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The next day, the apothecary didn't mention anything but just watched Yuna making improvements in her potion brewing and looked on with a complicated expression when she didn't use the runic symbols.
"Taste test this, how is it?"
The apothecary took the potion, which she suspected was near perfect purity or may even truly be perfect purity.
"It has improved, and with this much purity, it far surpasses the original usefulness. The effect of this potion is 100 times more effective."
"Good."
Yuna nodded happily. Hey, she seemed to be quite amazing, hehe.
"If a patient consumes it?" Yuna asked tentatively.
"It will work much better."
Taking the potion, Yuna walked out of the back door and approached the kid who was waiting for her. The apothecary did not stop her but was lost in her own thoughts.
As soon as the kid, who was holding his chin boredly, saw Yuna, he energetically got down from the chair and asked eagerly, "Are we going out? Will we go to your shop?"
'I want to eat cake' was written all over the kid's face.
"We will, but we will have to meet someone first."
"Okay okay… lets' go meet him fast."
"Don't forget your scarf and gloves, it's cold outside."
"En en."
Yuna held the child's hand and walked out of the store.
Naturally, the person she decided to meet was the main character.
Before they even reached his house, Yuna met Austin halfway down the road.
"Yuna," Austin called out enthusiastically.
"Austin," Yuna responded.
"Where are you going?"
"To meet you."
"…Me?"
Without answering, Yuna just grabbed his palm and put the potion into Austin's hand.
"Recently, I learned potion making from the old lady. I seem to have awakened a passive ability to purify elements, so this potion is a notch higher in purity. I saw you buying this every day. You come and take it from me for free every day from now on."
Austin looked at the potion, frozen. His eyes quivered.
"…The cost of ingredients—" Austin barely spoke before he was interrupted by Yuna's stoic voice, her expression still impassive as ever.
"I plant them in our house's back garden, and they are flourishing after nourishing them with wood elements. I won't lack ingredients. You are so poor you cannot even afford to buy anything. If someone wants to give you something for free, just take it."
After domineeringly exclaiming, Yuna turned to walk away, as she already felt tired doing good deeds, when she was suddenly pulled hard and fell into a warm embrace.
"Yuna… tha..nk you… Thank you…"
Yuna, who found herself in a tight hug, subconsciously started to struggle but ceased her struggling upon hearing the tremble in Austin's voice.
'This person…'
He was pitiful.
Yuna, feeling the warmth in the hug, looked down, her gaze vacant.
The child, Austin, could not even have the pride of refusing sympathy and charity from others.
For Yuna, who sometimes had an unnecessarily huge ego and overbearing pride, she felt ashamed receiving sympathy from others.
'Please, world… be more kind to him.'
…..
"Is that ugly brother your boyfriend? Hugging in public."
The kid pouted, feeling displeased, although he did not understand why he was displeased. Even the promised chocolate milk cake didn't seem so appetizing at the moment.
His little heart was just filled with a lot of discontent.
Yuna flicked the kid's head and said, "Stop talking nonsense, and he is not ugly."
The little kid rubbed his forehead and said angrily, unconvinced, "If not, then why did he hug you? You even let him hug you! Also, he is ugly… the most ugly person."
"Hm….. raising your voice at me, do you want a beating?"
The kid subconsciously protected his butt and kept his mouth shut aggrievedly. He didn't want to be slapped on the butt in public! Such humiliation.
Looking down at the aggrieved kid who wanted to argue but dared not, Yuna bent down and hugged him.
"There, I also hug you. No more anger, okay?"
Yuna coaxed.
"Wh..who… want… h..ug!?" The kid, who was suddenly hugged, turned beet red and started stammering.
"Me, I want to hug. Can't I?" Yuna not only knew how to beat but also knew how to coax a child.
"….Since you want it, as a gentleman, I will reluctantly let you."
'Such a tsundere.'
Stifling a laugh, Yuna said, "Hmm… such a gentleman. Grida is the best."
Grida, with a heated face, quietly said, "If… if you want to hug later, I can let you hug me anytime….."
By the end, his voice became smaller and smaller.
"Really? Grida, what a good boy."
"Umm…."
…..
Austin walked into the apothecary store. Although he no longer needed to buy the potion, he decided to buy a nourishing potion instead for his mother to consume. It was not that expensive, and he could use the money he intended to buy the potion that his mother needed daily.
"Oh… you're now buying other potions? Did that girl give you the potion she made?"
Austin nodded his head, his eyes softening when he thought of Yuna.
"Tch… I don't know why that brat insists on being such a holy mother. I offered her a chance to read a book on elementals, which is really precious to elementalists, but she insisted that I teach her how to make just that potion in exchange instead. Giving up one's only opportunity for others is what foolish people do."
The apothecary complained behind Yuna's back, although inwardly she was glad—not because Yuna helped others, but because she was able to witness a miracle, unearthing a precious gem in the world of apothecaries.
She started to have an idea about Yuna… She….
On the other hand, Austin, who was listening to the apothecary's complaint, stiffened.
The whole way home, Austin became distracted, his entire mind repeatedly circulating: 'Yuna giving up her precious opportunity for him.'
Austin looked at his mother as he fed her the potion Yuna gave him.
Unlike before, his mother's complexion, which usually took a while to improve, instantly became better after drinking the potion Yuna gave him.
His mood became elated, but his heart felt heavily weighed down.
"Ausi… this potion, did you buy a higher-grade potion?… the expense….." Austin's mother weakly mumbled.
The person who drank the potion felt the greatness of its effect better than anyone else. And precisely because she felt its greater effect clearly, Austin's mother's heart sank.
Her child….
She felt like she had become a leech that constantly sucked the blood of her ten-year-old child.
Austin's mother felt miserable, but her child's desperation to see her recover made it so that she could not bring herself to say cruel words to him—to tell him to let her go, or to cruelly and selfishly succumb to the illness.
"Mom, I didn't spend a penny on it," Austin hurriedly reassured her and gestured. "You know Yuna, who likes giving me bakery? She recently learned to make potions under the apothecary and gave it to me for free. There will be another batch which she wants me to take."
"…Is it for free again?"
"She doesn't want to take my money."
Austin's mother's lips trembled. "We owe her a lot."
In the end, that was all she could bring herself to say.
She could not even summon the courage to say 'We should not take it for free', because she knew that the money would have to be earned laboriously by her child alone while she lay sick and useless in bed.
Austin's mother could not bear to see her child tired and hungry again.
He was no longer hungry after receiving the grace of Lady Yuna, and now he didn't have to desperately hunt in the forest and recklessly confront dangerous beasts, coming home bruised and bloody.
She could only become shameless and accept another's grace as if it were owed.
That night, Austin stared blankly at the dark ceiling and could not fall asleep. His entire thoughts were occupied by Yuna.
Was it because his previous life was so lonely that God brought him to this world and gave him a loving mother to care for?
Was it because his previous life was so difficult and unbearable that God brought him to this world and gave him a kind Yuna to cherish?
Austin slowly closed his eyes, his eyelashes trembling. The cold night licked his exposed skin, but his heart felt hot—searingly hot.