“Once again, Iroha, Ririna, congratulations on clearing out the horde. Well done, congratulations!” We followed Flanne’s lead and raised our cups with a cheer. After spending time together with Ririna learning about alchemy, the two of us, together with Sarasa and Flanne, gathered at the Gathering of Flowers for a celebration. Flanne was the one who came up with the idea of gathering the four of us, and Ririna invited me to come before I went home.

It’s sweet… Does this have alcohol? Are we even allowed to drink this? I can accept that Flanne might be a year or two older than us, but Ririna and Sarasa? I don’t think so. Then again, wasn’t the drinking age lower in the medieval ages? Does that logic apply to the world of a game? It’s probably best if I don’t think about it. This might not even have alcohol, and I’m just imagining things.

“Nyahahahaha! I always knew you’d do it! All that commotion about the execution, but I wasn’t even worried! I told you, didn’t I? Everything was gonna be fine, and it was! There was no need to worry, so I didn’t! Nyahahahahaha!” Sarasa downed her drink in a single go and slammed her mug on the table. When she finished talking, she raised her arm and looked for a waitress to ask for another drink. Is that appropriate behavior? Wasn’t this a classy coffee shop?

“You weren’t worried at all?” Flanne put her drink down elegantly after a few sips. “Just like you weren’t panicking all the times you went to the barracks looking for me, right?”

“Nyah?! That never happened! I never went there, and if I did, it was just to see if you were lonely! So don’t start making things. If you want to start revealing secrets, I’ll tell everyone you’re getting chubbier from sipping tea here all the time!”

“Fufufu. I have no idea what you’re talking about. I haven’t come here in over a week. I’ve been so busy, in fact, that I’ve actually lost weight. Though I must confess that I’ve been missing my peaceful afternoons.” Flanne didn’t even flinch after Sarasa tried to expose her secrets, which caused the catgirl to glare in frustration.

“Sorry, Flanne… It’s my fault that you’ve been so busy, isn’t it?”

“Don’t apologize, Ririna. You’ve been deemed innocent, so it can’t be said that it was your fault anymore. Things will go back to normal soon enough, so for now, I’m just happy that the problem is solved.”

“Nyahahahaha! I really saved the day, didn’t I? If I hadn’t taught Iroha even a fraction of what I know, the horde would still be here. Go on, you can shower me with praise now. I bet you’re really thankful for all my advice, huh Iroha?”

“The fact that Iroha learned nothing from you is what saved us.” Sarasa was shocked and snapped her head to look at Ririna. “Otherwise, she would have found a way to vanish as soon as the monsters showed up.” Ririna looked at Flanne and me, and we all started laughing.

“Is it ‘pick on your lovely catgirl friend’ day today? Ririna, you’ve been getting too full of yourself lately… It’s about time someone taught you a lesson!”

“Wha- Ahahaha! Ahahaha! Stop!” Sarasa pounced out of her seat and started tickling Ririna’s sides. Ririna resisted and eventually broke away from Sarasa. She picked up her chair and sat down between me and Flanne. She’s right against my other shoulder now, and Sarasa can’t get to her anymore.

“Let that be a lesson to you…” Sarasa was proud and seemed ready to do it again. Ririna turned her head away with a pout.

“Well… I’d like to know a bit more about how your fight went, if you don’t mind.” Flanne tried to smooth over the conversation into the next topic, and Sarasa immediately forgot about her revenge.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Me too, me too! You two got your first heroic tale now, so you have to spill everything whenever someone asks you. That’s the rule, didn’t you know?”

“Uhmm… We killed the monsters… I’m not really sure how to explain it…” They want me to tell them about our ‘heroic tale’? How do I even do that?

“I’ll try to explain. It was amazing! I offered to make a Torn Violence Potion for Iroha, and she accepted!” Ririna bragged about it and shocked both Flanne and Sarasa.

“You accepted it? Wait, does that mean you drank it? And you didn’t go crazy? It actually worked, huh…? Ririna actually managed to pull it off. I can’t believe you were brave enough to trust that thing. You got some serious balls, Iroha.” Hmm, no I don’t, not last time I checked.

“See? I told you I could do it. You’re just a big scaredy cat, aren’t you, Sarasa?” Ririna hit one of Sarasa’s sore spots, and sparks were flying between them again.

“Can somebody explain to me what this ‘Torn Violence Potion’ thing is all about? Doesn’t it cause people to permanently lose their minds?”

“Basically, I found a way to customize the potion for a person that removes the madness effect. It’s not a perfect solution since it doesn’t solve the potion’s problem, but it works in situations like these.”

“That sounds incredible… I didn’t know there was a way to do that. Why aren’t other alchemists doing the same for wars and the like?”

“I just told you why. All I do is adapt the potion to the person who’s gonna take it. It’s impossible to make customized potions for every soldier in a war, so no one cares about it. The only reason I found a way to make it safe was because I was personally interested in it. Like a hobby. Not because it was useful.”

“Even so… I was under the impression it was nothing more than a poison, given its classification. Learning that there’s more to it than that comes as a big surprise…” Flanne needed a moment of silence to process the information. “So, I’m guessing the reason you two were able to wipe out the monsters was of the potion then?”

“Kinda…” Ririna told Flanne about our setup with the chokepoint and the potion. “But that didn’t last until the end. We weren’t even half way done when a big monster appeared and injured Iroha because the potion had worn off. I thought Iroha wasn’t going to be able to keep fighting, but then she started killing the monsters again without any issue… It was really unexpected, so I don’t know how much my potion actually helped.”

“No way! It was all you, Iroha?!” Sarasa slammed her hands on the table and looked at me.

“That’s impressive, Iroha… It’s almost hard to believe. Did you really kill that many monsters with your skills alone?” Flanne spoke calmly, but she was clearly interested in knowing more. How do I explain what happened without going into detail about Violence Impulse and the VISS Driver?

“T- that’s not true at all! It was all thanks to Ririna! If it wasn’t for her potion, I wouldn’t have been able to do anything. I’m not that impressive.”

“But that can’t be… I’m pretty sure the potion ran out early on. Which means every monster you took down after that was thanks to your own abilities. You’re the one who saved the day.”

“I’m not that strong, though… It was because of the potion. I’m not capable of killing that many monsters on my own.”

“But you did… You don’t need to be so humble, Iroha. Just accept it. You’re the one who did it, and it was amazing!”

“No, no… If it wasn’t for y-”

“I think I heard enough. You two are just trading compliments now. You both did great, so there’s no need to argue about it.” Flanne put an end to our back and forth, and my secret was more or less safe for now.

“Iroha, you’re doing it wrong! You need to be prouder and brag more! That’s what it means to be an adventurer! You’re trying to follow in my footsteps, so listen well. As an adventurer, your reputation is the only thing that matters. How do you get more reputation? By telling absolutely everyone about your achievements at every possible opportunity! That’s what you have to do, got it?!”

“When did I say I was following your footsteps?” I tilted my head as I posed my question, shocking Sarasa and making Ririna burst out laughing. We dropped the conversation about the fight and celebrated a while longer.

…

“We’re gonna stay here, Iroha. Do you really need to go already?”

“Yeah… I’ll come back tomorrow, so I’ll see you then.” I waved goodbye to Ririna and the others and left the Gathering of Flowers. The three of them were free for the day, so they stayed behind to continue their celebration.

“Ririna, can I confirm something with you? The potion you made for Iroha—are you sure it really wore off early on into the fight?”

“I’m pretty sure it did… It should have, but Iroha got even stronger afterwards. I’m not even sure anymore. It doesn’t make any sense because Iroha was struggling before. That’s why I suggested the potion in the first place. She needed that extra boost. I’m confused too… Maybe the potion reactivated? Turns out the Torn Violence Potion is more unpredictable than I thought. I’m just glad nothing went wrong and Iroha didn’t go crazy.”

“So even you don’t have a perfect understanding of the Torn Violence Potion… Didn’t you see anything else? Was there anything suspicious about Iroha?”

“What kind of question is that? Of course not. I wouldn’t call it suspicious, but at some point, it looked like Iroha was… glowing? I felt a lot of magic coming from her… Maybe she used some kind of spell? I was probably just seeing things.”

“Maybe so… You’ve never seen her use any magic before, right? A seemingly normal girl that skilled with a sword being able to use magic that strong is just too ridiculous of a story.”

“Right? Either way, she wiped out the horde, and we’re both still alive, so that’s all that matters!”