I Shall Survive Using Potions! Volume 2 Page 2

  “Ah, really? That’s wonderful news!” Even though she was the one to bring it up, Shaela was shocked to learn things were actually going well for the Goddess.

  Did the plans I thought up for her end up working?

  “...”

  But Kaoru added nothing further to the conversation.

  On to the next topic then...

  “Regarding the statue of Lady Celestine you asked about before... It was decided when it was commissioned that, since she’s the Goddess who brought about abundant crops, it seemed more natural to give her a more abundant figure to match. That’s why they didn’t want her to seem so pitifully flat...”

  “...I see,” came Kaoru’s frigid reply.

  Shaela’s gaze dropped to Kaoru’s chest, which was the exact moment she realized the horrible, horrible mistake she’d just made.

  Pitifully flat... Pitifully flat... Pitifully flat...

  Shaela began sweating as the silence stretched out between them.

  “W-Well, um, let me introduce you to the children. Starting from the left—”

  “No need. I won’t be able to remember them anyway.”

  “Oh...” Shaela was at a loss for words.

  She shot down my foolproof plan with the kids! I was hoping to switch the conversation to them if I were ever in trouble, but now I don’t have that option anymore... It’s still too soon to bring up going to the temple, since I can’t be too upfront about it. I have to at least try and warm her up a bit more with some normal conversation first...

  That’s when the children came to her rescue.

  “We wanna hear about what the Goddess is like!”

  “Oh, me too!”

  “I wanna hear about her as well!”

  Well, I can certainly see why the archbishop chose these kids. Their looks aren’t the only good thing about them, it seems, Shaela thought to herself, impressed.

  Kaoru turned toward the kids. “All right, listen. Let’s pretend that you guys had a super rich friend.”

  “““Huh?”””

  “What would you think about people who came chasing after you just to ask you about your rich friend instead of you? Do you think they’d make good friends? Would you even want to be friends with them? And while we’re on the subject, do you think you would trust someone who’d just blab about their friend to a complete stranger?”

  “““...”””

  “Well, since it looks like we don’t have anything to talk about, I’ll be taking my leave now,” Kaoru said as she stood up from her seat. Shaela and the kids stayed silent, not moving a muscle.

  It was only after she left the restaurant that Kaoru realized something: “Oh... I didn’t even order anything, huh.”

  A few days later, Francette came around to the workshop.

  “Kaoru, Earl Adan’s family has arrived in the capital.”

  That was exactly the news Kaoru had been waiting for. She made sure to confirm they’d be meeting tomorrow, right after lunch. She’d also made sure to tell Francette and the others not to call her “Goddess,” an “angel,” or even a “friend of the Goddess.”

  The next day, Kaoru was wearing the hand-me-downs she’d “borrowed” from Baron Renie’s daughter as she stood in front of the residence Earl Adan owned in the royal capital. It was giving her that “daughter of a poor, lower-class noble family” look, which was just what she was going for—although no matter how low-ranking she was supposed to be, a noble girl would never usually be out walking around by themselves.

  After using the knocker on the door to announce herself, she was shown inside by a steward, who proceeded to guide her to a room deeper in the house.

  She had her pepper spray handy just in case anything happened, but she had a backup plan as well: In the event that she didn’t come out of the earl’s mansion by sundown, she’d already given instructions to the children of the Eyes of the Goddess to send word to the temple, Viscount Lyodart, and the workshop that she’d been captured by a noble, and to cause a commotion by shouting that out loud in the central plaza. That was the only time they could go out of their way to call her “the Goddess’s friend.” Just using the name “Kaoru” wouldn’t have much of an impact since people weren’t all that familiar with her under that name. She wasn’t all that worried about any of that coming to pass though.

  By the time Kaoru arrived in the room, all the other members of this meeting were already gathered there: Earl Adan; his son, Hector, and daughter, Yunith; the captain of his envoy of knights, Robert; Francette; and the king’s brother, Roland.

  All right, time to get plotting...

  There was nothing Kaoru enjoyed more than putting a good plot together.

  There was a chance some people in this room would realize she was the same person as the silver-haired goddess they’d met in the forest, while others had been healed or had their family members healed by her blessings. Basically, it was a gathering of people she was worried about leaving alone too long, as well as people she knew would have an almost zero percent chance of betraying her.

  Kaoru explained everything to the group as follows:

  She was a friend of Celes who had come here from another world because Celes suggested to do so herself, and had taken on the form of a human to make the request. That was all a secret, so she wanted them to keep that on the down low. Right now, she was just pretending to be a normal human who had some healing powers thanks to being friends with the Goddess, making sure to put aside how any of that made her even a remotely normal human being.

  She made clear she had no intention of backing someone in power, either. However, though she only wanted to grace the people with some of her blessings, it had become much harder to do so after all the commotion from earlier. So, for that reason, it wasn’t like she even wouldn’t consider it...to a certain degree, that is.

  After much deliberation among the group, they decided upon a number of things: the only official point of contact she would allow the royal family, aristocrats, or people from the temple to speak with her would be through the Lyodart household. The viscount and his family only knew of the public image she’d established, so there wouldn’t be any changes with them. The unofficial channels, on the other hand, would be through the Adan household, or Roland, with communications between him and Kaoru delivered via Francette.

  At Roland’s request, no one else was to know the truth besides the king. It would be harder for them to move around freely if they didn’t at least tell him, since it may otherwise spark suspicions of them plotting a rebellion or something of the sort. Roland had already turned down the throne once so there wasn’t any need to worry about that, but it was better to play it safe here. You could still find people with rocks for brains in the nobility and royal family, after all.

  At Francette’s rather insistent urging, a name was given to the group of people gathered here: The Light of the Goddess. Kaoru protested vehemently against the idea, but since Francette, Roland, and even Hector and Yunith agreed on the name, it passed due to majority rule.

  And so, they officially began their operations.

  The first order of business regarded the sale of healing potions. They would be sold at affordable prices, but would only have limited effects which would expire if they weren’t used within five days. How they were produced and circulated would be a national secret, and the royal palace would act as the distributor.

  The five-day expiration date was to prevent people from buying them all up or so they could be used plentifully in times of war. The most beneficial thing they could be used for was to heal injured hunters or soldiers, and cure anyone else who fell ill. Since they wouldn’t be that strong, they wouldn’t be able to heal old wounds or scars that had already healed, but they should still be plenty useful enough for the common citizen.

  Any true miracle would call for the “tears of the goddess,” which, as the name suggested, had to be created with the power of a goddess. The healing potions would be Kaoru’s way of sa
ying that while someone may not be worthy of receiving the blessing of the Goddess, they could at least receive a drop of her mercy in the form of a potion.

  Kaoru then remembered a couple other things she wanted to bring up with everyone.

  First off was that the Light of the Goddess had an outside group working alongside them, the Eyes of the Goddess. Though they were working for free at the moment, she announced she had plans to bring them on as formal members and provide them with proper salaries. As for item number two, they would use the Abili Trade Company to handle the trade routes for the potions.

  And with that, Kaoru had finally managed to find a way to begin selling her potions.

  “Excuse me! Is Kaoru here?”

  Francette had shown up again at the workshop, but this time a bit flustered.

  “What’s wrong? The potions shouldn’t be going on sale for a while, right?”

  “N-No, this is about something else. A diplomat from a neighboring country arrived here yesterday...”

  I had a bad feeling as soon as I heard that. I mean, with four countries next to this one, it couldn’t possibly be...

  “From which country, exactly?”

  “The Kingdom of Brancott.”

  Aghhh, I knew it! My head drooped as far as I could let it.

  “So that diplomat you were talking about...”

  “Believe it or not, I heard it’s the crown prince himself, of all people!”

  Ahhhhhh...

  There was no way the prince and whoever else came with him were going to do much in the way of being “diplomats.” It seemed more likely that they’d barged in, declaring they heard a girl named Kaoru had arrived here from their country and asked to meet with her, probably causing headaches for the king and his ministers in the process. They most likely couldn’t just flat out refuse the crown prince of one of their neighboring countries, but they also couldn’t let him meet with me without knowing why he wanted to do so.

  But there were still plenty of people who knew where to find me. There was a chance someone was either trying to get closer to the prince or hoping to start something between the prince of another country and would tell him where I was. That was why Francette had come here to warn me, on Roland’s orders.

  “...Right. Dealing with them is gonna be a pain, so let’s get them to go back as soon as humanly possible. We’ll tell them to meet us at the Lyodart household since I don’t want to trouble everyone at the workshop. I’ll leave it to them to decide when we meet, but make sure it’s after lunch, please.”

  I couldn’t just skip out on making lunch for the workshop; it was my job, after all.

  “Understood. I will pass that along to Sir Roland.”

  After hearing what I had to say, Francette took her leave.

  It was that evening when I heard from the Lyodart household that my audience with the prince would be held just two days later.

  Prince Fernand was in high spirits. Not only was he finally going to see Kaoru, but she had apparently declared she’d never come to the royal palace. Instead, they’d be meeting at the residence of some unimportant-sounding viscount. It seemed like the temple wasn’t even going to get involved either.

  “If the only ally she’s found here was a mere viscount, I’m sure they should hand her over if we pressure them hard enough.”

  “That all depends on what Kaoru wants, not the viscount. Don’t forget what happened last time, Fernand,” Fabio warned him.

  “Ngh... I suppose you’re right...”

  Though he was the one who gave the warning, even Fabio didn’t think what Fernand suggested was totally out of the question. From what they had their subordinates dig up, it sounded like Kaoru had become quite infamous throughout the country. It must be hard for her to live any semblance of a normal life here. The only rumor of her that had spread throughout Brancott was that she was a girl devoted to the prince, but the details of what actually happened were known only among the nobility...mostly because the verbal thrashing Kaoru gave him would be considered disrespectful.

  Since her name and appearance were being kept secret there, no one would connect the girl named Kaoru who had been working at the restaurant with the same girl covered in blood from the night of the party. That’s why everyone would think she was an entirely different person, meaning she’d be able to live a normal life back in their capital. The only problem was if this country would allow them to take her back.

  According to the other diplomatic envoys they’d sent out before coming here, no one from the country even attempted to make a move to get her. It wasn’t that they didn’t have an interest in Kaoru, but that they just plain couldn’t do anything to her. Just having Kaoru in their country would be a boon, especially since she’d received the favor of the Goddess. Having the blessing of the Goddess was one thing, but with her knowledge, it couldn’t be overstated how much of an asset she’d be if the royal family could just get on her good side.

  How much of that did the royalty and upper echelons of this country already realize? Just what sort of importance did they place on Kaoru compared to the crown prince of Brancott?

  Fabio couldn’t quite get a read on that.

  “At any rate, we should avoid being too overbearing or saying anything rude. We’ll take things slow, being as amiable as possible to try and win her over. First we’ll ask her what her situation is like here, then we apologize for what happened before and offer her our assistance. In the end, she has to be the one to say she’ll return to Brancott.”

  “All right.” Fernand nodded in response. “We’ll go with that.”

  Two days later—

  Fernand, Fabio, and Allan were accompanied to the residence of Viscount Lyodart by Roland and Prime Minister Corneau, protected by an entourage of guards. There was no need to use the knocker when they arrived, of course, since their welcome committee was already lined up outside the viscount’s residence to meet them.

  Usually, it would only be natural for the viscount to come and greet him in person, considering the prince’s status. However, it was the prince who was coming to visit the viscount, so the viscount was waiting to receive him inside his manor instead.

  Leaving several guards posted in front of the mansion and in the entranceway, the group was led further inside. Once they arrived in the reception room, they found Viscount Lyodart and his third-oldest son, Achille, waiting for them there.

  After sitting down and exchanging the briefest of greetings, Fernand was quick in asking to meet with Kaoru. Acknowledging his request, the viscount gave an order to one of his servants. The doors to the room opened, and in walked a single girl.

  “““Kaoru!!!””” the three shouted as they jumped up from their seats.

  “Wh-What happened to the injury on your face?”

  “Thank goodness you’re all right...”

  The girl stared back at them blankly before a sudden look of realization crossed her face.

  “Oh, you all know my little sister!”

  “““Huh?”””

  “My name is Alfa Kaoru Nagase. It sounds like you’ve already met my little sister, Mifa Kaoru Nagase.”

  “““WHAAAAAAT?!”””

  “Oh dear, did she not mention me? They sent people after us right as we fled our home country, which is why we split up and went our separate ways. I was hoping we’d meet again someday, but who would have thought she’d settled down in the country right next to me... Is she doing all right?” Kaoru asked back, glossing over what they said about injuries and her being all right.

  “W-Well, um...”

  The three didn’t know how to respond. They couldn’t just say how she’d injured herself and suddenly gone missing.

  “Would one of those two over there be her special man?”

  Shock was the only word to describe the look on Allan and Fabio’s faces as she said that.

  “Wait, why them?!” Fernand balked, seemingly unable to comprehend what she just said.

 
“They’re both her type: strong, bold men who look like they have some integrity to them. They also seem kind, with good heads on their shoulders. They’re the type of people she’d enjoy talking with. They also seem like the type of guys who’d become even more ruggedly handsome with age.”

  “B-But, I’m—”

  “She’s always hated self-centered, flashy guys who only care about themselves, especially ones who look like age will get the better of them.”

  Fernand fell into shocked silence at her words, while Allan and Fabio could only send looks of pity his way.

  “Then, if you don’t mind me asking, can Mifa also use the Goddess’s healing power?”

  “Alfa” Kaoru shook her head in response.

  “No, I’m the only one who has befriended Celes. Do you think she picks her friends by how they look, perhaps? Even if we look alike, my sister and I are completely different. We ran away from our country because we were both being targeted: me for my healing powers, and she for her vast knowledge and talent. But this is quite the predicament...” Kaoru mused aloud. “I came here in the hopes of making this country more prosperous, but it looks like she’s going to beat me to the punch if she’s been in the country right next to me this whole time...”

  The three men grimaced in unison at her words.

  “Then how about you come to the Kingdom of Brancott as well, Alfa? You could live together with your little sister!” Fabio insisted.

  “I’m afraid that won’t work,” Kaoru replied, shaking her head at his invitation. “We’d only upset the balance of both countries if we stayed in the same one together. Doing so would lead to all sorts of quarrels and disputes, and I don’t want to have to flee for my life again because of it. Besides, I’m sure I’ll have another chance to see her again someday.”