“So you guys came to ask my mother for the antidote to the love potion, right?”
Philia said as she poured bright red colored tea into wooden cups for a number of people.
When they were alarmed by the poisonous red color of the tea, without even asking, she said, “It’s rose hips, it’s good for beauty”.
She was really a very sophisticated child to be concerned about beauty at the age of ten.
Orion put the sour-tasting tea in his mouth and though it was rose hip, the two men did not like it. He took a sip and stopped.
“I know how to make an antidote to the love potion too”.
What did you say?”
“You do?”
“You’re ten years old, aren’t you?”
“Shut up, you flat-chested Masculine Woman.
“What?”
When Orion was about to stand up, Cyril patted him on the shoulder and replied, “Okay”. Orion was tongue tied when Cyril told him that he would be in trouble if he didn’t get the antidote if Philia got angry.
“Then, if I ask, will you make it for me?”
When Cyril asked with an exquisite smile, Philia blushed bright red,
“If it’s a favor from Cyril, I’d be happy to do it.”
“Really?”
Yes,” she replied. “But ……, you need special ingredients to make the antidote. We don’t have it here.”
Orion placed on the table the white flowers, glowing mushrooms, and bifurcated acorns he had collected on the way here.
Philia rolled her eyes.
“Masculine woman, why do you have these?
“I found them on the way here. Are these enough?”
Philia looked at them with sparkling eyes, then slowly shook her head.
Orion was about to argue with her when he realized. Yes, she was right. There was one more ingredient for the antidote. He had forgotten about it, but it was the sapphire earrings that Keira was wearing.
“……Selkie’s Tears.”
Orion murmured, and Philia stood up startled.
“How did you know?”
“Well, sort of.”
He can’t say he knew it from a game, so Orion thought about it and decided to deceive her.
The sapphire called “Selkie’s Tears” is a sapphire found in the Alto Sea, an inland sea north of Verhund, and its name comes from the fact that it is collected from the bottom of the sea. Not from digging at the bottom of the sea, but from the fact that they are rarely found lying on the ocean floor. Many of the sapphires are highly transparent and teardrop-shaped, like tears, which may be the tears shed by the fairy Selkie in the fairy tales of Verhund. This is how they came to be called “selkie tears”. In fact, since it is unclear where the sapphire came from and why it is teardrop-shaped, some geologists have even suggested that it might really be a fairy’s tear.
Incidentally, because sapphires are found very rarely, they are highly scarce and are rarely distributed in the market. Even when they are circulated, fakes are so rampant that only about one out of ten is said to be genuine, and it is said that even appraisers have difficulty in determining whether they are genuine or not.
“…… do we have to dive into the ocean to get them?”
Keira is not here. Of course, neither are her earrings. Finding the real Selkie Tears, which are widely counterfeited, is difficult. In that case, there is no choice but to dive into the sea and look for it, but that is also quite difficult.
“If you have the aesthetic sense to recognize the real thing, why don’t you go to a jeweler?”
Orion’s eyebrows shot up as he was snickered.
“With that, you can make potions, right?
Randall asked quietly, and Philia nodded.
“Right. It’s not that difficult to make, as long as I have the right ingredients.”
They didn’t know how much they could trust Philia’s confidence, but in the absence of Marble, they had no choice but to rely on her.
“……If you’re thinking about a town close to the Alto Sea, it’s Caizaruz.”
The port town of Caizaruz is located just north of the town of Iguazu. It was a lively port town with many tourists visiting for the tears of selkie mined as well as the processing of pearls, and many jewelers coming and going, etc. However, since a few years ago, pirates have increased in the Sea of Alto and many ships that went fishing have been attacked.
Although there have been no cases of pirates attacking the town yet, the lords who rule the territory in that area have voiced their concerns about the deterioration of security of the area.
“Anyway, let’s head for Caizaruz. We can’t do anything unless we get selkie tears, right?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“We should consider it a blessing in disguise to know that we can get the antidote here.”
Orion and the others said goodbye to Philia for the time being and decided to return the way they came before dark.