We Concocted the Medicine
“This requires a lot of strength…”
“It does. You have to crush the herbs quite thoroughly.”
It seemed that Milina was struggling a little with the work of grinding the herbs into powder.
Aside from one of the herbs, the others were leaves, and so we had to crush them ourselves…which was more tiring than expected.
But while Milina had thin arms, I had been swinging a sword for some time now, and so it wasn’t too hard.
I suppose it was just something that she would have to get used to.
“Ah, it’s starting to turn into a paste.
“Hmm. According to the book, it says in this state, to continue mixing them until dry… Is this the state it’s supposed to be in?”
As the moisture remained from the leaves, it would not turn completely into powder. Currently, both Milina and I had bowls of paste.
While the herbs themselves were mixed, the book said we had to keep mixing it until it turned into powder.
…That would take quite a long time…
“Taste it? But the book says it has to be dried…”
Leo had come to the drawing room with me, and she was standing behind me and looking into the bowl.
She could have stayed outside and played with Tilura, but Leo seemed to be interested in medicine.
And so she had been watching us all this time.
As for what Leo wanted me to do… Well, she could tell a lot by just smelling something, so perhaps I should try it.
“All right, Milina. Why don’t we try tasting it?”
“Are you certain? What if we failed and…”
“Well, even if it tastes horrible, I don’t think it will make us sick. It’s not that kind of herb.”
They were just plants filled with nutrients, so even if the taste was bad, it shouldn’t have a negative effect.
Though…I suppose it was possible to take too much… But we were just going to taste a little this time.
I touched the edge of the paste gently with my finger and then licked it.
After seeing this, Milina also hesitantly dipped her finger in to taste it.
While we had combined three different kinds of herbs, the taste of the medicine was overpoweringly sour.
We both scowled and looked at each other in disbelief.
It was like those dried sour plums… My mouth kept filling with saliva after that.
…While I had eaten such plums before, it must be quite shocking for someone like Milina…
“…No, Leo. This is no good at all. It is much too sour to eat.”
“Good Leo… It is so sour…”
“…Glug-glug… Thank you. Hah…”
Ms. Lyra saw us and quickly poured us some tea.
I thanked her, and then we both rinsed our mouths with it.
Leo looked quite disappointed by all of this…as if it was a great failure.
Of course, she would not have been able to guess that it would taste …
“Master… Did we make a mistake?”
“No, I wouldn’t say that… However, in this state, it is…”
It was much worse than when I has tasted it with Ms. Helena and Sebastian.
I didn’t know why it came out . Perhaps mixing them together made the sourness even stronger.
It was definitely strange…
“In any case, we should continue until it’s dry, just as the book says.”
“Very well. I doubt the taste will change, but…let’s try it.”
While the taste might be a failure, we didn’t know about the effect yet.
But as we could hardly mix it with the wine in this state, we would follow the book and continue until it was dried powder.
I agreed with Milina that the taste was not likely to change, but…since this was our first time doing it, I wanted to finish the job.
“Master, my arms are getting tired…”
“Yes, concocting medicine is tiring work…”
After grinding it in the pestle and mortar for some time…even I grew tired.
And if I was tired, Milina would be exhausted.
Still, it was commendable that she did not give up.
“What is it, Mr. Takumi?”
Leo was looking into the open book and trying to tell us something.
And so I obeyed her and looked at the book… ‘As the process of drying is time consuming, having multiple people create wind will help save time.’
“Milina…it says it’s faster with some wind…”
It reminded me how people used a fan when making sushi rice. Indeed, it probably would make it dry faster.
Milina looked puzzled though… Well, she did have such knowledge, I suppose.
“That’s amazing, Leo!”
“…The magic of a Silver Fenrir. I didn’t know that she could do such a thing.”
Leo, who had been looking at us, suddenly barked once, and then a wind was created as it blew towards us.
…I didn’t know Leo could do that.
Milina and Ms. Lyra were also surprised by this magic, and Leo seemed quite proud.
“Yes. But we have to keep working. Thank you, Leo.”
While feeling the wind that Leo had created, we continued the work of mixing the paste.
And after what still felt like a long time…the paste finally turned into something like powder.
So, it had worked quite well after all.
Now, it would be ready very soon?