Maydare Volume 1 Chapter 8 - Potions Class Field Training I (Part 1)
Updates might slow down now since I'm reaching that point in the semester
“Hey, why don’t you call me by my first name?”
That was the sudden question from my childhood friend Saitou, who I was walking to school with.
That day as well, he was stuffing his cheeks with umeboshi onigiri for breakfast.
“We’ve known each other for ten years now.”
“That’s because...Saitou is Saitou.”
“What’s with that excuse? I don’t really like being called Saitou, you know. There’s three Saitous at school.”
“Well...Oda’s like that too. It’s a very common family name.”
“Then, Kazuha.”
“What, stop that! I don’t really like my name all that much.”
“Why?”
“It’s hard to read, you know? ...People misread it as ‘Ichika’ a lot.”
“Hmm...that’s true.”
For some reason, ever since I was little, my name never felt right.
My name was often misread, but it was given to me by my father arbitrarily, and my mother apparently didn’t agree to it. That was why even now, she didn’t call me by it much.
A name that isn’t called was just symbols to be written on a test.
“You call your good friend Tanaka-san by her last name too, don’t you? Why don’t you call your best friend by her name?”
“Tanaka-san tells me that a lot too. But it feels...kinda intimidating.”
The closer you are to someone, the more it seems like calling their name is like some kind of contract.
Like a vow...like a promise...
“Is it more comfortable for you to call me by my last name?”
“...Yeah.”
As expected, Saitou, who has known me for a long time, understood me well.
“I see. Then, it can’t be helped.”
However, Saitou seemed a bit lonely.
〇
I dreamed of my past life.
A dream of my childhood friend, where we called each other by our commonplace surnames but couldn’t even call each other by our first names.
No, I was the one who didn’t try to call him that. The current me didn’t understand at all why I back then was such a coward, but in any case, I didn’t like my own name, I didn’t like being called by it, and I was afraid to call other people’s names.
Oda Kazuha.
No matter how much time passed, it never felt right. My name.
But that didn’t mean I had to call everyone else by their last names. I was a little upset at my past life self for never calling the boy I liked by his name properly.
The weather on the day of the “Potions Class” off-campus field training was very good.
We first-years left Lune Ruschia Magic School and headed by boat towards an island that was very close to it.
It was the small Third Medicinal Herb Garden Island, owned by Lune Ruschia Magic School. Here, the plants necessary for potions were grown in their natural state, and it was often used for students’ field training.
“All right, all of you. Off-campus field training always goes hand-in-hand with danger. Even if you don’t watch where you step and fall off a cliff, drown in a river, get torn to pieces by savage beasts, or killed by the people we have laid in place, the school will not be held responsible for anything. It’s your fault for not paying attention!”
“...Okay! Thank you for your words, Professor Lila of Magical Athletics.”
Potions classes operated together with Magical Athletics. For that reason, Professor Lila and Professor Medite took turns to explain to the gathered students at the beach.
Professor Medite showed a medicinal herb to the students.
It was a typical pteridophyte* with numerous feather-shaped leaves.
(TN: A pteridophyte is a type of plant that releases spores. Ferns are a type of pteridophyte.)
“As you can see, this is a ‘ponsida.’ Your task is to pick these and work together with your team to make the ‘Pon eye drops’, just as I taught you last class. The time limit is five hours. When all the members of your team return here within the time limit and submit the Pon eye drops, the task is finished. Cheating is not allowed. For example, if you submit store-bought Pon eye drops...the professor will know.”
After Professor Medite explained the task, each team grouped together and began preparing to pick herbs.
Garnet Team 9. That was the name given to our team. The four members were me, the team leader, Lapis, Nero, and Frey.
It happened when we waited for our turn to depart at the edge of the beach and we were checking our baggage.
“Let’s have a competition, Makia O’Drielle.”
“Pardon?”
Team 1 led by Beatrice approached us and declared war on me.
And then she glanced over at Nero, who was right next to me.
“I didn’t expect you to win over Mr. Nero, the head of our class. He didn’t take up my offer to join my team at all.”
“That’s because he was irritated by the condescending way you invited him…”
I said, while looking up at the gulls flying in the sky.
“So, what are we basing the competition on?”
“I heard that this off-campus field training’s evaluation points will be announced in a ranking format. So, the one who earns the higher rating wins. I shall show you how much more superior my team is.”
“Hmm. Well, alright. I’ll take you up on that competition. Because it’s so troublesome, let’s wager on something.”
I put my hand over my mouth and made a proposition with a wicked grin on my face.
“W-what do you want to wager on?”
“Hmm, yes. If I win, you must treat me to a lemon pie from the dining hall.”
“...That’s all you want?”
“An entire pie! Don’t look down on me.”
“...”
The rivals of Team 1 looked at each other and tilted their heads, as though they didn’t get it.
“V-very well. Then, if I win...please give Mr. Nero to my team.”
“!?”
Nero shook his head with a very displeased look on his face.
“If you do that, then you’ll have an extra person on your team, and we’ll be lacking one person.”
”When that time comes, I’ll give you one person from my team. Like my butler, Nicholas.”
“Huh?”
“If my lady says so.”
Furthermore, Nicholas Harbury, Beatrice’s butler, seemed to be okay with it. His amiable smile didn’t even crumble a single bit. They seemed to have a trusting relationship in a certain sense, but that made me even more irritated.
And for a moment...Thor came into my mind.
“Ah, it’ll be time for us to depart soon. Well then, good luck to all of you in Team 9.”
Before we could accept the condition regarding Nero, Team 1 set off to gather herbs.
“Oi, I was wagered against my will.”
“Aw, isn’t it alright? I’m sure they’ll pamper you more on that team.”
“It’s not alright. I hate those kinds of people.”
”Ooh, you’re being unusually assertive, silent boy.”
Frey teased Nero. I quieted the two of them down.
“No need to worry. Simply put, we just need to win. Nero, if you don’t get serious too, you’ll be turned into Beatrice’s servant. You understand that, don’t you.”
“...Yeah. I’ll take it on seriously.”
Ooh, the always listless-looking Nero was being filled with a quiet motivation.
This was worth accepting the competition.
“Frey, Lapis. We’ll also work hard to protect Nero. And get that lemon pie!”
“Yes, of course, Makia. We can’t lose,” Lapis said.
“...What you want most is the lemon pie anyways,” Frey said.
Right when I raised the morale of my team members, Team 9 was called, and we hurried towards the departure spot.
“Everyone brought their boxed lunch? If anything happens, break the magic signal light. Now, take care!”
It wasn’t my first mission, but it was my first off-campus field training. After being sent off by the overprotective Professor Medite, we finally set foot on the Medicinal Herb Garden Island.
It was an island that maintained its natural form while also having an artificially arranged neatness.
Walking paths stretched out here and there, and there were of course lemon trees everywhere. Since we came all this way, I picked several lemons and put them away in my favorite basket. It was just like a picnic.
“We’re picking ponsidas? That’s a pretty easy task~”
Frey yawned carefreely, but I didn’t think it was such a soft task.
“Is it so simple? We aren’t just picking herbs, we also have to submit the ‘Pon eye drops.’”
“The Pon eye drops isn’t that hard of a potion.”
“That’s the pitfall of this task. It's easy to find ponsidas growing in the wild, but there’s surprisingly not a lot of high quality ones.And yet, the Pon eye drops is a potion where the quality of the herbs used to make it is strikingly obvious to see. There are about ten ranks depending on the quality.”
Along the path as we walked, we found some ponsidas right away. All of the plants around here were nothing but low quality.
“I think the thing that will decide the evaluation of this task is the ‘quality’ of the Pon eye drops. It’s not just a matter of collecting ponsidas, and it’s not a problem of speed or amount.”
“Yes, that’s right.”
Nero was quick to read and understand the intent of the task.
What’s unpleasant about Professor Medite was that he didn’t state that intent and tried to get the students to take it in themselves. If you didn’t think about it, it seemed like a very simple task.
“If I remember correctly, ponsidas grow in places where humidity is high.”
“Yes, exactly, Lapis. The first thing we need to do is to find a waterside...a river.”
I said, and then tapped on Frey’s wide back to say, It’s your turn.
“You want me to check from above?”
“That’s right. Please go on ahead.”
After Frey gave a deliberate sigh, he stuffed his hands into his pockets like usual and briskly went up a cliff as though it was flat land.
He was blessed by【Earth】, so he could freely move on anything that was connected to the earth, whether it was a cliff or a tree trunk. It was more of a unique physical constitution than magic. However, I’ve heard that those who were blessed by Earth were bad with flying or floating vehicles and magic.
“There’s a river five hundred meters from here. I see a waterfall too.”
“A waterfall! Yes, let’s go there. That’s definitely the spot.”
Lapis tilted her head and said, “Is there something good about waterfalls?”
“It’s always damp near a waterfall because of the flying drops of water. That’s the best environment for ponsidas to grow. It’s not written in our textbooks, though.”
Frey descended, and when we went forward with him leading the way, we came across a huge boulder in the middle of our way. The path was blocked because of it. There was a cliff on the right-hand side, and a river on the left, so there was no place to go.
“Oh no! We were so close to the best position.”
“This isn’t a natural boulder. It’s been put here by human hands. There are traces of magic.”
Nero quickly examined it with his magical contact lenses.
“An obstacle put here by the professors? Do we give up on this path and go back?” Frey said.
“No, it’s better to go on ahead. The fact that there’s an obstacle here means that there’s a good chance that we got a hit ahead. But there’s a strong defensive wall magic placed on it, so we can’t destroy it.”
“If we can’t destroy it, then does that mean that we can only climb it? Not everyone can be like Frey. What should we do…”
“Then, let me take care of this.”
Unusually for her, Lapis stepped up to the front. And then, she put her palm on the boulder.
“Lapis twi twilight——Transfer.”
After she chanted that incantation, the boulder suddenly disappeared without a trace.
“Transference magic…”
“Seriously?”
Nero and Frey were astonished by it, their mouths and eyes wide open.
“That was incredible! Transference magic on this scale is very high level!”
Usually, it was a magic that was learned in the third year after acquiring levitation magic. The larger the amount of substance, the more difficult it was.
“My clan is in the business of ‘spatial magic’ and ‘alchemy.’ I’m sure it must have been transferred to another part of the island by now. For instance...right in front of Beatrice Asta.”
Unusually for Lapis, she let out a nasty chuckle. That was the expression of someone who held a long grudge ever since she was told “foreign students are useless” at the welcome party.
Right when I was thinking it would actually be funny if that large stone was transferred right before Beatrice’s eyes and blocking their way…
From out of nowhere, we heard Beatrice’s standard “This cannot be!” and burst out laughing without thinking.
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