Novice Alchemist Special Story part 1

 

Special Story : Lorea And A Suspicious Customer (part 1)

 

*This story is using third person perspective*

 

This is the story before Lorea started working at Sarasa’s shop.

Back then, Sarasa was running her alchemy shop by herself, so she was busy most of the time.

She usually kept the shop during the day and made potions and artifacts after she closed her shop.

In addition to that, she also did the housework such as cleaning the house, doing laundry, and preparing meals by herself.

Cleaning the house was relatively easy thanks to the cleaning effect of the Seal that was installed to the house, but doing the laundry and preparing meals was a pain for Sarasa back then. Because of that, she sometimes went to Diral’s dining hall to buy food.

Even though she was busy, she still had some free time.

After all, the only customers who visited Sarasa’s shop were the local Collectors.

Because of that, Sarasa was usually busy selling potions in the morning before the local Collectors went to the Great Sea of Trees to work. In the evening, she was busy buying alchemy materials from the Collectors who returned from the forest.

She usually had a lot of free time at noon. However, she had to keep her store open even though she was free because sometimes there were customers who came at noon.

At first, waiting for customers to come at noon was boring and mentally exhausting for Sarasa, but she no longer felt so after she met Lorea.

Lorea usually came to Sarasa’s shop at noon when Sarasa was not busy to have a chat with her while enjoying tea together.

Today as well, Lorea came to Sarasa’s shop. She took a peek through the window to check if there were customers inside the shop or not.

Sarasa noticed Lorea was peeking. She smiled at her and beckoned her from the counter.

Lorea smiled back at Sarasa and opened the door.

「Hello, Sarasa-san. Are you busy right now?」(Lorea)

「As you can see. Not at all. You can come in.」(Sarasa)

Lorea replied to Sarasa with a nod, entered the shop, and sat down on the chair next to the counter which had recently become her usual seat.

「Wait a moment. I’ll brew some tea now.」(Sarasa)

「Okay~ Your tea tastes so much better than the tea at my house. I always look forward to drinking your tea.」(Lorea)

「Fufu. Is that so? You know, I spent hours experimenting with the Suya tea receipt you told me to make my own tea recipe. It’s worth the time and effort if you like it.」(Sarasa)

After saying that, Sarasa went to the kitchen to brew her special Suya tea in a teapot and then took the teapot and two tea cups to the counter.

Suya tea is the specialty tea in Yok Village. Everyone in the village drinks it.

However, Sarasa’s Suya tea is different. She used alchemy to remove the grassy smell of the leaves of Suya trees, which were the local trees that could be found in the nearby forest. As a result, she was able to bring out the freshness and the deep natural flavor of Suya leaves to the tea she brewed.

Even though it couldn’t be compared to the high-quality tea leaves sold in large cities, especially in the royal capital, there was no doubt that the quality of her tea leaves was quite high among the tea leaves sold in the village.

Other than her specialty Suya tea, Sarasa also served dried fruits she purchased in South Strugg.

Dried fruits were like luxury items in remote villages like Yok Village, but Sarasa bought them anyway to enjoy her time more with Lorea, her only friend in the village at the moment.

「Here you go~ Don’t hesitate to eat the dried fruits as well.」(Sarasa)

「Whoaa~! Thank you, Sarasa-san!」(Lorea)

Lorea thanked Sarasa with a bright smile on her face. She then took a sip of the tea and brought a piece of the druid fruits into her mouth.

「Mmm~! It’s a bit sour, but it tastes good!」(Lorea)

Sarasa couldn’t help but smile when she saw Lorea’s cute sour face.

She was happy to be able to spend her time with Lorea, but there was something bugging her mind.

「…Say, Lorea-chan… Can I ask you something?」(Sarasa)

「Hm? Of course. You can ask me anything.」(Lorea)

Lorea cutely tilted her head in response to Sarasa’s question.

Sarasa was a little hesitant, but then she asked Lorea anyway.

「Umm… I’m happy that you come to visit almost every day, but… Don’t you have to help your parents with their grocery store?」(Sarasa)

Sarasa was afraid that Lorea would stop coming to visit after she asked that question. That was why she hesitated.

However, she didn’t want Lorea to ditch her duty just to come to her shop and spend times with her. It wouldn’t do any good for Lorea. It would only turn her into a slacker.

There was also the possibility that Lorea’s family would hate Sarasa because their daughter always ditched her work to go to her shop.

Listening to Sarasa’s question, Lorea was stunned for a moment, but then she broke into a wry smile.

「Ah, so you have been worrying about that? Fufu. Sarasa-san, you don’t have to worry. Actually, I have quite a lot of free time recently.」(Lorea)

「Really?」(Sarasa)

「Yeah. Normally, I look after the store while my parents are going to South Strugg to purchase goods, but since you came to this village, my parents didn’t have to go to purchase goods as often as before.」(Lorea)

Before I came to this village and opened an alchemy shop, the local Collectors usually bought potions and sold their alchemy materials in Lorea’s parents’ grocery store.

Lorea’s parents used to be busy going back and forth to South Strugg to purchase potions and sell the alchemy materials they bought from the local Collectors to the alchemy shop in South Strugg.

However, now that Sarasa opened an alchemy shop in the village, they didn’t have to do that anymore.

As a matter of course, their income has declined since then, but it’s not that significant.

Now they’re focusing on selling general items that the people in the village need.

As a result, the number of times they went to South Strugg decreased, and Lorea no longer had to stay at home all the time to look after the store.

「I see. So you didn’t ditch your job to come here. I’m glad to know that.」(Sarasa)

「Geez… Sarasa-san, do I look like a girl who would ditch her job just to drink refreshing tea and eat delicious sweets?」(Lorea)

「Ahaha… I, I’m sorry…」(Sarasa)

「No, wait… Now that I think about it, I might ditch my job to do that… I mean, who could resist the temptation of Sarasa-san’s specialty Suya tea and expensive, delicious dried fruits?」(Lorea)

「Lo, Lorea-chan!?」(Sarasa)

「Fufu. I’m just kidding.」(Lorea)

「Geez…」(Sarasa)

「Hehe… Actually, I feel a little complicated when I think about the fact that kids my age are working hard every day. Meanwhile, I’m just chilling here, having tea with you.」(Lorea)

In remote villages like this, normally, kids around Lorea’s age will be helping their parents with fieldwork and preparing themselves to take over the family business in the future.

However, Lorea’s family business is a grocery store. There’s not much she could do.

In other words, Lorea will have free time when her parents are around.

「But when your parents are not around, you will be the one who will look after the store, right?」(Sarasa)

「Of course. It would be lying if I didn’t feel guilty for not working, but I’m glad that I have a lot of free time because I was able to hear so many stories from you!」(Lorea)

「I see. I’m glad you like my stories, but I want to hear from you this time. Can you tell me an interesting story about yourself, or about this village, or maybe about your parents?」(Sarasa)

「Hmm…」(Lorea)

Lorea put her index finger and thumb on her chin and thought for a moment.

「It’s not an interesting story but something like this doesn’t happen very often in this village. It’s more like a mysterious story than an interesting one. Do you want to hear about it?」(Lorea)

「Mysterious, huh…? Alright. I’m all ears!」(Sarasa)

「It happened before you came to this village. If I’m not mistaken, it happened in winterー No, in early spring, I think. A strange person visited my parents’ grocery store…」(Lorea)

Lorea put her index finger to her chin, trying to dig up her memories, and began to tell me the story.

 

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