This Love is Futile - Chapter 13

Vidello-san, who had accompanied me to my workshop, looked around the room and was surprised to see that there were beds in every single room. I hadn’t expected anyone to visit, so I hadn’t bothered doing anything about it, but it probably looked rather strange. I thought so myself. Vidello-san took the opportunity to relax, and I took up position in front of the alchemy pot. I laid all the ingredients out on the table next to me, as well as the bundle of papers I’d found at Kyle’s place.

“Hmmm… there’s only enough material for one dose. It’s okay, I’ll succeed. Absolutely.”

It was a pity we didn’t end up encountering the Tsuchiyama Spider, but I didn’t want to waste precious time looking for it, so it became a one-shot deal. I took a deep breath and reviewed the materials, then grabbed the cauldron with both hands and transferred the MP.

This time we have to succeed, so let’s add an excessive amount of MP.

Because the cauldron was MP-powered, I started to feel dizzy as I continually poured in MP, and when I couldn’t anymore, I removed my hands. Then, I quickly gulped down a bottle of Magic High-Potion.

Alright, I’ve recovered 80%.

Next, when the steam began to rise and the clear liquid inside started to simmer, I added one of the reagents. Over the course of many attempts at alchemy, I’d learned that if you put all the ingredients in at once, you tended to get a bad product. The key was to add the next reagent when the previous one had just finished dissolving. I was terrified to make a mistake, so I added the ingredients in the order written in the document and stirred them with the provided stick each time. At first, I was very excited to say, “I’m a witch?!”, but I usually failed at those times.

Calm your mind. Don’t be impatient and stay calm.

While taking a deep breath each time, I added the ingredients one by one. Once I put in the last ingredient, the transparent liquid turned brown. Alright, it seemed good so far. I exhaled and poured every bit of my attention into the liquid. At the very end, I would often get distracted and make a lot of mistakes, so just this once, I focused and concentrated.

The liquid, which I kept stirring with a stick, continued to simmer with a light-brown color. I’d lost track of how long I’d been standing there, but the color of the liquid hadn’t changed once in that time. Something was wrong. I felt like I was losing concentration. Watching the bubbles float and disappear in front of my eyes, I felt hazy. I wanted to stretch, but if I let go, I’d definitely fail. I felt distracted and impatient.

Oh, if I’m impatient, I’m going to fail this task. Crap, I can’t fail.

My ability to think was getting worse and worse, probably because I hadn’t slept. There wasn’t any time to rest, though. I had to finish this.

“…”

The moment I thought crap, Vidello-san’s big hands overlapped my hands holding the stick.1

“Pull yourself together, Mac! If you can’t do this, you won’t be able to save Kyle’s farm, right? Concentrate. I’ll help you too.”

“Vidello-san…!”

His tightly squeezing hands were very reassuring. I could see my scattered thoughts gathering in the alchemy pot in front of me.

It’s alright, I haven’t failed yet.

I looked again at the brown liquid, feeling enveloped in Vidello-san’s hug from behind.

A particularly large bubble surfaced, and the moment it popped, the murky brown liquid instantly turned a beautiful, clear, emerald green.

“Alright!”

I pulled out the stick, lifted the cauldron, and poured the mixture into a funnel that fed into a bottle. When the last drop had been added, I put the cauldron back in place. I finished sealing the large bottle and appraised it.

{Root gnawing pest control agent – Medium:

This product is effective when mixed with soil after weeding any grass whose roots have been gnawed.

Range: 120 sq m}

Done. It was a success! But how big was 120 square meters? How much of the grass died in the morning? Don’t just think about it here! Let’s go!

As soon as I stored the bottle in my inventory and stood up, blood rushed to my head and I staggered. Wow, my lack of sleep was really kicking in now. But there was no time to sleep. I had to be quick. If the weeds weren’t done being pulled, I’d have to help with that too. It had almost been 24 hours since the request was made.

“Mac.”

Just as I was getting ready to leave, I heard Vidello-san’s gentle voice. I looked up and saw him right behind me, and before I knew it, he was supporting my waist.

“Vidello-san.”

As I looked into Vidello-san’s eyes, which were squinting at me, I felt myself calm down. I took a stamina potion from my inventory and gulped it down. After that, I glanced at my status and was surprised to see that my MP and HP had decreased considerably, so I restored them too. Oh, I had a Bad Status. Lack of sleep? If you didn’t sleep enough, you’d get a mark like this. I left figuring out what kind of bad status it was for later, instead focusing on Kyle’s farm.

“Can you go?”

“Yes.”

Vidello-san didn’t tell me to rest or sleep. He just supported me. This time, I stood on my own feet. It was alright, I wasn’t dizzy anymore.

When I went to the farm with Vidello-san, we found that some of the ground in the field, which had brown grass last time, was now bare. There was only a little brown grass growing on the border. All the grass that had been taken care of was piled up on top of a sheet. Wow, that was a lot more work than I’d been doing, wasn’t it, Kyle? Kyle, on the other hand, waved at us, his face as calm as ever.

“I was tired of playing cat and mouse, because even if I pull it out, it withers anyways. Let’s get rid of this pest as soon as possible.”

“Understood!”

I quickly handed the finished pesticide to Kyle. There was a large area of bare ground as far as I could see, but I wondered if I’d prepared the medicine quickly enough for it to have an effect. As I fretted, Kyle glanced at the pesticide and chuckled.

“Wow, I can’t believe you made something so strong so fast.”

“Is it enough? I only had enough for this much, so that’s all of it right there.”

When I leaned forward in worry, Kyle leaned forward and ruffled my hair.

“That’s enough.”

Thank goodness, I exhaled. But there was still the job of spraying the pest control agent. I shouldn’t get distracted. Vidello-san joined us as Kyle and I started walking to the field.

“What, Vidello-san, are you going to help?”

“Obviously. I can’t just stand by and watch while Mac does all this. What can I do?”

“Just plough. I’ll lend you the tools.”

“Understood.”

They grinned at each other and fistbumped. Somehow, it was kind of cool. I wish I had someone to do that with. Oh, but not Yuta. If I tried to do something like that with him, I’d be the only one putting my arm out and it wouldn’t be cool. And neither of these two could do it, for the same reason as Yuta. Oh right, what about Crash? He had a nice physique. I could try telling him about it next time, though who knew if he’d look at me in pity… But maybe he’d do it. We were the same age, after all.

Alright, I’ll do that.

With a weird cheer to motivate myself, I borrowed another hoe from Kyle and held it at the ready.