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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 48
Chapter Title: The Alchemist's Resolve
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Lellia was resting alone after her grandfather's visit.
The maids were scheduled to arrive shortly.
So, she started unpacking, though she didn't have much with her.
She placed her most treasured possession, the rabbit doll, on the bed, and tucked the pocket watch inside the music box her grandfather had given her.
She also set the health-restoring potion she had taken from her item inventory on the table.
A sense of contentment washed over her.
She wondered if it was truly okay to live in such safety and happiness.
‘So this is the happiness that comes after hardship…’
Lellia savored the moment, then touched the gem on her necklace to bring up the ‘Alchemy Lottery’ screen.
As if pleased to see her, the alchemy tool spoke in a speech bubble.
[System: Optimizing for the new environment.]
[Optimization in progress! New recipes will be added to match the environment.٩(ˊᗜˋ*)و ]
It seemed new recipes were added whenever she moved to a new region.
‘I don’t understand the principle behind it.’
In the original game, dragons roamed the world searching for ingredients. It seemed that system had been applied to reality.
Lellia looked over the list of added recipes.
‘If there are too many recipes, I’ll never be able to make the Philosopher's Stone…’
The Philosopher's Stone could only be created after clearing every single recipe.
‘It does seem to grant wishes, after all…’
If, by some chance, she couldn't obtain the original male lead's sacred relic, there was always the option of using the Philosopher's Stone to break the Golden Spell.
But it was hard to gauge which would be easier.
‘Still, since I’ve obtained one half, wouldn’t it be easier to find the other half of the pocket watch?’
Lellia hummed to herself as she scanned the list.
The new list was filled with magical potions of unknown purpose.
A cure for earthworm plagues, turnip fertilizer, a potion of reconciliation, a lamp of truth and lies, and so on. There was a bit of everything.
Among them was something truly strange.
‘Wait, what’s this? A potion to prevent game addiction?’
She felt an unnecessary pang of guilt.
Perhaps because it was a game she had played in her past life, modern words from that world often appeared.
With a furrowed brow, Lellia skimmed down the list of oddities. Just then.
‘Huh? Wait a minute!’
Lellia’s hand paused at a certain point.
[Alzheimer's Treatment]
‘Alzheimer's, could it be…!’
Lellia examined the ingredients for the recipe. The undiscovered ingredients were grayed out and marked with question marks.
‘Hmm…’
On her way to the Superion territory, Lellia had found quite a few ingredients using the automatic ingredient search function.
But there were still many more ingredients she hadn’t found.
‘With this medicine, maybe I can cure Grandmother.’
Filled with hope, Lellia read the names of the ingredients.
“Ninety-nine Areum Herbs, ten memory fragments, old fiber scraps… and so on. What? Why are there so many?”
Lellia narrowed her eyes and returned to the main screen.
[♪┏(・o･)┛Optimizing♪┗( ･o･) ┓♪In progress~!]
It was then.
Knock, knock.
A knock echoed, one that seemed laced with emotion. She was certain it couldn't be a maid.
Lellia quickly pressed the gem on her necklace to make the screen disappear.
The person who opened the door and entered was, as expected, not a maid. It was Carius.
The moment she saw his face, Lellia’s body tensed up.
“……”
As if he didn't need permission, Carius strode into the room and approached Lellia, who was sitting in the living room-like area.
Then he plopped down opposite her. His cold gaze swept over the items on the table.
“What is this?”
he asked, his face full of hostility. It seemed he couldn't get too angry, as he had already been scolded by the Duke.
He was pointing to the health-restoring potion Lellia had made. A small glass bottle contained a clear, red syrup.
“That’s a health-restoring potion.”
“….Hah!”
Carius let out a disbelieving scoff.
“You little swindler, do you even know that making these kinds of magic potions is illegal?”
“……”
Though a little frightened, Lellia met his gaze with a look that said, *So what?*
Now that her grandfather had given his permission, Carius wouldn't be able to kick her out anyway.
Seeing that look, Carius was utterly dumbfounded. He suppressed his anger for a moment before asking.
“You little swindler, do you know alchemy?”
“……”
Lellia kept her mouth shut.
To put it another way, the question also meant, ‘Are you a heretic? Do you want to be captured by the temple and burned at the stake?’
It was clearly a question meant to intimidate her. But Lellia wasn't particularly scared.
It was an obvious fact, but the most powerful person in the Superion family was the Duke.
Her grandfather believed her and had given her this room himself; there was no reason not to be confident.
Besides, unlike what Carius said, Lellia was not a swindler.
Furthermore, in the process of leaving the imperial castle and coming to the territory, Lellia’s anxious mental state had stabilized considerably.
To Lellia, the imperial castle was the source of her anxiety.
A place without the friends she relied on, and a place where she could die at any moment, just like in the original story.
Also, the very existence of Emperor Perseus and the twin brothers. Everything was a source of anxiety.
Of course, there was her mother's cabin, but that too was not a place where Lellia could rest easy.
She had been greatly startled by her encounter with Carius there, and even Emperor Perseus had berated her over the incident.
All of these factors had made Lellia withdrawn and passive.
So, after returning to her home country, unlike when she lived at the temple, she became cautious, sensitive, and fearful like a child.
However, in the short time it took to get here, Lellia had grown close to the Superion knights and received plenty of affection from her grandfather.
On top of that, today she had gained a sanctuary she felt was truly ‘safe.’ Thanks to that, Lellia regained her former spiritedness.
Lellia looked at Carius with a confident gaze brimming with that spiritedness.
“……”
However, that gaze greatly grated on Carius’s nerves. At the same time, it was bewildering.
It was a completely different look from when they had met in the cabin in the imperial forest.
Back then, Lellia had such a fragile and pitiful look that the angry Carius had felt a strange sense of guilt.
Regardless of Carius's bewilderment, Lellia finished her deliberation and spoke.
“Yes, I know how to do alchemy.”
“…You!”
Lellia shrugged. *So what?*
Alchemy was a branch of magic explicitly defined as heresy by the temple.
The temple always reacted sensitively to alchemy. They considered alchemists heretics who challenged the authority of the gods, hunting them down and burning them at the stake.
But in recent years, the situation had been a little different.
Signs of the Mad Dragon's awakening had appeared, and the attention of everyone born and raised on the Dracanea continent was focused on it.
‘The temple doesn’t have the leisure to be rounding up alchemists like they used to.’
Because of the Mad Dragon, the temple would be busier than anyone.
They intended to use this opportunity as a stepping stone to once again remind the five empires of the gravity of the covenant, and based on that, further expand their influence.
In the original story, too, after the Mad Dragon was killed, the temple began to involve itself more deeply in the five empires.
The conclusion was, ‘I’m an alchemist, so what are you going to do about it?’
In any empire, high-ranking nobles would secretly hire alchemists.
Because wherever people lived, there were bound to be those who dabbled in such things.
Besides, the Duke had said so himself.
That he had met many alchemists to cure his wife.
She understood Carius’s intention to threaten her perfectly well, but Lellia had no intention of meekly submitting.
“……”
Carius was dumbfounded by Lellia's brazen attitude.
On the other hand, he was seized by a strange thought.
‘…No way. Is she really my sister’s daughter?’
The late Elizabeth was a mage, but she had a strange interest in alchemy.
Carius had been very displeased by that fact. He had worried endlessly that his precious sister might be captured by the temple and something would happen to her.
‘No, that can’t be.’
To be honest, he had come to give her a warning.
That she might be good enough at swindling to fool his father, but he would never be fooled.
But upon discovering this unexpected commonality with his sister, he was at a loss for words.
“And please don't call me a swindler. I am not a swindler.”
“…W-what?”
“It doesn't matter if you don't believe me. Grandfather believes me, after all.”
“……”
Seeing Lellia speak so clearly and confidently, Carius was even more at a loss for words.
In the end, he left the room with a disgruntled expression, having gained nothing.
Carius narrowed his eyes and glared at the closed door. For some reason, he felt vexed.
