<Chapter 86>
#9. Each One’s Role (10)
“You know it?”
“…I think I might know what you’re talking about.”
“What is it?”
Melty’s eyes sparkled as he leaned toward him. Calix chuckled at the brown eyes now full of vitality, unlike when he had been feeling down, and poked Melty’s cheek with his finger.
“It’s an herb called ‘Rika.’ It’s so sensitive that cultivation is impossible. Of course, since it’s not even distributed, naturally no one would know about it.”
“It’s an herb? But I looked through so many books in the library and never saw any mention of it…”
“It does have medicinal properties, but they’re not particularly strong. It’s difficult to obtain, but not special enough to be documented.”
To be precise, no one treated Rika as a medicinal herb. It didn’t have any special medicinal effects, and there were many common herbs that could substitute for it. Even if ordinary people happened to find it, they’d obviously just consider it a wild plant or weed.
“That! Can we get it?”
At Melty’s question, Calix’s gaze naturally turned toward the window. Though the curtains were drawn, they couldn’t hide the sound of pouring rain.
“I’m not sure if there will still be flowers blooming with this rain. Do you need the flower?”
“From petals to roots.”
Seeing his gaze full of expectation, Calix scratched his cheek. The tubular, hollow yellow petals were uncommon enough to make it easy to guess, but that didn’t mean obtaining it would be easy.
“You want to help that person?”
At Calix’s question, Melty hesitated before nodding.
“You don’t even know them, right?”
“…That’s true. They’re strangers, but having seen them already, I just want to help.”
Swallowing the words ‘because I’ve been there…’ Melty smiled brightly. He knew all too well what it was like to have a sick family member. The image of the boy crying while holding the hand of someone about to take their last breath, listing all the things he couldn’t do for them, flickered in his vision.
“And maybe I could find some clue about my gift too.”
Melty glanced at Calix while making this awkward excuse. Since he had come to help with Calix’s work, he needed his permission to help the boy’s father. Of course, it wasn’t a complete lie. When he had tried to see what food the man wanted to eat through his gift, Melty had felt something pass through him that was difficult to express in words. Calix, who had been observing Melty’s behavior, scratched his cheek and said:
“I don’t mind whatever it is…”
“What?”
“Nothing.”
From the beginning, Calix hadn’t really cared about what Melty’s gift was. After realizing through his own gift that Melty was a precious connection he shouldn’t miss, he had written the contract merely as an excuse to keep him close. Moreover, unlike then, his feelings for Melty had changed. He no longer wanted to keep Melty as his chef.
Melty glared at him, saying that the worst thing in the world is stopping mid-sentence, and the second worst is saying something and then not explaining. Under his intense stare, Calix hurriedly changed the subject.
“Rika doesn’t have many specimens to begin with. The reason it’s not distributed despite not having special effects is because it’s difficult to obtain compared to its medicinal value.”
“…So we can’t get it?”
Melty’s excitement deflated instantly. He had thought he could be of some small help, but it seemed impossible after all. With a dejected face and drooping shoulders, Melty’s hair was played with by Calix as he spoke.
“We should be able to find it. It would be in the hills, so my mother might know well.”
“…Amelia-nim?”
“Yeah. Father does the cultivation, but mother keeps track of herbs that grow in the wild.”
Blinking slowly, Melty could easily recall her face. Although he had only properly encountered her once during lunch on his first day at the mansion, as he’d mostly been cooped up in the library during his stay, the impression had been so strong that remembering her wasn’t difficult.
Recalling Amelia’s cool demeanor and eyes that shone sharply despite their gentleness, Melty swallowed dryly. Just mentioning her made him tense, which Calix noticed as he watched him quietly before laughing lightly.
“You’ve been here for several days, and you’re still intimidated by my parents?”
“Well…”
Melty stopped himself from grumbling and shook his head lightly. He couldn’t bring himself to tell Calix that her gaze had been like that of a lynx eyeing someone who had come to steal her son. Since Calix was the only son here, and had returned after a long time, it was understandable that she would look at him that way.
“It’s fine. Come to think of it, I haven’t run into them since coming here. Are they both very busy?”
“I suppose?”
Calix responded to Melty’s question with a casual smile. All this time, Calix had thoroughly protected Melty from contact with his family members. Of course, everyone was already preoccupied due to the bombshell Johaim had dropped on the Padrian family.
‘It would be troublesome if he heard rejection because children are precious in this house.’
Until Melty completely fell for him, he didn’t want to create unnecessary problems. Calix placed his hand on Melty’s head and playfully rubbed his chin against the back of his hand.
“Hey! If you keep pushing down on my head like that, I’ll get shorter!”
“Pushing your head makes you shorter? That’s the first time I’ve heard that.”
Melty reached out to push away Calix’s chin and rubbed the top of his own head. Watching as Melty stretched both arms upward, the corners of Calix’s mouth quirked upward.
“Does stretching like that make you taller?”
“It might!”
“Didn’t you say you’re an adult?”
“Even as an adult, I always keep a bit of hope in my heart. Not that tall people would understand.”
Calix turned his body sideways, resting his arm on the back of the sofa in response to Melty’s sullen retort.
“Want me to help you stretch?”
“How can a person stretch? Do you think I’m a cat?”
“Weren’t you trying to stretch upwards?”
Seeing his clearly teasing demeanor, Melty gave him a hard stare. The smile on Calix’s face deepened as he observed how Melty, who had looked depressed when he first came to the room, had become more lively.
“I’m just saying don’t make me shorter, okay? Growing taller would be better…”
“I didn’t know you disliked your short height.”
“Tall people don’t understand the struggles. Even average height would be fine.”
Melty grumbled with his lips protruding forward, somehow glancing sideways at Calix’s bulging sleeve. Noticing Melty’s gaze repeatedly falling there, Calix moved his hand and pulled something out of his pocket.
“Curious?”
“…What is that? Is it related to your work today?”
What emerged from Calix’s pocket was a wide-mouthed glass bottle filled with soil. At Melty’s question, Calix opened the lid covering the bottle’s mouth and handed it to him.
“This is the culprit that made me late today.”
“…I thought you were late because of the sudden rain?”
“That was also a factor, but this was the main problem.”
As Calix furrowed his brow with an expression that suggested it was still a headache, Melty’s gaze fell on the glass bottle. The soil inside didn’t look particularly special. It appeared darker than typical soil and unusually glossy.
“Why? Where did you go today?”
“A place where they said a drought had occurred.”
“…With the rain, shouldn’t it be fine now?”
Fierce raindrops were still pouring relentlessly beyond the window. Melty’s gaze naturally turned toward the window as he asked, and Calix laughed lightly. He got up and brought a nearby kettle. The kettle prepared by the staff was, of course, filled with clear water.
“Actually, there was never any problem with the weather. But strangely, they said there was a drought. So I visited the closest location they mentioned.”
Even when traveling there, Calix hadn’t thought much about this issue. There was no weather that was equally kind to all regions, and occasionally places struggled when crops failed to grow well. Calix tilted the kettle. The water flowing through the kettle’s long spout entered the glass bottle that Melty was holding with both hands. Simultaneously, Melty’s eyes widened.
“…Huh?”
“This is what’s happening.”
Normally, water should soak into soil. But strangely, the soil and water in the glass bottle remained perfectly separated as two distinct substances. The formation resembled that of water entangled with a mass of oil—a form that was definitely not normal.
“Soil dying is common, but I’ve never seen it fail to absorb water like this.”
“…Then the crops…”
“There’s no way they could survive in such an environment.”
He had heard of droughts occurring due to lack of water, but never one caused by soil failing to absorb water. Watching Melty tilt the glass bottle back and forth in wonder, Calix murmured:
“You really don’t know what’s causing this?”
“The people living there said it happened suddenly one day…”
There was no way the land could have changed like this overnight. Frowning, Calix tapped the glass bottle with his fingernail, making a clinking sound.
“The fact that there’s no apparent cause makes it more problematic. At this rate, that land will become dead soil, and apparently such areas are increasing, which is a problem in itself.”
If lands kept dying, food prices would obviously skyrocket. And such a phenomenon could potentially lead to wars over inhabitable land.
“Isn’t that really serious?”
“Extremely serious.”
Not knowing the cause was the biggest problem. Others were likely treating this matter lightly, just as he had initially. It seemed people were merely acknowledging that “a problem has occurred” because these incidents were happening in several places and displaced people were coming up looking for new homes.
‘If that weren’t the case, they wouldn’t have dumped this task on me like some annoying chore.’
Perhaps soon they would need to hold another emergency exchange meeting. Calix narrowed his eyes as he looked at the soil in Melty’s hands, who was still deep in thought. He had brought back three glass bottles of soil for investigation, and had sent the other two to his parents through the butler when he arrived at the mansion.
‘If only we could properly identify the cause…’
He clicked his tongue at the rising frustration. This wasn’t a problem that would be solved immediately anyway. Melty, who had been observing Calix’s still-wrinkled face, opened his mouth:
“But hasn’t something like this happened in the past?”
