Title: Parallel World Pharmacy Vol. 4
Author: Sei Takano (manga), Liz Takayama (original story), keepout (characters)
Publisher: One Peace Books
Language: English
Format: Digital
Pages: 168
Genre: Isekai, Fantasy
Publication Date: April 23, 2024
The Story
After the misunderstanding with the church, there was a turn of events at the end of the previous volume regarding an evil possession! Turns out, Lady Le Roux was simply hallucinating due to a medical condition and some medicine from Farma cleared it right up! Because of this, Le Roux was able to go back to using her Fire Divine Arts and, therefore, offered to make Farma some equipment for his store as a reward.
Meanwhile, the guild is getting rather tired of Farma stealing all of their business. One of them, a commoner pharmacist named Pierre, is experiencing an emergency situation with his young daughter. She was foaming at the mouth, convulsing, running a high fever, and more. All of his knowledge as a pharmacist seemed useless against the influenza virus she had; however, Farma overhears Pierre’s plight and offers to help.
When Pierre sees the night-and-day difference between Farma’s store and all of the others in the guild, he knows why all of their businesses are failing. He brings this to the guild’s attention and they respond in the most rational way possible… they kick him out of the guild, revoke his license, and raid/trash his store! Luckily, Farma is starting a guild of his own and Pierre is quick to jump on board!
Our story ends with Farma heeding his father about his divine arts training and all is going well until someone returns home!
Characters
While Lady Le Roux had some nice “screen time,” I can’t say that she did anything impactful. Sure, she recovered and is now fulfilling commissions from Farma in the form of beakers, tubes, etc. but outside of that, she’s simply grateful to him for giving her the ability to perform divine arts again. At least Farma has a new ally on his side.
Pierre received the most development. Being a part of the pharmacist’s guild, all he could see was the world from their viewpoint. It wasn’t until he was faced with an issue that he got a chance to witness why Farma’s store was destroying their business. The guild is highly conservative and rooted in traditions that simply don’t work as well as they should in the modern day. After seeing how progressive medicine can be… especially after it saved his daughter… he had a change of heart and was forever grateful to Farma for showing him. It was almost as if he was given a new lease on life once he joined Farma’s guild.
I enjoyed Pierre as a character. Hopefully, now that he has his store within Farma’s guild, we’ll get to see more of him and how he has progressed since opening it!
Final Thoughts
While the drama with the guild has quelled for Pierre, it is far from over with Farma. It is no secret that they are out to get him and according to their discussions, it seems as if they will stop at nothing to see Farma put out of business; however, they are not naïve to the fact that the Emperor and the Church are on Farma’s side which means, he’s pretty much untouchable. Also, his father is still the Chief Court Pharmacist and is in direct attendance to the Emperor herself, too, so there’s also that for them to worry about. However, they are greedy, underhanded, and downright evil so I wouldn’t put it past them to eventually just give up on worrying about the kind of protection he has and just go for Farma’s throat (figuratively.. or maybe literally? They are out of their minds, after all.)
A certain someone returning home could impose some problems on Farma, though. That certain person, with the way they are drawn, doesn’t seem all too friendly and Farma isn’t exactly excited to see them. No doubt, we will be opening up the fifth volume with this.
I did laugh when Elen and Farma visited Salomon for a basic wand for Farma’s personal use and was offered a gilded staff of the finest quality… that even flies! Salomon has sure changed his tune after mistaking Farma for some sort of evil deity. Now, it’s as if he worships the very ground he walks on!
All in all, another good volume. Farma’s business is expanding; however, I’m looking forward to the clash with the guild because we all know that those greedy piglets are going to get put in their places the hard way!
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This item was purchased for review.
