Chapter 49: Truth

“Haah….”

Though pain like my intestines being ripped apart assaulted my entire body, I didn’t succumb to this kind of agony, having cultivated an iron will while learning Baldo.

As I slowly rose to my feet, bracing against the ground, I looked up at Hori, who was still recording something in her notebook even at this moment.

“Hmm… About 3 minutes from the onset of side effects to getting up…. No, since Professor Peter is still lying down, Ian might be the odd one out… If only we had more test subjects…”

Test subjects? Does she intend to inflict this horrific pain on others besides us?

Truly a terrible thing. To prevent any more victims, I placed my hand on my sword hilt and shouted at Hori.

“Hey!! What?! ‘Slight side effects’?! You call this slight?!!”

“Eek!! I-Ian!! Let’s talk this out like civilized people!! T-take your hand off the sword hilt!!”

Hori dropped her notebook and pen, startled to see me with my hand on the sword hilt.

“Forget civility, explain before I draw my sword. What the hell is this f*cking potion?”

“I-I told you at the start! There would be some side effects!!”

“You call this ‘some’?!!”

If I had used this potion when fighting Lobo, I probably wouldn’t be here now.

While the potion’s efficacy was admittedly impressive, the problem lay in its duration and side effects.

Five minutes was certainly a long time, but from the moment you drank it, you were essentially broadcasting to your opponent that this was temporary doping.

Therefore, if you used this potion, your opponent would avoid reckless attacks and play defensively, waiting for the effects to wear off.

And when they did, the unavoidable side effects would hit you, no matter how much you tried to avoid them.

At that point, it’s over.

Everything ends. You’d be showing an opening to your opponent for about 3 minutes – there wasn’t even a one-in-a-million chance of survival.

“You call this doping? It’s just gambling!! A gamble where you live if you succeed and die if you fail!!”

“That’s what makes it great!!”

“…What?”

“Ah…!!”

Hori quickly covered her mouth, as if realizing she’d misspoken. Watching her, I recalled the research notes I’d accidentally seen that day.

“Pascoatamin.”

“…!”

Hori flinched as I uttered the name of the poison used in torture.

“I didn’t mean to look, but why was that written in your research notes?”

“…Even poison can be used as medicine if you know how.”

“Hori, why are you saying something you know I won’t believe?”

Pressed like this, Hori’s shoulders slumped. With a resigned expression, she spoke.

“I suppose there’s no point in hiding it anymore….”

“What? What have you been hiding?”

“…I told you before that my family researched potions to enhance the body. In truth, things changed a bit starting with my father.”

“…What changed exactly?”

“…Yes, what my father researched was a potion that could grant power even at the cost of destroying the body… or more precisely, a potion that grants power by destroying the body.”

“…What?”

Did I mishear something?

I could understand the former, but what the hell was the point of the latter?

“Urgh…!! W-what… nonsense are you… spouting…!!”

Peter, having recovered from the side effects, spoke in a trembling voice, seemingly as dumbfounded as I was.

“Yeah, I don’t get it either… Explain it so we can understand.”

“Yes, but before I explain, Ian, don’t you think it’s cool when stories have someone defeating an unbeatable foe through reckless doping?”

“…The f*ck?”

I tilted my head, completely unable to predict where she was going with this. Hori began her story with a dreamy look in her eyes.

“It all started by accident.”

This was the story of before Hori’s father was gripped by that inexplicable madness.

“One day, as he was engrossed in his research as usual, my father accidentally created a potion.

This potion put tremendous strain on the body, but in exchange, it had the power to push the user’s physical abilities to their absolute limit.

At first, my father thought the potion was a failure. Even if you used it to win a battle, the burden on your body was so great that the chances of dying were far too high.

But its effectiveness was unparalleled among potions made with the same ingredients, so instead of discarding it, my father continued his research, trying to minimize the side effects as much as possible.

As he continued his research, on a night when rain poured endlessly, someone knocked on the workshop door, instantly overturning my father’s lifelong values.

His name was Zen. He was an herbalist and hunter who often fulfilled my father’s requests for medicinal herbs.

Though he came in the middle of the night, during a downpour, without an appointment, my father felt curiosity rather than anger.

And for good reason – one of Zen’s eyes was crushed, and there were vivid bloodstains on the roughly applied bandages.

The first words out of Zen’s mouth, as he dragged his battered body into the workshop, were an apology.

He apologized for coming so late at night without warning, and said he probably wouldn’t be able to gather herbs anymore.

Then he handed over a sum of money – not exactly a fortune, but far too much for a hunter to have – and asked:

Could he sell him as many potions as possible with this money?

My father naturally asked if he meant healing potions, but the answer was different.

What Zen wanted wasn’t to heal his wounds, but to strengthen his body.

As it turned out, what happened to Zen was a tragedy that could be called common, if anything.

While out hunting to train his son, they had the misfortune of encountering a magic beast.”

Zen, having lost his son and one eye, devoted everything to revenge.

He invested his entire fortune in equipment, and as a final measure to close the gap in strength even a little, he came to Hori’s father.

“Was it compassion? Or the desire to experiment with that accidentally created potion? Maybe it was both, or perhaps just one of the two.

My father accepted the money and gave Zen the potion he had dismissed as a failure, along with many healing potions.

Zen kept bowing his head in gratitude, then left the workshop clutching the potions to his chest.

At the time, my father didn’t think Zen would ever return.

I mean, of course not, right? Even with a potion enhancing his physical abilities, it was just a hunter going to hunt not just any beast, but a magic beast.

Days passed, but unable to get Zen’s story out of his mind, my father submitted a search request for Zen to the Adventurers’ Guild.”

Soon after, the guild’s scouts successfully found Zen’s corpse.

Upon receiving the report of Zen’s body being found, along with some unbelievable news, Hori’s father rushed to the site where Zen had died.

And what Hori’s father saw there was…

“Traces of a battle reminiscent of a war zone. The carcass of a magic beast torn to shreds, as if it had been tortured rather than fought.

And Zen’s corpse, wearing a bright smile despite being in terrible shape due to the potion’s side effects.”

The story was reaching its climax, but for some reason, I had a strong feeling that it wouldn’t end in any proper form.

“…So why did you start pursuing such an insane potion?”

“Yes, seeing that sight – someone throwing away their life to defeat a being far above them – my father was deeply moved. And he thought: Isn’t it cool to defeat a superior being with doping that carries severe risks?!”

“What the f*ck are you on about… Listening to you is giving me a headache.”

“Kuheh…!! L-like father, like daughter… Both of you are mad…!!”

In a rare moment of agreement between Peter and me, Hori continued.

“After that, my father researched potions with severe side effects but powerful effects! But that was practically like researching a whole new field!”

That’s right.

Who in their right mind would attempt to create potions with side effects as a premise, rather than side effects occurring during the creation process?

“It was as difficult as navigating the vast ocean with your eyes closed, but my father didn’t give up!!

And perhaps moved by my father’s research, God sparked a stroke of genius in my father’s mind!!”

“…What was it?”

“If you can’t deliberately create side effects, then you can mix in extremely pain-inducing poisons like Pascoatamin when making the potion to make it seem like side effects!!”

“You crazy b*tch!!!”

“You mad woman!!!”

What the hell? So the pain I felt wasn’t a side effect, but just because poison was mixed in?

No, more than that, did he actually create a potion that first increases physical abilities and then causes pain as time passes?!

I may not know much about potions, but who else would dare to attempt such a thing?

If a priest were here, he might have abandoned his faith, wondering why such talent was given to this woman.

“Get rid of that f*cked up ideology quickly!!”

“No!! Ian, you said it yourself! That bending or breaking in front of someone stronger isn’t a belief! This is my belief!!”

“No, if you’re going to have a belief, at least have a proper one like mine!!”

“Y-you two make quite the pair…. For the sake of humanity, please live happily ever after….”

“Ah, w-we’re not quite at that stage yet…!”

Hori’s face turned red with embarrassment, while mine flushed from feeling like I was about to lose my mind.

“Ian! From the moment I first saw you, I smelled the same scent on you as me! You also have a special ideology that ordinary people can’t understand, just like me!!”

“…?!”

“If that’s the case, aren’t we comrades who share the same spirit, even if we walk different paths?! Please continue to drink the potions and medicines I make from now on!! There might be terrible after-effects, but I’ll cure them all! So…!!”

Hori extended her hand as if asking me to take it, and I stared at it blankly.

“Hori….”

“Yes, Ian!!”

“Baldo.”

“…Baldo?”

As soon as that beautiful word left Hori’s lips, I drew Shadowstrike from my waist and swung it towards Hori’s head.

“Kyah!!”

Struck on the head by my Baldo, Hori collapsed to the ground like a marionette with its strings cut.

“Hori, your words are half right and half wrong.”

While we both have ideologies that ordinary people can’t accept, the ideology I hold is one that ordinary people are too foolish to accept.

On the other hand, Hori’s ideology is simply too insane to be accepted.

There was no point in saying this to an unconscious person, but I said it anyway.

“Now then….”

I turned my gaze from the unconscious Hori to Peter, who still couldn’t get up.

“You and I have some unfinished business, don’t we?”

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