I’ll Never Set Foot in That House Again! Volume 2 Read online

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  Prologue

  My name is Chelsea. I’m the adopted daughter of Margrave Sargent, and a research fellow at the Royal Research Institute. Up until three months ago, I’d lived day-to-day being abused and called “useless” in a certain baron’s family. However, ever since I awoke to the brand-new Skill [Seed Creation], everything has been going well, and I’m living really happily now.

  A while ago, I made a coconut palm seed using my Skill. Today, since the first stage of my Skill examinations has finished, we’d decided to try drinking the juice from the coconut that grew from the tree, both as a celebration and as an inspection.

  Lord Glen was already inside my personal lab. He was the King of Chronowize’s younger brother, and a nationally-recognized Appraiser with Sage-level [Appraisal] and [Cure] Skills. He was a beautiful man, with dark blue hair like the night, and blue eyes that sucked you in. When I first met him, I couldn’t help myself from staring, thinking a fairy tale angel had come for me.

  While I was thinking about the past, there was a knock on the door.

  “Sorry to keep you guys waiting,” Lord Tris said as he walked inside. He was the son of Marquis Forium, and a researcher at the Institute who was helping research my [Seed Creation] Skill. He had brown hair and glasses, and a unique way of speaking.

  Lord Tris was in a great mood and skipped over to the table, putting the coconut in the center.

  “It’s bigger than I thought it would be.”

  “Right? Everything that grows from Miss Chelsea’s seeds is twice normal size!”

  The coconut fruit was fresh and green, and larger than my head. In my plant book, it said that fresh coconut fruit has juice and some jiggly white stuff called copra inside.

  “I’m excited to taste it,” I said, holding my hands together. Lord Glen gave me a gentle smile, while Lord Tris grinned.

  “Okay, I’ll cut it! — [Water Magic]” After Lord Tris muttered the Skill name, a blade of water appeared and started slowly cutting through the top of the coconut. The moment it finished, the water blade disappeared.

  “Oh, so you can use [Water Magic] too, Lord Tris?”

  “Yep! I use [Earth Magic] to plant the seeds you make, and tend to them every day with [Water Magic]. They say I’m the best man for the job!” he answered, his smile growing even bigger at my shocked question.

  He was right; having both the [Earth Magic] and [Water Magic] Skills would be really handy for studying my seeds.

  “Now that it’s been cut, I’ll pour the juice into glasses... Wait, I forgot to bring some,” he sighed, face falling.

  What should we do... Should we ring the bell to summon one of the maids? While I was all in a fluster, Lord Glen pulled three glasses out of nowhere.

  “Use these.”

  “Thanks!” Lord Tris thanked him before pouring the coconut juice evenly into the glasses. Despite the size, there wasn’t much juice in it. Altogether, there was only enough to fill one glass.

  “Let me [Appraise] it before we drink it,” Lord Glen said, staring at the translucent juice. “This is amazing...” He sounded shocked, despite having appraised a lot of different things.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “It’s labeled as ‘Special Coconut Juice,’ and the effect says ‘After drinking, it will restore an extremely small amount of mana without any health drain.’”

  “What?! Are you serious? That’s way too amazing!”

  Just how good would it really be? I looked at Lord Tris, confused, and he jumped up to explain.

  “We’ve got things called Mana Potions. They use a bit of your health to forcefully restore mana. You feel good right after drinking it from the mana gain, but about an hour later, the health bit starts kicking in and you’re exhausted! I can’t believe there could be anything that could do it without making you exhausted!”

  “I-I see,” I said, nodding, taken aback by his enthusiasm.

  “Even if it’s an extremely small amount, it’s still unbelievable. You could even say it’s a miracle...” Lord Glen piped in.

  “Your other plants might have similar effects! Man, it’s so exciting how there’s still so much we don’t know, even after finishing our first stage!” Lord Tris was ecstatic and began happily hopping around the room a few times.

  “Let’s get to drinking it.”

  All three of us raised it to our lips at Lord Glen’s signal.

  It tasted strange, nothing like anything I’d ever drank before... “It tastes kind of weird, kind of sweet.”

  As we gulped it down, Lord Glen scowled. “I don’t really like the flavor... It’s not like I couldn’t drink it, but I wouldn’t do it on my own accord. I’d drink it over a normal mana potion, though, since it doesn’t cost any health to recover your mana.” It seemed he was using [Appraise] on himself as he drank, checking to see if his mana was truly recovering.

  Lord Tris, on the other hand, downed it with his eyes wide. “I think it’s delicious! I wanna drink more!”

  “Mass production... That’d be hard to do until we can examine it further.”

  “That means if we get farther in the examination process, we’ll be able to drink a lot sometime, right?! We’ll spread coconut juice as an alternative to mana potions, someday!” Lord Tris cried, smiling.

  Once we were all finished drinking, I looked at what was left inside the coconut. “Oh, that’s right, my book said that the white stuff on the inside was edible, too.”

  “Really?!” I could just see the sparkle in Lord Tris’s eyes...

  “It’s what you make coconut milk from. With that, you might be able to make coconut milk flan... Wait, Chelsea, your eyes are sparkling just as much as Tris’s now,” Lord Glen said with a chuckle. Since flan is my favorite sweet, it must have been written all over my face... “I’ve appraised the insides, too, but they have no special effects. But, it does say it’s tasty, unlike the juice.”

  “Seriously?! Lemme get it straight to the chefs, then!” Lord Tris scooped up the coconut and left the lab.

  ＋＋＋

  “Since Tris is gone, let’s end our session for today,” Lord Glen said, before sitting across from me at the table for some reason. Usually, he’d walk me back to my room right about now...

  “Is something wrong?”

  “Kinda,” he said, sending the other servants away. Then, we were the only ones left. I sat up straight, waiting, and he gave me a strained smile. “I’ve got something to talk to both you and Ele about.”

  The moment he was mentioned, the Spirit Tree outside of the lab sparkled, and Ele, the King of Spirits, appeared as a silver-furred kitten. He was really a beautiful man with long hair that reached the floor, but he’d taken kitten form since making a contract with me.

  «It’s rare for you to want to speak with me,» he said haughtily, floating in the air.

  I knew he was super important as the King of all the Spirits, but his kitten form was just too cute...! I held back my urge to pet him and looked back at Lord Glen.

  “We’ve actually received a top-secret letter from the former Emperor of the Radzuel Empire.”

  The Radzuel Empire was to the west of the Kingdom of Chronowize, touching the Sargent Margraviate on the border. I’d heard from Lord Glen that the miasma—something horrible that would wither plants, pollute water, and drive both humans and animals mad—was spreading through the country.

  “Basically, they’re asking for a cutting of the Spirit Tree, but...”

  Spirit Trees were a type of tree that birthed...or rather, summoned Spirits who could purify the miasma, and co
uld only be planted from cuttings of the Origin Spirit Tree. The only one who could do that was the person contracted to Ele, the King of Spirits, which was me... This meant that I was the only person who could do it...

  “They didn’t give us any more details in the letter, other than that their messenger would tell us later. If they want a Spirit Tree cutting, that means that the miasma really is running rampant through the empire. It’s spreading to the Sargent Margraviate, after all...”

  As I nodded along with Lord Glen’s explanation, the floating kitten Ele spoke in a deeper voice than usual, «So they’re telling you to bring Lady Chelsea to a place overflowing with miasma?»

  A gust blew through the lab, and Ele changed from a kitten to his true Spirit form in the blink of an eye. His otherworldly-beautiful face was contorted in anger.

  “I will not allow you to take my Mistress!” he yelled, picking me up.

  “Wha?!”

  When I squeaked in surprise, Lord Glen heaved a big sigh from his spot across from me. “I don’t want to send her somewhere that dangerous, either! But if we leave it, the miasma will overflow from Radzuel into Chelsea’s new home, the Sargent Margraviate.”

  “Oh, no...!” I gripped the brooch with the Sargent Margraviate’s crest on my chest. It was proof that I was a member of the family. I didn’t want to just abandon the people who gave me another home. If I was the only one who could stop it... “I’ll go to the Radzuel Empire, to protect my new family!” I shouted from Ele’s arms.

  The Spirit sighed at me. “If you’ve decided, I will not stop you...but we must first see how the Tree is growing.”

  “Why?”

  When I asked, confused, he looked out the window at the Spirit Tree. “The cuttings are special branches that can only be acquired once the Tree is fully grown. Any other branches will not grow into Spirit Trees. Looking at it now, it seems that it will take another half a month to be able to take one.”

  I was surprised, since I’d thought that any branch would work.

  “Half a month, huh? We’ve gotta get carriages and other things ready, so that should be good. Then let me get serious...” Lord Glen sat up straight, looking at me in Ele’s arms. “I’d like to give Chelsea, the research fellow, and Lord Element, the King of Spirits, the duty of going to the Radzuel Empire and planting a cutting of the Spirit Tree.”

  “I accept.”

  “Agreed... But it’s embarrassing being called my first name...” Ele mumbled and scratched his cheek, still in spirit form.

  And so, it was decided we’d be going to the Radzuel Empire. And of course, Lord Glen was coming with us, as the person who brought the issue to us. But instead of going straight there, we were going to head to the Sargent Margraviate first. Though I was a research fellow, I was still a minor, so we needed my guardian’s approval.

  “Gotta do the groundwork, too...” Lord Glen mumbled with a bitter smile.

  The Sargent Margraviate was where the mother who had given birth to me was born. My chest got warm at the thought that I’d be able to ask about her.

  1. To the Sargent Margraviate

  While we were waiting for the Spirit Tree to finish growing so we could get a cutting from it, I focused mainly on manners lessons. “Former” or not, I couldn’t make any mistakes when meeting with the former Emperor of Radzuel.

  I’d gotten my curtsey to an acceptable level, and I practiced table manners every day at mealtimes, so I was fine there, but carrying on a conversation using proper noble lady language was difficult... My teacher gave me points for effort, but half a month wasn’t enough for them to give me a passing grade. In the end, we decided that I’d just have to try not to speak much...

  ＋＋＋

  The day before we left, we had a send-off party in my lab. The fact that we were being sent to Radzuel to plant a cutting of the Spirit Tree was top-secret, so only a few people knew. Publicly, we were telling people that I was headed to the Sargent Margraviate to greet my new family. Lord Glen would be accompanying me to see about the miasma near the border, and to give my adoptive father proof that I’d become a research fellow.

  “I didn’t expect that I wouldn’t be able to go with you...” My adoptive brother Marx, Deputy Commander of the Second Order of Knights, was sulking in the corner. My birth mother and my adoptive father were siblings, so Brother was also my cousin. It turned out that he was being sent on a mission that only he was suited for, and wouldn’t be able to take a vacation or accompany me.

  “Though I would feel quite relieved if you could accompany me, Brother... There is nothing we could do...” I said, trying to stick to my ladylike speech, only to get a sad look back.

  “Chelsea is becoming a lady...”

  “Your sister’s gonna start hating you sooner or later if you don’t acknowledge her efforts.” For some reason, Lord Tris’s comment sounded really sure. He might have had a sister.

  “Oh, no! I understand Chelsea is trying her best! It’s a bit lonely that she’s speaking so formally... But it’s a good thing!” Standing up, Brother gave me a grin. I pretended I didn’t notice it twitching.

  “I wanted to go, too, but I couldn’t leave the field to anyone else.” Lord Tris sighed.

  “Thank you very much. It’s thanks to you that we can go without worrying,” I said, trying to give him my best smile.

  His cheeks went red, and he smiled. “...I’m really glad you’ve learned to smile, now.”

  He said something, but I didn’t hear it through the knock at the door. In came my maid, Gina, pushing a cart. We already had tea and all sorts of sweets spread out on the table, but she seemed to be bringing something else.

  “I’ve brought your favorite cake, Lady Chelsea.” Looking closer, I realized it was the trifle cake that I loved. The cake with custard and cream on top of fluffy sponge cake, with lots of different fruits, was always delicious, and I could remember smiling as I ate it.

  “If you want more cake, you’ll need to come back home soon!” my other maid, Martha, said jokingly as she poured us our tea.

  Though both Gina and Martha were my personal maids, they hadn’t been told about my mission. Because they only thought I was going to visit my family, they were staying here.

  «Since everyone is here, you should begin.» Kitten Ele spoke up from his spot curled up on the sofa with a yawn. Normal people could only hear his voice as meowing, so Gina, who loved cats, jumped.

  “You’re right. Since we’re all here, let’s hope for a safe trip for Chelsea...and get eating!”

  At Lord Glen’s prompt, everyone took their seats and started eating the cake and sweets. After saying a prayer to the earth god, I started eating my slice of trifle cake. The fluffy sponge cake, two creams, and the sourness of the fruits all went together so well, and it was delicious! I couldn’t help but smile. After two, three bites, I realized everyone was staring at me.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked, completely forgetting to talk like a lady...

  “You look like you’re really enjoying it...” commented Lord Glen.

  “I’m happy you can eat more, now,” said Brother with a smile.

  “Strawberries are best left for last. You’re just like me!” Lord Tris grinned.

  I went red. “It’s embarrassing to be watched as I eat...!” I said, puffing out my cheeks, only for them all to look at each other and laugh.

  ＋＋＋

  The day we left, the weather was beautiful, with not a cloud in the sky.

  “We’ll be awaiting your return.”

  “We’ll be waiting, okay?!”

  My chest felt warm as Gina and Martha saw me off at the carriage. They’re waiting for me... I was so happy I couldn’t speak, so I just nodded at them. They must have realized what I was thinking, so they smiled back.

  Then, Lord Tris appeared. He was holding a paper bag the size of both of my hands.

  “I got these from the head chef,” he said, showing me the contents. “Cookies, caramels, and candy. He ma
de them just for you.”

  “Thank you very much. I’ll take care to enjoy them,” I thanked him, bowing a little.

  “The cookies’ll go bad soon, so you should eat them first.” He gave me a smile.

  “We should leave shortly.” Lord Glen, who had been talking to the coachman, spoke up.

  “Alright.”

  Taking his hand, I stepped inside the carriage. Ele was already inside in his kitten form.

  “I’ll see you all,” I told the three seeing me off, and gave them each a smile.

  “Please have a good trip.” Gina and Martha both bowed as they spoke simultaneously.

  And Lord Tris...

  “I’ll be looking forward to the souvenirs!” he said, waving his hand.

  I waved back at them as the carriage started moving. We were leaving through the fortress’s side gate, and heading through Count Mogridge’s territory first. After that, we’d go through a few different territories before reaching the Sargent Margraviate in ten days.

  In the four-seater carriage, there was a wooden box that would be a bit too long for me to hold on the front side, so I sat directly beside Lord Glen. Ele was curled up on top of it, sleeping.

  “What is this box for...?” I asked.

  Lord Glen nodded and replied, “It’s the cutting branch.”

  Since the Spirit Tree, my Skill, and our mission were all top-secret, I’d been told ahead of time to be careful when I spoke while we were traveling. We didn’t know exactly how much could be heard outside of the carriage, so he didn’t mention the Spirit Tree at all.

  “It’s smaller than I thought it would be.” Compared to the seed that I’d planted outside of the Research Institute, that one had grown to be just as tall at five stories. I thought that the branch for the cutting would be bigger than I was, but it seemed that I was wrong.

  While I looked at the box, Ele woke up. «So we’ve finally left... I will have to stay with this box until we plant the cutting. I hope that it is sooner rather than later...»

  “Why can’t you leave the box?” I asked, confused, only to get a yawn in return.