chapter 11
11 – Dark Red Gate (2)
In fact, it was a story that should have ended with the confession that night.
Like the senior said, they couldn’t make potions because they lacked alchemy magic skills, and that’s why seniors couldn’t give out potions for free every time.
It was a painful memory that remained like homework that each of us had to solve.
So even if I met morphine in class after that day, I tried not to bring up the story of that day.
But today, the three of them left the academy and came to a semi-basement house on the outskirts of the imperial capital.
Delia Bluecliffe looked at the senior who was diagnosing Morphine’s mother in a small room.
Sweating profusely, he had his hands around her mother’s wrists and neck.
It is said to diagnose the situation inside her body by injecting mana, but I did not understand what he meant.
Morphine was also watching the scene with a blank face.
‘What are you thinking… .’
At first, I thought he was just a respectable senior.
Because he was the one who made my dad, who was immersed in research like a madman, laugh every time he came home.
Because it was a topic that appeared miraculously in the conversation between father and daughter, which had been cut off.
It was amazing that an undergraduate student who was only a sophomore could change a professor like this.
Delia was always curious about the senior who turned her quiet father into a talkative person.
So when I was selected as an aspiring warrior in the year I turned eighteen.
And when I found out that the talent is the same pension as my senior.
You don’t know how happy I was.
Because I thought I could meet the senior I had only heard about from my father.
And I was able to see the seniors not long after the semester started.
The first meeting was a mess due to his shy personality, but thanks to his friend Morphine, he often went to the alchemy shop and quickly became friendly with his seniors.
The senior was mischievous, but he was an honest and confident person.
He was always proud of his skills and had no hesitation in accusing him of wrongdoing.
‘He really was a genius.’
Besides, he was a real genius, just like his dad said.
Although his grades were bad because he slept a lot, he was a student who received more attention from the faculty than anyone else.
Sophomores make and sell magic tools sold by researchers, and they sell well.
From potions to combat magic tools, there were almost no magic tools that could not be made.
The senior was a hot topic every day, and was the most promising prospect within the Faculty of Alchemy.
Theoretically, he was a man without obstacles.
In class, when I asked questions about the parts I didn’t understand, the answer came out like a machine.
I feel like I studied alchemy deeply and studied it for a long time.
The senior’s explanation was flawlessly perfect, and I felt like I was listening to a lecture by a well-taught professor.
‘however… ‘
Such a senior takes off his feet and tries to treat the mother of a junior.
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He rode a carriage to the farthest outskirts of the ecliptic from the academy, saying that he would diagnose himself.
He threw away all of his research time, just because his junior’s mother was sick.
Could you do something like that yourself?
Can I move without paying for someone I’ve known for less than two months?
Can you help me as if it were my job?
and… .
And if there was such a person in himself or in his father.
Was mom still in our arms?
I wonder if I didn’t have to see the pain of my father who lived like a madman for several years.
Delia looked at the sweaty senior with complicated eyes.
* * *
“after… found.”
It must have been about 30 minutes after injecting mana.
I was engrossed in the diagnosis, and I raised my head and smiled.
The end of the diagnosis, which was only vague, was in sight.
The one clue I was about to lose was knocking on my door.
Morphine asked urgently.
“Whoa, did you figure out the cause? something! What is it, senior!”
“Be quiet. Your mother’s ears must hurt.”
I screamed and took a bite of the morphine that approached me, carefully wiping my mother’s sweat with the towel next to me.
“mother. I just finished the diagnosis. Are there any uncomfortable places? From injecting mana into your body, you may feel chilly and cold.”
Morphine’s mother, who was lying on the hospital bed, answered with a shallow smile.
“Cough Coke. it’s okay. Thanks, Coke. like this… for helping me… .”
“no. It’s something you have to do, of course. Actually, my mother’s son helped me a lot before. That’s why I’m here to pay you back. This is a secret, but my mother’s son does well at the academy.”
I spoke playfully, as if whispering, and a smile formed on Mother’s lips before she knew it.
I just made a minor diagnosis today.
I will come again tomorrow to diagnose and treat slowly.
I gave these words of reassurance to my mother and left the house with the two of them.
Morphine and Delia’s eyes were full of curiosity.
Because I haven’t been informed of the diagnosis yet.
I took out a cigarette in a deserted place.
After concentrating for too long, I desperately wanted a cigarette.
“Someone to share?”
“Seniors… !!”
“Wow, Mr. I’m going to drop my ears, dude.”
“Why don’t you tell me? What happened?”
I let out a big puff of cigarette smoke.
I feel like my mind is a little clearer now.
“It’s because the diagnosis hasn’t been completed yet. I’m not sure either.”
“Are you sure?”
“uh. First, addiction… It’s the same.”
Addicted.
At that word, Morphine’s eyes widened.
It was an unbelievable look.
I would never have thought that my mother’s illness was an addiction.
“It’s an addiction… ?”
“uh. The other organs are mostly intact, but the top of the lungs is full of unknown impurities. They were eating away at my mother’s organs. That’s why you often vomited or had respiratory problems.”
“that… ”
“The ratio is roughly 4/5. Fortunately, thanks to your consistent potions, the progress seems to have slowed down a lot.”
Morphine’s eyes were shaking wildly, so she said something that could be said to be comforting.
It’s my personality to not do things like this, but looking at this guy’s frustrated expression, I can’t help but feel comforted.
Slowing down the progress with potions is actually true.
“The important thing is that the usual antidote may not cure it. I think it’s no ordinary poison. It was an impurity of the nature that I felt for the first time when I responded with magical power.”
“… So what should I do? Is there anything I can do, senpai?”
“For now, I’ll buy an intermediate antidote tomorrow and give it to my mother, so if it doesn’t work, let’s try again. Now that we have found the root cause, we will be able to find a solution in no time.”
“ah… ! The antidote is… ”
“It’s okay, ma’am. You pay interest on this too, and pay it back later.”
Because I was in a hurry, I opened two in a row in an instant.
I tossed the cigarette butt in the corner and stood up shaking my hands.
It was getting dark and it was time to head back.
“Puppy grass. you don’t have to come tomorrow I had a hard time following today.”
It was purely greed that brought Delia.
To be honest, coming all the way to the outskirts of the ecliptic, it’s too dull to see two men come.
Besides, showing the diagnosis process like this would be helpful to Delia, a freshman.
However, it was unreasonable to forcibly bring Delia, as he had to come up with a solution in earnest from tomorrow.
Then Delia shook her head and said.
“Oh, no… ! I’ll come too… ! I want to find a solution together… .”
It was an unexpected answer.
Even if it was me who had a hard time in the room, it wouldn’t have been an easy journey to follow this far, but I want to do it next time too.
The way you gave me the morphine that night, and the way I came all the way here.
Maybe Delia is a much more affectionate child than I thought.
“ruler. So let’s disband here today and see you again tomorrow. Morphine goes home and nurses your mother. Since the solution isn’t clear yet, I’ll talk about the disease in a slightly different way.”
“All right. Seniors. But can I ask you one question?”
“uh. say.”
We got out on the main road to catch a carriage back to the academy.
Morphine asked as they walked together to see off.
“How can you know that even the clergy of the church couldn’t diagnose it? that… You diagnosed it by injecting mana.”
“Oh, that? It’s just that those bastards are quacks. Originally, the high-ranking clergy finished their diagnosis with magic, and used divine magic accordingly. However, the lower the level, the lower the understanding of magical power, so I just use divine magic that Ji can use without thinking about it. The church you went to was the only priest like that.”
“aha… .”
Morphine nodded in understanding, but her face was still questionable.
Then, how can you diagnose the magical powers that the high-ranking priests say?
It was seen that the question was raised to the tip of his chin.
Not just morphine, but even Delia.
I don’t know why the guys who usually ask me questions are so careful about this part.
Anyway, good for me.
Because I didn’t want to elaborate on that part.