#062
‘Oh, is this perhaps a sub-quest?’
I was tempted by Seiz’s proposal, but no quest window appeared. I thought I might get another chance to obtain a Tranquility Potion… disappointing. To get more sub-quests that offer Tranquility Potion as a reward, maybe I shouldn’t avoid NPCs but should more actively seek them out and meet them.
‘Even at the risk of getting beaten up or having filth dumped on me.’
I swallowed a sigh and wrapped up my conversation with Seiz.
“Then I’ll leave it to you.”
As I greeted him and turned around, I saw Seiz slightly raise his hand then awkwardly lower it. He probably tried to wave goodbye.
After leaving the workshop, I checked the favorability. Seiz’s favorability, which had risen to 70 then dropped back to 30 because of the debt, had now climbed to 120.
‘Wow…’
My mouth fell open without realizing it. For someone like me who has to return to reality, what big meaning could an NPC’s favorability have… but anyway, since I’m human too, I can’t help but feel good when I gain someone’s favor.
Riding this momentum, I went to the guild to tell Elmer the news that I’d obtained the sand strawberries. But Elmer wasn’t at the guild.
“Kate ajumma seems to be in critical condition. Well… eating strange things that aren’t proper food, it’s not surprising if anyone gets sick at any time.”
Guild staff NPC Tommy muttered with a blank face. Hearing this, I immediately ran toward Elmer’s house. I could immediately spot Elmer sitting in a daze in the garden of the small house located on the outskirts of the village.
“Elmer ahjussi!”
Elmer’s eyes widened when he spotted me.
“Raon?”
“I heard Kate ajumma is in critical condition and came. Um, I’ve obtained the sand strawberries you mentioned.”
I said while catching my breath. Elmer’s sunken eyes, which I thought had already grown as big as they could, widened even more.
“Sand strawberries? You? Really?”
I nodded vigorously. As expected, this ahjussi also thought I wouldn’t be able to obtain the sand strawberries.
“B-but how did you manage to get them…”
“I was lucky. I went with Carlisle and got help.”
“Ah, I see. That would make sense. Carlisle Lightinger-ssi…”
Elmer, who had been surprised and bewildered, seemed to finally understand with my answer. Seeing him immediately accept it when Carlisle’s name came up was a bit subtle… but it is the truth. However, since I opened the hidden dungeon with my own power, I definitely played a role too.
“Ah… but…”
After the moment of surprise passed, Elmer sank back into gloom.
“Thank you for not forgetting and obtaining such a precious thing, Raon. But… as I said before, there’s no one left in the village who can make medicine from it. Regular pharmacists’ medicine doesn’t work… and while there might be potions that can cure anything, people like us commoners can’t afford such things even if we sold everything we own.”
Hearing about ‘potions we can’t afford even if we sold everything we own’ made me flinch as I suddenly remembered the potion Carlisle had used on me in Wanderer’s Plains. That couldn’t be… one of those potions that requires selling everything, right?
Feeling like I might have received something I shouldn’t have, my chest felt tight, so I quickly changed the subject.
“Um, I have an idea, could we go inside? This doesn’t seem like something to discuss here.”
At my words, Elmer led me inside. The interior was dark and damp, with a musty moldy smell. It was a house thick with the aura of sickness, where you could clearly feel there was a seriously ill patient. I had visited this house before in the game, but then it had been a scene where sunlight streamed in abundantly and you could almost smell freshly baked bread or cake, so the difference felt enormous.
Sitting on the hard wooden chair Elmer offered, I got straight to the point.
“About the sand strawberries, ahjussi. There’s someone who can make medicine from them.”
“…Who would that be?”
A suspicious look appeared on Elmer’s face. He probably already guessed what name would come out of my mouth.
“Eira Wintum. The one who lives in the forest.”
As expected, Elmer wasn’t very surprised to hear the name from my mouth. Only deeper wrinkles were carved into his tired-looking face.
“Well, you… you were holed up on the farm around the time that commotion happened, so you probably don’t know well. When that incident occurred, the village atmosphere was incredibly serious. We’ve known Eira since she was a child, but…”
Elmer shook his head with a stern face.
“The villagers at that time weren’t just confused and angry, they were terrified. It wasn’t just a matter of getting stomach aches – it was a situation where all the villagers might have died.”
Elmer explained the situation at that time to me in more detail. It started when a mercenary who fell into the water while night fishing floated up as a bloated purple corpse. Not only the fish in the rivers and lakes, but all the livestock on surrounding farms and ranches that used that water also died. Farms and orchards became unusable land, and residents who drank water that had partially flowed into the water supply got food poisoning, with some falling into critical condition. After that, the rivers and lakes never recovered and became death waters that are still off-limits today, becoming the direct trigger for the already struggling village economy to collapse.
‘This strangely overlaps with the period when pollution in this world exploded.’
Actually, the pollution in this world was, so to speak, nature’s wrath brought on by humans themselves. It wasn’t at a level that could be caused by a few poison potions from someone. If it was a crime suddenly committed by one Potionist going mad, how would you explain the disaster that struck the world outside this village too?
Moreover, something was strange. If it was simply Eira’s bad luck, why were Eira’s potion bottles, which she said she’d never even used, conspicuously rolling around by the riverside and lakeside?
‘What is this? There was no such story in this game.’
If they’re trying to push a mystery novel on me too, I decline. I already know the system has no conscience… but whatever happens, I only planned to follow the one path of collecting Fragments of the Sacred Tree from hidden dungeons to rebuild the village. I declined all other routes. They’re beyond my capabilities anyway.
While I was having such thoughts in my head, Elmer continued his story.
“You and Eira are like nieces to me. Eira is actually a native here, so I’ve known her even longer than you. I want to believe that Eira isn’t a child who would do such things. But… I can’t help the slightest fear of the unknown. Around that time, the village had already begun to become desolate, many outsiders had come in, and Eira had long since stopped coming out much from her isolated house in the forest. So who knows what happened in between? Besides, if word gets around that we’re receiving and using medicine from Eira, we could be driven out too. Eira is someone who makes medicine, so she could somehow survive, but we can’t. If we’re driven from the village, that’s the end for us.”
Unable to interrupt Elmer’s long, melancholy story, I kept my mouth shut for a while. Since I could understand Elmer’s feelings, I couldn’t immediately think of any good way to persuade him.
Silence fell for a while. Through that gap, a weak, thin voice called Elmer from somewhere.
“Honey.”
It was Kate.
“Come in here for a moment, with Raon.”
Elmer glanced at my face, sighed, then went into the inner bedroom. Since the door had been slightly open, Kate had probably heard our conversation. When I carefully entered the dark bedroom, I could see Kate lying in bed.
For a moment, I almost involuntarily gasped. Fortunately I covered my mouth, but I couldn’t prevent my steps from stopping and my surprised feelings from being completely revealed.
While most of the NPCs I’d met so far weren’t in good condition, they still weren’t patients. Even if they were thin, disheveled, and irritable, they didn’t look like they’d die tomorrow.
Kate had originally been a cheerful middle-aged woman with rosy cheeks and a good build. She wasn’t someone who should look like this skeletal figure, like an old person with numbered days. But Kate now looked like a corpse if she just closed her eyes and stayed still. It was no wonder Elmer’s expression was so dark.
“Raon. It’s been a long time.”
Kate, who greeted me with wheezing breaths, seemed to try to smile at me, but even that appeared to be beyond her strength.
“Kate ajumma…”
“I don’t have the energy for long talks, so please understand if I speak simply. Thank you so much for obtaining the sand strawberries, Raon. But about Eira… let’s pretend that never happened.”
“But ajumma, Eira is…”
“I don’t believe Eira would do such things either. Of course not. That child has great pride as a Potionist. No matter how much she might need money or whatever unavoidable circumstances arose, she’s not a child who would do such things. Honestly, I think the incident back then was a witch hunt where someone stirred up and incited people’s fears.”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
