I'm an alchemist. I've dumped self-restraint into the trash - Chapter 14

The veil of night descended and the surroundings were wrapped in darkness. As the temperature started to drop, a sigh turned white and dissipated the instant it made contact with the air.

Two shadows could be sensed moving in the darkness. They were Laffy and Sylvia. Currently, the two had accepted a request and were departing from the capital.

Their destination was still a bit further away, but it was quite dangerous to move in the darkness any further.

Laffy, having judged this, stopped then and there.

“Let’s rest here today.”

“Yeah, we should.”

They started setting up their camp skillfully. They unpacked the tent, started a fire, and took out ingredients prepared for dinner.

Laffy was in charge of most of the cooking, and Sylvia always helped her out. Today, it was stew.

Slicing the cooked chicken and adding vegetables along with the seasoning as needed, she put it all in the pot and let it simmer. Some time later, Laffy removed the lid, distributed it into bowls, and handed one to Sylvia.

“Thanks.”

“Mm-hmm. Let’s eat before it gets cold.”

On cold days, warming the body came first. The two silently continued eating.

“Come to think of it, I wonder where Raith-san came from?” Sylvia suddenly asked.

“Raith, huh… I don’t know, either.”

Laffy had heard that he’d been driven out of the place he’d been living, but she didn’t know where that was. But even so, since he’d come to the capital, he had surely lived in the vicinity.

“Was he living alone?”

“He said he had a teacher, so he probably wasn’t alone the whole time, but… Is something wrong?”

“No, I was just thinking, Raith-san is an amazing person, so I wonder why he came here now.”

He was like Sylvia in the sense that they were both overflowing with talent, but in different directions. For Sylvia, it was in the field of magic, and for Raith, the field of alchemy. The fact that they were both unknowingly experts in their own field was enough to catch her interest.

“Well, I’m definitely curious…”

What had transpired in Raith’s past? They hadn’t discussed it in detail, which made it a point of curiosity. Although, Raith himself wanted to erase his alchemy training days from his memory.

“Even so, there’s plenty of things we haven’t told Raith, either.”

“I guess you’re right,” Sylvia responded with a bitter smile.

The biggest thing Laffy and Sylvia hadn’t informed Raith about was the fact that they weren’t sisters. It was obvious if you looked at their appearances, but their blood relation could be said to be nonexistent.

“I wonder if he’d be surprised if we told him we’re not real sisters?”

“He’d be more surprised to hear that your personality used to be completely different than how it is now, don’t you think?” Laffy said jokingly, breaking out into a smile. In response, Sylvia looked at Laffy with eyes like those of a child who had just been teased.

“I was going through a lot back then!”

“Yes, I know.”

Seeing Sylvia puffing her cheeks, Laffy stifled her laughter.

There was a reason that these two who were not real sisters were living together.

The two of them had met mostly by accident.

When Laffy hadn’t yet become an S-rank adventurer, they’d met in a place where she had come for a request.

The request she had accepted at the time was to subdue a group of goblins that had built their den in a forest. In the middle of this, Sylvia was being abducted by goblins and Laffy had protected her.

Though it was good that Sylvia had been safely rescued, a problem had then arisen. Sylvia’s memories had been missing.

She could only remember her own name. Everything else was unknown, even things like her father’s name and where she was from. In a state like that, Sylvia couldn’t have had any relatives.

Unable to abandon Sylvia, Laffy had taken her in, thus leading to the present. They had tried searching for her parents and relatives, but the results were unsatisfactory.

“You know, I’ve always been grateful to you for taking me in.”

“Well, I was the one who saved you, and it’s not like I couldn’t afford it.”

Putting her in an orphanage would probably be the normal thing to do, but Laffy hadn’t done that. Since her achievements as an adventurer had been quickly growing, so for her, supporting one more person didn’t cause problems for her livelihood. 

“You’ve been taking care of me all this time, huh.”

“Yes, well, I am your older sister, even if only by adoption, so you can rely on me anytime.”

“That’s why I’d like to do something for you, too, once in a while,” Sylvia muttered, pouting. “Is there anything you want, or something you want to do?”

“Hmm… Nothing in particular, I think…”

“Rrrgh… What an unselfish sister,” Sylvia said with an anxious sigh, slumping her shoulders. Laffy, as if she hadn’t noticed that her sister was in this state, put her hand on her chin and thought for a bit.

“…Let’s see… Then, cook something for me next time.”

“Something like that is enough?”

“Yeah.”

Laffy was generally in charge of cooking, but that didn’t mean that Sylvia couldn’t cook.

As a desire, it was something trivial, but to Laffy, it was plenty.

“Alright, then I’ll make you something after we finish this request.”

Sylvia clenched her fist with her expression full of motivation. Laffy smiled wryly at this drive, the level of which made it difficult to believe that it was only for cooking.

Although, it made her happy to imagine that it was so important to Sylvia that it filled her with this much motivation.

“Ah, if you have any special requests, I’ll take them!”

“Then, I’ll think about it during this request.”

Laffy didn’t think Sylvia would know how to make that many types of dishes, but she had proclaimed it full of confidence.

Seeing her little sister acting this cute put Laffy in a serene mood.

“…Well then, we should clean up soon, huh?”

“Yeah, you’re right.”

While they were talking, the pot had been emptied.

Having finished eating dinner, they started cleaning up the pot, bowls, and other things they had used.

“So, could you wash them like usual?”

“Uh-huh.”

Sylvia always cleaned their used tableware by creating water with magic.

Just as she was told, Sylvia used her magic, and–

“…Huh?”

She fell to the ground with a thud.

Even Sylvia herself didn’t understand what had happened.

“Sylvia?!”

Having quickly sensed that something was wrong, Laffy rushed over to the collapsed Sylvia.

“What’s wrong?!”

“I… can’t move.”

No matter how much strength she put into her limbs, they didn’t even twitch. And Sylvia had already experienced similar symptoms once before.

However, that condition should have already been completely healed with the help of a good-natured alchemist.

“But why…?!”

Until now, Sylvia’s physical condition was definitely healthy. But the moment she had tried to use magic, she had become unable to move her body.

Laffy grinded her teeth in confusion.

However, from Sylvia’s pained expression, the one thing she understood was that it was bad to leave things like this.

“Sylvia, the request is postponed! We’re going back to the capital!”

Taking only the bare necessities, Laffy carried Sylvia on her back. Since Sylvia couldn’t move, Laffy had no choice but to bring her back to the capital through her own strength.

“Please, Raith…!” Laffy unwittingly muttered the reliable alchemist’s name as she started running down the road towards the capital.