“Huh? I’m fine. Aren’t you tired? Get some rest. Besides, Wayne, you have to leave here tomorrow afternoon so you can get back to the capital.”
“Fine, if I’m just gonna get in your way, then never mind.”
“Th-That’s not what I meant!” Lacey objected.
“I know. Sorry, I was just being facetious. Let me stay with you.”
For some reason, she felt her heart thump.
Lacey was reminded of when he’d told her “Stay by my side,” and the cloth plopped out of her hands. But she quickly shook her head.
“What’s wrong?”
“N-Nothing...huh? I’m not sure, it’s really nothing. Nothing...? Th-That’s not it, I mean, if you want to help, then I’ll take you up on that, I guess...” She patted her chest and pushed aside the strange feeling in her heart.
In any case, many hands would make light work. She hadn’t found the right ratio to make the powder clump up well yet. She’d figured out what ingredients to use, but slightly changing their amounts and testing them out would be tedious work.
After setting up a short-legged table for the creatures to use, Lacey explained things.
“First, you add baking powder to the bowl... Next, add citrus juice. Each of us will be using a different kind of citrus. Then I’ll use water magic to create a mist and add a little bit of water at a time.”
They each used a spoon and fork to knead and mix. Of course, since the boar couldn’t hold these, it just rammed its bowl with its head and skillfully shook the contents around. Lacey wondered if this was really a legitimate method, but decided to ignore it for now.
The mini-dragon had gotten its whole head stuck in the bowl and was flailing its legs around. Wayne helped it out. Then Tee gave an irritated “KWUUUUUUH!” squawk. But it seemed to be satisfied after yelling and just went back to mixing, its wings rustling as it stirred.
Lacey wondered what that had been about. Maybe it didn’t like the water getting mixed in. She tried to tell Tee that it didn’t have to push itself, but it just faced away with a “phwee.” It was rather unusual behavior, but it showed that Tee wanted to try its hardest.
“If it gets too unpleasant, stop right away.”
“Kwoo.”
There wasn’t a lot of water in the mix, so she opted to just keep an eye on things and let Tee decide its limits.
They each needed to change the amount of powder and figure out which clumped together best. When Lacey had created her healing potion, she’d considered making it solid so that it could be carried around easily. Ultimately, she’d determined that it would be too hard to consume and thus gave up on the idea. However, if it wasn’t meant to be eaten, then it could be applied toward other purposes.
They experimented with a variety of mixtures. Adding more baking powder made it more stable. Adding in salt made it even firmer, but she decided to omit it this time.
“So, Lacey, what exactly are we making here?”
“I want to try diffusing the mini-dragon’s smell so that its friends know that it’s here. I want it to spread over a wide radius, so I was thinking about launching it into the sky, but then I have to consider what happens when it falls. So something that disintegrates would be ideal.”
“Okay...?” Lacey was acting rather talkative, unlike her normal self. Wayne was puzzled by this, but it was fine as long as she was having fun. He encouraged her to continue. “And then what?”
“Right! This...well, for convenience’s sake, I’ll call it a bomb. This bomb dissolves in hot water. So if we knead in a scent while making it, the scent should hang in the air when it disintegrates. When we launch the bomb, I’ll envelop it in water magic and then cast an explosion spell on it. That way, it’ll spread far, and when it falls down, it’ll be like rain.”
“By the way, how do you propose to launch it?” he asked after a brief pause.
“With a slingshot, maybe?”
That was one weapon that Wayne didn’t have. “Hmm...” he thought. “If a toy’s good enough, then Allen might have one.”
“That’ll work!” Lacey clapped her hands together.
Tee made another irritated “KWUUUUUUH!” squawk, became satisfied after getting it out of its system, and resumed stirring the contents of the bowl with its wings. There was a repetitive clunking sound of the boar’s tusks hitting the bowl. Wayne had gone to the village to go borrow a slingshot from Allen, and when he came back, he was carrying a ton of food. Lacey could imagine the gist of what had happened.
They kneaded an ample amount of flowers into the bomb and used Lacey’s magic to dry it out.
Since they hadn’t added salt, the bomb crumbled easily and had to be wrapped in cloth. The mini-dragon was enraptured by the mild fragrance and hugged the bomb close to its chest, along with its bag.
Allen had been confused as to what they needed a slingshot for, but he’d lent one of his little brothers’ toys. The sun had set completely by that time. They chowed down on Wayne’s homemade dinner, and Lacey spent the night making a replacement strap for the mini-dragon’s bag. The next morning arrived.
“All right.” Lacey’s lips drew tight as she raised the toy slingshot straight up. Wayne could probably launch it higher, but enveloping the bomb in water magic while shooting it was something only Lacey could do. “Here goes...!”
As a breeze blew through the open field and rustled the grass, she cast wind magic on top of water magic to further enhance it, then launched the bomb with a sproing.