Kays Translations

Chapter 160: Giovanni Madras

Waiting for me inside the room was a man approaching old age, with deep blue hair streaked heavily with grey. He wore a scruffy beard that might have been the result of laziness—or might have been a deliberate fashion choice.

“I’ve been waiting for you, Lord Julius! My kindred spirit!”

With that, he threw his arms around me.

The dark-green robe he wore was clearly extremely expensive. The fabric was wonderfully soft and fluffy to the touch.

Still… he was a cheerful old gentleman radiating an alarming amount of Gianism.

“Lord Giovanni, please calm yourself. Lord Julius is clearly troubled.”

“Er, I’m Julius Heine. I’ll be in your care for a while.”

“For a while? Nonsense! You may stay with us forever!”

“Lord Giovanni.”

The cold voice and equally cold stare pierced straight through him.

Apparently that brought him back to his senses. He cleared his throat once and finally released me.

“Thank you very much for coming. My name is Giovanni Madras, and I command the Royal Magic Pharmacists’ Corps. I’ve been looking forward to the day I could meet you, Lord Julius.”

“I’ve been looking forward to coming here as well.”

Yes. Social niceties were important.

There was nothing to gain from picking pointless fights. Flattering people a little and building a good relationship was many times more profitable.

“You’re famous here as ‘a man without greed,’ Lord Julius.”

Giovanni said that happily.

A man without greed…

I’d literally just been calculating how beneficial good relations would be.

My conscience hurt.

Apparently they genuinely believed that description of me. Even the man who had guided me here was nodding with the same approving expression.

It seemed my decision to make the Panacea recipe public instead of monopolising it had earned me an excellent reputation.

And Grandmother Margaret, who was officially credited with developing the Panacea, must have become even more famous because of it.

I could almost picture Grandmother making a very complicated face in the afterlife.

“It was perfectly understandable for Lady Margaret to keep the method for making the Panacea secret,” Giovanni said. “There’s no magic potion more difficult to make. She must have been searching for an easier method.”

He nodded to himself repeatedly.

Yes. If anyone wanted to simplify it, they’d probably have to discover an entirely different recipe.

With the current combination of ingredients, the current procedure should already be the simplest possible approach.

I’d have to place my hopes in unknown materials that existed somewhere in this world.

“I heard you’ve suffered a great many failures. At what stage are they occurring?”

“Unfortunately, it isn’t one particular stage. We fail at many different points in the process, so we’ve been unable to establish any consistent countermeasure. We thought that Lord Julius—the grandson of Lady Margaret, who managed to produce the Panacea at such a young age—might notice something we had missed. That’s why I imposed upon His Majesty and asked him to invite you here.”

“I see.”

Giovanni looked apologetic.

Somehow the atmosphere made it seem as though I were scolding him.

If someone else walked in and saw this scene, it could give birth to all sorts of strange rumours.

“I don’t know how much I’ll be able to accomplish, but I’ll cooperate in every way I can.”

“I knew you would say that, Lord Julius. Thank you very much.”

I wasn’t lying.

Unless I managed to improve the success rate for creating the Panacea here, I wouldn’t be able to settle down peacefully in the territorial capital and devote myself to making magic potions.

If everyone became completely dependent on me to create every Panacea, the value of my existence would only rise.

That sounded like the beginning of a great many problems.

Once we’d finished greeting each other, Giovanni offered to show me around the facility.

Despite its grand name, the Royal Magic Pharmacists’ Corps apparently had only fifteen members in total.

Every magic potion made here belonged to the Crown and was intended for the royal family’s use. In other words, they weren’t producing medicine for outside sale, so a staff of fifteen was enough for their needs.

Wherever I went, I received an enthusiastic welcome.

The Royal Magic Pharmacists didn’t merely compound existing potions. They also researched magic pharmacology.

However, developing entirely new magic potions was apparently extremely difficult, and their research rarely produced major results.

Then the Panacea recipe had arrived.

They told me it had been so revolutionary that it broadened their entire view of magic potions—as though they’d suddenly climbed above the clouds and could look down at the whole world from above.

This was getting wildly exaggerated…

“At last, the greeting rounds are over.”

“Thank you for your hard work, Young Master Julius.”

My servant had picked up the muttered comment I’d accidentally spoken aloud.

I returned to the guest room we’d first been shown, but Brother Alex hadn’t come back yet.

The overwhelming welcome that morning had left me mentally exhausted.

But the afternoon would probably bring a different kind of exhaustion.

And I suspected the things I’d have to be careful about after lunch would be even more unpleasant than what I’d faced this morning.

I wished I could simply go home now.

I was drinking tea and finally beginning to relax when Brother Alex returned.

“How did it go, Julius?”

“I received an extremely enthusiastic welcome.”

“I expected as much. For a while after they received the information, the Royal Magic Pharmacists were apparently staying up late at night in great excitement, working on something or other.”

Brother Alex smiled wryly.

There had probably been complaints from the palace staff.

After seeing how enthusiastically they’d welcomed me, I could easily believe it.

Almost immediately after Brother Alex returned, we were summoned to lunch.

I’d assumed we would eat here in the guest room, but apparently not.

Brother Alex seemed to know where we were going and left without looking particularly surprised.

“Brother Alex, did you and Princess Daniela also discuss what we’d do for lunch?”

“Well… yes. We discussed where we’d eat, and who would be there.”

He was oddly evasive.

Perhaps they’d been discussing when and how to put Princess Chloe and me in the same room.

And apparently they’d decided that lunch was the best opportunity.

I might not taste a single bite of the meal.

The castle servants led us farther into the palace.

We were already inside an area reserved exclusively for members of the royal family.

I’d been here before, but the place had a unique atmosphere that was difficult to describe.

A room that appeared to be the dining room came into view.

Numerous servants were moving in and out of it.

My palms were starting to sweat badly.

What on earth was I supposed to say to Princess Chloe?

What was I supposed to do?

What was the correct answer here?

Previous chapter | TOC | Next chapter