I'm an alchemist. I've dumped self-restraint into the trash - Chapter 15

“Good work today.”

“Thank you,” Raith, sounding exhausted, expressed his gratitude for Amelia’s words of appreciation. He had accepted a request from Daisy today.

Daisy was improving little by little, and her potion making skill was getting better by the day. If she continued working hard without neglecting her studies, she would surely be able to produce an elixir.

As her teacher, Raith definitely wanted her to keep working at it.

“Alright, the job’s done, so maybe I’ll get something to eat today.”

Nothing tasted better than a meal eaten with money he had worked hard for and earned himself. Back when he first arrived in the capital, Laffy helped him when he was broke and it was a pretty miserable feeling.

“Oh, right, Raith-san,” Amelia called out to Raith while he was humming and thinking about the upcoming meal, dragging him back to reality.

“Yeah, what is it?”

“Laffy-san was looking for you earlier, have you seen her?”

“Laffy? No, I haven’t…”

“I guess you missed each other. It seemed urgent, though…”

“I see.”

Raith wondered if it was because of something he’d done, but nothing came to his mind. A lecture about the elixir designation requests seemed likely.

After all, back then, he had been struggling alone, without saying anything to Laffy.

“By the way, where’s Laffy right now?”

“I gave her a map to the request’s location, so she’s probably there.”

“Daisy’s place? …Then I’ll probably be more likely to see her if I wait here, instead of running around recklessly.”

Right after Raith said this, the Guild’s door opened. The one who entered was the current topic of conversation, Laffy.

“Ah, Laffy. What did you need me for?”

“Sorry, Raith! I’ll explain later, come with me!”

Raith waved, pointing himself out to her, and all of a sudden, Laffy grabbed that arm.

“Huh? Wha-wooooah?!”

 Amelia, whose face was frozen in surprise, disappeared from Raith’s view in an instant. Feeling deja vu from being dragged away from the Guild at a terrifying speed, Raith peeked at Laffy’s face.

Amelia had said it seemed urgent, and sure enough, she looked panicked. Raith didn’t know where they were headed, but he could tell that she probably wouldn’t listen to him until they arrived.

Without resisting, Raith continued being pulled forward. But frankly, to Raith, who had the physical ability of an average person, Laffy’s standard movement speed was too demanding.

Feeling as if his organs were churning, he continued enduring until–

“…Your house?”

When Laffy’s legs stopped moving, they were in front of her house. Without an ounce of understanding about what she wanted from him, Raith turned to her with a puzzled look.

“I think it’ll be easier to understand if I show you. Come with me.”

Saying nothing else, Laffy entered the house without explanation. With this atmosphere that left no room for refusal, Raith could only follow.

They climbed the stairs to the second floor of the house, and Laffy entered a certain room.

“What’s in… Wait, Sylvia?”

The first thing he saw upon entering the room was Sylvia lying in bed, sleeping. Other than that, it felt like a typical bedroom, with nothing else of note.

“Take a look at this.”

Laffy led Raith by the hand and approached the sleeping Sylvia. Then, she rolled Sylvia’s sleeve up until her upper arm was visible.

On Sylvia’s exposed skin, there were several blue flecks.

“These are…”

“Yesterday, when Sylvia tried to use magic in the middle of a request, she suddenly collapsed. On top of that, she hasn’t been able to move her body at all since then.”

“She can’t move…?”

“Yeah. There was nothing I could do about it, so I carried her and desperately ran back to the capital.”

Now Raith could guess why he was brought here.

“I see, so you want me to examine her.”

“Yeah. Can I count on you?”

“Of course.”

He had no reason to refuse. Having readily agreed, Raith immediately used Analyze on Sylvia.

Analyze was originally an alchemical skill for examining the composition of herbs and ore, but those who had achieved standard proficiency could also use it to understand someone’s physical condition to a certain extent.

“This is… The flow of her magic is becoming slower…?”

Feeling a sense of discomfort at the flow of the magic, he carefully observed the parts that felt abnormal. As he did so, he found that magic didn’t circulate well in the places with flecks on them.

“This might be…!”

The name of a disease surfaced in Raith’s mind. Concentrating his Analyze skill on the places with flecks turned his suspicion to certainty.

“I knew it, it is!”

Raith had seen the magic solidifying into clots. Those clots became obstacles that prevented magic from circulating smoothly.

“The cause of Sylvia being unable to move is Magic Crystallization Syndrome.”

“Magic Crystallization Syndrome?”

Laffy was bewildered by the name of a disease she’d never even heard of. People with Magic Crystallization Syndrome were rare, after all. This was the first time Raith had seen it in person as well.

“Magic Crystallization Syndrome is a disease that causes magic to gradually crystallize and immobilize the body. It starts with things like numbness in the hands, so the onset is difficult to notice, and it’s common for the disease to have worsened by the time it’s detected.”

It was one of the dangerous illnesses that Raith’s teacher had taught him about.

“But why does Sylvia have a disease like this…?!”

“…Most likely, Sylvia’s had Magic Crystallization Syndrome since before I met her, and the elixir temporarily made it look like she got better. But it wasn’t cured, it only slowed the disease’s progression.”

Elixirs were called an all-purpose miracle cures, but in actuality, diseases that it couldn’t cure certainly existed, though they were few in number.

Raith regretted that he hadn’t noticed Sylvia’s condition.

“What’ll happen to Sylvia if she stays like this…?”

“The crystallization will reach her heart, and she’ll die.”

Currently, the disease had reached Sylvia’s limbs. It wouldn’t take much time for the crystallization to reach her heart.

…But Raith was here.

“It’s alright, I can make a potion that’s effective against Magic Crystallization. Leave it to me!” Raith reassured Laffy with a smile.

“You- you can?! In that case…” Laffy said with an expression of relief. However, there was one problem.

“I don’t have enough ingredients, though.”

Because of how rare of a disease Magic Crystallization was, the ingredients required to make the potion needed to cure it were also difficult to obtain. Raith didn’t have them on hand right now, and he had never seen them being sold in the capital.

However, Raith knew of a single place in the vicinity where the ingredients could be found.

“Laffy, could you come with me to my house? The ingredients I need to make the potion should be there.”

There would be various types of ingredients left there, in the house Raith had abandoned. Of course, that included the ingredients that would save Sylvia.

“Yeah, of course! It’s to save my sister, so I should be the one asking you.”

“Alright, then since it’s already gotten late, let’s leave early tomorrow morning. Get ready until then.”

The vicinity of Raith’s house was infested with monsters. Even accompanied by Laffy, an S-rank adventurer, he couldn’t let his guard down.

“Well, I’ll leave for today. I want to prepare, too.”

“Alright. Sorry, and thanks for everything, Raith.

“Don’t worry about it,” Raith said, smiling, and headed to the inn in order to prepare.