That Which Drives Women Wild

That Which Drives Women Wild

 

WE KEPT AN HERB GARDEN next to the Research Institute of Medicinal Flora. The researchers all individually took care of their own plots.

One sunny day, I was busy tending my own plot when a shadow fell over me. The shadow held a parasol, so I instantly knew it wasn’t one of my colleagues. Who could it be then? I turned around to find a familiar face. “Liz!”

“Hello, Sei.” Liz smiled.

I couldn’t hide my surprise. I mean, before that point, we had only ever met at the library.

Now that I think about it, didn’t I invite her to see our garden way back when? Oh, gosh, that was the first time we met.

“Welcome!” I greeted her more properly. “Thanks for coming all this way.”

“You told me I should come by and see the garden if I ever wished to, didn’t you? So, here I am.”

“I did, didn’t I? How about we go inside the institute instead of standing around out here in the sun?”

So, we headed toward the institute. Although it was located next to the garden, it was still a short walk. But it wouldn’t feel like any time at all if we chatted along the way.

“Oh, was there any specific plant you wanted to see? I can show you around if you’d like.”

“I am indeed interested in the herbs you grow, but I have some more pressing questions to ask you about cosmetics.”

“Cosmetics?”

“Yes. Do you remember the ones you made before? They worked marvelously well. However…”

As Liz trailed off, my cheek twitched. A while ago now, I had given Liz some cosmetics I’d made, and they had worked so well that they’d become popular with the young ladies at the academy. I’d received so many requests that I’d sold the recipe to a company in the city, which now made their own line. It would have been too difficult to fill all the requests I was getting on my own.

After the company started selling these cosmetics, Liz had gone to buy them there. However, after using the company’s line, she discovered they weren’t as effective as the kind I had made.

What did I mean by “effective”? Well, that had to do with why Liz had come to see me. I knew the answer to her question already: my fifty percent bonus curse. For some reason, anything I made, be it potions or food, was half again as effective as anything made by someone else. This curse extended to the cosmetics I concocted as well.

I had no doubt that Liz had come asking about something to do with the curse. But I wasn’t sure if I should be honest about it. It seemed safest to ask Johan before I said anything.

I hated having to do it, but I would have to evade her question at first. Hopefully, I’d be able to tell her all about it someday.

When we arrived at the institute, I showed Liz to the drawing room. Since we handled confidential projects, I hesitated to lead her into the main workroom itself.

“I’ll bring some tea. Do you like herbal varieties?” I asked.

“Quite. I adore them. Thank you.”

“Great. I’ll be right back.”

I’d assumed Liz would be more accustomed to drinking black tea, but I didn’t have such expensive blends on hand. However, the institute did keep some for high-ranking visitors. And not everyone liked herbal teas, so I asked her just in case.

I told Liz to wait and headed into the kitchen to make the tea. We always kept hot water available in our kitchen. Therefore, the tea was ready right away. After heating up the pot, I drained the water once and then filled it with new water and herbs. It would be done steeping by the time I got back to the drawing room.

I put the teapot, cups, and some cookies on a tray and headed back to find Liz gazing absentmindedly out the window.

“Sorry to have kept you waiting.”

Liz smiled when I came into the room. Ahhh, she was just so cute. I felt all warm and fuzzy whenever she smiled like that. I placed a cup in front of her and poured the tea.

She inhaled the steam. “Oh? This aroma has so many different notes, but it smells lovely.”

“Thanks. It’s one of my own blends.”

In Salutania, they largely drank herbal teas for medicinal purposes rather than for pleasure. As such, even when they purposefully blended herbs to make new teas, they prioritized what was healthy and didn’t think much about the flavor or fragrance. Basically, I had yet to try a Salutanian herbal tea that tasted remotely good.

It was admittedly difficult to find a perfect match between herbs, so when Salutanians did make herbal teas, they typically only used one herb at a time. I myself had only recently started making my own blends. Today I had combined chamomile, rose, and rose hips. It was a recipe I remembered from Japan, and supposedly it was good for dry skin.

The moment I told Liz this, her eyes lit up. “Goodness, I knew that herbs had medicinal benefits, but I never imagined that might include skincare.”

“You guys don’t have any food you consider good for your skin?”

“Not at all. I’ve never heard of such a thing.”

That made sense. Thinking back, Johan had listened with keen interest when I told him about cooking based on traditional Chinese medicine. To think that they didn’t have anything like that here! Maybe they’d just never experimented with food in that way since they had potions?

“What about potions that are supposed to be good for your skin? Do you have anything like that?” I asked.

“Potions for skincare?!” Liz’s eyes widened. Being at that young age, she was really interested in anything and everything that had to do with beauty care. “Do such potions really exist?”

“Not that I know of, but I’ve heard of something similar.”

“Could you make it?”

“Hmm.”

I was thinking of something called herbal cordials. They were sold in stores in modern day Japan, but they had once been made in homes. I was pretty sure they were easy to manufacture, too: you just had to boil herbs and sugar together in a pot. So yeah, if I had the ingredients, I could indeed make them.

When I told Liz this, she said, “I’d love to try it.”

I couldn’t get everything all together on the spot, so I told her I’d bring the finished product to her later at the library.

Three days after, I gave Liz the herbal cordial I had concocted.

The next day, she came to me smiling and exclaiming, even though we were in the library. “Sei! The cordial you gave me the other day was simply splendid!”

It was just the two of us in the library at that moment, but we would have earned all sorts of disapproving glances if anyone else had been there! Liz was normally so discreet, too, so if she had forgotten herself like this, the cordial must have been absurdly effective.

Then I got to see what she was so excited about with my own eyes. The cordial, which might as well have been called a potion, really did work.

Maybe it was because I was already using cosmetics I had made myself, but I hadn’t thought there was much of a change when I tried it myself. However, when I had one of the other researchers try it out, the change was tremendous. He had been neglecting his skin because of research lately, but the second he drank the cordial, his skin got all smooth and shiny. Even his complexion improved, giving a rosy color to his lips and cheeks.

The change was so dramatic that the other researchers stopped what they were doing to gape.

Yeahhh, this definitely had something to do with my fifty percent bonus curse. However, I wasn’t sure if cordials drew from my Pharmaceuticals skill or Cooking skill, which was why I wasn’t sure whether I should classify them as potions per se. They weren’t really a kind of medicine. Maybe more of a vitamin drink?

After that, Liz’s persistence overcame my reservations, and I sold the cordial recipe to the company in the city as well.

Beauty products sure drive women wild. I had never seen Liz so worked up before.

That reminded me—she completely forgot about the cosmetics question she had originally come to ask, but I had a feeling she’d come back around to it later.

In the meantime, I’d have to ask Johan for advice on how to handle an overenthusiastic young woman.