~Chapter 47~
The next morning, Leah headed to the eastern annex right after breakfast.
Polra was taking care of Raphaella today.
Since Leah didn’t know exactly where the lab was, the butler guided her there.
When she arrived, Dorothea was already waiting outside.
“Dorothea, how did you know to come here?”
“The mages in the annex were already talking about it.”
She said she just asked one of them and got detailed directions.
Everyone was curious because Leah was trying to make a potion to cure Penelope’s illness.
“I’ll take my leave now, Lady Leah.”
The butler gave a polite bow and left after showing them the way.
“Shall we go in?”
Leah opened the lab door.
“…Wow.”
The lab was perfectly set up for potion-making.
Not only were all the ingredients she asked for there, but also a variety of potion-making tools neatly arranged.
There were even two cauldrons that looked sturdy and well-made.
One wall had a bookshelf packed with potion-related books.
‘I didn’t expect it to be this well-prepared.’
Even if it wasn’t for her sake but for
Penelope’s treatment, Leah really liked this place.
She felt like she could keep using it even after making the potion.
“Dorothea, shall we get started?”
Leah took out her potion notebook.
“Okay.”
Dorothea’s eyes sparkled when she saw the notebook she’d briefly seen back in the north.
They both carefully reread the recipe.
Then Leah gently took out a droplet flower from her large pouch.
“The ingredients are pretty simple, but the process is tricky.”
“Yeah, so we have to stay super focused.”
Leah laid the droplet flower, leech juice, goat horn, and healing stone one by one on the large desk.
“I’ll crush the droplet flower. Dorothea, can you grind exactly 10g of the healing stone?”
“Got it.”
They worked intensely all day, preparing the ingredients in different ways and boiling them together.
A maid brought lunch and dinner and quietly came and went, impressed by their deep focus.
—
By the third day of potion-making, they still hadn’t succeeded.
“Did I write something wrong in the recipe back then?”
“If you had, you wouldn’t have succeeded the first time. But you did, remember?”
“That’s true…”
“If it fails again today, let’s try tweaking it tomorrow.”
They tried making the potion again late into the night, but it failed once more.
“See you tomorrow, Dorothea.”
“Don’t worry, Leah. Tomorrow might go better. Get some good rest.”
They parted ways at the lab, and Leah walked to Rafaella’s room, completely exhausted.
‘Did I really mess up the recipe back then? Where did I go wrong…’
She was scared that she wouldn’t be able to cure Penelope if she couldn’t find the mistake.
She had promised she would help her.
“…Hey, look.”
“…Oh? Duke?”
She was startled to see Johann, who had just come out of Rafaella’s room.
“What were you thinking about so hard that you didn’t notice me right in front of you?”
“Oh, sorry. I was thinking about the potion.”
“Is it not going well?”
“There’s a part that’s kind of stuck.”
“I don’t know anything about potions, but don’t push yourself too hard.”
“I need to finish it soon though.”
“Penelope wouldn’t want you to overwork yourself for this.”
He looked straight at her eyes.
“Do you know how dark the circles under your eyes are right now?”
Embarrassed, Leah covered her face with her hands.
“Have you even been sleeping properly?”
“…I’ve been going to bed pretty late.”
“If you don’t sleep well, your brain won’t work properly either. Just sleep well tonight and stop thinking so much.”
Even though Johann sounded blunt, his words were full of concern.
Leah gave a small nod.
“Do you know how much Rafaella worries about you?”
During the past 3 busy days, he had been spending time with Rafaella and eating meals with her too.
Polra had told Leah that in the morning, and she had been so relieved to hear it.
“Thank you for spending time with Raphaella and eating with her.”
“No need to thank me. Just take care of yourself so the kid doesn’t worry.”
He brushed past her, sounding like he was scolding her instead of being thanked.
But even though his tone was cold, the meaning behind it was all about caring for her.
‘He probably doesn’t remember, but he said something really similar to me a long time ago.’
That night, Leah decided to actually rest and not think at all—just like her husband said.
Because if she didn’t sleep, her brain wouldn’t function properly.
As soon as she laid in bed—for the first time in 3 days—she fell asleep instantly.
—
She dreamed of the past.
In her dream, she was picking droplet flowers in the rain with her husband.
She used the flowers and other ingredients to try to make a potion to treat a child bitten by a magical fish.
She was desperate to make it quickly because the child was getting weaker by the day.
She couldn’t even sleep properly.
“Leah, aren’t you overdoing it?”
“I keep failing. I need to hurry up and make it, or Fabio won’t get better.”
“…You’ll collapse first at this rate.”
“It’s fine, I’m just a little sleep-deprived.”
“Sleep is important. You should sleep early today.”
Johann—no, back then he was Hardt—helped her up from the desk and took her to bed.
He tucked her up to her neck and kissed her forehead.
“I’ll take care of Rafi tonight. Leah, just sleep and don’t think about anything.”
“Thanks, Hardt.”
After that deep sleep, she had suddenly realized the problem in the recipe and finished the potion successfully.
And of course, she smothered Hart with kisses afterwards.
—
“…Gasp.”
Leah woke up, shocked from the dream.
‘Why did I have to dream about that part too…’
She calmed herself down and left her bedroom.
The dream wasn’t detailed, so she didn’t remember the exact mistake in the recipe.
But one thing did come to mind.
‘…Could it really be that?’
If that was the case, the recipe wasn’t the issue.
After breakfast, instead of going to the eastern annex, she headed to her husband’s room.
“You’re here early. What’s up?”
“About the healing stone you gave me…”
“Is there something wrong with it?”
“…It’s top-grade, right?”
“Of course it is.”
Samuel was tying Johan’s cravat at the time.
After finishing, Johan walked toward her.
“Could you get me a lower-grade one instead?”
“…A lower-grade one?”
“I think the healing stone might be too good, so it doesn’t match well with the leech juice.”
“Samuel, do we have any lower-grade healing stones in the mansion?”
“I’ll check right away and get one.”
Samuel left to find one.
“If we find one, I’ll send it to the annex right away.”
“Thank you. I’ll get going now.”
As she turned to leave, she paused at the door and looked back.
“…Thank you. Talking with you helped me clear my head.”
“…Glad to hear that.”
Johann looked a bit flustered as he turned his head slightly.
Leah then headed to the lab.
She told Dorothea that she suspected the healing stone was the problem.
“My grandma used a lower-grade healing stone too.”
“We didn’t even think of that—sometimes too good isn’t good.”
“We were so stuck in the recipe we didn’t even question the ingredients.”
“My master used to say, ‘If everything seems perfect and it still fails, the problem is probably something small.’”
“Really? My grandma used to say the same thing!”
“Seriously? Maybe our teachers knew each other.”
“Haha, maybe, though mine was much older. Still, that’s kind of cool.”
While they were chatting, someone knocked on the door.
It was a servant, back with a lower-grade healing stone.
“We didn’t have any in the mansion, so I rushed to buy this one from town.”
Leah carefully examined the stone and smiled.
“This should work.”
“Yes, it looks perfect.”
The servant left, and Leah and Dorothea restarted the potion from scratch with fresh focus.
By sunset, they finally succeeded.
A crystal-clear liquid was bubbling in the cauldron.
“We did it!”
“We really did it!”
The two hugged each other in joy.
Now they just had to let it cool completely, bottle it, and let it sit for a few hours before it would be ready to use.
They ate dinner in the lab while waiting for the potion to cool.
By midnight, they were carefully pouring the liquid into small glass bottles.
‘I’ll bring this to Lady Penelope first thing in the morning!’
