Never Mind the Heir, I’ll Focus on Healing - Chapter 94

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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I Don’t Know About Successors, So Let Me Just Heal – Episode 94

Freiana tilted her head, clearly struggling to understand.

“Master, this… they’re not mixing, are they?”
“That’s right.”

That’s right?
At Lion’s matter-of-fact reply, Freiana’s head tilted even further, now owl-like in its confusion.
Lion deliberately ignored it and kept his gaze on the cauldron.
Nothing was going wrong.
The Spirit Stone drenched in essence extract was exactly what Lion had been aiming for.
The root of the Flame Herb, with its strong Fire Attribute. And the Fire Spirit Stone.
The two materials paired well together.
More precisely, it meant the Spirit Stone suppressed the Flame Herb’s volatility quite effectively.

—Caution: Risk of explosion during collection!

Lion hadn’t forgotten the warning he’d read when he first discovered the Flame Herb.
The Flame Herb was a rather dangerous plant that would burst like a bomb if handled carelessly.
And the cause of the explosion lay in its roots.

‘This is practically a block of gunpowder.’

The flames in the leaves would race down to the roots and detonate—it was like dynamite!
Of course, knowing that fact was precisely why he’d been careful to cut and use only the roots.
Lion withdrew the mortar and set it aside for a moment with the lid still on.

“Gasp.”

Freiana quickly retreated from the cauldron.
But then…

‘It’s quiet…?’

Naturally, there was no heating or anything, so no sound came at all.
When they’d made the Spirit Water and the concentrated extract, it had been so noisy.

“Hmm.”

Could Master actually be failing?

‘Right, no matter how skilled Master is, it’s perfectly possible to make mistakes.’

Freiana nodded to herself and decided to think about how to keep Master from feeling awkward.
Lion noticed Freiana’s reaction but said nothing.
She’d see soon enough anyway.
After a little time had passed…

Whisper.

Lion suddenly sprang up and opened the lid.
And from inside… a fresh, pleasant fragrance began to spread!
It was like an aroma that soothed the mind, yet it also seemed to carry a raw, green undertone, as if not quite ripe…
It was an oddly compelling scent that kept drawing her in.
Freiana, who had been jotting down notes beside Nature, lifted her head at this unfamiliar fragrance and sniffed eagerly.
Salamander, standing beside Nature, also mirrored her master and stretched her head out, looking around curiously.
Lion calmly extracted the Spirit Stone from within.
The Spirit Stone that had once emanated its unique aura was now just an ordinary stone.
The Spirit Stone’s essence had drained away entirely.

“What? How did that happen?”

Surely it had been nothing but a Spirit Stone and a clump of root essence.
They shouldn’t have mixed at all, or so she’d thought!
But now—the two ingredients were blending together as perfectly as if they’d been made for each other.

“Freiana. What happens to old Spirit Stones in the Elf Kingdom?”

Old Spirit Stones?

‘They naturally get absorbed into the surrounding nature… oh!’

Only then did Freiana begin to grasp what Lion was doing.

“You can’t mean…!”
“Seems like it’d make a pretty decent nutrient formula, doesn’t it?”

Freiana’s head bobbed enthusiastically.
If she planted a Spirit Stone directly, its power would be far too overwhelming—it would poison the Flame Herb, whose very environment had already been so drastically altered.
It was like how plants wilt and die when you cram them full of nutrients trying to make them grow well.
The same principle.
But if you mixed it beforehand into the root essence she was already familiar with, what would happen then?
The soil saturated with water’s essence would fill instead with the Fire Attribute the Flame Herb thrived in, and on top of that, she’d gain the added benefit of continuous nutrient supply—killing two birds with one stone.

‘You calculated all of that?’

Freiana’s mouth fell open.
She’d already understood that her Master knew much about Spirit Stones, but applying their unique properties like this was something else entirely.
And besides, hadn’t he only just encountered Spirit Stones not long ago?
Yet even Freiana, who’d seen Spirit Stones so often in the Elf Kingdom that you could barely walk without stepping on them, had never conceived of such an idea.
To harness the natural power within a Spirit Stone and redirect it back into nature through Alchemy—
Master truly was remarkable!

“Looks like it worked out.”

Lion paid no mind to Freiana’s gaze as he poured the thick, viscous liquid into a bottle.

[Plant Nutrient Formula – Fire (★★)]
-Capable of sustaining the nutrition of Fire Attribute plants. Breathes life back into wilted roots—even into severed stems!
-Helps minimize stress from new environments.

As expected.
A genuinely excellent nutrient formula had been completed.
Lion took the bottle and poured the formula into the hole Freiana had dug.
The moment it touched the soil, the nutrient formula soaked in as rapidly as water.
Then he planted a single vibrant Flame Herb into the spot, carefully covering the earth around its upright roots so they wouldn’t snap.
And then…

Fwoosh!

The leaves, which had been dull and ashen like burnt coal, shook off white powder and burst into brilliant bloom!
It was a success.

“Wow!”

Freiana clapped her hands as she watched the leaves dance with the shimmer of flame.

“We did it!”
“That’s fortunate, then.”

Even as Lion spoke, his gaze remained fixed on the Flame Herb.
With the right nutrient formula, it ought to flourish more beautifully than before.
And true to his expectations—

“Oh?”

The Flame Herb began to grow far more vigorously than it had on Snowy Mountain.
The stems shot upward visibly, and buds unfurled at their tips!
And then, finally…

Whoosh!

Delicate petals bloomed, shimmering with the rich, variegated colors of living flame.
Truly extraordinary growth!

‘I’ll need to harvest a few petals once it’s fully established.’

A Flame Herb in full bloom—
there was no doubt it would make exceptional potion material.
But for now, the hot spring for Ricshel and his family took priority, so Lion left it to flourish.

“It’s so beautiful…!”

Freiana stood with her mouth agape, transfixed by the petals. They looked like tiny flames from a matchstick, blooming into flower form.
They were more vivid and captivating than any flowers she had ever seen.

“Right.”

But this wasn’t the moment to dwell on it.
Her master had been attempting Natural Transmutation, hadn’t he?
Then the water should have changed!
She was burning to check.
Her body moved before her mind caught up—she dipped a finger into the water.

‘Hm?’

Freiana felt a flicker of confusion.
The water was still cold!
True, the Flame Herb’s presence had warmed it somewhat, but…
cold water had merely become lukewarm.
That hardly counted as Natural Transmutation.

‘Could this not be the end of it?’

What was her master planning? She was pondering this when—

Crack!

A sharp, clear sound rang out.

“Huh?”

Freiana spun toward the sound and gasped—her master was smashing a smooth stone to pieces!
And he was doing it with the very pickaxe he’d been using to dig earlier!

“M-Master?”
“Hmm. The stone here is quite hard.”

Lion paid no heed to his disciple’s call, moving with deliberate purpose.
Or rather, he seemed too absorbed to hear it at all.
In truth, Lion was moving with focused urgency.
The structure of Spring Pool, the distance to the Flame Herb.
And the position of where it all needed to connect—these calculations formed themselves in his mind.

‘A small gap is all I need.’

Looking at the hot spring in House Bydentis, Lion had identified two necessities.
Flame Herb to raise the temperature of the water.
And an item to connect it all together.
Precisely: Luminous Stone from the hot spring.

‘If I gather enough Luminous Stone, I can connect everything perfectly.’

Lion’s ability to devise this hot spring plan hinged entirely on the Luminous Stone.
Understanding why Flowing Tears—the source of Luminous Stone—commanded such high value as a crafting material was simple.
Its Mana Conductivity surpassed even that of spirit stones.
The Luminous Stone born from those dried tears retained that characteristic Mana Conductivity intact.

‘If I connect them properly, it’s entirely feasible.’

Placing the Luminous Stone in exactly the right locations mattered more than planting the Flame Herb.
Fortunately, though.
Whether through the recipe or his Alchemy, Lion’s eyes marked out the installation points with perfect clarity.
A stroke of luck.

‘I expected this to be grueling work.’

Of course, the installation range was too vast to complete quickly—he’d need to eat and sleep here for a couple of days.

‘Still, I can time it so Ricshel emerges at a convenient moment.’

In anyone else’s eyes, having a hot spring constructed in merely two days would be remarkable speed.

“Freiana.”
“Yes, Master!”
“I’ll be digging for a while, so if you get bored, feel free to head back.”
“…Should I go fetch some food and a sleeping bag first?”

Having grasped her master’s nature to some degree, Freiana focused on attending to his needs rather than urging him not to overexert himself.

‘He must be thinking of his family again.’

Truthfully, Freiana hadn’t yet learned to accept that emotion easily.
Even if only half-elf, she was elf nonetheless, and her temperament was quite independent.
Yet because it was what her master held most dear, she was learning to understand it.

‘Perhaps it’s a hundredfold more than I cherish him.’

Simply entertaining such thoughts, vaguely but genuinely.

“I’d appreciate that.”
“Leave it to me!”

Freiana sprang to her feet and bolted away.

“…!”

Salamander, not yet bonded fully to Freiana’s body, started in alarm and hurried after her, breaking into a sweat on his paws.
Even as the brief silence settled, Lion’s work continued.
First, he carved out a groove at a specific point to fit the stone.

“Phew.”

Lion wiped his brow against the heat radiating from the Flame Herb and moved toward the alchemical cauldron.
Some of the nutrient formula still remained inside.

‘I need to use every last drop.’

Lion kindled a fire beneath the cauldron.
He intended to reduce the nutrient formula inside until it became thick and adhesive as paste.
While the formula simmered, Lion returned to his pickaxe work, and he ate the lunch that Freiana had brought him.
That was a full day after he’d begun!

“Whoa—!”

Freiana was startled by how much the heat had risen in such a short time and retreated several steps back into the forest.

‘It’s become this scorching in the meantime?’

It was like standing in a blacksmith’s forge.
The intense heat combined with the moisture created an overwhelming warmth.

“Leave anything you need there from now on—I’ll collect it myself.”

True enough; it would be rather difficult to approach without proper equipment.

“A-are you certain you’re alright!?”
“This is nothing.”

Thanks in part to his traveling clothes, which were made from “Descending Love” material, Lion could endure this level of temperature without difficulty.
When he thought of it as a sauna, it wasn’t entirely unpleasant.
Moreover, the water was still lukewarm enough that he could cool himself when needed.

Clang!
Clang!

By the time Lion finished his pickaxe work, the sun was already setting on the following day.

“It’s more bearable now that the sun’s gone.”

As night fell, the flames seemed to diminish, and the temperature became manageable.
A cool breeze drifted through the forest at intervals—it was perfect.
The Flame Herb nutrient formula had by then reduced completely, becoming so thick and sticky that Lion could pick it up with his hands.
Lion retrieved the Luminous Stone powder from his inventory.
He held the powder in one hand and a hammer in the other.
And then…….

Thwack!

He struck the Luminous Stone powder—already nearly dust—harder and harder until it became fine particles!
He ground it so thoroughly that a single breath would send it flying.

“Now then…….”

Lion poured the Luminous Stone powder into the cauldron and worked it together with his hands as if kneading dough.
The concentrate and powder mixed, and soon it transformed into a thick, sludgy clay.

Asteri Luminous Clay (★★)
—The Luminous Stone and suspicious plant mixed together to form clay.
—I can’t find any particular use for it. Why was it made to such a high grade?
—It does seem well-suited for filling gaps.

“Hmm. Well-crafted.”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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