23 – Lyria

From dawn, Damian and Silverin left for somewhere.

Lillia also got up early and was preparing to leave.

The villagers gave her grandmother’s funeral. So that day, Lilia was going to go to the village.

I had to visit my grandmother’s grave and pack my things from home.

Even with the maid Nana, I quickly became close to the point of being like an older sister or a younger sister. Lilia also decided to work as a maid in this mansion, but Nana still looked after her like a guest.

Maid Nana helped Lilia dress and comb her hair.

After returning from the village, she starts working as a maid in earnest.

Lyria was still afraid of Silverin.

When Nana confessed her feelings, Nana said that there would be no problems as long as she was diligent in her duties.

Her first impression of Damian, whom she had to assist with, was a bit brusque, but not bad.

Damian asked Nana what kind of person he was, and the brushing hand stopped there.

Nana thought for a while and said.

“I didn’t know at first, but the more I see him, the more he’s a cool person.”

When Lyria asked more questions about Damian, Nana spilled out her thoughts. Damian’s personality, how he was when he first trained, and the story of how he carried him on his back. It looked like he was waiting for someone to ask.

After hearing the story, Damian definitely didn’t seem like a strange person, and Lilia was relieved.

After dressing up, when Lilia asked Nana if she could accompany her to the village, she refused, saying that she had to pack a lunch and go to the training ground.

Lyria took a carriage early in the morning and went to the village.

When I asked a close lady next door about her grave, she shook her head and handed me a small burial box.

“Since ghouls came out, burials have not been held.”

In the village, the work of digging up all the graves and cremating them is still in progress.

Lillia took the books she had been studying at home, her clothes, and her grandmother’s recipe, and got on the carriage back to Silverin’s mansion.

Except for the recipe, I left all of Grandma’s things in the house.

In the carriage, Lilia was holding her grandmother’s chest tightly.

My eyes were reddened all the way back, but when I arrived at the mansion and got off the carriage, I regained my courage.

The sun was going down when I went to the village.

In the mansion, the maids were busy preparing dinner.

Lilia also hurriedly organized her luggage to help with this.

Her job was to make potions for Damian to drink.

When I went to the manufacturing room, I saw water bubbling in a large cast iron pot and a maid next to it trying to put herbs in bunches.

Lyria was terrified and ran to grab it.

“I will do it.”

The potion tasted terrible if you put it in ignorantly without following the order.

Lillia took the herbs and laid them out on the table.

Dozens of herbs. Each one was so precious that the value was equivalent to Liria’s food cost for a month.

“Damian-sama, do you eat something like this every few weeks?”

“You have to eat it every day.”

After hearing the answer, Lilia felt skeptical about her life for a while, but she soon made up her mind.

Lillia took the brewed potion and headed for Damian’s room.

Damian, who gulped down the potion, said with a strange face.

“Does something seem different?”

“There is nothing missing. I brewed it slowly according to the recipe. How does it taste?”

Damian opened his eyes wide and stared at Lilia, then spoke in a bright tone.

“It is much better. I wish you well in the future.”

“Yes!”

Lillia lowered her head slightly and smiled brightly.

I felt good because I felt like I was playing my role for the first time.

At night, she started making potions in earnest with Damian in the manufacturing room.

Damian only asked about things he didn’t know about and received help from Lyria, and tried to do most of the work on his own.

It was comfortable for Lyria. Damian had a strong desire to learn and never forgot what he taught.

However, the reckless side was quite visible.

I gulped down the raw compound without asking and then ran out the door to vomit. It was something unimaginable for Lyria.

Moreover, the combination was completely messed up. In alchemy, there is a combination of ingredients that is like a formula, but I tried a bizarre combination that completely ignored it.

When Lilia directly said that this is a combination of putting out herbs and throwing them away, Damian replied calmly.

“I still have to do it.”

Damian never took his eyes off his notebook. Even if Lilia was curious about it, she never showed it.

A week passed like that. Lyria gradually got used to life in the mansion.

Damian and Silverin went out at dawn every day and came back in the evening, and at night they worked together with Damian to make potions.

Damian didn’t talk too much and was only focused on his work, so we couldn’t get close to him yet.

In the evening it got a little chilly. When Lilia tried to light the fireplace in the kitchen, the maids got scared and stopped her.

“It’s a correspondence box, so you can’t light a fire.”

The mansion had rules that were sometimes hard to understand. Why is the fireplace a correspondence?

When no one was there, I stood and watched, and a mysterious winged ball came and threw the letter into the fireplace and disappeared.

Lillia picked up the new letter.

I ran to Nana with this and asked, and she confirmed the seal of Eternia and told me to pass it on to Silverin.

Lillia was still afraid of Silverine, but since it was like an important letter and someone had to deliver it, she knocked on Silverine’s door.

“come in.”

Lillia approached her and politely handed over the letter with both hands. Sylverine immediately tore it open, read it, and motioned for her to go.

As Lilia greeted her and was about to leave, Silverine suddenly stopped her.

She was still afraid of Sylverine’s every word.

“Wait, call Damian.”

Trembling, she grabbed Damian by the sleeve and brought him to Sylveryn’s room.

The two started a conversation with serious faces.

Lillia was nervous and missed the timing to leave. Fortunately, neither of them cared about Lyria at all.

“They said they came to Wiesel now. There are only a few days left.”

“Yes.”

“And a special guest will come too.”

Lyria’s hair went gray and she couldn’t hear the conversation properly.

Words that I don’t know what they mean come and go.

Master’s class, examiner, sorcerer, wooden doll?

That night, in the manufacturing room, Damian left Lilia alone and stopped making potions and was lost in thought.

He muttered the word magician to himself a few times before asking Lyria.

“Do you know how to make sweet snacks?”

Lillia nodded her head up and down.

“Yes! Grandma’s recipe also has candy.”

Damian asked in a tone that didn’t expect much.

“Can you make one?”

When Lilia’s grandmother became weak and it was difficult to gather herbs, she used alchemy to make special candies and sell them.

Grandma’s candies were Wiesel’s specialty, and Lyria’s pride.

Lillia went straight to her room and brought her grandmother’s recipe book. I also picked up a bunch of flowers from the herb warehouse.

After working for about an hour, I gave the finished product to Damian.

Inside the bite-sized transparent sphere was a single petal.

Damian put the candy in his mouth and savored it quietly. I put a grain in my mouth of the seaweed I made with Lilia.

A subtle sweetness spreads on the tongue and a fresh floral scent spreads at the tip of the nose.

It is a nostalgic taste that has been forgotten for a while.

Damian spoke after a while.

“Your grandmother was a genius.”

Lyria felt as if she had been acknowledged and felt better.

“that’s right. My grandmother is a true genius… .”

Lyria suddenly covered her face with both hands.

Suddenly, I thought of my grandmother, and unexpectedly, tears welled up in my eyes.

“Like an idiot again, I’m really sorry… I’m sorry… .”

I didn’t want to show tears in front of Damian. I was afraid that I would consider myself an annoyance.

It was Damien who was more at a loss than Lyria.

He soothed Lyria while sweating.

Strangely, the more he comforted Lyria, the more tears came out.

He sat her down in a chair and barely calmed her down before speaking.

“Wait a minute.”

He left the workshop and went somewhere, bringing with him a box of tools and a piece of black metal.

“Put your fingers out.”

He wrapped a long piece of paper around the ring finger of Lilia’s right hand, checked the circumference, and cut the piece of metal accordingly.

“What is your grandmother’s name?”

As soon as Lyria called out his grandmother’s name to him, he started hammering.

The work of heating the iron, rolling it into a ball, and hammering it again continued for about 30 minutes.

Damian finished his work and said.

“Reach out your hand.”

He placed the finished object on Lyria’s palm.

It was a ring. Lyria examined the ring with a surprised expression.

It was entirely black, but if you turned it around, you could see a faint reddish glow from time to time. There were no special decorations or patterns, but even in its smooth, polished state, it was very antique.

Her grandmother’s initials were engraved on the inside of the ring where her fingers touched. When I put it close to the candle, only the initials twinkled red.

“wow… .”

“how is it?”

“It’s really cool.”

“It’s made of meteorite.”

“Fortunate… what?”

“A fragment of a star.”

piece of star. I don’t know much about metal, but just hearing the name made me feel special.

Looking at Lilia whose face was wrinkled from being distracted by the ring, Damian said.

“Lilia, can I use Grandma’s candy recipe?”

She nodded vigorously again.

“You can just use it. Grandma never cared about that.”

Her grandmother generously shared the recipes she had spent her life researching with the world. Thanks to that, she had to live in poverty, but Lilia never resented her grandmother.

She put the ring on the ring finger of her right hand.

Lillia liked the ring very much.

Soon after, the potion manufacturing process began as if nothing had happened.

She stretched out her right hand, as was her custom between works, and smiled happily while looking at the ring.

***

Two days have passed since then. Everything seemed to be going smoothly for Lyria.

But that night, Damian, whom I met in the manufacturing room, was agonizing with his head bowed and his head covered with both hands.

Having made various composites, he had stopped the rest.

Having overheard the conversation before, he had an important test ahead.

How important is the test, why is it that a person who doesn’t show his emotions well is showing such a hard time?

Embarrassed, Lilia approached Damian and asked.

“What happen?”

“… … The screening is tomorrow, but it hasn’t come yet.”

“What?”

He remained silent for a while before opening his mouth.

“… … The last ingredient.”