#100
Anyway, listening to Eira, it seemed that the Sacred Tree’s island appeared completely contaminated to the NPCs’ eyes. Since she said there was nothing there, the Priest apparently wasn’t visible to them. What exactly was the Priest? Was it really something like a god? At minimum, a spirit of the Sacred Tree?
“I was fine and received… help from Carlisle.”
I gave a vague answer. Fortunately, Eira’s attention was focused on the Sacred Tree’s sap. Eira observed the brightly glowing light green liquid with reverent eyes.
“It looks fine… but is this really okay? Ah, of course, I can find that out myself.”
She seemed a bit fearful at first, but quickly overcame it with a Potionist’s curiosity and research spirit.
“I’m not sure if I can make enough potion to purify a whole mountain with this… but I can try making enough to purify a hill. I need to purify water as well as soil, right?”
I nodded.
“Alright, leave it to me.”
Eira Wintum was a reliable companion. I was about to move on to the next matter with a pleased heart. But Eira brought up an unexpected topic.
“Oh, come to think of it, about your blood that I drew before…”
“My blood?”
What blood? When did I have blood drawn… Ah, after drinking Carlisle’s potion, I had blood drawn once to confirm if the seaweed poison treatment was complete. But what about it?
“Mm… no. It might be my mistake, so let me research it more and tell you.”
Eira seemed to think for a moment, then postponed her answer.
“…What is it?”
“I don’t know. That’s why I said I’d look into it and tell you.”
Eira repeated the same words with a cautious expression.
“O…kay, whatever.”
‘It doesn’t seem like the atmosphere is particularly serious. If there was a problem, she would have said so.’
I felt slightly uneasy, but like with the Priest, it didn’t seem like pressing would get me answers, so I brought up what I’d originally intended to discuss.
“More than that, take a look at this too.”
I took out items from the snowy mountains from my backpack and laid them out. Eira’s eyes, having carefully tucked the Sacred Tree’s sap into her bosom, began sparkling again. From the pile of abundant harvest, I personally picked up three items and held them in front of Eira’s eyes.
The desert rose found in the ice mansion’s garden, the red ice apple, and the small amount of Licht’s eye drops remaining at the bottom. I roughly explained to Eira how I’d obtained them. Actually, I’d brought the desert rose just in case since it was in the garden, and what I was really curious about was the efficacy of the ice apple and eye drops.
“I want to know if this ice apple has special effects. Whether it just has simple sleep effects or if it has other hypnotic or mental manipulation effects. Someone who ate this acted strangely, differently from usual, but their consciousness remained intact. They said that even after coming to their senses later, they remembered everything about how they behaved and what they said at the time.”
I explained this while recalling Carlisle’s story.
“And these eye drops seem to have effects that touch people’s emotions. Like making sad, sorrowful, and hopeless emotions suddenly surge when you’re in a perfectly fine state? Enough to make you burst into tears.”
This was, of course, my own experience.
“The eye drops might be difficult since there’s so little left… but both are fascinating stories.”
Eira, who had been listening with wide eyes, spoke quickly with an excited expression.
“It’s the first time I’m hearing about this, so I’ll need to look up some references. It’ll take some time. Since festival preparation and next expedition preparation are more urgent, I can’t start on this right away, but I’ll try to have results by the time you return from the sea.”
Seeming to have completely forgotten her disappointment about not being able to attend the festival, Eira was thoroughly excited about her new research material. Complaining about having too much work, she practically hammered Taro awake and kicked us out.
Feeling satisfied that many things seemed to be resolving smoothly, I urged the yawning Taro and returned to the village.
***
From the next day, I participated in festival preparation work in earnest. There was a breathtaking amount of work, but as the Mayor had said, since resources and personnel were limited anyway, administrative procedures were simplified and things progressed swiftly at minimum.
Unlike the previous rest period when I’d spent time quite leisurely after the desert expedition ended, I spent frantic days. I worked to an overworked level until the day before the festival, but contrary to starting reluctantly thinking it would be tiring, once I actually began the work, it had its own fun and rewards. After running around doing quests and defeating monsters, doing work that felt realistic for once made me feel like I’d returned to the real world.
When I first attended the planning meeting, the framework was only set to the extent of gathering in the square after the daytime tree-planting event ended and sharing pre-prepared food together. But since we were doing it anyway, I thought it would be better to do it more properly, so I actively presented opinions.
“Even just with food, rather than simply gathering to share and eat together and ending it there, how about opening various sales booths so people can buy and sell what they want individually? Including daily necessities and entertainment. We could also do mini-games with prizes. Wouldn’t that be more fun and festival-like?”
I offered opinions while thinking of things like school festivals without getting too grandiose. But someone opposed in a cynical tone.
“Who doesn’t know that would be better and more fun? Everyone’s broke. That’s why we’re deliberately trying to do sharing.”
When I looked at the person who opposed, I was startled. The person glaring at me was Karin. She was one of my former spouses, the NPC who had beaten me up when I declared divorce in the game. Her style had completely changed and she was wearing a hat pulled down, so I hadn’t recognized her.
Karin was the NPC among my former spouses that I most hoped not to encounter, and I’d vaguely heard she belonged to a different expedition team. Since each expedition team had different rest periods, I’d been inwardly relieved that there had been no opportunity to meet until now, but to encounter her in such a cramped space where escape was difficult…
I momentarily shrank but tried not to show it as I continued speaking.
“Uh, so… how about making festival coins with support funds and distributing them? Making them usable only at the festival for that day only. With those coins, people could buy food, purchase daily necessities, and participate in mini-games while enjoying things like before. Those who open sales booths and receive those coins could get settlements from the city later. Wouldn’t that also be better for creating an atmosphere of the economy turning?”
“Where would that money come from?”
“First, the city would have to support it. Isn’t that why we handed over most of what we harvested from expeditions to the city? And I know the guild brings in considerable profits too. Of course, we’d also have to ask for sponsorship from local influential families like the Lightinger family.”
The moment I brought up Lightinger’s name, I thought “oops.” Because everyone present’s gazes pierced me simultaneously. Karin narrowed her eyes and spoke slowly.
“And you’re saying that Raon-nim will put in special effort to ask Committee Member Lightinger for sponsorship?”
“Uh… but that’s something the city should formally request first, isn’t it? Carlisle too, no, I mean Mr. Lightinger is also a city committee member, so the official route…”
The meeting moderator who had been silently watching until then interjected.
“Of course it should be formally requested. But what’s important is the scale of the amount, and surprisingly, private lines exert great power in such matters.”
“That’s right. All of us have asked and plan to ask for sponsorship from various places, making the most of our personal connections. Since Raon-nim is staying at the Lightinger house, it seems like Raon-nim could take charge of the Lightinger family.”
Suddenly, as if their mouths had been loosened, everyone began offering their own comments. I couldn’t keep up with the group attack and was driven into a defensive position. Most of my proposals were accepted, but regarding the sponsorship issue, the meeting ended without me being able to properly counterattack.
“Hey, Kang Raon.”
As the meeting ended and people were dispersing, someone called out to me when I was half out of it. As I ominously expected, it was Karin. She cornered me with a menacing face, making me shrink considerably.
I sent a pleading look to Taro sitting in the corner. I didn’t know by what authority, but the guy had followed us into the meeting room and occupied an observer seat in the corner, yet even when Karin grabbed me and cornered me, he just watched blankly.
Useless bastard. Wasn’t he going to act as a bodyguard?
“Kang Raon, you listen.”
Karin whispered ominously while bringing her face close to mine.
Was I finally going to get hit? Well, it would be too good for me if such a scandal ended with just one violent incident. Karin’s punch was on a different level of power than Rosie’s slapping… I hoped it would end with just one hit. If I got hit more, my life force might get reduced.
Praying earnestly inside, I flinched and closed my eyes. But Karin’s words that poured into my frightened ears were unexpected.
“Get along well with Carlisle, got it, Kang Raon? If you cause a scene about breaking up again for some fucking stupid reason, then you’ll really die by my hands, understand?”
‘…What? What are you talking about?’
Karin disappeared leisurely after leaving only those words. I was staring stupidly at her retreating figure when Taro finally shuffled over.
“All done? Let’s go.”
I wanted to smack the back of the head of this guy who was smiling brightly as he spoke.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
