
I strode towards Vivian, then slammed on the brakes.
It had been two weeks since I had been living as Belinda. Now I had a grasp of Belinda's way of speaking.
'She'll definitely call her a bug.'
And she's wearing clothes like a cocoon. I should try to put it as nicely as possible.
"Hey, there, inferior insect."
Oops, did I put it too nicely?
Vivian didn't even turn around. I had no choice.
"Do you have no pride? Are Wizards these days begging for food at the temple?"
"Hic!"
Vivian was startled and made a choking sound.
If she were a cat, all the fur on her body would probably have stood on end.
Thanks to that, I caught the attention of the Priest who was distributing food.
The Priest, who had been watching Vivian with narrowed eyes, asked a question instead of giving her bread and soup when it was her turn.
"Excuse me, are you a Wizard?"
Wizards and Priests have a very, very bad relationship.
It's because the source of the power they wield is completely opposite, but I don't know the details.
Anyway, Vivian, who had come to the enemy's house to beg for food, bit her lip and couldn't say anything.
The Priest looked at Vivian suspiciously, then handed her a piece of bread.
A benevolent smile bloomed on his face.
"God is merciful to all creatures."
As if saying, 'But not to me,' the Priest gave Vivian only the smallest and hardest piece of bread and turned away.
"Sniff."
I heard a sobbing sound from under the hood.
Vivian lowered her head and bit into the bread, but wow. She's not biting, she's almost gnawing.
That's how hard the bread was.
I cleared my throat and casually struck up a conversation.
"You look like you've been starving for a long time. How about begging from me instead of begging from God?"
Our Belinda really knows how to say that she'll buy you a meal in a pretty way.
Vivian glanced at me and shook her head.
"N-No, it's, it's okay. I can't, I can't accept such kindness from someone I've just met…"
She was so timid and scared that she couldn't even look at me properly and just rolled her eyes around.
I was afraid that if I approached her rashly, she would suddenly die of a heart attack, so I listed menu candidates as if testing her while she gnawed on the bread.
"A fresh salad made with freshly harvested vegetables."
Gnaw, gnaw.
"Tomato stew with plenty of seafood."
Gnaw, gnaw.
"Hmm. The finest steak?"
Stop.
The lenses hidden under the hood's shadow seemed to flash for a moment.
She wiped her thick lenses with her sleeve as if picking her ears, then clasped her hands together very reverently and asked.
"...Did you just say Sir Beef?"
She looks like a rabbit that only eats grass, but it turns out Vivian was a huge carnivore rabbit.
* * *
Sizzle, the sound of the steak cooking stimulated my appetite.
It was a restaurant where the chef grilled the meat on the spot, and Vivian's eyes were glued to the meat, probably because she was so hungry.
I took advantage of the fact that all of Vivian's attention was focused on the meat and carefully observed her.
A small frame and pigtails tied down.
Perhaps because of the large glasses that covered half of her face, Vivian looked like a timid and exemplary high school student who had never deviated from the norm.
'She's still so young.'
The future I knew of her swirled bitterly in my mouth.
I realized today that Vivian's hair was a warm orange color like the sunset, and that her eyes were a deep green like an ancient forest.
Because in <Hirome>, she is depicted in a black and white image that has lost its color.
<The Last Regret of an Unfortunate Genius Wizard>.
That was the name of the quest associated with Vivian.
She appears as a ghost who starved to death in a corner of the Grand Temple and makes a request to the player.
The Wizard Vivian wishes to hold the Technique Pen one last time.
Buy a 'Technique Pen' from the store and gift it to her for her sake.
The most basic tool used to create Magic Tools and the Technique Pen used to draw Magic Circles.
The last regret that kept her in this world was so trivial.
Since Vivian had already died in the game's introduction, it was impossible to meet the living Vivian no matter what.
So now was the only chance.
To increase the number of my lives, and perhaps save Vivian too.
Soon, the fully cooked beef was placed on the table.
The presence of the meat, stacked like pancakes, the trademark of this restaurant, was overwhelming.
'Can she eat all of this?'
……As if that thought was meaningless, Vivian began to inhale the meat.
It was literally. As if most of her organs were stomachs, Vivian gulped down the meat like water.
Leo, who was sitting next to me, was so surprised that he stopped using his fork and stared blankly at Vivian.
If this were Korea, she would have made a fortune with mukbang.
With a regretful heart, I watched Vivian's mukbang, and after confirming that her wariness had melted away like snow with two pieces of meat, I suddenly opened my mouth.
"Do you know anything about the 'Meteor Lighthouse' and the nest of the 'Twin Migratory Birds'?"
What I mentioned were Magic Tools that were currently being sold popularly in high-end shopping districts.
They are known to the world as inventions of the Wizard Bruno, but in fact, they are Vivian's works.
Bruno is currently just an ordinary Wizard belonging to the Gray Tower, but later he invents a potion that heals any wound and earns the honorable title of 'Creator of All Things.'
But who could have dared to suspect?
That 'The Spring of All Things,' which gave him the title of 'Creator of All Things,' was the last work of his apprentice, Vivian, who was sitting in front of me.
I wouldn't have known if the item description hadn't said 'Vivian's masterpiece.'
"N-No. I, I don't know anything."
Vivian said that, but her eyes lost their light in an instant and became like dead fish eyes. It seemed that she had been thoroughly brainwashed by her teacher instead of receiving Magic education.
