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Episode 16: The Villainess Returns (XV)
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“Oh, it’s the spy.”
After everything was over, I sucked the juice the spy maid had brought me with a straw and said,
“You will be fired soon. You can’t even keep up with the ‘two-hour of no interruption’ request?”
The spy maid answered with her head bowed.
“But I blocked it as much as I could, Princess.”
Well, in the first place, there was no maid who could stop the duke and ducal prince. It was normal.
“Instead, I dragged it out for about 10 minutes. ‘Now is the time to trust the Princess’, I insisted that.”
I was so impressed with her spy maid’s efforts, immediately recognizing the 10 minutes’ worth.
“Oh, did you? Since when is 10 minutes a long enough time to show off like that? Do you know that today, it took you more than 10 minutes every time I asked for coffee? Hmm?”
“I even attached my personal opinion that I think you can fix Sir Hou.”
With a face of doubt, I stared at the spy maid.
When a gurgling sound was made by the straw as I had finished the juice, the spy maid quickly refilled the glass and continued her words.
“It would only be unjust to keep it to myself, so I did some promotion, Princess.”
“Well, that’s a good attitude.”
Anyway, I accepted the spy maid’s promotion and decided not to cut her off right away.
It was not easy to find such a strong person.
<Thank you, Child.>
Hou, who had now regained his energy, said while flapping his wings.
<I thought I had to stay helpless.>
Hou even went round and round as if he was in a good mood.
<I’m so glad I can be of help to Seukali again.>
Oh my god.
After absorbing all the poison and whining, he was only thinking of helping my grandfather again.
I had accepted the fact I couldn’t summon a pet, but I still envied the pet’s boundless affection for its owner.
So, I kindly—and a little worriedly—pointed out the current situation.
“The poison isn’t entirely gone, don’t fool around.”
<At this rate, I will recover in a few days! I am a purification summon!>
Hou laughed loudly and patted my shoulder with his wings. I almost fell over because of how strong it was.
“Kiana.”
Only then did my grandfather, who had been sitting motionlessly in a simple chair, carefully open his mouth, muttering,
“What the hell is this… how…”
He was the grandfather I hadn’t seen in a really long time.
Grandpa, the one I spoke to the least… No, thinking about it now, I wasn’t sure, but anyway, he was basically a kind person. He never discriminated against me for not being able to summon a magic beast.
However, because of the possibility that I might not be his granddaughter, I always felt small in front of him. And after being scolded for the Melissa incident, it was even more embarrassing to face him.
I thought it was natural even if I didn’t hear from my grandfather at the academy. I didn’t even resent it. Since I was most likely not his granddaughter.
So I was very proud to be conversing with him now. Even if I wasn’t his biological granddaughter, I seemed to have achieved enough to be confident in front of my grandfather.
I answered as I sipped the juice.
“It’s not medicine, it’s science and magic.”
I held up a magic tool.
“I developed a target osmotic pressure magic tool a few days ago. Commercialization has not been successful because the calculation is difficult… Anyway, I used this.”
“…Osmotic pressure?”
“Yes. It uses the difference in concentration, but the related formula is P=CRT…”
Joshua quickly interjected as I began to rummage through the pile of parchment.
“No. No need for further explanation.”
That was disappointing.
But at the same time, it was a familiar situation. Because people hate hearing the explanation of magic engineering.
At a time like this, if I just said what I wanted to say for a long time, even my achievements would be buried.
‘That’s something only a professor can do, but now I’m not a professor.’
So, with a little disappointment, I explained briefly.
“Anyway, the concentration of the poison in the body was so high that Hou couldn’t purify himself… I used a magic tool to reduce the concentration of the poison.”
Even from the beginning, magic tools made with magic engineering usually did not have great functions.
Usually, there were limits to utilization or it was very complicated to deal with. So, there was no magic tool commercialized enough to drastically change civilization.
This magic tool also had a limitation in that every complicated value had to be manually entered. So it was difficult for normal people to use.
‘But I developed it myself. Of course I can do the calculations.’
Long story short, I was able to get the poison absorbed by Hou out of his body with the osmotic pressure magic tool I made. Although it was very difficult to calculate the concentration that changed every now and then.
I had to be extremely focused because I was afraid that if I made even the slightest mistake, Hou would get hurt.
‘If I get it wrong, try again. If it doesn’t work, try again.’
‘If I get stuck in the middle, stop and think, and if I still can’t see the answer, pick up the quill again.’
But anyway, it was worth the effort. That puts my mind at ease.
…Whereas changing the appearance or summoning a magical beast was not something that could be done with effort.
“Thank you…”
Grandpa muttered blankly.
“I… I haven’t done anything for you.”
“No, you did a lot.”
In response to my grandfather’s words, I said with a determined expression.
“Thank you for allocating a budget to me each month. It was so nice to have money that I could get by just breathing simply because I had the name ‘Prelai’.”
“…….”
I couldn’t describe how truly grateful I was to the fact that he always allocated a generous budget to me, who wasn’t particularly friendly and always had accidents.
When the academy ran out of budget, I used that money to buy expensive research items.
Come to think of it, the academy’s budget seemed to be insufficient most of the time…
I felt a bit bad when I thought that the equipment I had invested so much money in was still in the academy.
My grandfather cleared his throat a few times and answered me a little late.
“Hmm, I see. It was allocated sufficiently to the extent that it did not violate equity. I hope you don’t forget that fact.”
Uh…
It was almost the first time my grandfather spoke at such length.
While I was blinking with bewilderment, the face of the head maid behind my grandfather turned white.
“No, I did not ask you to be condescending… I’m sorry…” She kept muttering such things to herself, even letting out a deep sigh.
I think the head maid gave some useless advice for our relationship.
“Oh, um, welcome back. If you had contacted me, I would have gone out to meet you.”
My grandfather rolled his eyes and spoke awkwardly. First of all, he seemed to think that since this was the first time we had met in years, he should start by asking how I was doing.
The order of the reunion had already been messed up, but the words that needed to be exchanged had to be exchanged anyway.
“Why did you suddenly return to the ducal residence…”
My grandfather tried to ask a low-key question, then shook his head to himself and reversed it.
“No, no. Naturally, this is your home, so you can come anytime. It’s strange that I’m asking why.”
“Yes. Although I got scolded six years ago for bearing a knife, I still haven’t been kicked out.”
At my words, my grandfather smiled and said admirably.
“Well, aren’t you still challenging yourself to become a professor at the academy? How great is that…”
“Grandpa, I don’t want to be a professor.”
“It’s a good choice. Who would recognize a rural academy’s professor? Even if it’s as a hobby, a PhD is of great value…”
“I’m also going to quit the PhD program.”
“Good job. What are you doing that useless thing? All of that is nonsense.”
“…….”
Like that, unintentionally, my grandfather delivered a blow to my life before regressing.
I couldn’t say anything because I sustained tremendous internal injuries, and there was silence for a while.
In the end, we awkwardly looked around the devastated greenhouse. The poison was so strong that all nearby plants withered away.
“No, how did Hou purify such an enormous amount of poison?”
Joshua broke the silence, belatedly startled.
“It must be difficult to obtain this level of poison… It’s like because it’s Hou, if a person were to eat it, wouldn’t he or she disappear without a form at all? Is this really an unheard-of poison?”
Grandpa said nothing. Hou also remained silent, looking away.
<Anyway, Seukali!>
Without answering Joshua, Hou flew into my grandfather’s arms.
<I’m almost healed! Of course, the poison still remains in the body, but I can get rid of it myself.>
Since it was discharged using osmotic pressure, it was not possible to 100% completely discharge it. This was because the concentration difference decreased as the emission increased.
However, as Hou said, he would be able to purify the remaining poison on his own.
With an overwhelmed face, my grandfather looked at the energetic flight of Hou.
Well, just two hours ago, he couldn’t even open his eyes properly.
Quietly stroking Hou’s wings, my father turned his gaze back to me.
“Thank you, Kiana.”
“Sure.”
I nodded happily.
Ame: Gramps and Hou definitely know that Prelai is targeted, why else will there be such a strong poison? Kiana, share what you know with them! Let’s just get rid of Prince Heaton early and live a happy life!