Char and I came to Sambabano in Lebon Town.
It was cloudy outside, but the inside was even darker, and the faces of the witches in the light of the lamps were shaking like phantoms.
“Welcome……”
Sumoma reflexively spoke in an unfriendly voice, but quickly changed her attitude.
“Oh my~, Charlotte-sama, welcome.”
The tone of her voice rises an octave. Bigma and Midoma immediately stood up from their seats and welcomed us as well.
“Please come up, I will brew herbal tea for you right away.”
The witches who worship dragons can’t get their heads around the little Char. And since I am Char’s godfather (in a sense), they are also kind to me.
“Char would rather have milk with honey than herbal tea.”
“Hey, don’t be selfish.”
I chided Char, but Bigma yelled at the other two in the back.
“Bring Charlotte-sama milk with honey. Hurry up!”
After exchanging greetings and settling down, I directly get to point and told her what I wanted.
“I would like you to buy my items today as well.”
I arranged the products I brought on the appraisal table.
“Hmmm, the silver coins of the Maborn Empire, strawberry stones and this is….…”
Bigma carefully lifted the pepper bomb I had made.
“It’s a pepper bomb made by improving the Magic Bomb.”
“Did you make this?”
“The basics of how to make it were taught to me by an alchemist, Nowald-sensei. That is what my improved version is like.”
Midoma’s eyes widened when I mentioned Nowald-sensei’s name.
“W-wait a minute, you are not talking about the wandering alchemist, Nowald Walken, do you?”
“Well, I am though. Do you know Sensei?”
“That was such a surprise. I didn’t expect your teacher would be Nowald Walken!”
Midoma is breathing heavily with excitement.
I’m quite worried that she’s going to have a seizure.
“Uhm, Midoma-san, what kind of person is Sensei? Can you tell me?”
“You don’t know? My goodness, you’re a really naive boy to be studying under the Wandering Alchemist without even knowing about him!”
“Even if you say that….”
Sensei is very persistent when he talks about alchemy and potions, but he rarely talks about himself.
“Fine then. Listen, Nowald Walken was originally a court alchemist.”
“Heh-……”
Midoma was dissatisfied with my reaction.
“You don’t seem impressed!”
“My family is an Earl family so it’s not uncommon for me to hear about the court. My grandfather was also a court aide.”
“Hmmph! Privileged class!”
“That’s not the case for me now. I was kicked out of the mansion.”
Despite complaining bitterly, Midoma told me what she knew about Sensei.
Midoma usually speaks in an aggressive manner, but when she talks about Nowald-sensei, her voice is so soft, almost dreamy. It seems that Midoma has always been a fan of Sensei.
“Nowald Walken was a genius, and he published a lot of research findings. And each time he does, the alchemists and magicians were stunned or impressed. I was one of those girls who would flock to him, bringing along copies of his books, hoping to get him to sign them.”
Sensei is very popular huh.
Midoma’s expression suddenly clouded, and the wrinkles on her face seemed to deepen.
“But one day, Nowald-sama leaves the court.”
“What happened?”
“I don’t know the details, but there were rumors at the time that he didn’t like factional strife or that he fell in love with someone and had an illicit love affair……”
Nowald-sensei, who’s devout in alchemy, in love?
It’s hard to imagine.
Thoughts must have appeared on my face, Midoma’s voice became sharp again.
“Boy, your teacher wasn’t born an old man you know. We were all young at one time. Like for example, I was once the most beautiful of the three magical girl sisters and was praised for it!”
Right after she said that Bigma and Sumoma immediately interjected.
“Don’t be silly! The only ones who like you are those disgusting do-M, right? The most popular one is me, the kind older sister persona!”
“What are you talking about, you perverted shotacon…? I’m the most popular one, the little sister persona—”
“What little sister persona!? You are only popular to those who like plain girls!”
“That’s right, that’s right, you yandere pitfall witch.”
“W-what did you say……!?”
The three old ladies started fighting, but my mind was filled with Nowald-sensei’s past.
What on earth happened to Sensei?
To abandon the glamorous life of the royal court and embark on a wandering journey full of hardships……
No, my grandfather said that life at the court was a difficult one. I wonder if Sensei became disgusted with the boring things of his everyday life there. Or maybe it’s about love, as Midoma said.
If so, what kind of person is the other party?
I wanted to ask Sensei directly, but I was hesitant to do so. Someday, I may be able to learn something about it from Sensei himself. It may be unlikely, but let’s hope for it for now.
“Uhm, can you tell me the purchase price now?”
I called out to the three old ladies who were still fighting, but they ignored me.
“I can’t do anything about them. Char, can you stop the three of them?”
“Leave it to me, Father. (Inhale….…)”
Taking a deep breath, Char let out a loud voice that shook the store.
“Stop fighting!!!”
It was the roar of a dragon itself. The vibration is so violent that debris and dust falls from the ceiling.
My ears hurt as I was behind her, so the shock of the three old ladies in front of Char must have been beyond my imagination.
When I looked at them, all three of them were crouching down on the floor while holding their ears.
“C-Charlotte-sama, please forgive us….…”
The three of them are shaking and begging for forgiveness.
“Char is not angry. But I want you to listen to my father.”
“Of course, of course….…”
Still panicking, Bigma tossed the quill pen into the air.
The pen with automatic writing oozes ink that is redder than blood.
Maborn Empire silver coins …… 6,000 crown coins
30 large strawberry stones …… 15,000 crown coins
Pepper bomb ……?
Total……?
Oh no. There was no price quotation for pepper bombs.
“What does that mean?”
“This will be the first time we are buying this thing you call pepper bomb so we can’t put a price on it until we first see how useful it is.”
Well, Bigma got a point there.
“Okay, I’ll leave you a sample, so you can tell me the purchase price next time.”
For the time being, we exchanged only silver coins and strawberry stones, and left Sambabano.
It was a shame that the pepper bomb was not sold today, but I have 52,000 crown coins in today’s deal. With this much, I can buy some goats and chickens from Paul-oniisan.
Char and I walked leisurely out of the city gate and along the road toward the island.
“Now I can finally raise livestock.”
“Father, you look happy.”
“That’s right. In the future, we can get milk from goats and eggs from chickens.”
“Hoho~, I want tamagoyaki then!”
She grinned at me.
“That’s not all. With milk and eggs, we can make pudding and custard cream.”
“What are those?”
“They are sweet treats. Pudding is smooth and silky. Custard cream can be eaten in crepes with strawberries and bananas.”
“Sweets!”
Char puffed out her nose and jumped at me.
“Father let’s go to Uncle’s place as soon as possible! Hurry, hurry!”
“Ahaha, don’t panic, I have to write a letter to my brother first…… Huh?”
Further up the road, a traveler was crouching down and doing something.
“Father, there is a suspicious person ahead!”
“Hey, don’t say that.”
But it wasn’t hard to understand why Char saw it that way.
The man kneeling on the ground was carrying a long sword on his back, and there was a large scar on his face. The wound runs roughly across from his nose to his cheek.
When I looked closely, the scars don’t end there. There seemed to be countless wounds on his hands, neck, and various places as well.
This is translated by Yume Neiji. Kindly read at yumeineijiworks.wordpress.com.
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