Chapter 3
“Father, drink this and you’ll be fine . Hold on and drink”
Valletta propped up her father who was groaning painfully, and put the medicine she got from Kazura (antacids and antipyretic painkilling pills) and water into his mouth .
While coughing, her father somehow managed to swallow the medicine .
“Also this, this is a nutritious drink, drink this too” .
Seeing Valletta who was giving her father Lipo-D to drink, Kazura was greatly perplexed .
There’s no way a person who was on the brink of death to be cured just with that medicine .
He gave him Lipo-D as consolation, but rather than recovering his fighting spirit, he seems to be going toward the eternal sleep .
“Kazura-san, when is Father going to be healthy again?”
After giving her father the medicine and Lipo-D and letting him rest again, Valletta asked Kazura .
“Ah—, that’s right, at the latest he will be released from his pain by tomorrow or the day after, I think” .
Receiving Kazura’s somewhat reckless reply, Valletta smiled in relief .
“Thank goodness…… . Umm, Kazura-san, have you decided on where you would sleep tonight? If you haven’t, it’s not much to say it’s thanks for the medicine, but please stay at our house” .
Kazura was filled with feelings of guilt for Valletta who was expressing her innermost faith in him, and he decided .
If her father were to die like that, he would bow down to her and use all his a.s.sets to make it up to her for it .
“I’m sorry it’s so dirty, but how about it?”
“…… please”, he weakly murmured to Valletta who was making her recommendation to him .
“…… this turned out to be something big” .
At the corner of an 8-tatami sized wooden floored room, Kazura spent two hours being at his wits’ end .
Seeing from the chief’s condition earlier, probably tonight or tomorrow he would be on his deathbed .
When that happens, would Valletta forgive him or wouldn’t she .
After saying “he’ll be healed”, and having him die afterwards, he wouldn’t complain even if, at worst, she came to stab him .
“Kazura-san!”
Afterwards, Kazura spent 20 more minutes rolling on the floor, being troubled, then Valletta swiftly rushed inside the room .
Kazura reflexively jumped, and with great force bowed with his head on the floor .
“Father is healed! That was really some amazing medicine, thank you very much!”
“I’m very sorr… . eh?”
Hearing the unexpected news, Kazura raised his head and his eyes met with Valletta’s who was looking at him doing a dogeza with curiosity . «TN: dogeza – kneeling and bowing down until one’s head touches the ground . much sorry . very apology»
“Umm, by healed you mean your father is now healthy?”
“Yes, he’s up already and is now preparing dinner . After being in so much pain he could be back in full health so quickly, that was really some amazing medicine!”
Hearing Valletta’s reply, Kazura became very surprised .
What Kazura gave to the village chief was only some antipyretic painkillers, antacids, and then some Lipo-D .
He should not have been back in full health so soon .
“You have got to be kidding me…… . ” .
“Eh?” .
“Ah, no, never mind” .
Kazura corrected his words in confusion to Valletta who was looking at him blankly .
He had absolutely no idea how the chief could be back in health so quickly, rather he couldn’t believe it .
“Umm, just in case, would you let me see your father’s condition?”
“Sure, Father said he wanted to say his thanks during dinner, too, the time’s just right . It’ll be done soon so let’s go to the living room” .
Kazura tailed behind the happily smiling Valletta while tilting his head in doubt .
“Ooh, so you’re Kazura-san . Thank you very much for sharing your precious medicine . Here here, please sit down” .
“Ah, thanks… . ”
When Kazura and Valletta arrived at the living room, the village chief who was having difficulty breathing earlier was in the middle of making some kind of soup in the fireplace at the center of the room .
His body was thin as a stick, but his complexion looked healthy .
“I deeply apologise for not greeting you properly earlier . I’m Varin, this village’s chief . Here here, dinner’s just about ready . Please have a bite” . «TN: Barin»
“Thank you very much . Umm, how are you feeling?”
While receiving a soup-filled wooden bowl and a wooden spoon, Kazura asked the village chief, and he replied with a smile .
“Once I took Kazura-san’s medicine, before I knew it I was like this . This is the first time I’ve taken anything remotely resembling medicine, but I never thought it would be this amazing…… Is there any way I could thank you with” .
“I was surprised as well . I’ve heard that unless you take medicine for a few days you wouldn’t get better, I never thought I would see something as amazing as this” .
The one who is surprised is Kazura .
With only a few hundred yen’s worth of medicine and energy drink, a half-dead man could be restored to full health, and only in a matter of hours, too .
At any rate, the fact is that the village chief’s illness seem to have been healed, and his impression of Kazura had become really good .
“That’s all good then” .
Kazura sipped his soup while having that kind of conversation, but his head was full of question marks .
Still in a daze, he sipped his soup, and a strange texture of food hit him, so he parted his lips from the bowl .
He looked into it, wondering what ingredients are there, and he saw some kind of leaves and something that looked like a caterpillar inside .
“(It’s not a caterpillar, It’s not a caterpillar, It’s not a caterpillar, must be some kind of fruit, some kind of tree fruit that looks like a caterpillar)” .
“Ah, that’s what I caught for Father, Arcadian bugs . They’re not Croco bugs you know” .
“……”
As Kazura was prodding the food with his spoon, Valletta brought the word of despair .
He couldn’t possibly mention that he dislikes the Arcadian bug to the point of not wanting to touch it, but putting it in his mouth was another matter .
It’s not the problem of them being Croco bugs or not .
“We couldn’t catch very much recently . I could only gather 10 today… . They seem to be high-cla.s.s foodstuff in town, so they taste very good, right… . Ah, but Kazura-san must have had some before” .
Next to the happily smiling Valletta, the village chief said “Yup, every time I eat them they’re always tasty”, while crunching on the bugs .
Kazura wanted to say “I’ve never eaten any and don’t want any!!”, but of course he didn’t have the nerve to do so, so he just loudly said “You’re right! It does taste good!” with tears in his eyes trying to fool himself, while filling his mouth with the Arcadian bugs, that for some reason had been generously put into his bowl, and chewed .
His first Arcadian bug tasted like weak corn soup .
“Do your best, my stomach . I’ll deal with the bugs with seirogan later” . «TN: seirogan – beechwood extract for treating diarrhea»
After dinner, Kazura took seirogan and collapsed in his room, and Valletta came bringing a futon .
“Kazura-san, here’s your futon . It’s about time for bed, right?”
Hearing Valletta, Kazura glanced at his watch .
He didn’t know if there was a time difference with his world but judging from the light outside there wasn’t much of it .
“Eh? It’s still 6… . No, it’s still light outside?”
“Yes, but the sun’s going down soon” .
Valletta said while looking at the sky outside the barred windows .
Kazura followed her gaze and saw the sky dyed orange, it does look like the sun’s going to set .
“(That’s how it is, it’s not like this house has any candles or lanterns or the like for lighting)”
Probably the entire village lived by rising with the sun and sleeping when the sun has set .
Even in his world, in the old days illumination like candles were expensive items, probably it’s the same case in this world .
That is, if illumination has been invented at all .
“Ah, that’s right . I’ll gratefully accept” .
Saying his thanks, he accepted the hard futon that was frayed here and there .
At first he believed they had no baths or the like, but the fact that they had futons were a big help .
“Oh, right . I forgot to give you this” .
Taking the futon, Kazura realized he still hadn’t handed over the salt he said he would, and took a plastic bag of salt from his travel bag .
The words “Table Salt 1 kg” was written large on the clear plastic bag .
It’s priced at 105 yen at the supermarket, tax included .
“I promised to give you some salt” .
“Eh, is this salt!? I’ve never seen salt so white like this!”
Taking the salt from Kazura, Valletta widened her eyes in surprise .
That is to say, the salt in this world had many impurities in it, giving it some color .
“Also, this bag-like transparent thing, what is it?”
“Hm? That’s plasti… . Ah, c.r.a.p…”
Seeing Valletta curiously look at the transparent plastic wrapping the salt, he slapped his head .
Having never seen plastic or anything like it, she wouldn’t understand even if he explained it to her .
Kazura dismissed it with a “something like that” .
“It’s something recently invented in my country . It’s light and yet strong . Even if you put water in it it won’t break” .
“Is that so… Um, what’s written here? I’ve never seen these letters before” .
“It’s the letters of my country . It says salt . Umm, have you really never seen this kind of letters before?”
Somehow, despite understanding j.a.panese, Kanji and Hiragana weren’t understood .
In this village, at the very least .
“Yes, Father taught me so I can somewhat read and write, but I’ve never seen these letters before” .
For some reason, words were well-understood but letters were not, such double standards, what a strange world this is .
“Um, Kazura-san”
While he was thinking “it was great that the language is the same, but troubling that I won’t be able to read words”, Valletta reservedly started talking .
“It’s about the medicine you gave Father… . Certainly, it’s a very expensive item, isn’t it?”
“Yeah… . . something like that, it’s quite expensive” .
Kazura answered after thinking a while .
It actually costs a few hundred yen in total, but if it really had a strong effect on all the people in this world like it did on the village chief, it could become a tremendous power depending on how it’s used .
It’s probably best not to give it away so cheaply .
“That’s… . probably true, huh” .
Hearing Kazura’s reply, Valletta was downcast .
“Um… I’m begging you!”
Then, as if having resolved herself, she raised her head, and took Kazura’s hand, making a request .
“We’ll certainly pay you back someday, so please share that medicine with everyone in the village! If need be I don’t mind if you sell me to a slave trader, just, please, save this village!”
“Wai, slave trader . . , there’s slavery!? … . . nononono, I get it already so raise your head please!”
Kazura tried to calm Valletta who was clinging on to him, repeatedly saying “please, please” with tears in her eyes .
“Are there any other sick people?”
“Yes… People who got sick like Father, there are 50 of them . There were 7 that died because their fever did not go down . There are also mothers with babies who could not give them milk, we tried grinding Arcadian bugs and giving it to them to drink, but it really looks like their bodies couldn’t take it after all… . None of the babies have died yet, but they’ve become so dreadfully thin, it’s just a matter of time…”
“People in this village, how many are there?”
“Uhh, I think it was about 110 people” .
“So about half of them are down…”
It seems like this village was having a serious starvation problem .
If this goes on this village will probably be destroyed .
“Please, I’m very well aware that just by selling myself to slavery won’t be enough to pay for one of those medicines, but at least save the children, please… . ”
Saying that, Valletta became dejected again .
If you don’t help out at a moment like this, you’re a failure as a man, so the saying goes .
On top of being able to save this village with just some tens of thousands of yen, he could also secure a base of operations for his activities in this world .
If all goes well, he might even raise the village girl Valletta’s flag as well .
“All right, the flag… no, to save the village, I’ll happily share the medicine . Also, don’t mind about the money, but in return, I wanted to live in this village” .
“Eh!?”
Valletta was surprised at Kazura’s proposal .
As far as she knows, the stuff called medicines cost an eye-popping amount of money to acquire .
The fact that he asked to stay in the village aside, offering medicines for free is something incredulous .
“B, but, not taking money just with that, though I was the one who asked it of you, will it be all right with you, Kazura-san?”
“Yeah, lives are way more important than money, after all” .
Valletta looked at Kazura, who gave an answer that really couldn’t be called flowery words no matter how you put it, with a dumbfounded look .
Seeing Valletta like that, Kazura thought “Oh no, that answer just now was too shady was it?”, sweating profusely .
“Really… . Is it alright to believe in you?”
“O, of course . Leave it to me”, answered Kazura to Valletta who asked with a trembling voice, and once again, bit by bit, tears appeared on her eyes .
Then, a trail of tears flowed down on her face, and raising her voice loudly, she cried like a child .