Lord Felix’s flustered reaction was very entertaining when I returned to him and said, “Let’s go home.”
“Lucille?!” he squeaked. “What in the world were you thinking, biting a dragon?!”
In a panic, he wrapped his hands around my cheeks and opened my mouth to check for any anomalies inside. It took me by surprise how fast it happened!
I was used to this treatment, though, because in my Lilybell days, Hinako had often done the same, saying, “Ahh, how can your mouth and tongue be so cute?” I didn’t think it was a typical experience for any other noble lady, though.
As I quietly allowed Lord Felix his ministrations, he suddenly gasped and withdrew his hands.
“S-Sorry!” he exclaimed.
“It’s fine! Thank you for your concern! But don’t worry, my teeth are strong enough to chew through magic stones, so biting Maouldoth isn’t going to do any damage,” I said, flashing him a toothy grin.
Technically the magic-stone eating had been in my past life, but I was sure my teeth were still just as sturdy. The spell that Saint Clarissa had cast on me to keep me in good health had strengthened my teeth as well, and to this day, I’d never had a toothache in either of my lives.
However, Lord Felix’s face only grew more concerned. He muttered to himself, “Chewing magic stones? That must be a joke, right? Come to think of it, there’s an old story about a person who ate a magic stone... No, it can’t be. Researchers concluded that it was just a myth...”
What is he talking about?
Lord Felix was surprisingly prone to anxiety. Perhaps he had a lot on his mind.
As I waited for him to calm down, I reminisced about the past.
Matthew had once said, “I think magic stones can be eaten. Wanna try with me and see what happens?” Unable to refuse the excitement in his face, I’d gone along with it. However, while the magic stones hadn’t tasted bad, they hadn’t been particularly appetizing either.
It might be fun to show Lord Felix the various effects of eating them, though. I love seeing his dramatic reactions when he’s surprised.
While we rode back to the Leeuwenhoek manor, I thought, In the end, I didn’t gain any useful knowledge.
Maouldoth had been just as clueless as I was.
“Did you know that people were calling you a demon lord?”
“What? Me? A demon lord? I’m a mighty dragon. If anyone was a demon lord, it was Master Alys.”
Not very helpful, as one could see. Then again, Maouldoth was always quick to forget anything he held no interest in.
If Lilybell was the holy beast, then the holy beast’s disappearance had been due to my death. Thus, it was possible that the next Champion of Destiny wasn’t considered one because the holy beast was missing. Spelling it out like that made it sound awfully complicated, though.
So is the person Lady Alice mentioned, the Great Sage Elios, the current Champion of Destiny after all?
My prophetic dreams foretold the future that had the highest probability of occurring, and they always involved major events. Master Alys had taught me, “A prophetic dream will never show you something trivial. It will always hold the key to a grand turn of fate.” Since fate was like a stormy sea, these prophetic dreams usually turned out to be nightmares.
And Lady Alice said that a Champion of Destiny is someone with the power to change fate, right?
That was why I’d suspected that Elvira would become the next Champion of Destiny after breaking Lord Felix’s curse. However, if the great sage was a Champion of Destiny, it was possible that he had powers that were relevant to my dream. If I could ask for his help, would I be able to find a solution to the curse?
Elvira would definitely be able to eliminate the curse, but I believed that it would be best to nip it in the bud.
As I was pondering various things, some plants growing on the side of the road suddenly caught my eye.
Oh? Are those what I think they are?
“Lord Felix!” I exclaimed. “Please stop for a second!”
“What’s wrong?”
Lord Felix brought the horse to a halt, and I hurriedly dismounted and sped toward the large cluster of plants. After my careful examination of their many glossy, heart-shaped leaves confirmed my suspicions, I turned excitedly to Lord Felix, who had also gotten off the horse.
“I knew it! Lord Felix, these are highly poisonous plants called raspweed!”
“Highly poisonous, you say?”
I happily reached out to pluck a leaf, only for Lord Felix to rush over in a panic.
“Lucille! Didn’t you just say it was poisonous?! What are you doing?!”
I looked at him in surprise. “Why, Lord Felix, the blood appears to have drained from your face! Are you okay? Well, don’t worry! This raspweed will fix that!”
“A-Are you trying to kill me?!” he asked, trembling with fear.
Hmm? Why would he think that?
Suddenly, I realized my mistake. “Oh! Sorry, you must’ve thought I was trying to poison you, right? No, I would never!”
“Th-Then why...?”
“I’m sure you know that most strong poisons can also be effective medicines! Have you never heard of raspweed? I suppose it is rare. But it can be turned into an excellent panacea!”
It can cure anything, be it illness or injury! You can never have too many panaceas, right? Let’s pick as much as we can and go home to make them!
“No, I don’t know how I would’ve heard of it,” Lord Felix muttered, astonished. “If anything, why do you know so much?”
I continued to pick the raspweed, oblivious to what Lord Felix was saying under his breath. Once my hands were full, I turned to him with a satisfied smile and said, “Lord Felix, I have a request!”
“What is it?”
“Making medicine is one of my hobbies. Would it be okay if I went to buy some tools to use at the Leeuwenhoek detached house?”
Although my residence was equipped with plenty of expensive magical tools that catered to everyday comfort, I couldn’t recall there being any for making medicine. There probably weren’t any in the main manor either, given that one would only own them if one were going to use them.
Not only had I come to Leeuwenhoek by myself, but I also had never actually made medicine before, so naturally, I hadn’t brought any tools with me. But in my past life, whenever I’d watched the merchant—and alchemist—Conrad do it, I’d thought, “That looks like fun! I’d love to try it someday!”
To be honest, most of the tools could probably have been substituted with nonspecialized equipment. But when doing something for the first time, it was always better to use the proper tools and procedures.
“Not only do you cook, but you also make medicine?” Lord Felix’s eyes widened in surprise, but he immediately gave his approval. “It’s still early in the day. Shall we head to the city right now?”
“Can we? Yes, please!”
“But first, those leaves you’re carrying...”
Oh, right. I can’t go to the city with my hands full of raspweed.
Using my trusty dark magic, I opened a dimensional space and tossed the plants inside.
“Huh...?”
“That takes care of that! Let’s go, Lord Felix!”
“No, wait. I... What?”
“Is something wrong?”
For some reason, Lord Felix put his hand on his forehead and groaned.
Considering his suddenly ashen complexion, perhaps he really isn’t feeling well.
He heaved a sigh.
Is he having trouble breathing?
“What was that just now?” he asked. “Where did you hide all those plants?”
I didn’t hide them. I just put them into storage. Well, I guess it might be surprising seeing it for the first time.
I opened the space again to show him. “It’s an application of dark magic! I can create a dimensional space to store things! It’s very convenient.”
Lord Felix fell silent.
Huh? He isn’t responding. Is it too much of a foreign concept for him to understand?
“It’s like a magic bag,” I continued. “You know, the magic tool. I saw something similar in the Leeuwenhoek detached house, so...”
Come to think of it, the magic bag was one of Conrad’s inventions. I remembered how happy he’d been that I could use dark magic despite being a cat.
“If I get you to do it, I won’t have to go to a scary dark magician!” he’d said with sparkling eyes. Even though he’d been a merchant, sometimes he’d get frightened during simple business negotiations. A coward through and through.
He managed to keep up appearances in public, though, so I was lenient with him.
I recalled there being more dark and light magic users in the past. These days, though, they were said to be extremely uncommon.
“That’s not normal,” Lord Felix said, exasperated. “Hardly anyone can use a technique as advanced as spatial magic. And the few magic bags that still exist are very expensive.”
“What?! Really?”
It was true that I hadn’t seen many magic bags in my current life. However, they looked no different from ordinary ones, so I wouldn’t know something was a magic bag unless I was told, and due to the risk of theft, it was unlikely that someone would share that with me unless we were very close.
Back when I had been engaged to the prince and living in the Gustelanola household, I’d always been accompanied by my attendant and never needed to carry my own things. Even if I’d owned a magic bag, I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to use it, so I’d never questioned the lack of them. I’d assumed the reason I didn’t know about them until I regained Lilybell’s memories was that Lucille had been raised in an insular environment and had little knowledge of the outside world!
“I was going to suggest returning to the manor first,” Lord Felix said. “You really are... Never mind, I shouldn’t be surprised at this point. Well, shall we head to town?”
“Yes!”
Now that I think about it, this will be my first time going somewhere in Leeuwenhoek other than the estate grounds and Maouldoth’s forest!
In fact, as the prince’s fiancée, I hadn’t been allowed to go outside freely, so I’d barely even seen any of the royal capital. But during my Lilybell days, I’d loved strutting about busy streets because everyone would say, “What an adorable cat!”
My heart raced with excitement as Lord Felix and I rode onward. I was so happy to be able to go out to town for the first time since my previous life.