I'm an alchemist. I've dumped self-restraint into the trash - Chapter 10
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- I'm an alchemist. I've dumped self-restraint into the trash
- Chapter 10 - The Hardships of an Alchemist
The day after Raith saved the girl.
“Thank you so much for helping us!”
“R- right, don’t worry about it too much…”
Raith was taken aback by the simultaneous gratitude of the boy and the rescued girl at the Adventurer’s Guild. The situation yesterday had been a race against time, so Raith had also been frantic.
“Um, about the price of the potions that were used to heal me…” the girl inquired uneasily. Raith looked at her and smirked.
An elixir was used, so putting a price on it was no small amount. That said, he didn’t think these two could possibly afford such a large sum of money at their age.
“That’s something I decided to do on my own, so I don’t really need anything.”
“But, then…” the girl said half-heartedly. Though she had an expression that seemed like relief, perhaps she felt guilty about being unable to repay him in any way.
“Let’s see… Then, how about helping me out when I’m in trouble or something?”
“…Alright, thank you so much!”
The two deeply bowed their heads in a way that was truly befitting of the words “whole-hearted devotion”. After watching the boy and the girl as they took their leave, Raith let out a sigh.
Life isn’t always that easy, you could say. As such, Raith currently had a big issue. Maybe one as big as when he lost most of his money, or even bigger.
“To be accurate, I’m having an issue, but, well, this is my problem, anyhow…”
Raith’s problem started yesterday, when he rushed to the girl’s rescue.
Yesterday, Raith had used an elixir and his alchemy when all eyes were fixated on him. And on top of that, the first time he visited the Adventurer’s Guild, he’d taken elixirs out in front of a bunch of adventurers.
Just by looking at it, all they could infer was that he owned a blue potion, but yesterday, he’d happened to use one. A large number of people had watched as the wound on the girl’s back closed, so he couldn’t make any excuses anymore.
And what was the result of this?
“A mountain of nomination requests, huh…”
When Raith came to take a look at the Adventurer’s Guild today, a large amount of nomination requests had piled up. The memory of Amelia, handing them over with an incredibly complicated expression was still etched into his mind.
It wasn’t surprising, since pretty much all of the requests were for either the creation or purchase of an elixir.
It was true that Raith could make an elixir. He even could do it devastatingly fast compared to other alchemists.
However, even with that being the case, whether he could mass produce them was a whole different story.
Even counting only the requests he’d received just now, they easily exceeded 30. To prepare that many elixirs, the amount of kiukra grass and other ingredients that he had on hand was overwhelmingly insufficient. On top of that, even if he did manage to prepare a few, he would probably just end up getting even more requests soon after.
The situation seemed to be stuck in a stalemate. If he could at least get his hands on some more ingredients, it would be a different story, though.
Raith would also have wanted to make elixirs for all of them if he could. However, since that was currently impossible, all he could do was think of his next move.
“…Nothing else I can do about it. For now, I’ll pick out only the requests that seem highly urgent.”
The ones he should be giving priority to were people with serious illnesses and heavy wounds.
Raith worked his way through the mountain of request forms by himself, confirming their contents.
Lately, Laffy had been looking after Sylvia, so he couldn’t ask her for help. Raith wasn’t tactless enough to get in the way of her hard-earned time with her sister. That being said, he couldn’t ask Daisy, either.
She was already diligently working to master alchemy, so he couldn’t burden her even more. Daisy also had the important job of managing the store.
Just this once, Raith would have to deal with this through his own efforts.
Raith sighed. “…Guess I’ll keep at it.”
He was feeling down, and his head was starting to hurt. Even so, Raith began working, doing all he could.
***
“…I’m tired,” Raith said with a deep sigh, completely exhausted.
Holding several forms, each containing written proof of a request’s completion, it was clear that he had completed several requests today alone.
He’d come up with a way to use as few elixirs as possible for the requests. If it looked like he could resolve it with the ingredients he had on hand and potions other than elixirs, he took the initiative and did so. Thanks to that, he had more elixirs left than he’d expected.
In addition, Raith had decided not to sell elixirs to anyone who wasn’t sick or wounded. A portion of the designation requests had been from nobles and rich people who collected it as a hobby.
If things kept going this well, it might be possible to complete all of the remaining requests.
That said, maybe he should go back to his abandoned house sometime soon. There were some ingredients over there left over from his harvesting hell tour with his teacher, and some other ingredients that didn’t seem to be circulating in the marketplace.
“But in that case, I can’t go alone, can I…”
He’d abandoned his house and come to the capital because monsters had appeared. The danger was far too high for Raith, who couldn’t fight, to go back there by himself.
“What do I do…?”
Perhaps because of the exhaustion, as Raith half-absentmindedly continued walking to the guild–
“Ng?!”
Suddenly, his body crashed. When he came to, he had collapsed on the ground.
For a little while, Raith was in a daze, not knowing what had happened, but then, he suddenly realized that something that should have been there was missing.
“My bag…!”
The bag that the ingredients and potions were in was gone.
Surveying his surroundings in a panic, he saw a man running away carrying a familiar-looking bag.
…It had been stolen.
The moment Raith realized that, he began running with all his strength.
He couldn’t go losing that bag now. He was short on elixirs and ingredients as it was.
“Hey, waaaaait!!!” Raith shouted so loud it almost felt like his throat would burst.
He’d finally found a way to complete requests without any issues.
He ran, whipping his tired body into action, but the distance between him and the thief wasn’t shrinking.
What’s more, the thief was carrying a knife and threatening the people around him. An adventurer might have been able to stop him, but perhaps you could call it bad luck that the only ones around were honest, everyday citizens.
Just then, a single girl stood in the thief’s way.
“Outta the way!!”
Perhaps thinking that Raith would catch up with him if he went around the girl, the thief approached her with his knife at the ready.
However, the girl didn’t move an inch.
“Shit!!”
Almost desperate, the thief thrust the knife.
The girl avoided it with minimal movement and snatched Raith’s bag from him.
Then, she immediately hit him with a beautiful kick.
The thief was theatrically sent flying through the air and hit his head as he landed, losing consciousness.
As a round of applause resounded from the surroundings, Raith finally caught up with the thief.
“Here, Raith, I got your back back.”
“S… sorry… Thanks, Laffy…” Raith breathed heavily as he thanked the girl in front of him, Laffy.
At first glance, she gave the impression of a dignified and beautiful girl, but that she also had the agility you’d expect of an S-rank adventurer, the title definitely wasn’t just for show, to say the least.
The contents of the bag weren’t particularly damaged, so Raith let out a sigh of relief.
“To have such an important bag taken from you… Were you spacing out?”
“Sorry, I’m pretty tired today, so…”
Laffy didn’t know Raith’s current situation. Raith intentionally avoided mentioning specifics and provided her with an appropriate excuse.
“I’m glad I happened to be here, but… Be more careful next time, okay?”
“Yeah, you really saved me.”
Glancing back at the guards who had come running to take the thief away, Laffy took her leave. Judging by the fact that she was carrying a bag full of food, she was probably out shopping.
“…Alright, then. Guess I’ll hang in there a little bit longer.”
Raith held the request forms in a tight grip and started walking back to the guild once more.