As soon as I made up my mind to help the orphanage, I stopped holding myself back.
When I woke up in the morning, I went with Teto to the 21st floor of the dungeon to kill the land dragon, cashed in the money, and then bought what I needed.
Teto and I only needed to spend 10 silver coins a day, so we mostly bought food and other daily needs for the orphanage, as well as books and other tools I needed to teach them.
I walked toward the church while carrying them with Teto.
“Teto-sama, Chise-sama. Welcome, welcome” (T/N: The first welcome is youkoso and the second is irasshai mashita >.>)
“Hello Father. These are for today’s goods.”
Having said that, we gave the orphans the things they needed and talked about the orphanage.
"The lord doesn't mind if the orphans make and sell potions, so long as they can make them consistently, then they will make sure that the kids would be safe."
"Oh, I see. That’s quite good. If it's okay with you, I'd like you to start teaching the kids right away.”
“Yes. Well, please take care of me.”
I went to the orphanage with Teto.
Dan, along with a few other boys and girls his age or a little older were in there, waiting for us.
(T/N: Chise has been referring to Dan as Dan shounen, or literally Dan boy. Kept it out because it sounded weird to me, but if anyone wants it back just leave a comment. Because it’s showing up every other line ;-;)
“Dan. As promised, I have come to teach you how to concoct a potion.”
“R-really……Father told me to wait……”
The other children in the orphanage were still clearly confused by what I said.
Well, your doubts would be bigger if you were told you would be taught by a girl your age.
I wanted to use the orphanage's kitchen to show them how to make potions, but......
“The stove is broken and there’s no firewood.”
“The price of firewood is just… very expensive, a-and we can’t pick it up because there’s no forest nearby.” I also knew from going through in and out the dungeon that retired D-rank adventurers went to the forested 11th floor of the dungeon, just to cut down the trees in there, and use them as a firewood.
“I’m going to use my firewood today. From now on I’ll bring a lot of firewood.”
Then I taught them how to make potions from scratch.
Take out the common herbs, wash them with water, cut off the dead parts with a knife, finely chop the leaves, and put them in hot water. With 10 herbs, you could make one potion.
Measuring at this time was based on eyeballing measurements, which would be up to the intuition of each alchemist, but when I was learning how to make potions in the starting village, I used [Creation Magic] to make a measuring cup so I could figure out the best amount to use.
"Then, for 10 herbs, fill this cup all the way to the 200 mark. And when you heat it up and think about how much steam will reduce the amount, you'll need an extra 100. If you make two or more, it evaporates less quickly, but for now, let's just make one at a time.”
In each small pot, boil the herbs and stir them so they don't boil too much.
"When you mix it, put your mana through the wooden spatula to add mana to the liquid in the pot and wish for the wound to get better and heal faster."
While I demonstrated, the medicinal components seeped out of the herbs in the pot and combined with my mana to shine a light green.
The amount of the potion’s recovery varied depending on how fresh the herbs were and how great their magical qualities are.
In my case, I used freshly picked medicinal herbs and a huge amount of 15,000 mana to make potions. Even low-grade potions helped me heal almost as much as intermediate-high-grade potions. (T/N: Slightly overkill. Also, it seems that potions are designated by ingredients, not pure recovery value, so a high-grade potion could be worse than an intermediate-grade)
For one of the more complicated magic potions in this world, a court magician with more mana than I have now had to keep sending mana over the course of several days.
Putting that aside, I took the finished potion out of the pot and strained out the leaves with a cloth. I then put the finished potion in a bottle to cool and showed it to everyone.
“The child who was injured……Here, try using it.”
There were some children who ran around and fell, scraping their knees. Other kids had rough hands from doing housework.
I let those children use the potions and realise their effects.
“Amazing, you really made a potion!”
“Now, it’s your turn.”
After the demonstration, they tried it out.
However, some of the children couldn’t do well because they didn’t have enough mana, which made the shades of their potions dull. Some of them were even blinking repeatedly like a broken bulb!
More than 70% of the finished potions didn't work, and even if they did, the low quality of the potions made everyone feel down, so they dropped their shoulders.
"Does anyone know why you can only mix one potion at a time?"
"En, I used up a lot of my mana.”
Looking at everyone with the appraisal monocle, their amount of mana would be about 50 to 100, which is also about how much mana it takes to make a medium-quality potion. So, to make 2 or 3 potions at once, you would need 1000 or 2000 mana, and kids don't have that much mana. However, some of them had learned how to give mana, so from now on, the amount of mana they had would increase as they get older and the amount of mana they use would decrease as they got better at making potions.
(T/N: This paragraph was hell to translate, and I don’t even know if I did it right ._. Seems collectively the children have ~600 mana? I think? Also, it seems there’s 2 rating systems for potions. Ingredients determine grade, and how well you made it determines quality, so you can have an excellent-quality low-grade potion that heals as much as a medium-quality intermediate-grade potion. Or at least that’s what I’m getting.)
“Chise onee-chan! Let us practice making more potions!”
“No.”
“Why?!”
“Making potions requires mana, but all of you have barely any mana left. So let’s learn again after you recover.”
Having said that, I showed the boys and girls in front of me the kinds of medicines they could make, as well as the ingredients and steps. Then I taught them the price of each potion, how to read and write simple characters, how to do simple math, and how to make mana flow consistently.
However——
“Onii-chan, onee-chan……”
“Ahh, hey, hey! Right now we’re being taught how to make potions so don’t come in!”
In the orphanage, other than the children who were learning to make potions there were many other children as well.
“Teto, please babysit them.”
“Okay nodesu. Everyone, play with Teto nodesu!”
Teto, who had a spirit of a child, opened her heart to the kids right away and started playing with them behind the orphanage. She also used earth magic to play with the clay in the orphanage's yard.
When the kids showed Teto the cracks in the orphanage, she fixed them with magic, which made the kids laugh with delight. Because of that, they showed to Teto the other cracks one after another, and I giggled at the healing sight.
“Now then……It’s about noon so let’s get ready for lunch.”
“Puhaa~, Chise-nee. Spartan” (T/N: スパルタ as in Spartan training)
When I was teaching the kids how to make potions, Dan would call me "Chise-nee", and the name just stuck with the other kids too. Also, even though they called it "Spartan," I know it was pretty full-filling.
However, if you applied the technique of pouring magic into potions, it would be useful even as an adventurer, since by concentrating mana into your eyes it would make it easier to find the materials for mana potions and the like. It was a skill you needed to live a better life. Even if they didn't understand it right away, I hoped they would remember it. (T/N: Majo-sama has been concentrating magic power into her eyes for so much observation of monsters and whatnot, and the first thing she says is that they can make more potions with that skill. Sasuga black company leader Chise)
And at noon——
“““Deliciousss! (º ﹃ º )”””
“Yes, it’s delicious. If that’s the case, you should eat more”
After killing the land dragon on the 20th floor, we killed a few more monsters and made lunch with the ingredients we obtained then.
At the orphanage, the scene where the older child was eating while taking care of the younger child looked very heart-warming and very enjoyable.
"Teto, I'll bring the priest lunch, so please take care of everyone else."
“Understood nodesu. Pickiness is no good nodesu. Everything is delicious nodesuyo.”
I put bread, soup, the meat side dish, and stir-fried vegetables on the tray and carried it while heading to the church.
“Excuse me. Father, I’ve brought you some lunch.”
“Oh, Chise-sama. Thank you for going through the trouble.”
Father stopped what he was doing when I brought him some lunch.
“Oya, today's meal is considerably luxurious, isn’t it?”
“It was just some monster meat I had on hand……but was it all right?”
“It’s fine, thank you. From time to time, adventurers from the orphanage also donate it.”
With that said, the priest said a few prayers and then started to eat.
"Thanks to Chise-sama, I could now see some hope for the orphanage."
I listened to what the priest said after he stopped eating and started talking.
“If the children can be independent after leaving the orphanage, they will have hope for the future.”
“I see……but don’t expect too much, Father. I am an adventurer, so I may be going on to different places. This assistance of mine is only for a short period of time.”
“Yes, I know. But even so, thank you”
The priest also understood that the sale of the potions concocted by the children was on track, but it wouldn’t last forever. If they didn’t try to improve it, then it would collapse quickly.
Would it be a year, five years, or ten years from now...... Maybe it's just the way I am, but I couldn't help but do it.
“Well then, I’ll be going to see the children.”
“Yes, I’ll also be talking with the adventurer guild, the alchemy guild, and also the Lord.”
When I took the tableware from the priest who had finished eating, I was stopped by a few words from the priest as I tried to leave.
“You’re a mysterious person. You look the same as a child from an orphanage, but I think that your heart is more like an adult that is not much different from me.”
"......I see, I guess I was just born different."
"Chise-sama, how can I ever repay you for this kindness?"
The priest looked like he wanted to cry or was ashamed of himself. It wasn’t easy to receive his favor. However, it seems that it will remain in his mind forever.
That’s why—
“Then, please teach me the magic used by the church. Because I’m a witch who likes working.”
"Then I'll ready the holy spell book of the church."
“I’m looking forward to it.” Saying so, I left the room with the tableware of the priest who had finished the meal.
