Behind the Scenes III

Behind the Scenes III

 

Clouds gathered in the sky over Klausner’s Domain, letting just a trace of light enter Lord Daniel Klausner’s office, which was quite dark, even though sunset was yet hours away. In this gloom, there was only the sound of the lord’s pen scratching across paper until it was interrupted by a knock on the door.

The servant on duty went to the door as Daniel continued to work. He heard Corinna announce herself and nodded at the servant to let her in.

“Pardon me for the intrusion,” Corinna said as she entered the room and bowed.

Daniel prompted her to take a seat on one of the sofas in front of his desk. He had just reached a good stopping point, so he set down his pen and moved to the sofa opposite Corinna.

Here, they sat together in silence.

A few moments later, the servant brought some tea. After placing a cup in front of each of them, Daniel ordered the servant to leave. The servant said nothing as he left the room; this sort of order was not uncommon during Corinna’s visits. The other servants and officials cleared the room as well.

Once Daniel and Corinna were alone, Corinna spoke. “Today, I gave the Saint the Great Alchemist’s diary.”

“I see. And did anything come of it?”

“Not yet. It seemed to remind her of something, though she wouldn’t tell me what.”

Daniel put a hand to his chin as he pondered this.

Corinna knew that look. Daniel wasn’t wasting time fantasizing about what he hoped might happen; he was contemplating what their next move would be. She quietly waited for him to speak again.

The diary Corinna had shown Sei held the greatest secret of Klausner’s Domain. It revealed that the Saint’s abilities extended far beyond the slaying of monsters.

A king of many generations past had ordered all records of the Saint’s special abilities disposed of in order to protect her. However, the Great Alchemist had lived in the days before that decree.

By all rights, that diary should have been destroyed. However, the lord of Klausner’s Domain of that era had hidden it instead. He had allowed many other records of her achievements to be burned, but as medicinal herb cultivation was his people’s foremost industry, this document was precious, even vital, and the lord opted to preserve it, even if it meant defying the king’s order.

While the most damning part of the text described the blessings required to cultivate specific rare herbs, the diary also went in-depth into the various techniques the Great Alchemist had developed to establish the local industry. It was an invaluable resource when it came to determining how best to cultivate new products. In other words, the Lord Klausner of that time had saved the diary for the sake of future generations.

Furthermore, as the diary never described the Saint’s powers in detail—especially not compared to other contemporary documents—the Lord Klausner felt more justified in his decision. Nevertheless, he had known better than to publicly disobey the king, hence the secrecy with which the diary was kept. To this day, only the lords of Klausner and the head alchemists in the castle’s brewery were ever told of the diary’s existence.

This is all to say that Daniel had chosen to show this precious, dangerous document to Sei with an ulterior motive—a critically important one.

“You say it reminded her of something. Do you mean you think she can once more bless the fields?”

“I apologize, my lord. She has thus far said nothing specific.”

“Then we may not be able to revive the fields, after all.” Daniel crossed his arms, and the crease in his brow deepened.

There were, in truth, two reasons for the current herb shortage in Klausner’s Domain.

First, due to the increase in monsters, the people had become unable to gather medicinal herbs growing in the forest, and neither were they able to properly harvest the fields close to it.

Second, the number of herbs they could grow in the once-blessed fields had significantly decreased.

The herbs grown in the blessed fields could be divided into two types: herbs that simply grew more easily in blessed soil and herbs that required the blessing.

Among this former group were staple ingredients in mid-grade HP potions and the like. They had grown well before, but a few years ago, the harvest had begun to gradually decrease. Now, the people of the domain could reliably expect to harvest about sixty percent of what they had in their heyday.

As for the herbs that required blessings, the domain had long since been unable to grow these at all, and they had come to rely on gathering these herbs in the forest to meet demand.

The blessing in these fields had lasted since the days of the Great Alchemist’s original casting. They had never been blessed by any other Saint since, even though that original blessing had happened so many generations in the past, and even though the threat of the miasma had continued to grow.

However, it was evident to Daniel and Corinna that the effects of her blessing had weakened.

When the decline first began, Corinna and her alchemists had conducted all manner of surveys to see if they could discern the cause. Their results were clear: nothing in the world had changed dramatically enough to reflect the problems they were seeing.

As they continued their investigations, the miasma in Salutania grew denser and denser, and all during that time, the kingdom couldn’t find the Saint, the only one who could purify the miasma. Just when the kingdom was deciding to perform the Saint Summoning Ritual, Daniel and Corinna concluded the effects of the Great Alchemist’s blessing on Klausner’s Domain might have finally run out.

At this conclusion, Daniel was at his wit’s end. Who but the Great Alchemist could bless fields? There had never been any mention of anyone with similar gifts. Specifically, the diary mentioned the blessing magic was golden in color, and Daniel had never seen nor heard of such power before.

Unable to find a solution to the real problem, he had made ample use of his mercenaries and focused on gathering as many herbs as possible from the forest to offset the deficit in the fields. But this could only ever be a stopgap, and they could not simply pray that an alternative industry would spring up overnight.

Just as Daniel was about to lose hope in the future of his land, he heard a rumor from the capital: the Saint had participated in an expedition into Ghoshe Forest, and there she had let loose a purifying wave of golden magic.

When Daniel heard this, he realized there might still be hope for his people.

You might imagine he should have thought of this sooner, but the fact was that although some people remembered a Saint had once been born in Klausner’s Domain, as you know, much of the information on her life had been destroyed. Furthermore, few could connect her to the tales of the Great Alchemist. Even Daniel frequently forgot the two were connected, as he and his people remembered this remarkable woman more for her agricultural brilliance than for her Sainthood.

Then was this golden magic a power that belonged to the Saint? Daniel wondered. After consulting with Corinna, he decided to request the Saint visit his lands. Officially, he would call on her to slay monsters, but his true goal would be to beseech her to bless the fields again. He still didn’t know for certain if she could do such a thing, but this was his last hope.

Though he had his people attempt to gather intel on the current Saint, he learned very little about her as a person, though his people reported that she had been working at the Research Institute of Medicinal Flora at the palace due to personal interest. Her work there gave him hope she would take further interest in Klausner’s Domain, which might pave the way to asking her to bless the fields.

Daniel’s heart had lightened at the thought.

When Daniel wrote the letter requesting the knightly Orders be dispatched to his domain, he was still unsure whether to specifically request the Saint as well. He ultimately neglected to do so, as he feared any specific questions might lead to the revelation that he and his people held illicit knowledge of the Saint’s abilities. Therefore, he rolled the dice and prayed she would be sent to them regardless.

A short time after sending the letter, the response arrived. Daniel’s gamble had paid off: the palace wrote that the Saint would be dispatched as well. Now all Daniel had to do was to, somehow, convince the Saint to bless the fields—something she had no idea he hoped she would do.

First, Corinna tried to indirectly determine the nature of the Saint’s powers, but the Saint mentioned no abilities other than purifying miasma. Daniel didn’t lose hope. He understood the palace might have told the Saint to withhold the true extent of her power, and that she might not even know the true breadth of her abilities. However, judging from her lack of caution when making her unusually potent potions, Daniel guessed it was more likely the latter.

After much consideration, he decided to show the Saint the Great Alchemist’s diary. He left the timing of this to Corinna, telling her only to report to him after she did.

Corinna was now in his office to follow through on that order.

“She seemed to recognize the part about the golden magic,” Corinna said.

“Really?!” Daniel’s expression brightened.

“I heard the magic she used in the western forest was golden as well.”

“As did I. You know, the color of magic is typically an indication of elemental affinity. That must mean this gold color indicates the powers of the Saint, just as we predicted.”

“I do believe so. I’ve seen many elemental effects in my time, but never a golden hue.”

Since the Saint’s arrival in Klausner’s Domain, Daniel had heard rumors from the people of the castle, especially from the alchemists who worked in the brewery, that the Saint was every bit as obsessed with medicinal herbs as the Great Alchemist had been. Even if she didn’t know anything about blessings, there was reason to hope she would become interested in them after reading the Great Alchemist’s diary.

We might just be able to achieve our original objective after all, Daniel thought.

“Well. I believe we can dare to hope,” Daniel said.

“Hmph. She will need to bless the fields in order to cultivate that herb she’s been searching for. I am confident she will soon attempt to perform blessings all on her own.”

“That would be most welcome.”

Daniel smiled, and that lingering sense of anguish within him began to lessen. But what Daniel didn’t know was that the Saint couldn’t yet use her powers of her own volition. Both Daniel and Corinna assumed that Sei was in full command of her abilities, especially after what they’d heard of her journey to the western forest.

Only a few people knew the truth. Naturally, they hid it, hoping to save the people of Salutania from unnecessary fear.

However, the star of fortune shone down on Daniel, for a few days after this conversation, Sei managed to call on her Saintly powers again. You might say it was profound luck—or you might say it had something to do with the Great Alchemist’s blessing upon Klausner’s Domain and a final flare of that fading strength.