Chapter 197 - Episode Twenty-Two - Devil's Trial (1)

After I parted ways with Nelgliffe, I was visited the mansion of the village chief, Heil Fage.

Heil was isolated in the village because he had insisted that the free nursing by the Levi Church before he succumbed to the disease, claiming that it was an effort to convert him, and of course he was hated by the followers, so he was isolated from everyone around him.

His daughter, Fleur, is now nursing the unconscious Heil alone.

The servants must have left because they didnt want to get involved and lose the benefits of the Levi Church themselves.

Abel-sama and Mea-sama Thank you for coming. However, since both of you are now famous in the village, I think it would be best if you didnt come here too much.

In the guest room, I was face to face with Fleur across the desk.

The crimson hair of the Phage familys heritage has not faded, but her complexion seems to be worse than the last time, perhaps due to the fatigue of nursing her without support from the surroundings.

The fact that she is treated as a nuisance in the village is probably one of the reasons for her mental burden.

Ive been talking to Nelgliffe and I know that this sickness is a match-pump for the Levi Church, so I know that Heil was right as a result.

Im sure the villagers thought it was just a matter of repelling a group of people who reached out to them in the midst of suffering from the disease with prejudice.

Its all right. Nelgliffe-san has also asked me to help Village Chief Heil. The ingredients for the medicine for that will also be delivered secretly to us later.

I, I could have the pills? However If you do so carelessly, it will be bad for Nelgliffe-samas position

Fleur says sluggishly.

Nelgliffe-san told me to leave the internal matters to him, so its okay. A persons lives are on the line here, so theres no need to hold back.

It was a great relief when Nelgliffe told me to leave it to him.

The man was very charismatic and wouldnt be able to make his position worse for a moment or two.

Even if some of the followers complained, I think he would eventually settle down as a saint who reached out to those who rejected Levi Church.

He seems to be reasonably skilled in magic and decisive.

But rather than being a bit out of the loop I guess its more of a nature that doesnt allow his people to be suspicious of him.

In a way, thats a virtue, and it seems to be helping to enhance his charisma.

And no one is perfect.

It hurts that Chloe, the assistant, is the first candidate for the mastermind which was originally a hole that should have been filled by an assistant

It seems that the Levi Church are very good at sneaking up on important people.

Thank you my father, please help him.

Fleur bowed her head and thanked me.

The tips of his long hair hung down to the desk.

Yes, Ill take care of the rest

Before I could say it, I heard a knock on the door.

Its not the main entrance. Could this be the on the back door?

Its unusual. I cant believe we have two groups visiting here in one day Is it Nelgliffe-sama?

Wait, hold on.

I stopped Fleur from leaving her seat with my hand.

Its probably that Live Fogg material.

Shall Mea go check on it for you?

No, Ill go for it, just in case. Ill have to ask about how its made too.

I left the guest room and headed for the back door of the mansion.

Kamla was standing there with a large box.

He seemed to have been selected because he knew me.

So Kamla-san is here.

Ah, ahhhhh Nelgliffe-sama asked me to give this to Abel-dono.

So, how do I make it?

Its the stuff of livegrass, after all. Im sure youre aware of the timing and location of the event, and Ive had a pretty good idea. But all I was asked to do was give you this. Ill pretend I dont know whats in the box, and Ill forget I delivered it when I get out of here. Dont worry, Nelgliffe-sama is prepared to take care of things. he has taken care of it, I think.

Kamla held her head and let out a sigh of relief.

It sounds like youre having a hard time, Kamla-san

Thats because hes too good-natured to be true. But thats probably why people love him so much. I cant stay here too long and let someone else get the wrong idea, so Ill go now

Putting the box down, Kamla slipped away.

After pulling the box into the mansion, I opened the lid.

In addition to the bottled chemicals, there was a piece of parchment with no writing on it.

I thought it might be ingredients, but that didnt seem to be the case.

I pick up the parchment and flow my magic power into it.

The letters began to emerge quickly.

It seemed to spell out the recipe for Livegrass in the Array letter (a specialized language used by sorcerers in their grimoires and such).

It seemed to work like searing.

Nelgliffe said that the rules for making Livegrass were kept secret within Levi Church.

Maybe he was trying to put it in a form that would give him an excuse if it ended up in the hands of someone else along the way.

Its a bit fishy when the materials is a set, but

The habits and patterns of the array letter are somewhat different due to the different countries, but its not too difficult to decipher if you know the basics.

As I read, I could see that the parchment was crumbling to pieces from the edges.

It seems that the parchment is designed to destroy itself using the magic power it contains.

I poured additional magic power into it and lightly analyzed it, and found that it was covered with a very complex magic.

There are a number of mechanisms in place to prevent it from destroying itself.

Thats quite a cautiousness Didnt you think it would collapse before I could remember it?

I guess thats where they trust me, though.

But when they do this kind of thing as if theyre testing me, it makes me feel useless rivalry.

I pick up my wand and make a fluttering cross towards the parchment.

Maintain

As soon as I cast the spell, the parchment stopped disintegrating.

Hmph, Ive won again.

Of course, I had no intention of harassing Nelgliffe, but I had to challenge him as a sorcerer because he had some seriously complicated protection on him.

Im sure that every sorcerer has done this at one time or another, even if it wasnt me.

Naturally, Im going to get rid of this parchment as soon as I finish making it.

With Mea and Fleurs help, I decided to start making liveglass.

It is necessary to roast the Noble Mandogola root in a pot at a high temperature using a potion (basic form) to extract the active ingredients of Noble Mandogola.

In this process, it is necessary to put a simple boundary around the pot to confine the target volatiles so that the active ingredients do not evaporate and escape.

The light green potion boils strongly and the purple pigment of Noble Mandogola mixes into the whole.

The room is filled with the strong, chemical smell characteristic of Mandogola.

Once the boiling potion is gone, the next potion is added immediately.

Because of its hardness, the Noble Mandogola can only be extracted at a high temperature.

In parallel, the poison from the Live Fogg is removed with magic, and in a separate pot, shallowly fill a shallow pot with blue lime digestive juices and lightly heat the Live Fogg in it.

The blue lime digestive juices dissolve the Live Fogg.

Finally, after the two are placed in the same pot, the three chemicals in the box are mixed together, adding them at different times, Its completed.

These chemicals seemed to be made from boiled down herbs, and unlike Live Fogg and Noble Mandogola, they didnt deteriorate much over time, so they seemed to have been prepared in advance.

Its five hours from here, ten hours from here, and fourteen hours from here, so itll be ready tomorrow morning at It looks like well need to do some minor state control with the wards and magic circle while its being created, but would it be okay if we stayed here?

Yes, thats fine, but from now until the morning all the way through, do you want to maintain wards and parallel magic circle?

Fleur asks with concern.

It will be fine. Im used to staying up all night.

Look, shouldnt we get another sorcerer in here?

Ummm I cant ask Nelgliffe-san to help me any more, though

Im used to doing all-nighters, and I dont have any problems at all.

When I was in the village, there were times when I would do research for about five days straight.

Theres no such thing as a day or so now.

Mea will help you! Mea will!

hmmm, Its fine-tuning, after all.

I see

Mea slumps her shoulders.

Im sorry, but Ill just take the feeling.

Oh, yeah. Get rid of that recipe hmm? Huh? Mea, do you know where that parchment I had with the array letters on it?

What ? H-, huh, all Ive done is what Abel told me to touch it once?

And then

You should have returned but What, Me-, did Mea do something wrong? W-w-what do we do! Im, Im sorry that

Mea begins to fumble and get upset.

No, but if you ask me, I remember having it in my hand once in the time after I gave it to Mea.

Did I get rid of it after that? Did I get rid of that? I got rid of it, didnt I?

We disposed of it together with the box when we took it out and incinerated it, just in case right?

Because I was too enthusiastic about making the livegrass, I was somewhat neglecting to manage the parchment.

That paper is a bit of a bad thing to leave behind.

Oh no, maybe I got rid of it Yeah, sorry, I should have gotten rid of it.

Y-, you didnt say that out of concern for Mea?

Absolutely! I got rid of it! Come to think of it, I put it in the box then. Yeah, Im pretty sure!

I shouldnt think about unnecessary things.

Nelgliffe would have been set up for this kind of situation to be automatically discarded.