Weiss And Leopin (11)

The moment they left the alchemist’s tent, Leopin snapped at Weiss.

“Why did you do something like that!? If you drink two potions at once, there’s no telling what might happen!”

“What, so that was what you were worried about?”

“What do you mean, ‘that’…!? If it had gone badly, you might have died!”

“It was a potion recommended by an alchemist in an alchemist’s tent. If someone drank it and died, it would become a serious problem. Thinking about it that way, you should have known the worst-case scenario would not happen.”

Weiss continued while briefly showing something from his pocket.

“And I had properly thought about what to do if the worst-case scenario did happen.”

It was a half-drunk elixir.

Leopin suddenly lost all strength.

“What the… If you had an elixir, say so earlier…”

“I thought that if I said that there, even if I drank the potion down, that woman might not tell us.”

“That might be true, but…”

“Sorry for worrying you. In any case, we have taken one step forward.”

“Come to think of it, what are you planning to do by looking into where the mushrooms live?”

“Even I did not know about that mushroom, yet some mere kidnapper knew about it. In other words, I thought they might be someone who had lived near its habitat for a long time.”

“Ah, so that’s it! Then Kanoko might be at ‘Mother-Forgetting Mountain’…!?”

“There is a high possibility.”

As though he had expected Leopin to rush off on reflex, Weiss grabbed him firmly by the shoulder.

“‘Mother-Forgetting Mountain’ is too far to reach on foot. And evening will come soon. Even if we depart now, we will only get lost on the night road.”

“But…!”

“Let us go home for today. Then, by tomorrow morning, both of us will think of a means of transportation. Haste makes waste… Before holding burning passion, remain calm.”

“O… okay…”

Leopin reluctantly accepted it.

The two of them used a shared carriage and returned to the city they knew so well.

The next morning.

Weiss was standing inside a study.

The only light in the room was the light shining in through the window.

At the writing desk near the window, a backlit silhouette sat imposingly.

“Weiss, why did you try to take out a carriage? Without even a coachman, and all by yourself?”

“That is because I had promised to go out together with the Hero…”

The shadow spoke as though appraising him. “Hmm, not bad.”

“Your eye level, tone, gaze, attitude, eyebrows and lips, movements of your hands and feet… No matter which one I look at, there is nothing suspicious.”

“However,” the heavy words continued.

“Did you think such an obvious lie would work on me…!”

“No, Father! It is absolutely not a lie…!”

“It is that impoverished brat again, is it not?”

The gaze in the darkness gleamed dully, as though seeing through everything.

Just being stared at fixedly made Weiss shudder.

“P-please listen, Father! Leopin is not just some impoverished child! His hands are astonishingly dexterous, and in no time at all, he can do anything…!”

“…Then make him obey!”

A thunderous shout rained down, and Weiss became unable to move, as though struck by lightning.

“A Sage rules over everything! To a Sage, the poor are the same as livestock! Submitting to us, offering their flesh for our sake, and then dying is their greatest happiness!”

Weiss was drenched in sweat, as though beaten by rain.

Even so, he somehow squeezed out his voice.

“I… I understand…! I will… I will surely make Leopin obey…! No, he is already, without me…!”

At that time, Leopin was in the park where they had agreed to meet.

He had taken over one corner of the square and was struggling with scrap materials he had gathered.

“If I combine this and this, it will become a seat… Considering that it will run on mountain roads, I should add cushioning too…”

Leopin did not wipe away his sweat, nor did he wipe his dust-covered face.

When crafting, he concentrated so much that he could no longer see what was around him, and because of that, he had not noticed the presence of the person peering in at all.

“What are you making?”

After being spoken to, he finally noticed that someone was right beside him.

“Oh, Weiss. Good morning. This is a ‘foot-pedal cart.’”

“Foot-pedal cart?”

“Yeah. You ride it and pedal with your feet. My prediction is that it will not be as fast as a horse, but it should be faster than running, and it should also let us go far.”

“You built something that amazing during the morning? As expected of you, Leopin…”

“No. I was making it since last night.”

“What? You did not go home?”

“Yeah. You went through the trouble of finding out where she is, Weiss. Now that we’ve come this far, I really want us to save Kanoko with our own hands, no matter what… I was making it without sleeping, but there’s one part I just can’t get right.”

“Where is it?”

“I have to make two fairly large wheels, but I can’t do it well with only scrap materials…”

“All right, I will procure them. I had actually intended to bring a carriage from the mansion, but I can no longer do that, so I will do this instead.”

As soon as Weiss said that, he wandered off somewhere.

After a while, he came back, laboriously carrying ideal wheels in his arms.

“Amazing! Those are splendid wheels! Where did you get them!?”

After setting the wheels down, Weiss said, “Over there,” and pointed behind him with his thumb.

When Leopin followed the direction of his finger with his eyes, a fine carriage was stopped on the road along the park.

A carriage was originally a four-wheeled vehicle, but two of its wheels had been removed.

There was a coachman, but he had fallen fast asleep without even knowing the wheels had been stolen.

And both the coachman and the carriage looked familiar from somewhere.

“Could that be from that new teacher…?”

“Yes, apparently his injury has healed, and he is returning to work today. He is going to become our teacher, so surely he will forgive this much.”

“I see. If it belongs to a teacher, then it’s fine!”

With the mindset that what belonged to his teacher belonged to him, Leopin happily fitted the wheels in.

“All right, it’s done! Now we can go to ‘Mother-Forgetting Mountain’! This is thanks to you too, Weiss!”

“Ah… yes, that’s right.”

“What’s wrong, Weiss? You don’t look very happy… Did something happen?”

“No, it is nothing. More importantly, let us depart.”