It is my Destiny to be the Savior of the Protagonist

As soon as the blizzard subsided, she left for the capital and put the missing Archmage’s share on her desk. Ariadne took the remaining two bottles and went to visit the Marquis. The Countess and her husband greeted her warmly while enjoying her tea time in the greenhouse.

“Aria, welcome.”

“Your complexion has improved a lot. We can go on a picnic now.”

The Marquis said happily. Ariadne placed a small glass bottle in front of them.

“This… This is the first elixir I completed.”

“Have you finished it already?”

The Marquis’ eyes widened.

“Yes. I experimented with polluting plants from grandfather’s garden. They went back to daffodils.”

“Are you giving us the first finished product?”

The Countess asked after checking the ribbon with her name on it. Ariadne nodded her head with a slightly reddened face.

“Yes, it was my first time making it, so I really wanted to give it to you.”

“My God, how can I use this? It will be a waste.”

“It is thanks to the two of you that I was able to make it. Use it when you need it. I will make it again for you.”

When Ariadne said that, she smiled shyly, and the Margrave hugged her tightly and sat her on his lap while the Countess gently stroked her hair.

“Thank you, Aria.”

Before long, the servants had made a place for Ariadne at the table, but the maid seemed unwilling to get her off her lap. Far from dissuading the Countess as well, she just fed Ariadne sweets with a happy face.

“Try this too.”

Bite-sized cookies coated in chocolate came to her mouth. As Ariadne calmly accepted it, the Countess’s smile deepened to the point that her cheeks were watering.

‘It’s against the etiquette.’

It was rude and disgraceful for a child who could walk on her own to sit on a grown-up’s lap, according to the bad manners she had learned at Eldeer. It was also forbidden from that age to receive and eat food that was fed.

‘It’s a bit embarrassing to do this after eating for 8 years as an adult. I have past life memories…”

Knowing that, even feeling her embarrassment, Ariadne did not get down from the Marquis’s lap. She did not refuse even the sweets the Countess fed her. Her heart softened a little more. After drinking the tea, the Marquiss looked curiously at the glass bottle again.

“I can’t believe this can really cure pollution… Does it also work on things other than plants?”

“Anything alive. It doesn’t work for inanimate objects. Animals and people die quickly if they are contaminated, so you have to use it right away to save them.”

“That alone is shocking enough.”

The Marquis groaned. The Countess, who had been adjusting her vial, opened her mouth.

“Then, Aria, is it possible to clean up the contaminated area with this? When the labyrinth is closed and the land returns to its original state.”

“Shelly, since this is of no use to inanimate objects, it must be of no use to the earth.”

The Marquis interrupted to answer, and the Countess shook her head.

“Even though it is a little different from the concept of living things, there are living lands and dead lands, right? Haven’t Ern heard a lot about the fact that plants grow only when the ground is alive?”

“Isn’t that a metaphor?”

“It’s a metaphor, but it’s not completely wrong either. There is a difference between living soil and dead soil.”

“Is it so? It’s hard to imagine that soil is a living thing.”

“Rather than the soil itself being a living thing, I heard that there are very small creatures living in it.”

“A small creature lives in the soil? You mean worms?”

“It’s not a bug, uhm, that’s hard to explain. Scholars should know more precisely…”

The Countess slurred her words and her husband looked puzzled. The Countess finally gave up her explanation and asked a question.

“Anyway, Aria. Does the elixir work on the ground?”

“I don’t know that either. I guess I’ll have to try it to find out.”

Actually she knew. It was all in the original story. Elixir couldn’t bring dead people or animals back to life, but it could bring dead land back to life. To be precise, it was a way to treat contaminated microorganisms. In any case, as a result, it changed the polluted land into a land where plants could grow, so there was no big difference from the existing purification method using divine power.

“I’ll have to try. If it is effective in cleaning up contaminated areas… Is mass production possible? Hmm. Aria, is it possible to make many elixirs at once?”

Marquis asked seriously. Ariadne nodded her head.

“Yes, I can. The combination of ingredients is important, but the process is not difficult.”

“Then, first check to see if it can be purified…”

“Uncle, even if the elixir has a purifying effect, I would like to keep it a secret for the time being.”

“Hmm?”

“If I do something wrong, I will have a bad relationship with the temple.”

“…My God, that’s right. There are benefits gained by the temple monopolizing the purification process so far… I’m not going to openly oppose it out of face, but…”

The Marquis sighed after muttering and turned to Ariadne.

“Aria, you surprise me every time. How do you even consider that?”

‘I saw it actually happen in the original work. The main character took advantage of the temple’s accumulated dissatisfaction to bring down the Duke of Eldeer.’

It was an unanswerable answer. Ariadne just said thank you for the compliment. Then the Countess, who was looking at her with admiring eyes, asked.

“So, Aria, how are you going to reveal the Elixir?”

“First of all… With an unknown source, I want to release it on the black market.”

“On the black market?”

“Yes. Since the effect is certain, word will spread quickly. When word spread like that and everyone knew the existence of the Elixir…” Ariadne swallowed her dry saliva and continued her words. “… I’ll donate the elixir recipe to the temple in public. ”

“What’?”

“Are you going to donate it?”

The eyes of the Countess and Marquis widened. Ariadne smiled softly.

“Because that’s the best way.”

It was also how Axel Valentine handled the elixir recipe he obtained in the original story.

* ♦ ♦ ♦ *

“I heard this, what do you think?”

The Archmage asked as he folded the letter the messenger had given him.

“After sneaking on the black market, she said she would publicly donate the recipe to the temple if word spread?”

The person who asked was a woman who was smoking a cigarette while leaning on the sofa. She was a languid beauty with graceful brown hair adorned with jewels and deep purple eyes. The Archmage nodded his head, and the woman’s thin eyebrows curled.

“What does she mean by donating?”

“It’s a recipe she got from the Duke of Eldeer, and she doesn’t think it’s right to keep monopolizing it like her father did, so she is going to donate it to the temple.”

“What is the price?”

“She will not take it.”

“She won’t monopolize it but donate a recipe that would be enough to cover Mount Larashua with gold, just like that?”

“Yes. And, by any chance, if the temple tries to make a profit with the elixir, we will just release the recipe on the market.”

“Oh my goodness… Then she has no intention of making an elixir after donating? Is she going to entrust everything to the temple?”

“No, after donating to the temple, she wants to mass-produce elixirs.”

The woman’s eyes widened. She took a long gold-rimmed pipe and pondered something before opening her mouth abruptly.

“Father, how old did you say she was? 10 years old? 11 years old?”

“You don’t even know how old your nephew is?”

“Even my father didn’t know.”

The woman snorted and called her name with her fingers snapping.

“Poton!”

A man sitting in the corner politely bowed her back at her call.

“Yes, my lord. The Boss’s nephew is 8 years old this year.”

“8 years old? My God, Father, I want to raise her. Please give her to me.”

“What? What are you talking about all of a sudden?”

“I can’t leave a child with such qualities to a simple, ignorant human like my older brother! We should make such a child our heir. I’ll take good care of her, okay?”

The Archmage suddenly grabbed the back of his neck as he looked at the purple eyes that suddenly became bright.

“Rebecca Garcia.”

“Yes, Father.”

“What is your nephew’s name?”

“Ariadne Eldeer. Ah… She is the legitimate heir of Eldeer. An ordinary noble would ignore it, but it must be Eldeer. Damn, that’s too bad. Damn, damn!”

The woman called Rebecca spat out her swear words with genuine regret. She was Rebecca Garcia, the second daughter of the Archmage and Marquis of Weaver’s sister, as well as the owner of the Garcia Merchant.

The García family was originally a noble family of the Cretan Empire that operated a continental-scale upper house. Archmage Solan Garcia was Garcia’s collaborator, married the ancestor Marquis Weaver and settled in the Abyssal Kingdom. Then, as the great labyrinth appeared and the empire collapsed, the Garcia family’s direct lineage and territory disappeared altogether. The branches of the Garcia Merchant, spread across the entire continent, lost their heads and headquarters overnight. Embarrassed, they sought out Solan Garcia, the highest-ranking member of Garcia’s lineage who had remained outside the empire. However, the Great Wizard had no great interest in money or commerce, and he had no intention of taking on such a troublesome thing as a continental scale. It was his daughter, Rebecca, who stepped out then. She dropped Weaver’s surname and took her father’s surname to inherit the top as ‘Rebecca Garcia’. Then, she set herself up as a scarecrow, slayed those who would devour the guild, took control of all the branches scattered across the continent, and reorganized the guild by building her headquarters anew. 

Now, after so many years, Rebecca Garcia was the undisputed owner of the Garcia Merchant and one of the greatest men on the continent.

Rebecca took a long puff of smoke from her cigarette and said,

“It can’t be helped. If it’s Eldeer, I’ll have to give up trying to make her my successor. Still, I’ll do the distribution of the elixir. I cannot concede this.”

“Hey, why are you telling me that? I have no power to decide that.”

“Then who has the authority?”

“It’s Aria’s, so it’s up to her to decide.”