It had been three days since we returned to Raum. And yet neither Michelle nor Letinaâs fever showed any signs of dropping.
Not just that the infection rate was only growing worse throughout the town. The new patients kept showing up while the recovering ones hardly did.
The Adventurerâs Guild naturally viewed this as a problem and issued urgent commissions to gather Millud leaves that could reduce fever, but even that wasnât able to catch up to the rate.
Actually, I suppose itâs better to say they simply had a shortage of hands as even Adventurers started to suffer from the illness.
But for some reason, Cloud and I were able to move normally.
âWell, I guess I should think of this as good luck.â
âAt any rate, weâll be needing fever medicine.â
Today, as usual, we headed into the forest to search for Millud leaves. There were also trees along the highway to consider, but they were already picked clean.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om
Since they werenât enough, newbies started getting injured for heading into the forest for them.
The two of us were used to walking in the forest so there was no such danger, but we were troubled with the amount we could collect. Since my physical strength was quite low, I couldnât take too much with me.
âMaybe I should have put a bag on Kabby and have it act as a transport already?â
âSquee!?â
After growing so much, it could no longer stay on my head. As such, it was loitering near my feet now.
But the moment I raised the subject of having it carry luggage, it started shaking its head in a really reluctant manner.
You b?a?s?t?a?r?d?, do you plan to just keep growing fatter?
âIf you do that⦠The receptionist wouldnât let it go.â
âWhat does she have to do with this?â
âThat person wants to hug everything that looks cute.â
That reminds me, I got seized by her a few times too. The Guild Master intervened when she tried to take me home, but a new door might have opened for me if she was allowed to do it.
âStill, our problem of the amount is still a fact.â
âCanât you do it with enchant?â
âItâs time-limited soâ¦â
Generally, magic-based strengthening didnât last very long. After all, these spells werenât made with long-lasting conditions like the Cargo spell that Maxwell used.
And there was the burden on the body to consider too. In proportion to how much power beyond yourself you gained, there was an appropriate compensation to pay.
I learned a good lesson after I ruined myself when I didnât know any of that.
âWe canât really bring a card in a forest⦠Ah, found one.â
Cloud discovered a Millud tree and promptly started plucking off the leaves that he could reach, cramming them into his bag.
I followed after him, but there were hardly any places someone as short as me could reach. In the end, I ended up having to climb the tree due to my agility.
âListen now, Cloud. If you look up, Iâll make sure you wonât be able to leave any descendants.â
âMaster, arenât you a bit too cruel to me sometimes!?â
Since it was just the two of us today, Cloud switched to calling me master. I didnât feel bad being called that, so I couldnât deny that I was getting carried away a bit.
As I nimbly climbed up, I noticed Cloud stealing glances from below as I expected, so I broke a branch and threw it at him. Climbing with a skirt on wasnât a good idea just as I thought.
Be that as it may, I continued gathering the leaves but left enough so they wonât get depleted and then checked the surroundings.
Overlooking from a high place was the basics of scouting. After climbing up as high as I could and overlooking the surroundings again, I saw that there were still Millud trees in the vicinity.
Other than that, I also saw the river that flowed from the north, and it reminded me of lunch.
âAh, right, itâs lunchtime soon. Cloud, thereâs a river over there, so letâs have lunch there.â
âOkay, got it.â
âAlso, Iâm coming down so donât peek.â
âI know I shouldnât but I canât help it.â
âIâll kill you.â
With that, I ended up giving Cloud some burns just before lunch.
Even if we called it lunch, we couldnât make anything that elaborate. We were near the city too, so we could always return during meals too.
However, we wanted to secure as much of the fever medicine as possible, so we just brought bread, cheese, and tomatoes. If I heated up this bread and put cheese and tomatoes in it, itâd serve as a good enough lunch.
Also, since we were lighting a fire, we needed water to extinguish it too.
âCloud, make a stove and light it up.â
âOn it.â
I made preliminary arrangements by slicing bread and tomatoes. The tomatoes were fully ripe so they had turned extremely soft. They were so soft that running the knife on them was enough to crush them.
ââ¦Praise the God of Destruction.â
I tool out my oscillating dagger and spoke the keyword. The dagger that was fixed to my hand with threads was able to bisect the soft tomato without trouble.
âGood.â
âGood, you say⦠The one who made that dagger is probably crying now, you know?â
âItâs okay, they were probably using it for similar things.â
âThereâs no one whoâd use a magic tool like that as a kitchen knife replacement.â
âNo, there is. Iâm sure of it.â
If itâs that Whitey, sheâd easily do something like that. However, Cloud, who had never met her, wouldnât know.
We warmed up the bread on the stove, then put cheese and tomatoes in it and a simple sandwich was ready.
âAhh, I wanna eat meat.â
âBringing meat would be extra luggage so I didnât bring it. Weâll be back by evening anyway.â
âMeat is like, the source of power.â
âNow you sound like Michelle. Good griefâFuh!â
I threw my dagger towards the nearby grass. There was a small animal called a dormouse that was probably attracted by the smell of the heated bread.
It was a large mouse the size of a cat, and it was edible.
âThere, you can cook and eat that if you want.â
âOhh, as expected of you Master! Your survival skills are on another level.â
Cloud grabbed the dormouse in high spirits and took it to the riverside to butcher it. While gazing at his back with a sigh, I bit into the warm sandwich.
Itâd take him a while to butcher it, so maybe I should lie down and rest for a bit. Just as I was considering that, Cloud returned while holding something.
âMaster, whatâs this?â
In his hand was a small soaked bag.