With a thunderous roar…
…followed by a high-pitched whining sound that faded away.
It appeared as if a black sphere began to expand, but then, suddenly, it scattered the purple lightning it was enveloped in with a tremendous noise. From that moment, it began to shrink rapidly until it eventually disappeared.
This is bad!
Temuan was blown away by magic, rolling on the ground and ending up lying there motionless.
“Temuan!!”
Ignis and I shouted at the same time and started running.
“Temuan!”
“Hey, are you okay?”
When we reached him and called out, he seemed to be conscious but weakly raised his upper body on his own.
“Haha… Don’t worry, it’s nothing serious.”
No, it doesn’t look okay at all.
His left arm, which had been stretched out towards the lake, was torn and burnt from the elbow down, suffering severe burns.
Above the elbow, the burns branched out in a tree-like pattern from his neck to his left face and exposed chest, though the shoulder was covered by his clothes.
It looked like the moment when lightning branched out over a wide area and got imprinted on his skin.
It’s a Lichtenberg figure. An electrical burn.
“Nothing serious? You’re badly injured!”
While we were thinking about what to do,
“Calm down. I knew this would happen. More importantly, could you bring my bag here?”
Temuan said that… But seriously? Was getting seriously injured part of the plan? Why would he do such a thing?
“Understood, I’ll bring it right away.”
Switching thoughts, I hurried to get the bag.
Temuan took the bag with his right hand, placed it beside him without taking anything out, and started speaking.
“Both of you, sit down here.”
Is this really the time to sit down?
But we sat down, judging that his life wasn’t in immediate danger, and urged Ignis, who was panicking, to sit as well.
“Watch closely.”
He showed us his severely injured arm.
“This is the danger of magic. When it goes out of control, it can tear and burn you from the inside with your own magic power. …Nggh…”
He showed us the inside and outside of his arm slowly, alternating between them, despite the pain.
“Depending on the magic you attempt to use, you can suffer various injuries. In this case, it was lightning that did this.”
He slightly opened his chest to show us the electrical burns… But, inappropriately, I thought it looked kind of cool.
“If you attempt to use magic beyond your control, this is what happens. Especially you, Ignis. As promised, never try to imitate what you see in secret. This time, it was just a severe injury, but depending on the situation, it could be much worse, even deadly. Understand, both of you?”
Now I see, it was planned.
This was the most important lesson Temuan wanted to teach us in today’s magic class.
Seeing these injuries, we wouldn’t think of using magic lightly.
“I promise I’ll keep it!”
Good response.
It seems Ignis hasn’t realized it yet.
Well, Temuan probably didn’t want to make it obvious, showing us such impactful injuries to guide our thoughts.
“I’ll keep that in mind, the dangers.”
I was convinced overall and promised to follow his instructions.
But, actually, Temuan was being somewhat unreasonable.
However, discussing it now might encourage Ignis to want to use magic, so I decided to talk about it with Temuan alone tonight.
“Good.”
Temuan concluded the talk.
Then, he took out a familiar medicine from his bag.
It was that terrible-tasting oral potion from before.
Expecting him to drink it, I was surprised when he instead poured it over his arm from the elbow down.
“Wow!”
“Ah, that might be interesting for you, Iori.”
I was surprised because I thought it was for drinking.
The area where the potion was applied glowed with a faint blue light, similar to when magic or sorcery is performed.
The transformation caused by the medicine was dramatic.
The charred and damaged tissue fell away, and new granulation tissue formed in the missing parts, progressing to epithelialization in a short time.
Although the scars didn’t completely disappear, the healing was remarkably fast.
With old-generation medical technology on Earth, not relying on nanomachines, it would take 2-3 months to achieve this level of healing.
“This is called a magic potion.”
Temuan explained as he took out another bottle.
Magic potion, huh.
“It’s mostly used for wounds, but it can also treat certain diseases. It’s excellent whether you drink it or apply it…”
He then drank it in one gulp.
“…Ugh… Bitter! No matter how many times I drink it, I can’t get used to this taste.
Ah, and it also has effects on magical and physical strength recovery. It’s a kind of panacea.”
At that time, Temuan had recovered significantly in just one day after being stabbed, so I had privately called it the terrible-tasting oral potion… But hearing the explanation, it truly was a miraculous medicine.
“Amazing. It’s like a miracle drug. It makes sense to call it a magic potion.”
“Don’t use it too much, though.”
Well, if it’s such an effective medicine, that’s to be expected.
I wonder if I could ever get the recipe for it.
As I was thinking, Temuan stood up as if nothing had happened.
“Well, that’s all for today. Let’s go home.”
“Okay.”
“Yes, sir.”
The three of us walked down the road leading to the village.
Looking up at the sky, the sun was making its way to the top of the beautiful blue sky.
It must be almost noon.
Time for lunch when we get back.
Walking along, I dived into my usual sea of thoughts.
Potion—magic potion.
It heals wounds, cures diseases, and restores magical and physical strength.
A truly miraculous medicine.
I still haven’t grasped the full extent of the technology in this world, but there are already several technologies that amaze me.
Even though I possess the pinnacle of Earth’s technology with my ID, I shouldn’t underestimate this world.
Comparing real-world potions to those in fantasy creations is interesting.
In games, potions can heal wounds but not diseases.
But what about in reality?
For example, pneumonia is a disease, but it’s inflammation.
If such miraculous recovery as Temuan’s is possible, it should naturally work on lung inflammation.
In fantasy works, there’s often a “If such technology exists, why not do this or that to make things better?” aspect.
But in this real world, that’s not the case.
I thought about viruses and bacteria, considering diseases.
But if a potion can solve problems after getting dirty and injured in battle, it must have anti-viral and anti-bacterial effects, right?
Otherwise, you’d end up with an infection and die.
Temuan was stabbed in the stomach, but he didn’t get an infection, so this world’s potions must have anti-viral and anti-bacterial effects.
So, it makes sense that they work on diseases.
The fact that potions recover both magical and physical strength deeply convinced me.
There are games where items recover both, right? No difference, right?
But the difference isn’t there.
In reality, using up all your magic power doesn’t mean you can still move around energetically if you have physical strength.
After using magic, like Ignis, you get tired because magic power ≈ physical strength.
When you’re exhausted, can you use full-power magic? No way.
In non-game fiction, it’s common for magic use to cause fatigue, yet items that recover magic power and physical strength are often separate.
If that’s the setting, then a magic recovery potion should also recover physical strength, and vice versa!
So, in this “real world,” potions recover both magic and physical strength.
Another thing, not a fact I heard from Temuan, so I can’t say for sure, but in this world, if you save someone with a potion, you probably don’t have to worry about “You won’t get your lost blood back, so rest (smirk).”
If wounds heal that quickly, it’s unlikely that “blood” alone wouldn’t increase while cells proliferate to close the wound.
That would be too strange.
Are the cells returning to normal without any blood flowing through them?
I think differently.
As cells are produced to close the wound, blood must be included.
So, the potion must also produce blood.
If the potion works when drunk, and if there’s a lack of blood, it should increase the blood as well.
There shouldn’t be contradictions in real-world phenomena.
That day, I made Temuan rest for a day, but that was because I didn’t know the truth about the potion.
I thought it was like antibiotics or nutritional supplements based on Earth’s standards, so I told him to rest.
“What are you thinking about? You’re grinning.”
Oops.
Did my face relax that much?
Temuan gave me a suspicious look.
“No, just excited about learning something new.”
“Good, but be careful with dangerous things.”
“I know.”
After walking for a while, we arrived at the village.
I’ll organize what I want to ask Temuan tonight after lunch.
Magic and sorcery, magical tools, and magic potions.
They’re frightening but fascinating.
Temuan, a knowledgeable and reliable adult, was truly fortunate to have survived that time.
I couldn’t help but smile.
“What’s with that face again?”
—
Temuan, thanks for everything! I’m counting on you!
I muttered in my heart.
—
