Chapter 197:
It Was Amazing
“Here ya go, Druid.” Druid’s old mentor handed him a bag of food.
“Oh, thanks… Um, Master?” For some reason, Druid made a sour face when he looked inside the bag. Was there something in there he didn’t like?
“What’s wrong?”
“This isn’t dinner—these are groceries.”
“I said it was somethin’ ya could turn into dinner. I never said it was dinner-dinner.”
“Yeah…you’re technically right.”
“Y’know that thing ya made that one time? I’ll have that, please.”
Druid cooks? I’d sure like to taste his food.
“But, Master…” Druid whined.
“I can’t wait to eat it!” I said.
“Huh? Ivy?”
“Huh?!” What? Why is Druid looking at me with such shock in his eyes? Did I say something strange? His old mentor wanted to taste his cooking, and so did I. That’s why I said I was excited to eat it.
“Woo-hoo, Druid,” his old mentor whistled. “Feed us.”
“Master…” Druid sighed. “Could you not get Ivy involved when you tease me?”
“Sorry, but I got a really strong hankerin’ for your cookin’ today, Druid. Ya made it a lot, remember? I forget what it’s called, though.”
“Really?” Druid gave his old mentor a dubious look, to which the old man just shrugged in reply. It was hard to tell whether he was lying or not, but either way, Druid gave up.
“Fine…I can cook. But it’s just a hodgepodge of meat and vegetables—that’s all it is.”
“Yeah, but whenever ya make it, it tastes real good for some reason. I tried to duplicate the recipe many times, ya know, but to tragic results.”
I was really curious as to what those “tragic results” were, but I figured it was best not to pry. I should just trust my gut. So Druid’s specialty dish is a stir-fry, eh? I wonder what it tastes like? I can’t wait!
“Ivy, don’t stare at me with sparkles in your eyes. It’s throwing me off…”
“Huh?”
“Er, never mind. It’s just that you’re a good cook, Ivy… I don’t want to let you down when you put your faith in me.”
Hm? He was so quiet that I missed the last part. I heard my name, but that’s it.
“Mr. Druid?”
“It’s nothing. Okay, I’ll cook. It’s simple, so it’ll be ready right away.”
“Can I do anything for you?” Does Druid hate to get help from others like I do? If he does, I probably shouldn’t throw him off by butting in.
“Ivy, there’s a lot I wanna ask ya while Druid cooks our dinner.”
If it can wait until after dinner, I’d rather we do that.
“Ivy, all I have to do is cook everything through, really. I’ll be fine,” Druid said.
What should I do?
“C’mon, let’s get the tough conversation out of the way first so we can relax and enjoy our dinner,” Druid suggested. He must have noticed I was stressing myself out over it. And he had a point: Talking about complex things over dinner always made me sleepy.
“Um, okay, then. I’ll see you at dinner, then,” I told Druid as I walked over to join his mentor, who had already opened and started drinking a bottle of wine.
“Okay, what was it you wanted to talk about, sir?”
“That potion and those magic stones ya gave me.”
Oh, so he wants to talk about the items that Sora and Flame made. I wonder if he did anything with them?
“Did you use them, sir?”
“Yeah, well, the thing about being attacked by a herd of gurbars is it’s hard to walk away from it without any injuries.”
So I guess he used the potion. “Were everyone’s wounds healed?”
“More than healed. Just one swig of it stuck a ripped-off arm back onto a guy.”
Huh? Just one swig? That little?
“Lots of our adventurers were heavily wounded by gurbar tusks, so it was tough to decide who I’d use the potion on. And well, somebody was bleedin’ freely, so I had ’im take a swig first.”
A bleeding wound would need immediate attention if you were in the forest. If a potion wasn’t enough to stop your bleeding, other monsters might be drawn to you. And you’d absolutely want to avoid being in a position where you’re a constant target.
“You’re usually supposed to pour the potion directly on the wound, but we didn’t have much of it, so I figured if he took the potion internally, it’d at least do some good. Then I was gonna follow it up with a common medical potion to treat his wound, but that wound up not being necessary.”
“Why not?”
“Well, because the potion had already cured everyone’s wounds. And it reattached a man’s arm that had almost been torn clean off, too. That potion is insane, Ivy.”
All it took was one swig to repair a ripped-off arm? This was so extraordinary that it didn’t feel real to me.
“Are you sure about all of this, sir?”
“Yeah. Then there were those SSS-level magic stones ya gave me. They were powerful beyond belief. I gave ’em to someone who was good with fire magic to burn the monster corpses…and it took just three rounds of magic to turn that giant dragon corpse into ash. That’s why we came back ahead of schedule—we thought cleanup was gonna take three days, but we only needed one.”
A three-day job took one day…and only three tries, at that. Just how powerful was this magic, anyway?
“Also, I had my adventurers who can’t use fire magic try the stones, and they were able to use novice fire magic with ’em.”
Hm? Even adventurers who normally couldn’t use fire magic could do it with the stones? Does that mean I’ll be able to use fire magic? That would be great, if I could…but would I have to use up those beautiful clear stones every time? No way could I do that!
“They were excited at first, but when they found out they were SSS-level magic stones, they all put up a fuss. They could never afford ’em, ya know.”
That was probably true. I couldn’t even imagine how much those stones would cost.
“You can have these back. Also, we used up the Level 5 magic stones. Here’s what’s left of ’em.”
“Thank you, sir.” I looked at the twenty used magic stones. They seemed just like the rocks I’d seen at the dump.
“Ryu! Ryu, teryuuu.”
A nonsensical sound, as usual. “Flame, what’s wrong?”
I looked at Flame, who was staring hard at my hand. The hand that was holding the spent magic stones.
“You mean these stones?”
“Ryuuu, ryuuu,” Flame sang, swaying back and forth like a pendulum.
“Thanks, Flame. The magic stones you made were a huge help.”
I lined up the spent stones in front of Flame. It daintily took one in its mouth and swallowed. Then a bunch of bubbles appeared inside its body. And after a while…
“Ryuuu, ryu, ryuuu…pong!” A magic stone flew out of Flame’s mouth. The whole thing was really cute, but at the same time kind of nerve-racking… After all, it might be an SSS-level stone.
“Oh, good. This one’s just a common magic stone.”
“Most people would hope for a higher-level one.”
“Oh, but there’s no way I could use a Level SSS stone.”
“You could always sell…no, wait, ya couldn’t. You’d draw way too much attention. If ya were a famous adventurer, you could always say ya got ’em from monsters ya killed.”
“Yeah, I couldn’t pull that off. But maybe Mr. Druid could?”
“Good idea. If he said he scored them back during his adventurer days, that story might fly.”
Okay…so maybe if we’re ever low on money, I could have Druid sell the magic stones for me.
“Oh, by the way, I already put in an expense claim for the potion and magic stones I used on the quest,” said the mentor.
“Huh?!”
“Gotos, that poor bastard, was pulling his hair out.”
Huh? Did I forget to tell the guild master about the potion and magic stones? “You didn’t really have to pay, sir. But, um, I don’t think I remembered to tell him about the potion…”
“I sent the bill to the guild on your behalf, Ivy, so when Gotos pays ya, don’t ya dare give the money back. Ya need to make sure ya get full compensation when people use your things. Got it?”
“Do we really have to do it that way, though?”
“Yeah, we do. The guild’s reputation is riding on it, too.”
“Their reputation, sir?”
“That’s right. Adventurers feel would rather have a guild that pays its bills promptly.”
That did make sense… I didn’t think I’d want to do business with a guild that had money problems.
“A guild’s reputation is very important to adventurers. It’s their livelihood, after all.”
“Understood, sir. I’ll make sure I get the payment, and I’ll also tell the guild master about the potion.”
“Hm? Won’t that be a problem for you?”
Why would it be a problem? “Not really…”
“Well, okay, then.”
“Dinner’s ready,” Druid announced. “Master, Ivy will be okay. We just forgot to tell the guild master.”
I’ll be okay? What exactly are they worried about?
“Ivy, Master thought you hadn’t told the guild master about the potion because you had some sort of problem talking to him in general.”
“Huh?! Oh, no, sir! It’s not that at all!”
“Ha ha ha, yeah, I guess not. Well, glad to hear it.”
Now it all made sense. That explained why the old mentor had sent the bill in my place. “Thank you, sir.”
“Ha ha ha. Well, I thought this would be a great opportunity to mess with Gotos, and I just couldn’t pass it up.”
This guy always bluffs to hide his true motives. Is he actually a big softie?
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