He gathers the mountain of cigarette butts piled up on the desk and throws them into the trash can.
It is the byproduct divided into usable and unusable parts.
Luke places the gathered tobacco leaves onto a handkerchief.
Upon gathering, it amounts to roughly a fistful.
Considering it is based on a child’s fist, it is certainly not a satisfactory amount.
Philus originally has little contained mana, and after purification, the quantity will only decrease further.
Luke washes it clean with water.
At the very least, it is basic to wipe away the dirt.
The wet tobacco leaves are dried using the privileges of the 2nd Circle, a magical phenomenon utilizing fire and wind.
“Hmm…”
Luke stares intently at the tobacco leaves.
It was to find out what kind of impurities exist.
He sniffs and lightly tastes them on his tongue.
As he does so, he contemplates how to process them.
‘Philus is an essence unfit for consumption…’
Philus exhibits a form of mana that excels at vapor absorption.
It is too weak to be accepted by the digestive system and does not last long in effect.
Therefore, this time, it seems best to purely enhance the quality of the tobacco.
——–
Reverse engineering alchemy to obtain the original materials is by no means an easy task.
Just because one can understand what materials were used does not mean they can necessarily be separated.
Most alchemy is irreversible, making it very difficult to twist out an already transformed structure.
Moreover, right now it is simply being done in an ordinary household, without even professional alchemical equipment, and this refining and separating work belongs to a realm he has never attempted before.
He has never encountered such a meager life, always having a professional environment prepared around him.
However, blaming the lack of resources won’t be of any aid. Luke rummages through the cupboard and pulls out usable tools.
Measuring cups, kettles, handkerchiefs, pots, etc…
This much is still quite decent.
Luke closes his right eye and concentrates as much as possible to categorize the mana-laden mana essence.
After a while of squinting to categorize, he soon feels his eyes becoming fatigued.
Finally finishing the categorization, Luke places them into the kettle and increases the heat.
Raising the temperature of the object is not particularly difficult for Luke, so it is truly convenient not needing to move his seat.
He does not forget to open a window for ventilation.
Ventilation is always crucial in an alchemical workspace.
Especially for reverse alchemy, which produces a lot of byproducts.
As it boils, he fiddles with the area around his golden, shining eyes, giving a slightly bitter smile.
“Certainly, it’s a bit stifling when only one side is functioning.”
Losing what he had is quite inconvenient.
If he doesn’t pay attention, he cannot use magic sight either.
In the past, just by seeing the world with both eyes, he could grasp the essence of a material’s mana.
If he were to choose the most regrettable thing among the current lacks, it would be magic sight from the other side, not just alchemical tools.
“Haha, indeed human greed knows no bounds.”
Not being able to express gratitude for what remains, he should not let greed arise.
Luke closes his eyes momentarily to rest them.
With eyes closed, thoughts come flooding in.
Why has he become such a being?
Why can he not remember his final moments?
Why has he awoken now, 5000 years later?
‘Reincarnation…?’
Luke has denied such a concept.
Nothing in the world is immortal.
The same goes for the soul.
Death is complete death; obtaining a new life is impossible.
This was a conclusion reached after countless experiments and verifications conducted by none other than the great mage himself.
For a very long time, Luke has studied ‘immortality.’
In the end, worrying for Renie is what had remained.
Ultimately, the more experiments he conducted, the clearer it became that the ‘immortality’ he envisioned was impossible.
Surely, without the divine power that governs the rules of the world like Renie, it is unattainable…
“Ugh…!”
Luke groans, pressing his forehead as a sudden headache hits him.
-Luke,…?
Then, Py asks with concern—surely a question of whether he is okay.
He smiles slightly, assuring that he is fine and not to worry, which calms Py and stabilizes its state.
Watching such a spirit, Luke feels an inexplicable sense of déjà vu.
This is certainly his first time seeing a spirit up close.
If so, what is this sense of déjà vu?
Even after thinking it over, nothing readily comes to mind.
Is it just a hallucination?
‘No, it can’t be. This is…’
The bubbling sound of the kettle with the mana essence fills the air.
‘For now, I need to focus on the work.’
Luke continues with the purification.
At the very least, he must finish refining before Yerna arrives.
———-
“Huuh… I’m tired.”
Indeed, coming home after work is the best.
Today’s wave had monsters of a lower level, making defense not too hard, so there was nothing particularly exhausting about it, but coming home always feels like this.
‘Now that I think about it, I stayed up all night today.’
Well, considering he hasn’t slept a wink and has been blocking the wave all day, he still feels quite energetic.
Could it be thanks to his tea? As he thinks this, the morning tea comes to mind again.
A wonderfully warm and cozy sensation envelops him.
That feeling was quite pleasant.
“By the way…”
Yerna takes out her phone to check the places Luke has visited today.
She had linked her phone’s location tracking to Luke’s.
Considering that he had been lost once (though it was not truly lost, just her worrying alone), she realized that a child can be lost at any time, thus preparing for the future.
“Hmm, did he meet Gerard today?”
The power plant was marked on Luke’s route.
Yerna nodded.
She recalled him having gone out alone to the power plant before.
Luke truly seems to want to become a mage so badly.
So, I guess he has many questions he wants to ask Gerard, a current mage—it seemed so adorable to her that she thought this.
‘But, he wandered about quite a lot today…’
Today, the weather was very good.
Perhaps because of that, it seems Luke wandered around a lot.
I wonder if he’s not too tired.
As she thinks of various things, she realizes she is worrying about Luke again.
‘Ugh, let’s stop. Enough already.’
There is too much worry.
This was what she had heard from Siena and Daphne.
However, what can she do if she is worried?
She doesn’t want such things to happen again.
But thinking it over, it also feels like Luke is the one causing the worry.
Consider this: abduction, confinement, human experimentation…
Right now, even though he has the innocence of a child due to his memory loss… will Luke be able to maintain his sanity when his memories return?
Well… it’s hard to think optimistically about that.
But if one sees such a child and does not worry, wouldn’t they be a psychopath without any feelings?
Yerna takes a deep breath and forces a bright smile as she opens the door.
Bam.
“Luke, I’m home…”
She hesitates.
As soon as she opens the door, a strange smell fills the house, greeting her.
This scent is surely…!
“Ah, Yerna. You’re home?”
Luke’s gaze meets Yerna’s.
At that moment, Yerna can only gasp in horror.
What she saw was Luke with a very tired expression, smoking a cigarette.
She cries out like a scream.
“Lu, n, you…! Where did, where did you get that cigarette!?”
“Ah, this? I made it myself.”
“Y, y, you made it??”
“That’s right. All the tobacco here is just defective, so it doesn’t produce satisfactory effects. I had quite a bit of trouble making it.”
“……”
Completely dumbfounded by Luke’s nonchalance, Yerna nearly collapses, barely holding her forehead.
It felt like she was going to lose her mind.
Her legs wobbled slightly.
“What the hell…?”
What does it mean that the effects are unsatisfactory?
Doesn’t that imply he has smoked before?!
Yerna, trembling, manages to utter words.
“Lu, n, do you smoke too?”
“Is that strange?”
“Goodness….”
The way Luke asks what’s strange only spins her head.
Of course, common sense dictates that a child should not smoke…
‘Ah.’
Luke lacks common sense.
After all, there were no adults to tell him what was wrong.
Perhaps, because he grew up in such an environment, it was only natural for Luke to start smoking.
Moreover, it didn’t seem to be just a one or two-day habit—his posture was very professional.
While Yerna desperately thinks about what to say, Luke assumes her reaction is simply due to surprise and tiredness and hands her another cigarette he crafted.
“Here, this one is perfectly refined. No side effects. How about it? If you smoke it, you’ll feel good, your head will clear up, and your fatigue will dissipate. The effects are assured.”
Assured effects… Something seems off.
The claim that it was made himself lingers uncomfortably in her mind.
‘It can’t be…!’
Is it not just tobacco, but something akin to a drug?
“Luke!!”
Yerna immediately swats it away.
“…!”
Luke is greatly surprised by Yerna’s reaction.
He had struggled for nearly half a day to make this, and to have the fruit of his labor dismissed before his benefactor’s eyes was hard to swallow.
He hastily grabs the cigarette he was holding and extinguishes it with his hand.
Luke’s absurd claims about “having cleaned it perfectly and improved its performance while reducing side effects” were smoothly ignored.
After all, it was still just a cigarette.
Yerna takes the seized cigarettes and heads straight to the trash can in the kitchen.
… And then she sees it.
A mountain of countless cigarette butts piled high.
Seeing that, her head feels like it’s about to burst.
How much has he smoked? The fact that she hadn’t noticed until now is quite devastating.
Also, she remembered that Luke had recently been helping around the house, throwing out trash himself, so she hadn’t seen anything like this at all.
Yerna mutters to herself.
“When did this start?”
“……Yerna? What’s going on?”
“Be honest.”
Feeling the unusual atmosphere, Luke tightened up a bit.
What does she mean by “when did this start” with no context?
After thinking for a moment, he answered, since this type of tobacco is indeed the first he has come across.
“……Today is the first time, though…?”
“Don’t lie.”
“I’m serious; this type is truly the first….”
Yerna cut him off and responded coldly.
“Lu, I really hate lies.”
“R, really!”
“Really… well, then…”
Yerna did not want to do this, but it was unavoidable.
She grabs Luke.
Regardless of what had happened in the past, Luke must now live a normal child’s life, so this is a punishment that must be administered as a guardian.
