Special Recovery Ointment

“Could it have been because of the ointment…?”

The thought of the terrible crime I might have committed was frightening, but I had to ask.

The black-haired man nodded with a grave expression.

“I can’t think of any other explanation.”

It seemed my guilt had been confirmed. Was the injured man all right?

“How is the injured man doing…?”

When I pressed him further, the black-haired man’s answer was…

“He’s made a full recovery.”

“What? You mean his condition didn’t get worse?”

“No. His injuries were quite severe, but he’s made a full recovery. There’s no doubt that your ointment was responsible. I want to know what happened. Tell me. What exactly was that ointment you applied?”

I had been worried about the injured man. I would have preferred to hear the news under more ordinary circumstances, but I was delighted that his injuries had healed.

Feeling all the tension drain from my body, I answered.

“It was a homemade ointment I made myself. It’s just that the main ingredient was potent medicinal herb.”

Potent medicinal herb was a type of herb said to grow only in dungeons. Ul had recently brought me some.

This herb was effective against practically any minor illness or injury.

It couldn’t cure life-threatening illnesses or injuries, so it was difficult to call it a panacea, but it was still an extremely useful medicinal herb and was highly prized. It fetched such high prices that I had heard quite a few adventurers ventured into dungeons specifically to collect it.

I was sure the apothecary in town would have turned it into medicine for me, but ever since moving here, I had been making everything I could myself, from growing vegetables to producing fertilizer.

I had only learned how to make ointments back at the school for aspiring mages, and my memories of those lessons were rather hazy, but I still remembered the procedure.

…Vaguely.

Armed with that rather vague knowledge from more than ten years ago, I decided to make some ointment.

The process was simple. All I had to do was blend several medicinal herbs according to the intended purpose and magically refine them.

Magical refinement involved using magical power to extract the necessary essences. For us mages, it was one of the most fundamental principles of magic.

For example, to produce flames, we extracted only the fire ether from the atmosphere and brought it under our control. Offensive magic was, in essence, a process of extraction.

Since I couldn’t remember which herbs I was supposed to use, I mixed together every medicinal herb I had at home, including plantain, rosemary, aloe, olive, and various others, along with the potent medicinal herb, and magically refined the lot.

The defining feature of magical refinement was that it allowed substances that wouldn’t normally mix to be combined and refined at high concentrations. As a result, it was difficult to get it wrong.

Our alchemy instructor had once told us that, in the worst-case scenario, we could simply pick some random wild herbs and magically refine them to produce a reasonably effective ointment. However, he had also declared that such ointments were “completely unnecessary for mages.”

After all, nearly eighty percent of mages could cast healing magic.

Using healing magic was faster and more effective than magically refining ingredients to make ointments.

But I could no longer cast healing magic the way I once had, and the herb Ul had given me was the potent medicinal herb, renowned for its powerful medicinal properties. Besides, if I turned it into an ointment, everyone could use it, not just me.

The magically refined herbs had transformed into a thick, green, jelly-like liquid.

The color looked rather poisonous, but I supposed it also had the appearance of something that might actually work.

The process seemed to have gone well, but since I couldn’t use appraisal magic and this was practically my first attempt at magical refinement on my own since my student days, I had absolutely no way of knowing for certain.

So, to be doubly sure, I magically refined another substance with healing properties—a magic crystal—and mixed it into the herbal extract.

The medicine then transformed into a milky-white cream.

I applied the finished product to my chapped hands.

My hands immediately became smooth and soft.

Encouraged by the results, I next tried applying it to the trunk of a tree in which I had drilled a hole to collect sap.

When I went to check on it the following morning, the hole had successfully closed, but because it was sealed, I couldn’t tell what had happened inside.

Still, the outside appeared to have healed completely.

The injured man had arrived the following day.

I had used my homemade ointment on him.

After hearing my explanation, both the black-haired man and the brown-haired man looked dumbfounded.

“Why would you do something like that? I’ve never heard of any medicine made by combining potent medicinal herb with magic crystals.”

“More importantly, why did you put ointment on a tree?”

“Just because?”

I had heard that applying animal glue or something similar to wounds on trees was beneficial, but since I didn’t have any glue, I had decided to try my ointment instead.

As for the magic crystal, it could also be used as a medium to amplify magic, so I had wondered whether it might act as a booster for the potent medicinal herb.

“Come to think of it, I’ve never heard of anyone using magic stones in medicine.”

The black-haired man practically groaned as he spoke.

Magic stones, including magic crystals, were generally used by mages as mediums for magic and were rarely used in medicine.

“…Well, that’s true.”

Now that he mentioned it, I hadn’t heard of it either.

Pharmacology and medicine were fields that had received relatively little research, not just in this kingdom but throughout the surrounding countries. Since healing magic could instantly cure severe injuries and illnesses, both fields were actually more developed in frontier regions like this, where healing mages were scarce.

“I suspect the effect came from combining those two ingredients,” the black-haired man said.

Apparently, both ingredients were so expensive that most apothecaries would never dream of wasting them on such a recipe.

The black-haired man leaned toward me with a rather serious expression and whispered.

“Your ointment regenerated body parts that potent medicinal herb shouldn’t have been able to restore.”

“Regenerated… missing body parts?”

The injured man was a knight stationed at the fortress. He had been injured while trying to stop a forest fire and had lost several fingers.

The only reason the fire hadn’t developed into a major disaster was that those knights had risked their lives to extinguish it in its early stages.

Once a fire grew out of control, it could have reduced this entire area to ashes in no time.

Even if my house had survived, Ul, who lived in the forest, might have been injured.

When I thought about that, I wanted to do absolutely everything within my power to help.

The magic crystals the black-haired man had given me possessed healing properties and were said to alleviate pain. I had crushed a small magic crystal and applied the fragments to the stumps of the injured knight’s fingers, which were still painful. Then I had piled a generous amount of ointment over them and wrapped them in bandages.

I had also applied the ointment to the burns covering his body and carefully replaced all his bandages.

Afterward, I had cast a beginner-level healing spell on him.

That was all I had been capable of doing in my current condition.

And yet…

“So it worked.”

“It did. Perhaps because the magic crystal acted as a medium, even his fingers regenerated completely. The burns covering his body have healed as well. He wanted to come here and thank you personally, but Dennis and I came first to establish exactly what happened. I want the recipe for your ointment. And if possible, some of the ointment itself.”

“Ah, of course. But I only wrote down a rough recipe, and I didn’t measure the quantities properly or anything. It isn’t very precise.”

“That’s fine. I’d very much like to see it.”

After all, the most expensive ingredient, the magic crystal, had been given to me by the black-haired man himself. I had no objections whatsoever.

I kept some ointment on a shelf in the kitchen, but the extra batches I had made were stored in my room.

I fetched several jars of ointment, handed them over with a simple “Here you go,” and the black-haired man blinked in surprise.

“Are you sure I can have this much?”

“Of course. You and Ul provided the ingredients, after all. I still have some potent medicinal herb and magic crystals left, so I can easily make more.”

“I see. Thank you.”

The black-haired man accepted the jars of ointment and stared intently at them.

“…!?”

Mana began gathering around him.

It enveloped his entire body, concentrating particularly in his blue eyes.

“This is a high-grade recovery ointment, at the very least.”

The black-haired man spoke while still surrounded by the lingering traces of his activated magic.

“Appraisal Eyes, huh…?”

Appraisal was a rare form of magic because the ability manifested most readily in those with the darkness attribute, who accounted for less than ten percent of all mages. Appraisal Eyes were a type of Magic Eye that manifested in mages who possessed intermediate-level appraisal magic or higher.

The black-haired man hesitantly asked me a question.

“Does the darkness attribute frighten you?”

“No. I think it seems quite useful.”

I possessed the light attribute, the counterpart to the darkness attribute, so I had no appraisal abilities of my own.

It was generally said that a person could possess either the light or darkness attribute, but not both.

Admittedly, the royal family of this kingdom possessed the light attribute, so there was a tendency to dislike those with the darkness attribute. However, mages and knights with appraisal abilities were extremely useful, so regardless of what the nobility thought, no knight working in the field would complain about them.

Only the royal palace knights would make a fuss about something like that.

…Come to think of it, I used to be a royal palace knight myself.

“I see…”

The black-haired man smiled in apparent relief. Then he and the brown-haired man bowed respectfully to me.

“You have my gratitude. Thank you for saving my subordinate.”

“Not at all. You’re too kind. I’m truly glad the injured knight has recovered.”

That was my sincere response.

Healing mages were scarce in rural areas.

Potent medicinal herb grew exclusively inside dungeons, and dungeons were only found in certain regions of this frontier territory.

Furthermore, the other ingredient, magic crystals, could only be obtained from the depths of dungeons.

Neither ingredient was easy to acquire, but if it were possible to produce more effective medicine, perhaps it could help compensate for the shortage of healing mages in rural areas.

The black-haired man was wealthy and had a strong sense of obligation, so he insisted on paying me for the ointment. However, selling medicine without being a licensed apothecary was prohibited within the territory. A permit was required to conduct business.

The authorities generally turned a blind eye when residents exchanged homemade ointments and herbal decoctions with one another, but for several reasons, I couldn’t accept any money.

“Then is there anything else I can do for you?” the black-haired man asked.

“Oh, in that case, could you use your appraisal ability to check whether the wound on my walnut tree has healed properly?”

I accompanied the black-haired man to the walnut tree and asked him to examine it to determine whether the wound I had treated with ointment had healed.

“…Where is it?”

“Huh? I think it was around here.”

Perhaps thanks to the ointment, the wound appeared to have healed beautifully. I pointed to the spot on the walnut tree where the injury had been.

“The wound has healed completely.”

His definitive answer came as a great relief.

“I was worried it might not have worked properly. Thank you very much, sir.”

The black-haired man stared intently at me before speaking.

“My name is Alvin. L-y-d-i-a.”

It was the first time the black-haired man had ever called me by name.

Of course, I already knew that the black-haired man’s name was Alvin, but I had never addressed him that way. Likewise, he had only ever called me “innkeeper.”

But now, the black-haired man had seized my arm in a firm grip and showed no sign of letting go.

“Call me Alvin, Lydia.”

Alvin pulled me into a tight embrace.