TMBIPYMEN Chapter 28

Olga led Laila to a place resembling a warehouse.

To ordinary eyes it would appear crammed with useless, dust-covered things, but not to Laila.

She could smell everything there, could know the value of each item. This wasn't just a warehouse. Borrowing her mother's expression—it was a damned treasure vault.

In a space so cramped that two or three people could barely move simultaneously, all manner of things that could serve as tincture ingredients lay piled.

From the most common herbs to plants whose existence was barely known, to dangerous insects whose sting could make life hang by a thread.

Most were things Laila had only read about in books—content left by ancient predecessors, witches—but she'd memorized those books inside and out.

She knew what effects they possessed, how to use them as medicine or lethal poison.

"Well?"

Olga said. Laila, who'd been scanning the shelves as if entranced, started and looked at her.

"Is this sufficient?"

Sufficient? It was overflowing! When Laila nodded, Olga withdrew an even tinier hourglass from her small pouch. She placed it on the windowsill and turned it upside down.

"One hour. I can only give you one hour. My branch's knights are blocking the demon from attacking more distant villages. But they won't hold long."

"I'll do it."

Laila moved immediately. She'd made paralyzing tinctures several times before, so it presented no difficulty.

But she'd only made them personally when encountering dangerous feral dogs or wolves wandering the forest. The volumes had been small, using only basic ingredients.

"Is there nothing I can help with, Laila?"

Yustar asked. Thinking he'd left with Olga, Laila wore a briefly surprised expression.

"Don't you need to go where the demon is?"

"I will. But I must go with you. Otherwise there'd be no point bringing you. Olga gave us an hour, didn't she? Then for an hour we'll be fine. Let's finish quickly together."

Even so, Yustar possessed no knowledge of tincture-making, so there wasn't much he could do.

Following Laila's instructions, he carefully brought down tools from high places or those too heavy, and ground things in her stead that needed grinding fine. Even just that help made Laila's work far easier.

"What on earth is this?"

Yustar, holding a pestle while peering into a small stone mortar, said.

Laila had asked him to grind it as finely as possible. At first he'd thought it a rolled-up plant, but... no matter how he looked, leg-like appendages were attached. Many of them.

"That's an insect called norusin."

As expected. Yustar wrinkled his brow and began grinding the contents with the pestle. Fortunately it was thoroughly dried.

"What kind of name is that? Why norusin?"

"When there's a dead deer carcass, those insects come to lay eggs. They won't lay eggs in other animals' corpses. That's why—norusin."

"Then in regions without deer, you can't find this insect."

"It's really difficult to obtain. This is my first time seeing such a large quantity at once. Be careful, Yustar. That insect is poisonous. Already dead and thoroughly dried, but there's no harm in being cautious."

Yustar pulled his lips inward and glanced at Laila.

"Would've been nice if you'd mentioned that a bit earlier."

He grumbled. Laila nearly burst into laughter, then startled at herself for feeling such an emotion, straightening her shoulders.

Laila said, "Would've been nice if you'd told me earlier what I'd experience at the palace. Now you understand how I felt?"

Yustar whipped around to face her.

"Laila, I truly didn't know. I never imagined my brother would say such things... If I'd known beforehand, why wouldn't I have told you?"

"Never mind, I'm joking. Well, not joking exactly, but now doesn't seem the time for such talk."

Laila scrutinized the ingredients laid out on the workbench, measured them, and occasionally muttered while staring into space as if trying to recall something.

When she needed something, she located it precisely after circling the shelves just once or twice. An attitude as practiced as someone who'd visited hundreds of times.

The girl who'd fumbled and cowered among people and in the palace was nowhere to be found. Watching her return with an armful of something thoroughly dried, Yustar set down the pestle with a curious expression.

"Done, Laila."

"Good, then put it in that cauldron there. All of these too."

Laila was confident, treating Yustar like an apprentice or student. Her absorbed appearance was both novel and captivating.

"What do we do now? Boil this?"

Laila answered, "You think witches just throw everything in a cauldron and boil it?"

The content was reproach, but her tone brimmed with more vitality than ever before. Yustar felt a subtle joy at that fact. No—perhaps satisfaction was the better word?

"Then what will you do?"

Instead of answering, Laila carefully tilted a round glass bottle into the cauldron where all manner of things mixed together.

As transparent water poured out, mingling the contents, the mixture gradually turned a murky purple. While she slowly stirred it with a long rod, Yustar—watching with folded arms—said, "Do you know what you just added, Laila?"

Laila's stirring hand jerked. Bewilderment rose in her large crimson eyes.

"Wasn't it water?"

"No, it is water. But consecrated water. Holy water blessed by the previous Pope, Wilnis. Wilnis possessed deep faith and exceptional ability in blessing, consecration, and healing. So..."

Laila's mouth fell open. She knew who Pope Wilnis was.

The person who healed five cripples with a single blessing. When she died, all of Sierrow's people—even those in backwater villages like Ridgecarse—fasted for days in mourning. Laila had heard the tales.

She looked alternately between the bottle less than half full and the contents of the cauldron.

"Will that person earlier... will Miss Olga be angry?"

"Don't worry. She'll regret it somewhat but won't get that angry. Is it finished?"

Laila nodded.

"Just spray this on the demon. But simply dumping it won't be very effective. The best method is..."

"Dispersing it like fog so it breathes it in."

"Exactly. But is there such a method..."

Then the closed warehouse door opened again. Laila involuntarily looked at the hourglass. Fortunately, sand remained.

Olga said, "One section of the barrier collapsed. Need you to speed things up."

"It's finished."

When Laila answered, Olga looked down at the cauldron with relief. Then she saw the round glass bottle on the floor...

Olga stared blankly at Laila.

"Don't tell me you used Wilnis's holy water?"

Flustered, Laila involuntarily glanced at Yustar.

"Well, I'm sorry. I just thought it was water..."

"Yustar! You just watched her use Wilnis's holy water?"

Olga's fury poured toward Yustar. An inevitable conclusion... Yustar raised both hands and looked down at Olga's face, shaking his head.

"I thought this would be more helpful."

"That makes no sense! Wilnis's holy water can't be obtained anymore! Why? Because she's dead!"

"There's Beriella."

Beriella was the name of the current Pope who succeeded Wilnis. But Olga only snorted, unwilling to acknowledge his words.

"That greenhorn's attempts at consecration. Damn it, that was the last bottle."

Perfect words to make Laila fidget with anxiety. But Olga waved her hand as if to forget it.

"Fine, fine. Since you finished before it was too late, I'll overlook it."

"Got a dispersion method?"

"What do you take me for? No, what do you take this place for?"

Olga gripped the handles on both sides of the cauldron. The instant Laila opened her mouth to shout a warning—Olga lifted the cauldron, three or four times heavier than herself, as lightly as picking up a pastry.

"Follow me."

Yustar said, "I'm taking Laila near the barrier. She needs to see the demon. Attack and defense too."

Olga turned her head without stopping her stride.

"You know you could die, right?"

Yustar didn't fall for her threat.

"You'll help, won't you, Olga?"

"Damn it, I knew this would happen."

Laila kept her mouth shut, unable to understand what conversation they were having.

Setting the cauldron on a massive circular table, Olga stood before a strange apparatus with a gaping hole. Transparent to progressively deeper blue crystals were embedded in it in sequence.

"I know this thing."

Laila blurted out suddenly. Yustar looked at her as if surprised, but Olga didn't even turn her head, beginning to manipulate the crystals.

"Of course you'd know. If you're a real witch, you couldn't not know the 'Mage's Window.'"

"Mother told me. The person who made this was..."

Only then did Olga turn to look at Laila. Not a favorable gaze.

"A witch from the Dark Ages. Right. Back then real witches had considerable exchanges with mages. Thanks to this 'window,' mages could build their own caves and live shut inside them. With just the window, they could see the outside world without stepping one foot outside their homes. For those already lazy with heavy backsides, it was the optimal invention. It was right around then they started creating sinister things in their spare time."

At first Laila thought Olga was simply recounting what she knew about the 'window.' But listening carefully, she detected undisguisable anger and disgust in the girl's voice.

Yustar interrupted, cutting off Olga's words.

"Stop. It has nothing to do with Laila."

Olga sneered.

"Not entirely unrelated. Now, young witch. Come here. This is your first time seeing a 'window' in person, isn't it? See for yourself what it's like."