Chapter 58.1 – Making Potions – part 2

The Potions Teacher went to the table where all the Teachers and the Principal were, and he spoke in a low voice, “I don’t even know what to say about this! First, she says she wants to make a High-Grade, then she says it is to be used in case of need because they want to fight the Dragons… If they were other applicants, I would laugh, but we all saw the Unicorns they brought. If they managed to capture and tame them, they might stand a chance against the Dragons. At least the Unicorns will be able to fight the Dragons, making them survive for the ten minutes they need to win the three points. As for defeating them, we all know that is impossible!”

The Principal was about to say something, but Ruh de Mills, the History Teacher, spoke first. “Everyone also said that it would be impossible for a Snake-kind to graduate from this Academy, and look at me now. Yesterday, we all thought there wouldn’t ever be a Gailie attempting to be an Adventurer, and today, we have one right there. Besides, I told you a few days ago about two youngsters from the Guild of the City of Ourelona who decimated a vast horde of Goblins in the mountains near that City, and because of that, the Princess made them Knights. What about if you start the try-out, and we will see what happens? She might fail in the making of the Potion, and we won’t need to hurry about the fight.”

The Potions Teacher sighed and grabbed the big hourglass. He then faced the nervous group in front of him, and declared, “If everyone is ready… get set… begin!”

The moment he turned the hourglass upside down, the applicants rushed to the closets.
Nozomu and Taisetsuna were the only ones that went to the stoves to check the amount of wood inside and the fire.
They nodded at each other and filled a pot with water to boil over the stove, and then they both went to the windowed closets to search for the other ingredients.

While Nozomu was opening a drawer that had leaves to make black tea, the Lion-kind boy almost hit him with a drawer that he quickly pulled, and he warned him in a low tone, “Be careful, kid, you almost hit me with that. You don’t need to cheat, you know? Take care of your Potion and don’t ruin the chances of someone else.”

“I have no idea what you are talking about, dumbass! Besides, I don’t need to cheat. You are going to ruin your chances. I don’t need to do a thing!”

Nozomu glanced at the ingredients he was taking out of the drawer, and said with a smile, “It seems you are going to make a nice Sleeping Potion. It still gives you a point, but it’s a bit different from the Medium-Grade Potion that you so proudly announced.”

“Shut up, dumbass! You know nothing!”

Nozomu shook his head, as the Lion-kind boy rushed to his table, looking at the ingredients he was carrying with a nervous look plastered on his face as if he was doubting.
Near the stove, Taisetsuna was already putting the ingredients inside the pot when Nozomu went to his.
When he was putting the ingredients together, the Potions Teacher approached and looked inside with a slight frown.
Pretending not to see him, Nozomu quickly covered the pot before the Teacher had time to check anything.

He then looked surprised and turned to the Teacher, “Oh, sorry, I didn’t see you there. Do you need anything?”

“No, I was just checking what you were doing.”

“Right… and in the meantime, trying to learn how to do this, so that you can also make High-Grade Healing Potions… I don’t remember hearing you or the Principal saying that you could spy on what we were doing. Would you mind explaining why you were doing it? Because that is not a pretty thing to do, you know? If we were in class, you had all the right to check, but during a try-out? Especially when I am doing such a secretive recipe? That doesn’t sound right.”

“No, I wasn’t… I mean…”

Nozomu spoke in a low tone while checking the hot coal in the bottom compartment. “Don’t insult my intelligence by making some lame excuse, will you? Go check what other people are doing and let me and Suna be all alone.”

“You… I mean… Aham! You should think very well about the way you address me, boy. If you enter this Academy, I can make your stay here more difficult than it should!”

“Sir… Sir Nozomu. Not boy. Respect is reciprocal, Teacher. Move along, you are distracting me and I need to focus on what I am doing here.”

The Teacher frowned and answered as he was going to the next stove. “You need to work on that attitude of yours, or you are up for a few surprises in this Academy. If you enter, that is.”

Taisetsuna lifted the lid of her pot to check, and after closing it, she asked in a low voice, “What was that all about?”

“Nothing, he just thought it would be a good idea to spy on us. I am all set. How much time is left in your tiny hourglass?”

Taisetsuna glanced at the hourglass that she had on top of her table and answered, “Two minutes. Mine has a nice colour, and yours?”

“It looks right. Keep an eye on the time, and I am going to look for some vials or some sort of container in those closets. I have a few empty vials to pour my Healing Potion, but I think I am going to end up with more than enough to fill my vials. Do you have some as well?”

“I think I have ten. Grab a few for me, will you?”

When Nozomu was in front of a closet grabbing a few half-litre wooden vials, Robert approached him and, while grabbing a wooden spoon, he whispered, “You and Taisetuna are really going to fight the Dragons? Because if you are, count me in. There is no way I am going to let her face those things without me.”

“Are you sure? You could die, you know?”

“No, I am not. I know how to take care of myself. You do your thing, and I will cover for you.”

Wondering what he was talking about, Nozomu made a slight frown, only to hear him explain in the following whisper. “I saw you in the Castle when Furnace made that Fire Wall, remember? I know you are immune to Magic. Don’t worry, I didn’t say a thing to the Nobles that were also there, and I provided a few lies to the ones that suspected by saying that you probably used Water Magic.”

“Thanks, but Dragons are on a whole different level…”

Robert gave a slight smile and whispered again, while opening a few drawers, searching for nothing. “If you and her fight the Dragons, and you defeat them, or at least, survive the fight, your name will be known everywhere. I would be a fool if I didn’t want to participate! I came to this Academy to make a name for myself without depending so much on my family name. Fighting Dragons? My family will be proud and perhaps Taisetsuna will stop seeing me as a nuisance.”

Nozomu gently squeezed Robert’s right shoulder and spoke in a low tone before returning to his table. “Get your point in this try-out and we will talk afterwards. Between you and me, if Taisetsuna really thought you were a nuisance and, knowing her as I do, she would already have ripped your face off. Considering you still look pretty, maybe, just maybe, she sees something in you. You just have to lower a bit that show of yours, because that seems to annoy her.”

Robert glanced at Nozomu’s back and mumbled to himself. “Did he just tell me I had a chance with her, or...?”

He went to his table to mix the last of the ingredients, and as he was going to the stove next to him, Hinen Sukemoru, who was at the table next to him, asked in a low tone, “How are you going over there? The smell coming from your pot is hideous!”

“That only means you are not used to making Glowing Potions. It is supposed to smell like that while it’s cooking, and after the last two ingredients, the smell changes and becomes more like an expensive perfume. You will see.”

A shout from a table at their back made everyone look at what was happening, and they all saw Chujitsuna Hito rubbing her tongue against a piece of cloth while she continued to shout, “Sweet mother! This is potent! No one smells this pot, or you will die! And the taste is disgusting! Luckily for me, I know what to put in there!”

Tresuria looked at her puzzled, only to get a smile before she slithered to a closet, returning with a small container with a yellow powder that she carefully poured into the pot. After a quick mix, she smelled her Potion again, and to Tresuria’s surprise, Chujitsuna tasted it, and another shout followed that action. “That’s it! I finished! Do I get a prize for finishing first or what?”

Teacher Tinch approached her stove and looked inside, while warning her, “Refrain from distracting the others, will you? That is not polite. If you finished, grab a few vials to put your Potion in, and wait silently in your place for everyone to finish as well.”

“Oops! Sorry…”

Chujitsuna rushed to the nearest closet and returned with a few small wooden vials and two big ones. Being extra careful, she used a cup and a funnel to pour her Potion in the vials and corked them all.
She then cleaned all the instruments she used, because Tresuria could need to use some of them.
The Teacher then went to Tresuria’s table, and slowly nodded when he saw her using a small scale to measure the powder she made after smashing one ingredient she was going to use in her Potion.

When she put the powder in a container and grabbed another to measure it, he said, “That is a very good and accurate technique. Who taught you how to do that?”

“Father did. Mother is very good with Potions, but this one’s father is very picky with Potions. While this one mother does everything by eye and taste, this one father measures and tests everything, using what he calls ‘the proper tools‘. This one’s mother is better than this one’s father when the matter is Potions, though. Father’s Potions are good, but mother is on a different level. They have a very profitable Potions Shop in the City Tabivere, and they often compete with one another, trying to see who sells more Potions.”

“I see… I hope I can still teach you a few things about Potions if your parents are so good at making them.”

“This one believes you will be. This one’s father was once a student at this academy. That is why he told this one that this one would learn his methods here, and not use the weird ways of this one’s mother. He normally says that when mother is not around, of course.”

“Very well then, carry on.”

Tresuria placed the last measured powder in the same container, went to the stove, and carefully poured it inside. She smelled the light green Potion and used a wooden spoon to taste a tiny drop. She made a big smile and began pouring the Potion into the vials that were already near her stove.
A few metres away from her, Taisetsuna was looking at the tiny hourglass that she had over her table, and when the last grain fell, she signalled Nozomu, and they both took the pot out of the fire and removed the floating ingredients.

When the Potions Teacher approached, Taisetsuna was using her Wind Magic to cool her pot, and she asked him after finishing, “Can I help Nozo cool his pot as well? Or we will need to wait a long time for him!”