"Well, that's where stuff gets very complicated Lord Duke." "What do you mean it gets complicated? Countess it seems like this entire situation is very strange, can you please explain from the beginning while we make our way to the place my daughter is?" "Of course Lord Duke, come with me, we have a special carriage prepared right outside the station." Following her and the knight, Walter and Lucy come before a beautiful pure white carriage that looked completely out of place outside the more industrial-looking train station and cityscape around them. The extravagant carriage on the side of the road looked akin to someone wearing a tuxedo to the local farmers' market. Seemingly unaware of how out of place they looked the three of them went inside while the knights created a protective formation to ensure its safety on the journey to their destination. As the horses began moving forward everyone was settled inside and the old woman began speaking. "It all started a few hours a
"Cor illuminatum est" When William spoke those words everyone listening sucked in a cold breath of air, clearly what he was asking for was not ordinary, to make a countess and duke react so strongly told everything one needed to know. Seeing them freeze William continued. "More commonly known as "The Heart of the Enlightened One," it is an alchemical miracle that production rarely succeeds and would normally cost a fortune. The main use of it is to reinforce the user's heart and enhance their entire cardiovascular system, this can enhance their mana capacity, mana draw rate, and increase the swiftness of spell casting by between 20-30%." Hearing such a detailed explanation of the item was even more stunning than this boy knowing its existence, to begin with. As a commoner mage, Lucy had only even heard the name twice, let alone known its effects, yet now this normal academy student seems to know everything about it. Finally reacting Walter spoke. "Young man that is impossible, a
After making a deal with Duke Walter Goldcrest William sat down in a chair in Sarah's room and released an exhausted sigh, that entire discussion he was on the edge of collapsing where he stood. He was completely drained of mana and it would take him a longer than average time to regenerate it to a normal level. When someone is regaining mana there is almost always a small amount of mana in the body the user can use to jumpstart the absorption process of taking mana in, refining it, and storing it; however since he has zero mana it will take him days to regain it unless of course you were rich and could afford expensive tonics to make that instant. Let's just say that neither the countess nor the duke was going to pay for him to enjoy those luxuries for free, let alone the temple giving them away for free to a guy who was only there, to begin with, to rest after mana exhaustion. You are awake? Good for you no leave, that is what they would say if he was not associated with Sarah n
Since Sarah was originally injured a week had passed and it was finally time to leave the temple as a now fully healed person once again, from being dead to perfectly healthy in a week in a strange turn of events. In the past week not much had happened other than William slowly regaining mana and Sarah slowly healing her diminished spirit and slowly regaining mana, now that the only issue was low levels of mana which don't have any negative effects unless one is spellcasting, it was time to leave Saulon and go to where Sarah would be living after the academy. During this time William got a much better understanding of what the job of her aide actually was, and it was surprisingly little. To put it simply, he did not have the responsibility of a normal aide because he was in no way qualified to be one, meaning that his job was essentially just to hang out with her and do stuff with her. Most people would think this sounds like a dream job but in reality, William was not excited.
After traveling for almost an hour from the train station Sarah and William finally arrived outside a large and beautiful villa. Made from stone and timber, its design highlights skilled craftsmanship. The interiors featured artisanal furniture, antique rugs, and large fireplaces, ensuring a warm and inviting atmosphere. Tall windows with wooden shutters fill rooms with natural light, while the simplistic design encourages simple living. Outside, a sprawling garden blooms with a riot of flowers and fruit trees, and a large magical pond filled the backyard with clear water which gave off faint magical fluctuations. Quickly after arriving, William inspected the new house under scrutiny, it was rather simplistic in design but that was the beauty of it, it was not grand like a castle or large family manor but took up a large amount of land for a large city like Starweave. A large part of the property was the main house where the residents would eat, sleep, and interact with each other.
After discussing various trade skills for a short while Sarah and William returned to the main house where various servants came at a specified time to cook their dinner and clear the villa. After a short dinner without anything happening, they both went to bed where William infused his tome with mana before going to bed and after waking up. He kept some mana for emergencies so that his recovery rate was not inhibited but the mana-related functions of the human body act similarly to muscles in that using and training them will over time strengthen them to a certain degree. After doing that he went to the alchemy building which looked like a cross between a brewery and a greenhouse, after taking inventory and checking the equipment more in detail, he waited for Sarah to arrive for the alchemy lesson they agreed he would give her the day before. Truth be told, he was somewhat looking forward to teaching her alchemy, in his past life his primary trade skill was alchemy but because
Arriving at a work table filled with ingredients there were a variety of tools laid out with various purposes, from clippers to cut small branches of wood to a squeezer to juice fruits, almost anything related to processing ingredients was present. With Sarah standing next to him, William picked up a stock of a plant she did not recognize and began speaking. "These are the basic tools you will need for preparing most ingredients for the brewing process, this part is very important since some plants only need specific parts for the potion and any other unneeded parts will lower the quality of your potion." Picking up a small wooden branch and what looked like a peeler he began peeling the bark off the small branch while speaking. "This is a small branch of Moon Ash, one of the ingredients for a commonly seen intermediate healing potion, it is very important to shave off all of the bark because we will be leaving it to soak in our solvent to give it very weak healing properties. In
After having Sarah begin making the intermediate healing potion William stood to the side and watched without any reaction to any of her actions, all he was answer any questions she had regarding the potion recipe. Unlike himself who finished preparing the ingredients and infusing the solvent in around 30 minutes, it took her over an hour, still for a person's first time it was very impressive. After everything was ready she moved to the brewing table and began doing what she recalled seeing William do, although it seemed simple she quickly found it much harder than she originally thought. Similar to how the preparation took longer, the brewing took over twice as long as well, and by the end of the process, there was a completed product. Most people would fail dozens of times before making their first potion from scratch but she actually completed it the first time, watching William was also impressed by her. Factually speaking though, that finished product looked somewhat ques