Chapter Thirteen: Medicine
The sun fell below the horizon, and it was night. Raphtalia’s stomach started to rumble again, and so we left the room to get dinner at a restaurant.
The potatoes we had earlier were like a pre-dinner snack.
Raphtalia had never been to the restaurant, so she didn’t know what to order. My wallet was finally filling up, and we would spend the next few nights out in the field. I thought it was reasonable to give her a good meal.
“Give us two Delia sets, and some Naporata.”
The waitress took our menus and went back to the kitchen.
“Let’s eat.”
“Yes!”
Raphtalia ate in silence but held my hand the whole time.
She must have been around ten years old. She looked hungry enough to eat my portion as well, so I ordered some more.
“We’ll be out in the fields tomorrow, so eat your fill tonight.”
“Okay!”
I wanted to tell her to eat or nod her head, but not to do both. She seemed to really enjoy the food though, so I didn’t say anything.
As we sat there, I realized that she had some other issue I needed to work on. I decided to take care of it when we got back to the room.
“Your hair is out of control. Let’s take care of that.”
“… Okay.”
She looked anxious. I put my hand on her head.
“It’ll be fine. I won’t give you a weird hairstyle or anything like that.”
Really, leaving it like it was would be the worst thing to do.
I ran my fingers through her hair to get an idea of what needed to come off, then I took her knife and started cutting. I cut off hair that was too long, so that it fell around her shoulders, and that was it.
“There we go. That should do it.”
The style seemed a lot more normal than how it was before.
Raphtalia spun around the room, smiling and giggling. She seemed happy.
I was cleaning up the pile of hair when my shield started to react.
… I hadn’t realized that.
I let the shield absorb the hair and tried to keep Raphtalia from noticing.
Then I opened the weapon book. It said that my shield’s level wasn’t high enough.
“Hm?”
Damn, she was right behind me.
“Go to bed!”
“Okay!”
She seemed, oddly, more upfront and honest than she had been yesterday.
She might start yelling in the night, so I decided to try and finish up my compounding as soon as I could.
You’ve made a nourishing beverage!
Nourishing Beverage: quality: poor to fair: effective for fatigue: quickly nourishes the person who drinks it
You’ve made medicine!
Medicine: quality: fair to normal: helps cure sickness. Not effective on serious sicknesses
Hmm… It seemed like I could make a variety of things from the grasses in the fields and mountains. And the apothecary was buying them from me at a good price. Still, they used a lot of resources. It was hard to know if I was coming out ahead.
In the end, I made six nourishing drinks, and a sizable portion of medicine.
But it was hard to make anything of a high quality, and so I don’t think I could make compounding into regular work. But hey, I was the Shield Hero, not the neighborhood pharmacist.
… I might as well let the shield absorb them.
Calorie Shield: conditions met
Energy Shield: conditions met
Potential Energy Shield: conditions met
Calorie Shield: ability locked:
equip bonus: stamina up (small)
Energy Shield: ability locked:
equip bonus: SP increase (small)
Potential Energy Shield: ability locked:
equip bonus: stamina use down (small)
It seemed like all the abilities were status abilities.
What was this stamina it was talking about? My strength?
I better look it up.
I’d better find out more about different herbs. I was getting a lot of abilities that I could use, but I wished there were more battle abilities.
Apparently the herbs I already had were not enough to unlock the abilities.
“… Mmm…”
I stretched and decided to turn in for the night. I turned around and locked eyes with Raphtalia. She was asleep, though. Apparently, she was right about to start crying.
“Ahhhh!”
I clamped my hand down over her screams, and she calmed down a little. I held her against my chest and ran my fingers through her hair.
And that was it. She was much easier to calm down than she had been. I made to let her go, but she started to cry again. I guess there was no getting around it. We slept together that night.
… Cold. It was cold.
I could feel the sun on my face, and I opened my eyes. Raphtalia should have been sleeping with me, but I saw her across the room, curled into a ball in the corner.
“What’s wrong?”
“I’m sorry I’m sorry, I’m sorry I’m sorry!”
She was apologizing so furiously something had to be wrong. I arched my eyebrows and soon found out why I was so cold.
Yes… She had peed the bed.
I guess she thought I would be mad.
I didn’t know if it was normal for a ten-year-old to pee the bed, but I couldn’t get mad at her if she was staring at me with terrified eyes like that.
I walked over to her. I reached out my hand, but she curled away from it.
“Oh come on…”
I set my hand on her shaking shoulder.
“It doesn’t matter if you peed the bed. Let’s just hurry up and get this stuff washed and changed.”
We’d need some equipment.
“Um…”
Raphtalia was looking at me in confusion.
“Aren’t you mad?”
“What’s the point in getting mad at a repentant person? If you feel bad, I won’t be mad.”
The sheets were dirty. I wondered how much the innkeeper would want for the trouble. Regardless, I’d take the blanket for myself.
I went and explained the situation to the innkeeper, paid for the sheets, and then ran to the weapon shop to procure some new equipment.
The water from the well was very cold. I ran the sheets over the washboard and packed them away. On our way out to the fields, I found a tree branch to hang them on.
“Okay then…”
Raphtalia kept walking beside me like she was the worst thing in the world. It was getting on my nerves.
“I told you not to worry about it!”
“… Okay.”
… She was an honest kid. But if she lost her motivation, it would be a problem for me too.
“Ah…”
Her stomach was grumbling again.
Her face flushed red from embarrassment.
“Want to get some breakfast?”
“Um… sure.”
She took hold of my sleeve and walked next to me.
“Cough…”
“Okay, well, here’s your punishment. You have to drink this medicine.”
I handed her the bottle.
I guess she had some kind of disease and would need to have the medicine regularly.
She sniffed at it and crinkled her nose in disgust. But by thinking it was punishment, she drank it down with some effort.
“Ugh… It’s so bitter.”
“You can handle it.”
She finished the bottle and looked, for a moment, like she might throw up.
By the way, I was able to sell the medicine we’d made for a good price. It wasn’t very high quality, but apparently supply had been running low.
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