Volume 1 - CH 3.3

Chapter 1-3 : My First Luxury (part 3)

After that, Master and I went to the school store.

For me, going back to school immediately after graduating is kinda awkward, but I have no choice, right?

By the way, the school store was the only store where you can buy alchemy tools in the royal capital.

I didn’t know about such a fact when I first entered the school, but alchemy tools were basically made-to-order, so they were not sold in units.

And because the customersー the alchemists who came to the store were not many, the school store started to sell various items such as notebooks, ink and stuff.

「Excuse meー」(Sarasa)

When I entered the school store and called out, the usual oba-chan came out from the back.

「Ara, Sarasa-chan. Congratulations on your graduation」(store keeper)

「Thank you, oba-chan. It’s also thanks to you I was able to graduate」(Sarasa)

I bowed down thanked oba-chan who smiled and congratulated me.

Because I often bought paper, pens, inks and notebooks here, we knew each other very well.

Oba-chan also knew that I was an orphan.

She sometimes gave me goods for free.

She was very kind.

Except the professors, my two senpais, and a kouhai, my only acquaintances in this school were this oba-chan, the librarian, and a receptionist of the Student Support Division office.

「Oba-chan, have you stocked the books I asked for?」(Sarasa)

「Oh, wait a minute」(store keeper)

Oba-chan went to the back, and what she brought from there was, of course, 10 volumes of Encyclopedia of Alchemy.

It looked newer than the one I saw in Master’s room earlier, but the thickness and the heaviness was the same.

So, these are the books that cost 7,5 million reas, huh.

I can buy a mansion with that money…..

「Sarasa-chan, you said that you don’t need a guarantee of authenticity, right? Are you sure?」(store keeper)

「Yes. That’s why I brought a very important person along! Mmmmー Tadaaー! This is my master! Well then, Master, time and place is yours」(Sarasa)

「You’re so excited… Alright, let’s do this」(Ophelia)

I stepped aside and let Master approach the Encyclopedia of Alchemy while making a gesture “please, please” (douzo douzo).

Master nodded and smiled lightly as she approached the books.

Then, Master flipped each volume and wrote her signature on the last page.

It only took a few minutes after Master finished checking each volume.

Next, oba-chan pushed a stamp next to Master’s signature.

The stamp indicated that the school had confirmed that it had been checked by a master-class alchemist.

By the way, you can’t buy it without an endorsement.

So, even if you say, “I don’t need a guarantee if it’s the real thing, just sell it to me”, you can’t buy it.

It was a measure to prevent making a confusing thing like, “this is genuine even though there was no endorsement”.

After watching Master did it, giving an endorsement seemed like an easy job.

Moreover, the price for doing this easy job was 2,500,000 reas!

However, in reality, even if Master was the one who did the job, she wouldn’t get full 2,5 million reas.

A certain amount would be paid to the school as an administrative fee.

Still, most of it belonged to the alchemist.

I bet all the senior and master-class alchemists are very rich!

They can make money worth a few years of working for ordinary people in a day!…. No, in just a few minutes!

ーーーI thought like that at first, but after I asked Master about this, it seemed that this job wasn’t that good.

First, the senior alchemists rarely got this job.

That was because the school instructors could read up to 6 volumes, so there was no need to ask senior or master-class alchemists, they could endorse it themself.

They would ask for endorsement from senior alchemists only if there was someone who bought more than 6 volumes.

Second, every time the owner of the encyclopedia wanted to sell or give it to another person, the alchemist who endorsed it would be asked to come and say that the signature on the encyclopedia was really their signature.

That’s why senior and master-class alchemists would get paid highly for doing that job.

In the first place, only a few people buy up to 10 volumes.

Hm? Wait. Only a few people buy up to 10 volumes, right?

So that means I don’t have to buy all the volumes?

ーーーWait, wait. Master didn’t tell me about this!

I thought I have to buy all of them.

I believed her and saved up my money for five years!

But, I can’t complain to her because she endorsed my encyclopedias for free.

「It’s done now, Sarasa-chan. It’ll be 5,000,000 reas」(store keeper)

「Yes, and… here’s the money」(Sarasa)

I lined up all my treasure, 50 platinum coins, on the counter.

This is all I have. My blood. My sweat. I worked hard for five years for this money.

I know I have to buy the encyclopedias…!

I know it’s necessary…!

「Thank you for shopping~」(store keeper)

While my hands were still trembling after taking out the money, oba-chan quickly collected them with a smile on her face.

She collected a ridiculous amount of money like it was nothing.

All I bought was only cheap items in this store when I was at school, but I’m sure she already used to handle platinum coins from selling alchemy tools.

「But really… Sarasa-chan you’re amazing. Normally, a graduate can only buy up to three volumes, you know?」(store keeper)

Hmm… so my feeling was true, we didn’t have to buy all 10 volumes at once… Oh, well.

As oba-chan said, if you only buy 3 volumes, you don’t need to pay 2,500,000 reas for the endorsement, because you can just ask an instructor at the school to endorse your encyclopedias cheaply.

If you have an instructor that was close with you, maybe you can even ask for a discount.

「Hehehe~ Well, it’s all thanks to this person. My master」(Sarasa)

While smiling, I carefully put the Encyclopedia of Alchemy in the backpack that Master gave me.

Thinking that it would be tough without this backpack, I was really grateful to Master.

After putting the entire volumes in my backpack, I stood up, butー

「Yokkoi, sho! Uwa!?」(Sarasa)

*/ heave-ho

ーI lost my balance because the weight was so different from what I expected, but Master immediately supported me so I didn’t fall.

「Are you okay, Sarasa-chan? It’s quite heavy, isn’t it?」(store keeper)

No. It’s very light!

It was lighter than I expected so I almost fell.

The weight reduction function is really awesome!

As expected from Master’s creation!

However, there’s no point if I brag about this backpack to oba-chan.

「Ah… I’m fine. And… oba-chan. Thank you for everything!」(Sarasa)

「Me also, thank you, Sarasa-chan. Do your best on your alchemist job. I’ll always welcome you here, so come again if you have time.」(store keeper)

I bowed to oba-chan who smiled and waved at me, and then I left the school store with Master.