“Dragon, it’s ready.”
When he said this, the baby dragon that had been buried in the blanket Naro covered himself with on the bed would scurry over to the dining table. Then it would step forcefully on the parts where the chair legs were connected and climb up to sit.
Like that, Naro and the dragon faced each other and ate while starting another day today. Just having another existence together at the table where he’d always sat alone was both a great change and a kind of stability for Naro.
After finishing the meal, Naro came outside the house to manage the pharmacy. The dragon was also with him on the side. It hadn’t been long since he started commuting with the baby dragon.
Until then, the baby dragon had been hurt and its wounds were severe, so it couldn’t move much. But it gradually regained strength and now had recovered to a state where there was no particular difficulty in moving.
So these days, it would follow behind Naro. However, the problem occurred when Naro left the house to operate his business. Once, he’d gone to work leaving the baby dragon at home, and the dragon kept scratching the door as if it wanted to follow too.
So he had no choice but to head to the shop together these days.
“Dragon, you know about today too, right? You have to stay still here. This is my livelihood, so it’s really important.”
The baby dragon nodded its head and waited for Naro to just open the pharmacy door. And as soon as the door opened, it scurried inside first. Naro turned the sign so ‘OPEN’ would be visible in front of the door.
After coming inside, he looked over the pharmacy as a whole. It was to check if any problems had occurred overnight.
Naro’s pharmacy wasn’t very large in size, but the area was divided into three sections total.
First, there was the main area that displayed processed medicinal herbs for sale. Lined up there were several wooden boxes in a row, with medicinal herbs that Naro had personally prepared with care one by one properly contained by type.
Going further inside from there, there was a preparation room for boiling or processing medicinal herbs, and right next to it was a warehouse that stored various tools and goods.
Naro looked over the list of orders he’d received in advance and checked what he needed to prepare right away. Medicinal herbs showed effects on their own, but if you mixed and blended those with good compatibility with each other, they could show greater effects or even new efficacies.
After adapting to this world, Naro started studying medicinal herbs as part of killing time. But as he studied, the world of medicinal herbs was more interesting than he thought. In this world, there were very many plants helpful to people, and the fact that they showed various uses depending on how you blended and used them was appealing.
The reason he opened a pharmacy was also to help people who were sick and struggling with the knowledge he’d learned. Because he knew better than anyone the pain of having a sick body while living with limited time in his previous world.
Naro entered the preparation room and prepared materials according to the order. The dragon naturally approached Naro’s side. His ankle tickled, so when he looked down, the dragon was wagging its tail energetically as if in a good mood.
“You don’t dislike the smell of medicinal herbs? Even with your excellent sense of smell, you stay here well?”
Naro smiled brightly and crouched down in front of the dragon.
“This is famous among medicinal herbs for having a good scent, how is it? Doesn’t it smell nice?”
Naro held out the plant he was holding toward the dragon. The baby dragon tilted its head and stared down at the medicinal herb, then suddenly ate the plant.
“Ah!”
Naro tried to stop it, but the dragon had already swallowed the plant. A few seconds later, perhaps because the medicinal herb it swallowed was quite bitter, the dragon blinked its eyes rapidly and soon shook its head vigorously.
Watching that, Naro suddenly burst into laughter. At the sight of him laughing with a small sound, the dragon also stopped what it was doing and stared at Naro.
“From now on, you can’t pick up and eat just anything. Got it?”
The dragon that normally would have nodded its head as if it understood was now just staring intently at Naro. Then it hugged Naro tightly and suddenly started licking his face here and there.
“Huh? That tickles. Wa-wait… Mmph.”
Especially, the dragon persistently licked only Naro’s lips among his facial features. Just as Naro barely succeeded in pulling it away, the shop door suddenly opened. At the bell sound announcing a customer had entered, Naro was startled and took the dragon a bit further inside.
“You can’t come out. Got it?”
At the voice looking for him, Naro hurriedly went outside.
“What are you looking for?”
The person who entered as a customer was a woman and child who appeared to be mother and daughter. The girl who came holding her mother’s hand tightly was sniffling.
“My child’s nose has been blocked since yesterday and she has a fever.”
“Then I’ll give you medicinal herbs good for colds together with medicinal herbs that bring down fever.”
“Yes. Please.”
Naro carefully packaged the medicinal herbs in clean paper. While waiting, the child pulled her mother’s hand and whined.
“Mom, I hurt so much. My nose is uncomfortable.”
“Just bear with it a little. Mom will make medicine when we get home.”
Naro quickly packaged the medicinal herbs and brought them.
“It’s fine to use them mixed together. Both can be consumed just as plants or ground and eaten like powder medicine, but it will probably be most convenient for a child to have it brewed and drunk as tea. They say kids usually don’t eat it well when you just feed it to them because it’s bitter.”
“Then I should brew it for her to drink. Thank you for telling me.”
Naro faithfully explained the method of taking it and storage method. And before the mother and daughter left, he rummaged through his pocket and took out a candy.
“Don’t skip the medicine, eat it well, and you must get better, okay?”
“Wow, it’s candy!”
“Hey, you have to say thank you quickly.”
“Thank you.”
The child placed her hands politely on her belly button and bowed her head. Just as Naro waved his hand in greeting, a loud crashing sound came from inside. Naro was startled and his shoulders flinched.
“Oh my.”
The mother and child were also startled and glanced toward the inside.
“I-I left a window open and things must have fallen over in the wind. Then, go carefully.”
Naro quickly sent the two people off. As soon as the door closed and the customers left, Naro ran straight to the preparation room.
As expected, the culprit of that sound earlier wasn’t the wind but the baby dragon. Perhaps because it was bored waiting alone inside, it seemed to have moved here and there and ended up knocking over the basket that contained medicinal herbs.
With plant bits all over its head, the baby dragon was staring up at Naro.
“At least you didn’t eat them?”
Naro sighed and let his shoulders droop while picking up the medicinal herbs fallen on the dragon’s head and on the floor.
“At least it’s fortunate they’re not precious ones. Still, I can’t use what fell on the floor…”
Naro trailed off his words quietly. Then after pondering for a moment, he slowly nodded his head.
“Dragon, do you want to go to the mountain with me?”
He didn’t know if it properly understood, but the dragon nodded its head. Naro immediately prepared to climb the mountain. It was the same process as usual, but today, just one thing was different. That was the existence of the baby dragon sparkling its eyes right before him.
If he left it home alone, it seemed like it would scratch up all the doors, and leaving it in this pharmacy had too many elements for causing accidents. Moreover, Naro also didn’t think he’d feel at ease if he left the baby dragon behind.
But if he took the dragon out, he also had to consider the risk of encountering people. Because he obviously couldn’t just explain it as a pet he raised at home.
After pondering, Naro started weaving together cloths inside the pharmacy. After making it like a baby sling that mothers use when holding children in front, he directly lifted the dragon.
“Ugh… it really is heavy.”
At the considerable weight, Naro’s body bent forward. The baby dragon just sparkled its eyes even more as if it felt good to be held by Naro and licked Naro’s cheek.
In the same posture of holding the dragon, Naro put on a robe. Though it looked strange with the stomach area bulging out, for now it was a pass in that the baby dragon wasn’t exposed outside.
“You can’t stick your face out. I’ll put you down when we enter the mountain, so just bear with it a little. Got it?”
The dragon tilted its head this way and that, then hugged tightly into Naro’s arms. When it showed such a well-behaving appearance like this, it was so lovable.
Naro looked at the dragon once with satisfaction, then left the pharmacy. After changing it to a sign saying he’d be away briefly, he first looked around the surroundings. Fortunately there were no people passing by, but in case someone appeared, he quickly turned direction toward the mountain.
Fortunately, without encountering anyone, Naro could safely enter the mountain. Around when his shoulder felt numb as if it would fall off, he looked around and put the dragon down on the ground.
Naro wiped the cold sweat flowing on his forehead. Even though this mountain was located right behind Rodelus village, there wasn’t much human traffic. He could obtain many of the medicinal herbs Naro handled here, but to ordinary people who didn’t know their efficacy, they were just ordinary plants.
As soon as it was put down on the ground, the baby dragon walked forward a few steps and kept looking around. As if it felt good to get outside air, its thick tail swayed lightly back and forth.
“Dragon, you absolutely can’t get separated from my side. You have to stay with me.”
