This Heroine's Friend Has the Power of Botany

Chapter 54

Passing on Knowledge

It was unfortunate that Wint was too proud, making him unable to see other truths the moment he knew he was insulted. Nara’s words directly influenced his thoughts, and of course, Regan was not so shallow-minded.

"Even now, do you both still not realize the mistakes you have committed?" The young professor spoke sternly. Initially, Wint knew he was wrong, but now he became defensive and stopped responding to the professor, keeping his head low. Nara, on the other hand, clung to her own beliefs and didn’t even apologize.

"Nonsense! Utter nonsense! Both of you will be punished then. From now on, your duty will be to maintain the cleanliness of the patients. I will inform the priest’s assistant that you have volunteered for this role. I hope you will come to your senses after performing these duties." Regan flicked his robe and strode out, leaving the two shameless students alone in the tent.

Many students sensed that Regan was extremely angry. He was very agitated even as he came to teach. Ellie, already waiting in the classroom, was eavesdropping on the conversation. She had no idea how Nara and Wint would be perceived by others if this conversation were heard.

The two young people in question followed one another to listen to Regan’s lecture. The young professor didn’t even spare a glance at them. It was a good thing that the second-year seniors were busy with other missions; otherwise, they might have witnessed another quarrel between them.

After Regan finished his morning lecture of the first day, he assigned roles to every student. Ellie was specially sent to Head Apothecary Celey as she had mentioned earlier. Professor Regan also instructed her to perform her duties well. He said that the head apothecary chose Ellie because she was a student of Professor Medik, who was knowledgeable in potion-concocting. He told her to fully commit to her duties so as not to disgrace her professor.

While others were sent to assist the apothecaries or priests according to their suitability, Professor Regan was not one to publicly shame anyone. He didn’t assign any more roles to Nara and Wint after that, letting every student see for themselves what task the two were assigned.

The tasks assigned to both were much harder than for anyone else. Cleaning up after patients was not a pleasant job. No one wanted to do it, not even the priest’s assistants, as it involved cleaning up all sorts of filth from the patients, whether it was their beds or even their bodies.

Some patients had severe conditions where they could not control their urine or feces, releasing fluids that created a pervasive smell. Professor Regan had instructed the priest’s assistants, who were reluctant to perform these tasks already, to make full use of both. With the hands available, they called upon them to work until both were nearly running around.

Seeing the pitiable state of the two, their peers laughed uproariously. Even Wint’s fiancée was satisfied with his punishment. Fortunately for her, she had never been too affectionate towards him and was planning to break off their engagement anyway, so she did not feel jealous. If it weren’t for Wint tarnishing her face, she would not have gotten involved with them, causing such embarrassment.

Returning to Ellie, who had been assigned an important task under special circumstances. When she went to the apothecary’s tent, which was Celey’s personal space, Ellie saw how hard this formidable woman worked to help people.

Unlike the dark-hearted depiction in the novel, wanting to let people die, Celey was now using her magic powers to the fullest to control the potion cauldrons. Sweat streamed down her face, but she didn’t even have time to wipe it away.

Every day, Celey had to work hard to concoct restorative potions for the patients. As a level 4 apothecary, she could enhance the properties of restorative and detoxifying potions by nearly 20% more than the ordinary person, making these two types of potions her sole responsibility. While the level 1 apothecaries handled other potions like fever reducers or indigestion remedies, which were less critical to healing.

Some were tasked with chopping, grinding, boiling to extract herbal essences, and other supportive tasks. Truly, Celey’s responsibilities were substantial.

After Ellie arrived, Celey had no time to delegate tasks to her because controlling the potion cauldrons to achieve the desired properties was challenging. She signaled Ellie to wait around for a while.

Ellie understood Celey’s intention, so she sat quietly observing everything. Fortunately, her tiny spores worked excellently. Just by rooting down, they could ascertain the properties they contained, much like with the Tezetrons plants previously, only that Ellie was yet to form the bond with her small purple mushroom at that time. This time, Ellie didn’t need to physically touch them to understand the herbs’ properties—letting her spores do the work would suffice.

"Phew! Finally finished with the morning’s tasks," Celey said as she sat panting at her desk, a cup of cold tea in front of her, which she paid no mind to the changed taste, now so thirsty she was beyond being picky.

"After this, I need to restore my magic powers for 3 hours before starting the afternoon’s work. In the meantime, I’ll start training you," Celey said after taking a short break.

"Understood, ma’am."

"Good. You must pay close attention because the first step in becoming an apothecary is crucial, and that is memorizing herbs," Celey said, picking up a stack of herbs that hadn’t yet been processed.

"Even though this is just a brief period, I can teach you how to make high-level restorative potions, something the institution definitely doesn’t teach. Consider it an advantage for your future."

"Thank you, ma’am."

"Mmm, thanking me now might be too fast. Whether or not you can do it depends on you. If you don’t memorize the herbs well, I won’t teach you other potion-concocting methods because it would be too risky to cause someone’s death with your carelessness."

"I understand, Lady Celey." Ellie confidently accepted the instruction, and Celey felt a slight admiration, recalling her own confident days much like this girl. She thought she could memorize herbs well too, but time had taught her that what she once thought was profound knowledge was merely superficial.

Celey’s experiences, filled with many losses, had left her less confident in her potion-concocting abilities than before. Each decision she made was fraught with caution, lest she accidentally caused harm due to her own misunderstandings again.

"Starting with this herb right here, I want you to examine and memorize what makes each one distinctive. The first skill an apothecary should possess is the ability to observe. Then, I will fill in any information you might miss." Celey said after handing 1 batch of herbs to Ellie.

Ellie looked at the herbs in front of her and remembered each one, including their names and properties, thanks to her special botanic power, which proved extremely effective for anything related to plants or cultivation.

"This one has distinctive saw-like leaves and light red buds. I can also smell its unique fragrance," Ellie described what she saw.

This was Celey’s teaching about observation. Ellie couldn’t disclose that even without looking, she could already identify the herbs as Sky-Catchers; otherwise, her abilities would be undoubtedly revealed.

- Sky-Catcher, Level 2: Properties include being a cool herb that can be used in cooking, offering slight refreshment to those who consume it and can be used as an ingredient in power restorative potions.

Action Panel

Option One: Absorb botanic elemental power and destroy the remainder.

Option Two: Transfer botanic power to accelerate growth. -

The Sky-Catcher’s data panel appeared only to Ellie. While Celey, listening to the girl, simply nodded appreciatively at Ellie’s focused description of the herb’s key features.

"That’s a good observation, but let me add more details. I’m not an expert on the scent of herbs, so I cannot tell you about it. That might be a unique advantage and talent you have," Celey complimented. She knew about Ellie’s botanic power, which could perhaps make her as good an apothecary as Lord Medik someday.

"Besides what you’ve described, take a look at its small stem. To be thorough, you should check if it’s red like its flowers. Some herbs look similar to Sky-Catcher herbs but have a normal green stem inside, which can significantly reduce the effectiveness of the potions they’re used in."

"Understood, Lady Celey."

"Good, continue," Celey prompted, and Ellie immediately turned to the next herb.

"This is the Red Zuck, right? At the institution...I also cultivated this herb to earn points."

"Mmm, botanical students get extra points for this, right? Now, tell me about its unique features," Celey continued to spend time with Ellie over the next 3 hours, teaching her to memorize and select various herbs. Before her break to restore her own magic powers ended, Ellie had successfully selected and understood the properties of the herbs in front of her.

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