I'm an alchemist. I've dumped self-restraint into the trash - Chapter 12

In this world, a monster’s rank was determined by its strength. The classification system was similar to that of adventurers, so the highest rank was SS and the lowest was F.

When their rank reached S or higher, they were designated as National Threat Rank, Disaster Rank, or one of the various other categories. Dragons were said to be the strongest of all monsters, as even the weakest one had S-rank strength.

Their strength was so great that it was said that an SS ranked dragon had once annihilated an entire nation.

And currently… two girls were confronting a dragon.

The sword-wielding red-haired girl, Laffy, and the white-haired girl holding a wooden staff with a green gem embedded in it, Sylvia.

The two were attentively staring at the gigantic creature within the lake – a water dragon. If one were to rank it, it would be S as it possessed strength capable of easily crushing a whole city.

Even standing before a creature such as this, Laffy and Sylvia did not hesitate. After all, they were adventurers that were likewise designated as S-rank.

“…Here it comes.”

“Yeah.”

At the same time that Laffy sounded the warning, the water dragon opened its mouth wide and inhaled. It was about to fire the powerful spell that all dragons possessed – Breath.

“Rooooaaar!!” the water dragon’s distinctive roar echoed, and it shot thick beams of water through the air. Faced with an attack that would be impossible to resist if it hit directly, Laffy did not move. Instead, Sylvia faced the Breath attack and readied her staff.

“Blast Range.”

A howling wind caught the Breath attack and killed its momentum before it could even reach Laffy and Slyvia. In that moment, Laffy began running towards the dragon.

“Physical Enchant.” 

Slyvia cast a spell to improve Laffy’s physical ability as Laffy reached the lake.

The water dragon nimbly wielded its sharp claws in an attempt to get rid of the humans below. But even when the attack caused a considerably strong shockwave, Laffy did not falter.

Having just barely avoided the claws’ horizontal swing, she immediately swung her sword. The precise attack wounded the dragon’s arm, though not fatally.

“Too shallow, huh…”

Laffy fixed her sword stance once more and glared at the dragon. Then, she launched herself into the air.

She came face to face with the dragon in an instant, but being in the air, there was no escape. The dragon mercilessly fired its Breath at Laffy, whose appearance had become that of a target flying towards it.

“Spell Sever.”

However, Laffy calmly looked at the approaching Breath attack and called out chopping it head-on.

Perhaps surprised by this move which seemed impossible for a human, the water dragon stiffened slightly. Not overlooking this chance, Laffy pierced her sword into the dragon’s neck.

Its effect was powerful.

Squirming in pain, the dragon began to struggle. Laffy calmly extracted her sword and landed back on the ground.

Silvia, watching the situation from the rear, swiftly pointed her staff at the writhing dragon.

“Dust Diment.” 

She cast, and two tornadoes were formed on either side of the dragon, as if trapping it. While the raging dragon was immobilized by the tornadoes, it was minced by a sharp blade.

Yet, it did not fall.

The moment the tornadoes disappeared, the water dragon forced its tattered body to move and fired its third Breath attack, the most powerful one thus far.

It was then that the dragon realized.

The red-haired human had disappeared from view.

“Break.”

By the time her voice reached the dragon’s ears, it was already too late. The blade was lodged deep into the dragon’s neck as she swung down into it.

Blood splattering, the dragon’s head fell.

Landing on the ground, Laffy wiped the gore off and sheathed her sword. There wasn’t a single wound on her body.

“Great work, Nee-san.”

“Yeah, you too, Sylvia. Does your body feel alright?”

“Yup, even when I used magic, my condition didn’t really worsen.”

“Really? That’s good, then.”

This dragon subjugation was Sylvia’s first big request since recovering from her illness. Laffy had been worried that Syliva’s physical condition would worsen again, but it seemed that she ended up worrying needlessly.

“Well, the request is all taken care of, so let’s go home for today.”

“Yeah.”

After collecting materials from the water dragon, the two headed home.

***

Outside the window, there was the peaceful sound of a tiny bird chirping in the distance. A soft ray of sunlight emerged in through a crack in the curtains and gently illuminated the room.

On this morning that seemed to perfectly represent tranquility, Raith enjoyed the comfort of his bed. He almost wanted to go back to sleep, but if he did that, it would be past noon the next time he woke up, so with some effort, he refrained.

“I can finally relax for the whole day…”

Yesterday, Raith finally managed to clear that mountain of requests. He couldn’t help but savor such a blissful moment in this uneventful morning.

Raith got out of bed and got ready to move out. As he did so, he opened his bag and checked its contents, the state of which was slightly more worrisome than before.

The kiukra grass was used up and there were few spare bottles remaining. Fortunately, thanks to the elixir-related requests, he had plenty of funds, if nothing else, so for the time being, he didn’t have to worry about not having enough to live off of.

“I guess today I can at least buy the ingredients that are for sale.”

Kiukra grass was a valuable herb, so it rarely circulated in the marketplace. Therefore, Raith decided to collect only the easily obtainable ingredients for now.

“Alright.”

Hanging the bag over his shoulder, he exited the inn.

“Come to think of it, where do I shop…? Guess I’ll head to Daisy’s place.”

He decided that Daisy’s shop was where he would buy the ingredients. This might have actually been the first time he went out for something other than a request.

While somewhat looking forward to seeing what Daisy was like on a normal day, Raith walked until he spotted people he recognized.

“Heeey, Laffy, Sylvia!” he called out to them as he approached. The two noticed Raith and stopped walking.

“Morning, Raith.”

“Good morning.”

“Yeah, morning. So Sylvia can walk around now, huh?”

“Yes, thanks to you, Raith-san,” Sylvia said with a joyful smile. While Raith felt shy about that lovely smile, his gaze was drawn to the staff in her hand.

“What’s that?”

“Ahh, this is a staff for amplifying the effect of spells. After all, I am an adventurer, more or less.”

“Wow, you’re one too, Sylvia?”

If she used magic, then that probably meant she fought. She had such a quiet personality that it was a bit of a surprise.

“How high is your rank?”

By the way, the elixir-related requests had raised Raith’s rank all the way up to D. He would need to subdue monsters in order to raise it any more than this, so this rank was Raith’s limit.

Sylvia waited a bit before answering, “It’s S.”

“…S?”

“Yes,” Sylvia said, her voice almost like the sound of a bell, as Raith doubted his ears. S-rank was the highest rank an adventurer could reach. It wasn’t something that could be achieved that easily, especially considering that Sylvia was only 15.

“…You’re actually amazing, huh?”

“That’s coming from you…?” Laffy muttered, as if exasperated by Raith’s surprised reaction. It appeared that, at the end of the day, they were pretty similar.

“That was an amazing thing to hear first thing in the morning… Since you have your staff ready, does that mean you two are going out for a request now?”

“No, we finished one just now.”

“Really? What kind of request was it?”

“Subduing a water dragon.”

“…Laffy, you say a lot of stuff about me all the time, but you do similar things yourself,” Raith said, and as if unable to deny it, Laffy made a bitter expression. Raith had once seen his teacher defeat a dragon. With that memory in mind, subduing a dragon with just the two of them was plenty strange.

In a rare occurrence, their usual positions were reversed, and Sylvia blinked in surprise.

“W- well, moving on… Naturally, we’re tired, so we’re going to head home soon,” Laffy said, as if to dodge the issue, but there were certainly some signs of fatigue on her face.

“Alright. Sorry to hold you up.”

Keeping the conversation within reason, they parted ways.

“I should get going, too, to Daisy’s place.”