Rishe considered the reason for Arnold’s expressionless remarks next to her.

“You mean on a mission? If you can get the time right, it’s easier to coordinate with the other teams.”

“Exactly. We can’t deal with things like bad weather if we’re working based on the height of the sun and nature.”

Arnold was probably standing on the battlefield only a year or so after this pocket watch was invented.

… His Royal Highness is so flexible in incorporating new technology into his strategy. He doesn’t believe anything blindly, but researches its usefulness himself to verify.

It stood to reason that a country that clung to antiquated concepts couldn’t win a war against Arnold. The defeats that were once invisible in her past lives were well understood when she was by his side.

Suddenly, Michel’s words popped up in her mind.

[“If only there’s someone who could use this drug the way I wanted it to be used…”]

“…”

A shiver ran down her spine and she involuntarily stopped walking.

Arnold, who stopped a few steps away, looked suspiciously back at Rishe.

“What’s wrong?”

“… Nothing.”

She took a deep breath and then walked abreast with Arnold again.

“Then I’ll take you up on your offer to borrow this watch. It would be useful to have it with me and keep track of time when I’m mixing and concocting medicine.”

“Oh, for concocting?”

“In fact, pocket watches were originally invented for this purpose. My former pharmacist teacher found it useful, much to his chagrin.”

“Hmm. Your mentor from Renfa?”

“Yes. Master is an oddball, but he’s a truly amazing pharmacist.”

Rishe nodded, her chest heaving.

Then Arnold asked, “In pharmacy, I don’t think a man from another country can compare to a native of Renfa. What does that man just now have that is better than your teacher?”

“Doctor Michel isn’t a pharmacist.”

Rishe replied while walking alongside Arnold.

“I heard that he mixes and formulates drugs as part of his research, and he has a background in pharmacology. He said that he knew nothing about medicine and that it isn’t his area of expertise.”

“…”

“But that’s just playing it down; he’s actually well-versed in pharmacy.”

Even as she expounded, Rishe recalled.

She first met Michel when she was staying in Koyor with her pharmacy mentor in her second life.

My mentor had always had a thing for Dr. Michel. He said, “Don’t mix my pharmacy with this man’s research.”

In the end, he said angrily, [“I and that guy just don’t click with each other in a similar way.”]

Exactly as he said, he was a master in pharmacology, and it seemed like she got involved with Michel, every time they met at Koyor Castle.

Thanks to that, when Michelle said earlier, [“I think I’m going to get along well with Rishe’s mentor,” she kind of chuckled.

Even so, I never thought I’d see Teacher Michel again here. I always thought he would be staying in Koyor for a long period of time in three years from now, but…

Thinking back to her surprise when she met Michel in the field earlier, she reflected on the laxity of her imagination.

Come to think of it, it was three years before I met him in my second life. It was a year before I’m asked to be his student in my third life. I couldn’t possibly say that Teacher hadn’t been in Koyor before we met.

As she was reminiscing about the old days, Arnold asked.

“Then who the hell is that man?”

“He’s …”

What would be the best way to tell Arnold?

She was a bit tangled, but there seemed to be no other way to describe him as he was, so Rishe explained.

“He’s the kind of scholar who studies various substances in this world to formulate new ones.”

“Formulate new substances?”

“Yes. And I heard he has developed a lot of medicine and equipment needed for research.”

He must have had an idea of such a profession. Arnold frowned.

“You don’t say!”

“Yes. In Doctor Michel’s case, his goal isn’t to create gold, but that’s the closest thing you can call it.”

Rishe looked up at Arnold’s eyes and said, “—- An alchemist…”

It was Michel’s profession.

And in her third life, it was a title that Rishe, his student, took on as well.