The Demon Mist Forest was relatively safe, but even so, the howls that might have come from some kind of magical beast—or the buzzing of some kind of insect—echoed through the night from time to time. They still kept Tori on edge. Thankfully, after undergoing the Red Pepper Trial, her ability to meditate had improved considerably. Even with so many distractions around her, she could still remain in a meditative state.

Come to think of it, according to Ethan, he was only at the Mediocre level himself. Just how much magical power did he have?

As the girl meditated, her senses slowly began to reach toward Ethan—

“Doing that could get you into trouble.”

Ethan warned Tori. He suddenly opened his eyes and looked straight at her, pulling her out of her meditative state as well. “People consider it very rude. There’ve been plenty of duels over it. Potion Makers like you are especially likely to be suspected of having ulterior motives—unless someone asks you to probe them, for example, when they come to you for an advanced Potion.”

Tori nodded obediently, showing that she’d learned her lesson. She was past the age of taking a warning like that as a personal rebuke and getting upset over it. Though Ethan was probably two full cycles of the zodiac younger than her, in this world he had a far more prestigious status and much greater strength. After all, the capable came first. She didn’t feel any particular way about it.

“There’s something I’ve never asked you before.” Just as Tori was about to return to meditation, Ethan suddenly asked, “Why do you want money so badly?”

I killed myself in my last life because I was broke—that wasn’t something she could just come out and say. As she made up an excuse, she asked, “Do you want to hear the truth or a lie?”

Really, she just wanted a little time to find the right words. Maybe they’d be true, maybe they’d be lies.

Ethan thought it over seriously. “What if I said I’d rather hear a lie first?”

“A lie? I thought you wanted the truth. Well, here’s the lie: if I had money, I could eat well at every meal instead of having bread with red pepper powder every day and a stew every few days. If I wanted fish, I’d have to catch it myself by the lake. I want to wake up in the morning and have a maid help me get dressed, then bring me hot buttered bread and fresh milk. I want to stroll through town at my leisure, meet up and chat with friends, and have a big lunch. Rare ingredients would be laid out on the table, and I’d get full after just one bite of each. In the afternoon, I’d have tea, and in the evening, I’d attend a banquet. That’s the kind of life I want. A comfortable, refined life, free of worries.”

It did sound pretty nice. “But isn’t that a little decadent?”

“Decadent? Why use that word? I’m not doing anything bad, so why call it decadence? It’s not like I stole the money. I’ll say this much: I like money, and I plan to make it by any means necessary, but I’m not planning to break the kingdom’s laws. I’m a law-abiding citizen.”

“If that was the lie, then what’s the truth?”

Tori stared at Ethan. “The truth? I haven’t figured it out yet!”

“Huh?” Ethan was baffled by her answer. What was that supposed to mean? “What do you mean, you haven’t figured it out? I don’t really understand.”

“I mean, I don’t know why I want money so badly either. Maybe I do know, but I can’t say it out loud. Shouldn’t a gentleman respect a lady’s privacy?”

Tori looked a little disappointed by Ethan’s lack of tact.

Ethan really didn’t get it. After all, he was only a fourteen-year-old boy. He often seemed mature, but that was probably because of his anger and resentment. No one had taught him much about things like this. “So you just don’t want to tell me the truth?”

“…” You’re going to kill the conversation if you talk like that. Do you have any idea how to flirt? Talking to girls like this is just going to make them hate you.

“Then when do you think you’ll be able to tell me?” Tori’s silence seemed to have given Ethan his answer, so he followed up with another question. Tori found it hard to deal with.

Tori gave him a rather formal smile. “Is this really so important to you, Young Master Ethan?”

“Yeah, it is. For one thing, I’m genuinely curious. And for another, I can’t help feeling like you’re… well…”

He didn’t need to finish. In the dim night, Ethan’s expression was just visible enough for Tori to understand. She knew that look. It was called pity.

The pity of the strong for the weak. The pity of those who had something for those who had nothing. In other words, Ethan felt sorry for her. Was it because of the lie she’d just told?

Or was it…

Was he just one of those overly kindhearted, protagonist-type guys who heard a girl talk about her troubles and felt he had to do something or he’d be betraying his conscience?

“I’ll tell you when I think I’m ready, Young Master Ethan. But it’s hard to say when that’ll be. We’re in a business relationship, after all. Why not think about how many gold coins you’d be willing to pay me for the truth?”

For a moment, Ethan was tempted to give Tori a few gold coins to make her talk. But he had a feeling that if he did, she’d just take the money, lie to him, and then laugh at him for being stupid.

He shook his head and returned to his meditation.

Tori watched Ethan settle into meditation before finally relaxing. People his age were always full of kindness and passion. It made her feel a little ashamed of herself. Compared to him, she was like some rotten creature, blinded by money and deserving of being hanged.

That was why she couldn’t get emotionally involved with someone like him. It was best to keep things strictly business—better yet, not even become friends. Otherwise, she’d never be able to bring herself to cheat him out of his money.

The two of them calmly drank some water, then set off again.

By the following afternoon, they finally reached the place where Ethan had used Tori’s Potion to poison a large number of rats. The stench was overpowering; they could smell the rats rotting from far away. Tori took out a mask she’d made.

She handed one to Ethan as well.

“Good thing I put some fragrant herbs in here ahead of time. Otherwise, I couldn’t stand this smell.” She looked at the rotting rat carcasses scattered everywhere. Even she was having a hard time dealing with it.

Maggots were crawling all over the decaying bodies.

“This is the place. If you’re going to collect bone worms, you…”

Ethan wanted to tell her to do it herself. He didn’t want to help search, but then he wondered if that would be going too far. Tori was only an eight-year-old girl, after all. She might act mature a lot of the time, but this was still a pretty disgusting sight.

Tori stood where she was and gave herself a little pep talk. Then she took a pair of gloves out of her backpack.

“Good thing I saw this coming. I asked my mother to make me a pair of gloves from animal hide and oil toad skin. I can just replace the oil toad skin afterward.”

A transparent layer covered the animal-hide gloves. Tori had expected something like this, so she’d come fully prepared. She began turning over the rat carcasses with her gloved hands.

It was a truly disgusting process—but the yield was substantial.

When Tori pried open the tenth rat, a hard-shelled white worm about as thick as a finger crawled out of its body.

“A bone worm!”

Tori pinned it down at once. Bone worms weren’t very fast; their hard shells were what kept them alive.

Tori knew exactly how to handle bone worms.

She’d already taken out an iron can. She put the bone worm inside, formed a small flame in her hand, and tossed it into the can.

Bone worms were fragile when it came to fire. A little heat was enough to send them into hibernation. After that, soaking them in alcohol or something similar would kill them.

Once she’d actually found a bone worm, Tori got excited. She eagerly searched through the rat carcasses, turning them over this way and that. In the end, she even borrowed a knife from Ethan and dissected every single rat all over again. She kept at it until nightfall. Both iron cans she’d brought were full. She’d collected at least a hundred or two bone worms.

“If I sell these, even at ten copper coins each, I can get at least twenty silver coins. Bone worms actually go for a little more than that. Sweet!”

The thrill of making a hefty profit filled Tori with happiness.

Ethan quietly tossed the bloodstained knife aside. It was only an ordinary knife, anyway. Might as well get rid of it.

“Are these bone worms enough for your research?”

“I don’t think I’ll need this many, but I can try mixing the ingredients here first. Moon grass grows wild in plenty of places, and so does Ice Mint. Didn’t we come across a lot of it yesterday? We can try making some here… No, actually, this is the perfect place to do it!”

Tori grew even more excited. “There’s no shortage of test subjects here! There are plenty of little animals, too.”

You really are cruel!

Tori urged Ethan along. They left the stinking area, then took out Ethan’s shelter and set it up. After that, Tori took two bone worms out of the iron can.

“Young Master Ethan, you’re so handsome and dashing, the very picture of talent. I was wondering if you could do me a little favor?”

“Hmm?”

Ethan miserably used his cross-shaped light sword to chip away at some stone, making a stone mortar and pestle.

Tori put the two bone worms, which had fallen asleep from the fire, into the stone mortar. Then she pounded them again and again with the stone pestle. A crackling sound came from the mortar, growing finer and finer until at last the worms had turned completely to powder.

Only then did Tori finally let out a sigh of relief. “Could bone worms not be carbon-based lifeforms or something? Why can’t I find any liquid in them?”

“Carbon-based lifeforms?”

“N-no, it’s nothing. Just pretend I didn’t say anything.” She took the powder out.

“I’ll turn all these bone worms into powder first. I can’t be bothered to process them when I get back. I’ll just crush the whole lot!” Tori kept at it like that—for an entire night.

“Hey, Young Master Ethan!” Tori was full of energy. Even with dark circles under her eyes, she still looked radiant. “Come on, let’s gather some Moon Grass and Ice Mint! I really can make a Meditation Potion before we head back!”