Chapter 115: Our Store is Open for Business! – 4

Chapter 115: Our Store is Open for Business! – 4

“……Ugh, I seriously want to quit.”

“I agree…”

After meeting Christie, I started my original work again.

…Meaning, I started making potions again until I wanted to puke.

And after a few days, I had already completed some of them, but I didn’t go back to Christie.

……Honestly, I already blew up the training ground once, and if I went back every time I finished a few potions, the training ground really wouldn’t survive.

“Wow, now just looking at those stamina recovery foods makes me want to puke.”

“Me too… I never knew it would be this hard to only use the same ingredients my whole life. And not being able to sleep when I’m tired…”

“……You’ve been through a lot too.”

“Being an assistant… is tough.”

During that time, Lily and I were both completely worn out.

As for me, I was constantly pouring mana into potions, leading to extreme mental and physical exhaustion.

At first, when Lily made dishes with ingredients good for stamina recovery from the market, I felt energized, but now, not so much.

It perfectly matched the phenomenon of energy drinks losing their effectiveness if you drink too many.

As for Lily… well, she had to adjust to my constantly changing day-night schedule,

and she was also eating the same food as me, which was no different from energy drinks, so her waking and sleeping hours started to fluctuate wildly too.

Of course, I told her to just sleep, but then she’d scold me, asking if I was just going to collapse again in the middle of the night, so I had nothing to say.

……Because I actually did just collapse and fall asleep like that once.

An unexpected fact I learned from this was that my ‘Stamina Potion’ was quite delicious and didn’t get tiresome.

Eating it after a long time, I could taste the majesty of the all-nighter potion that I had forgotten for a while.

Lily’s food is certainly effective and energizing, but the potion, how should I put it… feels like it restores energy from a slightly different realm.

Oh, by the way, Lily also found it amazing and drank several bottles. …She doesn’t seem to know it’s the same potion sold in the store.

*…Why don’t you just take it easy? It’s not like you’re pressed for time this time, is it? In the first place, this isn’t what we wanted either.*

‘…How am I supposed to know when and how you’ll drop a branching point? Didn’t Melini get caught like that last time?’

*No, but still. We wanted you to make potions leisurely and chat with Lily, but what are you doing, a solo time attack?*

‘I’m trying to finish quickly and then rest.’

*It’s not that you actually found making potions more fun than you thought, is it?*

‘……’

Of course, I was intrigued because it felt like I had found my original passion from when I first fell into this world,

and I also felt some instinctive aversion to living a slow and leisurely life,

but anyway, I’m pushing myself like this because I’m worried about sudden branching points appearing.

It’s absolutely not because I’m the kind of person who finishes a slow, leisurely healing game in an instant with labor and grinding.

*Anyway, you’ve made a lot. It took you a long time to make the ‘Flame Veil Potion,’ ‘Scorching Potion,’ and ‘Meteor Potion’ before,

but this time you made the ‘Ice Veil Potion,’ ‘Cooling Potion,’ ‘Glacier Potion,’ and ‘Current Veil Potion,’ ‘Flash Potion,’ and ‘Divine Punishment Potion’ in just a few days.*

‘…When you list them all like that, the names really suck.’

*It’s naming that prioritizes intuitiveness. If all the names are grand, it just gets confusing.*

No matter how I think about it, it seems like the person who named those potions just did it because they were lazy and wanted to make it easy for themselves to recognize……

Well, since I rarely directly mention the names anyway, it doesn’t really matter if the names suck.

*By the way, you managed to make them all. Of course, it seems like there are still a few left… but we’ll just unlock the ‘Alchemist’s Treasury’ now.*

‘……What are you trying to make me do again? Or is a branching point really approaching?’

*…Why is ‘pure goodwill’ not an option?*

‘Honestly, don’t you guys know that better than anyone?’

I’ve been screwed over by the system enough times.

It’s probably because something is happening again that they’re unlocking the ‘Alchemist’s Treasury’ now.

*…*

‘…’

*……*

‘……What, really? You’re just doing it?’

*Just how far has our image fallen…?*

‘They keep their promises, but they’re crazy bastards who always throw more work at you than that.’

*…Haa. It’s sad that I can’t deny it.*

‘Your tone doesn’t sound sad at all?!’

Anyway, I got the ‘Alchemist’s Treasury’ back.

…Of course, I still need to make the ‘All-Purpose Solution Potion’ and the ‘Space Manipulation Potion,’ but let’s postpone that until after I make the potions for Christie.

And let’s postpone making those potions even further.

So, for now……

“Lily, let’s go.”

“…Huh?”

“Let’s go out. I’ve finished making all the urgent stuff now.”

“……Where to? The Knight Order again?”

“No?”

There was one thing I learned when I went out with Lily last time.

Perhaps because she grew up in a poor back alley, Lily surprisingly showed great interest in accessories and shiny things.

She seemed to try to hide her gaze, but every time we passed stores selling expensive-looking accessories, her eyes naturally drifted there.

“To buy accessories as a gift for my hardworking assistant!”

“…! Have you finally made all the potions?”

“Well… I have a few left, but as I said, I’ve made everything I urgently needed.”

“……You’re not going to war, are you…? If I remember correctly, all the potions you’ve made so far are…”

“Come on, that’s not important. Let’s just get out of this house. It’s stifling.”

So… I was planning to give my hardworking assistant a small gift she would like.

***

……Of course, I said that, but neither of us was in a state to go out immediately, so we decided to take some time to change clothes and tidy up the attic.

Honestly, even I thought the attic was a complete mess right now.

All sorts of potion ingredients were rolling around, and on one side, there were piles of failed attempts, things that wanted to be potions, or potion-like substances, and so on.

It was truly… a time to realize once again that all sorts of side effects could be attached to potions.

In my life, this was the first time I’d seen a potion whose side effect was that it could only be used by the user.

…The problem was that the potion in question was one that fried the target completely.

Well, besides that, there were also potions that reduced your own stamina when used, or potions that flew in the opposite direction of where you threw them, and all sorts of crazy stuff.

“By the way, Boss-nim, what should we do with these?”

“…I was just thinking about that. I can’t just throw them away.”

Honestly, I did think about it, but I cleanly gave up because I couldn’t predict what kind of mess would happen in front of my house if I did.

I don’t want to see sudden explosions, or explosions happening because something went wrong, or explosions happening because they mixed together, or any of that crap.

…It seems like all conclusions lead to explosions, but anyway,

“Later, after the store opens, should we spray them on troublesome customers?”

“…Do you want to get arrested for murder? Those things might look like bizarre liquids now, but they all have some power, you know.”

“Then, what about using them on ‘truly troublesome’ customers who break into the store and destroy it? You said those are mixed with all sorts of side effects, didn’t you?”

“……Throwing liquid with side effects, huh. It’d be easier to think of it as throwing a poison bottle.

By the way, Lily? Have you perhaps accumulated a lot of resentment before?”

“Of course! Not only did they dare to attack Boss-nim, but they also destroyed the store! Those kinds of guys deserve to get hurt a lot. They won’t die from this anyway.”

For a moment, a flicker of malice seemed to cross Lily’s eyes… but it must have been my imagination.

Of course, putting that aside, I wholeheartedly agreed with the idea of spraying this waste on ‘truly troublesome’ customers.

They’re useless anyway, so it would be good to use them to drive away troublesome people like this.

*…Human malice is truly mysterious. To the point of creating potions that didn’t exist in the world…*

‘You just think of it as throwing a poison bottle too.’

*……It’s funny that we even treat this as a legitimate potion. Congratulations. You’ve just directly created the recipe for a completely new potion.*

……And so, unintentionally? A new potion was created with the malice of two people.

Honestly, it’s less of a potion and more just waste in a glass bottle, but that’s it.

The system processed this waste once to make it a ‘potion’ that randomly inflicts strange debuffs on the target, and its lethality virtually disappeared.

Thanks to this, a ‘troublemaker repelling’ potion was completed in the true sense of the word.

“I wish other potions were this easy to make.”

“……First, don’t even mention the word ‘potion,’ and let’s just go out. Let’s forget everything for a bit, okay?”

“Okay!”

Lily and I’s outing and shopping began.

……And, as always, this outing was not going to end peacefully and without incident.