“Hey Loyd. Aren’t I always telling you that the freshness of materials has a big impact on how good transmuted items turn out? Why do you have so much trouble understanding something so simple?”
She says with an angry voice as she glares at me, and throws the materials I picked in the trash.
This person glaring at me is my childhood friend and girlfriend, Ruby. She’s nineteen, like me.
She has vibrant red hair, orange eyes, lively pink lips, and flawless porcelain-like pale skin.
Her face still has some childish cuteness, appropriate for her age, and it stimulates protective instincts in guys.
The navy blue coat she’s wearing makes it hard to see her body, but she purposefully wears it because it contrasts with her red hair, and her outfit in general gives off the impression of a cool-headed girl.
Her short skirt exposes her long and slender legs, and although there isn’t a big undulation on her chest, that in itself is part of what makes her look like a work of art.
She’s been blessed with the kind of appearance that will make ten out of ten people turn to look when she walks around town.
Not only that, but she is a genius alchemist. One of three in the country who has the title of court alchemist, and Lord Alchemia, because she has been given a noble title, something that only happens once every generation.
A kind, great alchemist that is the pride of the kingdom, is how the world sees Ruby.
But that’s because they only see the face she puts on. It’s nothing more than a front.
From the point of view of this childhood friend here, she’s like a demon who power harasses me on a daily basis.
She just said the Fleur de Einsel I worked so hard to pick isn’t fresh enough, and threw it all in the trash. That’s power harassment all right.
“I put it in the dimensional bag, cast Protection, and carried it as carefully as I could to maintain its freshness.”
“Stop making excuses. You know you’re not the standard, right? We’re not playing around here. This is a respectable job. The idea that things are all right just because you worked hard only works with hobbies. Act like a pro. Aren’t you an exclusive mage?”
I can’t say anything back.
Exclusive mages have to provide materials at the level that the alchemist wants. Every exclusive mage knows this.
The moment Ruby decided those materials were no good, was the moment the fault fell on the exclusive mage.
It’s a frustrating accepted practice, but I have no choice but to accept.
Of course, that alone isn’t a good reason to throw the Fleur de Einsel in the trash, but Ruby, an alchemist, is very intelligent, and very good at using her persuasion to talk me down.
Like this time, how she cut off any escape route for me by telling me to act like a pro.
I can never beat her in an argument.
“You know Loyd, if you normally did a good job, I wouldn’t get so angry. It’s only because you don’t do it well.”
“I get it. You’re a nice girl, so you have a reason to be angry.”
“No, you really don’t get it. If you’re my boyfriend, you need to listen to me. Your material picking rate is the lowest in the kingdom. That’s so embarrassing for me. You need to be aware of that.”
It hurts how she’s looking down on me, but I’m keeping it all inside me and bearing with it.
All because I’m aware of the faults with my work.
My picking rate is low. That’s my biggest complex, and the biggest reason why Ruby criticizes me so much.
There’s a mage ranking in the kingdom. It varies based on mages’ occupations, but when it comes to exclusive mages who pick materials for alchemists, picking rate is seen as the most important metric.
Alchemists think up recipes and transmute things, and exclusive mages provide the necessary materials.
If one part of this team isn’t good, it doesn’t work.
It’s commonly said that alchemists are the sun, and exclusive mages the moon. Even if I’m behind Ruby, my role is very important. And that’s why she’s always looking for me to take responsibility.
Generally speaking, the picking rate for exclusive mages is over ninety percent. Unless they’re pretty difficult, they mostly never fail to gather items.
My picking rate is forty percent, which is abysmal, and makes me the target of ridicule for other mages.
Incompetent exclusive, hanger-on, worthless other than being Ruby’s childhood friend.
That’s how the world sees me.
If I didn’t have to think about the time limit, I could gather everything, but it’s common practice for alchemy requests to have a time limit. Going over it makes an atelier take a big hit in terms of reputation.
Ruby’s recipe conception and transmutation rates are a hundred percent, so she’s not the target of criticism.
And so, when a request fails, it stands to reason that it was because the materials weren’t provided in time.
“Ahh… This request has already failed. Even if you went to the pitcher plant field now, you wouldn’t make it in time. This atelier’s reputation is going down again because of you, Loyd.”
“Sorry for always causing you problems because I’m not good enough, Ruby.”
“Like. I. Said. If you have time to apologize, do your job properly. You really are the most useless trash you blockhead. Do you know how hard it is to bring the reputation of this atelier up after you drag it down?”
“Sorry.”
Ruby kicks one of the many books scattered on the floor.
There are books all over the room because she can’t be tidy. And she has a bad habit of kicking them when she’s in a bad mood.
I’m not going to tell her how unseemly it is to hit things like that, because she’s just going to say ‘who are you to tell me not to do anything’.
She was a little calmer back when she had just become an alchemist, and relatively nice to me, but she became conceited when people started hailing her as a genius alchemist. Her character has become rotten.
