Management of a Novice Alchemist: Volume 6 (eBook)

Mizuho Itsuki (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2025
250 Seiten
J-Novel Club (Verlag)
978-1-7183-3490-8 (ISBN)

Infos

With winter and its lack of customers behind her, Sarasa finds the spring tax season just around the corner! Marrying Iris has earned her status as a noble, so it's going to be smooth sailing for the business from here on...or it was supposed to be. When Sarasa visits the capital for the first time in a while, she's ordered to take care of a bandit problem as part of her duties as a noble.

On top of that, with an introduction from her own master Ophelia, Sarasa is reunited with Misty, her junior from the academy, who begs her, 'Hire me, Senpai!' Though Misty is still a novice, Sarasa, with her new duties as a noble, would genuinely benefit from having her around...

So, with a new companion on board, Sarasa's shop management moves on to the next stage!

Textauszug

Prologue

It had been a year since I had come to Yok Village. Having overcome the severe winter and its attending troubles, springtime had finally come for me—in more ways than one.

Hmm? What do I mean by that, you ask?

When a girl talked about springtime, romance was obviously going to be involved.

Meeting a dashing young man. Love, sparkling memories, and then marriage. Yes—now that’s what I’d call spring!!!

If I were to go out and poll other adolescent girls, I’m sure eighty percent would agree with me!

So, that being the case, I went and got married—to Iris.

Huh? What happened to my dashing young man? Where did the sparkling memories go? That had all been nowhere to be found, except for the “marriage” part.

Although, I do like Iris. That’s true.

She might not have been the kind of storybook lover I had been dreaming of, but she had a bright personality and a forthright disposition, and she was a hard worker. Also, the way that she was a bit airheaded, to the point that I felt like I just couldn’t leave her alone despite her being older than me, was kind of cute?

But do I love her romantically...? Hmm.

Maybe this was actually better for me in the long run, though? If I’d gone crazy and fallen for a royal like Prince Ferrick, my future would’ve been filled with nothing but trouble.

Besides, this marriage came with the added bonus of two adoring little sisters, and my new mother-in-law, Diana-san, was kind and a good person too, so all said, it was a really great deal. No one could blame me for having signed on the dotted line, right?

Yeah... It’s no problem. This marriage wasn’t a mistake at all!

But had it changed anything between us? Just what we called each other, maybe?

Nothing in my daily life had changed!

And obviously, we had no plans for children! It had only been a year since I’d met Iris, so it was a little hard for me to imagine us doing that.

Maybe someday, but I currently lack the skills to craft the necessary potion, and I’m still having fun working as an alchemist!

That was how things were going for me. There were some minor changes, but a lot had stayed the same in my daily life. Spring found Yok Village little different from how it had been the year before.

The largest change had to be the number of gatherers. There was a slow trickle of new people coming in as the snow melted, then the numbers exploded once spring arrived in earnest. There was even a point when there weren’t enough places to lodge all of them.

In response, there was a move to build new rental houses targeted at the gatherers, some of whom even bought their homes outright, which led to all the villagers being mobilized to help in the massive construction effort.

Between Delal-san majorly expanding the restaurant at her inn, taking on new staff, and even putting in an order with me for another magical stove, the village was seeing a period of special demand driven by gatherers.

And my shop was no exception to that. In fact, far from it—my shop was the cause of this boom, and a large factor in its continuance.

The season went by, with Iris and Kate helping Lorea-chan and me with the almost murderous workload of handling the sudden increase in gatherer requests. Before we knew it, it was nearly summer.

Alchemists were given a lot of favorable treatment. That started with free tuition, the guarantee of status as citizens of the royal capital, and financial assistance in purchasing a shop. There were many examples of it, but the most important of these for running the business was the exemption from taxation by the local lord, and freedom from domain law.

That had been the only reason a commoner like me had been able to fight back against Baronet Kahku. But the trade-off was that I was required to travel to the capital roughly once a year in order to report my taxes.

And because of how big all the measures taken to favor us were, they were very strict about enforcing this. If I neglected to do it, they’d strip me of my license and immediately chuck me in jail. They were merciless!

However, because there were alchemists like me who lived out on the frontier, the reporting period was set up generously as “No more frequently than every one year, but no less than every two years.” Normally, people reported at the capital before the year-and-a-half mark, though.

I mean, if they left it to the last minute, and then there was something wrong with their paperwork... Well, they’d be fine if they could deal with it then and there, but if they had to head back to their shop to check something, who knows what would happen.

If their shop was in a town a long way from the capital, they’d just die, right?

And so, I, who had a monthlong trip each way, was coming up on my own time limit...

That day, I was standing in front of the shop, wearing my travel attire.

“Okay, I’m heading out. Take care of the shop for me while I’m away.”

There were four people seeing me off: Lorea-chan, Iris, Kate, and then Maris, who was there to help the others out. I’d asked her to come along when we’d visited the Lotzes too, but I was going to be away for even longer this time. There were a lot of gatherers this time of year though, and I knew they’d be in a bind without an alchemist here, so I’d asked for her again.

“Know that this time you’re in good hands!” Maris declared smugly, puffing up her chest.

It’s true that she didn’t run my shop into the ground last time, but...wasn’t that thanks to Lorea-chan?

“That’s unjustified slander!”

“Oops. Looks like I said that out loud.”

“You did! I’ll have you know, I took my work quite seriously. Isn’t that right, Lorea-san?” Maris-san looked to Lorea-chan with a smile.

“Yeah,” Lorea-chan replied with a slight smile. “And there are limits to how much I can do alone, so...”

Yeah, that was the thing: As much as I trusted Lorea-chan more than Maris-san, she obviously didn’t have Maris-san’s alchemical skills, nor anywhere near her level of knowledge. Lorea-chan was studying as best as she could, but alchemy wasn’t so easy that she could get up to speed with it in only a year.

However, Lorea-chan’s job was to mind the shop. Normally, that wasn’t a problem for her at all. It was just that on occasions like this, when I was going to be away from the shop, that left her in a bit of a bind. Especially in a village like this, where there was only one alchemy shop, it wasn’t easy for us to close up the business for long.

But I had tax obligations, and though it wasn’t an absolute requirement that I go myself, it was preferable that I be there in person.

Maybe this is a major part of the reason alchemists take on apprentices?

“Right... I trust you. As long as Lorea-chan’s with you.”

“So you don’t actually trust me at all?!” Maris-san balled her hands into fists and swung them around indignantly.

“It’s okay,” Lorea-chan reassured her, patting her on the back. “Sarasa-san seems to trust your skills as an alchemist.”

Oh? I thought Lorea-chan was the younger of the two, and by far, though?

“I wish she would trust me as a person...”

“I do trust you as a person, though? It’s your financial sense I have doubts about.”

Which was why I could trust her with the shop so long as she had the external financial sense unit known as Lorea-chan attached to her.

“Besides, I’ll be leaving Iris and Kate with you as well this time,” I added.

“Yes.” Iris nodded firmly. “Leave the shop’s safety to Kate and I!”

Kate smiled a little wryly. “You’re so honest, Iris, limiting it to just the shop’s safety. I know you’ve been studying up a bit on alchemic materials, but why don’t you follow Lorea-chan’s example and study alchemy too? If you’re going to be Sarasa’s partner.”

“I believe, as life partners, we should each try to make up for the other’s shortcomings.”

“Oh, yeah?” Kate replied in monotone. “So, what shortcoming of Sarasa’s are you going to make up for, Iris? Even in your best trait, your martial abilities, you come up short compared to her.”

Iris’s eyes wandered awkwardly and she let out a frustrated groan. “Urgh! Is all I have to offer my voluptuous figure, which Sarasa doesn’t have?”

“Whoa there, Iris. Are you looking to get into our first marital spat? I’ll take that fight.” I clenched my fists and squared up against Iris.

“Are you really so ‘voluptuous’ you can go boasting about it? I mean, sure, you’ve got Sarasa beat, but that’s not saying much.”

Apparently I was being attacked from behind as well. “You’re getting in on this too, Kate?!” I said. “I’ll grow soon enough!!!”

I think, even between partners, there are some things you just don’t say!

Iris and Kate smiled at each other as I protested vigorously.

“It’s a joke. Besides, I don’t need to offer Sarasa my body; it already belongs to her.”

...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 15.9.2025
• Reihe/Serie: Management of a Novice Alchemist
• Illustrationen: Mizuho Itsuki
• Übersetzer: Mizuho Itsuki
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Fantasy / Science Fiction ► Fantasy
• Schlagworte: apothecary • Coming of Age • cute girls • Fantasy world • lighthearted slow life • Light Novel • Slice of Life
• ISBN-10: 1-7183-3490-7 / 1718334907
• ISBN-13: 978-1-7183-3490-8 / 9781718334908