Chapter 62

She recalled how, as a child, she’d made her own efforts to grow closer to Axion, but in the end, it had all been in vain. Shaking off her stray thoughts, she asked gently.

“Were there any formulas you found particularly difficult?”

She figured that if she applied mathematical formulas from her previous life to magical engineering, it wouldn’t be all that difficult. Meanwhile, Jactor scanned his notes with concentration before pointing to a particular problem.

“Ah! I’m not sure how to do this part.”

“Let’s have a look…”

Hmm, it seems tougher than I expected.

Now that she was actually facing the problem, her earlier confidence started to waver, and her mind spun in circles. Doing her best to hide her embarrassment, Evelyn began writing down a solution using a factorization method she only vaguely remembered.

Suddenly, Jactor, his eyes bright and attentive beside her, exclaimed in a clear voice.

“The answer is 517!”

“That’s right. Well done.”

He was astonishingly quick to understand, grasping the formula almost instantly. At this rate, he’d have no trouble passing the entrance exam for the Magic Tower one day.

As Evelyn fondly patted the boy’s head, a faint, bittersweet smile played on her lips. It was because the plot of the original story suddenly came to mind. In the original story, Jactor, as the next Master of the Magic Tower, had devoted himself to researching an artifact that could suppress rampages of supernatural power. However, once he turned to black magic, even that research ended up fading into obscurity.

‘Right now, the imperial family’s eyes are elsewhere…’

In the distant future, the emperor, once he recognized Jactor’s true worth, might go to any lengths, and there was no telling what might happen.

For the child, what mattered most was to cultivate enough strength to protect himself. Of course, she couldn’t very well send such a young child straight to the Magic Tower. Perhaps if he had a capable mentor to guide him in the use of magic, things would be different.

‘There is exactly one person who would be perfect for the job.’

Evelyn, thinking of her fiancé, scratched her cheek a bit sheepishly. She knew all too well how busy he was, so it wouldn’t be easy to ask him for a favor.

Still… maybe it wouldn’t hurt to mention it just once.

While she was lost in thought, Jactor tilted his head and asked.

“Sister, is something wrong?”

‘Ack, was my expression that serious?’

Realizing her mistake, she spoke with an awkward expression, skirting around the truth.

“It’s nothing. I was just thinking about some herbs, that’s all.”

“May I ask what kind of herb it is?”

Knowing that she was conducting research on medicinal herbs, the child asked again, his curiosity evident. Evelyn gazed into his curious eyes for a moment, then gave a small nod.

“It’s an herb called Dirkworth, though you probably wouldn’t know it even if I explained.”

Although she had finally managed to cultivate it after much effort, for some reason, she kept failing to make it bloom. Supposedly, the most poisonous part was the flower bud itself… She had been racking her brains for days, trying to pinpoint what was going wrong in her research.

As she rested her chin in her hand, lost in thought, Jactor’s innocent voice broke in:

“Isn’t Dirkworth a poisonous plant?”

Startled, she blinked at him, eyes wide.

“Jactor, how do you know about that?”

“Well…”

Jactor reached up to fidget with the hair at the back of his neck, then continued slowly.

“The truth is, my grandfather used to run an herbalist’s shop.”

“An herbalist’s shop?”

“Yes, so I learned about herbs from him when I was little.”

He explained that he would often climb the mountains with his grandfather to gather herbs. Of course, after his grandfather fell ill, it became difficult to keep the shop running.

Perhaps because the conversation had turned to herbs he knew about, Jactor added in a clear, confident voice.

“He always said never to touch the flower buds of Dirkworth!”

He was absolutely right. Because Dirkworth was so highly toxic, she always made sure to wear laboratory gloves when handling it.

‘Wait, if he knows this much about it…’

In that moment, her eyes sparkled with sudden excitement.

“Jactor, do you happen to know how to make Dirkworth bloom?”

There was a good chance his grandfather had been highly knowledgeable about herbs. After all, Dirkworth was a plant scarcely known in the Baltian Empire. If so, it was entirely possible that Jactor possessed information she herself had never learned.

The boy rolled his golden eyes thoughtfully for a moment, then finally came up with the answer.

“Fertilizer… that’s right, fertilizer! I’m sure that’s what Grandfather always said!”