Chapter 174

01 Once upon a time. A very, very long time before human countries were built in this land. In a certain forest, the queen of the forest spirits lived with monsters and animals. The forest was plentiful, the animals were very kind, and the monsters were much gentler than in other regions. The queen of the forest spirits ran among the trees with the beasts and monsters, sang with the birds, danced in flower beds with the spirit children, and lived a peaceful and happy life. One day, the spirit children summoned the queen of the spirits to a flower bed where a lone human had fallen. This human was a hunter who survived by felling beasts with his bow. The hunter had escaped to that flower bed after a monster had grievously wounded him. In the forest, small beasts ate nuts and insects, and large beasts ate small beasts to live. Monsters eating humans was just the way of the forest. “Human, I eat you now. You are my food,” a monster said, and it was about to eat the hunter when the queen of the spirits turned to the monster and spoke. “Give him to me. It just so happens that I’m in need of extra help.” The queen of the spirits saw the blue eyes of the hunter, barely still open, and immediately took a liking to him, healing his wounds. There was something the queen of the spirits didn’t know. The creatures known as humans were smarter, kinder, and richer in emotion than any living thing in the forest. “Ah, what a beautiful person,” said the huntsman when he awoke and saw the queen of the spirits. His eyes were a deep, deep blue. In those eyes, deeper and more beautiful than the sky or the lakes, glittered a reflection of the queen. “My, what beautiful eyes. What a lovely person.” The queen of the spirits became fascinated with the hunter’s gorgeous sapphire eyes, his smiling face when he spoke happily, his constantly changing emotions, his kindness in the way he treated her, and his wisdom in the thinking of many things. The queen had never known a living thing could be so sensitive. Before she knew it, the queen of the spirits had grown to love the hunter, and he felt the same toward her. The two fell in love and lived together happily in the deep forest. 02 “Oh, Emily, are you reading a book?” “Yeah, Sherry. I looove this story!” “Let’s have a story about a hero. One who vanquishes a dragon.” “I want to keep listening to this one.” Sunlight’s Canopy was noisy with the sounds of the children who’d come by again today. Each of them blurted out what they wanted to say, and their conversation didn’t quite mesh, but that hardly seemed to matter to them. Even if what the children said went in different directions, they all laughed at the same time for some reason, and they appeared to be having fun. Likely, it was a good example of language and communication skills being two different things. The school the children attended had a library, albeit a small one, where they could borrow books donated by nobles and wealthy merchant families. Emily, who had memorized a few difficult words at school, borrowed an old children’s book from the corner of the library and was now reading it aloud. Freyja would normally seize upon a chance to pop in on such a place from seemingly nowhere and offer her great wisdom, but she was nowhere to be found within the shop section of Sunlight’s Canopy. She was in the middle of something. Her favorite pupil, whom Freyja teased and put through grueling training, was battling heavy odds in the second-floor atelier while receiving lavish praise. “Urgggggh!!!” “Hey, Mariela. One more try! You can do iiit!” Mariela let out a groan as if she’d been constipated for days while her master provided her with adequate encouragement. Freyja said, “One more try,” but a hundred or a thousand more wouldn’t have been enough, never mind one. Even so, Mariela groaned urrrgh and aaaagh with tremendous effort as she compressed a Transmutation Vessel containing Drops of Life and a ley-line shard tighter and tighter. “Nnnnnnnnngh…!!!!!!” Even though Mariela strained herself so much she cried out and her face turned red, none of that had anything to do with the actual handling of a Transmutation Vessel. Still, Mariela couldn’t help but vocalize her efforts. At any rate, it wasn’t simply because of the pressure. Pop. At last, the thin part of the Transmutation Vessel burst, and the Drops of Life and ley-line shard within shot out. Cla-cla-cla-clang. Because of the high pressure within the Transmutation Vessel, the impact was like an explosion. The Drops of Life jetted out of the Transmutation Vessel and immediately unraveled and disappeared into the atmosphere, but since the volume became nonexistent, the blast itself wasn’t a big deal. However, the ley-line shard that flew out like a speeding arrow had the power to easily penetrate a human body. So Freyja had created a Transmutation Vessel as a barrier around the outside of the one Mariela was handling. The ley-line shard bounced off the invisible barrier Freyja created and ricocheted violently, and perhaps because a lot of Drops of Life had dissolved, it soon cracked and disappeared as though it had been unraveled. Why did her master’s Transmutation Vessel so easily repel the dangerous ley-line shard that Mariela’s own couldn’t hold? Was her master’s barrier really a Transmutation Vessel in the first place? Mariela had asked her once, but Freyja had only tilted her head to the side and said “Who knows?” Maybe it was something unconscious on Freyja’s part. Whatever it was, it was something Mariela wasn’t yet capable of. “Another failure…” “Ha-haaa. What a shame! Well, don’t lose heart! We’ve got all the ingredients in the world. Try again!” “Grr, Master! Give me some master-y advice, here! We might have a ton of ley-line shards, but they’re expensive!” How many times today had Mariela made that mistake? Countless buckets with ley-line shards as small as the tip of Mariela’s pinkie were strewn about the atelier. All of them had been purchased from the Aguinas family. Over the last two hundred years, the Aguinas family had been buying ley-line shards under the pretense of investigation and research. Some of the alchemists who woke up in the Aguinas family’s cellar in the past had possessed the ability to make special-grade potions, but it didn’t mean all of them were that high ranking. In fact, not a single one who’d awakened in the last hundred years or so had been able to make special-grade potions. The Aguinas family had set some odd conditions for themselves, and among them was “Buy out all ley-line shards and store them,” so the strangely honest household bought out ley-line shards generation after generation and continued to diligently stash them away in a cellar like squirrels storing food for the winter. As it happened, the box Robert had been using in place of a chair in the hidden room beneath the eastern forests was a treasure chest packed full of ley-line shards. Caroline’s kidnapping was officially reported as Robert escorting her to the secret stash. He had handed over stewardship of the family to Caroline in order to tell her about those hidden assets behind closed doors. Officially, Caroline hadn’t been kidnapped, but rather went out of her own free will. It was just poor communication of her departure that had caused some mild alarm. The Labyrinth Suppression Forces and Mariela bought the majority of the inherited ley-line shards at a small markup. After generations of collecting ley-line shards, the Aguinas family finally earned a profit on them. In the imperial capital, ley-line shards were expensive items sold for one large silver coin each. You could buy a high-grade potion with one. However, in the Labyrinth City, with no alchemists, they were little more than pretty stones. The price of one in the City was one-tenth of a silver coin each. The sum was poor compensation for the hardships of subjugation, but considering the stones had no use without anyone to use them, just about all of them had been sold to the Aguinas family because they offered a slightly better price. All told, the Aguinas family had about a hundred years’ worth from a city with a Labyrinth. Tens of thousands of ley-line shards had been stockpiled, and no matter how exceptionally low the price per stone, Mariela couldn’t afford even half of them after spending around half the fortune she’d accumulated. Conversely, the Aguinas family enjoyed an incredible, and unexpected, wave of income from Mariela’s and the Labyrinth Suppression Forces’ investments. Since the family had decided on Caroline and Weishardt’s engagement and expected to spend a considerable sum to welcome Weishardt as the husband to the head of the family, the income was a lifesaver. With passage through the Fell Forest now a possibility because of monster warding potions, the new couple would need to visit Margrave Schutzenwald’s territories and the imperial capital to pay respects. That wasn’t something they could just have a few dresses made for and be done with, like in the Labyrinth City. The Aguinas family was expected to prepare items befitting their family status. This meant things from clothing—and not just for Weishardt and Caroline, but for the family members accompanying them—to the carriage they rode in on, and the belongings they brought with them. Even after Weishardt and Caroline got married, there would be no income from potions like there had been previously, so they were going to need investment funds to support and maintain an adequate livelihood, whether that involved obtaining land or starting a business. So Mariela did as her master told her and improved the economy by spending gold coins to buy ley-line shards. The young alchemist worked hard at special-grade potion training, using up almost a hundred ley-line shards every day. It seemed terribly extravagant. When Mariela failed, the ley-line shard vanished like a bubble bursting or smoke in the wind. One might be tempted to call it a literal bubble economy bursting. Seeing the way her gold coins were flying from their coffers, Sieg worked hard to catch and bring home meat every day. A feat that caused Mariela’s respect for him to rise an astonishing amount. This might have been a bubble, too. One could only pray it didn’t burst, too. “Waugh! Another failure!” Just as the hardest part of making high-grade potions was extracting the base ingredient, lunamagia, the hardest part of making special-grade potions was dissolving a ley-line shard into Drops of Life. Despite this, Freyja’s simply said things like “Well, let’s try it anyway” and made Mariela perform alchemy using skills alone without questioning whether that was actually the best way to do things. Mariela’s habits from childhood were hard to break. If her teacher said, “You can do it,” the young alchemist believed she could. If Drops of Life touched a substance outside of a Transmutation Vessel, the liquid would unravel and vanish like smoke, but if you handled it within a Transmutation Vessel, then its properties were almost the same as ordinary water. The only exception was that it was soluble in water and oil. When water reached a certain high temperature and pressure, it shifted to a state between gas and water. It dissolved and decomposed objects that normally didn’t dissolve in water. However, when Drops of Life were in this state, they dissolved ley-line shards. Of course, even if the temperature and pressure weren’t raised that high, the ley-line shards would melt bit by bit into Drops of Life, like sand dissolving, solidifying, and turning into hard rocks over time. If you took this kind of slightly melted ley-line shard out of the Drops of Life, it would burst open with a pop and vanish. Incidentally, if you smashed a ley-line shard, the entire thing would burst into fine grains, and in the next instant they’d dissolve into the atmosphere again. There was no way to pulverize them and make them easier to melt. That was why Mariela had been tightly compressing Drops of Life with a ley-line shard in it every day as of late. Mariela thought if she were only compressing Drops of Life, it would be fine not to put a shard in it, but for some reason Freyja wouldn’t let her do that. “Ahhhhh! This is hard!” “…Of course it is.” The reflexive retort had come from a man standing behind Freyja, looking not unlike a servant. It was Robert. “First of all…” “Rooob, don’t interrupt Mariela.” Poke-poke-poke-poke, poke-poke-poke-poke. Freyja launched a forehead poke assault. “Ah—ow! Ow, ow, ow, ow, I said ow. I’m sorryyy!” “You said you’d be my manservant until you paid back the money you owed, right? You understand?” “Y-yes. However, if it’s money you’re after, my father…” “That’s your family’s money, isn’t it? Carol’s money. It’s not yours anymore. Don’t you at least have the decency to pretend to be embarrassed about making your sister repay your debt?” “B-but, how long…” “Hmmm? You’ve accrued interest, you know? If you say anything stupid, I’ll burn you.” “I—I beg your pardon…” Mariela watched Freyja and Robert’s exchange with astonishment. For some reason, the fiery woman had brought Robert here several days after Caroline’s abduction. At the time, Freyja had said something like “I’m putting you to work for that money I lent you.” The money she’d lent to Robert was borrowed from Haage. What’s more, Mariela was the one who’d paid back Haage. Freyja shouldn’t have gotten even one copper coin out of it… The day he was first brought here, Robert looked worse than when Mariela had seen him in the Aguinas cellar. He had dark circles under his eyes, and he gazed at a specific spot of no discernible importance while muttering something. Mariela got a slightly unpleasant vibe from the man, as if he could no longer control his black magic very well. At times he would get a glazed look in his eyes and whisper fragments of curses here and there, regardless of where he was, like a dog marking its territory. Every time he did, Freyja would go “Fire!” and rebuke him with an explosive forehead poking attack. The noise was unbearable. Incidentally, every time Freyja’s “Fire!” burst forth, Robert was engulfed in a pillar of flame, but for some reason he wasn’t burned; his hair didn’t even get frizzy. Occasionally Robert’s skin reddened slightly, and his clothes were a little scorched, but that was all. Mariela didn’t think it particularly mattered if his sleeves or hem were singed. Though perhaps he found it difficult to bear, as every time it happened, he changed into new clothes of identical make. Freyja would yell, “That’ll add to your debt!” Interest was accruing, too, so the whole thing was snowballing. Robert returned to the Aguinas house every day. Despite having lost his right to be the head of the family, he was still considered a part of it. Therefore, his clothes were provided by his family and hadn’t actually cost him anything, yet Freyja raised his debts like a loan shark. However, every time Freyja scorched him, it was a bit longer before the next incident. His unpleasant atmosphere seemed to be diminishing as well. So both Mariela and the regulars of Sunlight’s Canopy let Freyja do as she pleased. More than anything else, however… “Hup! Ah, I missed the trash bin. Rob, put it in for me.” Mariela was extremely thankful she didn’t have to deal with her master’s absurdities herself anymore. Like when Freyja tried to throw trash into the wastebin and caused the whole thing to fall over and spill its contents. It was worse than if she’d just missed the target to begin with. All right, I’ll leave my master to Robert and try a little harder! Leaving her bothersome, difficult instructor to someone else was just fine in Mariela’s eyes. She resumed the practicing the dissolving of ley-line shards. Mariela hadn’t noticed what Robert had started to say, or her master stepping in before he could. In the imperial capital, the process of melting a ley-line shard into Drops of Life required more than just a Transmutation Vessel alone, because the pressure was too high. By simply setting up a Transmutation Vessel inside a thick metal container, one or more alchemists could remain near it. These containers were like a lump of metal with a hole about the diameter of a finger, and you put Drops of Life and ten ley-line shards inside. Next, you pushed in a metal piston with the exact same diameter as the hole above, and applied a weight of several hundred kilograms. Then you heated the metal container from the outside. The two hundred years Mariela slept through had seen a lot of progress in materials for such canisters, pressure-increasing methods, and heating methods. However, the practice of using the container and mechanically applying pressure had remained unaltered. Even with two centuries’ worth of progress, a temperature and pressure that would completely dissolve the ley-line shards couldn’t be controlled in Drops of Life. So, although theoretically one ley-line shard would be enough, you needed to dissolve ten to get one potion’s worth. In other words, processing shards using pure alchemy skills was an act of sheer madness whether two hundred years ago or now. Despite such a steep challenge, Freyja had ordered Mariela to do it. Hmm, this was the case when I extracted the lunamagia, too, but I feel like it would be fine if I just held it down from the outside… With a clack, Mariela flicked the ley-line shard with the tip of a finger. The way it glittered was very pretty. On a closer look, the shape, size, color, and luster of each one was ever so slightly different, unique. They were like raptors or yagus. At first, every one of the animals looked the same, but when you got to know them better, you became able to distinguish what made each one an individual. Ahh, I see… Mariela realized she might have given herself a hint, and she grasped a ley-line shard tightly in her hand, enclosing it in her fingers to completely envelop it. 03 Before long, the hunter’s family and friends, gathered in the forest where the queen of forest spirits and the hunter lived, and they built a small village. All of the hunter’s family and friends were kind, good people. They didn’t bite like the forest monsters, and they worked more than the forest animals to build comfortable houses. Even in the winter, fire spirits happily danced in their nice, warm fireplaces, and sometimes water spirits peeked from wells filled with clean water. The fields the humans tilled were soft, and the earth spirits were delighted at the loosened soil. Humans taught the queen of the spirits more songs than the birds knew, and she and her dear forest animal friends had great fun singing along with the wind spirits’ chorus. The many spirits and animals who lived in the village loved the humans, and everyone worked together to make the place like a paradise. The wonderful things didn’t end there, however. Surrounded by many friends, the queen of the spirits and the hunter were blessed with a darling baby boy, and the two were filled with happiness. The people, spirits, and animals of the village hoped their joyous feelings would last forever. Unfortunately, that was not to be the case. When the humans decided to create a place where they could live, there were those they did not tolerate in that village. The monsters. It was very, very unfortunate, but monsters and humans couldn’t coexist. “But we’d been living so well with the queen of the spirits and everyone else in the forest!” The monsters held an unbearable hatred toward the humans who now resided happily with the queen and the others. A part of the forest where the monsters had once roamed freely was now a village they couldn’t enter. The town was just one part of the vast forest, but to the monsters it was an insufferable insult. One day, the monsters, fed up with humans shunning them, attacked the village in great numbers to take back their home. 04 “I wonder what happened to the village…?” mumbled Elio, who suddenly remembered the story as he began to doze off in bed. “Village?” “Yeah. The spirit village. The one the monsters attacked.” “Emily read us a book today about the queen of the forest spirits, Mom.” “Ahh, that story. Then would you like me to tell you the rest of it?” “Uh-uh. That’s okay. I promised I’d go back again tomorrow.” Elio answered Elmera’s question, and Pallois had chimed in, a trifling conversation between parent and children before bed. After enjoying the moment with her sons, Elmera returned to her husband, Voyd, in the living room. “How are the children?” “They’re asleep.” Elmera sat next to Voyd and nestled up to him. Written summons directed toward each of them sat on the desk. They were from the Labyrinth Suppression Forces, requesting their participation in the second red dragon subjugation. Last time, written summons had been delivered only to Elmera, but this time there were two: one for her and one for Voyd. “What’s written in the summons?” “The same as last time. They’re asking us to help for the sake of the Labyrinth City’s future. The soldier who brought the summons was courteous; he neither threatened nor coerced me,” Voyd recounted. The previous red dragon subjugation attempt had ended in failure. Thanks to Voyd’s help and Leonhardt’s bitter decision, no one had died, but they’d felt thoroughly powerless in the face of an airborne opponent. It had been over a month since then, but they still hadn’t found a reliable way to pull the dragon to the ground. Ever since that failed attempt, the red dragon hadn’t come within the range of their magic. Thanks to the pull of gravity, the red dragon’s breath attack had far greater range than that of magic. Even if the Forces sent for a ballista from the imperial capital that was capable of firing long distances, the dragon’s breath would burn the thing to ashes before the siege weapon could even take aim. “This time, I’m going, too.” “You can’t, darling! If you did…” At Voyd’s declaration that he would participate, his wife tried to dissuade him. “It’s all right, Elmera. I’ll never forget you. Because I remember well every moment we’ve spent together since we first met.” Voyd embraced Elmera’s shoulders and spoke gently to her. Elmera’s expression betrayed the slightest bit of unease as she leaned against her husband. The first time Elmera had met Voyd was in a deep and dangerous stratum in the City’s Labyrinth. She’d come across a man sitting absentmindedly on a rock, seemingly unaware he was in a place that was crawling with monsters. “It’s dangerous to stay for so long in a spot like that.” As soon as she’d said this, Elmera felt very foolish for doing so. They were deep in the Labyrinth, far from the stratum stairs where the safe zone was located. Meaning, this wasn’t a place some incapable weakling would idle about. Her words should have been insulting to a powerful person who understood and knowingly faced such danger. However, the man had replied like he was speaking to a child in a park at sunset: “You’re right. You should hurry home, too.” The next day, and the day after that, the man was sitting in the same spot. Elmera had grown rather curious about him and came to see him every day. “Hey, just how long do you intend to sit there?” she’d asked him, to which he responded, “Maybe until everything has disappeared.” When Elmera asked his name, he scratched his chin for a moment. He then answered, “Voyd.” The unusual response made Elmera wonder if it was a pseudonym. This man had eyes that were unusually, utterly vacant. They even seemed to say he had come this deep into the Labyrinth to die. Elmera worried for him and returned to visit often, but the strange man remained seated there in exactly the same way. He was so calm, he didn’t look like he belonged in a Labyrinth crawling with monsters, and for some reason he didn’t engage in conversation, either. Although Elmera had seen him the previous day, he always spoke with a facial expression like it was the first time they’d met. She began to grow fond of Voyd’s calm presence. She felt extremely safe just being by his side, despite how deep they were in the Labyrinth. Elmera, blessed with a thunder god’s divine protection, was constantly enveloped in a small amount of electricity, and strong static electricity would shoot through whatever came into contact with her bare skin. The only ones she could touch without worry were family members who’d gotten used to it over time. So ever since she was little, Elmera never showed any skin except during battle, and she spent her life taking care not to harm the people around her. Still, Voyd welcomed Elmera and didn’t seem the least bit bothered by static surrounding her. It didn’t take much time for Voyd’s secret to come to light. This was a deep stratum of the Labyrinth. Powerful creatures constantly wandered around. Sometimes, monsters stronger than the usual ones for a stratum even sprung up. When Elmera was in danger, Voyd would cover her—literally, with his own body. After the monster was defeated, the man looked like he’d suffered a fatal wound, yet it closed up and vanished in the blink of an eye. Voyd’s skill, Hollow Rift, erased every attack from the monsters. After casually defeating a monster, Voyd would look back at Elmera with a gentle smile and speak to her like one would to someone they’d just met. “Are you all right, young lady?” Yes, he had completely forgotten both Elmera and the days they’d spent together. Elmera had heard of the S-Rank adventurer called Isolated Hollow. He was said to be an invincible shield boasting defenses like an impregnable fortress and a superhuman recovery ability. “You see, every time my body recovers, my memories vanish. I don’t forget things like language or social norms, though…” Voyd answered Elmera’s urgent questioning in the same calm manner he always spoke with. The man held a book in his hand with small, densely packed words written within. It was his diary. To say he “forgot” presumed the possibility of remembering again, but Voyd’s memories were completely erased. A new page of the diary, which he said he began to write in so he could preserve the things he felt were even the slightest bit important, was packed with writing about Elmera. “Don’t tell me… You’ve forgotten your own name, haven’t you?” Voyd had never thought he’d lose his own name of all things, so he hadn’t bothered to write it anywhere in the diary. The man laughed as he admitted the fact. “There seem to be a great many people in the imperial capital who claim to be my relatives.” This was written in a page with a mark on it. Tricked, cheated, deceived. Voyd had even forgotten the times he’d been tricked. Even if he was praised as invincible, an impregnable fortress, the ultimate shield, Voyd remembered none of it. This was the other side of Hollow Rift. It swallowed all of Voyd’s enemies’ attacks, but also its bearer’s feelings, memories, the things that made him who he was, everything. That being the case, it would’ve been better for everything to be swallowed. At least, Voyd thought as much when he’d written such feelings in the journal. That was why he’d come here to the Labyrinth and sat. He would sit here until his words, his way of fighting, even the knowledge that he was a person—everything—disappeared. “Don’t cry, Elmera. I’m all right,” Voyd reassured Elmera as she wept. “Because I’ve forgotten both joy and sorrow. Everything.” Elmera could tell he was a kind person. She’d gleaned from Voyd’s journal that he’d been deceived and hurt many times, but he seemed the sort of man who felt glad he’d been the only one to suffer through it all. “Don’t cry, Elmera. None of you recover quickly like I do. Neither in body, nor in mind. So please don’t be so sad.” She disagreed. Surely losing even the memories of getting hurt caused sadness worse than whatever had hurt him. Isn’t that why Voyd was sitting alone in the depths of the Labyrinth to begin with? “You’re wrong!” Overcome with emotion, Elmera embraced Voyd. He said It didn’t bother him, but to her, it was sadder than anything else. Sensitive as she was, her emotions spilled over into tears, and her control over her own electricity began to weaken… C-c-c-c-crackle, crackle, craaackle! “Ah! I-I’m so sorry!” It wasn’t the kind of voltage that could be waved away with a simple apology. However, since it was Voyd who’d been electrocuted, he merely smoked for an instant before turning back to normal. Had it been anyone else, this would have been a disaster. Elmera would have had to go running to find someone who could use healing magic. This was exactly why she’d distanced herself from others since she was young and worked diligently to control her electricity. “Don’t worry about it, I’m fine. You are quite stimulating, Elmera.” But Voyd smiled as if it were nothing and accepted her apology. “What? You…remember my name?” “Huh?” After this curious event, Voyd left the Labyrinth with Elmera, assumed a false identity, and began to live with her. Because Elmera stood out—whether as the chairwoman of the Medicinal Herbs Division or as the Lightning Empress—Voyd became a househusband in her shadow, living quietly up to now without attracting attention or suspicion from anyone. He never forgot the time he spent with Elmera. Old man Ghark, who’d heard the tale later, offered unromantic suggestions like “He doesn’t forget how to talk, y’know? Isn’t him rememberin’ from the electric shock similar to that?” However, the young Elmera—well, maybe even the older Elmera of today—considered it a miracle of love. There was no basis for it having happened, or for it happening again. Just imagining a situation that might force her to test the theory again was terrifying. She dreaded to think of the man she loved losing the time he spent with his family of two. A family that soon grew to three, and then four. Voyd didn’t even know how long he’d been alive. According to the information Elmera gathered, he didn’t seem to be an abnormal age. However, it was possible Voyd’s ability cured even his aging. After they began living together, Elmera felt happy every time she found a tiny wrinkle around Voyd’s eyes or a hair that was just a little gray. She believed that if they lived together over the same period of time, Voyd wouldn’t end up being left behind by himself in a dark place like the bottom of the Labyrinth. Up to now, Voyd had fought only for the sake of others. That’s why Elmera took it upon herself to fight on his behalf. She wanted Voyd to live quietly and peacefully. Elmera recalled the previous attempt at subjugating the red dragon. She’d left without telling Voyd, yet he came running when she was in danger. Somehow, he’d found her out. He had saved Elmera from death, but back then, there had been some curiosity in his eyes when he looked at her afterward. As if he’d forgotten who she was. Thankfully, Voyd retained his memories, but there was no guarantee he’d be able to recall things the next time. “You don’t need to worry so much, Elmera. If they just want me to absorb attacks without any kind of actual plan, I’ll turn them down. But, according to these summonses, they’ve found an attack method that should prove effective against the red dragon. And, if it’s what I’m thinking of, it will be a very fascinating plan indeed.” Voyd drew his beloved wife close to him, reassuring her. “After all, I don’t want to lose these days I’ve spent with you and our children.” Elmera met Voyd’s gaze and found that her husband’s eyes, which had once been so tragically vacant, now reflected a clear future. 05 The creatures known as monsters were very, very strong. No matter how many beasts of the forest gathered together, they wouldn’t stand a chance against them. Each person in the hunters’ village used their ingenuity, teamed up with the beasts and spirits who had become their friends, and fought with all their might to protect the village. The humans with dexterous hands built a fence to keep the monsters from invading. A spirit transformed into an ivy that would conceal the humans from the invading creatures protect the village. The humans who could fight took weapons in hand, ready to face the fiends. The animals, too, joined the effort. They carried wood for the fence, ferried the humans around, even fought alongside them. Not to be outdone, the spirits assisted with the humans’ magic. If a human called a flame, a wall of fire would appear; if they called ice, many icicles would rain down around them. When a human was in danger, a wall of earth would protect them, and when they swung their swords, a blade of wind would fly to strike distant monsters. It was a very fierce battle. In the middle of the fight, the compassionate queen of the spirits tried to persuade the monsters to return to the forest. The monsters may have been ferocious, and quick to torment the beasts and spirits of the forest, but even so, they were her forest comrades. The queen didn’t wish to fight them. It pained her to think anyone might be injured. The humans only lived in one part of the forest. The queen believed they should be allowed to live there in peace. The queen of spirits pleaded to the monsters with all her might. The forest was vast enough to comfortably accommodate one small village. She begged the fiends to reconsider. Alas… The more the beasts and spirits helped the humans, the angrier the monsters became. Until the humans arrived, it had always been the monsters who lived there with the queen of the spirits. The monsters insisted that they had been here first. Why had everyone been so eager to make friends with the humans? Why did they have to be the only ones who were left out? If the queen of the spirits didn’t want them to be hurt, as she claimed; why did she choose the humans and not them? The creatures howled in anger. 06 Mariela could hear the voices of the children reading a book. Since they were far away, she didn’t understand what they were saying, but most likely they were reading huddled together in a corner of Sunlight’s Canopy’s shop. Mariela mused that the ley-line shard in her hand wasn’t all that different. She didn’t know the details of what kind of monster it used to be, but she sensed by holding the tiny object that it was the type of monster that lived with a pack. After she put it into a Transmutation Vessel with Drops of Life, she slowly raised the pressure before doing the same with the temperature. Although, it might have been more accurate to say she brought the Drops of Life closer together, than saying she raised the pressure. She squeezed them like children shoving their bodies against each other in a silly game. Her master’s Transmutation Vessel was extremely durable and seemed like it could withstand significant duress, but that was unusual for such containers. Transmutation Vessel wasn’t a skill to be used in combat. You could easily break one with a powerful strike at a single point, and even with the amount of magical power Mariela possessed, there was no way for one to hold pressure high enough to dissolve a ley-line shard. That’s why she didn’t force the Transmutation Vessel on the ley-line shard, but brought it closer to the Drops of Life. She didn’t warm the Transmutation Vessel itself, but the Drops of Life near the shard. The Transmutation Vessel was only there to ensure the Drops of Life didn’t touch the air and thus return to the ley line. A ley-line shard was a physical crystal; the Drops of Life dwelling in a monster given solid form. If magical gems were crystals of magic that embodied the world’s energy itself, you could say ley-line shards were crystals of life force. They were formed inside the bodies of monsters, and one could sense a vague feeling of residual consciousness within them. It wasn’t anything complex or clear, more like hazy desires of wanting to be in a pack, or wanting to run, or enjoying a certain temperature. Matching that made it easier for the shard to adapt to the nearby Drops of Life. Mariela didn’t expect it to be easy after realizing such a thing, but somehow, she became able to successfully extract a ley-line shard about once in every ten attempts. The shard dissolved in the Drops of Life retained its liquid state even after she removed it from the Transmutation Vessel. The light of the solute was greater than that of the Drops of Life it had been dissolved in, though the glow was fleeting. “Next, the curique.” Up to now, Mariela would have pulverized and extracted the curique with water containing dissolved Drops of Life, but now she could extract it more easily. When she diffused Drops of Life through the curique she’d just picked from her rear garden, she could feel its medicinal components collecting in the leaves and veins. She dissolved Drops of Life into those components and used Separate. Then the young alchemist loaded the drops directly into the healing components. She sensed the kindness of the earth in the medicinal herb’s healing power. She believed the world wished for, not just humans, but for all the animals living in the forests to be healthy. When she charged the curique with Drops of Life to bring it close to that wish, that ideal state, the curique’s mesophyll changed into particles of pale light—like fine, free-flowing sand—and streamed out, leaving the veins. “Crystallize Medicine.” The healing particles that streamed out were very small. They would slip between one’s fingers no matter how tightly they were clenched. Dissimilar from Drops of Life, they had a tangible existence. Perhaps the nature of the Drops of Life “surrounding” them was powerful, as they disappeared at some point even if you transferred them to a vial. There was no way to stop this; thus it was necessary to connect particles together with magical power and anchor them to this world at the same time. These linked processes were collectively called Crystallize Medicine. Mariela had become able to use it after she searched for Carol and almost melted into the world. The name Crystallize Medicine as well as a simple explanation titled How to Crystallize the Power in Materials, were the only things added to the Library. These medicinal crystals could only be used by the alchemist who made them, perhaps because they were secured with magical power. However, if you put them in potion vials, they lasted longer than dried medicinal herbs, and a crystal about as big as a grain of sand could be used to make a single potion, making them very space efficient. Moreover, they sparkled. Each material had a different color, and if you put them in vials and lined them up on a shelf, they could be very pretty. Mariela was very happy with them. When she used Crystallize Medicine on all her materials, from the ones she’d been amassing to the ones she’d only recently purchased, both the atelier and the cellar ended up very tidy. Surveying the cleaned room, Sieg nodded in approval, but Mariela had gotten used to the mess and felt a tiny bit unsettled. However, Mariela’s master was always putting something or other wherever there was free space, and left things without cleaning them up, so it would be messy again before long. “This is so convenient. I wish the Library had a more detailed explanation,” Mariela said, hoping to learn faster. “You won’t be able to do something just by reading about it, y’know?” Freyja laughed as she answered. Indeed, that might’ve been true. Even if Mariela had been told to bring medicinal herbs or materials close to their ideal state, she probably wouldn’t have grasped the concept. “The dead dragon shrooms, the dragon blood, and the viscous liquid from Slaken have all been crystallized already…” Perhaps Mariela should have expected the ingredients of a special-grade potion to be equally extraordinary. Dead dragon shrooms, as their name suggested, were mushrooms that grew on the remains of dragons. Despite growing on corpses, they apparently didn’t get nutrition from flesh and blood. Instead, they fed on the magical power dwelling in the dragon’s hide and bones. Any dragon species was fine, and some sage somewhere had recently scorched a large number of earth dragons right at the end of the rainy season, which had made their bodies the perfect seedbeds. There were still earth dragons roaming the area, however. So a joint unit of Labyrinth Suppression Forces and Adventurers Guild members held a B Rank and Above Training Camp, which doubled as dragon-blood collection. Many special-grade potion materials would be needed going forward, so apparently the collection was made a regular event to also help strengthen soldiers and advanced adventurers. Naturally, Sieg was recruited and—equally naturally—the person who knew about the area, Freyja, didn’t participate. Dead dragon shrooms were dried at a high temperature that would make even live trees burst into flames, and were then finely crushed and extracted with water colder than ice. Since dragon blood contained toxins, one had to mix it with three types of oil, each with a different melting temperature, and repeat the separation process to carefully remove the toxins. The remaining materials were face tree fruit and hot sand scorpion poison. These were obtained from the stores of the Labyrinth City’s Merchants Guild. Both were materials that could be collected in the Labyrinth. The monsters weren’t as dangerous as earth dragons, but the guild was planning to raise the trade-in price of these materials to encourage their collection. Mariela couldn’t use the Crystallize Medicine skill on materials like those yet. It appeared to be impossible to do so on any material she hadn’t processed many times over and thoroughly understood. That said, Crystallize Medicine wasn’t required for making potions. Mariela thought it might be a useful technique for alchemists who were sufficiently familiar with the materials to easily extract and store them for long periods of time. A face tree was a large, mobile tree with a human face. Several types of trees with human faces had been identified, and a face tree was one of those. It was the most active tree monster among those identified in the Labyrinth. It walked on its own by nimbly moving its roots, and the face on its trunk made different expressions. The monster’s defining characteristic was its fruit that ripened at irregular intervals. When it did, one could cut it to reveal a shape like a baby’s face. Although the fruit bore a gentle, sleepy expression when it was ripe on the branch, the eyes and mouth opened wide when plucked. Drying the fruit gave it a creepy face that resembled an old man with an anguished countenance. The ripe fruit held medical potency as well, but special-grade potions called for unripe fruit. The produce bore no face at that stage. Seeds were enclosed within a large pod beneath the thin, tough flesh. The inside of these seeds was the required material for potion-making. Inside the seed of the unripe fruit was a liquid, and one would have to bore a hole to extract it. This liquid contained the magical power of a variety of living things that nourished the face tree. Pickling it, along with daigis fibers rolled up like a sponge to draw out the excess magical power, helped remove side effects. As for hot sand scorpion poison, the essential part of preparing it was how one removed its impurities. These scorpions attacked from within hot sand and had B-Rank strength, so taking them down was easy enough. However, the amount of poison that could be extracted from one was low, and it deteriorated if it came into contact with the air. Often by the time it was delivered, over half of it had decomposed and only a few drops were usable. Moreover, the decomposition advanced in stages, and the material used to isolate the undecomposed poison could also be troublesome. The ashes from coal used by dwarves to forge steel was suitable as a separation material obtainable in the Labyrinth City, and after mixing it into a slurry with a caustic slime’s acidic liquid, it became possible to cure it for a few hours under high temperature and pressure. The time and temperature were essential, and it was possible to make holes in the particles of ash tiny enough that only the undecomposed scorpion poison could penetrate. All the materials were complicated to process, let alone obtain. Exactly as one would have expected from special-grade potions. Just assembling all of the materials took time, but the more potions Mariela made, the less harm would come to both the Labyrinth Suppression Forces and the Labyrinth City, so she got first priority in receiving the ingredients. Despite their processing difficulty, these other ingredients were still a piece of cake compared to ley-line shards. The process was complex, but they could be finished by following the necessary steps. All Mariela had to do was recite the directions over and over, and repeatedly go through the motions to memorize what to do. Mariela didn’t perceive issues that could be overcome with hard work alone as actual obstacles. Every time she learned new information, she could feel her world expanding. It was too fun to be tiring. In particular, after she became able to use Crystallize Medicine, she understood the materials much deeper than before, perhaps because of her increased proficiency. Engrossed in her repetitious tasks, Mariela began to feel a curious sensation. It was as if points of information she’d known up to now had started connecting to other points, organizing systematically. Thanks to this, it took less than a month for Mariela to become able to make special-grade potions. Her success rate wasn’t 100 percent yet, but specialized potions were at last within reach. “And finally, the crystalline lens of a gazer.” Mariela produced the lens, securely wrapped in a damp cloth, from a large vial where it had been stored with ice. A gazer was an eyeball monster also referred to as an observer. This giant monster levitated via inborn magic and unleashed advanced magical attacks—so of course a special-grade potion would use a part of its body. The enormous lens, its circumference roughly that of two open hands, was clear and translucent, yet it remained soft to the touch. After taking out a knife, Mariela sliced the crystalline lens as thinly as she could, then carefully dehydrated the pieces one by one. Since they would deteriorate if she raised the temperature or changed the pressure, she dried them in thin pieces before grinding them into a fine powder. She mixed the finished powder with a custom-made vinegar she’d prepared in advance. As far as processing the lens went, tuning the vinegar was more difficult than the lens itself. The vinegar was made using lynus wheat as a base and combining several varieties of grains and fruit, as well as dozens of different nuts. Through the process, the mixture would take on a deep brown color. Its flavor was extremely harsh, making it completely inedible. The particular batch of vinegar Mariela was using had only just been made, so it was intensely sour, and simply opening the lid was enough to make your eyes sting and tear up. Apparently, filling a container with this vinegar and aging it for about ten years resulted in an extremely delicious luxury item. Doing so would mean that the properties necessary for processing gazer crystalline lenses would disappear, however. Making it no longer viable as a material for potions. While she’d been preparing vinegar for the lens, Mariela had also made a considerably large batch and stored it in the cellar. She was looking forward to it in ten years’ time. The recipe for this vinegar was also recorded in the Library, but she didn’t have to memorize all the ingredients when handling foodstuff. Even for Mariela, memorizing the dozens of types of vinegar ingredients would have been quite a hassle, so it was a relief she didn’t need to. Mariela combined the processed materials in the proper order, in the appointed quantity, at the exact temperature. She couldn’t afford to let her focus slip at any point during the procedure. This was something she’d wanted to make for a long time. “…It’s done.” It had been a year now since Mariela had first met Siegmund. At long last, she had completed the special-grade specialized potion for eyes. 07 “Is Sieg here yet? Is he here yet?” Now that Mariela had completed the special-grade specialized potion for eyes, she restlessly paced around and around the shop interior of Sunlight’s Canopy. It was still too early for dinner, but she’d already finished preparing the meal. She’d covertly put her alchemy skills to use to make a huge feast, because Sieg’s eye was going to be cured. Special-grade potions hadn’t been put on the market yet, so he would have to continue wearing his eye patch for a little while to keep it a secret. However, even if it was just with their friends, Mariela wanted to celebrate. Today, Mariela felt she could forgive her master even if the Freyja completely splurged and drank every last bit of the alcohol Mariela kept stocked. Yet, today of all days, Sieg had been recruited to subjugate earth dragons and wouldn’t be back until dusk. Mariela wanted to have him drink the potion as soon as he returned, but her master had butted in with a comment that actually made sense for once. “This is the first use of a such a potion. He should drink it in front of an appropriate audience.” Freyja did have a point. Knowing how long it would take for an eye injured in battle to heal by using the potion would be valuable information. It wasn’t like the concoction was easy to make. Mariela still found it frustrating. She just wanted to give it to Sieg already. Why had her master chosen now to say something so wise? With a backward glance at Mariela, who was pouting, Freyja wrote something on a piece of paper and handed it to Nierenberg. Scribbled on it were the words “Doc, give this to the brothers.” Indeed, Nierenberg of all people was being made to run errands. As per usual, the Sage of Calamity boasted an imperviousness to the statuses of those around her. Mariela had given up on complaining to Freyja, who seemed to be comfortably situating herself at the top of the hierarchy within Sunlight’s Canopy, when the children gathered in the corner of the room called out to the young alchemist. “Mari, wanna read a book with us? I’ll read it to you!” What a kind child. So much so, Mariela wanted to boil the kid’s essence and make her master drink it. She wondered if such a potion existed as she went to join Emily and the others. “Thanks, Emily. What book are you reading?” “It’s called The Legend of Endalsia. We’re already in the middle of it, though!” Emily gave a simple summary of the story so far, then continued to read. 08 The monsters kept coming and coming no matter how many he defeated, and in the end the hunter lost his life in the battle. Oh no! The queen of the spirits called, cried, and screamed, but the hunter would never look at her again with those beautiful blue eyes. The queen of the spirits was filled with grief. But she couldn’t just cry. The queen had a son who was very precious to her. Her child had the same blue eyes of the man she loved. She needed to protect their newborn child. The queen of the spirits left her baby in the care of the hunter’s younger sister and left with the words “I am going to become one with the ley line. If I borrow its power, I can protect this land from the monsters. So long as I watch over this place, the monsters will bring no harm to it.” After the queen of the spirits held her darling son close, she gave him to the hunter’s sister. “I will watch over you always, my dearest child.” She said no more, and the queen disappeared into the earth. No one knew exactly what she had done, but the moment the queen of the spirits vanished, the monsters returned to the forest as if an invisible hand were driving them away. The child of the queen and the hunter, as well as the other humans, were saved. From then on, just as the queen of the spirits had said, a mysterious power protected the hunters’ village, and the monsters never drew near it again. Many humans came to this safe, plentiful land. Before long, the village grew into a town, and the town into a country. The people of this land held an everlasting gratitude for the queen of the spirits, and they raised the child of the queen and the hunter with great care. Eventually, the boy with the blood of spirit and man took up the throne as king. The country became known as “the Kingdom of Endalsia,” named so after the queen that had birthed its ruler. The Kingdom of Endalsia prospered for a long, long time, and the hunter’s descendants had long and happy lives. “Wonderful, wonderful.” After Emily finished reading, she gave a satisfied exhale of accomplishment for having finished an entire book, and closed it. Watching, Freyja said, “You did a good job” and stroked Emily’s head. “But actually, that story got something wrong.” The sage began flipping through the pages of the book. “Which part is wrong?” Emily asked, curious. The other children seemed to want to know, too. That was Freyja for you. She was good at capturing the hearts of children. The sage looked around at them and then spoke in a hushed tone, quite unlike herself. “This is what the queen said when she left her baby with the hunter’s sister: ‘I am going to become one with the ley line. If I borrow its power, I can protect this land from the monsters. An object representative of the protective power is required make it manifest. So I shall bestow my right eye to this child. So long as this Spirit Eye remains, the monsters will not be able to assail this land.’ What happened after is the same as in the book. The village was protected and eventually became a human country through Endalsia’s power. It seems the boy’s right eye—the one inherited from Endalsia’s Spirit Eye—was a deep green like the trees of the forest. His left eye—the one inherited from the hunter—was a beautiful blue. Even after the boy died, another boy with the green Spirit Eye on the right, and a blue eye on the left, was born in the Kingdom of Endalsia. This continued whenever the previous one with those eyes passed on. So the queen of the spirits upheld her promise to protect the kingdom.” “Wooow! That story’s way more interesting!” Emily’s eyes sparkled, and Elmera’s son Elio nodded in agreement. Elio’s older brother, Pallois, thought for a moment, then asked Freyja, “But wait, if the spirits were protecting it, why did the Kingdom of Endalsia get destroyed?” “That’s ’cause the spirits’ protection was lost.” Freyja paused before continuing. “Nooow then, it’s time for kids to go home before it gets dark,” and she took the four children home. “Master, that story just now…,” Mariela mumbled while rereading the book. Her teacher had told her all sorts of stories, but this was the first time she’d heard this one. As she wondered vaguely why her master had never told it to her, a memory from two hundred years ago came to mind. She had been looking at the sparkling royal castle of the Kingdom of Endalsia from a distance when her master explained that it shone because spirits protected it. Master wasn’t just making that up. That means Endalsia’s king is the one who inherits the blood and protection of the spirits. The cornerstone itself of the spirits’ power is— “I’m back. Hmm? What’s wrong, Mariela? You seem so serious. Look, I got a share of the earth dragon meat today.” “Welcome back, Sieg! Whoa, earth dragon meat! You even got fruit, what a great catch!” Sieg’s return interrupted Mariela’s train of thought. To be precise, the arrival of meat was what brought her mind to a halt. Could Sieg really have thought bringing meat was the best thing to delight Mariela? She was a girl at a marriageable age, after all. However, if Sieg had given Mariela flowers, her happiness would have depended on whether they could be used as alchemical materials. Thus a decision to present her with meat, which would make her happy no matter what, wasn’t a poor one. “We’ve already got a ton of food for dinner, but maybe I’ll roast just a little,” Mariela said as she cheerfully took the foodstuff and headed to the kitchen. Freyja told Sieg to wash off his sweat, then detained Robert as he was about to return to the Aguinas estate and told him to close the windows in Sunlight’s Canopy. After cutting the meat into pieces to make them easier to cook and shutting them in the magical tool for refrigeration, Mariela was going to reheat the dishes she’d made earlier for dinner, but then Nierenberg returned from an errand he had run for Freyja. Apparently, dinner was going to be put on hold for just a little longer. “It seems both of them will be coming. I’ll open the cellar,” Nierenberg said before setting about his work. Before long, he returned to the shop of Sunlight’s Canopy with Leonhardt and Weishardt in tow. “Huh? Lord Leonhardt too?” Mariela finally realized by his arrival that something unusual was underway. Sieg, who’d returned from washing himself off, was also suspicious of what was going on. “I hear the special-grade specialized potion for eyes has been completed.” “Y-yes.” Mariela nodded in response to Weishardt’s inquiry. Her master had said that it was to be in front of an appropriate audience, but she couldn’t believe even Leonhardt had come. All the windows of Sunlight’s Canopy’s shop, apart from the skylight, had been closed to make sure no prying eyes would see in. Mariela, Sieg, and Freyja were now joined by Robert, Nierenberg, and the general and lieutenant general of the Labyrinth Suppression Forces—Leonhardt and Weishardt. What was Freyja thinking, summoning these two? If it was necessary to show them Sieg drinking the potion, Mariela’s group probably should have gone to them, not the other way around! Leonhardt and Weishardt cut impressive figures, but the pair didn’t seem to be offended by having been made to travel to her. Sieg, the only person who didn’t understand the situation, was doubtful of what was going on, but he moved to stand next to Mariela, assuming his usual position as her escort. “Please begin,” Leonhardt prompted the young alchemist, and everyone’s gazes settled on Sieg. After nodding to the general, Mariela offered a single potion vial to her bewildered bodyguard. “Er, um. Sieg, this…is a special-grade specialized potion for eyes. I finally made one. I’m sorry you had to wait so long. Everyone’s here to see your eye heal.” A potion that would heal his eye. Sieg froze at hearing the girl’s words. His one good eye opened wide and stared at the vial Mariela held out to him. Why now…? Siegmund wondered as he gazed at the little vial. This thing, this potion, was something Sieg had desperately wanted. After losing his Spirit Eye, Sieg had fallen and fallen as if he was tumbling down a slope. The ground had collapsed beneath his feet, and he’d desperately craved such a potion as he clawed his way back to the surface. His yearning, his desire, his wish had long since given way to despair, and then Sieg found himself in this city. After Mariela had saved him, the hunter had lost count the number of times he imagined how things would have gone differently if only he hadn’t lost his other eye. Mariela was an Alchemist Pact-Bearer of the Labyrinth City, and there were days Sieg clung to the faint hope that maybe someday he could get the Spirit Eye back. But before he knew it, he’d completely forgotten that ray of hope. Even today, he’d pierced the eye of an earth dragon with an arrow from afar and finished it off with the mythril sword Mariela had given him. He’d worked with the members of the Labyrinth Suppression Forces to defeat a powerful enemy and bumped fists with them in celebration of their victory. Sieg was no longer a slave to anyone, and he had a home he willingly returned to. Mariela was a bit of a handful, but her smile was irreplaceable. Siegmund had never been more fulfilled. He’d already attained everything that had meaning and value to him. Before he knew it, he’d even started to feel deep down that losing his Spirit Eye was a necessary sacrifice that allowed him to have everything he did now. Why now…? He’d thought that if he obtained a special-grade specialized potion for eyes, he’d accept it and be overcome with the emotion that his long-standing wish had come true and his unwavering determination had finally borne fruit. Sieg’s heart was uncannily calm. Instead, the one overcome with emotion was the delighted girl offering him the potion. “Thank you,” Sieg said, and he accepted the little glass vial. Mariela watched him, her face full of anticipation. Her feelings were simple. Healing injuries was a good thing, a happy thing. That was all. It was an expression full of affection, like when she had wanted to give him something good to eat. Sieg surveyed the shop interior of Sunlight’s Canopy with his single eye to ensure he remembered her expression, and every other detail of today’s event. It wasn’t a small shop, but seven people together filled the area by the entrance. Sieg hadn’t expected Leonhardt’s sudden arrival, and even Mariela probably hadn’t counted on it. Now that the sun had completely set, Sunlight’s Canopy was a bit dim because the only lights that were lit were those around the assembled group. Where the light of the sun usually shone to make bright spots, the light of the moon now cast pale rays that painted the room in an almost fantastical glow. Everyone’s eyes remained on Sieg, however. They were eager for him to hurry up and drink the potion. Sieg removed his eye patch so everyone could see his wounded eye, then opened the lid of the potion he’d accepted from Mariela with a pop. The first time Mariela made a potion for me, she crammed it into my mouth, vial and all… He’d been so astonished his mouth dropped open, and she’d thrust it in with a “Hup!” Although she was normally clumsy, she displayed outstanding dexterity when forcing people to drink potions. Feeling nostalgic for that unusual moment in his life, Sieg downed the special-grade potion. It was a very strange sensation. Not as strong as energy, nor as dazzling as light. It had no shape or substance, yet it existed inside him. This source that moved his hands, his feet, and his muscles, that circulated his blood, felt like it was swelling, teeming. This torrent spread through his flesh and seemed like it would burst out of him in a fountain. Yet it also felt like it was whirling, following the current of Siegmund’s fixed body, and gathering at a single point as it circulated throughout him. The sensation filling him was akin to a hole having opened at the bottom of a giant lake; it was as if the stars in the entire sky were piercing a dark space. All was being absorbed by his right eye. More and more, more and more. He was falling through something with no bottom. Strangely, the inside of his very being seemed to be connected to something primordial; no matter how much the source filling his insides streamed into his right eye, it never ran out, it simply flowed into that single point. More and more, more and more. It was like the gathered light acquired a tangible density and emerged. “Sieg?” Upon hearing Mariela’s worried voice, Siegmund opened both eyes. One was deep blue, and one was forest green. “Sieg, I’m so glad!” “Hrm, so it can be restored this quickly?” “Is this what they call the Spirit Eye…?” Mariela was overjoyed, Nierenberg observed the effects of the potion with intention, and Weishardt was taken with the Spirit Eye. Then there was… “Ah…” Siegmund parted his lips, and let out a small gasp in wonder. “Was the world always this full with the light of the spirits…?” He hadn’t seen in this way since he was a child. Weak little primordial drops of light were everywhere. On the counter Mariela polished so carefully, on the chairs where the regulars relaxed. They gathered in places like the tea utensils where the stylish, shining tea was poured, as if to imitate the liquid. All were dazzlingly beautiful. Sunlight’s Canopy, which was so dim before, overflowed with brightness. It was a warmth like the inside of the shop during a day when it was bustling with customers. Sieg sensed the spirit’s feelings—this is fun, I’m happy, this place is cozy—being transmitted to him. The brilliant world he had lost as he had grown more arrogant, now spread out around him as if blessing the restoration of his Spirit Eye. They’ve come back to me, they’re with me. The warm, sunny spot Mariela built must be a warm place for the spirits, too— Siegmund couldn’t hold back the tears. Mariela, began crying herself, and the light of the spirits diffusely reflected through the little droplets dampening his eyelashes, making them as beautiful as the world of dreams. In the middle of that beautiful world… In the center of the moonlight pouring through the skylight shaped like the branches of the sacred tree… A single girl with green hair and green eyes appeared. The green girl simply stood as if she’d alighted with the lunar glow. Sieg stared at the girl in astonishment, and in response, everyone shifted their gazes from him, and finally took notice of the strange phenomenon. “Who…?” “This light is…?” Leonhardt and the others, experienced in battling monsters, appeared to understand that the girl standing in the moonlight didn’t carry any ill intent. They were curious as to her true identity, but looked around at the tiny lights dancing and soaring in the shop. Mariela took no notice of the shop’s appearance. She stared at this person in the moonlight, then took a step toward her and mumbled something. “Illuminaria…?”