"These weren't steps in the proof that I skipped. They were prerequisite knowledge."
Manus nodded in understanding after hearing Slughorn's question.
"Prerequisite knowledge? Knowledge related to Beauty Potions?"
Slughorn confirmed his guess, somewhat helplessly.
"That's right. More precisely, it's knowledge of beauty and Beauty Potions. Strictly speaking, the underlying approach to this potion is the same as the previous Wolfsbane Potion..."
The path through Potions that Manus had proposed was actually quite simple: the effect of collective cognitive reinforcement on Potions.
It was just that, in the eyes of wizards, this had been interpreted into all manner of bizarre theories and methods, making it difficult to describe... Even using the principles of a Beauty Potion to research healing potions this time could be seen as an entirely new approach.
"..."
Slughorn shook his head. He still did not quite understand, but he could understand this sort of situation.
Every Potions master who had forged their own path believed their theories were flawless, their reasoning coherent, and their logic impeccable. Yet in truth, some of their titles included the word "mad"; otherwise, they were called eccentric or something similar.
Among such people, Manus was already considered exceptionally normal. At the very least, he behaved perfectly normally around others, and back when the Wolfsbane Potion first appeared, everyone had still been able to follow his line of thought.
They had only begun to lose track of his thinking now. It was a minor problem, nothing unusual in the field of Potions.
"..."
Manus felt somewhat helpless as well. He had already explained it clearly enough. Did he need to revise his teaching methods again?
Surely he could not simply extract his thoughts and inject them directly into someone else's head?
In any case, Slughorn believed the paper was already more than ready