CHAPTER 75: WHAT "US" ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?!

"It comes from somewhere within a speck of mana, doesn’t it?"

I froze.

My eyes slowly moved to the side, catching a glimpse of Selia’s equally stunned expression.

To figure out that much just from inspecting a single seed...?

I gulped my saliva down.

’It seems like she’s the real deal.’

It was one thing for her to use some weird magic to learn of the best possible ways to cultivate this seed. Whether through tools or her own personal magic, it didn’t matter.

Just like no one would blame a smith for working at a smithy or a lumberjack for owning an axe, Vivil owning this weird, half-egg-like artifact wasn’t something that took away from her expertise but proved, instead, that she knew what tools she needed to do her job and went out of her way to get her hands on them.

And now, through the mix of her tools, her spells, and her expertise, she became the third person in the city to know of my background.

Not directly, of course—not like Selia did by hearing the story from my very own mouth.

No, she managed to figure it out just by inspecting that single damned seed!

"Wouldn’t the presence of mana only make it easier to cultivate this plant?" I asked, trying to both break the silence caused by how much Vivil caught us off-guard while also turning the topic over to a more favorable angle.

It went against my interest to try to avoid or directly change it.

For now, all that Vivil knew was that this seed came from another world. That, or some extremely unlikely place. And given how she managed to actually uncover it, I had no doubt she was smart enough to see through any poor attempts at diverting her attention away from this discovery.

Which is why, rather than doing anything to change the topic... it was best to just treat what she discovered as a secret that was now in the open and move on to the practical side of things!

Only in this way, by making it seem as if we already knew in advance about the nature of this seed but were only interested in finding ways to make it grow anyway, could we hope to make Vivil believe this seed was something we obtained rather than something directly related to my own origins.

"What do you mean?"

Baited by my question, Vivil asked.

"Isn’t mana just energy, in the end?" I suggested my own interpretation of magic even though I knew close to nothing about the local rendition of it. Yet, given how the entire physicality of solid matter could be explained as just an extremely condensed form of energy anyway... chances were, the same could be done with magic. "If so, then shouldn’t it make it easier for the seed to grow? Sparing it the effort to obtain nutrients in another, more complex way..."

Vivil raised her eyes and locked them on my face.

"Why do you strike me as someone who knows weirdly a lot about plants?" she asked, her voice growing colder.

"And since when would that be your business?" I retorted right away, not giving the woman any time to get her footing. "Don’t be mistaken, you discovering the origin of this seed doesn’t give you leverage over us. It only means we are willing to pay a lot to have you help us grow it. But if you try to use this seed against us..."

"Us?" Vivil countered, her eyes filling with passion as her mouth twisted into an ironic smile. "Who is that ’us’ you are talking about?! Because I can tell for sure it isn’t...!"

In the midst of her rant, Vivil turned her eyes to the saintess, clearly expecting Selia to back her up.

Then, she froze upon witnessing the moment of Selia’s complex expression quickly replaced by her turning her eyes away and blushing slightly.

"Wha..."

Vivil’s eyes widened as she took a step back, taking her turn to be stunned by the sudden revelation.

Before she could get her bearings, however, I decided to keep on pressing her.

"Why wouldn’t the mana of this world make it only easier for this seed to grow? It’s not like having too much energy could hurt," I tried to argue over something I was perfectly aware to be wrong.

Humans were happier to correct others than to answer their questions, after all—a theory long since proved by a certain dad who spent his free time playing around with discussion boards on the internet.

"It’s not like... WHAT?!"

Vivil turned her head right back, the idiotic point I just made enough to bring her attention away from the connection I clearly had with the saintess and right back to the topic.

"Listen here, you little shit, the plants born of this world are all used to mana. They expect its presence, they are built to absorb and process it. But this thing here?!"

Despite her agitation, Vivil remained equally as careful with the seed as she was before, going through some lengths to keep it firmly seated in her palm even when she brought it up in lieu of a physical proof of the knowledge she was talking about.

"This thing doesn’t have any of that. So whether it will grow normally, grow way too big to survive until its next cycle, or if it mutates due to the mana it cannot expel and becomes a living monster..."

Vivil suddenly paused, leaning down on her knees and breathing heavily, clearly quite passionate about this topic. She then picked her head back up, wiped her forehead with her forearm, and then locked her eyes on my face again. "So, unless you are trying to repeat the disaster from fifteen years ago, you better tread extremely carefully when it comes to this seed. It might be precious and one of its kind, but this world is safer without your attempts at bringing foreign plants into our soil!"

With that said, Vivil slammed her hand into mine, leaving behind the seed and then walking off only to start cruising through her messy workshop.

"Vivil..." Selia attempted to say something, only to watch the herbalist dismissively wave her hand at her.

"We’ve talked enough for one day. And you’ve already gotten your money’s worth," she said with the same dismissive attitude that she waved her hand with. "Now, leave. I need some time for myself."

Selia hesitated. For a moment, she appeared as if she wanted to push through Vivil’s resistance, ignore her request, and talk things through. She even reached out with her hand and opened up her mouth...

Only to then pull her hand back and close her mouth before turning on her heel and beckoning to me as she started to leave.

Seeing how Selia followed Vivil’s request, I decided not to argue either. Instead of just turning around to leave, though, I took a moment to safely secure the seed back in my box and only then bothered to leave the workshop.

For the next few moments after leaving the place, we moved in complete silence.

This wasn’t the result that either of us expected. In fact, it was so far removed from my expectations, I’d never even considered the scenario where the situation would turn out this way!

I was ready for a success, I was ready for a failure. Whether it was possible to get this seed to grow or not, I was willing to accept the outcome. But the reality was nowhere near as simple as that.

"So we would have to risk a disaster to get that seed to grow, huh?" I muttered after we walked out of the town’s posh district and back into its more central area.

With the return of the town’s sounds that I was already growing used to, my mood slightly changed. It was as if all the noises made by the adventurers, trades, and craftsmen just going about their days all around reminded me that whether this seed plan worked or not was but a small element in the grand scheme of things.

Sure, if I couldn’t get it to grow, I would lose the only physical, long-term connection to the place I was from that I could hope for. But if the price of getting that was to risk everyone’s lives in some kind of a disaster great enough to still be a vivid memory in everyone’s head, even fifteen years after it passed?

"Don’t tell me you are ready to give up already," Selia said, taking me off-guard.

"Huh?"

Surprised, I turned my eyes over to the girl, only to see her clench her fists while her face was filled with determination.

"Don’t you have the ability to affect your own fate?" Selia asked in a voice just loud enough for me to hear but also silent enough for it to just drown into the everyday noise of the town. She then leaned her head over her shoulder before squinting her eyes.

"You can change your own fate, and you are willing to give up just because it’s slightly risky?" she asked again, only to bring her arms up and then lock them over her chest while she moved her face to pin her eyes into the town’s street. "Because I’m not. And unless you are dead set to give it all up, then," she raised her eyes again only to drop her arms down before immediately bringing them up to my shoulders while locking her gaze into my eyes, "then I’m not going to let you give it up either."