Bear School Astartes

Chapter 73: 73. Help you go home

Lann finished his physical recovery in the morning and arrived at the Alchemy Classroom by noon.

At dinnertime, Alia returned to the door of the Alchemy Classroom.

She was carrying two smoked fish sandwiches, grilled ham, baked apples, and a serving of oyster chowder in her hands.

A full plate.

This was actually the serving for both her and Lann, because taking food to Lann and then eating herself felt a bit troublesome.

Walking through the corridors of Airetusa Academy, Alia would always look around curiously.

Although her previous home was not one to lack lighting at night, it certainly couldn’t compare to the Magic Academy.

The candles in Airetusa Academy were numerous and bright, illuminating the surroundings to a degree that didn’t seem like candlelight at all.

This was a small improvement by the warlocks who discovered the principle of light reflection, using magic.

It is said that the mage who improved the lighting even left a self-portrait on the academy wall for this contribution.

Alia knocked on the door of the Alchemy Classroom and then walked in.

Lann had instructed that there wouldn’t be any major alchemical experiments today, and that knocking and entering would not disturb anything.

”Sir, I’ve brought your dinner.”

Alia, holding the large tray, couldn’t look inside through the glass opening of the door.

So upon entering, she saw Lann sitting in a classroom chair, rubbing his face with both hands, looking utterly exhausted.

The whole classroom didn’t look anything like the ”won’t be messy” that she was told during the midday break.

The mortar was filled with various herbs mashed into a paste, the distillation flask still had a half-bottle of indescribably colored liquid, and fragments of dried herbs were scattered all over the table...

”I’m so stupid... I’m so stupid, knowing it takes ten hours to learn a magic potion, but not knowing how to arrange those ten hours. I’m so stupid.”

This mumbling left Alia somewhat puzzled, and she called out tentatively again.

”Sir?”

”Hmm?”

Lann dropped the hands rubbing his face and looked up.

The sight of the black veins on his face and the dark circles around his eyes made Alia gasp in surprise.

”Ah! Sir! What happened to you...?”

Lann paused for a moment, then realized.

”Oh, don’t worry. Us demon hunters, taking too many potions gets us like this.”

He said, grabbing a beaker from the desk and drinking down the milky liquid inside.

Then the black veins and dark circles faded within a few breaths.

[A vitamin alcohol drink with slight detoxifying effect].

Mentos called Lann’s creation a defective version of [White Honey].

The day’s practice schedule had quite a few hitches, after all, it was the first time.

Lann hadn’t anticipated that just using supernatural senses wasn’t enough to identify the potency of medicinal herbs.

To make a high-grade magic potion, you’d better recognize the herbs even when they’re crushed, right? Or distilled, for that matter.

Under these conditions, you still need the experience to estimate the potency, right?

So what else could you do? Taste them!

And so, a big bag of roughly processed herbs was turned by Lann into all sorts of forms.

Each needed to be smelled, tasted, to accumulate experience on the potency’s extent.

Yes, the proficiency in [Alchemy] soared, now reaching 44%.

For the limited few herbs like honeysuckle and nightshade petals, Lann could now tell the quality at a glance, and the potency too.

Adjusting the alchemical formula accordingly, he could even produce some simple goods.

But the cost was— despite a demon hunter’s resistance to toxins, trying all those herbs in the sack started to get to him.

Necessarily, to maintain this highly effective learning method, Lann shifted the primary focus from [Swallow] to [White Honey].

He was essentially tasting herbs while downing simple antidotes.

Luckily, all his expenses were currently covered by those 1500 Oren, or else he wouldn’t have dared to waste things like this.

Roughly processed herbs weren’t like wild herbs; pricing them higher was only natural.

Without this money, Lann might have had to scrape by trying to improve [Alchemy]’s proficiency little by little.

With a small budget to buy herbs and materials, then manufacturing, failing, saving up, and starting over again, in a cycle.

For a demon hunter who doesn’t know how many commissions he can get in a month, it might take him half a year to learn how to brew one potion.

Working and studying, these are two extremely time-consuming matters, especially when paired together.

Fortunately, someone was now footing the bill for his learning expenses.

”Don’t worry, Alia. Let’s eat first. Today I’ll help you clean the classroom,”

Lann said, rubbing his forehead.

He had promised the classroom wouldn’t get messy and told her to rest, yet ended up making a mess.

Even though she was now his attendant, Lann still felt quite embarrassed.

The two of them cleared a relatively clean table and ate together.

The demon hunter took a cursory glance at Alia, who acted perfectly normal, and squinted slightly.

This little girl was familiar with many knightly manners and the duties and rules of an attendant.

Though some things were a bit different from the Northern Countries, from the intricate ceremonial aspects, they didn’t seem fake.

At most, it was due to differences in national customs.

Ultimately, there was a set of noble rules serving as the underlying logic.

But at the same time, an attendant who knew the rules would naturally eat with the person she followed, without any restraint.

Familiar with noble rules, yet able to instinctively overlook the class differences within them.

This indicated that within this rule set, she rarely occupied a lower, less advantageous position.

... A child of a great noble family?

Munching on the smoked fish sandwich, Lann chatted with Alia.

”Tell me more about your hometown, Alia.”

”Hmm?”

With her cheeks puffed while eating, the little girl suddenly became alert like a squirrel, looking at Lann.

”I don’t want to go back!”

The demon hunter understood and smiled.

She wasn’t resisting returning due to fear or dread, at least not entirely.

More so, it was because... things were more fun outside, and she resisted going back home.

This indicated that her family environment was actually quite good.

”I haven’t asked how old you are, Alia,”

Lann asked while eating, not raising his head.

The girl continued to eat silently, and Lann seemed completely oblivious.

”Judging by your frame, nine? Ten?... Oh, ten. Definitely an age for mischief.”

The girl’s movement gave him the answer, and Lann nodded, continuing,

”You might not know how dangerous this world is for a ten-year-old girl, Alia. After all, not long after those traffickers caught you, I crushed them. You probably didn’t even see how they tortured captives, did you?”

”So, the trafficker camp felt thrilling to you; perhaps only when you jumped off the ship did you feel a bit scared. But just for that moment.”

”According to your account, it’s been four or five days since you left your family. In these days, you’ve seen demon hunters, magic, and alchemy, finding the world novel and intriguing while home seemed dull and boring. But, Alia...”

Lann tilted his head towards the Alia sitting next to him.

”In these four or five nights, have you truly not felt fear of being alone, or any homesickness?”

The little girl gradually stopped chewing, her hands lowering the food she was holding, and she didn’t retort further.

”So, let’s pause the knight role-playing game and give me some information, Alia.”

The demon hunter snapped his fingers in front of the little girl, startling her.

The demon hunter laughed heartily.

”I’m thinking of trying to help you return home.”