Chapter 4: We brought a medical apprentice and a bear but…

It has been two weeks since Aura and her sister started staying here.

Since we had prepared a lot of medicinal potions in the laboratory at our home, we set out to the village at the foot of the mountains for peddling.

The sisters could have helped me with transporting the medicines frequently on their back in their dragon form, but Aura’s injury has not healed fully yet. There’s also a tiny possibility that we might discovered by a massive horde of beasts rushing out to attack us and dealing with that is going to be a headache. So, we departed to the village in a wagon.

Since Aura was unable to go out, Oonya stayed behind to take care of her while Eldena and I headed out to trade.

Just before leaving, strangely, I could see Eldena in a good mood and in contrast I could see Aura in a completely foul mood. I wonder what’s going on between them.

Midway, as we were searching for a place to rest, we found a rocky terrain with streams of water oozing out of it. Once we reached there, we found a tree with a very wide trunk with such a dense growth that we could probably steep on the top of the tree. As expected, the tree top is very comfortable so we decided to rest here tonight. The trunk has a crevice near the surface of the ground, big enough to completely accommodate both the horse and the wagon and hence we parked the wagon inside. Then we covered the entrance with branches and as an additional precaution, I used a presence concealing spell. “This treetop can probably become our lodging station if we could build a small cabin on top, don’t you agree?”

It seems like Eldena is pleased with staying here by the way she looked around everywhere.

“… While entering the bath, there might be a chance to attack …” (E/N: attacking our MC in bath)

“Mm, Eldena? Did you say anything?”

“ … No, no, no! I’ve said nothing, nothing at all!”

While her strangely suspicious behavior made me tilt my head in confusion, that night, we had a simple meal and slept ahead of time.

The next day, since we left early, we reached the village at the foot of the Gorn mountain well before noon.

Last time, since we rescued the villagers from the disease, we were able to enter without any hassle and so we ended up smiling a little from their gratitude (for letting us inside). Before going to the marketplace, we headed towards the Church at the edge of the village. “Saphate sama and Eldena sama, we are once again honored by your presence!”

We were greeted with a beaming smile by the Owl-nun Yome while she was cleaning the area.

Although her movements are natural for an owl-woman, for her to rotate her head 180 degrees to look towards her back was a bit shocking to us.

According to Yome, ever since the last time we distributed the medicines to the villagers, the patients who were suspected to be infected by the Depavirus, didn’t cause any other outbreak so far. Hearing that, we both felt relieved. Once we get back and tell this to Aura and her sister, I’m sure they would be delighted.

Unexpectedly, I picked up a medicinal potion that Yome made, but I revealed slight disappointment as I glanced at it. The medicine sure is effective but there are a lot of strange impurities.

“To be honest, I was self-taught on how to make medicines by referring to this book”, she apologetically looked down. That book certainly explains how to make medicines out of herbs but the procedures explained are very brief. For that reason, it could be said that the articles in it are impossible for a beginner to refer to. Also, it does not cover many different types of methods.

“My father worked as a physician for a priest who excelled in his study of herbs at the old remote town of Green Convent. Unfortunately, he suddenly died due to an endemic… but I somehow learned it by imitation…”

Although she said that, the medicines that she prepared herself do work properly. So, I invited her over by saying,

“If it’s okay, why don’t you come to my place and learn some medicine?”

She stared blankly at first on hearing my proposal and then, “R…really?!… Ah, but…. money is a bit…”

“Don’t you worry about that. Working in the field or helping us out in household chores is enough. Moreover, even though I will be your teacher, I might also need a bit of your cooperation.”

Hearing those words, Yome danced with joy.

Now that Yome won’t be in the village, there would be no one to treat their ailments. For that sake, I thought to propose if it’s fine that every month, I would notify them of the medicines I brought and stockpile them in the town hall.

As she had preparations to do, we left for the village union administrative office and discussed the idea that I previously had with the ant-woman Areya (T/N: In previous chapters, I wrote her name as Aria and I apologize for that mistake. I have corrected it as Areya – e pronounced as in central)

“Yome is a bright kid. For the sake of the village, she took the role of a physician. It’s a good thing that she wishes to study diligently.” With that, we got approval from Areya. With her kindness, the union also agreed to buy medicines from us for stockpiling.

Even for me, I couldn’t help but feel grateful to her.

After the discussions at the town hall, I brought the medicines to Areya and explained to her the various benefits and usage instructions of these medicines. Later, we went to the market place and started selling our medicines at the designated stall.

“Ohh, I thought it was someone else, but aren’t you the big bro from the last time?”

The demi-humans at the marketplace simultaneously approached us with glee. Everyone thanked us regarding the recent Depavirus outbreak.

“Since these are made by big bro, they are guaranteed to be effective!”

And so, one by one, everyone bought the medicines from us. (T/N: Do they even need medicine right now? For some reason I see that our MC won’t be able to earn much in the future) (E/N: when outbreak happened was the time to earn yet he wasted it. This guy isn’t born with talent for business). This time, I brought ointments, painkillers, and all the remaining medicines that I could bring from home, specifically for selling but just like that, all of these got sold out. Next, I also have vegetables brought from the farm but their appearance and sales would be inferior compared to medicines, so I haven’t put them on display and decided to bring them back. (E/N: talk about wasted effort)

The other day, I might have talked something about growing vegetables on my farm with the villagers so, “Saphate-dono, if it’s okay, you can take these with you and try growing it on the farm”.

I received a lot of seeds of various vegetables from the demi-human farmers.

“Anything you can do by yourself is fun”, with that said, I thought about how the unused field could finally be put into use. By the way, tree saplings of some fruits are also being sold here, so for testing them out, I bought some of them. Lastly, on Oonya’s request, we stocked up various fruits and meats and filled our wagon.

“By all means, you can stay at the church tonight”, taking advantage of her kindness, we accepted Yome’s offer. For dinner, she prepared a soup with various ingredients. Even though her cooking skills are not comparable to Oonya, it definitely has good taste.

“Mm, this is delicious. I guess Yome is also skilled in cooking.” That praise made her blush in embarrassment.

As the sun had risen, we left the village. We were two when we came here and now, with Yome, three of us are returning home.

By the way, in the village market, although I sold all of the medicines, the prices were rather cheap. On top of that, we bought food supplies as well, so we ended up somewhat on the negative side.

Nonetheless, now life at home is almost made self-sufficient, almost all the medicinal ingredients are available in the forest and could be concocted by magic. Overall, the spending is nearly nonexistent. Hmm, I can do anything right? And with this stability, there’s nothing to worry about as well.

Midway, we stopped at the same tree we saw last time and rested for the night before returning home.

“Young master, welcome back, nya!”

Oonya rushed to me with such a vigor but as soon as she was about to hug me, Eldena cut into the gap between us. For some reason, these two seem to be laughing but their eyes didn’t seem to reflect so.

“Next time…. I will successfully give a welcome hug, nya~”

“….. I won’t allow it!”

I formally introduced Yome to everyone. “On this occasion, I took this opportunity to study here. You can call me Yome. I’ll be within your care from now on.”

The ones waiting at home, Oonya, Aura, and Eira, gladly welcomed Yome. One of the storerooms has been given to Yome to stay. With that out of four rooms on the first floor, one is used as a laboratory and for preparing medicines, another one is used as a bedroom for Aura and Eira and thus, three of them are filled. For that reason, the storerooms became limited and hence we used a small building adjacent to us as a storeroom.

“This place used to be an inn-town. I thought, it’s good that here are no one here but this place seems looks better after tidying properly. Looking at the state of this place, Yome was really astounded. Even though she said that, there are still some buildings that could not be occupied and are left untouched, and there is still a heap load of things to do. Hmm, no matter how much we become impatient, there is nothing we can do, so I think it’s better to take things slowly.

During dinner, I have informed the status of the village to the remaining group who were left out. Hearing that the Depa virus has calmed down, Aura and Eira felt relieved. Since I have conveyed that I brought vegetable seeds and tree saplings of fruits, before long, everyone started planting them.

“Now that I think of it, the harvest season is approaching soon”.

According to Yome, every year during the late autumn season, the harvest festival is practiced on a large scale in these remote towns by people taking turns. I have no experience outside the Royal capital but I still think this festival is going to be huge. However, now that I am disowned from the Greed family and I am prohibited to enter the remote town by the local chief I don’t think I’ll be able to participate in this festival. Nonetheless, I want to see it at least once.

Immediately from the next day onwards, I started teaching Yome. For now, she started practicing with the ingredients at home and started making concocting potions as usual. Although Yome is having some difficulties with concocting she is diligent in working, that’s a good attitude to have. But since her fundamentals are weak, whenever she faces problems in boiling herbs we both work on that. Otherwise, excess boiling seems to deteriorate the final product. Nonetheless given the way things are going if she continues to study she will improve. I have high hopes on this student of mine.

While I was teaching Yome, in the field, Oonya was scattering the seeds around her that I bought yesterday. But no one really knew much about the seeds, so right now, it is still not understood which seeds to plant in this season. (@innerreality, this dude was given seeds by villagers who obviously knew how to plant them yet this idiot came back without learning! This guy is on path of ruin I tell you! @sora, can’t deny that lol) Currently, Eldena was looking into the illustrated guide for the seeds. Somehow we managed to plant those seeds that we could learn about. Later we chose an open place with good sunlight to plant tree saplings of various fruits. It looks like we will be getting a splendid yield of various fruits and hence I am already excited.

Even after dinner, Yome sat in the research lab and started reading the books on concocting medicines. However, the terms used in the book seemed too complex for her to understand so she repeatedly asked me for clarifications.

Now that I think about it, I wonder if there is any school in that village…..

When I asked Yome about this she said, “Basic reading was taught by Areya of the village union. She used to teach the kids twice every week.” So that was the case.

Although they have an elementary teacher, I thought that something could be done in this aspect. However, the round-trip to the village still takes 4 days, what to do……?

The next day, early morning.

“Young master ~”

From outside I heard Oonya shouting with a loud voice and thinking there might be some issue, I looked out and found Oonya along with a black bear cub.

“It seems that this cub got separated from its parents and got lost in the field, nya.”

This bear seems to have a gentle disposition unlike other black bears, its fur has leaves and vegetables stuck on it and it doesn’t seem to eat any meat. Nonetheless, it seems this bear cub is like a child and its stature is too small. When we gave vegetables to it, with great vigor it started eating them as it was hungry.

“Since you said it was found in the field, I wonder if it might have destroyed some vegetables there.”

To my worried self, she replied

“No way. With Oonya here, is it possible to let it do such a thing, I suppose?”

At that moment Oonya had a suspicious glint in her eyes while the bear cub seemed to tremble slightly….

Having received food to eat, the bear cub seems to have got attached to me. Searching for its parents seems risky but we have to return it to its parents later. For now, we have brought the cub to our home.

Bothering about giving a good name was useless because everyone was in high spirits and started thinking about it and finally, all those noisy discussions bore fruit at the end of the day. We finally settled down on the name Clarke. (T/N: In the ongoing manga, her name is translated as Korokku. However, I wanted to use Clarke because it looks western. In case you don’t like it, let me know so I can change it)