The Neighborhood High School Girl, Miss Isezaki, Is the Great Saintess Returned from Another World~ And I, Suddenly Awakened as Her Exclusive Mana Supply Uncle, Travel Between Earth and Another World with Time-Space Magic~ - 209. High-Quality Tap Water

209. 209. 209. 209. High-Quality Tap Water

After a moment, the light dimmed, and I slowly opened my eyes. I had narrowed them due to the brightness. 

Standing before me, Isezaki-san clutched a thermos against her chest. She was hesitating before she spoke timidly.  

“Um… well, it’s finished…”  

“Huh…?”  

“What do you mean, it’s finished?” 

Without a word, Isezaki-san opened the lid of the thermos and began carefully pouring the contents into the lid cup. What poured out wasn’t the usual tap water.  

To be precise, it wasn’t tap water *anymore*.  

The liquid wasn’t clear but had a faint bluish tint. Depending on the angle, it shimmered as if reflecting light.  

“P-please, have some…”  

Isezaki-san nervously offered the cup filled with the mysterious liquid to Maristel, who tilted her head quizzically but accepted it without hesitation. Upon seeing the contents, however, Maristel furrowed her brows.  

“Th-this is…!?”  

Eyes wide, Maristel inspected the liquid from various angles. She sniffed it cautiously before bursting into a flustered reaction.  

“Wait, no, hold on. Hold on, Isezaki… could this be…?”  

Isezaki-san nodded silently. Maristel began trembling, her shoulders quaking uncontrollably.  

“No way… no freaking way… Why on earth did you manage to create a potion!?” 

“Huh? A potion? Are you saying the water from this thermos is a potion?”  

“Yes! And it looks *extremely* high quality, too… But, no, there’s no way, right? Surely not…?”  

Maristel’s face twisted with skepticism, but Isezaki-san quietly muttered, 

“Just try drinking it…”  

“You’re right. Okay, I will…”  

After staring intently at the cup, Maristel made up her mind and tilted the cup. She gulped down the liquid.  

“Pwah! It doesn’t taste like anything, but—”  

Maristel grimaced, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. Her tense expression soon melted away completely.  

“Ahhh~! This is incredible, absolutely incredible~! Aah, ah, ah~! Nooo, my knees are giving out~!”  

Letting out oddly suggestive moans, Maristel collapsed to the ground. She sat dazedly with a blissful look on her face, as if she were floating on a cloud.  

“………..Is this potion really that amazing?”  

“Yes, it’s amazing… Matsunaga, why don’t you try it? I might’ve gone a bit… overboard~♡” Maristel, with a dreamy smile, held out the partially used cup to me.  

If it’s that incredible, I couldn’t resist the urge to try it. Swallowing hard, I reached out for the cup she offered.  

“Alright then, let me—”  

“No! Husband, you should have this instead!”  

Before I could take the cup, Isezaki-san intervened. She shoved the thermos directly to my mouth without warning.  

“Gulp, gulp, gulp, gulp!”  

The potion was poured straight down my throat in an unceremonious manner.  

“Pwah! What the heck, Isezaki-san!? Why’d you do that all of a sudden?”  

“S-sorry! I just… couldn’t help myself…”  

Maybe she wanted me to try a fresh batch instead of the leftovers. Still, shoving it down my throat directly seemed excessive. Thankfully, I didn’t choke on it. Just as I was thinking that—  

Something began to change in my body.  

“Huh? Ohhh…?”  

After a day of climbing mountains and fighting battles, I had pushed myself to the limit. While I had been careful not to show any signs of exhaustion around Isezaki-san, my body was undeniably at its breaking point.  

But in that moment, all my fatigue vanished completely. It was as though a heavy fog had been lifted. The thick, oppressive weariness clinging to me evaporated instantly. It left my body light and invigorated.  

In truth, I almost collapsed in the same euphoric state as Maristel. But I clenched my abs and kept myself grounded—barely. It’s my little secret. Well done, me.  

“…Wow, this is incredible. Potions work this well?”  

It even cured my stiff shoulders. I rotated them experimentally while addressing Isezaki-san.  

Before she could respond, Maristel pouted and answered in her stead.  

“No, no. This isn’t just any potion. This is something much more exceptional. If you sprinkle this on a wound, even severe injuries will heal instantly. It’s the kind of thing that’s too valuable to drink. Isezaki, this must be… a High Potion, isn’t it?”  

“I wouldn’t know… This is my first time making one. But judging by your reaction, it’s probably that level of quality…”  

“Your *first time* making one, huh…”  

Maristel gave Isezaki-san a half-lidded, exasperated stare as she averted her gaze.  

“For one thing, no matter how carefully you make it, you shouldn’t be able to create something of this caliber from Healer’s Herb in the first place. Hey, hey, Isezaki, how did you manage to whip this up so easily!? My understanding of alchemy is falling apart here!”  

Maristel flailed her arms like a child throwing a tantrum. Watching her, Isezaki-san awkwardly played with her hair as she answered.  

“I-I’m sorry… You seemed so determined, so I couldn’t bring myself to say anything…”  

“Hmph, I’ll let it slide. After all, when you create something like this, it’s a case of ‘No words are needed for the defeated sage’.”  

Maristel puffed out her cheeks and turned her head away with a huff. It seemed like she was referring to something akin to “the howl of the defeated dog” or “a defeated commander should not explain himself.”  

It made sense. With how earnest she had been, it would’ve been hard for Isezaki-san to speak up. Finally, I understood why she’d seemed so uneasy earlier.  

Having gotten her frustrations out, Maristel stood abruptly, brushed off her skirt, and stared at both me and Isezaki-san with scrutinizing eyes.  

“Still… you two are really something else, huh? You’re like a pair of absurd, out-of-this-world creatures. Maybe that’s the kind of thing you need to get close to nobility. …Though, that beast tamer wasn’t all that impressive. And even they were connected to nobility, so maybe not?”  

“Huh? The beast tamer? You mean the Earth Dragon’s…? You’ve met him before?”  

“I just remembered. You know those golem talismans we picked up? After staring at them over and over, it finally came back to me.”  

Maristel pulled one of the talismans from her bag—the same ones we had found embedded in the golems.  

“Beast tamers have a unique crest engraved on the back of their hands, and they replicate that crest onto their talismans. The beast tamer I once met had this exact same crest on his hand. I ran into him at a dark guild—”  

“Um, what’s a dark guild?”  

“Ugh, don’t interrupt! …It’s like a shady broker for risky jobs. The one I frequented looked like nothing more than a rundown tavern.”  

“S-sorry…”  

“Anyway, it was about a year ago. I went there looking for work, and I saw a beast tamer drunk and in high spirits. He was slurring about how he was ‘different from the rest of us’, and how ‘this big upcoming job has a huge payout’. I was jealous and eavesdropped nearby. He mentioned working with the Digram family or something like that. Nobody believed him at the time—it sounded far-fetched—but now that I think about it…”  

“The Digram family?”  

“That’s right.”  

I glanced at Isezaki-san, who gave a small nod.  

The beast tamer… He was the one responsible for the assassination attempt on Lady Levia. While I had suspected that the mastermind was her sister, Delixir, could this mean that the neighboring Digram family had also been involved in the plot?  

But wait… the Digram family had severed ties with Delixir after her engagement to their heir fell through. That was why they had no qualms about launching an invasion into the Carius territory’s Grandain region…  

“Husband, it might be wise to inform Lady Levia about this.”

“Y-yeah, you’re right. Um, Maristel, could I have one of those talismans?”  

“Sure, take one.”  

I took a talisman from her. There was still a chance this could all be a coincidence. I hadn’t thoroughly examined the beast tamer’s corpse. But Holly had conducted a detailed investigation. She should remember if there had been a crest on their hand and what it looked like.  

Just when I thought things had settled down with Lady Levia, yet another complication had arisen.  

Even though my body had been refreshed by the potion, I felt a heavy weight settle in my stomach. I let out a deep sigh and looked up at the ceiling.