287 - Material Hunting with Old Maps
My loneliness sickness flared up again after a long time, but at Alfred's suggestion I wrote a letter to Leonardo, and I feel like it calmed me down. I had been holding back because I thought that even if I sent a letter, by the time it arrived autumn would be over and he would be coming home, but he taught me that just because winter comes does not mean he will return right away, so there is no risk of it crossing in transit. I wrote about Kalisa and the others coming to the capital, about having a big black dog stuffed toy made for me, about the kotatsu imitation and the spinning seated chair, just recent updates, and sealed it. Even when I say recent updates, I omitted things that would worry Leonardo, like the large-scale replacement of servants after the foreign substance contamination. Of course I also did not write the truth that I am lonely and want him to come home soon. I also kept quiet about how I let my loneliness fester, shut myself in, and caused trouble for those around me.
"...That was a blind spot. I did not know. I just thought 'snow berry' was 'snow berry'."
We searched for each and every material one by one from the descriptions left in old maps and research materials. Jasper knew the habitat of the Adorutoru, and we found out that the Laroche flower blooms in a certain area of the Divine Kingdom Quebia. So for the last one, we searched for descriptions related to 'Snow Cap,' and the thing we were stuck on was just now resolved. According to the research materials of the Saint Yuuta Hiraga, the characteristics of the fruit written as 'Snow Cap' resemble the 'snow berries' I used to pick and eat in Mey Village during winter. It is a plant that only bears fruit after being buried under snow, and when you dig into a mound of snow, red and yellow fruits peek out from inside. Since it is called a berry, I thought the red ones would be riper, but it is the yellow fruits that are sweet and ripe. The red fruits are unripe. You can eat them but they have a bit of sourness.
"...So it was called 'Snow Cap' because it wears snow like a hat."
"We will need to compare with the actual thing to be sure, but well, 'snow berry' is probably 'Snow Cap.'"
Jasper and I reached the same conclusion together, and the exhaustion hit me all at once. Just as I was about to signal that I wanted a short break, Kalisa was already preparing tea for us.
In the records of Saint Yuuta Hiraga, it is 'Snow Cap.' The name we called it in Mey Village was 'snow berry.' And the name listed in the compiled catalog book was 'Uyuho berry.' If we were searching under the name Snow Cap, of course we would not find it.
"So now we know where the materials can be collected, but..."
No matter how I think about it, it is not a place I can just casually go gathering. For all I know, the difficulty of obtaining the materials might have been part of the reason it was excluded from the candidates at the meeting.
"If we tried to gather them normally, how long would it take..."
I felt like looking off into the distance. Snow Cap was still within the country, and we would need to confirm it, but it is what I used to call snow berry and eat regularly. I think it should be easy to obtain once the snow season comes.
The problem is the Laroche pollen.
The season when the flowers bloom is limited, and on top of that, a round trip to the Divine Kingdom Quebia by land apparently takes over half a year. The Sedovara Church will probably arrange for entry into Quebia itself, but the Saenard Kingdom, which we would have to pass through on the journey, is currently in a state of tension with our country. If that will not work, there is also the option of going the long way around the Erath Mountain Range in the opposite direction and passing through the Empire, but the Empire apparently still engages in human trafficking, and it is a country I would rather not get close to.
"...How did Aurelia-san gather her materials?"
I noticed, come to think of it. Aurelia, who was supposed to be even more of a recluse than me, never seemed troubled about obtaining medicinal ingredients and materials. When she was making the medicine for Wards disease, the Black Knights must have brought the lacking medicines from outside Waiyakku Valley. And the Panto medicine we are trying to revive now was something Aurelia prepared for the queen before. At the very least, it should not be a prescription that was lost before Aurelia died. Aurelia definitely had Laroche pollen, and she must have had a way to obtain Snow Cap and unfertilized Adorutoru eggs without leaving Waiyakku Valley.
"If we asked Barbara-san, would she know?"
"Barbara?"
"She was Aurelia-san's apprentice for a little while. I have heard she is at the Sedovara Church in the capital now..."
I thought I would go meet her once, but now I remember I never did. I have been in the capital for nearly three months now, but I have hardly ever gone out into the inner city. Rather than the inner city, it is rare for me to even leave the detached palace. Unless I have some business, I really rarely go out on my own.
...Yeah, I am a full-fledged recluse too.
Still, I do not feel inconvenienced by it, so I fleetingly think I should increase my opportunities to go outside a little more, but I have no serious intention of improving. For now, I will just do my twice-daily walks that Alfred made obligatory.
The day after I sent a letter to Barbara, who is supposed to be at the Sedovara Church in the capital, Alfred came to the detached palace. That itself is not unusual at all, but what Alfred brought was good news. The remaining two secret arts of Saint Yuuta Hiraga to be revived had been decided. It was the news I had been waiting for, wondering when it would come.
"Mustaine medicine and Greenwich pox preventive medicine, is it."
"Yeah. Those names were mostly decided even at the meeting I showed you. You probably expected something like this."
The Mustaine medicine is only knowledge I have read while transcribing, but in short it is a vermifuge. It is common during the snowmelt season, but it also occurs in other seasons, so if it can be cured with medicine, it is certainly something worth reviving.
Greenwich pox is another name for Wards disease. It cannot be cured with medicine alone, but the significance of this medicine lies in prevention. By taking the preventive medicine in advance, you can greatly reduce the risk of secondary infection when caring for infected patients.
...Aurelia-san's medicine could cure mild cases, so instead of treating mild patients, she chose not to create new patients.
It was a choice to abandon the already infected, but I have seen the people of the Sedovara Church discussing it seriously at the meeting. I can tell it was a conclusion reached after thorough discussion, so I will just prioritize reviving the chosen secret arts.
As for the Mustaine medicine, it was resolved with almost anticlimactic ease the next day. I checked the medicine's prescription, confirmed the transcription records, and read aloud the eight required ingredients to Jasper for confirmation, and he replied that they should all be at the Sedovara Church.
"What is this? All the ingredients are available, is not that a jackpot?"
"Yeah. With the Panto medicine, you just hit the jackpot in reverse by leaving it to luck, huh."
"I am never trusting the heavens again."
Christoph had let me choose one secret art to revive because I was impatient about the meeting dragging on, but since I truly did not care which one, I left the choice to the heavens. It is a children's game from my previous life too. You prepare the options and chant 'Which shall it be, as the heavens decree,' moving through the options with each syllable. Where your finger stops at the end is what the heavens have chosen. It was just a child's game.
"...I wonder if they are treating you like a saintly woman right now because you picked the secret art they had excluded for taking too long."
"Ah, yes. It seems the Sedovara Church is already treating me like a reincarnation of the saint. Apparently it is partly because I was treated as a Spirit's Favored Child at the Menhishumi Church."
Solana told us a story she had picked up from outside the detached palace in response to Jasper's joke. Saintly woman and reincarnation of the saint, both were way too ridiculous a misunderstanding.
"I just left it to luck and failed!"
"No, Christina-sama. You are not at fault. It is all Prince Alfred's fault!"
"Prince Alfred's fault?"
I do not recall him doing anything unfair, and there should not have been any room for such interference, but Solana declared with full confidence that 'it is Prince Alfred's fault.' Solana is a maid borrowed from Alfred's residence, but when Alfred is not around, her evaluation of him is harsh, to say the least. According to Solana, 'pretty much everything is Prince Alfred's fault.'
"Prince Alfred is a man of overwhelming fortune. Not the kind of cute luck or strong luck you would call fortunate."
Solana clenched her fists in frustration and passionately explained that because I tried my luck in front of Alfred, who is overwhelmingly lucky, the result turned out convenient for Alfred. I only know Solana since she came to the detached palace, but hearing about her life story, how she grew up as the milk sibling of the Eighth Princess and was later taken up as a maid by Alfred, I can imagine what kind of feelings Solana has toward Alfred.
...She has probably been put through an incredible amount of trouble.
Without a doubt, she is probably the type who would get along well with Alf back in Grenore. There is no mistake that they are both victims of Alfred.
"That said, if he has such strong luck... is Prince Alfred a 'Spirit's Favored Child'?"
Spirit's Favored Children, unlike ordinary people of this world, have no reason to be disliked by spirits, so they are occasionally granted good fortune. A little luck might happen to anyone, but if someone is so lucky they are called strong or overwhelming in fortune, then Alfred might also be a Spirit's Favored Child. That is what I thought, but Solana confidently told me that Alfred is not a Spirit's Favored Child. It seems Alfred had already tried the method of identifying a Spirit's Favored Child that we discovered back in the city of Grenore. Unfortunately, the words hidden from the eyes and ears of a Spirit's Favored Child by the spirits, Alfred could apparently read and hear just fine. In other words, Alfred's overwhelming fortune is his own innate luck.
"If you could tell whether someone is a Spirit's Favored Child by whether they are lucky, would not Christina-sama's big brother be one?"
"I think Leonyaldo Big Brother is actually rather unlucky...?"
Especially with women, I swallowed the words that almost slipped out. Leonardo's life has been pretty unlucky, being sold by his family and having his life derailed by a strange woman clinging to him, but it seems Solana and Jasper see it differently. Being sold as a slave but rescued, going from orphan to knight, from knight to Silver-White Knight, having his name remembered by the king, receiving the protection of a prince (Alfred), and being loved by a princess. When you look at each event individually, you could certainly call it strong luck. Even his transfer to the Black Knights, which others saw as a demotion, led to him being put in charge of four fortresses, gaining me as family (a little sister), and with that sister being a reincarnator who can read Japanese, just building a good relationship and protecting her counts as meritorious deeds. When I think about it again, Leonardo was born under a lucky star.
...Are the people around me all just naturally overwhelmingly lucky?
No matter how much the spirits bring me good fortune out of favor, I feel like I would be relatively losing out with all this overwhelming luck around me.
...Uuugh, somehow I am feeling hollow.
I decided to switch my thinking. There is no point in envying others. Envying someone else's luck bears no fruit. Instead of spending time on envy, I should use it to revive the secret arts as quickly as possible.
...At least it was lucky that the Mustaine medicine seems to just need ingredients brought from the Sedovara Church.
Though it seems the prescriptions that would take too long were excluded out of consideration for me wanting to return to the city of Grenore quickly. I will just pretend not to notice that calm observation for now. In any case, there is nothing to do but complete them one by one. Envying, sulking, and being jealous will not help at all. I will save all those regrets for when everything is over.
Time is up.
Will fix typos and errors at a later date.