Mushoku Tensei (LN) - Volume 14 - Chapter 4

Chapter 4:

Lament

THREE DAYS HAD PASSED since Nanahoshi collapsed. She had yet to regain consciousness, and we still didn’t know what caused her to throw up blood.

Arumanfi instantly appeared after Sylphie left to get help. He looked Nanahoshi over and carried her straight to the sickbay. In the meantime, I gathered everyone to explain the situation. I told them that Nanahoshi’s condition had worsened, and when Sylphie tried to cast detoxification magic on her, she spat blood and collapsed. I also told them she was being treated in the sickbay. All of it had happened so fast, and that was pretty much all I knew. They were all taken aback, but at least they understood what was happening.

At the moment, Yuruzu of Atonement was the one looking after Nanahoshi. Yuruzu possessed a special healing power that allowed her to transfer one person’s stamina and health to another. Since this operated very differently from detoxification magic, it could be effective in treating illnesses that couldn’t be cured through normal means. Supposedly, anyway. The only issue was that Yuruzu couldn’t do it on her own. She needed someone’s cooperation to perform her magic. 

Sylphie immediately volunteered. Yuruzu had her lie beside Nanahoshi and began working her magic. Nanahoshi’s face was contorted in anguish throughout the process, and her coughing fits were ceaseless, even as she remained unconscious.

“Karowante, how is she?” Perugius glanced at Nanahoshi once before ordering one of his subordinates to inspect her. The man at his command was Karowante of Insight, whose ability allowed him to peer through the unknown—to identify a person’s secrets. This also meant he could analyze a person’s condition if they were unwell, almost like x-ray vision.

He looked at Nanahoshi—or maybe through her—and shook his head. “It’s not something Yuruzu can cure with her powers.”

“Then search the archives,” said Perugius.

“As you command.”

With that, his subordinate began to search for information on this illness and how to cure it. Karowante was going to compare the symptoms he’d observed in Nanahoshi with the literature they kept in the fortress. I offered to help, but Perugius flatly turned me down; he had no intention of letting an outsider into his archives. In the interim, Yuruzu continued her treatment, and Sylphie remained in the sickbay.

I was left with nothing to keep me preoccupied. Of course, I didn’t spend the next three days doing absolutely nothing. I returned home and updated Roxy on our situation, letting her know that Nanahoshi had collapsed and Sylphie was helping to treat her. Thus, I said, we would be a bit delayed in returning home.

After hearing everything, Roxy immediately took action. She contacted the university and requested time off, then explained everything to our family in my stead. She also promised to take care of everyone while we were gone. She was far more calm and collected than I was. No doubt she was used to these sorts of situations.

In the end, I didn’t actually do anything. Roxy did it all in my stead. All I did was remind Aisha and Norn, once again, that we would be late coming back. Then I grabbed an extra change of clothes and hightailed it back to the floating fortress. Not that there was anything I could do when I got back except pray that Nanahoshi would come out of this safely.

“I wonder if she’ll recover?”

Like me, Cliff had nothing to do other than twiddle his thumbs. The castle had a chapel, and that was where Cliff went to offer his fervent prayers. “Let thy will be done, Lord Millis,” he said, hands clasped and eyes closed.

People of faith often prayed like this in times of trouble. As for me, I’d never believed in any sort of higher power. I only put faith into the people who had helped me in this world. And I knew that even if I prayed to Roxy or Sylphie, it wouldn’t relieve the anxiety I felt.

As the silence stretched on, I suddenly remembered a movie I’d seen long ago. It was a famous one about aliens taking over the world. Their scientific advancements allowed them to overpower mankind and wipe us out. But at the very end of the film, their machines all came to a screeching halt. They had no immunity to the common cold virus, and it decimated them all.

Nanahoshi had teleported to this world. She wasn’t reincarnated into it, like I was. On top of that, she didn’t age, and she couldn’t use magic or magical implements. Perhaps it wasn’t simply mana she lacked but immunity to pathogens in this world as well.

No, if that were the case, she should have fallen ill much sooner. It’s been eight years since the Displacement Incident. That was a long time for her to go unaffected.

My lips thinned.

Is she actually going to die?

***

Today was the fourth day since Nanahoshi collapsed. We were all called into a room with a round table. Perugius and all of his familiars were present, except for Yuruzu of Atonement. They stood behind their lord as he took his seat in an extravagant chair.

“Please sit,” said Sylvaril.

We did as she asked, settling into our chairs. Sylphie was still assisting Yuruzu with Nanahoshi’s treatment, so without her, there were only six of us left.

“We have discovered what ails Lady Nanahoshi,” Sylvaril said, stepping forward once we were all seated.

So they finally figured out what it is.

“The name of her illness is Dryne Syndrome.”

Dryne Syndrome? This was the first I’d heard of it. I glanced around; it seemed I wasn’t the only one. Cliff probably had the most medical knowledge among us, but even he looked confused, shaking his head.

“It’s not surprising that you are unfamiliar with it. It was active an eon ago, when humans possessed less mana than they do today. Back then, a number of children were born without any mana at all. By the time they reached ten years of age or so, without exception, they would die from this syndrome.”

Well, that did seem to match up with what Nanahoshi was experiencing. Although she wasn’t a ten-year-old, she had been in this world for eight years by now, and she didn’t possess any mana. So her illness definitely wasn’t Sylphie’s fault after all.

“According to the literature, those who do not possess mana of their own lack the ability to neutralize outside mana that filters in. Thus, it accumulates inside them over a decade and causes this illness.”

I didn’t quite understand what that meant, but it sounded similar to the concept of good and bad bacteria. Having your own mana meant having good bacteria to flush out the bad, but those who didn’t have any would only build up bad bacteria in their bodies instead. While I wasn’t sure how much we could trust this literature Sylvaril spoke of, her explanation did make sense.

“Did you find anything about how to cure this illness?” I asked.

“There was nothing. This took place 7,000 years ago. As humans’ natural mana strengthened over time, the syndrome died out.”

That timeframe meant the syndrome was active prior to the first Great Human-Demon War. If memory served, that war was said to have lasted a millennium. Such vast conflict brought about great evolution. However they did it, mankind must have managed to strengthen themselves. It only made sense that Dryne Syndrome died off as a natural byproduct of that.

Nonetheless, 7,000 years was a long time. It wasn’t surprising they had little literature left on the topic. It was a miracle that we’d managed to find out the name of what plagued Nanahoshi.

“So what do we do?” I asked.

“Freeze her in time.” It wasn’t Sylvaril who responded to me this time but rather Perugius, whose imposing form sat rigidly in his luxury chair. “Scarecoat of Time can use his power to freeze Nanahoshi’s clock.” 

A man stepped forward as Perugius spoke. He wore a mask that protruded at the mouth. It somewhat resembled the puckered lips of a Hyottoko mask—no, maybe more like a gas mask? So he’s Scarecoat of Time, huh?

I was pretty sure his ability was to freeze the time of anyone he touched. It would stop his time as well, but at least if he used it on Nanahoshi, it would keep her from dying or getting any worse.

“All right. What do we do after that?”

“We contact people on the surface and look for a way to cure it.”

Okay. That was one way to do it. With Perugius’s reputation, surely there weren’t many who would turn us away.

“Although I have no idea how many people out there will want to try to save her,” Perugius added.

“Can’t you use your influence to help her?” I asked.

“Nanahoshi and I are merely bound by contract. I won’t put myself in debt to other people to help her.”

That sounds awfully cold to me.

That said, I knew nothing about their relationship, so I wasn’t about to stick my nose where it didn’t belong.

“Don’t misunderstand me. You are my guests, so I will do what I can to help. However, my entire life’s purpose is to seek out Laplace and vanquish him. What aid I can offer only extends so far. I cannot assist her at the cost of my own objective.”

So basically, since watching over Laplace was his job, he wouldn’t put in extra effort into helping her. If he requested help from someone else, that would put him in their debt, which he would eventually have to repay. It would be an especially heavy debt considering we needed a cure for a syndrome that hadn’t existed for thousands of years. There was no telling what kind of price would be extracted for a favor like that.

Perugius had no obligation to someone like Nanahoshi. No, in fact, he’d already done more than he was duty-bound to do. He treated her condition and was keeping her alive. That was why he was making this declaration, saying he wouldn’t do any more than he already had. If one of us wanted to save her, we were welcome to do so. I didn’t think there was anything wrong with that.

“You’re just planning to abandon Nanahoshi then?!” Cliff erupted, springing to his feet.

“I never said I would abandon her.”

“Liar! You have this incredible castle and all of these exceptional familiars at your disposal! If anyone can search for a cure, you should be able to!”

Perugius’s brow twitched. “Having the ability to do something does not mean one is obligated to do it.”

“Enough of your games!” Cliff snarled. “It’s the duty of those with power to help those in need!”

“Hmph. Don’t push Millis’s annoying religious drivel onto me.”

“What did you say?!”

I knew Cliff was merely speaking out of anger. He was a believer in Millis, which resembled Christianity from my previous world. Perhaps one of Millis’s teachings was that people should extend the hand of mercy to those lambs in need of succor. I thought it was a mistake to say that to Perugius, though. He was operating on his own sense of morality. For the past 400 years, he had been working toward one objective. He was interested in Nanahoshi’s research on summoning from other worlds, but that did not take priority over Laplace. It was mostly a way for him to kill time.

“What you’re saying is tantamount to abandoning Nanahoshi! If you’re going to help her, you should commit to doing it right!”

“Cliff, enough!” Elinalise bellowed at him after he kicked his chair. She seized him by the shoulders and held tight so he couldn’t move. “I know how you feel, but hold it in.”

His lips drew taut.

“I don’t want to lose you over something like this,” she continued.

Around the room, all eleven of Perugius’s familiars were poised for battle. Perugius took one glance at Cliff, who was comparatively powerless, and his lips curled into a mocking smile. “If you’re so bothered over her condition, why don’t you take action? Your God would say the same, would he not? ‘When helping those in need, don’t rely on others,’ I believe it was?”

“Grr…” Cliff scowled as he slid back down into his chair, vexed by Perugius’s words. Surely it wasn’t his intention to jump down Perugius’s throat. It simply upset him that someone so powerful, who seemed capable of anything, wouldn’t try to help us.

“Huff.” I took a deep exhale. Okay, now what? I want to help Nanahoshi out, but I have no idea where to start. The rest of the group seemed similarly stumped. Within my family, Aisha in particular had spent a lot of time with Nanahoshi and would be sad if she passed. Plus, if we did nothing and watched Nanahoshi wither away, Sylphie would blame herself.

Isn’t there something I can do?

“Pardon me,” said a voice as the door to the room swung open. Yuruzu of the Atonement stepped inside. “Lady Nanahoshi has regained consciousness.”

The moment I heard that, I jumped out of my chair. “A-and? How is she?”

“On the surface, her symptoms seem to have improved.”

“Meaning?”

“Dryne Syndrome causes a buildup of mana, which alters one’s body and leads to illness. We have managed to treat those symptoms.”

By the sounds of it, Dryne Syndrome seemed to resemble AIDS. All of her coughing up until now must have been a sign. That was why our detoxification magic was effective at clearing her surface symptoms but never entirely got rid of the problem.

“Can’t you absorb the mana from her body or something?” I asked.

“I’m not able to do that, no.”

“Then don’t you know anyone who can?”

Yuruzu slowly shook her head.

“Oh, all right, then…”

I wondered if there was some other way we could drain the excess mana out of her body. For instance, we could make a magic implement with such properties. Surely, our ability to make such objects had progressed in the 7,000 years since Dryne Syndrome first appeared. What else could we do? Could I use the Mana Absorption Stone to cleanse her?

Nah, that thing isn’t capable of absorbing mana from inside a person’s body. Although I get the feeling it’s not impossible to use it that way. Maybe we should make something instead? But how long would it take to make something with those capabilities? And there’s not even any guarantee we could make such a thing. Shit.

“At any rate, I’m going to go see how Nanahoshi is doing,” I said, making my way to the door. The others quickly followed me.

***

The sickbay was desolate. It had the same furniture as the guest rooms, but the interior was made of windowless stone. An operating table of sorts stood in the center of the room, and there was also a cabinet containing a knife and bandages and other medical supplies.

Silence hung in the air.

Nanahoshi was in a bed in the corner of the room. All the blood she’d hacked up was gone now. At some point, Sylphie and Yuruzu had given her a pristine white gown as if she were some kind of hospital patient. From the outside, there was no indication that she was in any danger, yet the life seemed to have been drained from her.

“Nanahoshi? Are you okay?”

She glanced at me. “Do I look okay to you?”

No, she didn’t. Her face was deathly pale, and there were dark bags under her eyes. You could tell she was ill just by looking. Perhaps Yuruzu’s powers of Atonement were also draining for the patient.

Incidentally, the bed beside Nanahoshi’s was empty. Yuruzu had Sylphie carried off to her guest room right as we came in. I’d seen Sylphie in passing and she looked emaciated. She’d been helping with Nanahoshi’s treatment these past four days. Although she hadn’t gone without food and water, it still had a noticeable impact on her constitution.

“Yuruzu said they can’t cure me.”

“I know,” I said as I sat beside her. It seemed Miss Yuruzu hadn’t hidden any of the details from Nanahoshi. “Well, I’m sure you’ll get better soon, though.”

“We both know I won’t.” She turned her gaze to the wall and went quiet.

Perhaps saying that had been a bit reckless of me.

After a long, drawn-out silence, Ariel and the others tried talking to Nanahoshi. Some of them tried to comfort her, some encouraged her to keep her spirits up, and others promised she would get better soon. They were all just trying to brighten her mood, but unfortunately, in times like this, sometimes that had the opposite effect. For those in pain, there was nothing more contemptible than empty reassurance.

Nanahoshi wouldn’t respond to anything, so they all eventually ran out of things to say. An oppressive silence permeated the air, stifling the atmosphere.

“Well, then, Nanahoshi, I should be getting back to my room. I’ll come see you again,” said Ariel. She was the first to leave, and the others soon trickled out after her.

Cliff lingered. It was only with Elinalise’s prompting that he finally vacated the room. When they slipped out the door, I heard her say, “There’s no words we can offer her.”

I was the only one left. I didn’t know why I had stayed, but I felt like I needed to be here with her—that it would be dangerous to leave her alone right now. There was nothing I could say to her, though. Not when she was sick with an incurable illness. Anything I said would be pointless.

Nanahoshi had to be filled with anxiety. Her research on summoning magic was headed in the right direction. She had once been stalled at the first stage, but she’d sailed past the second and third phase. Judging by what Perugius said, she already had all she needed to move to the next step. I had no idea how close she was to the fifth phase of her research, but if things kept up the way they had been, she could probably go home in another year or two. 

But just as things finally started to look up for her, this happened. It was like a cancer diagnosis. Even though cancer was no longer considered untreatable in my world, the death rate was still quite high. It was enough to drive Nanahoshi into a corner and fill her with despair. 

It wouldn’t be surprising if she snapped again. If it really was true that this illness had no cure, then she had no future waiting for her. If it meant that she would never be able to return home, so maybe she deserved the right to go berserk. Perhaps if she unleashed her fury until there was nothing else left, she could settle down and find some way to enjoy what little time she had left. If she did decide to cut loose, I’d stick by her side to the end.

“I never had a strong body to begin with, you know,” Nanahoshi said with a sigh as I sat there in silence. Her voice sounded more cheerful than I expected, but it was the empty, insincere kind. “I wouldn’t really say I was the sickly type, but I did catch a cold about once every year.”

I kept quiet and listened as the words poured out of her.

“My grades were good, but I wasn’t really athletic. I preferred being indoors.” 

After a brief pause, she changed the subject. “This world hasn’t made much progress on the medical front, has it?” 

When I didn’t respond, she continued. “Maybe it’s because they are so reliant on magic in this world, but did you know the people here don’t even wash their wounds after they’ve been injured? As a result, there are many who receive treatment too late and die or lose a limb. Idiots, aren’t they? Even just cleaning their wounds with ordinary water would prevent such infections from ever happening…”

I waited and she switched to a different topic.

“Ever since I realized I can’t use magic, I’ve been taking a number of precautions. I avoid crowded places to keep from contracting any illnesses. I also refuse to eat food that I’m unfamiliar with.”

These pauses continued, interspersed with her random thoughts.

“I might look really unhealthy, from your perspective, but I’ve actually been exercising in my room. I’ve been staying as fit as I can, in my own way. I mean, I knew if I got sick, it might not be treatable. In fact, I figured it would probably be incurable. And it would probably be some illness I had never even heard of before.

“Don’t you think this world is pretty strange to begin with? There are monsters here heavy enough to crush you, and I don’t know if it’s the magic or what, but this world seems to ignore the laws of physics altogether.

“I mean, okay, sure, I thought this place was pretty cool when I first came. I’ve actually played quite a few video games myself, and I don’t hate swords and magic and stuff. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t find it kind of exciting. Part of me once felt jealous of you for being able to reincarnate into a world like this…”

Her voice trailed off suddenly, shoulders trembling. Slowly, she turned her face toward me. Her eyes were red and puffy as they welled up.

“I don’t want to die.”

The tears came falling one after the other, as if a dam had burst inside her.

“I don’t wanna die in a place like this! Not in this freaky, weird world! Why?! Why is this happening to me?! It doesn’t make any sense! Did you know that my body hasn’t changed once in these past eight years? I haven’t grown any taller, and my hair is the same length as it ever was! But my stomach growls, and if I eat, I still poop. Yet my nails won’t grow, and I haven’t had any periods either!”

She lashed out and grabbed a nearby pitcher, which she flung across the room. It struck the opposing wall and shattered, splashing water all over the floor.

“I’m not a human of this world! I’m not living here! I’m like a walking corpse! So why? Why am I able to get sick?! It’s completely messed up. Why does this have to happen to me? I don’t wanna die! I don’t wanna die in this stupid, weird world!” 

The tears came faster and faster as she wailed.

“I mean, I haven’t even kissed anyone! I haven’t told the guy I love how I feel yet! I’m so jealous of you. You enjoy every single day, living each moment to its fullest. What do you have to be sad about? Oh, so your dad died and your mom’s seriously ill? So what? Who cares! I won’t even get to see my dad before I die. My mom’s not even going to know I’m gone. I miss them—both my mom and my dad! 

“I still remember the morning before I teleported here. My dad said he would come home early that day, and my mom said she was going to grill some mackerel for dinner. I told him that I had friends coming over so I’d prefer he not come home early, and I told my mom I was sick to death of mackerel. Why…why did I say those things? I’m sure they’re both really worried. I miss them. I want to go home. I don’t wanna die. I don’t wanna die here…”

She looped her arms around her legs, burying her face in her knees. Muffled sobs spilled out of her, along with hiccups and mournful cries.

The pain in her voice was like a dagger to my heart. When I first came to this world, I probably wouldn’t have empathized with her at all. “I miss them. I want to go home. I want to see my family again.” The person I was back then would have been baffled to hear anyone say such things. I would have thought, Eh, just forget about them and enjoy the new world you’re in.

Now things were different. I understood wanting to go home and wanting to see your family again. I knew how precious those seemingly monotonous days could be. Once they were gone, you could never get them back again. Ever.

Paul was dead. Zenith’s memories might never come back. The warm family I knew from Buena Village was gone. However, in its place, I now had a new family to protect: Sylphie, Roxy, Lucie, Lilia, Aisha, Norn, and Zenith. If I were somehow separated from my girls forever, it would tear my heart in two. If any of them were to vanish on me, I would go to the ends of the earth to find them again. And if I were to somehow be transported back to my old world, it wouldn’t matter if I could use magic there or if girls tripped over themselves to shower me with attention. I would still be dead set on coming back to this world.

“Hic…hic…” Nanahoshi’s entire body shook as she squeezed her arms around her knees.

She’d never gotten any closer to Zanoba, Cliff, or Sylphie than was absolutely necessary, but she always listened to me. When I asked her for something, she would oblige. When I held a party, she would attend. In hindsight, she’d never treated me unkindly. She brightened up just a bit whenever we spoke Japanese to each other. As the only person who could speak her mother tongue here, I was her one respite from it all.

“Please, someone, save me…” Nanahoshi cried out in a quiet voice.

I got out of my chair.

I returned to the room with the round table to find Perugius still seated inside. His familiars had all left. He was there all alone, as if he’d been waiting for me.

“What is it?” he asked.

“I’ll save her. I would greatly appreciate it if you could spare me any assistance, but I won’t ask for more than you are willing to give.”

His brows lifted in surprise, but he nodded. “Oh? You’re going to look for a way to save her?” 

He stared fixedly at me, as if trying to ascertain how genuine I was being and how determined I was to see this through. I sensed skepticism from him, as if he didn’t think I would do anything unless it benefited me, but I wasn’t really the calculating type. Since I had nothing to hide, I stared right back at him.

“Very well,” he said. “I would be aggrieved to see her die as well.”

Great, I’ve decided what I’m going to do, but now where do I start? 

This was an illness extinguished over 7,000 years ago. None of us had a clue how we could find a cure for it. All we knew for sure was that detoxification magic and healing magic were ineffective. Perugius would have said something if the cure were that simple.

Maybe a magical implement? But I have no idea if that would do the trick either.

If we were looking for a magical implement that could affect someone internally, Cliff had engineered one for Elinalise. In her case, he had improved it over time while ascertaining its effectiveness, but even then, it hadn’t entirely lifted her curse. 

Still, perhaps we could do the same with Nanahoshi and gradually work on her condition while adding improvements to the device. That would, however, require us to monitor her constitution for changes over time, and Nanahoshi probably didn’t have that much time. She’d vomited blood during this flare-up. Yuruzu had cured the surface symptoms, but they would no doubt reappear soon. She might not live through the next flare-up. On top of that, with her body frozen in time, there was no opportunity for us to experiment. 

So we couldn’t use a magical implement. Perhaps we could make one eventually, but right now, we needed something with immediate effects. Maybe someone knew of such a treatment, like Man God or Orsted. They were the most likely candidates in my mind. Problem being, I had no way of contacting Man God. With any luck, he might visit me in my dreams tonight and impart his advice, but our communication was entirely by his leisure; I had no way of reaching out. Plus, we didn’t have the time to spare waiting around and hoping he might show up.

“Lord Perugius, is there any way for us to contact Dragon God Orsted?” I asked.

“No. I do not know his current location.”

So even Orsted was beyond our reach.

“In any case, I doubt he would know a solution either. He only appeared in this world about 100 years ago. Wise though he may be, he would have no way of knowing about an illness from 7,000 years ago.”

Orsted was about 100 years old then, huh? I figured he’d been around longer than that. Compared to Perugius, he was pretty young. Even if he was still way older than me.

“All right, but then who in the world would know about a 7,000 year old illn…” My voice trailed off.

Wait. There is such a person. I just remembered.

Yes, indeed. There was someone who had lived that long. I didn’t get the impression that they knew a lot about diseases and the like, but there was no harm in asking.

“Actually,” I said, “there is someone who comes to mind.”

“Oh?”

That said, I had no idea how to find them. The last time we met was entirely by coincidence, and we parted ways not long after we ran into each other. I had little connection with them on top of having no way to contact them. 

Still, I had to do something. If I waited around here, nothing would change. “Would it be possible for you to send me to the Demon Continent?”

“The Demon Continent? And what do you plan to do there?” asked Perugius.

I had only met this person once in the past. Roxy had apparently run into them as well, but it was anyone’s guess as to where they were now. Nonetheless, I had known their name—her name, rather—for a long time now, having studied about her exploits when I lived in the Fittoa Region. Our meeting was one I’d never forget.

“I’d like to track down the Demon World’s Great Emperor, Kishirika Kishirisu.”

Kishirika—that was the name of the woman responsible for the first Great Human-Demon War that happened 7,000 years ago.