Kays Translations

Chapter 177: Medicine for Lung Disease

I returned to the compounding room and was about to start work immediately. Oops. First I had to ask about the ingredient.

“Commander Giovanni, who’s in charge of the materials stored in the icehouse?”

At my question, Commander Giovanni looked around the room. Everyone avoided his eyes.

This was bad. That meant no one was managing them. Too sloppy! No wonder nobody had recognised the icehouse’s poor performance as a problem.

“I see. It looks like no one is managing them.”

The royal magic pharmacists flinched at my voice and all refused to make eye contact with me. Oh, man. Did I really have to start from here? Any organisation where people could freely take whatever materials they wanted would inevitably waste a great deal.

What did they think they were doing with the citizens’ tax money? We needed to tighten things up here.

“All right. By tomorrow, please prepare some ruled paper and a complete list of the materials, including their quality ranks. I’ll make a Magic-Potion Material Ledger from them.”

“A Magic-Potion Material Ledger?”

“That’s right. It’ll record what materials we have, when they were purchased, who took them out, how much they used, and what they used them for.”

Everyone’s faces stiffened, but surely that was how things were done everywhere else. At least, that was how I did it. I kept staring at them until they all bowed their heads in agreement.

That was the first step. I would also make sure we carried out a thorough inventory at the end of every year.

I wanted to accomplish something concrete during this social season, so I set out to create a magic potion that would cure lung disease. There was only one problem: the poison-moth scale powder was poor quality.

What should I do? If I used it as it was, I would end up with an average-quality potion that tasted terrible. Maybe I could dry it, dissolve it in distilled water, and extract only the necessary poisonous component. If the distilled water worked well with it, the quality might improve.

I extracted the active poisonous component so the finished medicine would be as easy to drink as possible. The process worked, raising the usable ingredient to average quality.

Good, good. Now I could make a high-quality magic potion.

Using a method similar to the one for the cold remedy, I created a potion effective against lung disease.

This medicine put a little strain on the lungs, so it was normally used together with an elementary healing potion. The combination of “medicine for lung disease” and “elementary healing potion” could easily cure pneumonia in its early stages.

I did it.

Oh, I also needed to make an extremely sweet elementary healing potion for children.

“Excuse me, Julius-sensei, what’s that potion?”

“It’s a cold remedy for children. I’m planning to visit an orphanage soon, and I thought I’d give it to them then.”

“I see, a cold remedy. I’m sure the children will be delighted with cold medicine you’ve made for them. Um… would it be all right if we tried some?”

What? They were perfectly healthy and wanted to drink cold medicine?

While I wondered what to do, the others started gathering around as well. Sacrificing one bottle was probably the quickest way to settle this.

“I can’t spare very much because it’s meant for the children. Everyone can have a small taste from this bottle.”

I handed over a bottle of the cold remedy. Someone brought a spoon, and they shared it out. A cloudy pink liquid pooled in the spoon. I’d made it pink so the children would be happy to drink it. Orange would have been fine too, but pink felt more familiar to me.

The members of the Royal Magic Pharmacists’ Corps tasted it with considerable trepidation.

“Ah, it’s sweet.”

“It’s really sweet!”

“My children would drink this happily. I wish something like this had existed when I was a child.”

The speaker’s face lit up.

Now they understood the importance of making magic potions taste good and go down easily. People wouldn’t willingly drink disgusting medicine unless they were truly backed into a corner.

I had managed to complete the cold remedy and, in the process, show the royal magic pharmacists another side of what magic potions could be. After that, everyone returned to work with tremendous enthusiasm. At this rate, more and more high-quality potions would be produced in the future.

This was going to be fun.

I headed for my afternoon swordsmanship practice in an excellent mood. However, the atmosphere at the training ground was somehow grim.

What was wrong? Trouble? If so, could I go home?

“Enough. You’re all still inexperienced. This isn’t the time to be worrying about who’s strong and who’s weak. If you have time to think about such nonsense, use it to train.”

Commander Yeongseon, who was serving as our instructor, sounded angry. Apparently someone had challenged him about something.

Doing that would only make you stand out.

Oh. Was standing out the whole point?

A few more children arrived after me. Once everyone had gathered, today’s training began. As usual, we started with warm-ups and running.

While we were running, I quietly asked Axel what had happened.

“Ovidio started saying he’s the strongest out of all of us again.”

“Commander Yeongseon’s son?”

“That’s right. He says there’s no point training with people this weak.”

“I see.”

I nearly scoffed. Careful, careful.

He probably received lessons from his father, the Knight Commander, after he went home anyway. And yet he still wanted to parade his strength in front of everyone. Why not join the adult knights’ practice for a day? Then he would realise there were plenty of knights stronger than him.

“He won yesterday’s knockout tournament,” Axel continued. “So now he thinks nobody here can compete with him.”

“Did you fight him too, Axel?”

“Yeah. I lost, though.”

His face was full of frustration. He looked like he’d been training hard ever since he got home. Maybe Ovidio wasn’t the only one who wanted to prove how strong he was.

“Who would win if Ovidio fought you, Julius?”

“Ovidio, of course. I’m just a nobleman’s son. There’s no way I could beat him.”

“Really?”

Axel stared straight ahead with a distant expression.

It seemed he genuinely believed me.

Well, I was certain I could win.

I just had no intention of doing so.

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