“Tori, now that you can make Miniature Meditation Potions, it means you can start preparing to study advanced Potions.” Ethan suggested this as he poured the Potions Tori had made into glass vials, measuring out each dose.

But Tori shook her head. “I’ve only learned to make one kind of Potion. Trying to make advanced Potions already would be arrogant. I still don’t know enough about a lot of ingredients.”

“Then what have you been working on lately?”

Tori held up a red chili. “Well, my family grows red chilies, after all. Like I told you before, even though I told my parents they could make quite a bit of money, they still wouldn’t come help me. They’d rather stay home and tend to the chilies. So I thought I’d use red chilies as the base ingredient and see if I could make a useful Potion. That way, the price people pay for red chilies might go up a little, right? Though other villages might start growing them too.”

“So, the Potion you’re planning to make is…?”

Tori thought for a moment. “I can tell you. I’m planning to make something like a stimulant. I don’t know if the kingdom has any restrictions on that sort of thing.”

“A stimulant?”

“I mean, after taking it, your focus and combat ability would both improve for a while, but afterward you’d feel really tired and your mind might grow a little weak.”

“That’s a banned drug!”

Tori’s face fell. She’d suspected as much, but hearing it confirmed still disappointed her. “So it really is forbidden to use? I guess making money from it isn’t realistic, then. That’s not good news.”

“Still, as long as you don’t sell it, you can just drink it yourself, right? I’m sure there’ll be times when it comes in handy.”

Ethan tried to comfort Tori a little. Then he fell silent. Tori guessed he was communicating with “that person,” so she waited quietly until Ethan looked back at her.

Just as Tori had expected, Ethan offered a suggestion. “Why not try making a Miniature Healing Potion? I heard red chilies are one of the ingredients in Healing Potions.”

He looked at Tori, who wore a puzzled expression. “Why are you making that face?”

“I did spend two silver coins on a Miniature Healing Potion before and drank a bottle, but it didn’t seem to have anything to do with red chilies. Are you serious?”

She clearly wasn’t convinced.

Then Ethan said, “You need the roots of the red chili plant, plus wood fruit, bloodsucker slime, and something called fragrant grass.”

“Heh heh~ I see.” A triumphant, scheming smile spread across Tori’s face.

Ethan froze. He realized Tori had been setting him up. “Does that mean I just gave you the recipe?”

“Recipe? What recipe? I haven’t seen anything like that~” The girl looked completely innocent. “Did you say something just now, young master? I didn’t hear you. I haven’t been sleeping well lately, so my hearing’s a little off.”

Good grief, she really had some nerve.

Ethan was stunned. Did this girl not know that red chili roots were part of the Miniature Healing Potion recipe? No, she definitely knew! How devious.

“Aww~ Young Master Ethan~ You know I’m really broke lately~ My savings are all gone, and I still need to save up for tuition at the Magic Academy~” She started acting cute.

To be fair, Tori was pretty cute when she acted that way, even though she hardly ever did. In all the time Ethan had known her—a little over a month—he’d never seen her act cute before.

The closest she’d come was that night when she’d been so scared she couldn’t sleep. Most of the time, she came across as sharp and capable.

Ethan couldn’t help softening. “Ah, well…”

“I’m just kidding!” Tori suddenly turned serious. “We agreed before: if you provide the recipe, you get forty percent of the profits, twenty percent goes to the shop staff as bonuses, and I get forty percent. An agreement is an agreement. If I’m the first to break it, our shop will fall apart.” She stared at Ethan. “And you too, Young Master Ethan! Don’t let people trick you into doing things like this! If some young girl comes to you asking for a recipe, are you going to hand it over to her too?”

“Well…”

Tori put on the air of a little adult. “Young Master, I know you understand people much better than other nobles do, but there’s a saying back home: ‘Stop trying to save people. Respect their fate.’ Don’t always go around helping others, especially for free.”

“Hm?”

Back home? Wasn’t her home Lusaka Village? Did they really say things like that in Lusaka Village? That didn’t sound right. Lusaka Village was under Blackwater Town’s jurisdiction. Was there really such a saying there?

“But standing up to the Mighty and showing mercy to the weak is written in the Knight’s Code.”

Ethan had to argue back.

Tori gave a cold laugh. “Of course, that can be called a fine quality. But so what? I once heard a story about a famous saint from long ago. One of his disciples rescued a drowning man, and when the man offered him a reward, the disciple refused. Do you think that was a fine quality?”

“Of course! Helping others without expecting anything in return is a fine quality.” Ethan wondered whether there was some kind of trap hidden in her words. Tori’s personality suggested she’d laid a few, but going by her story, there didn’t seem to be a problem. The disciple’s actions really did show noble character.

Tori smiled happily. “Exactly. The disciple’s character was certainly noble, but when he returned to the saint, the saint scolded him.”

“Why?”

“The saint said, ‘If you refuse a reward, then someday, when someone else does a good deed and accepts payment, does that mean their character is inferior to yours? If someone risks their life to help another person, isn’t it only right for them to accept a reward? By refusing payment, you’ve made yourself look noble, but you’ve also made everyone in the world less willing to help others. Do you think you did the right thing? If you accept a reward, then it’s only natural for others to accept one too. And then everyone will be willing to help each other.’”

Of course, those weren’t the exact words.

But after Tori explained the story, Ethan understood what she meant. “So… that doesn’t count as noble?”

“It’s a small kindness, not a great one. But whether it’s small or great, it’s still a way for people to satisfy themselves. Take me, for example. I want money—that satisfies me. You can choose to do small good deeds or great ones, but you have to think it through first. Don’t do something good, big or small, only to have people misunderstand you and leave you feeling miserable and full of resentment. So I’m giving you a heads-up, Young Master: if something like this happens in the future, think carefully before deciding whether to lend a hand.”

She wasn’t trying to lecture Ethan. It was just that someone like him—he had the look of a protagonist—might one day rescue some beautiful girl out in the world and end up with a whole heap of trouble. Whether he could handle it was anyone’s guess, and Tori wasn’t sure she could. What if she ended up as collateral damage?

What was she, some bit player doomed to get caught up in the protagonist’s troubles? Merchant characters got killed off all the time.

Whether or not Ethan was that type, Tori thought he seemed like it. But she had to protect herself. She’d give him a little advice; whether he took it or not was up to him. If something like that really happened, Tori could only run. Running away wasn’t a great option, but Ethan had his dream and Tori had hers. For now, they could coexist. If they couldn’t in the future, they’d deal with it then.

Tori could get red chili roots easily. Lusaka Village was the only place nearby that grew them, but getting some wouldn’t be hard. Wood fruit, on the other hand, was much harder to find.

Tori felt like it was something unique to this world.

Normally, plants have to flower and be pollinated before they bear fruit. But some plants don’t go through that process. They grow through methods like cuttings.

There are also plants like bamboo that flower only once in their entire lives. Their offspring grow anew from the roots. In this world, however, even plants that don’t normally bear fruit can produce it—but the conditions are very strict. Most of the time, it comes down to luck, unless you grow a whole lot of them and wait for them to bear fruit.

In short, wood fruit was expensive, and the kind you got depended on the parent plant. Even the cheapest sold for at least fifty copper coins. But if you used it wisely, one wood fruit could be used to make several Potions, so there was still money to be made.

Bloodsuckers were much easier to find than bone worms. They were a lot like leeches—in fact, they were leeches. Tori had seen them in the rice paddies. She’d been gathering fragrant grass at the time, and come to think of it, fragrant grass was needed too…

That was a problem.

Blackwater Town wasn’t a grain-producing town. The people here all grew cash crops, like red chilies and moon grass.

There were some people who grew wheat, but not many.

But thinking about it carefully, Healing Potions probably didn’t sell as well as Meditation Potions. Not everyone was an adventurer, after all. A shop in Layata Town might be different, but it seemed like every shop there sold Healing Potions. So, as for this kind of thing…

Meditation Potions were still the way to go.

But as Ethan had said, she had to start thinking about her own advanced Potion—an advanced Potion that belonged to Tori. She believed Ethan had a recipe for his own advanced Potion, but advanced Potion recipes weren’t fixed. At the very least, the amounts varied. They had to be adjusted to each person, making them the ultimate test of a Potion Maker’s skill. Tori didn’t know if she could get the mixture exactly right.

She’d have to experiment on herself first.

She had to make the advanced Potion she needed for herself before she’d dare make one for anyone else. She needed to make more Potions and develop more recipes. That meant first studying other people’s recipes and understanding the properties of the ingredients. Miniature Meditation Potions and Miniature Healing Potions weren’t enough. Besides, she hadn’t even started making Miniature Healing Potions yet.