Chapter – 34
✠
“Hey, Lintz! Listen to this! Do you know what Dad just talked about with the treasurer?”
“I’m not sure… what did you talk about?”
“They’re establishing a new trading house under the Gillette family, and they want to distribute the potions I made first!”
“Wow, really?”
“Yes! And they offered an incredibly generous deal. They’re pricing the potions we supply with almost no profit margin!”
“Seriously!”
“They said it’s risky because Bianca is testing her business skills with this new trading house, but since she’s in charge, they trust her completely.”
“That’s true!”
I nodded enthusiastically, pretending to hear this for the first time while thinking to myself.
It was clear that Dad had made careful arrangements to ensure he wouldn’t feel burdened.
As expected, our Bianca is the best.
Watching Dad flustered over meeting delivery deadlines and quantities, Prinz asked,
“Dad, does this mean they’ll sell the apple-juice-flavored potions and steak-flavored supplements you make too?”
Prinz had been happily eating the less popular supplements. His diligent consumption had helped his body grow taller and stronger during his sword training.
“Yes! Somehow, she insisted that your potions must be included too. And I agree, it’s good that these will be the main products.”
“Wow! We’re going to be rich! What Ai makes is truly amazing!”
“Yes. Your dad is so proud of our daughter…”
Dad wiped away a tear for a moment.
“I have to work hard to make potions as good as Ai’s now.”
“I just put in a little effort. The healing effects can’t match Dad’s potions. I need to work hard to become a skilled alchemist like him!”
“You speak so nicely, our daughter. Let’s do our best together. The treasurer even said that if the business goes well, they plan to open a direct-sale shop.”
“Oh! A direct-sale shop!”
Having one’s own potion shop is every alchemist’s dream.
Dad’s eyes were filled with emotion.
“The Gillette Count has been so generous from the start. Ever since they took in a fledgling alchemist wandering with us, I’ve been so grateful…”
“…….”
Not quite, Dad. If it weren’t for Bianca, I’d still be underpaid with a stripped-down education and a slave contract.
“Thanks to her, we even got connected to a new herb supplier. The quality of the herbs lately is amazing. The previous supplier often sent rotten ones and never met deadlines.”
That’s because I’m supplying those myself.
“It’s amazing that they provide such high-quality ingredients while letting us keep almost all the profit… Isn’t that too little for the Count’s share?”
Ah, now Dad is starting to overthink!
It’s true that Bianca offered a generous deal to help our family, but since I’m supplying the ingredients, there’s no need for Dad to worry.
I decided to cut it short.
“I’m sure Bianca and the treasurer will handle it well. Managing the trading house isn’t something we need to interfere with.”
“Ah, right! I was just overthinking for a moment. Good thing Ai stopped me.”
We began discussing what potions to make. Since Prinz was in charge of tasting, we actively incorporated his opinions, and it felt like a family meeting.
Once the discussion was settled, we immediately started production. Only the mechanical labor remained.
Dad made the potions and supplements, and I handled the post-processing to give them the desired flavors.
Like many new entrepreneurs, our family was filled with hope as we talked.
Prinz started first.
“Ai, what will you do if you make a lot of money?”
Buy things in the reincarnator-only cash shop.
“I’ll pay for a knight’s training at the military academy and save the rest for the future.”
“Oh, Ai…”
Prinz’s gaze was full of admiration and emotion at the mention of the military academy. It had been six years of sending him off to the army in spirit, so I was relieved he seemed to like the idea.
Prinz asked Dad the same question.
“And you, Dad? What will you do if we become rich?”
“Well…”
The face of a single dad who had raised two children through hardship became wistful.
“I want to visit the house where I lived with your mother. I never had the time before.”
“…….”
“…….”
The atmosphere grew solemn.
Ironically, my possessed body also lost its mother early on.
The difference now is that she didn’t die giving birth to me—she went missing.
Tears began to form in Dad’s voice at that moment.
“Your mom… she appeared suddenly and disappeared suddenly…”
“That’s called running away… sniff.”
Prinz covered my mouth.
“Shh, next time we split a chocolate chip cookie, I’ll give you the bigger half.”
“……”
It was the same negotiation tactic I had seen before, just replacing coffee ice cream with chocolate chip cookies.
I mumbled through Prinz’s hand.
“It has to have lots of chocolate chips.”
“Got it. Shh shh.”
Prinz seemed to want to preserve Dad’s idealized memory, but in the possessed body, Mom didn’t have a good image.
‘A person who blocked the promising youth’s path!’
From the very beginning, Dad and Mom’s first encounter was strange.
It happened when Dad was being exploited at the Golden Ivory Tower.
One rainy day, Dad went to the forest to gather herbs for a living.
There, he found an injured woman and brought her to a hut to heal her. She pretended to have amnesia and ended up staying.
After being saved, she shamelessly took advantage of the struggling student.
Indeed, you shouldn’t just pick people up in the rain.
While reflecting on this, Dad’s recollection began.
“She had no sense of independence at all… but strangely, she was a good hunter. On the way back from forest walks, she would always throw an animal at me, saying she found it. And she’d nag me to cook a stew because she was hungry. I secretly cried a lot while preparing the animal innards…”
Even recalling that, Dad looked happy.
He really loved her.
I frowned even more.
But in my judgment, she was still a bad person who made a promising young man a widower.
Anyway, the family I had to care about after possessing this body was only Dad and Prinz.
I didn’t need to attach any affection to a mother I’d never met.
Seeing my displeasure, Dad defended her.
“She just seemed like she belonged to another world… Even if one day she regained her memory and returned to her original life, it wouldn’t be strange…”
No, that’s just trash.
“Don’t you resent her? She abandoned two kids and ran away.”
“Not at all. I’m just grateful she gave me such treasures.”
“…….”
Hearing that, I couldn’t argue anymore.
Then an unexpected report came in.
“I don’t think Mom abandoned us.”
“Prinz?”
“I’ve always thought it was a dream, so I never mentioned it… but I actually saw Mom the night before she disappeared. I even talked to her.”
“What? Really, Lintz?!”
Dad almost spilled a flask in excitement.
While I managed the situation, Prinz recounted what he witnessed.
“I had a nightmare and woke up in the middle of the night. Suddenly, Mom stood up next to me, looking irritated. She grabbed a hoe and a spade and went into the forest. I called out to her from the window, and I remember her saying something like, ‘Looks like some ignorant black beasts got out of our yard, so I’ll go handle it.’”
“…….”
Huh. Mom doesn’t seem ordinary.
“Mom must have had her reasons.”
“I remember, too. When I woke up, some farm tools used for herb farming were missing. Maybe she went after a wild boar or something…”
I strongly doubted she went after a wild boar.
What on earth is Mom doing?
‘Eh, whatever.’
Unable to solve the mystery now, I pushed it aside and refocused on potion production.
✠
After morning prayers, visiting the dungeon farm to collect herbs, and performing alchemy in Dad’s lab, my daily routine repeated.
There was a lot of work, but time was not an issue—in fact, I had extra time.
Thanks to the threefold time difference between the dungeon and the real world, I was able to weigh the herbs in the dungeon and bring them out, finishing the day’s production by early afternoon.
Bianca was busy with successor training classes, so I had personal leisure time. I decided to start an important project I had been putting off.
[<System> ‘Job Change Package (Combat)’ purchased.]
[<System> Selected ‘Aura Mastery’ to acquire ‘Aura Awakening Quest,’ ‘Physical Training,’ and ‘Weapon Training.’]
With the determination of buying a one-year gym membership, I opened the Aura Package.
[<System> ‘Physical Training’ unlocked Strong Body Lv.1.]
[<System> ‘Weapon Training’ unlocked Basic Wooden Swordsmanship Lv.1. Weapon skills automatically adjust with main weapon changes.]
[A quest to awaken Aura has appeared.]
[<Quest> ‘To become an Aura Master, first become a Sword Master!’
- Achieve Strong Body Lv.50 (1/50)
- Achieve Weapon Skill Lv.50 (1/50)
- Current main weapon: ‘Wooden Sword,’ sub-weapon: ‘None’]
This was the same as what I had seen when I gifted the Aura Package to Prinz.
Even awakening just Strong Body Lv.1 and Basic Wooden Swordsmanship Lv.1 made my body feel slightly different.
I grabbed a feather quill from Dad’s desk and swung it as a makeshift sword.
“Yap! Yap! Yaaap!”
My posture looked decent and fairly convincing.
But ten minutes later, I faced a serious problem.
‘The proficiency barely increases.’
