“Lady Suran... can you really do this?” Black Hare asked, half doubtful.

“What, you looking down on me?” Suran shot back with a raised brow.

“No, no! Absolutely not!”

Her long rabbit ears shook wildly from side to side as Black Hare hurriedly said, “Lady Suran’s main class is a maid, after all. If you switched to being an alchemist, then the title of ‘Crimson Garden’s finest alchemist’ would never be mine. I just think, um...”

“There are only two chances, so it’s easy to fail. I know.”

Suran spoke calmly. “Even so, I have to try. Give me the recipe sheet. And mark the method for removing the side effects clearly too.”

“Y-Yes. Lady Suran, please wait a moment!”

Black Hare obeyed at once. She burrowed back into her hole and fussed around for a while, then stretched out a small hand from the entrance. In it was the truth serum recipe sheet.

Suran took the sheet. Then Black Hare tossed out a pot, a ladle, a waste bucket, and all kinds of bottles and jars from inside the hole.

“I’ve thrown out the tools and raw materials too, Lady Suran. Please check them!”

Suran had heard before that Black Hare’s way of making medicine was basically no different from an old witch brewing soup. Now that she saw it, it really was true.

She picked up the bottles and jars, looked at the labels, and muttered under her breath, “Flame Slime magma, water from the River of Forgetfulness, a little bunny’s secret... secret medicine for suppressing arousal?”

...Huh?

Did something weird get mixed in there?

“Ahhh—sorry, Lady Suran! I grabbed the wrong one!!”

Along with the frantic twitching of her two rabbit ears came Black Hare’s scream of social death. After tossing out the correct raw materials, she stretched out her trembling little hand and pleaded with Suran,

“C-Could you... give that back to me, please? Uwaaaah—”

“Pfft.”

“Ahhhhhhh, Lady Suran, don’t laugh at meeeee—”

Suran wasn’t some evil woman, and this socially dead little bunny really did look a bit pitiful. She had no intention of teasing her, so she returned the jar labeled “a little bunny’s secret” to Black Hare.

“Wishing Lady Suran success in making the medicine!!”

After leaving behind that rushed blessing, Black Hare dove back into her hole and refused to come out. It seemed she had no face—no, no ears—to see Suran for the time being.

Suran sorted the ingredients into place, set up the iron pot, stacked firewood underneath, and finished all the prep work. Then she began studying the recipe sheet seriously.

“Mm... every step and every precaution is written very clearly. No need to call her back out,” Suran murmured to herself.

She had planned to call Black Hare out and ask if there was anything she didn’t understand. Now it seemed unnecessary.

Alright! I understand everything now!

Without the slightest hesitation, Suran immediately began making the medicine according to the steps on the sheet.

“First, pour in the water from the River of Forgetfulness, then light the fire...”

“Then add the Flame Slime magma...”

To make the truth serum and remove all side effects, she had to add and reduce firewood at all times, control the temperature perfectly, and judge by the color when to pour part of the liquid into the waste bucket, then add clean water and keep stirring it together. One drop too much or one drop too little would ruin it.

As a professional maid, Suran’s concentration was flawless. And as a top-tier assassin, her hands were exceptionally steady.

During all this, Suran didn’t even notice that Black Hare had poked her head out of the hole and was watching her every move.

“Lady Suran... she’s amazing.”

Black Hare thought vaguely to herself that with her own tools and methods, making such a delicate potion really was difficult. If she had the kind of precise instruments other alchemists used, she could easily make this truth serum too.

But the truth was, Black Hare had learned her medicine-making skills from an old witch a long time ago. So even if those refined instruments were placed right in front of her, she wouldn’t know how to use them.

And yet Suran was using her big pot and iron ladle, relying on the most primitive method, bold and sweeping, without making a single mistake. Black Hare was filled with admiration.

For Black Hare, watching Suran make medicine was practically a kind of enjoyment.

“Mm!?”

Suddenly, Black Hare noticed something. Her expression changed at once, and her enjoyment turned into tension.

She saw it clearly. On Suran’s fair face, a shining drop of sweat was slowly sliding down.

If that drop really fell into the pot, then all of Suran’s work would be wasted on the spot.

Black Hare watched as Suran stayed fully focused on mixing the potion, showing no sign of noticing the falling sweat. Her heartbeat sped up sharply.

Lady Suran! Notice it already! If you don’t, it’s over!!

Black Hare desperately wanted to warn her, but she knew that if she spoke up now and interrupted Suran, it would definitely disrupt her thoughts and movements. It would definitely fail right away.

So all she could do was hope Suran noticed in time and wiped the sweat away.

For a moment, Black Hare’s gaze locked tightly onto that crystal-bright drop of sweat. Paired with Suran’s breathtaking profile, she unconsciously stuck out her tongue, as if she wanted to lick the drop of sweat right off Suran’s face.

That drop of sweat did not get its way.

Suran lifted her jade-like hand, wiped her face, and successfully brushed the sweat away.

Seeing that, Black Hare cheered inside, yet at the same time felt a strange sense of disappointment.

“Hoo—”

Just then, Suran poured the finished potion from the pot into an empty bottle and let out a long breath.

“All done!”

Cleared in one try. Refreshing as hell!

Suran turned around, saw the pair of rabbit ears at the hole’s entrance, and walked over.

“Black Hare, take a look. Is this finished product really free of side effects?” Suran passed the completed truth serum into the hole and had Black Hare confirm it for her.

Black Hare could judge a finished potion’s effect by its color. She took the potion, studied it carefully for a while, then handed it back to Suran and answered,

“Lady Suran, this is the most perfect truth serum! The attached side effects have been completely removed!”

“Really?”

Suran gently shook the bottle and looked at the beautiful red-and-blue liquid inside. The corners of her lips lifted slightly as she jokingly asked Black Hare, “Then... would you be willing to help me test how effective it is?”

Maybe it was because she’d killed Black Hare a thousand times already, but the more Suran looked at her now, the more she felt the urge to bully her a little.

Of course, just verbally. Suran wasn’t actually going to do it.

If she guessed right, Black Hare would twitch her ears and dive back into the hole to make a run for it any second now.

However, the truth was the exact opposite of what Suran expected.

“I-If it’s Lady Suran asking... then it’s not like I can’t do it.”

Black Hare let out a burst of excited panting from inside the hole, and the pair of rabbit ears sticking out wriggled shyly too.

“...?”

Suran was a little stunned.

What’s with this little bunny? Before today, wasn’t she still scared of me and hiding from me the whole time?

So why does she look like she wants me to bully her now?

This is bad. She’s a freak too!

Don’t tell me I’m the one who made her like this too??