<Chapter 75>
#8. A Frightening Encounter (7)
A wrinkle formed between Calix’s brows, displeased with Johaim’s ambiguous answer. Reflecting his discomfort, Calix’s hand tapped the table to a specific rhythm.
“If it’s a drought, then it’s a drought. Why add the ‘as if’?”
“…Don’t you think it’s strange that a drought occurs even when it’s raining?”
“How can there be a drought when it’s raining?”
“That’s the problem.”
Perhaps thinking their conversation had been roughly summarized, Braiante continued.
“Originally, the term drought itself refers to a phenomenon occurring in areas where rain doesn’t fall. But this place didn’t lack enough rainfall to cause a drought.”
“That’s why it’s strange. Does it make common sense to say a drought is occurring when it’s raining?”
Although they were speaking the same language, Calix couldn’t understand at all. In response to his irritated question, Johaim let out a long sigh and opened his mouth.
“You’ll understand when you see it for yourself. All the crops have withered and died.”
“So why is that a drought?”
“The soil is completely unable to absorb any moisture.”
Johaim’s explanation was incomprehensible. Braiante nodded in agreement as he glanced at Calix, whose face was full of questions. He too couldn’t accept this part when he first heard it from Johaim.
“You won’t understand unless you see it for yourself. The important thing is, this strange phenomenon is spreading to other regions, and if the cause of this disease is due to that bizarre phenomenon…”
“…Then all the people in other regions could be in danger too.”
Melty finished the sentence as Johaim trailed off. It was something everyone had been inferring but couldn’t easily say out loud. The air settled heavily as the situation became more serious than expected.
“How can you be so sure that a disease occurring in just one small village will spread? Maybe there’s just some problem in that region.”
“I contacted my family and confirmed several regions showing similar phenomena to this place. In small villages with few people, all residents had already died.”
“……”
Calix exhaled a deep, irritated sigh and roughly ran his hand through his hair. When a disease occurs, it’s not just the Sarvies who get headaches. As experienced before, the more it spreads, the more attention inevitably falls on the Padrians, who are the main suppliers of herbs needed for treatment.
“First, we need to find out what medicinal herbs are needed. …Are you certain it’s not an epidemic?”
“I can’t be sure, but if it were a contagious disease, I would have been the first to show symptoms.”
Calix’s gaze fell on Melty, who was sitting beside him with a serious expression. Puzzled by the burning gaze on his head, Melty turned to look at him. After staring intently at Melty, Calix turned back to Johaim.
“I understand the situation for now. How will you determine whether herbs are effective against the disease?”
“I’ll try treating it using herbs supplied by the Padrians.”
Calix nodded lightly at Johaim’s words. He finally understood why Braiante had collected various kinds of herbs before coming to meet him. Calix, who had been fiddling with a cloth pouch full of herbs, let out a heavy sigh. Since he had collected herbs by type today, it seemed necessary to identify the types of herbs currently growing and their collection periods.
“I understand the situation for now.”
This place where Johaim was staying was an isolated area due to the mountain they had just crossed. Thanks to that, it was little more than a temporary resting place used briefly when drying or storing herbs during times of abundant harvests. In other words, it was a place where contact with other people was impossible.
“How many days have you been here?”
“Not long since I arrived. Now that I’ve delivered all the information, I plan to move on after receiving the herbs. It’s highly likely that similar situations may have occurred elsewhere. I won’t cause any harm here.”
“…Right.”
Frowning, Calix glared at Braiante with hostile eyes. Cooperating with the Sarvie family whenever such incidents occurred was unavoidable. The two families each handled one of the most important aspects of treating people.
“Write down the disease characteristics and the herbs used, and hand it over. I’ll organize information about the herbs.”
“I was just in the process of organizing it. I’ll send it to you when I finish.”
“Good.”
Calix nodded lightly and stood up. Now that the conversation was over, there was no need to stay here any longer. After the brief meeting with Johaim, Calix let out a deep sigh. Even when “drought conditions” were mentioned as an agenda item at the exchange meeting, he hadn’t thought much of it.
Even when he heard that regions experiencing drought were increasing, he only thought, ‘That could happen.’ If the problem was famine, it could be somehow resolved through food procurement by each family, even if not abundantly. However, when disease becomes involved, it becomes a completely different situation.
“What do you think?”
“…Did I really need to meet him?”
“If you wanted to check whether he was infected with the disease, wouldn’t you need to see him in person?”
Calix fell silent, at a loss for words at Braiante’s statement. Braiante had a point. The blessing Calix received from the Beast God was “Immunity.” His blessing alerted its owner to danger when Calix visited sites with high-risk diseases. Calix could detect diseases to some extent through tingling air that touched his skin.
“It seems fine for now. If you were so worried, you shouldn’t have let him in in the first place.”
Snapping back testily, Calix turned his gaze back to Melty. He had thought he was bringing him to a safe place to prepare for any possible attack, but perhaps he had brought him to an even more dangerous place. Overwhelmed by fatigue, Calix let out a long sigh.
“No matter how bad the relationship between the families, we can’t refuse an official visit from the Sarvie family’s heir. Moreover, in a situation like this, it might be important for the two families to monopolize the information rather than letting rumors spread elsewhere.”
“…That’s true.”
If other families learned of this news, they might prepare countermeasures to prevent the disease. However, in a situation without clear solutions, if rumors spread, it was obvious that only chaos would ensue. Deep in serious thought, Calix played with Melty’s hair.
“Calix-ssi?”
From a while ago, he had been staring at him blankly, playing with his hair… Melty called his name with a puzzled expression at his behavior, which seemed like he was in a daze. Belatedly coming to his senses at Melty’s call, Calix turned to Braiante and said:
“…I think we should return to the mansion for now.”
***
“Ugh.”
With a sincere sigh rising from below his throat, Calix buried himself in the sofa. Melty blinked in disbelief at the sight of Calix calmly occupying the room he had been assigned.
“Why are you standing there?”
“…Is this my room or your room, Calix-ssi?”
In response to the grumpy question asked with hands on hips, Calix simply stretched both arms forward without saying anything. Hesitating at his face, which contained a hint of a smile, Melty slowly walked over to him. As soon as he came close, Calix swiftly caught him and, just as he had done in the carriage, sat Melty on his lap.
“Heave-ho.”
“Y-you startled me!”
Melty’s heart pounded heavily as he was buried in Calix’s embrace, sitting face to face. Calix, who heard the loud heartbeat through their point of contact, burst into laughter once again.
“Why are you so surprised?”
“It’s because you always do things so suddenly, Calix-ssi.”
Melty, who had been huffing and lightly tapping Calix’s chest with his fist in a dissatisfied expression, subtly examined his countenance. Though his face was sly as usual, there was no strength in his smile. Staring at Calix’s face, Melty asked with a low sigh:
“So, are you okay?”
“What?”
“…You’ve been in a bad mood the whole time.”
Throughout the return to the mansion, Calix had maintained silence with a thoughtful face. Of course, he still accommodated Melty’s slower pace due to their height difference, but he looked quite serious. Braiante also seemed to understand him and spoke less, so the journey back was entirely quiet.
“Mmm, well…”
Without giving a clear answer to Melty’s question, Calix played with his soft, wavy hair. The soft brown hair repeatedly wrapped around Calix’s fingers and then flowed down.
“Is it really an epidemic?”
“Who knows. I can’t be certain, but I can’t definitively say it’s not either.”
Thanks to Johaim, the workload had grown mountain-high. Melting away the rising irritation with the warm comfort in his arms, Calix, completely buried in the sofa, stared blankly at the ceiling.
Quietly watching his face, Melty could roughly guess why Calix’s mood had sunk so low. When he heard about why the relationship with the Sarvie family wasn’t good, he recalled what Calix had told him.
– About four years ago, I think. An epidemic was going around, and while cooperating to heal it, the Sarvie family’s youngest son and I got infected. I survived thanks to my blessing of “Immunity,” but their youngest son died.
– The Sarvie side claimed that we deliberately gave them only a small amount of the herbs allocated to them.
Though Calix hadn’t explained in detail, Melty could tell that he had suffered because of that incident.
– What’s the point of talking about it? They won’t believe it even if I openly prove it.
His voice that day was clearly tinged with exhaustion. It had only been four years since then, but a situation had arisen where he had to cooperate with the Sarvies once again.
Reaching out his hand, Melty stroked Calix’s hair just as Calix often did to him. Glancing sideways at the hand diligently moving on top of his head, Calix let out a low laugh.
“What are you doing?”
“You’re uncharacteristically down, so I’m trying to cheer you up.”
“Hmm… Is that so?”
It was merely weariness and irritation at being forcibly entangled in unwanted work due to the meeting with Johaim, but there was no need to reject Melty’s touch. Calix, who firmly embraced Melty’s waist, buried his face in Melty’s nape.
“Is it very difficult?”
“…Let’s say it is.”
“It’ll be okay. I’ll work hard too!”
Calix frowned at Melty’s determined voice as he clenched his fist. Slowly pulling away to look at Melty, Calix asked in a calm voice:
“By the way, what blessing did you say you received?”
