Pioneering the Apocalyptic World - Chapter 41
Chapter 11: A glimpse of the distortion
The next morning.
At the dinner table, Zagi asked with a sarcastic look, “Did you get a good night’s sleep last night?”, so I answered with a nice smile (self-proclaimed), “Yes, I slept very well.”.
Then, for some reason, Zagi’s eyes widened a little, as if he had been taken aback. He discreetly winked at Fricka, and she confirmed that it was true by nodding her head.
…… No, don’t check it, isn’t it sexual harassment?…….
Then Fricka separated from us to do her morning prayers.
But I can’t just be lazing around, and continued the investigation with another attendant.
Today, instead of the male elves from yesterday, there was an other male elf… And one female elf. …… Do they have any hidden intentions with this arrangement…….
“Miko-sama, where are you going today?”
“I’m going to investigate the river first.”
The river was quite near. It normally takes about 5 minutes on foot from the village. Yes, if you walk normally.
……It was supposed to be only five minutes, but due to various appeals from the elves, the progress slowed down and it took easily over ten minutes, so I felt tired even before the investigation started …… Are you guys determined to not let me work……?
I’m starting to get envious of Uru, who was been ignored like whe was air……
I pulled myself together and tried to collect some water… but it was just [Water], and this didn’t seem to be the cause either.
When I was scratching my head wondering what to do, the female elf called out to me.
“Umm… What did miko-sama liked about Fricka?”
Heh, do you really is asking that now? I had a hard time trying not to express that feeling. I could have failled little bit, and the corners of my mouth may have cramped up.
But what I liked about her?
If this was a talk with a male elf, I can answer jokingly like “because she is cute”, but if I say it to a female, it’s like I am comparing them and it will sounds mean…
……Ah, there was one thing that certainly liked about her.
“Fricka responds normally to Uru after all.”
“…n”
“That, is……”
As I said that looking at Uru, the two elves showed their hesitation.
The elves may be hostile to the lizards, but that’s not a reason why I can’t feel upset about my friend being overtly treated so badly…….Don’t tell me that you guys can’t understand something that simple, right?
Like, if you want me to like you, no matter what you true think about, you should at least pretend, to not be noticed by me.
Moreover, Fricka is probably treating Uru normally, not because she is trying to please me, but because she is genuinely not bothered by Uru being a lizard. That enough is a high score in my ratings.
…… Hmm? I see, I seem to like Fricka quite a bit. Letting the bride talk aside!
In order to forcibly bring back to reality the two who fell silent, I clapped my hands loudly.
And while pointing at upstream of the river??the east, I asked them.
“This story is over. The direction that the investigation team went missing was that?”
“…Y-Yes.”
Even if I look closely, there is nothing particularly suspicious about what I can see, but I could see a tree branch being washed away by the river.
That somehow caught my attention, and I becames curious about it and picked it up… Then, I frowned at the item name that was displayed.
“…I wonder if the miasma countermeasures will be needed again…”
The item name was [Contaminated Old Tree Branch].
If miasma is being generated, we can’t just rush into it right now.
When I returned to the village to prepare myself, I heard the sound of a children making noise.
What is happening? When I tried to get closer.…… For some reason, the two elves who accompanied me tried to persuade me “It’s just a trivial matter, so don’t worry about it.” but I ignored them and proceeded.
“Please, give me medicine!”
“No. The medicine is a precious thing. I can’t give you more than what was already been distributed.”
A child that wants medicine, and an adult who refuses to give it.
Hmm, I think Fricka also said that my LP potion was precious. It’s an abnormal situation, and I’m guessing there’s a shortage of medicine in this village.
Well, this Is a good time to lend a helping hand.
“You there, what kind of medicine do you need?”
“……Eh?”
“… M-Miko-sama?”
The adult elf noticed me and stand up straight. ……That’s fine, but why is your face pale?
Did I did something that scared you? Or is it because of Uru who is behind me?
Let’s put him aside for the time being. The is child elf more important than that.
When I crouched down to match the height of his gaze, the child… The boy opened his eyes in surprise. Because of that, his tears spilled out, so I wiped them away.
“…Onee-san, do you have any medicine?”
“I have some. Which kind do you want?”
“I-I don’t know. But my mother looks like she’s in pain…”
“Okay, then let’s go to your mother’s place together.”
I patted his head and picked up the boy. He was a little taken aback, but it would be quicker to hold him than walk with him.
“Miko-sama, please wait…!”
“You need permission of the elders to this…”
The attendant elves tried stopped me in a hurry, but… At their words I snapped and glared them
“Permission? So you need permission to help people in this village? Huh?”
“……!”
One of them flinched at my words…… And the other was trying to pick up his cane.
However, Uru quickly interrupts his movement by threatening him more fiercely than I did.
“Y-You…”
“Uru, you can ignore them, let’s go.”
Leaving the elf, whose face turned red in anger or was shame? We headed for the boy’s house.
“Mother…!”
The boy tried to jump on his mother, who is lying on the bed, but stopped one step before. I guess he didn’t want to burden her. Good boy.
The mother was either asleep or unable to get up state, she didn’t reacted to the boy and just stayed with her eyes closed, looking painfully.
I said “Excuse me for a moment.” and turned over the blanket….And frowned at the unexpected situation.
The sacred tree was in a weakened state. So I had guessed that the people who were collapsing in this village were also in a weakened state, but…
“Weakness and… Miasma…?”
Yes, the mother had multiple bad status. In her face, neck, hands… In addition to the bluish-purple effect of the weakness state, I could see red-black spots.
The branch I picked up earlier was definitely contaminated. However, thanks to the holy water, there are no contaminated items in the village, and even if this person was washing clothes and bathing in the river, she shouldn’t be affected by just that level of contamination that branch had, should be.
Or perhaps she was easier to be effect state because she was in a weakened state first…?
“… Onee-san. My mother will recover…?”
At the boy’s appeal, I suddenly regained consciousness. Let’s put the thinking about for later, I have to heal this person first.
As a countermeasure against weakening, I should use a tonic potion, and as a countermeasure against the miasma… I think I’ll probably be able to manage it with holy water, like I did with Ryza-san. If it doesn’t work, I have no choice but to use my trump card the holy nectar water.
I have been diligently increasing the sacred flowers numbers since the battle against Chimera, but the total number is still small, so it’s frustrating that I can’t use them large numbers.……Come to think of it, they were blooming in quite a large quantity at that altar. Let’s ask Fricka later if I can get some.
I, while wishing “I hope this will heal her.” gently sprinkled the two kinds of potions.
“…Wow…”
As if responding to the boy’s voice, the symptoms were clearly fading, even if not completely. At the same time, her breathing becomes calmer.
Thank goodness. With this, even if I don’t prepare a strong potion, I can recover the bad status normally if I use the potions multiple times.
“Is miko-sama here!!!”
The time that I could be relieved was just a single moment, along with a noisy voice the door was opened with a loud bang……. I wonder if they know that are sick people here and still did that …?
Several elves, led by an elder, intruded in without showing a hint reserve. I also glimpsed that Fricka was at the end of the group.
And when the elder looked at me and tried to say something, he noticed that the elf in the bed was cured and became surprised.
But in his eyes was not a single drop of joy.
“Miko-sama… This is a problem.”
“Where is the problem?”
Is inconvenient for them to her recover?
How I was told to stop before I came here is just a single more reason that made my distrust towards the elves in this village was just swelling up. I am giving my best to just not start to yell at them.
“B-Because it’s unfair. Hmm, we don’t have enough medicine to everyone, so we have to decide who should use it first and in what order—”
“Then I will help everyone.”
“… What?”
Doon!
I didn’t listen to his selfish words until the end, and took out a large amount of items from the item box.
LP, MP, detoxification, mitigation, dispel, tonic, sedation…… All the types of potions that I can make right now + 100 bottles of holy water each.……There may be cases where they don’t work that well because the Item rank was low, but I’ll think about that when that time came.
Even though they were stunned by the sudden appearance of a large number of items, I pressed them even further.
“I only took out a part of what I have stored. I still have five times this amount in my item box, and I can make even more.”
“…!?”
Whether it’s because they don’t understand it, or because they can, they started pant like fish wanting oxygen.
……If I don’t say it clearly, they won’t move, huh?
“Isn’t this enough? You guys don’t have to think about the order, right?……Now, take me to the where the sick people are.”
“W-We will prepare for it now!!!”
To my quiet anger, the elves ran away like spiderlings.
While trying to heal my worn down heart looking at the little boy who was dumbfounded, I tried to store the items I took out.
In the meantime, the only remaining elf, Fricka, caught my eye.
She made her already white face even whiter.
And stared at the potions with empty eyes, as if her soul had escaped her body.