The boss lay in bed with all the color drained from his face, but the gaze he directed at me was sharp.
“…So. You’re the Crow I’ve heard about.”
Then he slammed me with an overwhelming wave of mana.
But as expected, he was nowhere near full health. His mana dispersed in less than a few seconds, and the boss broke into a hacking cough. Honestly, that was what happened when a sick man pushed himself.
“Are you okay? I think you should be resting.”
“Yeah… Seems Resina owes you a great deal. As her grandfather, you have my thanks. For what they’re worth.”
“Don’t worry about it. You look like you’re in a lot of pain, so please stay in bed. That’s what sick people are supposed to do.”
The boss’s name was Golaios Don Cineraria.
He was Resina’s grandfather and had blazing red hair and matching red eyes. The magic of powerful people was usually kept strictly secret, but the boss’s magic was so famous that it appeared in picture books for commoners.
Apparently, he wielded fire magic powerful enough to earn him the name “The Flame of Cineraria,” and had once reduced hundreds of soldiers from a neighboring country to ash in a single attack.
He was one of the rare people who benefited more from actively advertising his abilities than concealing them. Even now, the mana surrounding him was as powerful as Resina’s, so it was astonishing to hear that poison had left him weakened.
“Still… you didn’t flinch at my mana at all. At first glance, you barely seem to have more mana than the lowest of commoners… but that can’t be right. Judging by how your mana feels, your mana grade must be Special.”
“Yeah, I think it’s around there. I’ve never had the temple measure it officially, though.”
Mana grade was a system for ranking people based on the combined quality and quantity of their mana.
From weakest to strongest, the four broad grades were Low, Intermediate, High, and Special. In ordinary life, however, there were hardly any occasions when anyone needed to think about them. People in violent professions—like yakuza—apparently paid much closer attention.
Those with a strong noble bloodline were often Special grade. The grade tended to decline as that blood thinned, and most ordinary people were Low grade. Even an Intermediate-grade commoner was considered a genius.
When I was first reincarnated, I’d been at the very bottom of Low grade. But I’d trained relentlessly for the sake of my frontier slow life, and by now, I’d acquired enough mana to qualify as Special grade. It had taken an enormous amount of work.
“If you’re Special grade… are you the illegitimate child of some noble? What sort of people are your parents?”
“No, I just trained like crazy. My parents are ordinary bakers, and I think they’re both Low grade.”
“I see… Well, digging too deeply into someone’s bloodline is uncouth. If that’s what you say, we’ll leave it at that.”
Ah, he didn’t believe me. That was fine.
As I thought that, the man in a white coat beside the boss’s bed spoke while staring intently at me.
“A pleasure to meet you, Crow. I am the Cineraria Family’s chief medical officer… the person responsible for overseeing its medical division. My name is Medis Cineraria.”
“Yeah. Nice to meet you, Medis.”
“Likewise. Incidentally, I am the boss’s biological son—his eldest. That would make me Resina’s uncle. I look forward to working with you.”
Huh. So he was the boss’s eldest son.
But if he wasn’t the underboss, that meant he was the eldest without being chosen as heir. At a glance, he seemed perfectly capable, so why? Perhaps that wasn’t something I should ask about.
“Hmm. Looking at your face, I can more or less guess what you’re thinking… The Cineraria Family isn’t a noble house. We value ability over blood. Being the eldest son doesn’t make a person the organization’s heir unconditionally.”
“Oh, I see.”
“Several candidates for the next underboss are selected from among the organization’s younger members, then tested and whittled down. In our generation, my younger brother, Adols—Resina’s father, in other words—was exceptionally capable. He accumulated achievement after achievement from a young age and became underboss with everyone’s support. Considering the current chaos in the imperial capital, choosing him was a wise decision.”
Medis smiled gently as he spoke.
“The heir to the family needs ability more than blood. In other words, if you fully demonstrate your competence from now on, you too could aim to become the next underboss. I have high hopes for you, Crow.”
Ah, I see. I understood the logic, but the way he put it made it sound as though I was about to plunge headfirst into the yakuza organization’s succession struggle. I’d rather he didn’t. My frontier slow life would only grow more distant.
“Now then, I have a question born purely of my responsibilities as chief medical officer. With our current treatment techniques and alchemical prescriptions, we can’t expect the boss’s condition to improve any further. Yet you cured Resina after she was given the same poison. What exactly did you do?”
“Hmm, even if you ask me that… I didn’t do anything special. I’ve studied a fair amount of alchemy, so I administered the optimal alchemical potions for her condition. I made some adjustments to her meals too, but that was about it.”
At my answer, Medis placed a hand on his chin and tilted his head.
From my perspective, it wasn’t a particularly difficult treatment for any reasonably educated alchemist. Probably. I knew very little about other alchemists’ technical ability.
“Hmm… In that case, would you allow me to observe the treatment process?”
“Sure.”
“Naturally, I understand that you would want to keep your treatment methods secre— What?”
“I said sure.”
It wasn’t as though I possessed any advanced techniques worth hiding, and if he wanted to watch, I saw no reason he couldn’t.
If he could learn anything from an amateur like me, he was welcome to make full use of it. But realistically, I suspected I had vastly more to learn from Medis than he did from me.
And so, with the chief medical officer supervising me, I began treating the boss.
◆ ◆ ◆
This was the crafting room in my subspace base.
It contained the many crafting devices I’d built while recreating crafting games. Heh heh heh. As it turned out, this world’s alchemy was an exceptionally good match for crafting games.
That said, my alchemy was almost entirely self-taught.
It all began when I was little and got to help an elderly alchemist who lived nearby with his housework. He taught me the fundamentals of alchemy.
After that, I snuck into various places, secretly copied books on the subject, and deepened my knowledge in my own way through repeated experimentation.
Now, among all the devices I’d prepared that way, the one destined to become the heart of my frontier slow life was this!
“Ta-da! The crafting table!”
You couldn’t recreate a crafting game without one of these. It looked like a low table about thirty centimeters tall and formed a one-meter square when viewed from above.
Using it was simple. When I inserted a recipe cartridge into the long, narrow slot on the front, a circular alchemical spell circuit appeared across the tabletop. Then I only had to position the necessary materials on the points specified by the circuit and channel mana into it. In terms of its basic function, it was something like a fantasy version of a 3D printer.
A conventional alchemist drew spell circuits by hand on an alchemy table using magic-stone chalk, then created items in the same way. All I’d done was turn that process into game-like recipes.
While I worked, Resina entered the room.
“Crow, are you here?”
“Oh, Resina. What is it?”
“Hehe. I thought I’d watch you practice alchemy again. It’s been so long.”
Sure, she could watch as long as she liked… but while the work was fun for me, I doubted it was very interesting to observe.
“After I returned home, I became interested and asked to watch the family’s alchemists work in their workshop… The difference between their level and yours was enormous. I was honestly shocked.”
“Of course. You can’t compare me to professional alchemists. I don’t even have a qualification. I’m an unlicensed amateur.”
“…Hehehe.”
My alchemy was self-taught, after all.
Incidentally, I’d opened a subspace entrance in Resina’s study and was currently leaving it open so she could come and go freely. We went back and forth often enough that opening and closing it each time had become a nuisance. Besides, Resina had seemed to enjoy watching me work even while she was recuperating, so I’d assumed she would come in regardless.
I collected myself and looked through my recipes.
Recipe cartridges were about the same size as books, so I labeled them and arranged them on shelves like volumes in a library. As long as I had the necessary materials, I could easily recreate anything I’d made before.
“Hmm. If the boss was given the same poison as Resina… I’ll need to make new diagnostic magic tools too. I want to monitor the concentration of magical elements in his blood at all times.”
“Oh? What happened to the old ones?”
“I thought I should keep those on hand and install a separate complete set in the boss’s room. Medis will probably make better use of them than I could.”
I’d studied by reading books in my own way, but treating Resina was essentially my first practical experience. There had been plenty of trial and error. I wanted an experienced professional like Medis to teach me all kinds of things so I could deepen my knowledge.
I inserted a recipe cartridge into the crafting table, placed the materials on the spell circuit, and poured in my mana. As I created several diagnostic magic tools that way, Resina nodded thoughtfully.
“…Your alchemy really is different in all sorts of ways, Crow.”
“Is it? Well, my goal isn’t to become an alchemist. It’s to live a slow life on the frontier. Even if I can’t match a professional, I’m satisfied as long as my self-taught methods let me do what I want.”
“I see. Hehehe, that’s just like you.”
Resina continued watching me work with obvious enjoyment. What did she find so entertaining about it?
Well, for now… I intended to do everything within my power as well as I could.