Then, assume the treatment could be done with medicinal herbs.
The problem was the cause of the illness.
No matter how quickly it could be cured for now, if the cause remained, it would only recur.
As an analogy, it was similar to the relationship between radiation and cancer.
Even if cancer could be treated immediately, if one continued to carry radioactive material, one would inevitably get cancer again. It was the same principle.
But the question was, what kind of powerful source of mana could possibly be in this backwater village for someone to become this intoxicated with mana?
Humans were sturdier than one might think, and ordinarily they would not end up like this so easily.
However, contrary to expectations, I was able to find what seemed to be the cause rather quickly.
Just in case, I used magic sight to search the house, and in the middle of it, I discovered a small but intensely dense mass of mana at the girl’s chest.
When I slipped my hand slightly inside her clothes, something made of metal touched my fingers.
I grasped it and pulled it out from beneath her clothes, and the cord hanging around her neck came out along with the ornament in my hand.
It had been hidden by her clothes, but it seemed she had been wearing this pendant around her neck all this time.
“This is…”
And the moment I saw that pendant, I was so shocked that my body stiffened slightly.
My eyes widened before I even realized it.
…I never thought I would see this again.
After calming myself for a moment, I held up the top part of the pendant to show him. The girl’s father stared at it for a while, then answered as if he had only just remembered.
“That is, I believe, something I bought from a peddler who came about a month ago. But why…”
“I think this is the cause.”
“Pardon? What do you mean…”
“To put it simply, strong mana is leaking out from this. That’s why she ended up like this.”
When I focused my magic sight and looked at it, I could clearly see that, although the absolute amount itself was small, it was continuously emitting extremely high-density mana.
Of course she would end up like this if she was exposed to mana of this density for so long.
It was an item far too dangerous for an ordinary person to use as an accessory pressed against the body.
However, for me, it was far too meaningful an object to simply throw away.
Since it was dangerous for her to keep wearing it, I took the pendant off and set it on a table inside the house as I said,
“Once I treat your daughter, I’ll take this. How does that sound?”
“Y-yes. If that is acceptable to you…”
“Good.”
Value, in the end, was relative.
To someone, it might be nothing more than an old, worthless trinket bought for a cheap price.
But to me, it was worth more than any jewel, so one could call it a good trade.
◇
When morning came, I took Illiana, who had finally come to her senses, along with Rutina in the backpack, and headed deep into the forest.
No matter where one looked, there was not a single patch of ground where grass did not grow, but we still had an entire day.
Using light magic, I showed Cassian and Illiana illusions of the grasses they needed to find.
Grass with small, round, pale flowers blooming at the ends.
Grass with pointed leaves stretching out in all directions from the stem.
And grass with dark red leaves growing from the ends of stems twisted round and round like whirlwinds.
If I showed them too many, they would not remember, so I limited it to about five or six kinds that were likely to grow naturally around here.
“Master, how about this one?”
“That’s not it.”
“Teacher, isn’t it this?”
“That’s not it either.”
But without any proper education, there was no way they could find them right away after being shown only an image.
It would be easy if we pulled up every blade of grass in the area and checked them one by one, but we could hardly destroy nature just to save one person.
And so, after searching for a long time without any notable results, it became noon.
For lunch, we sat on a large nearby rock and simply tore into some jerky.
The sunlight pouring down through the leaves was warm.
If I had been alone, I would have lain down and taken a leisurely nap, but unfortunately, this was not the time for that.
After a short rest, we resumed our search, feeling as though we were looking for a needle in the desert.
“Haah, are these really here?”
“They’re not that rare. If we search properly, we’ll find them.”
It was not some legendary panacea that kings would bestow enormous treasures for in exchange for a single root. It was just ordinary grass that could be found anywhere.
However, despite our search progressing at a fairly rapid pace, we could not seem to find any.
Even though, in half a day, we had nearly searched an entire low hill.
Just as I was wondering whether we would have to look farther away, Cassian approached again with a bundle of grass.
Perhaps because he had repeated the cycle of checking and failing so many times, he looked mentally exhausted more than physically.
“How about this time?”
I floated the grasses Cassian had brought in the air and examined them one by one.
And at last, I was able to find exactly the right grass.
A grass with swirling yet sharp leaves.
It was not one of the varieties I had shown them to look for today, but there was no problem at all using it as a substitute.
“Where did you find this?”
When I grabbed that grass and asked, Cassian’s face brightened, as if he finally thought this tedious task was over.
“Ah, that one was over there!”
When I followed Cassian in the direction he indicated, sure enough, identical grasses were growing here and there in clusters.
This much was more than enough.
“Illiana! We found it, so come over here! Let’s go back!”
“Ah, yes…!”
Illiana, who had been searching down below that hill, answered my call and slowly climbed up.
As expected, Illiana must have been quite bored as well, for the moment she heard it was over, her face clearly showed the feeling of finally being done.
Just as I was picking a handful of the grass and putting it into the backpack.
—Grrrrr…
From beyond the hill, hidden by a large rock and trees, a huge tiger appeared.
One large horn and one small horn protruded from the crown of its head, and even its shoulder height reached Cassian’s eyes.
No matter how one looked at it, it was a magical beast.
And one I had seen once about a year ago.
“A-a tiger…”
Illiana instinctively stepped back and shrank slightly, but Cassian took out his staff without so much as blinking.
“You can handle it alone, right?”
“Of course.”
Cassian levitated a small, sharp stone that had fallen nearby and gradually began spinning it faster.
And as the tiger charged toward us, he fired it straight at the center of its forehead.
—Kwoooong!!
The stone did not pierce through the tiger’s head, but at the very least, it displayed enough power to break through its skull.
The tiger collapsed to the ground with its death cry and stopped moving at almost the same moment I closed the backpack and slung it onto my back.
Last time, he had nearly died because he let his guard down, but this time he was excellent.
It had only been one year, but one could call it dazzling growth.
“Well done.”
“This much is only natural.”
He said it was only natural, but the corners of his mouth lifted ever so slightly, making him look pleased.
◇
If she had been conscious, I would have simply had her chew and swallow the grass, but that was not possible now.
Even when I tried to rouse her, there was no reaction, so she seemed to be in a state close to a coma.
Therefore, I prepared it by finely grinding the grass, adding water, and boiling it.
In truth, the safest method while she was unconscious would have been something like an enema or a suppository, but…
When another method was possible, I did not particularly want to use such means.
I poured the medicine, which had become slightly sticky from the mucilage seeping out of the grass, into a bowl and went to the bed.
“That is…”
“Medicine. Once she takes it, she’ll stabilize quickly.”
Ordinarily, feeding something by mouth to an unconscious person was an extremely dangerous act.
That was because if foreign matter entered the airway, it could be fatal.
But in that case, all I had to do was temporarily block the airway.
I lifted the girl’s body for a moment, then gently sent mana through her throat, placed all the muscles in her neck under my control, and slowly fed her the medicine.
Because the amount was considerable, the girl’s father looked on from the side with anxious eyes, but the girl swallowed all of the medicine without issue.
The effect of the medicine was dramatic.
After waiting a little while, the girl’s expression, which had been twisted in pain as she let out intermittent groans, relaxed, and before long, she slowly opened her eyes.
“Da…ddy…?”
“O-oh, oooh, ooooh…! Y-yes, how is your body? Are you all right…?”
“My… my stomach hurts a little… Other than that, I’m okay…”
“Thank goodness, thank goodness…!”
Standing a little apart, I waited with Cassian and Illiana until the girl’s father calmed down.
And after a short while, he approached me and bowed his head again and again.
He even tried to kneel, but since the girl who had just woken up was watching from behind him, I barely managed to stop him.
“Thank you, truly, thank you! I don’t know how I can ever repay this favor…”
“I don’t need anything else. As I said, I’ll be taking this.”
I lifted the pendant from the table, its surface slightly stained black with grime.
“B-but that is worth only a single copper coin at most…”
“It’s fine. To me, it’s worth more than that.”
He asked three times in a row whether that was truly enough, but each time, I answered that it was fine and left the house.
To me, it was worth more than thousands of gold coins.
By the time we came outside, sunset had already begun to color the western sky, and the sun was preparing to move beyond the horizon.
I lifted the pendant and held it lightly up to the sunlight.
In the old days, if I did this, it would shine in seven colors.
“Master, were you interested in things like that?”
“No. This is an unforgettable keepsake.”
How could I forget?
This was from the distant past, in other words, more than several thousand years ago.
It was a pendant I had made to commemorate my first disciple graduating from under me and stepping out into the world.
Although the cord holding the ornament was different from what I remembered, and the color had faded so much that its original hue could no longer be seen…
Even so, the top part that I had carved with all my heart still retained its form.
After he died, it had been buried with him in his tomb, but when I heard that it had been stolen by grave robbers amid the chaos, I thought it was gone forever.
After all, this was made from the same material as Cassian’s staff: Everlasting Gold.
To think it would circle the world and find its way back to me.
Truly, the world was something worth living a long time to see.