Magic Tools Are Selling Too Well

Actually, the story should have ended with that night’s confession.

As the senior said, there was no way they could make potions with their insufficient proficiency in alchemy magic, and the senior couldn’t give them potions for free every time either.
It remained as a painful memory, like homework that each of them had to solve.
So even when meeting Morphine in class after that day, they tried not to bring up the story from that day.

But today, the three of them had already left the academy and come to a semi-basement house on the outskirts of the imperial capital.

Delia Bluecliff watched the senior diagnosing Morphine’s mother in the narrow room.

He was sweating profusely, placing his hands on the mother’s wrist and near her neck.
He said he was injecting mana to diagnose the situation inside her body, but she didn’t really understand what that meant.
Morphine was also watching the scene with a blank face.

‘What could he be thinking…’

At first, she just thought he was an admirable senior.

Because he was the person who made her dad smile, who had been obsessively focused on research every time he came home.
Because he was like a miraculous topic that appeared in the increasingly disconnected conversations between father and daughter.
It was simply amazing that a second-year undergraduate could change a professor like this.

Delia was always curious about that senior who turned her quiet dad into a chatterbox.
So when she was selected as a hero aspirant at the age of eighteen.
And when she found out that her talent was alchemy, the same as the senior.
She can’t express how happy she was.
Because she thought she could meet the senior directly, whom she had only heard about from her dad.

And she was able to see the senior not long after the semester started.
Although their first meeting was a mess due to her shy personality, she was able to quickly become close to the senior by frequently visiting the alchemy shop thanks to her friend Morphine.

The senior was playful, but he was an honest and confident person.
He was always full of pride in his skills and had no hesitation in scolding what was wrong.

‘He really was a genius.’

Moreover, he was truly a genius, just as her dad said.

Although his grades weren’t good because he slept a lot, he was a student who received more attention from the department than anyone else.
A second-year student directly makes and sells magic tools that researchers sell, and they sell well too.
From potions to combat magic tools, there were almost no magic tools he couldn’t make.

The senior was a daily topic of conversation and the most promising prospect in the Alchemy Department.

He was also a person without any theoretical gaps.
When she asked about parts she didn’t understand in class, answers came out like from a machine.
It felt like he had deeply studied alchemy and researched for a long time.
The senior’s explanations were flawlessly perfect, making it feel like listening to a lecture from a well-teaching professor.

‘But…’

That senior is now stepping up to try to cure a junior’s mother.

He just hands over an [Intermediate Health Potion] worth well over 100 gold.
He rode a carriage all the way to the outskirts of the imperial capital, the farthest from the academy, saying he would diagnose in person.
Abandoning all his research time, just because a junior’s mother is sick.

Could she do that if it were her?
Could she move without compensation for someone she’s known for less than two months?
Could she help as if it were her own business?

And…

And if there had been such a person for her, for her dad.
Would her mom still be in their arms?
Would they not have had to see her dad’s agony as he lived like a madman for years?

Delia looked at the senior, who was constantly sweating, with complicated eyes.

“Phew… I found it.”

About 30 minutes after injecting mana.
I, who had been frantically focused on the diagnosis, raised my head and smiled.

An end was in sight for the diagnosis that had seemed hopeless.
The one clue I had almost lost was knocking on my door.

Morphine asked urgently.

“D-did you figure out the cause? What is it! What is it, Senior!”
“Be quiet. You’ll hurt your mother’s ears.”

I briefly pushed away Morphine who was approaching while shouting, and carefully wiped the mother’s sweat with a towel that was nearby.

“Mother. I just finished the diagnosis, is there anywhere you feel uncomfortable? Because I injected mana into your body, you might feel chilly and your body might feel cold.”

Morphine’s mother, lying on the sickbed, smiled faintly and answered.

“Cough cough. I’m fine. Thank you, cough. For… helping like this…”
“It’s nothing. It’s something I should naturally do. Actually, I received a big help from your son before. So I came to repay that. This is a secret, but your son is doing quite well at the academy.”

I spoke playfully as if whispering, and a smile soon formed on the mother’s lips.

Today was just a modest diagnosis.
I’ll come again tomorrow to diagnose and slowly treat.

After giving such reassuring words to the mother, I left the house with the two of them.

Morphine and Delia’s eyes were full of curiosity.
Because I hadn’t told them the diagnosis results yet.

I took out my tobacco in a place with few people around.
I desperately needed a cigarette after concentrating for such a long time.

“Anyone want to smoke together?”
“Senior…!!”
“Ow, damn. My ears are going to fall off, you fool.”
“Why aren’t you telling us? What’s going on?”

I exhaled a big puff of cigarette smoke.
I feel like my mind is finally clearing up a bit.

“It’s because the diagnosis isn’t completely finished yet. I’m not sure either.”
“Not sure?”
“Yeah. For now, it seems like… poisoning… but.”

Poisoning.
At that word, Morphine’s eyes widened.
It was a look of disbelief.
He probably had never thought that his mother’s illness could be poisoning until now.

“Poisoning…?”
“Yeah. Other organs are almost fine, but there are unknown impurities stuck in the lungs and stomach area. These were eating away at your mother’s organs. That’s why she often vomited or had respiratory diseases.”
“That…”
“The ratio is roughly 4/5. Fortunately, thanks to you consistently giving her potions, it seems the progression has slowed down a lot.”

Morphine’s eyes were shaking greatly, so I gave him words that could be considered somewhat comforting.

It’s not really my personality to do this, but seeing this guy’s expression that looks like he’s about to despair, I can’t help but offer comfort.
It’s also true that the potions actually slowed down the progression.

“The important thing is, it might not be treatable with ordinary antidotes. I don’t think it’s an ordinary poison. When I sensed it with mana, it was an impurity with properties I’ve never felt before.”
“…Then what should we do? Is there anything I can do, Senior?”
“For now, I’ll buy an intermediate antidote tomorrow and give it to your mother, and if it doesn’t work, let’s find another way. We’ve found the root cause, so we should be able to find a solution quickly after this.”
“Ah…! I’ll buy the antidote…”
“It’s fine, you fool. You can pay me back later with interest for this too.”

Because of the urgency, I lit two cigarettes in quick succession.
I threw away the cigarette butts in a corner, dusted off my hands, and stood up.

It was getting dark and it was about time to go back.

“Foxtail. You don’t have to come tomorrow. You worked hard coming along today.”

Bringing Delia along was purely out of selfishness.

Honestly, coming all the way to the outskirts of the imperial capital, it’s too gloomy for just two guys to come.
Besides, showing this diagnostic process would be somewhat helpful for Delia, who is a freshman.
But from tomorrow, we need to seriously prepare a solution, so it would be too much to forcibly bring Delia along.

Then Delia shook her head and said.

“N-no…! I want to come too…! I want to find the solution together…”

It was an unexpected answer.
Even though I was the one who worked hard in the room, it wouldn’t have been an easy journey to come all the way here, but she wants to do it together next time too.

From comforting Morphine that night to coming all the way here.
Maybe Delia was a much more caring child than I thought.

“Alright. Then let’s disband here for today, and we’ll see each other again tomorrow. Morphine, go inside and take care of your mother. Since the solution isn’t certain yet, speak indirectly about the illness.”
“Understood. Senior. But can I ask one thing I’m curious about?”
“Yeah. Go ahead.”

We came out to the main street to catch a carriage to return to the academy.

Morphine walked along to see us off and asked.

“How can you know what even the church’s clergymen couldn’t diagnose? That… diagnosing by injecting mana, I mean.”
“Oh, that? That’s just because those guys are quacks. Originally, high-ranking clergymen finish diagnosing with mana and use holy magic accordingly. But the lower the level, the lower their mana understanding, so they just thoughtlessly use whatever holy magic they can use. The church you went to only had such clergymen.”
“I see….”

Morphine nodded as if he understood, but he still had a questioning face.

I could see the question rising to the tip of his tongue:
Then how can you, Senior, do the mana diagnosis that those high-ranking clergymen do?

Not just Morphine, but even Delia.

These guys usually ask this and that well, but I don’t understand why they’re being careful about this part.

Anyway, it was fine with me.
I didn’t particularly want to explain that part in detail.