Chapter 37
Light novel: Episode 37
Manhwa: Chapter 15 -16
“Now we just need to start mass production and we can start selling right away. I’ll leave distribution in your hands.”
“I’ll begin sourcing materials for mass production immediately. And of course, I’ll handle the distribution well too.”
This is why I like working with someone who are good at business.
With all the necessary discussion wrapped up in no time, we exchanged a satisfied handshake.
“Oh! And here is this month’s donation and blessing recharge fee.”
At that moment, Lute took out two pouches.
I inhaled sharply and immediately reached for the pouch containing the money.
Rather than the donation pouch meant for grand temple use, my instincts went ahead and reached for the blessing recharge fee for offering rituals.
【500 gold.】
This madman—no, this wonderful man just handed over fifty million won as a blessing recharge fee.
“You know I love you, right?”
“You mean my money. I’m worried that if I keep doing this, when the time comes that I run out of money, the Saintess’s love might fade too.”
As I rubbed the pouch against my cheek in bliss, Lute grumbled with an utterly ridiculous statement.
“There’s no way your money will ever dry up, Your Grace.”
That might be true if your fate were to follow the original story, but now that I’ve changed it, there’s no chance of that happening.
“So my love for you will never fade either.”
The more my divine power increases, the stronger my blessings will become, and naturally, the potion’s effects will improve as well.
And that means more money will flow back to me.
To keep this perfect cycle going, Lute was absolutely essential. So I was determined to make sure nothing ever happened to him.
“Such sweet words.”
…But wait. Why is he suddenly smiling like that? Almost as if he’s in a foul mood…
Nah, it’s probably just my imagination. There’s no reason for that.
* * *
After Lute left, I immediately summoned Airek and Seth to the reception room.
Both of them looked visibly excited, likely having already heard about the successful completion of the potion prototype.
“It’s so much better than the first sample we received. Personally, I really like that it uses the Hyas Flower.”
The Hyas Flower is the symbol of the Sun God’s grand temple.
It was a perfect choice as the main ingredient for our flagship potion product.
Airek nodded in agreement with my assessment.
“That’s right. Plus, since the Hyas Flower only grows within the grand temple, no other potion makers can replicate this formula.”
“And it’s even better that the Hyas Flower won’t ever disappear.”
Seth also smiled brightly.
As he said, even when every other flower in the garden had withered, only the Hyas Flower had survived.
Unlike other flowers, the Hyas only needs sunlight and the divine power of the Sun God.
Of course, with the reduced number of priests, the amount of divine power had lessened, so it no longer blanketed the entire garden as it once did but that was only temporary.
Soon, the beautiful flowers would once again cover the grand temple in dazzling bloom.
I looked forward to that day.
“However, there’s one issue. The efficacy is still slightly lower than that of traditional alchemy potions.”
Letting Airek and Seth enjoy their excitement for a while, I began to subtly lay the groundwork.
This was, after all, the real reason I’d called them here.
“So I was thinking… what if we imbued the potions with the power of our sacred relics and divine relics?”
This was the excuse I came up with to hide the fact that I was using my skill—Blessing.
“The power of sacred relics and divine relics…? Do we really need to go that far?”
Unlike Seth, who fell into deep thought, Airek immediately showed hesitation.
“We absolutely do. If we don’t establish a strong lead right from the beginning, we’ll fall behind.”
That wasn’t just an excuse, it was the truth.
“We’re talking about a potion from none other than the grand temple of the Sun God, renowned for its healing power. And yet… what if people think it’s underwhelming? What will everyone think?”
‘So the Sun God’s grand temple really has declined. Looks like it’s on the verge of collapse.’
That’s what people would whisper, and they’d turn their backs on us for good.
“We can’t let that happen. We have to make sure that everyone’s first impression is, ‘Ah, as expected of the Sun God’s grand temple—this is something special!’ In business, first impressions are everything.”
Got it? You naive people who don’t know anything about business.
“Of course, I’m not saying we’ll keep using it forever. Once the potion development team comes up with a better formula, we’ll stop using them.”
Sacred relics and divine relics do not have unlimited power.
Sacred relics, in particular, have a short lifespan.
So I had to make it clear that there would be limits.
Though honestly, I didn’t intend to actually use them in the first place.
“…I understand. Let’s proceed with that.”
Fortunately, it seemed the persuasion worked. After a long moment of thought, Airek agreed without any major objection.
And since Seth, who had even less business sense than Airek, had already given up on voicing his opinion, that meant everyone was effectively in agreement.
With the decision made, we put our heads together and selected a sacred relic to use.
And, conveniently, we found the perfect one.
Everything proceeded smoothly after that.
Airek did make a ridiculous suggestion at one point, saying he’d be the one to bless the potions with the sacred relic himself…
But since he had the far more important job of being our healing-power shuttle, I was able to claim the blessing task for myself without trouble.
And so, with Lute supplying the ingredients, and the potion-making team and healing-power shuttle squad grinding away for several days—
We finally completed five hundred bottles of the first sales-ready prototype batch.
“Wow, it looks spectacular.”
Standing in front of 500 bottles filled with a rich orange liquid, I felt a strange sense of pressure.
The blessings had to go well for this to work. Would it really succeed?
Alone in the room, I took a deep breath, then slowly reached out toward the potions.
【Activating skill: ‘Blessing’.】
Golden divine power slowly seeped into the potions.
All 500 bottles lit up in unison and just for a moment, I felt relief at how well it seemed to work.
But that relief didn’t last long.
“Keugh!”
A metallic scent hit my nose as I coughed up blood.
“Did I get any on them?”
Startled by the blood dripping down my hand, I quickly pulled off my robe.
If Monica or Victoria saw even a drop of blood, I’d be in serious trouble.
【You have overused the skill ‘Blessing’. This will place an excessive burden on the user’s body.】
I let out a sigh as the system message shimmered in front of me.
Seriously? Coughing up blood just from blessing a few hundred bottles?
I still had to do this several more times—this was going to be a problem.
“What kind of strain exactly? Will my lifespan be reduced or something?”
【The user’s physical fatigue will increase and the user’s body will be temporarily weakened. However, this will not affect your lifespan, and as your divine power increases, the strain on the body decreases.】
Ah, well… that’s not too bad.
All I really do around the grand temple is morning exercises, lazing around, and casting blessings now and then.
Getting physically weaker for a bit won’t be a big deal.
After closing the system message, I admired the potion bottles now glowing with the color of radiant flames.
…Maybe because I coughed up blood, the reddish glow kind of looked like my own blood. But that’s just a minor detail, not really worth dwelling on.
I washed the blood off my hands in the bathroom and carefully checked my clothes to make sure nothing had gotten on them.
After opening the window and airing out the room, I finally called in Monica and Victoria, who had been waiting outside the door.
“Wow! The color changed! It’s really beautiful. Is this the effect of the sacred relic?“
At Monica’s awe-filled comment, I nodded and held up the sacred relic I had in hand.
It was a golden incense shaped sacred relic called ‘Light Gold.’
It was perfect since its effect enhanced innate abilities.
Unfortunately, it didn’t have the same effect as the blessing cast directly by me, the Saintess of the Sun God.
If it were even close, I would’ve just used the sacred relic instead of blessing things myself, but since the result fell significantly short, it’ll have to remain a convenient excuse.
“It really looks mysterious and special. I think it’ll sell really well, Saintess!”
“Right? So come on, let’s move them. The faster we get them out, the faster we can start selling.”
“Yes!”
With a spirited reply, Monica began loading the potions onto the trolley she’d prepared in advance.
But for some reason, Victoria wasn’t moving. She was glancing around suspiciously.
“Lady Victoria? What’s wrong?”
“It’s just… I feel like I smell blood for some reason.”
I nearly bit my tongue at her terrifyingly sharp observation.
Even after ventilating the room? What kind of nose is that…?
Thanks to my time as a detective, I was fairly sensitive too, but I couldn’t hold a candle to knights trained under monstrous regimens.
“Really? I don’t smell anything.”
“Me neither. It’s not like there’d be any blood here.”
Thankfully, Monica, who had strong divine power but regular human senses, backed me up.
I quickly followed her lead and feigned ignorance.
“…Is that so?”
Thanks to that, Victoria let it go and began helping Monica move the potion bottles.
Although judging by the way she kept glancing around, it didn’t seem like her suspicions had completely vanished.
Next time, I’ll make sure to ventilate more thoroughly before calling them in. If this happens again, I might really get caught.
After loading the hundreds of potion bottles onto the trolley, we headed to the entrance of the grand temple.
Airek, who was talking to a woman I had never seen before, greeted us warmly.
“Finished with the work?”
“Yes, it was a success.”
I held up one of the potions, which had its color changed noticeably.
But the one who reacted more enthusiastically than Airek was the woman standing next to him.
“Oh, this is it? Wow, just look at that color. I’ve seen countless potions in my life, but never one with such a brilliant and mysterious hue. It would make even people who aren’t interested take a peek!”
The woman flashed a bold, cheerful smile as she offered her enthusiastic praise.
With a sturdy build, violet hair, and teal-green eyes, she stood out in many ways.
No matter how I looked at her, she didn’t seem like an ordinary person… Strange.
Did someone like this ever appear in the original story?
SoundlessWind21’s Notes:
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