Maria only left on the 17th day. Had it not been for a messenger that was sent from the royal capital to hurry her back, she might’ve stayed even longer.
Claude served as her chef for 17 days, but more importantly, as her lab assistant. Apart from completing seven tomes and 35 blank scrolls, he mainly learned to use the medicine-preparing machines within the lab and gained some preliminary knowledge about herbalism from Maria.
Thanks to her unwithheld teaching and guidance, Claude properly thought up what to cook her every night to express his thanks. That was part of the reason she delayed her return to the royal capital and stayed in the wood for so long. She expressed more than once that even though she was surprised at Claude’s talent in magic and herbalism, she still felt that the best path he could take was become a chef.
Claude also learned much about her during the past few days. Mainly, she was a glutton. Perhaps that wasn’t the best way to put it. How about she be called a food enthusiast, a gourmet, perhaps? Perhaps due to her adoption by Stellin IX and how she spent her time growing up within the palace, she developed quite the refined palette. While she could consume normal food as well, she mainly did so as a biological need and convenience.
She had rushed over to Whitestag to purchase the niros crocodile taxidermy mount and didn’t bring too many guards or servants with her. Mainly, she was afraid that she would catch others’ attention if she traveled with a large entourage which will put a wrench in her designs to purchase the specimen.
Before this, she would usually have Rodan purchase food for her from the old tavern whenever she stayed at the wood. Even though she had heard about the head chef, Pjard, for his great culinary skills, she had already tried most of the popular dishes in the royal capital. Those were something she could live without since she had more than enough of them at home.
So, when she visited Locke’s and Morssen said that his son could cook rare dishes not found elsewhere, Maria was moved to stay despite her identity and status. To glutt– gourmets, tasting what they hadn’t tried before was one of the best pleasures. Who cared about status? Was it something one could eat?
Claude ended up not disappointing her. The dishes he cooked that night was indeed something she’d never had in the royal capital before, especially those cooked with stir frying, which hadn’t been heard of in this world. Most of the dishes in this world were cooked with one of the six main methods, steam, simmer, smoke, grill, mix and roast. Only stir fry was absent from it all.
Claude credited the knowledge he had of that method to a notebook he had read. Maria thought he meant that it was recorded in the magus’s diary in Claude’s possession. Perhaps the magus had a penchant for the culinary arts. Morssen on the other hand believed that maybe his son had read some chef’s notebook from somewhere before. Since he had already bought a cookbook before, it wasn’t out of the ordinary for him to enjoy cooking.
He usually made dishes that were very common in his past life. When he cooked for his mother and siblings, he would have to consider wastage and replacement ingredients, because to Morssen, while cooking a good dish was commendable, wasting too much ingredients in the process was out of the question as the household funds ought not to be simply spent.
But when he was at the wood, Claude didn’t have to worry about wasting anything. Maria loved good food and she would pay any price for a delicious meal. Whenever Claude couldn’t find some seasoning he needed, all he needed to do was tell her about it or a replacement he could use and she would get Rodan to get it.
Claude believed that a glutton was the core of her identity. She would always have a chat with him after enjoying his cooking and asked for the recipe so that she could get her private chefs at the royal capital to learn and make it for him. However, they would often get into arguments as Claude would always quantify the ingredients with vacuous terms, such as a pinch of salt, or a bit of wine. She wanted Claude to clarify how much a pinch of salt meant down to the individual number of crystals.
Maria’s second defining characteristic was her identity as a herbalist. She would always be very strict when she gave Claude herbalism lessons and tests and no trace of her usual friendly self could be seen. She loved to tell him that the field of herbalism couldn’t tolerate the slightest error or carelessness because a misconcocted medicine could cost an innocent patient’s life.
The tertiary part of her identity was that of a magus. She didn’t really regard it with much importance, however. She confessed that she had wanted to learn magic as a kid because she saw how wondrous those spells registered magi cast were. A test revealed that she actually had talent for it, so she started training in meditation and some spells and managed to become a two-ring magus.
In fact, Claude couldn’t be sure what kind of magus she was. Most of the spells she engraved as basic spells were harmless ones. The only combat spell she knew was Chain Lightning and it was something she only managed to obtain from the palace. Stellin X had given it to her as he was worried that his little sister wouldn’t have any method of defending herself.
Magic was no more but an added convenience for Maria, just like the Luminous Pearls she liked to use. She didn’t really hold it in much regard as could be seen when she had Claude do most of the work when she dealt with the crocodile specimen while she gave instructions from the back. She much preferred that over doing the work herself.
The last part that made up her identity was her status as a noblewoman. That was the one she regarded with the least importance. When she was in the lab, she would forget her noble status and turn into a focused herbalist. Morssen said that there were rumors that she would remain in her lab for days on end for some experiment. Had it not been for Claude’s frequent reminders, she would often forget about dinner and the time when she was caught up in her research.
He felt fortunate that the first magus he met was Maria. He managed to gain much information about the current state of magic in the kingdom, and most importantly, she wasn’t obsessed with magic and didn’t have much desire for the five basic spells Claude revealed he had learned. Not only that, she even attentively imparted upon him basic knowledge in the field of herbalism, such as how he should prepare medicinal concoctions and herbs.
Not only that, he also got to learn how to make tomes and scrolls, especially the process of turning niros crocodile skin membrane into rune parchment. The only part he found to be a shame was how she only had a passing interest in magic. Thus, she was only able to give Claude a general introduction to the field. Even though she had been to the black magic market before, she didn’t show much interest in it and would only go there to look for ingredients she lacked for her concoctions.
However, thanks to her, Claude got a rough bearing on what his current status was. As long as he didn’t let anyone else realize that he was a magus, he would be able to live life without issue. If he encountered other magi, he just had to be careful not to reveal his spells. Maria said that it wasn’t all fun and games among rogue magi. They lusted for each other’s spells, wealth and magic supplies and it wasn’t uncommon for such murders to occur in the royal capital.
She had given Claude one completed tome and five blank scrolls. A tome like that could be sold for 50 krons in the royal capital and each blank scroll could go for five krons. So, even though Maria had spent a high price of 45 krons to buy the crocodile specimen from Sir Fux, she would be able to make much more of it back as she used it to make seven tomes and 35 blank scrolls.
Initially, Maria had planned to stay in her lab for half a month to process the crocodile and make the tomes and scrolls before returning to the royal capital. However, with Claude’s help, she was able to cut down on much of the time. Not only were her tomes and scrolls completed, she also had extra time to guide Claude in his studies and some early herbalism experiments.
With her guidance, Claude learned how to inscribe spell formations onto tomes and seal mana into scrolls. Maria also inscribed her only combat spell, Chain Lightning, onto a scroll for Claude to use in case he needed to defend himself.
In fact, a level-one combat spell like Chain Lightning wasn’t all that powerful. It only had an effective distance of ten meters and it worked by projecting a bolt of lightning to strike the target. The damage the spell wrought was akin to being struck by a stick and the injuries and side effects were light to say the least. Most importantly, the spell could paralyze a target for ten seconds.
Maria only found it to be a shame that it was a level-one spell, which Claude could only learn when he was advancing to become a two-ring magus. She had given him the scroll for self defense and thought that ten seconds of paralysis would afford him more than enough time to escape. It never occurred to her that any enemy paralyzed for ten seconds or so would face mortal danger before Claude.
He had inadvertently treated Maria as the attentive and dutiful homeroom teacher of his when he attended high school in his past life. He learned from her attentively and was like a sponge that absorbed all knowledge he could about this foreign world from her. At the same time, he spared no effort to serve her the dishes from his past life and was genuinely happy for her praises.
But the messenger from the royal capital broke his dreamlike study session. The letter the messenger brought stated that the second prince’s wife had been carrying for eight months and hoped that Maria could return as soon as possible to give her a check up and help her deliver the child. She had no choice but to end her leisurely time at the wood and pack up to leave for the royal capital dawn the next day.
The night before she left, she called Claude over and put him in charge of the wood in front of the Sioris. She also gave him a key and permission to use the tools and materials within the lab as he pleased.
Claude knew that she was being considerate towards him. He wouldn’t have to worry about his status as a magus within the wood and he could practice meditation far more freely there than in the attic of the red-brick mansion.
The other reason for Maria’s actions was that she didn’t want Claude to stop his studies in herbalism. He obviously showed great talent as a herbalist and lacked only experience when compared to a beginner herbalist. Both concocting a medicinal solution and preparing herbs the right way required time and personal experience to master.
Maria also gave Claude a strip of paper with an address on it.
She said that even though there was no black magic market within the three southwestern prefectures, there were secret branch stores of the market scattered throughout the area where magic ingredients and supplies could be bought. If he required anything, he could pay a visit to the address. It was a shop that had been opened in Whitestag for just a little more than a year. Even though Maria was aware of it, she hadn’t been there before.
Claude kept the strip of paper and gave Maria an envelope, a parting gift he had for her.
Within it were five papers, four of which contained the diagrams for Magus’s Hands, Fine Control, Decomposition and Reconstruction. The other one was a letter he wrote for her, telling her that if she learned the four runic spells, she could start buying the supplies to make a proper alchemical formation.
Even though she wasn’t that passionate in magic, even she wouldn’t deny the usefulness of those four spells with an alchemical formation. She could do even more experiments on her concoctions with these tools and spells and further perfect the method of processing and refining herbs, so Claude wished that she wouldn’t refuse his parting gift.
After Maria read the letter, she breathed a long sigh, but she kept the envelope anyway.
First thing next day morning, Maria left the wood on a carriage with Rodan. Claude watched the carriage as it traveled further and further away until he could no longer see any trace of it.
