14

Because she was worried about the condition of the potted plants Noel had transferred with magic, Beth had been fidgety and restless from early the next morning.

In the end, although it was very early in the morning, Noel gave a wry smile and decided to take her to the greenhouse.

The detached palace was only a short walk from the inn.

“Look, that is it, Beth.”

“My, Noel-sama, it is quite a large greenhouse!”

Beth looked in the direction Noel pointed.

As soon as they entered the single road leading from the inn to the detached palace, she saw a large glass-walled building standing adjacent to the detached palace.

The shape of the greenhouse was quite different from the one at the Magic Institute.

It was a large building, about the size of a small church, and for a greenhouse, it was remarkably tall.

Perhaps it was because tall trees had once been planted there.

When Noel opened the lock with magic, the greenhouse door opened with a loud rusty sound.

No one had likely used it for some time. From inside the greenhouse came the earthy scent of air that had not been ventilated.

They entered the interior of the greenhouse. The inside was quite spacious.

Reddish-brown soil and gardening tools that had probably been used long ago were scattered here and there.

Every tool was of the highest quality. The grasses that had withered and been left behind were all medicinal herbs.

This place had probably functioned as the medicinal herb garden of the royal family’s sanatorium.

Transfer-magic marking stones had been placed on the reddish-brown soil, and inside the carefully drawn transfer magic circle, the enormous number of flowerpots Beth had gathered were packed closely together, not a single one broken.

Apparently, Noel’s transfer magic had worked properly.

“Every one of them is healthy.”

Beth checked each pot one by one and felt relieved.

In the afternoon, seedlings and seeds of the medicinal herbs needed for Noel’s potion-making were supposed to arrive.

Noel had ordered all sorts of tools and fertilizer that seemed necessary for caring for plants together with the seedlings, so Beth’s work would likely begin in earnest from the afternoon.

To be honest, Beth had been a little bored doing nothing but walking through the forest, so she was happy to be given work.

“When my work at the detached palace is finished, I will come to pick you up right away. Will you be all right working here alone for a while?”

“There seems to be a lot of work, so I will do my best! In this greenhouse, I think all these children will grow in wonderful condition!”

“I see. My fiancée-dono is truly reliable. Then I suppose I will devote myself to helping Beth as if I had become a gardener’s apprentice.”

Saying that, Noel, who had recently become thoroughly overprotective, carefully adjusted the greenhouse temperature with magic, opened the skylights with magic, and cast cleaning magic on the glass, preparing the place so Beth could work easily.

He magically carried into the greenhouse one thing after another: the comfortable chair he had ordered so Beth could rest in the middle of work, the lap blanket he had brought from the inn, books, and more. Once he was generally satisfied, Noel left for the detached palace, seeming reluctant to go.

Most of the potted plants were the many varied volcanic plants Beth had found in the forest.

To the people nearby, they were plants they saw as a matter of course, a kind of weed, but to Beth, they were all plants with temperaments she was seeing for the first time, and that excited her.

After seeing Noel off, Beth began caring for each potted plant one by one, slowly speaking to them as they breathed deeply in relief at finally having been moved from the inn room to a good environment.

“My, in hot places, you have leaves that heat your body together with the heat. Oh, and you take nutrients contained in the steam from the steam itself, how wonderful.”

What especially caught Beth’s attention and made her observe it was a small succulent plant like a yellow cactus.

According to the inn’s proprietress, it seemed to be a relative of cactus that often grew right beside the source of hot springs.

In this area, it was not rare at all, and the plant did not even have a name.

“Hello. I am Beth. Who in the world are you?”

Beth slowly spoke to this nameless plant, and she listened intently to the voiceless voice of the plant.

After all, she had plenty of time.

The weather was very fine.

On a quiet day like today, she would listen closely to this plant’s voice until Noel came to pick her up, and try arranging the greenhouse.

“Everyone, I look forward to being here with you starting today.”

The many potted plants rustled happily.

As if they knew just how comfortable a space Beth’s hands would give them from now on.

“Felix-sama. This is a lightning stone. Until this stone is filled with lightning, you will drop small bolts of lightning into it.”

Inside the detached palace, Felix’s magic training had also begun.

Training him to control lightning magic, which was difficult to control, and on top of that the amount of magic Felix had, was no ordinary matter.

The blind magician was named Rakka, and he had just arrived from the Royal Capital yesterday.

Rakka had brought a large quantity of stones called lightning stones, which were often found at the foot of volcanoes, to the detached palace.

They were special stones blown up from within during volcanic eruptions.

These stones could store lightning magic inside their empty interiors.

However, unlike magic stones, they could not release it, so they were useless scrap stones.

All day, under Rakka’s guidance, Felix dropped small bolts of lightning into these lightning stones, but he could not adjust his magic well. Lightning that was too large destroyed the stones, while lightning that was too small was not released from Felix’s fingers as magic and burned the inside of his fingers.

The burned fingers were immediately treated with healing magic by Noel, and Felix faced the lightning stones again.

It felt as if he were in an endlessly continuing hellish torture.

“Gwaaaaah!!!!”

As Felix writhed in agony, unable to endure the intense pain, Noel immediately applied healing magic.

“How painful.”

Noel wanted to avert his eyes from the pitiful man writhing in agony before him.

But there was no other treatment method for Felix.

“One per day is still the limit, I see.”

Rakka let his clouded white eyes wander through the air, checked the feel of the lightning stone’s surface, and spoke.

“My own magic limit is seven per day. With Felix-sama’s amount of magic, I believe he will need to discharge about forty-five.”

At Rakka’s suggestion, they were making him release all the magic generated in a day into the lightning stones so no more old magic would accumulate in his body, while also training his magic control at the same time.

After only about two hours had passed since training began, sweat burst from Felix’s body, and his skin reacted to the sweat and grew hot.

Unable to endure the itching, Felix ran to the black medicinal bath, bathed, and smeared the precious ointment with the unpleasant smell all over his body.

From his tattered skin, oozing bodily fluids seeped out, and it swelled red and yellow.

He wrapped bandages. He refined lightning. He burned his fingers, destroyed stones, and Felix’s skin raged.

After observing Felix’s skin condition for the day, Noel decided the next day’s potion formulation.

For Felix, days like hell had continued for about a month.