After quickly entering the headquarters, his hope was that he would not find any known faces along the way to his room. He hastily walked out of the reception and rushed inside the courtyard, saluting lightly at the soldiers he found in the yard.
For the most part, he had successfully arrived at the core quarters without being discovered. He sighed as he pushed open the door of the dorms, feeling the auras of all his companions as he did. He walked inside the hall, this time much calmer and with slower steps, humming a song to himself with a smile. Even if someone from the quarters saw him right now, they would not question him being in the hall. Because of this, he lightly turned the corner with closed eyes.
But his movement was stopped by a hand that pushed against his chest.
"Hm?"
He opened his eyes, confused about why he hadn't felt any sort of aura before crashing. Then, his face went completely pale upon discovering the truth.
"General Miel... Sir. Good morning..." Thom said with a stutter. The man of golden hair in front of him was showing him a terrifying smile and a fox-like gaze, pressing his hand on Thom's chest as if trying to impede him from going to the comfort of his room.
"Lieutenant. It's been around two days since we last saw each other." Miel retired his hand from Thom's chest and placed it behind his own back. "What have you been up to? Surely you have been searching for the man that tried to kill you, yes?"
"That... That would be the case, sir. I haven't found anyone yet, but I will keep searching, and I will hand Valta a detailed report of what I find in the next few weeks!" He enthusiastically declared, which made Miel chuckle slightly as he placed his har behind his shoulders.
"Very well. I will eagerly wait for it. I come from talking to Petyo, do feel free to ask for assistance, lieutenant."
"Y-Yes, sir. Now, if you excuse me..."
Thom walked to a side of Miel and bowed slightly. After an appropriate amount of time had happened, about a second or so, he started walking down the corridor again.
"Wait."
Miel's voice ringed out, and every single hair on Thom's body stood up. He swallowed his fear towards the man who's aura he could not even feel, and turned around with a pair of attentive eyes. "Yes, sir?" he said.
"You smell... odd, lieutenant." Miel sleazily entered Thom's private space, and the black-haired man felt his heartbeat accelerate in a second.
"I was at a chemistry shop... Sir." Thom forced a smile on his face as he spoke.
"No..."
Miel suddenly snatched Thom's hand, placing it close to his nose. Although the poor youth was about to yell in despair and confusion, he swallowed it back as the general closed his eyes and slowly processed the smell coming from the lieutenant's hand.
"You smell like a criminal, lieutenant Thom."
Badump
What kind of bullshit is that?! What the hell does a criminal smell like?! Crime?! Do you know what crime smells like, general Miel?!
Thom choked on those words he so desperately wanted to get out, and nervously smiled to push away his feelings.
"I managed to find a group of shameless bastards at an alley, but they escaped because I was not carrying my weapons, general. That will also go into my report, sir."
"Hmph." Miel dropped the youth's hand and turned around. "My best wishes to you, lieutenant. Have a safe trip to Saltbide."
"Yes... Sir."
As soon as Thom entered his room, he dropped his bag on the desk while removing the band from his hair. He pulled back the chair, ruffling his hair, thinking, and chanting to himself that Bournd was a nice man, that he wouldn't even dare to try and kill him.
But the truth was that it was all too obvious to ignore, and the aura that crept up his chest was Bournd's without a doubt, it belonged to the son of the people that had lent him a hand for so long, and kept him under their roof even against the desires of the army.
What if he handed the report like that to Miel? Without a doubt, that young man would be executed. And, even further, they would probably end up locking up both Marz and Merry as second-hand criminals.
"Shit... This has turned really rough, hasn't it?" He smiled. In truth, he had already decided his course of action— which would be keeping it a secret from the higher-ups. Even if that included Valta.
"Well, clearing my mind would be the next step. Let's see."
He grabbed from his bag all of the items that the alchemist had handed him and sprawled them across the table. He checked that everything was in order according to the recipe, and nodded repeatedly while counting his items.
"Alright. He told me that using magic is necessary to make potions. So the first actual thing would be making the salve, which doesn't require magic."
He wasn't stupid, he had already understood from Skill Master that he did not possess any talent for magic, not a bit. Even a drop would suffice in this situation, but all of his attempts to learn skills related to magic had failed miserably and ended up giving him a slight depression. For the same reason, he had bought a small vial of "liquid magic", a concentrated version of the usual gaseous-like substance people called magic energy, which would come to be a refined version of natural magic, or mana, as many called it.
"Well... That aside."
He grabbed a paper with the recipe for the healing salve written on it. It was a rather simple brew, but it required one's utmost attention, or it would be easy to fail. Since most people were uneducated in mathematics, it was especially hard for a peasant to obtain any knowledge in alchemy. Although this could have represented a problem for Thom before, it wasn't an issue at the moment.
The recipe started with telling the reader to place a small bowl at the center of the table, making sure that it was clean and it did not possess any impurities from previous procedures.
"Hmm... This will have to work for now."
Thom pulled a small wooden bowl from his bag and placed it on the desk between all the items.
[Bowl Of Alchemic Fertility. With no concern for the laws of equivalent exchange, through the solidification of magic in the environment and the creation of no side-products, all alchemic procedures done on the surface of this bowl will yield twice the results. Enchanted with anti-burning.]
"Basically, I put in one pound of material and I get two pounds of salve. Go figure how that works, but I won't complain." Thom smiled and started to place the first few ingredients on the bowl.
The first thing was to add a few drops of pig blood onto the bowl, about 20ml, and then drop 100 grams of Harr herb. When the herb was already soaked well in blood, the next step was to pulverize the mix until it started to form a viscous and sticky substance, brown in color. The purpose of this was to neutralize the raw mana of the Harr herbs by using the pig blood as a catalyst. Pigs were known for being able to digest even dangerous mana herbs that would kill a human if consumed directly, after all.
"Alright. That looks fucking gross."
Thom said as he followed the next step of the recipe— spreading thickly the sticky substance around the bowl until it formed a coating about 15 centimeters in diameter, enough to cover one's palm at the very least.
"Next thing is to apply the troll fat on the... Mass thingy." He read the paper out-loud as he was already scooping the troll fat with two of his fingers.
Trolls were dangerous monsters that lived in the deep forests where no man dared cross, and they proved to be exceptionally strong foes to inexperienced adventurers because of their high regenerative capacity. From their bones to their skin, their muscles, and their fat, no matter where one would damage a troll, the wound would quickly heal without leaving a scar behind.
Many speculated that this was due to the depth of their tissues being formed by powerful magic links, while others estated this was simply thanks to the harsh environment they lived in that required them to quickly multiply their tissue in order to survive.
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Whether it was one for the other, what everyone knew was that under the correct circumstances, the fat, blood, and other material extracted from these beings could be used to nurture one's own regeneration and heal quicker.
"Well, at least that's what that guy explained to me."
He dumped the thick, foul-smelling and greenish-looking substance on his previous mix, and also spread it around the previous coating on the bowl. He had the invasive thought, for a moment, of licking his fingers. However, it quickly went away as soon as he remembered what he was doing.
"Okay, the last thing is to heat the bowl. The paper says it's recommended to put the mix in an iron bowl, but this one should be fine." He whispered to himself as he took yet another item from his bag.
[Lighter Of Everburning Fire. An item used by the nobility of Far Kaink to light cigarettes, stoves, transmission crystals, and similar fire-needy appliances.]
Well, I'm sure those nobles won't miss such a mundane item. I swear to the gods, that dying geezer was a kleptomaniac. There. I used that funny word I learned through Lexicon for the first time.
He grabbed the bowl and put it atop the lighter. Thom only had to lightly press a small iron wheel to initiate the sparks, and the fire quickly started to burn below the bowl. A putrid smell started to permeate his room, so he had to stop for a minute between coughs, and opened the window. When he came back to it, he noticed it was sizzling and bubbling up from the heat, the troll fat melting on the brown substance.
"Ah, there it is."
After heating it for a while more, he grabbed a small wooden mortar that came with the bowl, and quickly started to mix the substances. The searing fat that entered in contact with the brown mound started to blend and change colors. At the same time, the bowl started to emit a faint glow, as if acting over the blend. The volume of the yellow cream-like substance started to grow at a very fast rate as he finished to pound it with the mortar, and after just a few minutes, it was finished.
"I think it worked!"
「Learning successful. The job-class skill [Alchemist] has been acquired. Intelligence and constitution have been greatly upgraded.
•As a consequence, the subordinate skill [Superior Mix] has been obtained. While in use, the user may obtain 50% fewer impurities in his mixes and procure the result with twice the speed. Extended use may result in mental fatigue.
As of now, without including unique skills and job-class skills, the user has obtained 24 skills. The user should prepare for an imminent upgrade of his capacities.」
As soon as those words ringed inside his head, Thom's former enthusiasm turned into concern. Looking down at the salve, it wasn't good at all. He had a slight idea that it would more or less work, but the quality of it wasn't nearly enough of what it should be.
"I know. I'll just make it again. That guy gave me enough materials to make twenty of these, after all."
He repeated the process from before once again, except this time his hands moved in a completely different way, and his measurements were so exact that it even frightened him. This time he alson made use of his new skill, [Superior Mix], making his movements fast enough to finish in less than two minutes.
"Aha! That's much more like it."
A golden-colored cream laid on the bowl, with a consistence that existed in a seemingly perfect point. Even the foul smell from before had greatly diminished, and if one didn't look too closely at it, it could even look appetizing.
"Excellent."
Thom grabbed two of the ten vials he had been handed for experimentation and shoved inside of them the product of his recent mixes. Testing their effectiveness would be a matter for later.
Right now, learning how to make a healing potion was the most important part.
The materials were pretty much the same, except for needing to use the three healing herbs, as well as four times more pig blood. This made the paste a lot more liquid than before. It also specified the use of the minced flowers to go along the paste, but they wouldn't last much after he started to boil down the substance.
He carefully grabbed with his fingers a spoonful of troll fat and made a small sphere where he caved in his thumb. He poured inside of it the contents of the small glowing vial, liquid magic, at last. He heated the bowl, then mixed with the mortar, slowly and with care, until the mix started to turn pinkish. The scent from the fat was overshadowed by the one from the flowers, making him smile and rejoice, as he had finally finished. The bowl's shimmer died down, and Thom poured the pinkish liquid inside another two empty glass vials.
Then, after placing them inside the bag, he heard the common description for a minor healing potion. Confirming their use, he stored everything away and smiled with a self-satisfied face.
"Today hasn't been that much of a bad day, after all."
Tok tok
"Hm?"
He stood up as soon as he heard a knock from his door. He hadn't been paying attention at all to his surroundings, so much that he hadn't noticed when Suu had arrived at his door.
He opened it to see her smiling face on the corridor, but before he could say anything, he was thrown inside the room and she closed the door with a loud clacker. The girl closed the windows, checked below the beds, and even started to put her ear against the walls and floor.
"Suu, I don't know if old man Dragonson ever told you this, but the mushrooms in the forest are not for consuming."
"Shh! I'm not high! I can't even get drunk!" She threw herself on the bed with her usual smile and crossed her legs. "Thom, ever since you got here, have you bothered to search any information about this girl called Runa?"
Thom felt surprised by the sudden addressing of the girl without previous notice. A long sigh escaped his lungs, not being able to find the right words to answer with. Had he found anything regarding the girl? No, not a clue. However, this wasn't exactly because there was a lack of information. Rather, it was because he had not made the effort.
"I... Have been a little lost in the affairs of this place, really. Have you found anything?"
"Well, more than just anything. I was recently talking to Erina, and I dropped a few hints here and there about this girl. Wait, don't nag on me yet. Let me explain. I thought she would be able to help if even just slightly, and she did."
"Hmph..." Thom swallowed his words and crossed his arms. "Yeah? And how is it that our no-brainer corporal managed to find information about some random girl?"
"Hehe." Suu laughed. "You see, Erina seems to have a crush on me of sorts. She did it without me asking, only to make me happy! Isn't she the cutest?!"
"That isn't what I asked." Thom said those words with annoyance, but smiled at Suu's mischievous face.
"Right. Turns out this girl Runa isn't just anybody. The name, her description, I even told her about that dress you so intricately described to me. Thom, it seems like you are really lucky with your random encounters. Do you know that?"
"..." Thom started to get suspicious as Suu's voice begun to get more serious and excited, and the frown on his face continued to grow thicker.
"The girl with the starry eyes you know as Runa... Her full name being Runa Eilda Gesegnet von Stern. It's not that hard finding information about her because, well, there are books about a long list of her ancestors all across the Kingdom's libraries. Especially her, actually."
"... Long name." Thom whispered. "Way too long, actually. I don't like it. I'd rather call her Runa. You know what, that's what I'll do. I'll call her Runa."
"Thom, do you know what this means?"
"I don't know Suu. I don't wanna know, actually. I'm really fine with knowing whether she's fine or not, and now that I have a name I can at least start searching for her around the Kingdom."
"Thom, you don't have to search anywhere!" She blurred the end of her sentence with a laugh that denoted how silly she thought Thom was being. "Don't you get it? With that royal-ass name of hers, that girl isn't even from the kingdom!"
"Suu..." Thom shook his head. "Thank you, but I really—"
"Why are you behaving like this? Shouldn't you be excited? Not only you met someone like her, but you can also be sure that she's in good hands if she found her people! Hey, if you ever see her, she might even make you a noble because of how you helped her back then!" She stood up from the bed as she started to excitedly tell Thom all of these things, imagining a delusional future for her friend, and even, for herself. "Do you get what kind of person this is, Thom? She's the princess of Neire, she—!"
"I don't fucking care what she's the princess of!"
Slam!
Thom slammed his hand against the desk, producing a loud sound as if the wood was about to crack. He turned around to look at Suu with bloodshot eyes, the muscles in his body tensing up, and the words just barely squeezing through the small space between his tightly-gritted teeth.
Suu took a step back and tripped with the bed, falling on the mattress with a dumbfounded look. She seemed to be trembling slightly from how high Thom had raised his voice, but then he noticed that wasn't the case. His aura was shooting far from his body and burying itself into the ground, like roots caving up the soil, tying up around her legs and wrapping up all the way towards her heart.
His furious eyes quickly changed into ones that showed deep regret and fear, and his aura quickly vanished into nothing. He walked to her side to lend her a hand, but she quickly dismissed him with a smile.
"I'm sorry. I got excited. I did not think about the circumstances." She said with a deep and grave voice. Although she looked calm, Thom could still see her hands trembling while holding onto the sheets.
"Suu, I... I'm sorry. Look, I really appreciate you going to these lengths for me. I will pay this back to you one day. Thank you for the information, truly. I'm just..."
"Not ready to accept she's a royal?" Suu whispered as he looked at him.
"... Yeah." He said and turned around while grabbing the back of his neck. "I should have thought about it. No ordinary girl would be dressed in such flamboyant clothes. But I still had some hope that... We could talk in equal ground again one day, you know?"
"And why can't that happen?" Suu slowly got up from the mattress.
"Because all I'll have in my head is... My dad and... All that fucking mess about royalty and nobles. I know I suck at expressing myself. What I mean is..." He blurred the end of his sentence as he dragged a long sigh. "I'm not ready to call her Your Highness, or My Lady. What would people think if I go around calling a princess by her first name? That would be extremely stupid to do. That..."
"It doesn't mean that you can't talk to her, either. It's not like you're gonna marry her, Thom." Suu chuckled. "And, isn't it exciting hearing about a princess tossing aside her pride and status to make a friend? If that isn't true friendship, I truly do not know what it could be."
"It's not that simple." He dejectedly sighed. "Life is never like a fairytale. At most, I'd get killed because of tainting her public image. It's so frustrating... I finally thought I had managed to find a bit of purpose in my life, and then... Then she just went away. And now that I found out she's a royal, well... I don't know if I wanna see her. I don't know if I want her to stop being just Runa."
Thom felt a small punch on his back, and he turned around once more to find the black-haired girl he had known all his life staring at him. That brilliant smile of hers seemed like a beacon for the depressed young man, as she placed her hand on the scabbard at her belt, and drew a crown on the air above her head.
"Then become a royal yourself, no? That way, even if she's a princess, you won't need to call her any of that bullshit. Runa is enough, isn't it?"
"..."
Thom replied with a lonely smile. It seemed like this girl was pulling him once again from a well he had dug himself inside of. He shrugged, lightly punching her shoulder with his own hand.
"Don't think you're exempt from helping me with that, then."
"Of course." Suu made a slight bow, putting one foot behind the other. "It'll be an honor, Lord Thom."