Chapter 116

—All done! You can harvest it now!

Glasir’s voice rang out, bold and generous. A tree that gave without holding anything back.

I thanked him over and over—more than ten times—as I plucked the ninth fruit.

Unlike the others, which had all been oddly shaped and bizarre, the ninth fruit looked just like an ordinary apple.

‘Finally…!’

I stared at the fruit in my hands, overcome with emotion.

‘Just like I thought… that subtle red sheen.’

As always, I used my appraisal skill.

‘Ancient language…?’

No idea what it meant, so I’d skip that for now.

‘Grants happy dreams when consumed? That’s unusual.’

It would probably work well for someone plagued by nightmares every night.

‘Anyway… I can finally make the Elixir.’

A soft laugh slipped from me as I savored the moment—then Glasir’s distant, wistful voice drifted through the air.

—Muriel… I’m glad I could be of help to you, Purifier…. I must sleep again now…. Once I fall asleep this time, I likely won’t awaken for another hundred years. I hope we can meet again then!

My eyes flew wide open.

‘Sleep again…? For a hundred years?’

“G-Glasir! Wait!”

We’d barely just met! I wasn’t ready to part like this.

But his voice was already gone. He had fallen asleep without even giving me the chance to say a proper goodbye.

“Ah….”

A sigh escaped me before I could stop it.

‘So he sleeps once all the fruit is harvested….’

A hundred years…. It felt impossibly far away, but if I lived long enough, we might meet again someday.

‘Next time, I won’t harvest the fruit right away. I’ll wait.’

It pained me that we hadn’t been able to talk longer.

The once-glorious golden tree had already shrunk down to the size of a sapling. It seemed I’d have to raise it again a century from now.

Crouching beside the small sapling, I gently cupped one of its golden leaves in my hands and pressed a kiss to it.

‘Thank you, kind tree.’

After seeing Glasir off, I headed to the storage building with the two slaves.

More precisely, to the workshop attached to it.

‘The time has come.’

Time to craft the Elixir.

“Master~ What should Nini do?”

“Pour exactly two liters of water into the cauldron. See the mark I drew on the inside? Fill it right up to there.”

“I-I’ll try my best…!”

Apparently she didn’t have much confidence in producing exactly two liters.

Well, I could always adjust the water level myself.

“Muriel, what about me?”

“You….”

For him, of course, knife work was the obvious choice.

I flicked a glance at his firm forearm before answering.

“Wait a second.”

I pulled the Elixir ingredients from my inventory one by one and lined them up neatly on the workbench.

‘Blue Star Cluster Mushroom, Blue Star Cluster Lycoris….’

A crimson blossom from the Moonlight Magnolia Tree.

The ninth golden apple from Glasir.

The Savior’s final drop of blood….

And lastly, Dragon’s Tear.

‘Gathering all these ingredients was hard… actually, no. It wasn’t.’

Looking back, it was almost absurd how easily I’d obtained them. Ingredients worthy of a legendary panacea.

Still, seeing them all laid out like this filled me with a quiet pride.

I also took out the herb-preparation knife I’d recently bought from the Coin Shop and set it down.

‘And… where did I put the cutting board?’

As I glanced around, Lycian appeared at my side holding it.

“Looking for this?”

“Oh—yeah.”

I accepted the cutting board from him and placed it beside the knife on the workbench.

I arranged the scale, the flasks, the muddler—each in its proper place.

And finally, I unfurled the Elixir recipe across the empty space with a soft shrrk.

‘Just in case, I should read it one more time.’

I’d read it well over a hundred times already—enough to memorize every single letter.

But now that Glasir had fallen asleep, I only had one chance to make the Elixir.

If I failed, I’d have to wait a hundred years. And the quest….

At some point, a time limit had appeared on it.

‘No matter how much the goddesses favor me, I can’t just blindly relax.’

I read through the recipe carefully, step by step, and gave Lycian his instructions.

“Separate the caps and stems of the Blue Star Cluster Mushrooms. Finely dice the caps, and the stems… put them in an empty basket.”

“Yes, Master.”

The stems weren’t used in the Elixir. Still, if I set them aside, they’d probably be useful for something else.

‘Next….’

The Blue Star Cluster Lycoris didn’t need trimming—both stem and flower went in whole.

‘I need to bring the water in the cauldron to a rolling boil.’

I turned toward Ninabel.

“Nini, the water in the cauldron—”

But the dewdrop rice cake was tucked away in a far corner.

A sniffling voice reached my ears.

“I-I’m sorry, Master…. Nini is useless trash~! Waaah! A defective spirit! An idiot!”

‘Oh dear….’

The self-loathing was getting worse. At this rate, I’d have to praise her more often. Boost her self-esteem before it completely collapsed.

I deliberately softened my tone.

“It’s fine. Just do better next time. I’ll adjust the water myself.”

“M-Masterrr~!”

She was so easily moved by a single sentence. Honestly, she’d get scammed anywhere she went.

‘I guess I’ll just have to keep her with me for life….’

After adjusting the overflowing water Ninabel had poured into the cauldron, I lit the fire beneath it.

While waiting for it to boil, I placed the crimson magnolia blossoms on the scale and measured them precisely.

‘Good. Exactly 20 grams.’

Then I transferred them to the mortar and ground them finely.

Back when I first started grinding herbs, my arms would ache. But these days, maybe I’d built up some strength—because it didn’t feel tiring at all.

‘Heh…!’

I flexed slightly, admiring my forearm beneath my rolled-up sleeve.

For once, it looked like I actually had some muscle…!

“…What are you doing, Muriel?”

“…!”

I flinched at the voice beside me and quickly lowered my arm.

Then I resumed grinding as if nothing had happened.

“What? I wasn’t doing anything.”

“Were you just admiring your stick-like arms?”

“S-Stick-like?! I’ve built some muscle now, you know!”

I raised my arm again to prove it. Clenching my fist and flexing hard, a small but firm curve of muscle rose beneath my skin.

Lycian’s lips curved into a clear, unmistakable smirk.

“Muriel, that’s what we call survival muscle.”

“And how impressive are your muscles, then—!”

I shot back without thinking, then faltered.

Because Lycian’s muscles were, without a doubt, impressive….

“You saw them last night, didn’t you? Was that not enough? Want me to show you more?”

“That’s enough?! Just do your work!”

“I already did.”

“…!”

He wasn’t lying. The large pile of mushrooms had already been fully prepped.

‘As expected of a knife expert….’

He stood beside me, grinning in that infuriating way, but I swallowed my irritation and kept grinding.

Before long, the water in the cauldron came to a rolling boil. I quickly checked it with the thermometer—just about 100 degrees.

‘Good. The first ingredient to go in is….’

Blue Star Cluster Lycoris!

That part was simple—just nine whole blossoms.

I dropped them in one by one and stirred with a wooden ladle.

“Muriel, should I keep grinding this?”

“Huh? Oh—yes!”

I wasn’t an octopus with eight arms. At times like this, Lycian’s help was indispensable.

And he… was far better than me at anything that required physical effort. Annoyingly so.

After boiling the lycoris for ten minutes, I removed it and added the finely chopped mushrooms.

‘It’s like cooking.’

Potion-making and cooking might not be so different after all.

The water, once a pale blue from the lycoris, deepened steadily as the mushrooms dissolved into it.

I had to keep watching it carefully, boiling it until it turned a deep indigo.

Once it was done, I would extinguish the fire and remove every last bit of mushroom.

‘Whew, this really is complicated.’

You couldn’t just dump everything into a pot and expect a potion to pop out.

It required delicacy. Focus.

‘Now—!’

I quickly doused the flames and lifted a strainer, scooping out the mushroom remnants floating on the surface.

The liquid was now a rich, beautiful blue—like polished lapis lazuli.

‘…It looks like it would kill you if you drank it.’

It felt like I was brewing poison, but that was just my imagination.

I’d followed the recipe exactly.

It should be fine.

Probably….