Creating a Flavorful Love

In the temple's alchemy room, Victor sat in his chair with a grave expression. The situation left him no choice but to be cautious. Scientific progress inevitably required sacrifice, and the indispensable final step in developing ancient potions was for the alchemist to personally test them.

After pondering for a moment, he tilted back his head, took a deep breath, and drained a vial of pale green potion in one gulp.

Victor focused hard on sensing the changes in his body. As the potion took effect, the boy slowly let out a low, primal, desolate roar.

Beyond the latticed window, the signs of a summer afternoon thunderstorm arrived with startling ferocity. Within half an hour, dark clouds had swallowed the sunlight, turning the sky a deep gray, almost like night.

Finally... the boy revealed a gratified, satisfied smile. The potion had been a complete success. He placed the dozen vials prepared in the same batch into a test tube rack and stored them in a preservation case.

Tucking the case under his arm, Victor was in an excellent mood. Next, it was time to report his achievement to Mother Nenneke.

As the saying went, returning home without wealth and status was like walking at night in splendid clothes. If you achieved something, it only had meaning if you could show it off to those who had known you before you made it big.

Put in more professional terms, if you achieved results, you had to share them with people who "knew the field," because those who did not would never understand just how remarkable what you had done truly was.

The moment he rose from the chair, his steps were a little unsteady, but he quickly adjusted and returned to normal.

After the afternoon's teaching discussion ended, the priestesses left the classroom one after another. They would pass on what they had just learned to the younger female students.

As Priestess Aurora left, she brushed past Victor, who was waiting at the classroom door, and smilingly patted his arm.

Victor gave a polite, slight bow in return.

Priestess Herosvissa, meanwhile, wore a stern expression. She did not like Victor—she was an ascetic, after all—but she still gave him a small nod, because the boy was a guest of the temple.

Victor likewise gave a slight bow. He respected these women; as for how they felt about him, that was not important.

Once all the priestesses had left, "Mother, I'm here!" The boy walked into the classroom and greeted High Priestess Nenneke with a cheerful smile.

"You seem to be in a very good mood, child. What did you come to see me about?" The priestess sat in the instructor's chair and casually set the book she had been reading on the desk.

Pulling over a chair to sit opposite the priestess, he placed the preservation case containing the potion beside the lectern and said with a beaming smile, "I succeeded, ma'am! I developed a new potion! And this potion will solve the threat posed by that knight, Tylles!"

More than ten days of effort had finally borne fruit. The boy was truly bursting with joy. Whether this was pioneering something from nothing or recreating a lost formula, either way, it was a victory filled with a sense of accomplishment for Victor!

That simple feeling of being moved... was like the instant you completed a puzzle, or the moment you finished stacking building blocks. It was the joy of—creating a world.

Sensing the boy's excitement and joy, Priestess Nenneke kindly patted the back of his hand to calm him down a little.

She knew that aside from his greenhouse work, Victor had spent every day in the alchemy room mixing ingredients. But she had never imagined that he had been researching a new potion.

As the High Priestess of Melitele, she understood better than anyone how difficult it was to develop a new formula. Simply identifying the properties of every herb and recording the unknown reactions when they were mixed together required long years of accumulated experience. And to finally achieve a specific, stable effect required luck—not merely a little luck, but an enormous amount of it.

Therefore, Mother had never even dared imagine that a new formula could be completed in just over ten days. Such things existed only in ancient myths, deeds accomplished by those favored by fate. The more one understood the field, the more unbelievable it was. To put it disrespectfully, Nenneke had even faintly suspected that some records had been exaggerated or fabricated.

Yet through their daily exchanges in the greenhouse and more than ten days of interaction, the priestess knew that the boy was not someone who made empty claims. He was cautious and steady, with a mind mature beyond his years.

So she was half-convinced and half-doubtful about what exactly he had come up with.

Patting the back of the hand he had placed on the desk, and feeling him gradually settle down, she said kindly, "All right, all right. Explain it to Mother from the beginning. How exactly did you do it? What did you make?"

After calming the burst of joy within him, Victor said in a poorly feigned casual tone, "It started on the day Tylles arrived. At the time, I was slicing camouflage mushrooms, an herb said in the records to ease chest pain—"

Nenneke nodded. She knew of that fungus that grew in dark corners. Its rock-like appearance made it easy to overlook, but it required no special care; the greenhouse environment was enough for it to thrive.

"Then that night, after some simple medicinal tests confirmed it wasn't poisonous, I tried eating a slice. By accident, I discovered that it had a very special effect."

A glint flashed in Nenneke's eyes. Yes, this was often how new potions began—with an accidental discovery.

"I got up," the boy said.

"...Huh?" For the first time since she had known him, the high priestess's ever-composed expression, the look of someone always in control, showed bewilderment.

Suppressing a laugh, the boy repeated himself with emphasis, "I got up."

"...Oh! I see." The high priestess's expression of sudden understanding proved that Mother was, after all, Mother—she had no shortage of understanding when it came to adolescent boys' troubles.

That discovery was indeed interesting. She nodded, then immediately asked, "But how did you determine that the camouflage mushroom caused the result, rather than normal instinct or some other factor?"

Victor had no way to explain that clearly, because he had actually confirmed it through Incredible Alchemy. When Incredible Alchemy showed that an erection potion could be made with camouflage mushrooms as the main ingredient, its result-oriented nature proved that the mushrooms possessed a powerful effect that could make a man stand up.

So, "I guessed. I boldly hypothesized that it was the cause!" Victor declared with an unwavering expression that brooked no doubt.

After hearing that answer, the high priestess thought it over and accepted it. Many medicinal effects of herbs had indeed been discovered in just such ways.

With that hurdle cleared, the rest was smooth, convenient nonsense. "Then I never expected that on my third attempt at combining herbs, I would create a formula that neither harmed the body nor allowed the camouflage mushroom's effects to reach their full potential."

The truth was that the boy had used Incredible Alchemy to make several more batches, then worked backward from the best finished product to determine the ideal combination. After that, he directly optimized the mixing process from that ideal combination onward, saving an enormous amount of trial-and-error time.

However, the priestess did not question him on this either. When it came to the birth of a formula, one could not completely rule out the possibility of chance blessed by the goddess.

As he spoke, rain suddenly began to pour from the deep gray, near-night sky. The afternoon thunderstorm that had been brewing outside for so long finally unleashed its fury, raindrops crackling sharply against the windowpanes.

The boy naturally stopped explaining. No matter how much he said, the proof would be in the finished product.

With a swish, he pushed the preservation case that had been sitting beside the desk to its center. "This new medicine, made with camouflage mushrooms as its main ingredient, is called—"

With a click, he opened the lid, revealing twelve crystal-clear emerald-green test tubes.

"Megatron!!"

The moment the three words left his mouth, thunderclouds converged and lightning exploded with a crash. Thunder roared passionately through the air, echoing without end.

In the flashing light, an undying radiance of science shone across Victor's utterly ordinary face.