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Before Maxwell visited Cortina, he first visited Lyell, Maria, and Gadius, taking them along to Raum. Moving a distance that would normally take over a month to cover in the blink of an eye was a feat only achievable by his aberrant ability.

Then, once he gathered everyone in Cortina’s house, he started explaining what Reid experienced as if it had happened to him.

Leaving the baby, who still needed care, to Finia, they gathered in the biggest room to hold the discussion.

The Carbuncle was also helping babysit the child, so Finia took a seat in the corner of the dining room and cuddled Fina. Maxwell judged that it was better to let her hear the current conversation too.

“What the, you’re saying someone disguised as Reid showed up?”
“I don’t think there’s all that many people who know how he looks nowadays though…”

Cortina responded with a displeased expression while Lyell expressed his doubt.

It had already been twenty years since Reid had died.

Given that he was an assassin, he had few close associates. As for his enemies, only a handful of them remained alive.

Thus, given his profession, even if his name was well known, his appearance wasn’t. That was perhaps also Reid’s distinctive feature among the Six Heroes.

And yet, the enemy managed to perfectly disguise themselves as Reid, a feat which would be impossible if they didn’t have at least some connection with him.

“Certainly. And I do not think the Reid we know would have let his enemy be.”
“He sure was hot-blooded. To the point that it was better to let him bleed out a bit. Still, he was quite a handful.”

Contrasting to Gadius assenting with a nod, Maria spoke of Reid as if she was remembering her little brother. In fact, given how weak Reid’s defenses were, he constantly ended up in Maria’s care.

“Thus, in order to identify each other, I managed to obtain this from a certain source. I want us to use the smell emitted by it as a mark of identification.”

With those words, Maxwell took out a leather bag with Elixir fragments in it from his pocket. The moment he undid the seal, the abundant smell of greenery filled the dining hall.

“This is quite a strong smell. What is it?”
“Let me say again that I can not disclose how I obtained it. However, I can say with certainty that these are the fragments of Elixir.”
“Elixir!?”

The panacea that existed in the myths. The five of its fragments lay in front of their eyes. The reality of it made everyone on the scene gawk in shock. Maria, who was the World Tree believer, was particularly stiffened with a hand on her mouth.

“Where in the world did you… Oh, you said you couldn’t disclose it, huh.”
“Indeed. If you seal it hermetically like this, the smell would not leak.”
“If we use the smell of something so precious, there would be no worries of someone imitating it. Still, I’m surprised you managed to obtain it.”
“Well, I have my connections. I already handed Reid his share, so if he does not have this smell from now on, you can consider them to be fake.”
“I got it. Still, for them to take Reid’s form. There sure are some disrespectful fellows out there.”
“It is most likely to get close to you.”

The current Cortina tended to lose her composure whenever Reid was concerned. It was certain that if you wanted to harm her, taking Reid’s form was the most effective way.

She seemed to be aware of it herself and puffed her cheeks as she put her elbows on the table.

However, the person who normally would pat her head like a little sister in this situation was—showing no reaction.

“Hmm?”

Then, Cortina finally noticed Maria’s strange behavior.

Her petrification had already gone away, and was now gazing at the elixir while almost drooling.

“H-Hey, Maria…?”
“T-This is the legendary… Condensed sap of the World Tree that…”

She took a fragment in her hands with an ecstatic expression while breathing heavily. The look in her eyes was already of someone who had lost all her rationality, looking as if she would lick the fragment any moment now.

“Calm down! Despite how it looks, it is still a medicine. It will melt if you lick it!”
“Haah, haah, keep calm, keep calm… Hey, can I have a little taste of yours?”
“You are not calm at all! Of course not. Can you do something about this, Maxwell?”
“If we leave her be, she will secretly eat it at night. Let us see… I wonder if there is a small basket around.”
“Would this suffice?”

Finia interjected with those words. Then she took out the potpourri bag that she always carried with her.

It used to be a small pouch during the time she lived in the village, but now it had become something akin to a small basket made with dried vines.

If it was used as is, things would fall off from the gaps, but if you put a cloth in it, then only the smell would come out.

“I see, that would regulate the smell intensity, and it would not be hard to carry, either.”

Gadius commented, impressed while stroking his beard. Given that he was one boorish Dwarf, he did not have any interest in such body ornaments.

That said, he had an interest in making them, however, that was a story of another time.

“Well then, Finia. May we trouble you to make several people’s worth of those bags.”
“Of course, but… My hands are occupied now, so may I do it later?”

Finia answered apologetically, Fina nibbling on her chest without letting it go.

Apparently, she had this tendency of nibbling the chest of whoever was close.

“Oh dear… Did she mistake you for Maria and… I guess not.”

The fact that Cortina didn’t add that their chest sizes differed was probably her way of being considerate.

“You can do it later. I shall hand Gadius and Lyell’s shares to them personally.”
“I will do that with your permission then.”
“Ah, and Reid’s too.”
“Speaking of that guy, he didn’t even come to say hi during the Goblin battle and disappeared. Don’t you think that’s cruel?”

Cortina started hitting the table in indignation. Seeing that. the male group’s expressions turned weary. There was nothing as bothersome as listening to other people’s love affairs.

“Now now, he has his circumstances.”
“Since you already handed the Elixir fragment to him, that means you’ve already met today, right? Why didn’t he come to see me too!”
“Well, it’s about which one of us knows his real appearance. If he doesn’t want you to find it out, just leave him be.”
“Fiiine.”

Seeing her sulking like that, everyone gave a dry laugh and broke up.

Finia handed Fina over to Maria and went to prepare dinner.

That day, the Six Heroes (excluding Reid) had a get-together meal the first time in a while.