Episode 50
Sallet's eyes widened in surprise.
After entering the Hareuma Territory, she had taught Loki basic pharmacology.
She had called it simple, but elven pharmacology was extremely complex and difficult for humans.
Yet Loki not only failed to find it difficult but even mastered the formulas in an instant.
Loki recorded everything he heard from Sallet in a blank notebook.
After he finished writing, he had only read through it once when the words transformed into light and seeped into him.
While she stood blankly at that wondrous sight, Loki's hand moved toward the medicinal herbs Sallet was holding.
The herbs floated in the air, tearing into pieces, grinding down, and mixing with other herbs.
"......!"
It was a truly strange sight.
The sight of medicine being crafted without a single tool!
"Excellent. You have been a great help, Sallet."
Pleased that he had spoken her name for the first time, Sallet nodded happily.
***
To the refugees, the Hareuma Territory was no different from a haven.
It was a place where the aftermath of the war reached relatively little.
The Hareuma Territory had imposed forced conscription in an attempt to control the refugees, and even doubled taxes to secure military funds.
Even so, their numbers not only failed to decrease but only continued to grow.
The more refugees flocked in, the more the Hareuma Territory fell into ruin.
The refugees surged in endlessly, and people made sensitive by the fatigue of war frequently caused disturbances, tearing into one another.
Naturally, the public order grew unstable; corpses piled up in the streets, and epidemics broke out, claiming many lives.
In such a territory....
"......."
A young man was blankly inspecting his right arm.
Blood flowed from his right hand, and yellow pus made its presence known. His hand trembled, but it had no feeling.
He was neither an apothecary, nor a herbalist, nor a healer, but he knew that if left like this, he would lose the use of his arm.
He also knew that if that happened, simply surviving would become difficult.
So he had gone to find an apothecary.
The apothecary wearing a bird-beak mask frowned at his arm and shoved him away.
"I'm telling you, I don't have any!"
Thanks to that, the shoved man dropped his money pouch—his entire fortune—onto the ground.
He clung to the apothecary to the very end.
"I beg you! Some medicine, somehow...!"
"...I've sold all the medicine I have right now. Besides, a wound festered to that degree needs to be amputated. Of course, if the medicine's efficacy were strong enough, I would have tried somehow...."
The apothecary groaned and shook his head.
"Mine isn't enough. Try finding another apothecary or herbalist. Even if you find one, surely... most will say it needs to be cut off."
The apothecary caught his breath and continued.
"With that money, you can't buy precious medicinal ingredients. At best, the only thing I can prescribe is disinfectant. Of course, even if you amputate and disinfect it, your chances of survival are slim...."
"......."
This was no different from a death sentence.
Cut off his arm? In a world where no one would even employ him, how was he supposed to survive if he lost his arm too!
The apothecary pointed a finger and warned.
"Mark my words. If you don't cut off that arm right now, you will die."
With that, he walked away.
The man shed tears from a choked heart.
"...Damn it! My arm, cut it off? How can you say something like that so easily?"
He resented the world.
"What on earth did I do wrong to deserve this? Hng! What did I do wrong! How can the world do this to me! O Constellation of Ajelran, creator of the world! I beg you! Please heal my wound!"
He cried sorrowfully. To him, a man approached.
It was a man wearing a crow mask that covered his entire face except for his mouth and nose.
He bent down and picked up the fallen money pouch. At that sight, the man panicked.
"Th-that's my money! My money!"
Was he a bandit come to steal his money?!
He tried to reach out reflexively, but his arm would no longer rise.
"......!"
The man in the crow mask, Loki, looked at him and spoke to the girl hiding behind him, Sallet.
"I know pharmacology, but I do not know how to examine a patient. So would you examine him in my stead, Sallet?"
At that, Sallet looked at the man's arm and muttered quietly.
"...The wound is severe. But it's not to the point of needing amputation."
"So it seems. Will you buy the medicine?"
"......?!"
No need for amputation?!
Hope filled the man's eyes.
But he soon shook his head.
The apothecary had said precious medicine was needed. Yet all the man possessed were a few copper coins in the money pouch before him.
"I-I cannot buy it. I-I have no money. Money...!"
"What do you think?"
Loki looked at Sallet.
"...It is a severe wound, but not an epidemic. A festered wound can be treated even with simple herbs."
"Truly?"
"Yes, El—"
Sallet was about to say "Elf" but shook her head.
"...Anyway, if it is medicine made with techniques from my homeland, it can treat him."
"I see."
At their words, the man furrowed his brow.
They looked far too suspicious.
They were similar to the bird-beak masks used by healers, apothecaries, and herbalists, but theirs were crow masks. Moreover, a young girl rather than a man had examined him directly.
At a glance, they looked like swindlers.
"I will sell it cheap. Will you buy it?"
At Loki's words, the man clutched his rotting arm.
"...Are you planning to scam me?"
"A scam? Ah, I see. Indeed, swindlers came through here and had their fun, didn't they? Then let us do this."
Loki pointed to the medicine bag Sallet carried.
"I will give you the medicine first. Try it."
"G-give it to try first?"
"Yes. It won't be too late to pay after that."
"...Ah, no matter how good the medicine is, there can't be an immediate effect...."
Then Sallet opened her mouth.
"...It is fine. The medicine I made will not heal it instantly, but for a wound of that degree, it can reduce the swelling and remove the pus."
"So she says."
The man hesitated.
But his arm was rotting away, and he did not know what would happen if he delayed further.
He had no other choice.
The man groaned and opened his mouth with difficulty, looking at his entire fortune—the money pouch Loki held.
"Really... will it really be healed?"
"Believe it or not, that is up to you."
"...I will receive the treatment."
If he could not be treated, he would die anyway. Should he not grasp at even a straw?
"I'll buy it! How much is it?"
Loki held up a copper coin and placed it before the man's eyes.
"The copper coins here, and...."
Then he pointed at the man.
"I will hire you."
"Wh-what?"
Loki looked at him and smiled.
"Spread word that the medicine is effective."
***
Ash looked at Loki and Sallet as if he could not believe his eyes.
The two had pitched the tent they used when camping and were doing business selling herbs in front of it.
Sallet stood to examine the conditions of those who came, while Loki handed out herbs as Sallet instructed and sold them.
'So the word herbalist... was real?'
Moreover, perhaps word had spread at some point, for before they knew it a long line had formed in front of Loki.
They were all refugees who wanted to buy herbs.
"I heard this place has amazing effects?"
"I heard the medicine is cheap, too."
"I heard they only sell one per person. But it seems they don't have much stock. If we don't buy quickly, it'll all run out."
Listening to the refugees' talk, Ash was dumbfounded.
As expected, elf medicine seemed to be a miraculous cure.
"...Mister."
At the sudden voice, Ash looked down.
A snot-nosed kid was holding out copper coins in both hands to him.
"Medicine... please."
"......."
Ash was flabbergasted.
Not because they were selling herbs as herbalists, but because he, a prince of a nation, had to act the part of an herbalist.
"How did I end up in such a state...."
A royal doing menial work as an herbalist?
If the rebel nobles heard of this, they would surely point fingers and laugh at him.
Ash crushed the herb he held in his hand, but at Loki's next words, he could only close his mouth.
"Shouldn't you at least earn your keep?"
"......."
"If you don't like it, leave."
"...Fine. I'm not that shameless."
Ash sighed and looked at the snot-nosed child.
"...Are you buying it?"
"Yes! To treat my mom!"
Ash held out the herb, and the child snatched it up. The child even grabbed Ash's hand and smiled brightly.
"Thank you, mister!"
"......."
The child disappeared with the herb, and Ash looked at the hand the child had grabbed before speaking to Loki.
"This medicine... you could sell it for much more. Why sell it for pennies?"
"I don't need large sums. Wouldn't it be suitable enough for a day's lodging expenses?"
"......."
In the end, it meant he was doing this to procure the money needed to rest.
Ash looked in the direction the child had disappeared and spoke.
"They're pitiful. So pitiful. But...."
Ash looked at the hand the child had grabbed and whispered in a very small voice.
"───...."
It was Ash's whisper alone, and the sound was so quiet that it was nearly impossible for anyone to hear.
"......?"
Startled by that muttering, Sallet looked at Ash.
"......."
Loki glanced at Ash and narrowed his eyes.
'What did he just say...?'
I must have misheard.
Around the time Sallet looked at Ash and doubted her own ears, she realized her bag was empty.
"Um...."
Loki shifted his gaze to the side.
Sallet fidgeted and opened her medicine bag.
"We are out of medicine."
"...I see."
Loki looked ahead.
The refugees were still waiting in line to buy medicine.
"Let us withdraw now."
Loki spoke, looking at Sallet and Ash.
"We are going to the inn."
"...What about the others?"
Sallet sent the refugees a sympathetic gaze and asked Loki, but Loki spoke in an indifferent tone.
"We have no medicine left, nor are we leisurely enough to help others."
At Loki's words, Sallet drooped her head as if discouraged. Then she looked at the refugees with a worried expression.
"Do you pity them?"
"...Pity them?"
Me? Humans?
Sallet shook her head with all her might at Loki's words.
"No, not at all!"
Like I would worry about such things as humans!
Sallet shouted that inwardly.
Loki, who had no way of knowing that, nodded.
"Then that's fine."
Watching those two, Ash felt a strange emotion.
A feeling of being left out.
Ash blankly stared at Sallet.
The sight of Sallet hurrying along behind Loki somehow displeased him.
Just as Loki was packing up and about to stand up.
"...Huh? Traveler!"
At the familiar voice, Loki turned his gaze toward where it came from.
An alley branching off the street.
There stood a familiar face.