Chapter – 16
“You’re a spy.”
After everything was over, I sipped the juice the spy maid had brought me through a straw and spoke.
“If this keeps up, you’re going to get fired soon. You couldn’t even keep your promise to make sure I wouldn’t be disturbed for two hours?”
The spy maid lowered her head and answered.
“But I stopped them as much as I could, Young Lady.”
Well, from the beginning, there was no maid who could stop the Duke and the Young Master. That alone was worth considering.
“I managed to delay them by about ten minutes instead. I insisted that this was the time to trust you, Young Lady.”
I was deeply moved by the spy maid’s effort and immediately acknowledged the value of those ten minutes.
“Oh, really? Since when did ten minutes become such a long time worth bragging about? Do you know that every time I asked you to bring coffee today, it took you more than ten minutes? Hm?”
“I even added my personal opinion that you might be able to heal Lord Hou.”
I looked at the spy maid suspiciously. When my juice ran out and made a slurping sound, she quickly refilled it and continued.
“If I stay quiet, I only feel wronged, so I did a little self-promotion, Young Lady.”
“Hmm, that’s a good attitude.”
Anyway, I decided not to fire her for now. It wasn’t easy to find someone this strong.
<Child, thank you.>
Now recovered, Hou flapped his wings and spoke.
Hou even spun around once in the air, clearly in a good mood.
<I’m really glad I can help Skari again.>
Goodness. After absorbing all that poison and struggling so much, he was still only thinking about helping Grandfather again.
I couldn’t summon a familiar myself, but I still envied that endless affection Hou had for his master. So I kindly checked on his condition.
“Not all the poison is gone yet, so don’t get too excited and show off.”
<This much? I’ll recover fully in a few days! I am a purification summon!>
Hou laughed loudly and tapped my shoulder with his wing. He was so strong that I almost fell.
“Kiana.”
Only then did Grandfather, who had been sitting still on a small chair, carefully open his mouth.
“How in the world… did this…?”
It had been a long time since I saw him.
Grandfather was not very talkative… well, looking at him now, maybe not that little, but anyway, he was basically a kind person. He had never discriminated against me just because I couldn’t summon a familiar.
But because of the possibility that I might not be his real granddaughter, I always felt small in front of him. Especially after being scolded badly over the Melissa incident, it became even more awkward to face him. Even when he didn’t contact me at the Academy, I thought that was only natural. I didn’t resent him. I was probably not his real granddaughter.
But now, I felt very confident speaking with him. Even if I wasn’t his real granddaughter, I had achieved enough to stand proudly before him.
I sipped my juice and answered.
“It’s not medicine. It’s the power of science and magic.”
I held up a magic tool.
“A few days ago, I developed a targeted osmotic pressure magic device. The calculations are complicated, so it hasn’t been commercialized… but anyway, I used that.”
“…Osmotic pressure?”
“Yes. It uses the difference in concentration. The related formula is P=CRT…”
As I started flipping through a pile of parchment, Joshua quickly cut in.
“No. We don’t need the detailed explanation.”
That was disappointing.
But at the same time, it was familiar. People disliked stories about magical engineering. If I talked too long about what I wanted, even my achievements would be ignored. That was something only professors could get away with, and I was not a professor now.
So I explained briefly.
“Anyway, the concentration of poison in his body was too high for him to purify it himself… so I reduced the concentration using the magic tool.”
Magic engineering tools usually did not have extraordinary functions. They often had limitations or were very complicated to handle. That was why none of them had changed civilization in a revolutionary way.
This device also had the limitation of requiring complex calculations to be manually entered each time. Ordinary people would find it difficult to use.
‘But since I developed it, of course I can handle the calculations.’
Anyway, with the targeted internal osmotic pressure magic device I created, I was able to draw out the poison Hou had absorbed. It was exhausting calculating the changing concentration every time.
Even a small mistake could hurt Hou, so I had to concentrate intensely. If I got it wrong, I tried again. If it didn’t work, I tried once more. If I got stuck, I stopped and thought. Even when I felt completely lost, I picked up the pen again.
Still, it was something I could achieve with effort. That comforted me. Changing my appearance or summoning a familiar were not things I could do just by trying hard.
“Thank you…”
Grandfather murmured blankly.
“I… haven’t really done anything for you.”
“No, you’ve done a lot.”
I answered firmly.
“Thank you for allocating a budget to me every month. Just because I carry the name of Frelai, I could receive money simply for breathing. I was very grateful.”
“….”
He had always given me a generous budget, even though I wasn’t affectionate and only caused trouble. Whenever the Academy’s budget ran short, I used that money to buy expensive research materials.
Thinking about it now, the Academy’s budget always seemed short… and it annoyed me a little that the equipment I bought with my own money was still left there.
Grandfather cleared his throat a few times before responding.
“Ahem. Now that you mention it, yes. I did allocate generously within the limits of fairness. I hope you do not forget that.”
Uh… it was almost the first time I heard him speak so long.
While I blinked in confusion, the head maid standing behind him turned pale. She silently mouthed, “That’s not what I meant by telling you to show off…” and sighed deeply. It seemed she had given him some unnecessary advice about our relationship.
“A-anyway, welcome back. If you had contacted us, I would have come out to greet you.”
Grandfather awkwardly continued, rolling his eyes. Since this was our first meeting in years, he probably thought we should start with small talk. Even though the reunion had already become a mess, we still had things to say.
“What was the reason you suddenly returned to the ducal residence—”
He stopped himself and shook his head.
“No, no. Of course this is your home. You can come anytime. It is strange of me to even ask the reason.”
“Yes. Six years ago, I did run around with a sword and got scolded badly, but I wasn’t actually kicked out.”
Grandfather smiled faintly and said proudly,
“Well, still, you are even trying for a professor’s position at the Academy. That is quite impressive—”
“Grandfather, I’m not going to become a professor.”
“That’s a good choice. Who would even recognize a professor from that countryside Academy? Just getting a doctoral degree as a hobby would already be very valuable—”
“I’m quitting the doctoral program too.”
“Good. Why bother with such useless things? It’s all pointless.”
“……”
Just like that, Grandfather harshly criticized my entire previous life. I suffered serious internal damage and couldn’t say anything for a moment. Silence filled the air.
In the end, we awkwardly looked around the devastated greenhouse. The poison that had been drawn out was so strong that even the nearby plants had all withered.
“How did Hou end up purifying such an enormous amount of poison?”
Joshua asked in surprise.
“It’s hard to even obtain this level of poison… It’s only because it’s Hou that he survived. If a person drank this, wouldn’t they disappear without even leaving a body? I’ve never seen poison like this.”
Grandfather said nothing. Hou also kept quiet, pretending to be busy.
<Anyway, Skari!>
Ignoring Joshua’s question, Hou flew over and hugged Grandfather.
<I’m almost completely recovered! There’s still some poison left in my body, but I can expel this much on my own.>
Since it was removed through osmotic pressure, it wasn’t possible to remove one hundred percent completely. As the poison was expelled, the concentration difference decreased. But as Hou said, he could purify the small remaining amount himself.
Grandfather watched Hou’s lively wings with deep emotion. Just two hours ago, he couldn’t even open his eyes properly.
After gently stroking Hou’s wings, Grandfather looked at me again.
“Kiana, thank you.”
“Yes.”
I nodded with satisfaction.
