The Saint’s Magic Power is Omnipotent Vol. 3 Read online

  Table of Contents

  Color Inserts

  Table of Contents Page

  Title Page

  Summaries

  Copyrights and Credits

  Act 1: Journey

  Behind the Scenes I

  Act 2: Klausner’s Domain

  Act 3: Mercenaries

  Behind the Scenes II

  Act 4: Ingredients

  Act 5: The Saint’s Magic

  Behind the Scenes III

  Act 6: Discovery

  Short Story

  Afterword

  Newsletter

  Act 1:

  Journey

  IT HAD BEEN A YEAR since my summoning. The seasons had cycled, and spring was on the horizon. However, we were as yet mired in the end of winter. Although milder than in Japan, the climate near the capital city was still cold.

  Despite the chill, I had taken myself yet again to the Royal Magi Assembly’s practice grounds to train with my magic.

  The grounds were outside, but I wore only a light robe on top of my regular clothes—rather than, you know, a proper coat. I could get away with such lightweight clothing because the robe was enchanted with Fire Magic. It formed a layer of warm air around my body when worn, like a personal heater, and it made being outdoors in this weather quite comfortable.

  Grand Magus Yuri Drewes had gifted me this convenient—and expensive—item. He’d claimed he was giving it to me because he didn’t want me to catch a cold, but I suspected his generosity came only half from kindness. The other half likely stemmed from some kind of ulterior motive.

  Just as I was casting a Holy Magic spell as a warm-up exercise, Yuri arrived at the practice grounds. Speak of the devil and all that.

  “You have improved considerably.” Wearing a painted-on smile on his handsome face, he looked beautiful as ever. However, looks can be deceiving.

  This may sound rude, but in truth, Yuri was well known to be single-mindedly obsessed with magic. It was quite a shame, really.

  “Thank you,” I said.

  Yuri dispensed with the pleasantries and jumped immediately to what he wanted to know. “Are you going to try calling on the Saint’s powers now?”

  “Yes. I just finished warming up.”

  By “the Saint’s powers,” he was referring to the magic I had used in the western forest, which had dissipated the miasma swamp and all the monsters it belched up in one fell swoop.

  Despite his numerous obligations, Yuri always came to join me during my daily post-lesson practice, but only because he wanted to see me use the Saint’s magic again. I was pretty sure that had something to do with why he’d given me the enchanted robe as well.

  I could see the glimmer in his eye as he waited for me to cast again. I felt bad keeping him waiting, so I prepared myself.

  I looked away from Yuri, took a deep breath, and summoned my conviction. Why did I have to do all this? Because since our return from the western forest, I hadn’t managed to cast the spell again.

  The research institute and the western forest—these were the only two places I had managed to use the Saint’s magic, but I still had no idea exactly how I had done it.

  I had been told that I must have tapped into my powers as the Saint both times, but, well, each time, the effects of the magic had been different. The first time, I had improved the effectiveness of herbs. The second, I eliminated the black swamp that we suspected had been created by the miasma.

  However, one thing had been the same each time: the gold color of the magic. When this golden magic suddenly burst forth from inside me, it always felt as though it was literally pouring out of me. Therefore, since I remembered how it felt when I cast the magic, I had a feeling that if I could just figure out how to summon up that feeling, the rest would be easy.

  The problem was that I had no clue where to start. I had tried a ton of different things, but I still hadn’t figured it out. This feeling of groping around in the dark searching for an answer gave me traumatic flashbacks to working in Japan.

  Stop that, self. I gotta concentrate on the magic now. I refocused myself on the magical power circulating through my body. Thanks to months of training, I could now identify the feel of the magic in my body the moment I focused. I examined that magic, but I didn’t find any sign of the golden kind I was hoping for.

  But if I recall correctly, at the time, there was some kind of bursting feeling in my chest. Hmm. Hmm, hmm, hmm…

  A few minutes later, I dropped my concentration and let out a sigh. How in the world was I supposed to figure out how this magic worked? I didn’t remember doing anything special at either time, let alone anything specifically magical.

  “Is it difficult?” Yuri asked.

  “Yeah, I still have no idea how to put my finger on it.”

  “I apologize for not watching your process more closely back in the forest.”

  “Really, it’s not something you should be apologizing about.”

  “But I really, truly regret that I was unable to verify how it worked. If only I had properly observed the magic, then by now, we could be…” he sighed.

  Let me put it this way: At the time when I cast the magic, everyone was busy trying to stay alive, including Yuri. Nevertheless, when we got back to the palace, he had been devastated by my inability to call on the powers of the Saint again. If I had figured out how to use the Saint’s magic on command, right about now I would probably be subject to Yuri’s various experiments.

  In short, the rest of Yuri’s sentence was probably supposed to be something like “by now, we could be in the thick of so, so, so many different trials.”

  And thus, I spent the rest of the day trying my hardest to use the magic again, only to come up with nothing.

  ***

  One cold day in spring, I had stayed cooped up in the institute all day since I didn’t feel like going outside.

  “Sei, are you making more potions?” Jude asked.

  “Yup, that’s right. We’ve been getting a lot more orders lately, you see.” I’d had this conversation a number of times since coming to this world.

  “But aren’t you making way more than necessary again?”

  “You think so?” I tilted my head as I looked at the potions before me. I heard Jude sigh deeply.

  You don’t have to sound that exasperated. I wasn’t lying about there being more orders.

  At first, I’d only made potions for the Knights of the Third Order, but now I was making them for the Second Order and the Royal Magi Assembly as well. You see, the whole palace now knew the rumor that the potions made at the institute were more effective than those made anywhere else.

  This wasn’t the only reason for the order backlog, though. Due to the influx of monsters in recent years, there was a high demand for potions in the general market as well, and for a long time now, there had been a widespread shortage. A layperson might think we should therefore just increase how many potions we made, but the matter wasn’t so easily resolved.

  Potions couldn’t be made just by following a recipe. The higher-ranking potions required subtle magical manipulation, and the maker needed to have the appropriate skill level in Pharmaceuticals. If the maker’s level was lower than the rank of the potion they wanted to make, their attempt would fail, and they’d be left with a bunch of boiled plant matter.

  As a result, while there were quite a few people who could make mid-grade potions, very few could reliably produce high-grade ones. Also, since potion-making required magic, the number of potions a person could make in a day was limited by the amount of MP they possessed. Once they ran out, they were unable to make any more until they rested or drank an MP potion. This limitation was considered the main reason why raising one’s Pharmaceuticals skill was so difficult.

  Therefore, the problem couldn’t be solved simply by “making more potions”—the world was already producing them at capacity.

  Potions were a particular necessity for the knightly Orders, due to their value during monster-slaying expeditions. With the increase in the monster population around the capital, the number of required potions had also soared.

  However, even though the palace got first dibs on newly produced potion batches, they couldn’t monopolize the market. While high-grade potions were expensive and out of reach for most commoners, low-grade ones were largely obtainable. If the palace bought those up too, they would foster discontent among the common folk.

  The palace officials recognized this and as a result closely managed the palace’s potion consumption. Thus, although they had increased the amount of potions they procured for the knightly Orders, they were unable to acquire any more than they already did. As such, the knights were forced to let minor injuries heal on their own, while mages who could use Holy Magic were asked to tend the more dire wounds.

  All of this was why the potions made at our institute had caught everyone’s attention. Not only were they more effective, we were able to produce more per day than the medicine shops in the capital. The Orders couldn’t resist jumping at them after enduring the chronic shortage of years past.

  “Maybe they did put in more orders, but I doubt they increased them by this much,” Jude said.

  “I swear I’m keeping the requested number in mind while I make them.”

  “Really? I kind of doubt they’d ever order this many high-grade HP potions. Johan’s gonna yell at you again.”

  All the potion
s lined up in neat rows before me were indeed the high-grade variety. The herbs required to make them were expensive, so they weren’t used unless absolutely necessary. And…fine, Jude was right. The Orders hadn’t ordered quite as many as I’d made.

  But I only made so many because I wanted to raise my Pharmaceuticals skill, which I could only do by making potions. However, my level was now so high that even making high-grade potions wasn’t increasing it.

  Given the cost of the requisite ingredients, Johan had told me to stop making so many of them…and I was trying to be careful about my quota, I really was, but… Oof, I guess I wound up making too many after all.

  “What about the other kinds the Orders asked for? Don’t you have to make those?” Jude asked.

  “Oh, I did.”

  “What? You’re done already?”

  “The majority of what they asked for were low- and mid-grade potions, you know.”

  Jude had told me before that I could make far more potions in a day than the average professional alchemist. So many more, in fact, that it would take most alchemists multiple days to match what I could cough up in just one.

  I suspected this had something to do with my absurdly high base level. An individual’s base level determined their maximum HP and MP, and from what I had heard, alchemists typically weren’t even at Level 10. Logically, since making potions required imbuing a brew with magical power, people who had more MP could make more potions. I didn’t know exactly how much more MP I had than someone at Level 10, but I was pretty sure the difference was, shall we say, considerable.

  As Jude and I were talking, Johan appeared.

  Speak of the other devil! I thought.

  “Sei, there you are, there’s something I need to—” Johan’s gaze froze on the high-grade HP potions on my desk.

  Eep. It was just like him to pop up before I could put them away!

  “Hm. I don’t mind your professional enthusiasm, but I think you’ve overdone it a bit,” he said.

  “Sorry…”

  I really had been keeping the specific request in mind when making them. However, the amount of vials on my desk exceeded the request by an order of two, maybe even three.

  Johan must have realized that, but he didn’t scold me. Given the sheer amount of overkill, I would have grimly accepted any admonishment, which was why I apologized when I saw him looking at me with that familiar exasperation.

  “Well, as it turns out, I wanted to talk to you about potions,” he said.

  “You…you did?”

  The unusual seriousness of his expression made me tremble with fear. Was this the day he cracked? Was I in for the reprimand of a lifetime? I straightened my posture and made myself look attentive as Johan began.

  “You’re not going to be making any more potions for the time being.”

  “Huh?! Why not?”

  “Because it’s become difficult to acquire the ingredients.”

  “What?!”

  Johan went on to explain that fewer herbs than usual had been imported to the capital this past fall. The harvest from the domain where most herbs came from had been frightfully small this year, so there was a shortage of herbs in markets everywhere.

  The shops we procured our supplies from had been working hard to make sure the institute got its usual deliveries, but it had finally started to become difficult for them to source our orders. Johan had just received word that, for the time being, none of our orders could be filled.

  “Well, that sounds bad,” I said.

  “Yes. I had heard back in the fall that there might be a shortage, but I hadn’t imagined they would outright halt deliveries.”

  “How long do you think it will be before we can order again?”

  “We can’t say for sure, but the shopkeepers think it’s likely to take a while.”

  “That’s really bad.”

  The domain in question exported not only the herbs that went into low-grade potions but those required for mid- and high-grade potions as well. Normally, the ingredients for low-grade potions were relatively easy to cultivate regardless of local climate. However, the herbs for mid-grade potions were a bit more difficult to grow. They didn’t take in regular soil, and it required some effort to nurture them. The ones in the institute’s gardens depended entirely on the hard work of our researchers.

  In the domain that supplied herbs, there were a few tracts of land where mid-grade potion ingredients grew with little to no effort, so they were vigorously cultivated as a prime local product. This same area also had a forest where the herbs used in high-grade potions grew wild, so they exported those as well.

  After a meticulous harvest, these herbs were transported to the capital. However, sometimes the universe interfered and the period during which they could be transported deviated from expectations, which was what Johan believed had caused the scarcity in the fall. Though supply had increased since that early shortage, it hadn’t yet recovered, and now we faced a total stoppage.

  Johan wasn’t the only one who believed that there had to be some kind of problem at the site of origin—the officials in the palace did as well. Therefore, they were sending an investigative team from the palace to the domain.

  “What will we do about the orders from the knights?” I asked.

  “The only thing we can do right now is stop filling them.”

  “Mm, understood.”

  Having said what he needed to, Johan returned to his office. Jude and I went back to our own work as well. However, since I had been told to stop making potions, I didn’t exactly have more work to do.

  I couldn’t help thinking as I cleaned up my work station. There weren’t as many monsters around the capital now, but the knights were still going out on their expeditions… But now they wouldn’t have as many potions, even though they were still going to need them. If this shortage continued, sooner or later something bad was bound to happen.

  I sure hope things go back to normal soon.

  ***

  One early afternoon after class, I was quietly flipping through a book in a corner of the palace library. I’d had magic class that day, so it would have been a better use of my time to head over to the practice grounds, but I just wasn’t in the mood, so I was poking around in the library instead.

  I had picked out an herbology encyclopedia. It contained detailed drawings of herbs and descriptions of their benefits. I had read this book once before, but I was zeroing in on some new interesting tidbits this time.

  As I picked it over at length, something suddenly occurred to me: the book listed all the parts of the country where herbs were grown, and a certain name kept popping up. I nonchalantly flipped back in the book and found that numerous herbs came from that same place, including the ones used in both HP and MP potions, as well as those used in potions for curing status abnormalities.

  They must export a ton, I thought, and then I remembered where I had heard of this place before—it was the very domain that had recently stopped shipping as many herbs.

  It sounded like it really was an herb-picker’s paradise, just like you’d expect from somewhere known for its premium exports. I had no idea what was causing its recent shipping troubles, but the scope of the impact had to be even huger than I’d imagined, considering how many herbs seemed to be sourced from there. Even ordinary citizens used potions to cure status abnormalities from time to time, after all.

  Maybe it was just my personality to fixate on a thing once it occurred to me, but I was starting to consider investing some serious time in learning more about this region.

  Just then, I heard the library door open with a creak, and I spotted a head of fluffy brown hair enter through it.

  “Oh, Sei!”

  “Oh, hi there,” I greeted the girl.

  She was Aira Misono, the other girl who had been summoned to this world at the same time as me. In about a month, she was going to graduate from the academy she was attending. I wonder what she’s doing here at the library.

  “Don’t you have class right now?” I asked.

  “Not today. I was actually just on my way to the Magi Assembly, but there was something I wanted to look into first.”

  Aira told me that classes were already over for those who were going to graduate this year, so she only had to go to school if she wanted, while those with bad grades were busy taking supplementary classes. It didn’t sound all that different from high school in Japan.