Chapter 20
"Ah, Beryl-sensei. Hello."
"Hello, Fissel."
One day.
As usual, I was heading to the training grounds to take part in the Knights' training.
At the entrance to the Knights' headquarters, I happened to run into Fissel of the Mage Corps.
"You've got quite a load there..."
"Oh, this? A delivery for the Knights."
"A delivery?"
Fissel was dressed in her usual robe, but she had a sizable load in her hands and another on her back. They looked quite heavy, too.
"Potions. The Mage Corps supplies them to the Knights."
"Oh, potions."
With a grunt, she set down the load she was carrying in her hands. I heard bottles clinking as she lowered it, so the contents were clearly bottled.
Potions were widely used medicine for treating injuries.
If you drank one, it temporarily boosted your body's overall healing ability, and for severe wounds, you could pour one directly over them.
"So if the Mage Corps is supplying them, are they magic potions?"
"That's right. We have ordinary herbal ones too, though."
There were several kinds of potions.
Broadly speaking, there were three types: ones brewed from medicinal herbs, ones made by combining magic with herbal extracts, and ones refined using magic alone.
The farther down that list you went, the more effective—and correspondingly expensive—they became.
In Bidden Village, I'd only ever seen potions made from medicinal herbs. That's how rare magic-refined potions were. I'd only heard that such things existed; I'd never seen one myself.
A village apothecary could make potions from medicinal herbs, but once magic was involved, it was another matter. Naturally, you needed someone capable of using magic to make them, so the supply was limited and the price inevitably high.
As a swordsmanship instructor, I relied on potions quite a bit.
I was always getting little scrapes and cuts in my line of work, after all. The difference in how quickly wounds healed with and without potions was enormous.
Oh, right.
"Speaking of which, I met someone named Lucy the other day."
Speaking of the Mage Corps, there was Lucy, whom I'd suddenly ended up fighting the other day.
In the end, I still didn't know whether she really was the commander of the Mage Corps, but there was no doubt she was a mage.
If so, Fissel might know something about her.
"Commander Lucy?"
"Oh, so she really is the commander."
"Yeah."
It seemed Lucy really was the commander of the Mage Corps.
In that case, what I wanted to know next was about her appearance and the way she spoke. She looked genuinely about ten years old, but her demeanor and the magic she wielded made it hard to believe she was actually that age.
But if her claim that she was older than me was true, then she had to be over forty. Her appearance and her true age just didn't add up.
"She said she was older than me. Do you think that's really true?"
"Oh, well—"
"Lucy maintains her current appearance with magic."
Just as Fissel opened her mouth to explain,
another voice interrupted her.
"Oh, Allucia."
"Yes. Thank you for your work too, Fissel."
"It's part of the job..."
Allucia, who must have overheard our conversation partway through, approached as she joined in.
Fissel shrank back ever so slightly. That was kind of adorable in its own way.
"She maintains her appearance with magic... That's incredible."
"Yes. She has been the commander of the Mage Corps ever since before I became the knight commander, and her appearance hasn't changed at all. It's quite mysterious."
It seemed the information that Lucy was around my age or older wasn't wrong.
Hmm, magic really could do anything.
I had no talent for magic whatsoever, so I'd already given up on using it myself, but I still couldn't help feeling envious.
Between Fissel's Sword Magic and Lucy's rejuvenation? Or age preservation? The range of magic seemed astonishingly broad. Man, magic was amazing.
"By the way, Sensei, why did you meet Lucy? Did you go to the Mage Academy?"
"Ah, well, about that..."
It wasn't anything I needed to broadcast, but I could tell Allucia and Fissel.
I briefly told them how I'd met Lucy and how she'd suddenly challenged me to test my skills, with no small amount of exasperation. Allucia's eyes widened as she listened, while Fissel lowered her head a little, looking embarrassed.
"That does sound... very much like Lucy..."
"When you say 'like her,' is she always like that...?"
"Yes. She loves testing out magic..."
I couldn't help letting my shoulders slump.
How did she manage as commander of the Mage Corps? Though maybe she kept herself in check most of the time. When she and I fought, she seemed ready to lose patience at any moment.
"Beryl-sensei, I'm sorry. I was the one who told her about you."
"No, no, Fissel, you don't need to apologize."
If anyone was at fault, it was unquestionably Lucy, not Fissel.
"But how did you describe me to her?"
I wasn't trying to blame Fissel, but Lucy had grossly overestimated my strength before picking a fight with me. She'd said she'd heard about me from Fissel, so there was no doubt Fissel had told her I existed.
Still, I couldn't help wondering what exactly she'd told Lucy.
"...It's a secret."
"...Oh. I see."
If she'd said it was a secret, there was nothing I could do about it.
I had no way of pressing her further. A maiden's secrets must be guarded above all else. Not that I know.
"By the way, what brings you here, Allucia?"
"Yes. Lisandera said she had something to discuss with me."
"Surena?"
This was the entrance to the headquarters. There was no reason for the knight commander inside to come out during office hours.
When I asked why, for some reason Surena's name came up. Even a Black-Rank adventurer couldn't just stroll into the Knights' headquarters, so I figured they'd arranged to meet outside the gate.
"Citrus, sorry to keep you waiting... Oh, Sensei, you're here too."
As we made small talk, a familiar red-haired woman approached from across the street.
"Lisandera, what do you want? I'm not free, you know."
"Don't rush me. Besides, if Sensei's here too, this is perfect."
Maybe it was a habit, but Surena ran a hand through her prized red hair as she chided Allucia.
Wait, did she have something she wanted from me too?
"Well, I'll go deliver these potions."
"All right, Fissel. Be careful."
"Mm."
Fissel, who was in the middle of making a delivery for work, left us here.
Well, it'd be rude of me to distract her with small talk while she was working.
"So, what is it?"
With Fissel gone, it was just Allucia, Surena, and me.
It was an unbalanced group as ever, but I was glad there weren't many people around in front of the Knights' headquarters. Being with these two always drew painful stares from onlookers.
"Actually, the Adventurers' Guild would like to borrow you for a little while. I came to get permission, just in case. I also have a letter from the guildmaster."
"Why?"
Why though?
My retort was carried away by the wind blowing through Baltrain.