Chapter 5. Five Years Ago

They said that’s how business works.

Buy as cheaply as possible and sell as expensively as possible.

If I made potions myself and sold them at those prices, I could make enormous profits, but the world wasn’t that simple.

“Lionel really is quite capable.”

Whenever I was missing ingredients while making potions, Lionel always solved the problem. He would say he was going out for a bit, venture deep into Hildein Forest, and return with everything I needed in his hands. But trying to gather those ingredients myself, everything cost money.

“I suddenly miss you, friend.”

As I stared blankly into space and muttered, the clicking sound of shoes came from somewhere.

Today was my first day at work.

Standing in the main hall of the Magic Tower’s potion department laboratory, I turned my head toward the sound. A stern-looking woman wearing glasses was approaching me with a file in her hand.

“Miss Lina?”

“Yes, I’m Lina.”

I answered with slight nervousness. The woman looked back and forth between the documents and my face before briefly introducing herself.

“I’m Christina Rodein. Your department assignment hasn’t been finalized yet. You can’t do any magic at all?”

“I can’t do magic at all.”

She nodded as if confirming what she already knew, then tilted her head while looking at my face.

“You look strangely familiar.”

“Pardon?”

“It’s nothing. Follow me for now. Until your research assignment is decided, you’ll temporarily stay in the potion management room.”

I followed diligently behind the sharp-mannered woman. As we moved along the wide central staircase connected to the high-ceilinged hall, I felt strange. The sense of belonging to such a magnificent place made my heart flutter.

This is the real beginning.

My life at the Magic Tower. And my second life in Shutzen.

Walking down the corridor with a peculiar excitement, this straight path felt like my future life. It was like something that had been blocked was now wide open.

“Here we are. Various potions are classified by type, so take your time to understand them.”

Christina opened the door to the potion management room while giving me a simple assignment in her businesslike voice. At that moment, a pungent smell stung my nose.

What is this smell?

As I sniffed, Christina also narrowed her brows seriously, suggesting this wasn’t a common smell here. She entered without hesitation and immediately found the source of the smell, or rather, the troublemaker.

“Isola.”

“Ah! Ms. Christina!”

At the stern voice, a brown-haired woman who was doing something suspicious like a stray cat in the potion management room turned around in surprise.

Crash!

She dropped and broke the beaker she was holding.

Witnessing the accident, I closed my mouth and watched Christina’s reaction. It was as if a fierce northern blizzard was blowing around her.

Perhaps foreseeing her fate, the researcher called Isola rapidly offered excuses as Christina approached with clicking shoes.

“There are so many fascinating things here that I couldn’t help but explore. My body just gets itchy to research. I must have been born to research. Aren’t you curious what amazing thing might be created if we combine a mana potion made primarily from net lizard tails with a mana potion made from the rare jewel shark hearts that only live in the Nephrada Strait?”

Click.

The final footstep stopped.

“I’m not curious.”

“Ahaha… Then how about the ultimate poison powder that can only be obtained by slowly drying wild grass roots for 10 years combined with scorpion venom from the Palermo Desert…”

“Isola?”

“Yes?”

“Do you know how much the potion you just dropped was worth?”

“Well…”

Her voice became small, as if she had nothing to say even with ten mouths. Christina faced her with an expression that looked like not a drop of blood would come out if she were stabbed.

“If this happens again, I’ll report to the superiors and have your salary reduced…”

Just as the most terrifying threat of salary reduction was about to be completed, there was a sudden commotion outside. Amidst the murmuring, phrases like “Oh my! Such an honored visit…!” could be heard, suggesting someone important had arrived.

Standing at the doorway, I turned my head away from watching Christina and Isola’s confrontation. My eyes widened in surprise.

That man…

Afraid of making eye contact, I quickly lowered my head. A man of obviously high status was approaching me. No, he seemed to have business in the potion management room.

He seemed to stop in front of me, but then I saw his shoes pass by me and head toward the inner area where Christina was. Christina, who had been acting stiffly without any humanity until now, bowed respectfully.

“Your Highness.”

…Your Highness? What does that mean?

I closed my eyes tightly, feeling like crying. Isola’s surprised murmur pierced my ears like a confirmation shot.

“Wow. It’s the Third Prince.”

Please tell me this isn’t real.

Why is the man I met on the street being addressed as “Your Highness”? And the Third Prince who defeated the Black Dragon two years ago? Karsion, the empire’s hero whose name resounded throughout the continent?

I couldn’t believe it. The surreal situation made me dizzy.

Someone please make me faint.

<If you’re hitting on me, I’m not interested. You’re not my type.>

The voice that came from my mouth days ago echoed in my mind. I couldn’t have spoken so rudely. My memory must be wrong.

As I tried to deny reality, I heard the conversation between Karsion and Christina. I slightly raised my head to peek at Karsion.

“My medicine?”

“We’ve been delivering it through Doiman, but…”

“It’s not enough. Make more.”

“…Yes, understood.”

There was puzzlement in Christina’s voice as she answered. She seemed to wonder if he had really come all this way just to ask for more medicine.

Of course, that couldn’t be it.

Karsion suddenly turned his head toward me. Caught by surprise as our eyes met, I inadvertently took a sharp breath.

Please. No way.

Please don’t tell me he came to get me. Please don’t tell me the so-called hero pettily sought me out for revenge.

Despite my fervent inner prayers, my ominous premonition was, as always, spot on.

Karsion looked directly at me and said:

“And I’ll be borrowing one researcher.”

* * *

Is this some new form of t*rture?

I was now walking through the Magic Tower’s garden with Karsion. Well, “walking” applied only to Karsion—I was following him one step behind, like a guilty prisoner, carefully watching his reactions.

My throat felt dry because he had called me but wasn’t saying anything.

Was he that upset? Given the sky-high difference in our status, I should probably bow my head to the ground for committing such a grave sin first?

All sorts of thoughts raced through my mind.

But putting them into action was another matter.

As I fidgeted while staring at Karsion’s back, he suddenly turned around. Tense, I couldn’t think to apologize and just quietly swallowed.

A gentle breeze blew from somewhere.

With it, Karsion’s brilliant golden hair swayed softly. Was it because he was standing in the middle of the garden filled with statues? He looked like a statue himself. Perhaps it was because the dazzling sun had settled fully upon him.

As I absentmindedly stared at the sparkling man, Karsion opened his mouth.

“You said you have amnesia.”

I was startled when I heard these unexpected words instead of the rebuke for rudeness I had anticipated. Missing my chance to respond, I only moved my lips while he asked another question.

“Since when?”

“Since five years ago.”

Fortunately, I was able to answer properly this time.

Wait, but why that expression…

I lost my words seeing Karsion momentarily shaken with confusion. I could feel his inner turmoil through the air.

Why was he so agitated?

“…Do I resemble someone?”

Even as I carefully asked, I already knew the answer. I recalled his appearance when we met on the street days ago. The image of him completely disheveled, as if he had seen a ghost, was etched somewhere in my mind.

“Amnesia since five years ago? You have no memories from before that?”

“No, none at all.”

“What happened? How did you…”

Trembling leaked through despite his efforts to remain calm. Karsion was struggling to suppress his emotions to the point where he couldn’t finish his sentence.

While he had exuded an unapproachable authority when taking me from the potion management room, he had now returned to that vulnerable state from the street. He emanated such a different atmosphere that it was hard to believe he was the same person.

“A concussion. I fell from a tree.”

“A tree?”

“Yes. If it weren’t for my childhood friend, I might have died.”

Lionel was an excellent mage. If he hadn’t healed me in time, I might not be in this world.

“…Childhood friend?”

“A friend I grew up with in an orphanage since I was six. So…”

I carefully chose my words.

<Renéee Iblaine. You have amnesia?>

Karsion’s blue eyes, which had been shaking with confusion, flickered around my heart.

“There’s no way I could be someone you know.”