Kays Translations

Chapter 414: Preparations Complete

After completing the herb garden, we took tea in House Mulan’s splendid garden. Nero and I first returned to the mansion to change. Fabienne remained with Caro and the others, but Mira was with her, so she should be fine.

Even so, I changed hurriedly and returned to find Fabienne chatting happily with everyone. Good—she seemed comfortable now. Perhaps I had been overprotective.

“Julius-sama, come over here.”

“Thanks. Yeah, this tea is really nice.”

“Kyuu!”

Mira stretched out both hands. As expected, they had an excellent nose. I took dried fruit from the bag Nero carried and arranged it on a plate for everyone. Caro, Axel and Ijidol stared at it curiously.

“Wait, could these be dried fruits?”

“Oh, looks like Caro already knew about them.”

“Yes, I’ve had them before at the townhouse in the royal capital. They were so sweet and delicious that I was surprised.”

“Kyuu!”

While Caro spoke, Mira bit straight into a piece of dried fruit. Bad manners. Fabienne immediately took charge of feeding them properly. Axel and Ijidol reached out, hesitated and drew back; they were probably reluctant to eat before Caro did.

“Please, try some. Dried fruit is one of the Heine Margraviate’s specialities.”

“Oh, really?”

“Julius-sama developed the magic tool used to make it. Apparently, he built the tool in almost no time.”

Nero nodded in agreement. Caro covered her mouth, while Axel and Ijidol nodded together as though it were entirely believable that I could do such a thing.

“Well then, I won’t hold back. Whoa, this is amazing! What is this?”

“Huh, is it that good? Whoa, it really is!”

Axel and Ijidol began eating enthusiastically. Caro blinked at their reaction, then recovered and tried the dried fruit herself.

“This is delicious! It’s far better than what I had in the royal capital.”

“They’re freshly made, after all.”

“Oh my, Julius-sama, how did you make these? You didn’t bring the magic tool with you, did you?”

“I used magic and skills.”

“Julius, you can do anything, can’t you? How does that even work?”

Ijidol asked with a perfectly serious expression. I could only smile wryly.

With the herb garden completed, I spent the afternoon making plant nutrient. Once that was ready, all we would need were seedlings.

“The quality of the ingredients is mostly standard, isn’t it?”

“That’s right. I suppose we should be glad that at least they aren’t low-quality.”

“Yes, that’s true.”

We had become too accustomed to working with high- and top-quality ingredients. That was not a good habit. A magic pharmacist’s real skill lay in producing useful potions regardless of ingredient quality; superior ingredients were merely an advantage.

Fabienne and I carefully made the plant nutrient. I had produced it before, so the process itself posed no problem. The difficulty lay in preventing it from becoming too potent. If gigantic medicinal herbs and detox grass ran wild through the garden, it would certainly cause a commotion.

“Ugh…”

“You seem to be struggling.”

“Yes. I never imagined that making a potion with precisely the right strength would be so difficult.”

“You’re the only one who would think that, Julius-sama.”

“Julius-sama is quite the special person, after all.”

“Kyuu.”

Fabienne and Nero listened to my complaint with exasperated expressions. Their reaction was understandable, but this was a serious problem for me. Being a first-rate magic pharmacist was difficult.

Even so, I managed to produce a reasonably balanced plant nutrient, although it required extreme dilution.

“We made quite a lot.”

“Yes. This should keep the herb garden supplied for quite some time.”

“It seems like it could be useful for flower beds too.”

“Perhaps, but using it in the rose garden might create a disaster.”

I imagined roses covering the entire hedge and felt uneasy. Such abundance would make them seem far less special, although it would also allow us to produce almost unlimited rose perfume.

Fabienne must have imagined the same thing. Her expression had also turned somewhat awkward.

“Moderation is key in all things.”

“Yeah, you’re right.”

“And the other necessary item… should we prepare insect-repellent incense?”

“Yeah. There will probably be a lot of insects in the forest at this time of year. Let’s make some. While we’re at it, let’s also prepare an anti-itch ointment.”

With our preparations complete, we waited for the forest expedition. Permission came quickly.

We gathered in the salon while House Mulan’s knight commander briefed us on the coming “forest expedition.”

An expedition. Technically that was accurate, but the grand wording made Fabienne, Caro and Ijidol stiffen, while Axel looked delighted.

The commander clearly wanted to emphasise that this was not a pleasure outing, but his warning might have been a little too severe for the less experienced members of the group.

Honestly, I would have preferred it if the warning persuaded some of them to remain at the mansion. With only the boys, we could explore without worrying quite so much.

Contrary to my hopes, no one withdrew.

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