The days with Belly weren’t as hard as I thought. A week since I’d been with Belly. It was much more pleasant than I’d worried about.
Ah. There was an incident in between. When I said we’d have to use a chamber pot since we couldn’t go outside, Belly nearly had a fit. Looking at how the prepared chamber pot is still as is even now, it seems he’s somehow solving it on his own, so that’s fortunate.
Anyway, the reason it was relatively pleasant was because Belly’s body didn’t heal easily. Even when improving, because of the mysterious fever that rose from time to time, Belly couldn’t regain his energy at all. Should I say thanks to that? Belly didn’t have the strength to resist or cause trouble.
“The fever won’t go down…”
Belly’s fever rose again when night came. I don’t know how many times I changed the wet cloth on his forehead. I was worried to the point where I wondered if his brain would cook at this rate.
“Belly-ya, get up for a second. Let’s take this.”
Belly looked at me blankly with eyes excited from fever. I received that gaze and took out the medicine I’d bought on my way back from work. The sloshing potion was a pale blue color.
This medicine, which I’d taken once before, might not taste good but worked directly for reducing fever. It was questionable how much medicine used on humans would work on Belly who was a beastman, but since his condition hadn’t improved until now, I had to do something.
Since he’s a main character in the novel, he won’t die even if left alone, but I didn’t want aftereffects from the fever to occur. No matter how I think about it, Belly isn’t the Helen Keller type of character.
“This is just fever medicine.”
“Don’t want…”
“But your fever keeps not going down. It’s okay. This isn’t poison. Here.”
I swallowed a mouthful of the fever medicine first. An indescribably bitter medicinal herb taste swirled sharply in my mouth. Judging by taste alone, it was tasteless enough to be called poison.
But is it okay to take this when I’m not sick? Well, I won’t die. I gulped down the medicine and thrust it out to Belly.
“Here.”
“Don’t want…”
Even though I ate it first to prove it was harmless, it seemed he still had strong rejection since it was medicine.
I sat Belly diagonally in my arms without question. His panting breath reached my forearm. Belly only rolled his pupils to glare at me, but soon it blurred with tears that flowed physiologically due to the fever.
Giving medicine to a child who couldn’t move a finger because of being excited from fever was easier than eating rice cake while lying down. He tried not to open his mouth, but I solved it by blocking his nose so he couldn’t breathe.
When I blocked his nose, he had no choice but to open his mouth. Not missing that gap, I quickly poured the medicine into his mouth with a spoon. Belly moved his tongue as if trying to spit it out, but my hand covered the child’s mouth faster. In the end, Belly gulped down the medicine at my action. Tears brimmed in his eyes.
“Oh my, good job. Good job. It’s bitter, right?”
I stroked Belly’s head and put candy in his mouth. It was my favorite grape candy. Though I was saving it to eat, after all, giving sweets to a child who took medicine was a longstanding history throughout the world. I see it wouldn’t be different even in a fantasy world.
“Now, since you took medicine, let’s sleep more.”
“Ugh…”
Once again, Belly’s pupils wavered with anger. It would be because of his antipathy toward me forcibly handling his body. Moisture still lingered in his wavering pupils.
But what could he do to me with a body that hadn’t even fully recovered? In the end, he only limply drooped his arms and legs. I laid the child well on the bed and continued nursing, wiping the sweat from his body all night.
* * *
“You look tired these days.”
Carl asked worriedly while not erasing his smile toward me. That smile was perfect like a figure in a famous painting.
“Huh?”
The alley heading to the dormitory. Carl worked in a different place from me who worked at the tavern. Because he was a guy in a slightly different position from me.
Carl, as the senior guild members evaluated, was the most promising guy among the children Rose brought. It was something all the other children agreed with. Carl absorbed everything the teacher taught like a sponge and had very excellent grades. The teacher even recommended asking if he wanted to study more.
He was not only outstanding in studies but also exceptionally talented in innate martial arts. He was so amazing that despite being the same age as me, he could face adults.
If literary and martial arts were perfect, there should be a lack in appearance to be balanced, but his looks were also decent. His red hair had good texture flowing with luster, and those green eyes were like grass blades holding dew.
In many ways, he was a talent compared to ordinary me. Such a talent was too valuable to use merely in the role of hearing information here and there at a tavern. Since I was still the lowest of the low, I didn’t know where they used talent like Carl, but I thought maybe they’d put him in a noble family or something.
“You look tired. Your under-eyes are dark.”
Carl said while smiling gently. It seemed shadows had formed under my eyes. That made sense. Having to do both work at the tavern and caring for Belly, three bodies wouldn’t be enough. I didn’t even have time to read books.
This is why people become haggard from nursing the sick. At least if I were an adult, I might have been able to endure. But with a body not yet matured, it was hard to bear.
“I guess it is a bit hard.”
Carl was kind to everyone, and that was the same for me.
I, who didn’t stand out more than others, wasn’t close with the surrounding children. Everyone treated me as an incompetent guy many times. Moreover, since I was a child in appearance but an adult inside, I was awkwardly mature, so it was hard to play with children who were much younger.
In the end, I’d been ostracized for several years, but I didn’t feel regretful. It would be strange to be disappointed at not becoming close with characters in a novel.
The being who worried about me like this was about Carl’s level. He looked after not just me but all the isolated children. The way he tried to take care of each and every person being alienated sometimes looked somewhat obsessive.
I didn’t dislike Carl like that, but this was the annoying reason. Because his actions were sincerity I didn’t wish for. I could just ignore him appropriately…
“Oh dear, if it’s hard, how about asking the guild master?”
“Nah, it would be rude to ask the guild master separately.”
Rose paid quite a bit of attention to me even after picking me up. Sometimes she’d suddenly appear to ask about my current situation, and told me to come to the guild master’s office if I had business. Sometimes she’d suddenly give me a thick pouch calling it allowance. She was closer to being like a close older sister rather than a guild master.
At my plain answer, Carl’s eyes sank darkly.
“…So you can ask?”
“Hm?”
Carl’s low murmur was too small to hear. However, since I could clearly feel the eeriness overflowing from that voice, I couldn’t hide my puzzlement and looked at him once more.
But as if the gloomy atmosphere I felt was a lie, Carl was smiling radiantly again. It seemed I had heard wrong. Did my hearing already get bad?
“Mmm, no. Jack, then take care of yourself. I have work…”
“Ah, yeah. See you~”
Carl passed by me with light steps. Since we met on the way back to the dormitory, I thought he was going to the dormitory, but the place he was heading was outside the alley. Well, it wasn’t something I needed to care about. Just because Carl looked after me didn’t mean we were friends.
More than anything, resting was more urgent now. I led my tired body back to the dormitory. I hoped Belly’s body had gotten a bit better…
I didn’t want to leave a sick child behind, but I also had to do my assigned work as a bottom-level guild member to stay in the guild. There was the allowance Rose sometimes gave and the money distributed to children, but having more money was better than having none. If I worked steadily at the tavern, though it was hard, I could receive that much more money.
“I’m back~”
I closed the door, greeted, and eagerly checked on Belly. Of course, I had washed my hands to prevent possible germ infection.
Belly was leaning against my bed with his legs stretched out. In his hands was a book, my book <The Lily of Enchantment> that had been left in the room. He must have been bored being alone. Belly’s face holding the book was still flushed.
“Uh… That…”
“Your fever still hasn’t gone down?”
Seeing that he couldn’t properly connect his words, it seemed the fever hadn’t gone down. Did the medicine not work properly?
In worry, I quickly approached Belly and checked his temperature. But contrary to what I thought, the fever was much better than last night. Seeing that only a slight fever remained, I thought I should buy more of that fever medicine.
But then, why was his face so flushed?
“Belly-ya? What’s wrong?”
“…”
Without giving any answer, Belly wriggled under the blanket and lay down. Even though I’d cherished and cared for him like this, it seemed he still disliked me.
Actually, as long as Belly was alive and well until the story of this world properly progressed, that was enough for me. So there was no reason to be hurt by his actions. I just had the wish that it would be nice if we became close and I could be by his side when the story progressed…
I gave up on talking to the unresponsive Belly and roughly cleaned the room after changing clothes. It was because I’d been a bit neglectful of cleaning the room while nursing Belly, so it was messy.
In the meantime, I picked up a book placed on the bed. It was the book Belly had been reading earlier. The arrangement was different from when I’d organized them, as if he’d looked at other books too.
“Belly-ya, are you bored when you’re alone? Should I get you more books?”
I asked just in case, but Belly only stayed inside the blanket without saying anything. The round blanket lump with no movement felt a bit cute.
