Chapter 23
Damian and Silveryn left for somewhere from early dawn.
Liria also woke up early and was preparing to go out.
The villagers had held her grandmother's funeral. So that day, Liria was planning to go to the village.
She needed to visit her grandmother's grave and pack her belongings from home.
She quickly became close with the maid Nana to the point where they were basically like sisters. Although Liria was also going to work as a maid in this mansion, Nana still took care of her like a guest.
Maid Nana helped Liria dress and combed her hair.
After returning from the village, she would officially start her maid duties.
Liria was still afraid of Silveryn.
When she confided this, Nana said there would be no problem as long as she diligently did her assigned tasks.
Her first impression of Damian, whom she was supposed to assist, was that he seemed a bit brusque but not bad.
When she asked Nana what kind of person Damian was, the hand combing her hair stopped in place.
Nana thought for a moment and said, "At first, I didn't realize, but the more I see him, the more impressive he is."
When Liria asked more questions about Damian, Nana poured out stories as if a dam had broken. Damian's personality, how he looked when he first started training, the story of him carrying her on his back. She looked like she had been waiting for someone to ask.
After hearing all the stories, Damian certainly didn't seem like a strange person, and Liria felt relieved.
After finishing her grooming, Liria asked Nana if she could go to the village with her, she refused, saying she had to pack lunch and go to the training ground.
Liria took a carriage to the village early in the morning.
When she asked a friendly neighbor about her grandmother's grave, she shook her head and handed over a small urn of ashes.
"We don't do burial funerals anymore since the ghouls appeared."
She offered words of comfort, saying that the village was still in the process of digging up all the graves and cremating them, and told her not to be too heartbroken.
Liria packed her study books, clothes, and grandmother's recipes from home and boarded the carriage, returning to Silveryn's mansion.
She left all of her grandmother's other belongings in that house, except for the recipes.
In the carriage, Liria held her grandmother's urn of ashes tightly.
Her eyes were red throughout the journey back, but when she arrived at the mansion and got off the carriage, she regained her composure.
By the time she returned from the village, the sun was setting.
At the mansion, the maids were busy preparing dinner.
Liria hurriedly organized her belongings to help with this.
Her task was to manufacture the potion for Damian to drink.
When she went to the manufacturing room, she saw a large iron pot with boiling water and, next to it, a maid about to dump a bunch of herbs into it.
Liria rushed over in alarm and stopped her, "I'll do it."
Potions tasted terrible if the herbs were thrown in carelessly without following the proper order.
Liria took the herbs and laid them out on the table.
Over a dozen herbs. Each one was so precious that its value was equivalent to Liria's monthly food expenses.
"Does Master Damian drink this once every few weeks?"
"He needs to drink it every day."
Upon hearing the answer, Liria momentarily felt a sense of despair about life, but she quickly pulled herself together.
Liria headed to Damian's room with the potion she had brewed in the correct order.
After gulping down the potion, Damian said with a puzzled face, "Something seems different?"
"Nothing's missing. I brewed it slowly according to the recipe. How does it taste?"
Damian stared at Liria with round eyes for a moment before saying in a bright tone, "It's much better. Please keep up the good work."
"Yes!"
Liria bowed her head slightly and smiled broadly.
She felt good about fulfilling her role for the first time.
When night fell, she began manufacturing potions in earnest with Damian in the production room.
Damian only asked Liria about things he didn't know and received assistance, but he tried to do most of the work by himself.
It was comfortable for Liria. Damian had a strong desire to learn and didn't easily forget what he was taught.
However, he showed quite a reckless side at times.
He would gulp down raw compounds without asking, then rush out the door to vomit. This was unimaginable to Liria.
Moreover, his combinations were completely chaotic. There were standard component ratios in alchemy, like formulas, but he attempted bizarre combinations that completely ignored these.
When Liria, after holding back, finally spoke up, saying that this combination was just wasting herbs, Damian calmly replied, "We still have to do it."
Damian never took his eyes off his notebook. He never showed it to Liria, no matter how curious she was.
A week passed like this. Liria gradually adapted to life in the mansion.
Damian and Silveryn went out early every morning and returned in the evening, and at night, she worked on potion production with Damian.
Damian was a man of few words and focused solely on his work, so they hadn't become very close yet.
As evening came, it got a bit chilly. When Liria tried to light a fire in the kitchen fireplace, the maids stopped her in alarm.
"You can't light a fire because it's a mailbox."
This mansion had some rules that were hard to understand at times.
Why is the fireplace a mailbox?
When she quietly watched while no one was around, a strange winged ball came and threw a letter into the fireplace before disappearing.
Liria picked up the new letter.
She ran to Nana with it and asked about it. After checking the Eternia seal, Nana told her to deliver it to Silveryn.
Liria was still afraid of Silveryn, but the letter seemed important, so someone had to deliver it. She gathered her courage and knocked on Silveryn's door.
"Come in."
Liria approached her and politely handed over the letter with both hands. Silveryn immediately opened and read it, then gestured for her to leave.
As Liria was about to bow and leave, Silveryn suddenly called her back.
She was still scared of every word Silveryn said.
"Wait, call Damian."
She tremblingly grabbed Damian's sleeve and brought him to Silveryn's room.
The two started a serious conversation.
Liria, nervous and mumbling, missed her chance to leave. Fortunately, neither of them paid any attention to her.
"They've arrived in Wiesel now. It's only a few days away."
"Yes."
"And a special guest will be coming too."
Liria's mind went blank, and she couldn't properly hear the conversation.
Words she couldn't understand were exchanged.
Masters Class, examiner, Magic Engineering scholar, wooden puppet?
That night, in the production room, Damian was lost in thought, stopping potion production and leaving Liria idle.
He mumbled the word "Magic Engineering scholar" to himself a few times before suddenly asking Liria, "Do you know how to make sweet snacks or something?"
Liria nodded her head vigorously up and down.
"Yes! My grandmother's recipe includes candy too."
Damian asked in a tone that didn't seem to expect much, "Can you make some for me?"
When Liria's grandmother became too old and frail to gather herbs, she used alchemy to make special candies to sell.
Her grandmother's candy was a specialty of Wiesel and a source of pride for Liria.
Liria immediately went to her room and brought her grandmother's recipe book. She also gathered a bunch of flowers from the herb storage.
After about an hour of work, she handed the finished product to Damian.
Inside a transparent bit-size sphere was a single flower petal.
Damian put the candy in his mouth and savored it quietly. Liria also put one in her mouth since she had made them.
A subtle sweetness spread on her tongue, and a fresh floral scent filled her nose.
It was a nostalgic taste she had forgotten for a while.
After a moment, Damian said, "Your grandmother was a genius."
Liria felt good as if she herself had been recognized.
"That's right. My grandmother was a real genius..."
Liria suddenly covered her face with both hands.
Unexpectedly, tears welled up as she suddenly thought of her grandmother.
"I'm so stupid again, I'm really sorry... I'm, I'm sorry..."
She hadn't wanted to show tears in front of Damian. She was afraid he would find her bothersome.
Damian was even more at a loss than Liria.
He comforted Liria while breaking out in a cold sweat.
Strangely, the more he tried to comfort her, the more tears flowed.
He sat Liria down in a chair, barely calmed her, and then said, "Wait a moment."
He left the production room and went somewhere, then came back with a box containing a black piece of metal and some tools.
"Stretch out your finger."
He wrapped a long piece of paper around Liria's right ring finger to check the circumference, then cut the metal piece to match.
"What was your grandmother's name?"
When Liria told him her grandmother's name, he immediately started hammering.
The process of heating the metal, rolling it into a circle, and hammering it again continued for about thirty minutes.
Damian finished his work and said, "Hold out your hand."
He placed the completed item on Liria's palm.
It was a ring. Liria examined the ring with a surprised expression.
It was entirely black, but when turned this way and that, sometimes a faint red glow could be seen. There were no special decorations or patterns, but even in its smoothly polished state, it looked very antique.
On the inside of the ring, where it touched the finger, her grandmother's initials were engraved. When held close to a candle, only the initials glowed red.
"Wow..."
"How is it?"
"It's really amazing."
"It's made of cloud iron."
"What's... cloud iron?"
"A fragment of a star."
A fragment of a star. Although she didn't know much about metals, it sounded special just from the name.
Seeing Liria's face brighten up as she focused on the ring, Damian said, "Liria, may I use your grandmother's candy recipe?"
She nodded her head vigorously again.
"You can just use it. My grandmother never cared about such things."
Her grandmother had shared her lifelong research recipes generously with the world. Because of that, they had to live in poverty, but Liria never resented her grandmother.
She put the ring on her right ring finger.
Liria really liked that ring.
Soon after, the potion production work began as if nothing had happened.
In between her work, she habitually stretched out her right hand and smiled contentedly while looking at the ring.
***
Two days passed after that. To Liria, everything seemed to be going smoothly without any problems.
But that night, when she encountered Damian in the production room, he was agonizing with his head bowed and both hands clutching his head.
He had made various compounds but had stopped the rest of the work.
From the conversation she had overheard before, he was facing some important test.
How important must this test be for someone who rarely showed emotion to display such a troubled appearance?
A bewildered Liria approached Damian and asked, "What's wrong?"
"...The evaluation is tomorrow, but it still hasn't arrived."
"What hasn't?"
He maintained silence for a while before opening his mouth.
"...The final ingredient."