Ezra: As per the itinerary, it was supposed to be my final trek up the mountain.
Ezra: I'd locate my most crucial specimens and procure the ingredient for the potion my friend needed.
Ezra: ......
Ezra: However, things didn't go quite so smoothly.
Ezra: ...I need to request permission to continue my ascent.
Ezra: If I can't find it at 2,000 meters, I'll keep climbing to 3,000 meters, maybe even 3,200 meters.
Ezra: I must find it. Please, allow me to look.
Ezra: ......
Ezra: Yes, ma'am. I understand the risks, but I'll devise a more detailed plan. Trust me—
Ezra: …………
Medicine Pocket: Looks like I've come at a bad time ...
The observer finally spoke, having waited by the door for quite a while.
Ezra: ...No, it's nothing. Come in, Medicine Pocket.
The office's young inhabitant gestured, and Medicine Pocket entered, shutting the door behind them.
Medicine Pocket: Your preparations didn't go well, huh? I heard you didn't find what you needed on the mountain.
Medicine Pocket: And my ingredient? Did you find it?
Ezra: Yes, it's right here.
Ezra placed a sealed acrylic box on the table, containing the Pinguicula alpina inside.
Medicine Pocket: Great—at least we've got some good news!
Medicine Pocket: I brought gloves. Let me just check...
Medicine Pocket placed a large white box beside the acrylic one and slipped on a pair of plastic gloves over their own pair
Medicine Pocket: That ought to do it.
Ezra: Medicine Pocket, is this box... your field toolkit?
Medicine Pocket: Yep, your room's mine now. I'll be doing my experiments here.
Test tubes, stirring rods, and a recorder cluttered Ezra's desk.
The uninvited guest pulled over a chair and began their experiment as if they owned the place.
Ezra: So you're here to talk me out of it too?
Ezra lowered his head, fingers intertwined.
Ezra: I know it's risky and maybe irrational—I faced opposition from the start... but...
Medicine Pocket: Hold on.
Medicine Pocket: Now, think hard—have you ever needed to caution me, even once?
The dilution flowed from one test tube to another, dividing evenly.
Medicine Pocket: If you aren't a boring lecturer with a rusty old brain, then —I— as your friend, certainly am not that kind of person.
Medicine Pocket: I've gotten many things from you, all incredibly dangerous...
Medicine Pocket: But you handed them over because you knew mad as I am I'm a sensible "madman," and I would never throw away my life, no matter how much of my "health" I risk doing these experiments.
Medicine Pocket: You know I'm taking risks, and you're taking them too.
Ezra: You're right, Medicine Pocket.
Ezra: Sorry, I gotta interrupt you. Why the syringe?
Medicine Pocket: Ah?
Expelling air from the syringe, the scientist looked up, mouth open, in a questioning expression.
Medicine Pocket: Come on... I just said you've never cautioned me, and now you're telling me to be careful?
Ezra: No, I mean—this reagent isn't safe to inject.
Ezra: I saw you added Pinguicula alpina to the dilution; it'll could cause an allergic reaction.
Medicine Pocket: Oh—right, I forgot to tell you.
Rolling up their sleeve, they exposed their own arm.
Medicine Pocket located a vein and skillfully administered the injection.
Medicine Pocket: Phew... My moral compass doesn't allow for a medicine "beneficial to some but toxic to others." and genius that I am, I've improved the formula.
Ezra stood, went around, and adjusted the chair for their friend.
Ezra: Don't move, just relax.
Ezra: Here, put your feet up on my desk.
Medicine Pocket: It's... fine... just a bit dizzy. My mind's clear—you can continue... talking...
The young scientist squinted, rocking their chair.
They still remembered that this conversation wasn't just about Pinguicula alpina.
Ezra: Remember the past? When we first met.
Ezra brought a chair and sat beside Medicine Pocket.
Ezra: Back then, you told me about your family.
Ezra: About the story your mother used to tell you.
Medicine Pocket: Hmm? Oh... that story...
Medicine Pocket: Was that... the story about the snow-capped mountains?
Ezra: Yeah, that's the one.
Ezra: A tale about a climber and the stars up on those snowy peaks.
Ezra: I remember the main character, always climbing just to find a star and bring it down to heal all the world's woes.
Ezra: But the mountains were so high, the snow so deep; the freezing peaks knocked him down time and again.
Ezra: He tumbled down into the snow countless times, until he eventually looked like a snowman.
Medicine Pocket: Ah... a tragic tale, kind of like Prometheus stealing fire...
Medicine Pocket coughed under their breath, their words coming slower.
Medicine Pocket: But the climber made it in the end. The star fell down to the people, and all the pain and suffering disappeared... but he, well...
Medicine Pocket: ended up a... nothing more than a snowman...
Ezra: ......
Ezra: But he succeeded, and the star wasn't out of reach anymore... it belonged to the people.
Ezra: I love that story; it's just so heartwarming and touching.
Ezra: And I mentioned my family and my parents, right?
Ezra: But what I failed to mention was... Once, I stumbled upon a hefty book tucked away on the highest shelf in my house.
Ezra: It was... our family history.
Ezra: In it, I saw myself, my folks, grandparents, and faces I'd never laid eyes on... my great-grandfolks, even older generations and distant family I never knew.
Ezra: Until... on the last page...
Ezra: Surrounded by white flowers, a tiny figure was scarcely visible.
Ezra: They were Leontopodium nivale, also known as Edelweiss.
Ezra: It grew up there on the snowy peak, blending in almost perfectly.
Ezra: I know it, it is called the Alps.
Medicine Pocket: Oh... well, now I get why you're so fixated on it...
Ezra: ......
Ezra: "It is a place more distant than the farthest north, situated on a mountain where humans and arcanists coexist. In this place, there is no unrighteous conflict or death."
Ezra: A perfect world.
Ezra: No conflicts, no struggles, no deceit, no pride, no hate ... not like down here.
Ezra's hands clasped together.
His voice was like a snowflake drifting down onto heavy snow.
Ezra: It's... my dream.
Ezra: But it's a miracle, one that feels so far out of reach.
Medicine Pocket's chest rose and fell, their breath steady but drawn out.
Ezra: But I'm not the same anymore. I've seen how flames ignite and how miracles unfold.
Ezra: I think I can chase miracles too... I can make the "impossible" possible.
The boy, still brimming with youth, whispered to himself, his sleeping friend's head tilted to the side. Across from him, on the table, two test tubes sat side by side.
One empty, the other full. An unopened syringe lay quietly beside the full one.
Ezra: I'll... climb those towering peaks.
It was as if a door had been opened.
Ezra: ...I'll, pluck down those sparkling stars.
