Both ends of my ridge had two bushes: flowering minor herbs on one side, and the greater herbs I’d left today on the other. I planted the antidotal herb between them.
“Once you’ve sown those seeds, you’ve got to water them. It should go without saying that you need to use purified water. The hard part starts here. Antidotal herbs love mana. You could even say they grow solely off mana, but giving them too much will result in limp, red leaves, and they won’t flower. They’ll also grow long stalks. If that happens, that means you failed. A successfully grown antidotal herb will have green leaves and flowers.”
That sounds difficult. They need lots of mana, but you can’t give them too much?
“Ms. Makias, does that mean they wouldn’t grow if I simply used purified water imbued with mana?”
Ms. Makias disappointedly sucked her teeth at me.
“I wish you would fail just once. Just because you figured it out on your own doesn’t mean you can go around telling everyone how it works. You also better not use your household magic on these herbs. Just imbue the water with your mana.”
She was ever the evil witch.
My understanding was that antidotal herbs loved mana, but directly imbuing the plant with mana would be too much, making them grow too big and causing the leaves to turn red. However, giving them plenty of mana-imbued water seemed like the right course of action.
I think I’m going to do just fine in Herbology! I’m so glad! If I pass Herbology III and the novice apothecary’s exam, I might not have to worry about putting food on my family’s table anymore! I wonder if I have to study pharmacy at Romano University to become an intermediate apothecary? I’ll have to look into that!
I was counting my chickens before they’d hatched. I wouldn’t have been so arrogant had I properly understood just how wicked Ms. Makias could be.
It was now Tuesday morning, and I stopped by the greenhouse before going to wake Princess Margaret up. Stalks had sprouted from my plants.
They look pretty short, so maybe it’s okay.
“Did I fail? Or are leaves supposed to sprout later on?” I had a bad feeling about my plants, but I had no choice but to push forward until next week. “Maybe I put too much mana into the water.”
I was thrown for a loop by the antidotal herbs. I’d imbued the water I used yesterday with plenty of mana, which had resulted in the stalks growing too much. I decided to put a little bit of my mana into the water today, only to learn that if I didn’t use enough mana, the plant ended up looking limp.
I ended up being distracted by the whole situation during music club, for which Princess Margaret scolded me.
Oh, I forgot. I need to ask her about club dues.
“Lady Margaret, I had a question about the club dues,” I said.
Princess Margaret looked lost.
“Club dues? What is that?”
Does she not know what dues are? Or are there no dues for music club?
“I only recently learned that clubs have dues. Sir Russell mentioned that the riding club had fewer members now, which means that their budget may be decreased. If that happens, he said they would have to raise their club dues, so I was worried I had to pay dues for music club. I thought that I might have been causing trouble by having you pay for me this entire time...”
Princess Margaret raised her brows when she heard me say “causing trouble.”
“You are my lady’s maid, Patience. If any fees have to be paid to the music club, then it is my duty to pay them. That is how this works. It’s the same as for your meals on Thursdays at the salon.”
“The alchemy club operates using donations from alumni. How does the music club operate?”
That clubroom is filled with a bunch of expensive looking things, like luxurious chairs and instruments.
“There are instruments that were purchased in the past, as well as those that students bring on their own, which is more than enough. As for other items the club uses, I believe those were left behind by previous members. When I graduate, I’m planning to donate various items in my room, such as the chairs, to the club.”
Students couldn’t join the music club without a recommendation from an existing member, which meant that only high-ranking nobles usually joined. It was no wonder that they didn’t require dues.
“What about the transportation of instruments for the Festival of Verdure and the Harvest Festival?”
I remember seeing the servants who work at the school carrying stuff. Do they just help out for free?
“Who knows? The president probably gives the people who help tips or something.”
President Melissa and President Albert would have no problem paying tips. If Princess Margaret were to become the president of music club, she would also be able to pay tips. I was the only poor person in the club. Even Samuel seemed pretty well off... Suddenly I didn’t want to think about this anymore.
My third class on Wednesday was Pharmacy III. Today I was going to make some antidote using that finicky antidotal herb. Benjamin and Bryce still had their hands full making minor healing potions. They weren’t going to pass the class if they didn’t learn to clean their equipment more thoroughly.
“How are your antidotal herbs looking, Patience?” Ms. Makias asked with a cackle, which was a bit irritating.
After the troubles I had with my plants, I’d done a ton of research on antidotal herbs in the library.
“Ms. Makias, the encyclopedia of herbs I found in the library said that antidotal herbs must not be given mana. It also said that too much fertilizer wasn’t good for the plant either.”
I’d added more fertilizer to the soil after harvesting my greater herbs.
“You finally did some research. Do you remember what I said? It’s for the best that you fail once. Now that you’ve done your research, you can try again. But for now, focus on pharmacy.” Ms. Makias handed me some herbs. “This is how your leaves should look. We’re also going to use the flowers.”
The antidotal herbs she handed me looked nothing like the plants growing in my ridge. They had a slightly strong scent, similar to fish mint from my previous life.
“Wash these thoroughly, then chop up the leaves into small pieces. Make sure to set the flowers aside.”
I was almost suspicious of her instructions, but the textbook had said the same thing about chopping up the leaves. As usual, the textbook’s instructions were lacking and didn’t say anything about not chopping the flowers.
I feel like that would be an easy mistake to make.
“That small is good,” Ms. Makias said. “Next, you’re going to simmer those leaves in some purified water. Once it’s reduced by half, add in the flowers and take it off the heat. Lastly, don’t forget to imbue the mixture with mana the entire time.”
Since she’d already lied to me once, I tried to rely on the textbook rather than her instructions. Again, this textbook wasn’t very user-friendly, and it didn’t mention anything about when to add the flowers. I reluctantly decided to stick to Ms. Makias’s instructions and made the antidote.
“Good job,” Ms. Makias said, smiling as she inspected the bottled antidote I’d made. “You pass Pharmacy III. I have no choice but to give you a certificate of completion.”
“Why did you tell me that antidotal herbs grow with mana, Ms. Makias?” I asked.
Ms. Makias cackled before replying.
“It’s actually true that they can grow from being imbued with mana. It’s just incredibly difficult. Even a minuscule amount of excess mana will make the stalks grow too much, so most people just grow them using purified water. Even so, I thought maybe you of all people might be able to adjust your output of mana and succeed with that method.”
I didn’t understand what she was thinking at all. It was much easier to grow them with just water, and even the encyclopedia said to not use mana.
“Is there a difference between regular antidotal herbs and those grown using mana?”
Ms. Makias just cackled again and didn’t respond.
I guess there is a difference. Or is she just trying to trick me again?
After that, I did some more research using not just encyclopedias but also specialized books specifically covering herbology. No matter how many books I read through, they all said not to use mana to grow antidotal herbs.
“It looks like using purified water is the correct way,” I muttered to myself.
I’d almost given up, but something felt off.
I won’t leave any stone unturned!
“Oh, this book says regarding growing antidotal herbs, ‘By imbuing only buds with mana, the leaves will grow thick and be green on top and purple on the underside. Carefully imbuing only the budding leaves will result in significantly more potent antidotal herbs.’”
I headed to the greenhouse and found some budding leaves on my plants. I singled out only the buds that were still growing into leaves and imbued them with mana. I had to be very careful and patient, because this was a tedious process that took a lot of time.
“Antidotal herbs really are quite finicky!” I exclaimed. I couldn’t help but want to scream out of annoyance.
I was exempt from my second period class on Thursdays, cooking, so I visited the greenhouse and imbued the buds of my antidotal herbs with a small amount of mana. I’d never done something so meticulous before. I had to be careful not to pour too much mana into the plants. If I let my guard down, the mana would all go into the stalks instead of the buds.
I’d planted twenty seeds, so each sprouting plant had several buds for me to work on. After completing this tedious work, I sat down and rested.
“Do I have to do this every single day? I’ll have to wake up early on Saturday so I can finish before Mary arrives. I might have to come back earlier on Sunday too.”
Working to only imbue the buds with mana seemed like it would be good practice for controlling my output of mana. I reflected on how recklessly I’d been using household magic until now.
My antidotal herbs had started with unnaturally long stalks, but they’d eventually started budding leaves, and they were slowly starting to look closer to the herbs I’d used in pharmacy.
“I’m going to work hard and surprise Ms. Makias!” I vowed to myself.
Though I’d made that vow, it wasn’t going to be an easy task. Ms. Makias likely checked on everyone’s plants every morning, so she probably already knew what I was doing.
The bell clanged, signaling that it was time for lunch. Since I’d been working with soil, I used household magic on my entire body to clean myself up. I knew I had to head to the salon, but I just couldn’t bring myself to eat there without Princess Margaret.