Abandoned Reincarnation

Chapter 23 – The day before the subjugation

In the next day, after I got up and stretched, I immediately heard my stomach let out a cute growl.

… I guess it really was a bad idea to skip dinner.

I also had a bit of a headache right now.

… It has been a while since I last had a headache. The last one happened back when I was still in the locus of magical power.

Back then, I suffered from severe headaches every day, so I felt mildly depressed while I was there.

However, I now miss that place a bit… Those times now feel like good memories to me, despite the struggles I went through back then.

In any case, I quickly finished eating breakfast and went to the guild.

Today I’m going to the forest again while taking the usual requests.

It’s not a bad idea to rest in preparation for tomorrow, but I really want to make potions, so I decided to go to the forest today.

Especially because I sold all my potions to Mr. Ronil, so I think I should make some more in order to have them with me in case of an emergency.

So, I talked to Ms. Charlie, accepted the requests, and immediately headed to the forest.

On the way to the usual spring, I was attacked by monsters, but I quickly defeated them.

This time, I’m trying to keep detection magic constantly activated like Aria taught me… However, Aria was always quicker to notice the monsters than I was.

I guess this is simply because of a difference in experience between us. I have no choice but to keep on doing my best to improve.

In any case, I was able to safely arrive at the spring, so I took out my mortar and started the preparations to make a potion.

Normally, I’d start working with the small furnace to make bottles before I made the potions, but this time I had a different idea.

I drew a magic circle on the ground with patterns that would lead to the shape I desired.

It was similar to what I did to make the mortar and pestle before, but I’m working on making a bottle this time instead.

After all, the ingredients that make the bottle are all found in the soil, so it should be possible to make it with earth magic.

However, earth magic alone would lead to a pottery-like small bottle, hence why I needed the furnace to heat things up and make the translucent bottles that I worked with before.

This time though, I’m going to be using earth and fire magic instead.

Using a double magic circle, I drew letters and patterns, then connected them both. I had to draw quite a bit, but it felt easier than what I had to draw to make the mortar.

… Wait, how should I even apply the fire magic to make this work?

Magic attribute is determined by the color of the magic circle. Earth magic is brown, while fire magic is red.

I’ve never used a spell that combined two elements before though… Is it even possible to do so?

Well, I guess I won’t know if I try, so I decided to make one of the magic circles in the double magic circle work with fire magic.

Hopefully I can make the two circles synergize in a way that makes the fire magic assist the earth magic in the process of making the bottles.

And so, after a while of trial and error, I was able to make the double magic circle I wanted, and several vials appeared on the ground.

These felt more transparent than the ones I had made by hand, and their shape was more uniform. They felt like a proper ready-made product.

That’s good enough. I’m glad this went better than what I was expecting.

Since I was able to make the small bottles with magic, I could skip ahead to making potions.

I didn’t need to spend nearly as much time making bottles this time, so I think I’ll be able to make quite a few potions.

Like this, I spent several hours working silently.

Though I had to get rid of monsters from time to time when they got too close to the spring.

In the end, I was able to make about twenty low-level healing potions.

It’s less than what I made before, but that can’t be helped, as I was experimenting with other potions today too.

I used the potions that I bought at the apothecary as reference, then tried replicating their effects.

It wasn’t hard to make other low-level potions, like a detoxification potion and a stamina recovering potion.

But the medium-level potions were much harder.

I did have the right materials, but it was surprisingly difficult to combine them to obtain the right effect.

In the end, once I tried using Appraisal at my attempts at making a medium-level recovery potion, what I ended up with were just low-level recovery potions.

… Seems like I’m still too inexperienced on this.

I really wanted to keep on trying, but it was getting late, and it was dangerous to stay in the forest at night, as monsters become more active by then.

So, I left the forest before sunset, and I ended up meeting up with other children who were gathering medicinal herbs like usual.

I found Lars among them, so I waved and greeted him.

He then approached me and asked, “Are you going home now?”

“Yes. Are you going too, Lars?” I asked him back.

“I am.” He nodded.

“Shall we go together then?” I suggested.

He gathered the children and we then started going back to town together.

Since the incident with Cyan in the forest, Lars has stopped getting angry with me.

Part of it was probably because I helped them, but I think he must have also recognized my magical capabilities, so he most likely doesn’t feel like he needs to worry about me anymore.

Though coming to think of it. Lars was the one who called Mr. Ryuk during the incident in the tavern, wasn’t he? I guess I should thank him for that.

“Lars, thank you very much for your help last time.” I told him.

“W-what’s up with this all of a sudden!?” He asked with slightly red cheeks.

“You called for help when I got in trouble in the guild, didn’t you?” I explained.

“Well, that was…” He seemed to be a bit troubled for some reason.

I was planning on just taking on the blow then running away, but Mr. Ryuk appearing and stopping anything from happening was definitely quite helpful.

I had no intention of getting hurt there, but it was definitely a very uncomfortable situation.

“M-more importantly than that… You’re going to participate in the subjugation of monsters in the highway tomorrow, aren’t you?” Lars asked me.

“Yes. How did you know?” I asked him back.

“… Ms. Receptionist told me.” He replied while looking away from me.

His behavior was a bit strange… Why were his cheeks getting redder? And why did he avert his eyes?

I tried looking at his face to see if I could figure it out, but then he became redder and completely turned his face the other way… Did I say something weird?

“I… I’m sure you’ll be fine, but be careful, alright?” He told me without looking me in the eyes.

“I will.” I replied.

“Don’t be reckless out there! I won’t forgive you if you die!” He suddenly exclaimed while vigorously turning his face back towards me.

That was so surprising that I inadvertently took a step back.

Lars is a pretty cautious person. He avoids subjugation requests and performs herb collection requests only in the safest areas.

It’s unsurprising that he is worried about me participating on a big monster subjugation request.

They may all be weak monsters, but it’s still normal to be wary of challenging a large monster horde.

But I’m not going to be reckless, and I have no intention of dying out there.

I’m a bit happy that he seems to be honestly worried about me though, so I stretched out my hand and stroked his head.

“W-what are you doing!?” He exclaimed.

“Thank you for your worries, but rest assured. I’m not going to lose.” I told him with a soft smile.

At this moment, Lars blushed even more for some reason, then he suddenly said that he would be going home first and quickly left.

Mmm… Maybe he didn’t like being treated like a younger child?

I ended up treating him like that due to my memories of my previous life, but… I’m actually younger than him, aren’t I?

In any case, I bid farewell to the other children and went to the guild to report the completion of my requests and to deliver the collected items.

This time, probably because I was attacked by more monsters than usual, I ended up getting more money than what I usually got.

I stored the money within my guild certificate, then quickly left the guild.

I thought about selling more potions at the guild’s tavern, but I might end up needing to use those tomorrow, so I decided to keep them with me for the time being.

So, I returned to the inn, ate, bathed, then returned to my room.

“It’s happening tomorrow.” Aria commented once we were alone.

“Yeah. I’m gonna need to practice for it.” I replied.

It’s my first big subjugation request… Even if I don’t go, I’m sure plenty of other people will, so things will probably be alright, but…

I already committed on participating, so I have no plans of holding back.

I’ve prepared spells to use during the battle, and I also made plenty of potions. I should be ready.

So, for now, I activated detection magic at the same time as I applied physical reinforcement magic on my eyes.

At this moment, I could feel the flow of movements in the surrounding scenery slowing down, and I could also feel the presence of living beings nearby.

Since we’re at an inn, I could feel the presence of people who seemed to be customers, as well as countless other people who were moving about in town.

Seems like using the reinforcement magic together with detection magic is not a problem.

Differently from physical reinforcement magic, detection magic is a fairly simple spell that consumes only a bit of magical power.

Just like Aria told me, the consumption of magical power is insignificant, so I should be fine even if I keep it active all day.

So, Aria started helping me with my preparations. She started moving around so that I could get used to keeping up with other people’s movements while using the physical reinforcement magic on my eyes.

Even when she left my field of vision, I could still get a rough idea of her position due to the detection magic, so I was able to react to her pretend attacks with some ease, as I knew the direction they were coming from.

“Seems like it’s going well.” Aria commented.

“It is. All that is left is seeing how well will I be able to use this in actual combat.” I replied.

I think I’ll probably be fine, but I can’t help being a bit worried… Practice and actual combat are different things, after all.

What if I start panicking and can’t cast my spells properly? Or if I get hit by a surprise attack?

I just can’t get used to the idea of willingly involving myself with something that carries a real risk of death with it.

Back when I first fell on the locus of magical power, I had thought about giving up on life, but…

Now I have Aria. I don’t want to leave her behind.

Perhaps… The memory of living a peaceful daily life is actually the biggest thing that makes people fear death.

… Well, even I think about those things, it was still my decision to participate, so it’s my duty to see this to the end. I’ll be sure to complete this request.

So, after practicing for a while, I decided to go to bed early, so as to be well-rested tomorrow.

I’m still a bit uneasy, but my determination to see this through blew the hazy thoughts away from my heart.