Chapter 603: The Story Goes On and On, Forever

Just as the first of my major blunders had finally been exposed, the conversation smoothly moved on to the next disaster.

Please stop already.

Julius’s hit points have already dropped to zero.

“Before you returned to the estate,” Father began, “a letter arrived from His Majesty, the King of the Raven Kingdom. Apparently, the land that had been rendered unusable by corruption has now been completely restored. I must say, receiving a direct letter from a foreign king nearly scared the life out of me.”

After saying that, Father let out a dry, hollow laugh.

Still, Lionel’s report must have reached him before the king’s letter did, so surely he’d had at least some time to mentally prepare himself.

“Um… regarding that matter… it was honestly just a misunderstanding on my part…”

“A misunderstanding does not restore a nation expected to take ten years to recover!”

Even Father’s voice grew sharper at the end.

…Ten years?

So that was how long the reconstruction had originally been expected to take.

Well, no wonder everyone had been so shocked—and so grateful.

How did this even happen?

But the worst part was that it really had been a misunderstanding on my part.

This was painful.

“Um… regarding that…” Fabienne hurriedly interjected, desperately trying to defend me. “Julius-sama truly did misunderstand the situation… And, well… I believe we also bear responsibility for failing to correct his misunderstanding.”

Fabienne was trying so hard to shield me.

I appreciated it deeply, but honestly, it only made me feel even guiltier.

I really shouldn’t have brought her here.

I should’ve come alone with only Mira.

“Fabienne-sama is correct,” Lionel added with a solemn expression. “We too are at fault for not pointing out Julius-sama’s misunderstanding. The purification proceeded so smoothly and naturally that we began to believe such speed was normal.”

…Wait just a second.

So it was so absurdly abnormal that you looped all the way around and convinced yourselves this was normal instead?

I didn’t feel like that was helping my case at all.

No, wait.

That wasn’t the point here.

This wasn’t about defending me—it was about protecting Fabienne.

Fabienne-sama can’t be blamed for failing to notice because Julius-sama’s actions completely shattered common sense.

Was that what Lionel was trying to say?

“I see,” Father said with a long sigh. “If that’s the case, then it can’t be helped. When one spends enough time around Julius, perhaps it becomes difficult to distinguish what’s truly normal.”

…Excuse me?

Wasn’t that slightly rude?

That made it sound as though I wasn’t normal.

For the record, I would very much like to live as an ordinary person.

“Miss Fabienne. Lionel,” Father continued seriously, “from now on, if Julius does anything that seems even slightly strange, question him immediately. And if possible, stop him before matters escalate this far. Inform Nero of this as well.”

“Understood.”

Lionel nodded solemnly.

At this point, I was being treated like some dangerous beast that required supervision at all times.

It hurt a little.

Though… honestly, I couldn’t completely deny it.

If those two had stopped me earlier back then, there probably was a chance we could have withdrawn before completely restoring the entire Raven Kingdom.

“Now then… what should we do about this?” Father muttered, pressing a hand to his temple. “Receiving direct correspondence from a foreign royal family isn’t exactly ideal. Some may begin to suspect we’re secretly tied to another nation.”

“I’m very sorry.”

“You acted out of concern for the people of the Raven Kingdom,” Father said, his tone softening slightly. “You aren’t at fault, Julius. You merely… overdid it a little.”

Though Father wore a bitter smile, he didn’t seem angry about the matter itself.

More than anything, he probably viewed it as an increasingly troublesome political issue.

Perhaps the Raven Kingdom had already begun discussing the possibility of recruiting me away from the Spencer Kingdom.

Not that I had any intention of leaving Spencer anytime soon, of course.

“Purification Powder and Rapid-Growth, hm?” Father continued. “From what I hear, both contributed greatly to the kingdom’s restoration efforts. Explain those to me next.”

And so the discussion shifted toward Purification Powder and Rapid-Growth.

When I explained how I had forcibly categorized Rapid-Growth as “fertilizer” in order to improve production efficiency, Father buried his face in his hands.

“So the classification depends entirely on the creator’s discretion… whether it’s considered a magic potion, fertilizer, or even a daily commodity,” he muttered tiredly. “It may not be an issue now, but eventually these inconsistencies are going to create serious problems.”

“There’s no universal standard yet,” I replied. “And circumstances probably differ from country to country as well. Realistically, laws will just have to be revised gradually over time. Though… isn’t that something for the kingdom itself to worry about?”

“True enough. There’s little point discussing it here.” Father exhaled heavily before narrowing his eyes at me. “Still, based on what you’ve described, wouldn’t Rapid-Growth qualify more as a magic potion than a fertilizer?”

Generally speaking, anything with overwhelmingly abnormal effects tended to be classified as a magic potion.

And the version of Rapid-Growth we had used possessed the power to grow trees within mere weeks.

Apparently, that was what Father found troubling.

His concern was understandable.

However, there already existed a magic potion called Plant Nutrient Solution capable of instantly accelerating plant growth.

Father knew about that too.

And even with that comparison in mind, he still seemed to consider Rapid-Growth unusually powerful.

“Well…” I began carefully, “it seems the effects of Rapid-Growth became abnormally strong because the spirits lent us their power.”

“Ah, yes. The letter mentioned the spirits assisting as well,” Father recalled. “If that’s the case, then it makes more sense. So then… without the spirits’ aid, how effective would it normally be?”

“I believe it would still take several months for saplings to fully grow.”

“I see…”

Father rested his hand against his chin and sank into thought.

He was probably trying to determine whether that outcome should still be considered abnormal.

Ordinarily, trees took years to mature.

Yet with magic potions, it was already possible to force growth within a single day.

Compared to that, was “several months” considered fast?

Or relatively ordinary?

The answer wasn’t entirely clear even to him.