「If word got out about the buff effects, many people would probably come after you for your recipes . If you register them with the guild, n.o.body can do anything to you though…」

No way!

I felt chills, my face turning pale .

I thought about the dramas where an evil organization would kidnap a person with a secret and try to force them to reveal it .

「Don’t worry . I said I’ll protect you, and I’ll definitely keep that promise . 」

Rofas-san placed his big hand on my head .

He patted me gently, like he was comforting a young child .

Ah, he was treating me like a child, that’s why .

「…Oh, I’m protecting all of you too, don’t worry . 【Contract: Promise not to tell anyone about the potions until Yuuri registers the recipes at the guild . In return, I will protect everyone to the best of my limit . 】」

Rofas-san declared towards the children .

Gasp .

I understood why now . Until I register the recipes, those who already know about them already would be in danger as well .

I… really didn’t think things through .

「【Contract Complete . 】Of course, I won’t tell anybody . 」

「Kirika too . 【Contract Complete . 】」

Bryce-kun glanced at Rofas-san with a sharp look .

「Rofas-san, can you make a contract with us to promise that you won’t leak the information as well?」

「Ah, no, isn’t it okay if I tell the guild? The guild keeps secrets well, so…」

Bryce-kun shook his head .

「Even if they promise to keep the recipes a secret, wouldn’t they try to urge Yuuri-san to release the recipes to them quickly?」

Rofas-san averted his eyes from Bryce-kun’s awkwardly .

「Well, uh… if that happens, I’ll stop them . 」

「Even if it’s an emergency? What if a mob of monsters rushed out from the dungeons in a stampede? Are you saying that the guild won’t demand the recipes, when they know they could use beginner’s potions to make food with healing effects as strong as a high-grade potion? 」

Rofas-san stayed quiet .

「Please keep this a secret from the guild too . There are still too many things we don’t understand about the buffs . In fact, we only know that the effects will run out eventually, unlike the stats you get from equipping something, which are permanent . We don’t even know when the effects stop working . 」

「That’s true . If somebody relies too much on the buffs and it runs out during a battle, things could turn out badly for them . 」

「We don’t know if the effects can only be produced by Yuuri-san . We have to make sure that other people’s food will do the same thing if they follow the recipes . Also, if we release the recipes as it is now, how would the guild secure the losing potions needed to make the food? There’s zero circulation of them in the market right now . In fact, securing a supply of losing potions might be more difficult than getting high-grade potions . 」

「I see . It makes sense when you put it that way… There are too many things we don’t know yet, and we might be underprepared to take on the recipes… Alright, I understand . It’s not a good time to tell the guild about the recipes . 」

I listened to Bryce-kun and Rofas-san’s conversation from the side .

I see, there were too many things we didn’t know still .

I wasn’t sure what a stampede (*1) was, but I understood what Bryce-kun had meant . The recipes would be useful in an emergency situation .

I also understood that you can get many different effects from mixing the potions together .

In that case, I should continue to raise my level as an adventurer, and also「do research to produce the best recipe ever . 」

A dish that gave its consumer incredible buffs .

I wondered which mixtures created certain effects .

…I had a lot of experimenting to do .

「Everybody, I’m counting on you to collect more losing potions . Let’s see, a year… I want enough to ensure that it’ll be circulating through the major cities within a year . 」

「Mm, okay . Kirika will do her best . 」

「I’ll work hard too . We’ll collect potions non-stop . Yuuri-neechan taught us a good technique for getting lots at once!」

That’s right . Even if I had a lot of recipes, I couldn’t do anything without the fundamental ingredient: soy sauce . Soy sauce here was like a high-cla.s.s ingredient that was out of reach for commoners . There wasn’t a lot, so I couldn’t just freely use them to experiment with .

「Bryce, now that you’re at a higher level, you’d probably want to test yourself in all sorts of dungeons, but can I ask you to do the potion delivery for a while? Since we don’t want other people knowing about potions, I can only ask you to do this . 」

「Yes, of course . I’ll raise my level at the closest beginner-grade dungeon from here, and visit the potion field once or twice a month . 」

Bryce-kun looked at me and smiled .