In the living room, Senna studied the little black pills with an ancient tome in hand, getting nowhere. The gap between Eastern and Western potion systems was too vast—there wasn't a single point of similarity to be found.
Senna couldn't even determine what aspect of magic the potion was meant to address, yet she stubbornly refused to let Lys give her the answer.
Though Senna couldn't figure out the little black pills, she became fascinated by those seemingly plausible potion formulas. She went to the market and bought a furnace for making the pills, beginning her daily experiments—which mostly ended in explosions.
For this, Lys simply bought the entire second-hand shop that sold the furnace, letting Senna blow things up to her heart's content.
After exploding things for a while, Senna lost interest. That little black pill was tossed back to Lucy for her to sell.
To establish her own foothold in Germany, Lys spent every subsequent day with Lucy going over inventories, raising questions, and analyzing market trends.
Though mostly it was Lucy doing the counting and analyzing, while Lys handled the questioning.
The accounts Noah received grew increasingly complex, with amounts gradually climbing higher.
When he came to Lys with questionable ledgers, Lys looked at the materials they'd been deceived about—goods already in hand—and nearly exploded with rage.
Merchandise shipped across the ocean... and it was all counterfeit.
Noah told Lys this was normal. Business was inherently convoluted, especially since wizards had too many ways to conceal their identities.
He teased Lys: "Maybe he thinks you're easy to fool and will try selling you fake goods again under a different identity next time."
Hearing this, Lys grabbed the fake goods and ledgers with a splitting headache and went to cause trouble for others.
Later, unable to explain the financial trickery clearly to others, she had no choice but to bring Noah to the trading scene.
Only then did Noah realize that his little star's ability to quickly establish her own territory wasn't entirely due to brute force—it was the restraint she showed beneath that power.
Though this attracted quite a few swindlers, it also broadened Lys's trading channels considerably, giving her opportunities to expand her reputation.
After all, she could restrain herself from using a one-second attack spell to quickly resolve what required two hours of tedious data verification.
Even when her wandtip began crackling with spell-light from barely controlled emotions, his little star would merely raise her fist, break the other party's nose, then curse them to be unable to lie for two days.
His little star was truly...
"No, this amount here is the profit I showed you that you deserve. Little... the number next to it is what you mentioned—the amount they intended to defraud you of..."
Really not sensitive to numbers at all...
When Lys gradually established her footing in the underground market, the Ministry of Magic's trade mess left behind in Germany during that chaotic period was also gradually being sorted out.
Aside from the orders Lys had privately slipped to Lucius, she rarely interfered with other trades anymore. Naturally, she no longer needed to take those documents and visit nobles' estates to discuss and confirm information.
Lys finally welcomed the leisurely life she'd long craved.
Basking in the sunshine, she glanced through the newspaper and found nothing of interest. Lys then baked two batches of biscuits. The ones made according to her new recipe were delicious, just too crispy—they crumbled everywhere when bitten.
This delighted Cocoa immensely, who kept cleaning the carpet behind her, determined not to let a single crumb fall to the ground for little master to lick up.
In the afternoon, trimming the roses in the garden that had completely lost their shape, Lys hummed along to the melody the singing lilies nearby were crooning. She gently nudged away Fry, who was trying to grab the rose stems with her foot, reminding him in her gruff voice:
"Fry, don't touch—there are thorns!"
Faced with his sister's villainous behavior, the little creature excitedly squawked, his head topped with several bright flowers Lys had stuck on him. Rolling and tumbling, he clambered onto Crunch's back as the latter sunbathed, hands and feet dragging on the ground as Crunch carried him slowly around the garden in lazy circles.
Lys sighed at the sight. Mother was right—calling him "Fly" was more effective and got better obedience than calling him "Free."
She couldn't help but glance up at Cerebird the Stupid Bird's nest in the garden. All these ridiculous names in the house made Lys frown.
After trimming every trimmable plant in the garden down to stubble, Lys took the Skele-Gro that Senna had found time to brew and retreated to her little house.
In what used to be Mother's potion room, she carefully removed the protective gear from her left arm.
Sighing deeply, she examined the wound she'd magically immobilized. Lys didn't hesitate to cut through the flesh and begin treating the fractured bone.
During the process, she instinctively restrained her magic to prevent it from passing over the Dark Mark. A few seconds later, Lys paused, letting the blood flow freely for a moment before laughing bitterly at herself.
She frowned throughout the entire treatment—not just from the psychological pressure of directly confronting that discolored mark.
More troubling was how the excessive fat layer on her arm severely interfered with both her spellcasting and her knife work.
When the moon rose, Lys was trembling as she wiped away sweat droplets that had slid down to her chin against her shoulder. By the time she finished treating herself, the Skele-Gro bottle lay empty on the floor.
Looking at the fresh crimson scar that once again cut through that cursed mark, Lys slowly sat up straight, working the stiffness from her body.
Lys pinched the permanent scar left by corrosion on her left fingertip. The long-absent sensation made her sigh once more.
But then she reminded herself that her arm had largely returned to normal function—that was genuinely good news.
She checked the time, wanting to go cook in the main house, but collapsed to her knees with a heavy thud on her first step.
Supporting herself on the floor with one hand, Lys waited for the darkness swimming before her eyes to clear, lamenting that her body had truly been wrecked by that Withering Potion. Even when she'd pushed herself to breaking point at school, she hadn't been this pathetic.
After resting briefly, Lys still insisted on going to the main house to cook.
Cocoa muttered and gestured frantically beside her, trying to reclaim kitchen privileges, but Lys just casually tossed him two potatoes to play with...
This made Cocoa so distressed he clutched a potato in each hand and started sniffling pitifully.
Noah emerged from his study to find Lys cooking with a simple wrist guard on her left arm, approaching with two documents he wanted her to examine carefully.
Lys demonstrated for Father by waving and rotating her left arm several times, smiled reassuringly, then continued processing the ingredients in her hands.
Actually, if she used magic, Lys could handle these preparations in mere moments. But Lys savored this feeling—this sensation of holding and manipulating things with her own hands.
Noah studied the wrist guard on Lys's arm, noting it seemed slightly too large. Perhaps he could craft his little star an adjustable wrist guard.
He asked Lys about her preferences for a new one. Lys said anything would be fine, but she hoped the replacement would be thinner so it could be concealed beneath her sleeves.
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