Serafina and Magical Enhancement
(Preparation Phase)
“SERAFINA, IS THERE ANYTHING that you want?” I’d been reading in my room with Sirius sitting by my side, but his unexpected question caused me to quickly glance up.
It all started when Sirius came to visit me while I was passing time in my quarters as usual. He didn’t say anything in particular, just sat down on the sofa and looked like he was deep in thought. I guess some days, this is just how he is, I thought to myself, turning my attention back to the Encyclopedia of Medicinal Herbs I’d been reading. It was at that exact moment he asked me that question out of nowhere.
“Hm? Something I want?” I repeated.
Although my first reaction was Why is he asking me that? I found myself wondering if there was something I particularly desired.
“Well, I’d really like to have some herbs I’ve never seen before! It would also be amazing to have a bunch of really rare herbs that are hard to find, even if they’re ones I’ve already seen. Then I could try making all sorts of medicines without being scared of messing up!”
“I’ve already been collecting herbs for you on a regular basis.”
How was I supposed to answer now that he’d said that? Sirius was an incredibly strong knight, so he would sometimes go deep into the forest to exterminate monsters. Whenever he did that, he would always bring me back “medicinal herbs” to make me happy, but…they were almost always just plants that Sirius thought were medicinal herbs. Rarely, actual medicinal herbs would be mixed in, but since they were ones that grew near the entrance of the forest, they were pretty much always species that were readily available.
When we’d visited Starfall Forest the other day in search of the Galle Gold Leaf, I’d been able to collect a wide variety of medicinal herbs that’d been growing in the forest. Sirius was incredibly observant and could easily distinguish subtle differences in the characteristics of monsters, but even in the herb-rich Starfall Forest, everything he picked ended up being weeds. I had a feeling he didn’t care much about plants…
I tested my theory out by giving him my Encyclopedia of Medicinal Herbs the day before, and he only thumbed through a few pages before shutting it. He wasn’t even trying to learn about herbs he didn’t know, which showed me he obviously wasn’t interested in them.
I couldn’t fault him for it though, since I despised having to learn the names of all the nobles. I wouldn’t ever want to thumb through the Aristocratic Directory even if I had spare time. That was probably how Sirius felt when it came to plants. With that in mind, I finally piped up.
“Umm, about that…”
As I was trying to find the right words, a brilliant idea suddenly popped into my head.
“Sirius, where are you planning to go and exterminate monsters next?”
“I’m planning to go to Starvigil Forest, which is located to the east of Starfall Forest.”
“In that case…” I trailed off as I started flipping through pages of the encyclopedia. “This one here is supposed to grow deep in Starvigil Forest. If you find it, could you bring it back for me?”
After staring at the page I’d pointed to for a few moments, Sirius nodded in agreement. “Before, I just grabbed whatever herbs caught my eye, but it’s probably more helpful if you tell me what I should be on the lookout for beforehand.”
“Yes, I think so too.”
Since Sirius wasn’t interested in medicinal herbs, if I simply told him to pick some for me, he’d just grab whatever he saw first. But I knew he had an incredible memory, so if I showed him one or two ahead of time, he might be able to recognize them and get those instead. I was praying that my instincts were right when Sirius returned the conversation to the original topic.
“Is there anything else you want—besides medicinal herbs?”
“Something else? Hm, well, I’d like a white handkerchief to practice my embroidery, lots of colorful thread, and some candy I could sew into…”
Sirius loudly cleared his throat and spoke over me before I could finish.
“Serafina, I really think you should reconsider your idea of sewing candy into handkerchiefs. It’s a wonderful innovation, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t think it’s something you should go around showing off. Anyway, I digress. I’m not asking for a list of inexpensive things you’re looking for. What I’m after are requests for items that are of high monetary value. For example, a special gift that would be nice to receive on a birthday or similar occasion.”
Oh! Perhaps he was trying to get a head start on my next birthday present?
“Sirius, you know my birthday is in winter. That’s still quite a few months away.”
“I’m well aware of that. But if you wanted something that was difficult to obtain, I thought it might take a considerable amount of time to acquire it. In any case, I just so happened to bring birthdays up as an example…”
Oh dear, Sirius wasn’t very good at hiding things. No matter how I looked at it, it seemed like he was trying to figure out what to give me for my birthday.
“Something special for my birthday? Hmm… I think I’d like a gemstone or maybe a magic stone.”
“A gemstone I can understand…but a magic stone?”
“Uh-huh.”
Talking about the handkerchief had triggered something in my memory. The other day, I’d given Sirius a handkerchief I’d embroidered. It seemed I’d somehow infused it with magic while I was stitching, which gave it a protective effect. An object being granted a long-term magical effect was unheard of, so when the handkerchief started glowing and Sirius was shielded by a protective power during the battle with the fenrirs, no one understood what had happened.
Sirius was the only one who noticed that the handkerchief remained completely intact after the battle. He said he was going to conduct an investigation under the assumption that some sort of magic had activated from it, but I was skeptical that could even be the case.
But when I’d come home from the expedition and told Seven about it, he’d breezily replied, “Oh yeah, that’s magical enhancement.”