It looks like it will take a while for Lord Alchemia to wake up. I could smack her awake, but I don’t want to shake her already unstable spirit.
Thinking about how panicked she was before makes me rethink my treatment of her a little, not to mention that having the person that is with me go crazy wouldn’t be good for me.
Well then, first and foremost, we need to get out of this island. I don’t see anything man-made here, so I assume it’s inhabited. That means there’s no point in staying here for long.
What is important here is who prepares our escape. It would be faster if I did it on my own, but I want to have Lord Alchemia help. If we get closer, it will be easier for her to follow instructions, and she might become a valuable weapon when it’s time to beat Loyd.
I say might because of the distance between them. There’s a good chance he won’t bite if I use her as bait.
Well, there’s no point in worrying about the future. It doesn’t matter how I deal with Loyd, because he’s definitely going down the next time we fight.
I’m going to make my escape from the island tomorrow, so today, finding food and shelter takes precedence. Thankfully, there are plenty of trees in the center of the island, so finding wood won’t be a problem. By using clay and vines, I can make something that can protect us from the rain and wind before the day is over.
But first, let’s eat.
I leave the sleeping Lord Alchemia for a bit, as I go out to find food.
I push the plants aside as I advance through the thick vegetation in the center, and it takes me five minutes to find a good amount of food.
There’s a ten meter tall tree with a lot of apples about five meters from the ground.
It’s currently autumn, so it’s really nice timing that it just so happens to be the time for their harvest.
I activate Gale and run up the tree until I reach the apples, and then come back down after I collect them all.
There are twenty in total, which will last us a few days.
I go back to find Lord Alchemia is already awake, looking around with a worried expression.
She looks relieved when she sees me. I thought for sure she would look displeased.
“Have you awakened?”
“Hum, where are we?”
“I do not know myself. This is an uninhabited island. We drifted here after falling victim to that red light.”
“I see… Hum, thank you for last night.”
“I do not remember doing anything worthy of gratitude.”
“That’s not true. You saved me when I fell into the sea. You saved my life.”
She’s got the wrong idea. She’s just lucky to be alive, I didn’t save her.
Apparently she doesn’t remember what happened after she got thrown off the boat. Considering I was about to bury her, maybe it’s best that her memory is fuzzy.
“We can talk after we fill our stomachs.”
I say while lining up the apples on the ground, and Lord Alchemia sounds impressed.
“You got so many. Can I eat too?”
“Surely they are too many for me.”
“I guess so. Then I’ll take one.”
Lord Alchemia takes an apple and bites right into it.
I, on the other hand, cut one into eight pieces and eat one at a time.
Lord Alchemia looks at me with her eyes wide open in surprise.
“Eh? Eeh!? C-could it be that you can cook?”
“Ah?”
I didn’t cook anything…
“You cut them into easy to eat pieces. That’s incredible!”
“What are you talking about? Are you mocking me?”
“Of course not. I can’t really use a knife, so I can’t pull off a trick like cutting an apple.”
“Ah?”
I understand all the words she’s saying, but my brain is rejecting them.
“Lord Alchemia, how old are you?”
“Nineteen.”
“And you have never held a knife?”
“I have, multiple times. But every time I tried to cut vegetables, I couldn’t do it evenly, so Loyd did it for me.”
“…You’re an alchemist, correct?”
“Yes.”
“Alchemy is a lot like cooking, wouldn’t you agree?”
“I have never thought of cooking from that particular point of view.”
“No, do it! Mixing things in a cauldron is just like cooking.”
“I guess it could be…”
This girl… She’s scary. Nevermind cooking, she can’t even use a knife?
How do you live to grow up this useless?
“Just to check, how did you learn your main talent, alchemy?”
“There was a magic master called Director Jeru, but I mostly learned on my own. The director valued our autonomy.”
“Director?”
“Yes, I grew up in an orphanage.”
Alchemia tells me about her circumstances. Apparently she had a happy life in an orphanage.
From what I can gather, cooking was mostly left for people who were good at it, and people like Lord Alchemia were practically never involved with it.
“Have you never once thought you would like to cook?”
“People were happier if Sherry or Tom cooked. And they were proud of their cooking too. I couldn’t get in their way.”
So basically, she was never taught…
When I think of an orphanage, I imagine them all cooking together. The idea of leaving it to people who are good at it comes off as odd to me.
Also, she says that environment valued autonomy. That basically means you can’t grow if you don’t do things on your own.
It’s Lord Alchemia’s fault for not trying to learn. If I said that, it would be the end of it, but I can’t help but question the others.
If you have a friend who can’t even hold a knife right, help her until she can.
…Surely no one questioned it.
You just have to work well on your own. If you can’t, it’s your fault for not listening. I don’t want to hand over my work to someone else.
Surely this is rooted on that point of view.
I won’t say that’s wrong. If anything, it might be the most common in society.
But I learned a lot from White Rose, and not just assassination techniques. Daily life things, common knowledge, manners…
White Rose stayed by my side, and thoughtfully taught me things I didn’t know.
It’s because of those basic things I learned that I can deal with the ‘impossible tasks’ demanded by society.
From my point of view, this director that she speaks of with pride is incompetent. If a kid can’t even hold a knife, teach her that before alchemy.
Was it this misguided upbringing that made Loyd go unappreciated and turned Lord Alchemia into a selfish girl with no common sense?
Thinking about growing up like that brings a shiver down my spine.
For the first time, I feel pity for Lord Alchemia. At the same time, I make a decision.
I’m an assassin. It’s definitely not the kind of life people would praise. Even I question my way of life.
Still, I feel like we have to change Lord Alchemia.
“There are three things I will have you do.”
I emphasize the ‘I will have you do’.
“Hum, what is it? I’ll do anything you ask! You just saved my life!”
I almost say that me saving her life isn’t the issue here, it’s that she’s not going anywhere if she stays like this, idiot, but I hold it in.
“First, get wood to make a boat. It will take me days to do it alone, so help me.”
“Understood. What else?”
“The second is cooking. I have too much to do, and little time to cook. That means you will be in charge of it.”
“Eh…”
Lord Alchemia’s expression turns to concern.
She just said she can’t do it, so that makes sense, but I continue.
“Don’t worry, for I will teach you.”
“Really!?”
“Indeed indeed.”
“But you just said you’re busy.”
“Stop concerning yourself with details. It will be good for me if you know how to cook.”
“So someone needs me… I-I’ll try my best…”
She accepts with a very serious expression.
It sounds like very few people have ever needed her, aside from alchemy.
“Third…”
“Gulp.”
“Well, look forward to tomorrow.”
I say, and her shoulders drop with disappointment.
“We will be waking up early tomorrow, and go to an open area to the north. Then you will find what I want to teach you.”
“???”
An evil smile forms on my face, as a question mark appears on top of her head.
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