Frontier Magic Pharmacist

Chapter 45: Back to the Capital

The members of the Margrave Heine family, who are heading to the royal capital, gathered in front of the entrance. This year, just like last year, everyone except me and my sister Rosalia will be heading to the royal capital.

Of course, Grandma, who is an authority on magic potions, is also heading to the capital to interact with other magic potion practitioners. I heard that she has a disciple in The Royal Capital. I only found out about it recently.

It was sad to say goodbye to my family, but it was my duty as an aristocrat, so I had no choice. After exchanging greetings, the parents left for the capital.

“I did it! I’m free now!”

I couldn’t help but exclaim with joy. The summer vacation season was really busy. There was little time to research magic potions or develop new magical tools.

Besides, this year’s social season is different from last year.

Until now, the only special room where Grandma made her magic potions was in the main building of the Margrave Heine . However, my father, who was concerned about me, prepared the same room in the annex where Grandmother usually lives.

As a result, the room for making magic potions in the main building is almost unused. Of course, the various tools were still there. In other words, as long as no one is watching, the room can be used freely.

This means that during the social season, I can work on my potion research. It would only be for a few months, but it would be better than nothing. That was one of the reasons I refused to go to the royal capital.

I tried to shut myself up in the room from the next day. But Rosalia would have none of it.

“Brother, what are you sneaking around for?”

“I’m not sneaking around, okay?”

“It’s a lie.”

“I’m not lying.”

Rosalia, sensing something through her woman’s intuition, followed me around. Hmmm, there’s nothing I can do about this. Wouldn’t it be better to just reveal it to my sister and ask her to keep it a secret?

Even if I work while my sister isn’t there, it would be too inefficient to do so while being scared that she might attack at any moment.

I discussed this with Lionel, the Commander of the knights.

“So, ……. What do you think?”

“If Rosalia-sama is going to find out sooner or later, I don’t think it would hurt to tell her. Rosalia-sama is already six years old. I think it is possible to keep it a secret.”

Lionel’s opinion seems to be the same as mine. Then can I tell her?　The one who would be most troubled if she found out is grandma. She is a high-ranking potion master, so she must be more strict about the rules of being a potion master than anyone else.

This is evident from the fact that she didn’t take the advice I gave her when I was a little boy as if I didn’t know what I was doing.

I called Rosalia into the salon. Of course, I asked the servants to leave. Rosalia’s pretty face hardened at my unusual mood.

“I need to talk to you about something, I want you to keep secret.”

“What is it?”

Thus I told Rosalia that I was secretly making and supplying magic potions to the Knights and that I wanted to do research on magic potions during the social season.

“How about it?　Can you  keep it a secret?”

“Of course. But I have one request. May I watch as brother makes a magic potion?”

“That’s fine. Might not be as much fun, though.”

“That’s not true.”

Thus, a secret contract was made with Rosalia. With this, I will finally be able to make magic potions. So I immediately set about creating the magic potion with Rosalia.

I brought a container for preservation to the room where I was going to make the potion, and began to prepare it.

“So this is going to be a magic potion?”

Rosalia was looking at the ingredients in the container curiously. It seems she is seeing it for the first time. Then it seems she’s never seen the old lady making magic potions.

“Yes, that’s right. This one is a medicinal herb, this one is a poison-dissipating herb, and that one is a magic herb.”

“Onii-sama, you are very knowledgeable!”

“This much is in the botanical illustrated book. If you’re curious, you can go to the library.”

She reads picture books, but I don’t think she reads illustrated books. There are quite a few illustrated books that even children can enjoy, such as the illustrated book of demons and the illustrated book of magic. She seems to be interested in them, so I’ll take Her with me next time.

While talking, I quickly prepare the tools. The first step is to grind the material with a mortar. It has already been dried. As expected, I can’t use my “Drying” skill in front of Rosalia.

It would be very bad if she asked me how I did it.

“Brother, where did you find this leaf?”

“That’s the thing, there’s a secret flower garden in our yard.”

“I want to go there too!”

“I see. Well, I’ll take you there some other time, but that place is also a secret, okay?”

“Yes, it’s a secret!”

Saying that, she put her index finger on her little mouth. Yeah, my sister is cute today, too.

I watched my sister with a smiling expression on her face as I grind it into a powder with a mortar and pestle. Magic is faster, but if you do it manually, you can conserve your magic power.

When I have ground the material into powder, I bring water. This is just water pumped from a well, so the quality is normal. To upgrade it, I assembled a distillation unit.

“Good, good, that should do the trick.”

“Brother, what’s that?”

“This is a tool for cleaning water.”

“Could you clean the water?”

says the cute little sister, cocking her head a little.

“Yes, watch this.”

With that, I heated the water from the well. The heat source was the burner of the magical tool. It is small, but it can produce a flame with high firepower. It is a special magic tool for making magic potions and should not be sold to the general public.

I’ve never seen it in a magic tool store when I went to town. Besides, I don’t see any other use for it. The flame is too small for cooking or attacking monsters.

After a while, the water that had turned into steam became water again and gradually accumulated in the container prepared next to it. Rosalia was staring at the scene. She seemed to be quite interested in it.

“Is this different from magic?”

“Yes, this is a physical phenomenon.”

“A physical phenomenon?”

“Hmmm, Rosalia is still too young to understand it. I will teach you when you are older.”

Rosalia was miffed, perhaps thinking she was being treated like a child. I patted her head.

“promise”

“I promise.”

Somehow, her mood seemed to have returned to normal. Rosalia stared at the situation without getting tired.