Extra 40: Manga SS – Him last night
Just a little update in the new novel. I have skimmed through a number of them and have my eye on two. Not set yet as they both have their own charms, and I still plan on checking a few more stories before actually deciding.
There’s a book called the revelation scriptures.
It is an important document that has written down half with the Goddess’ Blessing, and the other half about the way to make magic potions.
There’s a lot of difficult to understand techniques and not all of them have been unraveled yet, but there’s even the descent of the Goddess and the way to make elixirs written in it.
For the priests and alchemists in this world, you could even call it a book that others would kill their owners for.
Not even a single piece of that book is passed around to the public, and it is rarely being traded around in the underground society at prices you would question their sanity.
The ones that are currently known are one original and two manuscripts.
The original one that Elysion had is now in Limia Kingdom; a manuscript of it is in the number one academic town, Rotsgard; and the other one is rumoured to be in the possession of an influential family head in Aion, but the particulars are unknown. It is a manuscript that comes out to the open and is once again enveloped in darkness.
“Ambrosia, huh. One of the wonder drugs that, since the time the important flowers couldn’t be found, it is said that it might be impossible to make.”
A medicine that is able to show effects on a variety of diseases is called a wonder drug.
That’s why, when something can be defined as a wonder drug, the price will obviously be extravagant. The more precedents it has, the higher the worth goes, to the point that there’s no ceiling to it.
The young man who muttered the name of Ambrosia, Hazal, knew that the true wonder drug is the medicine of all medicines, the Elixir, but well, he doesn’t plan on complaining on the many medicines out there with the title of wonder drug.
“If I remember correctly, in the revelation scriptures, only the way to use the ambrosia was written down.” (Hazal)
That’s right.
Even when the manufacturing methods have been deciphered from the revelation scriptures, there’s a lot of wonder drugs that cannot be produced because the conditions or materials are not at disposal.
The Ambrosia can be considered one of the easiest in terms of production, which, in a sense, is pretty rare within the wonder drugs.
“I didn’t think I would be hearing that name from Kuzunoha-san though. There’s a lot of fake manuscripts out there, so it is slightly worrying though... Maybe it was a bad thing that I reflexively answered immediately.” (Hazal)
Hazal was holding his head and letting out a dry laugh at the room of an inn that is slightly better than the usual.
He was amazed at himself for still having that researcher soul as an alchemist.
Hazal still hasn’t told Toa and the others in his party about his family name.
There’s a lot of adventurers that don’t have a family name, but Hazal actually has one. Even so, Hazal only introduced himself as Hazal. In the adventurer registration, it was wrapped up with only registering as Hazal.
It may be a pain to do any changes to it, but in those areas, the Adventurer Guild is lax.
He doesn’t want to involve others into his own problematic circumstances, or more like, in order for others to not step into them, he only introduced himself with his first name.
“If I had said things like ‘someone like me...’ or ‘it was just a coincidence’, I most likely wouldn’t be here...” (Hazal)
In the first place, only few have touched the revelation scriptures.
At the Limia Kingdom, the head of the Goddess church wouldn’t allow alchemists to touch it so readily; in the academy town, Rotsgard, the researches are mostly focused in alchemy, but the only ones who can get a sniff of it are only a truly limited elites.
Hazal may be muttering in self-derision, but since he knows about the contents of it in such detail, there’s no doubt that he is a capable one.
“Really... The biggest mistake in my life was that day, at that time...” (Hazal)
With distant eyes, Hazal looks back a few years back, at his own figure that was progressing in a peaceful and -at a glance- a bright future of promotions.
While feeling on his skin the characteristic wind of Tsige that’s mixed with the heat created by the people’s desires and the cold of the night’s breeze, he sunk into his past.
◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆
The me at that time was truly doing well.
It was when I was in my mid-teens, when I was still a student.
At the Mazul Academy, that can be considered one of the most prominent of mage schools, I had the highest grades in the water element.
Even when taking every area into account, I would enter into the top three. A student with high expectations placed on him. That’s me, Hazal...that was me.
Water is not only useful in both offensive and defensive fronts, it is also able to do support; an element that could be considered the honorary student type of elements.
There’s a lot of parts in terms of specialization where it is inferior to other elements, but it is an element that doesn’t lack in all areas.
That’s why I was unnecessarily conceited.
In the future, I would be able to use high ranked water magic, and be admired by the mages as the strongest for generations, and even the Priestess of Lorel would come ask for my opinions. That’s how far my delusions went when I was thinking about how I would become that kind of water user.
And in reality, in those days, even when I was still a student, I had the class of Aqua Astral which is an incredibly rare job that there might only be one or none in a mage division of a major power.
Now that I look back at myself, I did a lot of things that would make me want to writhe in pain at how shameful I was, but in those days, thanks to my achievements and the weight of my family’s reputation, those things didn’t get out to the public (or so I think).
There was still time before graduation, and yet, I had already received several invitations from known countries and companies. I was living that kind of fulfilling life.
It was exactly at that time when all of those, as well as my own sense of worth, had begun to crumble -at a certain summer day...
I used my long summer break to move from the branch school of Mazul Academy to a certain main school to participate in a public lecture.
It was truly on a whim.
No matter how much praise I got, in the end, it was only from a branch school level.
‘If he were a true genius, he would have long been transferred to a main school’, is what I heard from a pitiful loser who lacks in power, intelligence, talent...and also facial looks compared to me.
With that, I was a bit interested in the main schools, that was all there was.
And so, I randomly decided on checking out the lecture of an alchemist that works full-time at a main school.
Because rather than going to a lecture of a full-time employed teacher of who-knows-where that only does it for pocket money, it would be easier to tell the level if it were from a full-time teacher that I know where he comes from.
I do remember that I had chosen that lecture because I had done the production of a number of magic medicines before at that time.
It was a lecture regarding the production of the wonder drug, craquant, and the problems of their use in the current era.
The contents weren’t that novel.
It was a lecture regarding it being one of the wonder drugs written in the few revelation scriptures existent in the world. It has been deciphered, but because of a variety of reasons, it hasn’t been possible to reproduce the production of many of the medicines.
The skills of the teacher were good.
Even when I didn’t have that much knowledge of alchemy, I was able to learn about the alchemist world. And the craquant that he had chosen as the wonder drug of interest was a perfect way to talk about the allure of reproducing the wonder drugs to obtain profit.
It is a medicine that can be made by using both the water and earth element at not that high of a level. Most of the ingredients are things that are plenty accessible, and there’s only the need of a small dose of the valuable materials.
By applying it, one can protect themselves from skin diseases, and can also completely cure them.
In the world of hyumans where the importance of beauty is high, the uses expand to even the adventurers who step into unknown territories, and also the army.
It is close to being perfected, but it is not perfected. It is a dream within a dream.
...
I was a talented mage that was able to control water, and was able to utilize earth to a decent extent -and I was also an A class conceited idiot.
After the lecture was over, a bunch of students swarmed over to the teacher in order to ask more about the progress of the research. By the time when the number of merchants and nobles, who were burning with the desire of profiting from this research, were beginning to thin out, I had gone to where that teacher was.
“It was a splendid lecture. By the way, I can use all the techniques required to produce a Craquant. Well, I am just an Aqua Astra alchemist that attends Mazul but, can I try it for a bit here?” (Hazal)
Is what I said.
Aah, I was truly a big idiot.
In order to show it in practice, there’s a stage with a wide desk, there’s the materials to make a craquant, and the environment settings were still being maintained by the spell.
When the teacher had shown the production process of it, around half of the materials were used, and probably as he expected, the making of it had failed.
But, at that time, I thought: ‘what, it looks like I can actually do it’.
Well, that might have been an act of the teacher itself so that it would make one think that it is possible.
Inducing the thought that ‘it might have been possible to go a bit further’. But well, a failure is a failure.
The teacher at first showed an expression of ‘what is a mere branch school student saying’, but in the end, because I said that I would be shouldering the cost of the materials, and because I had the rare class Aqua Astral, he may have had his interest piqued, and so, he gave me the permission.
He explained the process, and he showed it too.
The water element magic was a 15, the earth element was a 6; the requirement to finish it was around 30.
I...with the best of my abilities in my life until now...had managed to succeed at my first try.
In this place where the teacher, the students, and also the nobles and merchants were watching, I had reproduced the wonder drug, Craquant, to this world.
I went ‘what, so it wasn’t that big of a deal after all’.
I was carefreely thinking this and wasn’t that interested in the mood around that was turning hectic.
I was immediately restraint by the employees of the academy, and had been brought at the front of the main school’s director in that very same day.
I had been confined in a facility as a researcher of Rotsgard Academy.
Even if I called it ‘confined’, I was paid quite a bit and my standing was quite high as well.
The reason why I didn’t have freedom was because I had succeeded in something incredible in the presence of the eyes of many, and there would be the danger of being kidnapped by a variety of organizations so that they can profit from it.
For me, the problem I had were the geniuses there.
It goes without saying that their knowledge was vast, but their magic power, magic abilities, and elements they could use were also excelling.
Within those people, I was at most within the lowest.
In almost no time at all, people aside from me were able to reproduce the craquant, and the steps of it were being improved by the geniuses one after the other.
Finally, within the group of geniuses called Purple Haze, one of their elites managed to establish a production process based on already existing potion making processes.
At that moment, everything that supported my confidence had crumbled.
In the end, I simply managed to reproduce the craquant by chance. There were no other achievements from me.
“And so, after running away because it got way too painful, I believed in a kind and beautiful woman, and ended up getting abducted. By the time I noticed, I was a potion maker in an adventurer party. I was even betrayed by them, got sold, and was thrown into the wasteland through a hidden route, and ended up with a debt in the deepest base there.” (Hazal)
It was a laughable fall of glory story.
But I am the one who is now calling myself an alchemist instead of my true class that is Aqua Astral.
And it is true that I ran away because I didn’t want to return to that place and pass through a miserable experience, and I didn’t want to be stabbed with backbiting.
The reason why I got desperate and fought in reckless ways as if looking for a place to die was because I wanted to make a gamble where I gain a big turnabout with me as the chip.
But while I was blindly acting like this, the lives around me had...
“... Everything...is due to my own stupidity.” (Hazal)
But the life of just waiting for my death had ended.
A miracle happened in a truly sudden fashion.
I am currently in a party together with adventurers who have tasted hell just like me and have tasted the same miracle.
There’s an elf and a dwarf, but I don’t mind it at all.
Or rather, I feel more at peace than when I was in Mazul or when I was living at my homeland.
I do think it mysterious, but at the same time, it doesn’t feel bad.
“...If one day I manage to achieve something that I can be proud of, it might not be a bad idea to show myself at my home. I feel like it will be in a far future though.” (Hazal)
Now that I think about it, since the time I was kidnapped, I have never once thought of wanting to return home.
I really was a piece of shit in those days.
“I say all that, but right now, I have to return my debt to Kuzunoha-san as much as possible. I also profit from it. It is a win-win. Okay, let’s sleep!” (Hazal)
Since the moment I met that person, everything has gone well.
That’s why, I should be able to do my life over again.
I enter my bed slightly sooner so that fatigue doesn’t remain, and a soft and light nostalgic feeling of feathers enveloped me.
Drowsiness came to me in an instant and my consciousness waned.
Tomorrow...will surely...have something nice in store...