That night, after Johan came to speak to him about Sei and Yuri, Albert found himself lost in thought in his quarters at the barracks. He was thinking about Sei. Albert didn’t remember their first meeting, which had been after his expedition into Ghoshe Forest to the west of the capital.
He had gone on expeditions into Ghoshe many times before, and he assumed the sally that day would be like all the others. The forest spawned monsters of higher levels than the eastern and southern forests, but none of the beasts had ever been more than Albert could handle. He wasn’t being careless, per se, but he lowered his guard. The thing that became his downfall appeared just as they were about to finish their expedition.
A salamander would ordinarily never have spawned in the Ghoshe Forest, and when it did, only a few out of over a hundred soldiers, including Albert, were able to react in time. The flames the salamander breathed were scorching hot, and those near to the fire were instantly burned.
The surrounding area was enveloped in heat and the flames closed in. Albert threw up a wall of ice, saving the people nearby. However, everyone far away from him was consumed by the blaze.
Salamanders were usually black lizards about ten feet long, but this one glowed red once it turned hostile and radiated immense heat. No one could get close due to the heat waves it emanated, so they had to rely on the fallback strategy of attacking it at range with magic. However, as the party had been nearing the end of their expedition, the mages and knights were low on MP, and they had few means of recovering, so slaying the salamander proved extremely difficult.
The salamander’s flames consumed not only the knights but the forest. Some of the mages split away from the battle to focus on using Water Magic to prevent the fire from spreading.
Somehow, despite the serious burns he had sustained, Albert managed to pierce the salamander with a finishing blow—at which point he lost consciousness.
Where am I?
When Albert next awoke, he was in a chamber within the palace. He didn’t recognize the upholstery, but he realized that he was no longer in danger, so he absentmindedly tried to recall what had happened. The last thing he remembered was finishing off the salamander. He had no idea what had happened after that.
He glanced at his right hand; the burns he had expected to see were completely gone. Someone had healed him.
My hand is completely whole… Is my face healed as well? Albert sat up in the bed and peered into the chamber’s mirror. What should have been a face covered in burns looked entirely back to normal.
No ordinary potions, not even the high-grade variety, could have so cleanly healed his scars. Albert naturally concluded that one of the mages who could use Healing Magic had restored him. Whoever it was must have been exceptionally skilled.
Albert’s injuries had been so grievous that he had assumed it would be difficult to remain at his post as a knight even if he could be healed. He had resigned himself to this fate at the time, but now he felt as hale and hearty as he had before the expedition. He had been restored to the point that he would be able to continue serving as a knight without any lasting problems.
The next day, Johan came to see how Albert was doing. “No, actually it wasn’t Healing Magic. It was a potion.”
Albert was beyond shocked. “Really?”
Johan shrugged and didn’t deny it. “Really. I saw it with my own eyes.”
Albert knew the institute bought high-grade potions from outside companies. He had drunk these alchemist-made potions before and knew their potency. Yet he felt like the high-grade potion he had consumed had been far more potent than those. If such effective potions existed, then he wanted to procure some for his order.
“Who in the world did we get such potions from?” Albert murmured as these thoughts ran through his mind.
“Us,” Johan answered flatly.
“Us? You mean the Research Institute of Medicinal Flora?”
“Indeed. One of my researchers made it.”
According to Johan, a member of his institute was capable of brewing extremely potent potions.
“Is that so? One of yours… Listen, Johan…”
“Yeah?”
“Could I meet him? I’d like to express my gratitude.”
“That so? Sure,” Johan readily agreed.
From there, it appeared as if things would proceed smoothly.
They didn’t.
Albert took some time to recover from the expedition, and it wasn’t until about a month later that he finally managed to meet the person who had brewed the potion that saved his life.
The day he was to meet the potion’s maker, Albert and Johan waited in Albert’s office. The potion-maker hadn’t come with Johan because Albert wanted to not only thank the fellow but give him a gift as well, so they were meeting to discuss that in advance.
As a result, Albert had settled on offering not a physical gift but an agreement to escort the researcher into the forest to pick herbs. They had some time before the fellow would arrive, so while they waited, Albert tried to find out just what sort of person he was.
“So who is this man anyway?”
“What do you mean? A researcher is a researcher.”
“I know, I know. I’m asking what he looks like, what’s his personality. That sort of thing.”
“I’m sure you’ll figure that out soon enough.”
“I suppose.”
When Albert wouldn’t give up, Johan opted to pretend he’d just remembered something. “Oh, didn’t you receive some one-on-one attention with that potion? My employee was purportedly the one who made you drink it.”
“That so?” Albert had no problem with this. He nevertheless did have a problem with what Johan said next.