Editing/Standardisation: Medicine Melancholy
Original Translation: Medicine Melancholy
Reiji
“…Asleep already?”
Iris was lying in bed, delirious from the heat and breathing heavily. She was still awake and groggy until a few minutes ago, but as soon as she took the medicine Aini-san prepared for her, she fell asleep.
Reluctantly, I shook off the little hand I had been holding the whole time… which was an unusually sweet request on her part to hold my hand until she falls asleep… and gently put it back under the covers.
It was a very simple request, to be honest. But the soft, smooth feeling in my hands kept me tense the whole time, and I felt awfully tired when it’s all over.
It can’t be helped, this is the longest I’ve ever touched a girl’s hand in more than 20 years of my entire life!
Deciding that it would be no use continuing that train of thought, I left the room after confirming that Iris was sound asleep…
“To think that just holding hands makes you so flustered, you’re even more of a virgin than I expected, Reiji.”
“Woah?!”
I thought my heart would jump out of my chest when I heard a voice calling me from the side just as I left.
“So, how does it feel to give Iris a piggyback ride all the way back to town? She’s so soft, right?”
“Hey, stop bringing that up.”
With a mischievous expression on his face, Saul… no, only Ayame would have such a stupid grin, came forward and asked me.
I’m getting really fed up with this.
At the moment, I was still desperately trying to forget the warm, soft feeling of Iris being so close to my back, so give me a damn break, please.
“Right back at you, Saul. I swear you would never pass up a chance to do such a thing to Iris yourself. Why the sudden change of heart?”
She used to be so reluctant to allow anyone but herself to touch Iris, but lately she had been wanting to leave Iris in my hands for some reason.
“It’s nothing, really… I admit that I would never have left ‘Iris, my masterpiece’ with anyone else. But the ‘current’ Iris is her own person now.”
…I’m not sure what she meant, but I guess she’s saying that she doesn’t want to constrain Iris’ activities as much as she did in the game days.
It’s a good thing that she can be independent from her older brother… or in this case, younger sister, from now on, right?
“Well, if it’s you, Reiji-san… I’m sure she’ll be in good hands.”
“Huh…? What are you talking-”
“Figure it out for yourself, I won’t tell you a thing anymore.”
Then Saul quickly walked away, probably to see Aini-san.
…What was that all about?
Saul
I sighed.
You really are dense, Reiji-san… No, both of you are so dense that it hurts.
It’s obvious to literally everybody except those two that they both have feelings for each other.
I have no objection to that. I know Reiji-san well because he has been our childhood friend for all our lives, so if he and Iris end up together, I’m sure he’ll take good care of her.
But why?! Why are those two still so dense?! Are they children?!
I forced myself to keep the urge to scream out in my chest.
They are both five years older than me. I feel like it would be better if I just told them everything, but that would be frustrating.
I came down from the second floor, where the sick bay was.
When I went behind the curtains leading to the room behind the pharmacy counter on the first floor, I found the person I was looking for leisurely doing something that looked like mixing medicine.
“Ah, it’s you. My apologies, but there’s a lot of work for me to do at the moment, you know, I was out of the store for the whole day and the requests kept piling up, so please excuse me… How’s your sister?”
“Yes, the medicine you gave her seems to be working, and she’s sleeping well now… Thank you so much for lending her a place to sleep even though you’re so busy.”
“No need to thank me. It’s just part of my job.”
Aini-san gave me a kind, motherly smile. Is this what they call “Ara ara energy”?
I see her reputation from the game days has translated well into reality in this world.
But anyway, compared to my old world, there’re fewer doctors who received higher, specialized education in this world.
To begin with, the number of institutions for this purpose was limited, and even more limited was the number of people willing to study at them, because of high tuition and strong connections required to become a student… In other words, they’re schools for the upper class aristocrats and the wealthy only.
Likewise, those doctors would generally only receive clients from the upper class… It’s the kind of profession where the job itself is a status on its own.
Some people believe that recovery magic and magic potions, in exchange for their superior effectiveness, shorten life spans because they accelerate recovery to an excessive degree, and there is currently no evidence to contradict this theory. Therefore, those doctors are in demand among aristocrats who care about such things and want to live longer if possible.
On the other hand, the private clinics in cities are run by the direct apprentices of other medical practitioners, who eventually start calling themselves such… To put it bluntly, they’re self-appointed doctors without any qualifications.
Their skills varied greatly from one place to another. And in a world where recovery magic and magic potions exist, whose population was neither as large nor long-lived as my original world, their status wasn’t very high.
In rural areas like this town, well, the closest to a doctor you can find is an alchemist like Aini-san here.
But I digress.
“…I’m sorry that you have to go through all this trouble for us.”
“This is but a small price to pay. The soldiers giving their lives to protect the town deserve to know about it. You’ll help me deliver these materials to them, won’t you?”
What I was entrusted with was a document that summarized the mayor’s wrongdoings, personally sealed by Aini-san, who was an official inspector. With this, it’d be possible to detain and temporarily suspend the authority of that mayor, who until now could not be touched without permission, even if we couldn’t punish him until we receive further instructions from the Count.
The nature of her work meant that she was unable to act on her own and had to deliver her report by untraceable means, and this time we will be doing it for her.
“…I have to ask, though, why did you give up your true identity to us so easily?”
Yes, I’d always wondered about that. She was supposed to be a secret agent, right?
“Yeah, about that…”
Gently, she put her mouth to my ear.
“Actually, I’ve only heard rumors about two siblings who resemble certain aristocrats who went missing a long time ago, that’s all.”
The words were whispered to my ears in such a bewitching way that they made my hair stand on end.
“…Ha, hahahaha, who could those siblings be, hahahahaha…”
I was dripping with cold sweats inside. Was she trying to blackmail me so that we keep each other’s secret?
What a scary person.
“Sorry, I was just teasing you. The actual truth is… the Count has instructed me to look for you and explain the situation in case we meet.”
“Phew…”
Then all of a sudden, she was back to her “gentle” self.
So she was just teasing me all along? Damn, is this the difference in life experience?
“Are you saying that the Count… Count Roland, knows about us from the beginning?”
“Yes, he looks forward to meeting you all in person.”
Looks like the bluff I made when we met that mayor turned out to be true. But how did he know about us? Could there be a “secret agent” was hiding in the previous town?
Well, let’s just leave it at that.
I regained my composure and tapped the shoulder of the boy Hayato, who was unable to follow the conversation and sat by with a question mark on his face.
“Hayato, I have somewhere to go, so I’m leaving Aini-san and Iris’ protection to you, okay?”
“…Why me?”
He seemed to still be bothered by his earlier blunder.
“I’ll say it again, you were doing the best job you could with the information you had at the time. Have confidence in yourself, okay?”
I only knew that he was a stealth class, but he stubbornly refused to disclose any more information than that, though I suspected him to have an “unique class” like the rest of us, which meant he had some tricks up his sleeve that we didn’t know.
But he was able to reach the top at such a young age, in such a popular class as stealth even. He must have something more than just playing time and luck. The same could be said for all the other unique class holders.
“You may be too ‘timid’, but you aren’t a ‘coward’ by any means. I’m going to trust you with this important matter, so man up, my boy.”
“Don’t patronize me, I’m not a kid.”
Lightly, the boy brushed off my hand patting his head and stared right back at me.
“…Okay, I get it, I’ll look after your precious princess… Take care of yourself too, Nii-chan.”
“Yeah, I’ll be counting on you, then.”
I gave a small nod to the boy, who had regained some of his cockiness, and left the clinic.
In the meeting room inside the guards’ encampment, the atmosphere was grim.
The people here were, first of all, me and Reiji. This was to hear from those of us who had seen the site firsthand.
Reiji originally wanted to stay with Iris, but he and Iris were the only one who saw the scene of the illegal mining, and Iris obviously couldn’t come here. I was in the same camp too, but I had to be here to report about the crystalized monsters. It couldn’t be helped.
Then, with Philias-san as the representative of the mercenary company, and the representatives of the guards in one place, the document that had been entrusted to me was unsealed.
“This is…”
I could see that the officer’s face, who had been flipping through the materials, had grown tense.
“…What do you think? Is this going to be enough to shut that mayor up?”
“Yes, this should be enough. Let’s prepare immediately and take him into custody. Since we expect to engage his private army, I would like to formally request the mercenaries to do the same, if possible.”
“Don’t worry, we’re always available, and as the squad leader, we’ll take care of that request.”
The officer affirmed Reiji’s question, and Philias-san agreed without a pause. I heard that they had anticipated this development and made preparations for it since we left.
“…Very well then, operation commence-”
At that moment when the officer was about to speak…
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
A bell rang, signaling an anomaly.
“This is an emergency! Monsters are attacking!”
A guard suddenly entered the room in a hurry.
Looks like this is going to be a long night…
APM - Translation 