At last, we returned home from the expedition. When I walked inside, I passed by Miina, who was on her way to the kitchen.
“Welcome home, Miss Daisy!” She greeted me with a bow.
She’d started out as a guest in our home, but after we made the Danish pastry together, she began spending all her free time in the kitchen to watch the staff. Eventually, she chose to become a servant in our household. She moved into an empty room in the servants’ quarters and began training as a kitchen assistant. She told me that she hoped to learn everything from Bob and Maria by the time I opened my workshop, so that she could become my personal chef. Since I wasn’t great at cooking, I was very thankful!
Right now, the people planning to join me in my new household were Marcus, Miina, and Leaf. I would like to sit down with the three of them soon to discuss the future of the workshop.
After I said goodbye to Miina, I went to my room to change, then headed to the lab to begin making the talkative tonic. Normally, a noble lady would have a maid help her dress, but since I planned to live independently I was trying to do everything I could by myself to prepare.
I went to my lab and took out the two ingredients—the chatter mushrooms and donna herb roots—then began thinking about the procedure. This was an important potion, so I needed to be very careful. I decided to extract the ingredients from each one separately, like when I made the powerful antidote. Since this was my first time using mushrooms, I had no idea what temperature was needed.
Honestly, my strategy of just throwing everything in and heating it had only worked through sheer luck. But after the green goopy industrial waste from last time, I’d learned my lesson.
First was the chatter mushroom. I chopped it up finely, added a small amount of water to a beaker, and began heating it.
Talkative Essence???
Classification: Potion Base
Quality: Low (-3)
Status: The active ingredients have not been extracted.
After a short time, tiny bubbles began to form inside the glass. They gradually grew bigger and started rising to the surface.
Talkative Essence
Classification: Potion Base
Quality: Low (-1)
Status: The active ingredients are beginning to dissolve.
I adjusted the heater to maintain that precise temperature.
Talkative Essence
Classification: Potion Base
Quality: High
Status: The active ingredients are fully extracted.
After I continued heating it for a while, the essence finished extracting!
It seemed like mushrooms didn’t like high heat, either. Well, at least one of the extracts was completed. Now it was time to move onto the donna herb root. I chopped it up finely and added it to a beaker with water.
Temptation Essence???
Classification: Potion Base
Quality: Low (-3)
Status: The active ingredients have not been extracted.
The bubbles started getting bigger after a while. Just as I suspected, nothing changed as the water got hotter. I wondered if roots always needed to be boiled or else the active ingredients wouldn’t dissolve at all? I scribbled that down in my notebook for future reference.
Then the water began to boil, the chopped-up donna herb roots dancing around in the bubbling liquid.
Okay, boiling it is fine after all! I’ll keep going.
Temptation Essence
Classification: Potion Base
Quality: High
Status: The active ingredients are fully extracted.
After I simmered it for a while, I was able to extract the active ingredients.
That’s the second extract done!
Now it was time for the final step: using a mana stone to combine the two extracts. I placed it into the chatter extract, then added the mostly cooled temptation extract, stirring them gently to mix.
Talkative Tonic?
Classification: Potion
Quality: Low (-3)
Status: The two ingredients’ components have not reacted with each other.
Nothing seemed to be happening at the current temperature, so I carefully turned up the heat. So long as I kept it just below boiling, the quality didn’t degrade. I raised the heat to that point and then maintained it.
Talkative Tonic?
Classification: Potion
Quality: Low (-2)
Status: The two ingredients are starting to react.
All right; the quality is improving! I just need to keep this up.
I slowly stirred the mixture with a rod. And then…
Talkative Tonic
Classification: Potion
Quality: High
Status: Causes the drinker to become fond of the one who administered it, making them unusually honest for a set amount of time, depending on dosage. Should not be misused.
“Should not be misused.”
That’s the kind of potion I’ve created. I couldn’t believe I’d done it.
I told myself I was protecting the prince’s smile, even if that meant someone else would have to pay the price. Because I thought that was the right thing to do at that moment.
But now that the potion was real, created by my own two hands, I suddenly felt conflicted.
Even if an Alchemist created something for the right reasons, that intention meant nothing once it was in someone else’s hands. It could still be used for harm. And I had the power to create something that could be used for good or evil.
For the first time, I realized I was afraid of that power. I knew this fear was something I had to hold onto deep inside my heart.
Father delivered the talkative tonic to the king. Soon after, the royal capital was in an uproar over the arrest of a powerful noble on charges of attempted murder of the prince. The true culprits were a marquess and his daughter. The king had remained steady in his vow of monogamy and rejected the marquess’s attempts to make his daughter the second queen. Furious, the marquess and his daughter plotted together to eliminate the heir, Prince William. The investigation also discovered that the daughter had once conspired to poison Her Majesty as well out of resentment. Their noble titles were stripped and their lands seized, and the two of them were sentenced to death.
Although they were criminals who had tried to poison members of the royal family, it was still my potion that had condemned them. After I heard the rumors spreading through the capital, I sat alone in my room, hugging Leaf tightly in my arms and trembling.
I’d ensured the prince’s safety, just as I wanted. But at the same time, I was complicit in taking human lives, even if they were criminals. Leaf simply sat beside me, keeping me company.
I heard a knock at my door. “May I come in?” It was Father.
“Yes,” I answered. I sat up straight on my bed and smoothed out my clothes. Leaf hopped down to the floor to sit at my feet.
“I wondered if maybe you were upset.” Father came into my room and sat down on the bed beside me. As soon as he did, I hugged him tightly.
“Did I do the wrong thing?” I said in a trembling voice, my face buried in his chest. “I know they were criminals, but I’m the one who made the potion that led to their deaths. And now I’m scared of my own power…”
“Daisy, you didn’t do anything wrong. But that you feel that fear is a sign that you’ve grown,” he said, gently rubbing my back. “Everything in this world has two sides. This time, those two sides were life and death. Those with power have great influence—that goes for Alchemists and Mages alike.”
I looked up at him when he mentioned Mages.
“I, too, have felt afraid of my own power,” he continued. “There was a time during a mission when I had to capture a band of violent thieves. The spell I cast was too strong and one of the thieves died. I struggled with that; I didn’t know if I deserved to continue being a Mage.”
I listened quietly and intently.
“It’s true that great power can become a weapon. But that doesn’t mean you should be afraid to use it. That same power can protect others and bring happiness, just as you protected the prince.”
My eyes widened when I heard that.
“You’re still a child, Daisy. You have so much more time ahead of you. I want you to discover the world at your own pace. Learn from the people around you, and you’ll figure out the right way to use your power. Of course, I’ll always be here to help you however I can.” Father gently let go of me and placed a hand over my heart. “And when the time comes, you’ll find the answer right here,” he said with a soft smile.
That gentle smile and his warm words finally made me stop trembling, even managing a smile myself.
“Thanks, Father. I’ll try to take my time finding that answer.” As I smiled again, Leaf happily nuzzled his head against me, as if to say he was cheering me on too.