Master’s Smile

C89 – Where’s the Elixir?

“Fuuuh, as expected from someone who ran a dark guild for many years, we gained a fair amount of information, yes.”

Wiping her forehead, Sorglos had an air of accomplishment surrounding her.

While she was fiddling with Rousseld’s brain, I moved together with Lucille to a slightly further location.

I couldn’t let a kid see such a horrible scene.

Though, we could still hear Rousseld’s voice, which had been laughing like a madman, turning into a scream, which made Lucille’s face turn pale.

At such a place, Lucille and I were talking about the future.

About what to do with his guild.

Now that Apollo, Rieg, and Heroro were dead, Lucille and Lucica were the only two people left in their guild.

The two of them couldn’t fulfill the requirements to establish a guild.

I could keep them in Yelquchira, but Lucille refused that offer.

“I want to protect the guild even if they’re gone.”

I couldn’t try to coerce Lucille after he said something like that.

I was wondering if there was anything I could do to help him, when Krankheit suddenly made a suggestion.

She suggested that Ild, who was trapped inside her illusion magic, could join Lucille’s guild.

With his strong illusion magic, Lucille’s guild would increase the number of members and it would also be reassuring.

The question was whether Lucille would be able to accept it.

Of course, he was reluctant at first, but when he learned that Ild had had a negative opinion about Inicken’s activities through Krankheit’s magic, Lucille decided to accept him.

As for me, I was a little scared about letting someone from a dark guild near him, but Krankheit seemed to be doing a good job of manipulating Ild’s memory, so I didn’t have to worry about that.

With this result, we returned to Sorglos.

Krankheit, Schwarz and Vampir had already returned to the headquarters.

Vampir was protesting at first, but got dragged away by Schwarz right after.

“I never thought We’d come here looking for an elixir and end up like this… What a great turmoil….”

Lucille muttered with a somewhat distant look.

That’s right. I didn’t expect this to happen either.

I guess I can offer my help finding the natural elixir for the time being.

“Eh!? Are you sure!?”

Of course, since Sorglos and I had been hired until we ‘could’ find it.

Besides, Apollo told me to take care of you.

“Apollo….”

When Lucille was holding back his tears, Sorglos approached us.

“…Now that you mention it, we’ve found something that looks like an elixir, yes.”

“…Eeeeehh!?!”

She suddenly said something outrageous that Lucille felt his tears recede all at once.

I was surprised too as I hadn’t noticed it at all.

“(Well, we’ll give him the information for free this time, yes.)”

“Where!? Where did you find it!?”

“Oh, it was at-….”

Sorglos tried to answer Lucille’s question.

It was then that I felt a familiar presence approaching me.

“Master!!”

I looked over and saw a girl with fluffy green hair fluttering as she approached me with a wide smile.

That girl is Laladi, an Alraune who belongs to my guild.

To think that not only Vampir and the others, but Laladi would come too….

Today is a very good day….

I approached Laladi as she waddled towards me and hugged me in return.

“Afuuu, it’s been so long since I’ve had my share of Master…. Geez, it took me a long time to find you because that damn ninja kept hogging you all to herself….”

Laladi puffed strongly.

I see, so you missed me that much? I’m kind of happy about that.

“It has arrived, yes.”

Sorglos muttered.

Hmm? You mean Laladi?

“Yes, Laladi-dono has the natural elixir, you know?”

Sorglos told us the shocking truth in a matter-of-fact way as if it was nothing.

…Eeeeh…?

“EEEEEEEEEEEHHHH!?!”

“Wah!? W-What’s with the sudden shout, pipsqueak!?”

Lucille’s scream rang out.

It’s not surprising that he was shocked when hearing that a cute looking girl had the natural elixir.

…Rather, does Laladi have an elixir?

“Elixir, is it…? Yes, I have it in here.”

Laladi replied as if it was nothing.

She presented her head at me, revealing a large flower on top of her green hair.

“The nectar here is the elixir. It’s the one that Master always happily drinks.”

…EEEEEEEEEEEHHHH!?!

R-Really? That’s a shocking fact!

I mean, she would occasionally give me honey to drink, but was that the elixir?.

I’ve been gulping down a very rare and valuable thing…, without even knowing it.

I felt so bad for the people who needed it the most, meanwhile I was simply drinking it and in such a large amount even though I didn’t really need it.

Could it be that the reason I don’t look very old is because of Laladi’s elixir…?

…No, that’s not it. I was already like this before I met her.

“S-Sorry! I need a favor! Please listen to me!”

“Uwah! What’s wrong with you, pipsqueak? I’ll kill you!”

Lucille, who had recovered from being stunned, approached us with tremendous speed and knelt down.

Seeing this, Laladi glared at him while hugging me tightly.

…But you’re also not big enough to be able to call him pipsqueak, though.

“Can you share some of that elixir with me! My sister,… Lucica, needs it!”

Lucille begged with his head rubbing against the ground.

Laladi, on the other hand,….

“Haa? Of course I don’t want to! I refuse.”

She looked down at Lucille with a horribly cold gaze and rejected him immediately.

…Yeah, I kind of expected that.

“Please! I know that it’s a rare thing!”

“Aaan? Why do Lala have to give her body fluid to your sister? I aaaabsolutely hate it! I had decided to give them only to Master.”

Lucille begged once again, but Laladi still wouldn’t nod her head.

Hmmm,… I couldn’t strongly argue with her.

I’ve had the pleasure of drinking her nectar in a flower garden before meeting Yuuto, Maho and the others, and she seemed to be in a lot of pain when I drank it.

It’s true that I’m worried about Lucica and want to help her, but if that’s what it takes to make our guild member… Laladi suffers, then….

But this time, there were a lot of things where I could sympathize with Lucille and the others.

So I’m sorry, but if it’s okay with Laladi, could you please give Lucille the elixir, even if it’s just a few drops?

“Eh…? Hmmm… I’ll have to think about it first if Master says so….”

Laladi began to think seriously after I gave my words.

Lucille gulped and waited for her decision.

She pondered for a while, but then clapped her hands together.

“Ah, now that I think about it, I’ve saved some of the low-ranked elixir that I wasn’t going to give to Master. If you’re okay with that, you can have it….”

“R-Really!? I-I don’t mind! Please give it to me!!”

Lucille slipped closer and pleaded with her.

When seeing that, Laladi hugged me as if she was seeing something gross.

…Hey, are you fine showing your face like that? It looks very terrible, you know?

“Sigh…can’t be helped.”

Saying so, Laladi used her ability to summon a flower from the ground.

The petals opened to reveal a small vial of shiny liquid inside.

“Here, take it.”

“Y-Yeah!! Thank you! Thank you so much!!”

Lucille took the vial from the flower with great care.

Thank you, Laladi, for doing me a favor.

“It’s Master’s request, so obviously I would listen! Besides, it’s just a failed elixir, so I don’t really care.”

Laladi said so as she rubbed her crest on her cheek against mine.

F-Failed? Will it be effective?

“I’m sure it would be fine, yes. Even if Laladi-dono says it’s a failure, it still has a much better effect than artificial elixirs.”

It was Sorglos who answered my question.

Heeee, so there are successes and failures in natural elixirs, huh?

“The nectar that Lala produced with Master in mind has more potencies mixed in than the usual ones. It can make your skin smooth as well as mark you as Lala’s….”

Are you a housewife?

Though, let’s not say that as it would make Laladi become even more confident to tell me all the potencies instead.

“Thank you so much! Now I can finally help Lucica…!”

Lucille thanked us while crying.

Well, that was for Laladi, I think. I didn’t do anything.

Now then, I guess I’ll just help bury Apollo and the others and go back to the guild.

Would you mind if I at least do that?

“Yeah! I’m sure they’d be happy to have Master do it for them.”

Lucille replied with a nod immediately.

“…You can go back now, Laladi-dono. You’ve done your job, yes.”

“Too bad, Lala and Master have merged, so we can’t be separated. Rather, it’s fine for you to return to the guild instead.”

“Haa? We have to pray to Apollo-dono and the others for their peace first, yes.”

“Liar. Quite bold of you to say that even though you don’t think anything of it.”

…Sorglos and Laladi too, let’s not start a fight now.

Thus, our search for the elixir finally came to an end.