Chapter 238.3 : Ryouma the Medical Resident (3/4)
“It’s that stuff you’re always drinking… I paid attention to the amount of leaves and hot water you used, so I shouldn’t be mistaken… I’ve been curious about it for a while now, but it’s a kind of herbal tea, right? Roasted Dante Flower Root, dried Yomugi, and if I’m not mistaken, Gilkoda Leaf was added too.” [Hector]
“As expected, you know your stuff.” [Ryouma]
It looks like he was able to figure out the three ingredients I used just from looking at my herbal tea, or rather, my Dandelion Coffee.
“What are the effects?” [Hector]
“There’s a lot. It serves as a nourishing tonic, promotes blood circulation, prevents anemia, helps stabilizes one’s mind, expels toxins, strengthens the stomach… etc.” [Ryouma]
“Yomugi does have a lot of effect and is even known as a ‘panacea within reach’.” [Hector]
“…Want a taste?” [Ryouma]
“You sure?” [Hector]
I mean his eyes are practically glued onto my cup, so it’s kind of hard not to realize what he wants.
I’m sure I’d be acting the same way if someone brought an unknown slime in front of me.
We exchanged cups and I got Hector-san’s black tea.
Unfortunately, I don’t think I could call his black tea delicious even as flattery.
“Oh, yeah.” [Hector]
“?” [Ryouma]
Just when I thought he was focused on the Dandelion Coffee, he suddenly turned to me.
“It’s a bit late to be saying this, but I’m surprised you’re able to get so many herbs this late into the winter.” [Hector]
“That’s because I started cultivating my own Yomugi as well as various other herbs. The slimes help out a lot too.” [Ryouma]
“I thought you’d say that, but personally, I was thinking it would be more realistic to replace medicine with the medicine slime’s medicinal liquid than to keep concocting medicine from herbs. Is there a slime that makes herbs?” [Hector]
“I just realized it recently actually, but I think the Weed Slime might be capable of that.” [Ryouma]
Weed Slime, in other words, a slime of weed.
But there aren’t gra.s.ses that go as ‘weed’ in this world.
That ‘Yomugi’ mentioned earlier is treated as a herb.
And yet it possesses powerful reproduction abilities, so it tends to grow in empty lots on its own, so it can be considered to be a weed as well.
In other words, weeds are just gra.s.ses or herbs that can become an annoyance to humans.
And the weed slime feeds on all types of gra.s.ses. It doesn’t discriminate between gra.s.ses. It doesn’t matter if it’s medicinal or poisonous, the weed slime can eat anything as long as it’s a gra.s.s. It’s basically the gra.s.s version of the metal slime that can eat anything as long as its metal.
That’s why Weed Slimes can also be used to grow herbs if its ability to mimic herbs is used.
As for why they haven’t been able to grow any until I realized it, it’s probably because my orders confused them. I sent the weed slimes my own image of weed, so they couldn’t produce any gra.s.s that could be used for anything useful.
Having the wrong impression is really a scary thing. You can’t even tell that you’re under a wrong impression until you realize it.
It’s definitely something I need to reflect on as a researcher.
“By the way, the Weed Slime feeds on water, sunlight, and the scavenger slime’s fertilizer. Due to the garbage processing plant, we can acquire a large amount of fertilizers everyday, so it should be possible to produce a vast amount of herbs once we start the process. In fact, we’ve already started a little.” [Ryouma]
I know that the weed slimes can produce medicinal herbs and poisonous herbs. But if they can evolve into medicinal herb slimes and poisonous herb slimes, then that’s even better. That’s why among the many weed slimes, I picked out those interested in poison-type mana on top of the wood-type mana that all weed slimes liked, and am currently waiting for them to evolve.
“To be honest with you, I never had any interest in slimes before coming here, but now I know that you really can’t look down on those little critters.” [Hector]
“I’m just glad to know that you’ve acknowledged the beauty and ability of slimes.” [Ryouma]
Actually, I discovered one more thing recently after researching the liquid of the slimes, but if I talk about that, we’ll exceed our break time, so I’ll put it off for another day.
After our short break ended, we went back to work, and after losing myself in my work again, I completed my quota for the day.
“Hector-san. Everything is ready.” [Ryouma]
“Thank you. I can take care of the rest.” [Hector]
“In that case, I’ll move on to my next job.” [Ryouma]
And so, I went to my next job.
My next job was to examine and treat patients who visit the hospital. In other words, ‘practical training’.
The patients in this hospital are mostly laborers from other departments.
A lot of them had to cover a lot of distance just to get to Gimuru and didn’t live good lives in their hometown.
Among these people are people who couldn’t adapt to the new environment and people whose living circ.u.mstances weren’t good, leading to a deterioration in their health. Perhaps because they were finally able to relax after finding employment, the consequences of all their built-up fatigue only flared up recently.
These people were brought to the hospital to receive treatment as part of the welfare program and to serve as training material for the residents.
“Good work out there.” [Ryouma]
“Oh, you’re here. Good timing.” [Dr. Mafral]
I entered the examination room from the back, and Dr. Mafral was waiting there.
The other three residents were already here and were already in the middle of examining their respective patients.
Seeing the nurses restlessly go to and fro the examination room, there might be a lot of patients today.
“The guards just came.” [Dr. Mafral]
“That’s my department, isn’t it? I’ll get ready immediately.” [Ryouma]