10-35-2. Banquet and the Truth of Beria [Revised Version]
Satou's here. Back then, quitting your job and becoming independent by opening a cafe was popular, but nowadays, it seems that retiring to the countryside and buying a plot of agriculture land to lead a slow life there has become popular.
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I was invited to Baronet Dyukeli's mansion under the pretext of an apology for causing me trouble regarding lady Merian.
Looks like I'm not the only one who's been invited to the banquet, the shopkeepers of magic tool shops and medicine shops under his control in the labyrinth city have also come.
When I was in the reception room before the banquet began, lady Merian in a dress apologized for the trouble and thanked me for the rescue. She left the room while whispering me to keep the matter about her going to the swordsmanship dojo a secret from her father.
Her impish smile must have been just my imagination.
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"You should get acquainted with them since you're going to be an explorer of the labyrinth city."
He introduced me as his daughter's savior to the shopkeepers.
During the banquet, it naturally has become the talk about goods that are selling well and ones that are in serious shortage in the labyrinth city. Especially the healing medicines, it seems that even for the shops under baronet Dyukeli with their inflated prices as the viceroy's ally, the medicines are usually out of stock there.
"Moreover, if we want to create the healing medicine in this city, there is no choice but to stock the ingredients from the merchants in the neighboring cities who sell them at a high price, or pick them from the mountain with wolves after pushing our way through the wasteland."
"It sure is hard to compete against the guild that's selling the healing medicine without minding the profit."
"That's cause those guys are selling at the price of the Royal Capital."
"It really is, they can stock the medicines easier."
I see, although it's obvious that there are difference between the buyer's and the seller's perspectives, there is such a circumstance behind it huh. Although I shouldn't swallow their story entirely just like that, it doesn't seem like they're just being too greedy.
"However, that means during the time when it's out of stock, explorers dive into the labyrinth without even having a way to heal themselves?"
"No, poor explorers will go with leaves of Beria they've plucked."
"That still hasn't changed even now."
It seems Beria is a cactus-like plant that's growing wild on the wasteland around the labyrinth city.
They were also growing along the highway's sides if I'm not mistaken.
Beria is a succulent plant with aloe-like thick needled leaves growing around its cactus body, and as a matter of fact they're edible, while the leaves can be used to cure bleeding or burn.
As for the center fruit, even though it's relatively tasty, it has an alias [Beggar Killer] since it seems that it causes diarrhea which goes on until you're dehydrated if you eat it too much. It can make children and the elderly who don't have much physical strength to die.
Looks like the baggage carriers who have failed to get a job pick those fruits and sell them in front of the city gate to earn enough income to sustain their livelihood. I ignored it since there were many peddlers who were selling things before the gate, but there were such things being sold there huh. I'll pay more attention to various things next time.
"Maybe it's possible to make a healing medicine from Beria leaf?"
"There's a legend about the sage-sama of olden days who can create a magic potion from Beria leaf, but it's a lost tale from a long time ago."
"Nowadays, 『Healing medicines made from Beria leaf』 is a phrase only said by the frauds in labyrinth city, it's something that no one believes."
By sage, does he mean Trazayuya?
I searched about Beria on his documents, but there were no hit.
When I go to the elf hometown next time, I'll ask Tsutoreiya-shi the alchemist if he knows about the recipe to make the magic potion from Beria leaf.
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Later, I was able to see various treasured items on his shops when I was going around them.
Among the items, it seems that the silver sword of ant wing is quite popular. It was more of a gray sword than silver, but it seems to be the easiest magic sword to make from monster materials in the labyrinth city. Since the way to create things from ant wing is written in Trazayuya document, I'll try to make one.
The magic scrolls which I looked forward the most had the same line-ups as the duchy capital since they were all provided by Viscount Shimen.
Interestingly enough, the ignition rod that most explorers use seem to be sold at high price in the neighboring earldom and small kingdoms. It's cheap in the labyrinth city since it's mass produced by amateur craftsmen from scrap magic cores, but in other territories, the rod is made by full-fledged craftsmen from proper magic cores like other magic tools, so it's expensive there.
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The Marchioness has requested me to redevelop an experimental farm outside the labyrinth city, although it has nothing to do with Beria fruit.
It seems to be a place near a small water source where the previous viceroy created an experiment to grow wheat, but was abandoned since the yield was bad.
It was right when I was looking for place to employ the slave girls I had saved as Kuro, so I agreed to it.
The explorer-turned-thieves who had built a hideout there were trampled by Pochi and Tama, turned into crime slaves and taken to the coal mine.
Since the land has become barren, I decide to grow Beria fruits for healing medicines, beans for food, and tomatoes. Especially the tomatoes, I expect to mass produce them.
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About the healing medicine recipe made from Beria leaf, when I went to meet Tsutoreiya-shi to consult it, he quickly wrote the recipe and handed it to me. It seemed that it was a well-known recipe in the elf hometown, so Trazayuya didn't leave it on his documents since it was too common.
I came back to labyrinth city, immediately made it, and confirmed its effect on the pupils of the training school.
Since the effect isn't especially strong, I guess I'll make it public.
I wrote the recipe on some papers, put them on treasure chests, and then hid them on various places inside the labyrinth. It's a little surprise for beginner explorers.
I've divided the recipe into several pieces of paper with numbering, and put them in treasure chests.
They should understand that the recipe is real since I've put a sample of Beria healing medicine together with it.
Just in case, I've prepared six sets of the recipe instead of just one.
The first piece of the recipe was found five days later, the labyrinth city was enveloped in a slight festive mood.
In a little while, low level cheap healing medicines should spread.
While thinking that, I watch over the children who are happily harvesting Berias that are growing wildly around the labyrinth city.