3

“Naranda. Then you are saying that if it is Beth, it will be possible.”

In Naranda’s laboratory, before several precious plants of S-class finish lined up on the desk, Master Ezra quietly murmured.

The laboratory, receiving the soft light of morning, was peace itself, but in Ezra’s eyes dwelled a dark shadow ill-suited to such a peaceful morning.

Naranda’s laboratory was a path for the wind.

She opened the large window.

Whenever the wind passed through, the sound of leaves rustling like a murmur of greenery felt pleasant. In the distance, the chirping of small birds could be heard.

Naranda let her long, beautiful purple hair play in the wind, then turned back to Ezra and nodded.

“Yes. If it is Beth. And if it is Noel-sama, refining the elixir is not a dream.”

Master Ezra was a great magician called a sage in this country.

In front of Beth, he was merely a good-natured old man of unknown age, but it was said that he had operated behind the scenes as a staff officer for the magical army under a king several generations ago.

Master Ezra folded his wrinkled hands together and let out a great sigh.

“The flame of Princess Eugenia’s life will soon go out. If she does not take the elixir by the next day of the red moon, that pitiful princess will…”

There, his words stopped.

Naranda took over his words.

“Ezra-sama. I hear the royal family is planning to denounce Noel-sama, the eldest son of the Temple-faction Saratoga marquis family and the son of the great saintess, together with the marquis family, by holding him responsible for her death.”

She let out a deep sigh.

“If the elixir is completed and the princess successfully awakens, then this time, they will use that achievement to establish the engagement with Noel-sama and bring the Saratoga marquis family into the royal faction. From the royal family’s perspective, no matter which result comes about, it will be a good opportunity to place the Saratoga marquis family under royal control.”

Although Naranda was only a distant relative, she held a seat at the very edge of the royal family.

As a member of the royal family, she knew very well that no matter which way Noel fell, he could only become a pawn of the royal family, which wanted to control the Saratoga marquis family’s influence.

“How convenient that a suitable magical beast appeared in the royal family’s forest. Come to think of it, the royal family had a magical beast tamer in its employ. And that magical beast tamer’s familiar was a spider, was it not?”

Naranda did not answer Master Ezra’s words as a former staff officer of the magical army.

And Ezra layered on more words.

“Princess Eugenia’s mother is from a foreign country. Considering that it was a political marriage from a vassal state, and that the queen’s father has lost power in her homeland, as a use for a politically low-value third princess, it was truly wise.”

“The princess and Noel-sama are both pitiful. From the very beginning, their lives have never been anything more than political pieces.”

“But for there to be prospects of completing the elixir, that must be a happy miscalculation for the king. The Temple will not stay silent, but after continuing to treat the great saintess’s son coldly, it is hardly as though the great saintess’s son will hand the elixir over to the Temple now. The value of holy power, which the Temple monopolizes, will fall, and the political power of the royal family that possesses the elixir will increase. No matter how it turns out, it is a good story for the royal family.”

Master Ezra picked up the underground stem of a medicinal tree that Beth had delivered the other day, which had been placed on Naranda’s desk.

Unlike an ordinary result, the underground stem was misshapen, bending and twisting freely to the right and left, but it seemed she had not corrected it while raising it.

“If you prepare the soil in the direction the roots want to go, they will naturally become good ones.” Beth’s smile as she had said that warmed Ezra’s heart. Of course, the finished result was S-class beyond comparison.

“Truly magnificent. There is no mistake. She is the legendary girl with a Green Thumb. A gardener unmatched in her age. Even finding Beth alone would be a great benefit to this country, and yet, how pitiful. Are we going to drag that good-natured country girl, too, into this country’s blood-soaked whirlpool of politics?”

Then Ezra took out from a nearby bag a highly poisonous mushroom said to propagate only on sacred trees and placed it on the desk.

Naranda nodded and softly cast appraisal magic on it. It was S-rank.

Both Ezra and Naranda wore difficult expressions. There was only one ingredient left.

“Now then, this is my share. All that remains is to wait and see what Noel-sama says.”