Chapter 12:
Drink & Ride
JUST AS I STEPPED OUT of the drugstore, I heard a voice inside. “Pardon me! I’ve arrived!”
“Oh, it’s just you, Elaine. Welcome.”
The young aristocrat confidently brushed her large, drill-like curls off her shoulders, waiting for me to get her a chair.
“There’s one right there, isn’t there?” I pointed out a chair nearby. Paula and Annabelle pulled it to the counter themselves whenever they dropped by to hang out.
I’m not hauling that chair over, I decided. Elaine might not be here for anything in particular.
“Noela’s out today,” I told her. Noela was off playing at Vivi’s place—in other words, at the lake.
“I’m here to speak to you, Sir Reiji,” Elaine informed me.
“Huh? Me? Are you out shopping?”
“The truth is, I have trouble traveling long distances by carriage.”
“Does it hurt your butt?”
“That’s part of the issue, but… Well, I also start feeling sick.” I could tell that was hard for Elaine to admit. “By the time I arrive at my destination, I’m dizzy, and certainly in no condition to attend a banquet.”
Elaine’s carriage had rushed to the drugstore not long ago, and now that I thought about it, she actually had complained that she felt sick as she disembarked. “I remember you were in bad shape last time.”
“Right… If a road’s nice and flat, it’s not too bad. Depending where I’m going, though, roads can be terribly bumpy, which makes the carriage jump. When that happens… Well…” Elaine grimaced as if just imagining that scenario made her ill. “Once, Noela let me fly on Griffy. Before I could even think to be scared, I wound up getting sick, which worried them both.”
Does she feel sick on any mode of transportation? “Are boats the same?”
“They’re the absolute worst!” Elaine stressed.
She must’ve had a really bad experience.
“I’m going to San Logro next week. The lord over there is holding a party to celebrate completing a massive vessel.”
From what she’s said up until now, I can see where this is going. “Don’t tell me the event’s on the ship?”
“Yes…” She looked into the distance. I could imagine that a shipboard party sounded like hell to her. “I don’t want to go to San Logro, Sir Reiji…but that lord’s been very kind to my father and mother. According to them, I can’t afford not to attend.”
I figured. It doesn’t sound like there’s any way around it, I reflected. Personally, I’d just fake being sick or something. Relationships between nobles sound like a real pain in the rear.
“Okay, I get it,” I told her. “So, I just need to make a motion-sickness product, right?”
“No, that’s not it at all!” Elaine quivered with rage. “Have you even been listening to me?”
Wait… I was wrong?
She fidgeted, glancing at me. “S-Sir Reiji, I’d like you to accompany me.”
“Sorry, but I’ve got to work. You can go have fun on your own.”
“Such a dispassionate rejection!” The young woman looked shocked. “And when exactly were you planning on presenting me with a chair to sit in? I’ve been standing this whole time!”
“If you’d like to sit, there’s a chair right there.” Elaine frowned grumpily at me, refusing to move. With no other choice, I pulled out the chair for her. “Here, milady.”
“Ahem! Thank you very kindly.” Satisfied, she finally sat down.
“If you only came to invite me to that party, I assume you’re ready to go.”
“No, I have something else to discuss. If you refuse to accompany me, I’d like you to make a product to prevent me from feeling ill.”
So, it did come back to that. “You’d still get sick if I went with you, you know.” I don’t have any effect on people’s health.
“If you were with me, Sir Reiji…I-I wouldn’t be able to get sick.”
Really? I found myself doubting that. “At any rate, let me whip something up. Just wait a few minutes.”
“All right.”
Leaving Elaine in the store, I entered my lab. I’d never been prone to motion sickness, but I figured it must feel awful. And in this particular case—motion sickness from riding in a horse-drawn carriage—it would really stink. Same with seasickness at a party on a huge boat. I absolutely understood why that whole event was one Elaine would dread.
“Guess I’ll put some effort into this product for the little lady,” I said to myself.
In this world, commoners never found themselves on boats, so I could see why I’d never gotten any requests for this kind of treatment. Selecting some ingredients from my stock, I followed the instructions my medicine-making skill laid out for me.
Drink & Ride: Enhances nerve functionality and anesthetizes gastric mucosa, controlling nausea.
That name’s sure self-explanatory.
Grinning, I took the bottled motion-sickness medicine into the drugstore. “Here you go, Elaine.”
“Done already? You’re always so quick.”
The fact that my medicine-making skill could work so rapidly and lay out instructions really did rule. “Drink this before riding in your carriage or boarding the boat.”
“All right.”
“Why not test it by flying on Griffy?”
“C-certainly.”
Elaine and I headed to the stable, and I brought the griffin outside. “Can you fly for me, Griffy? I want to see whether Elaine gets motion sick.”
“Kyuu!” Griffy nodded.
“I-I don’t want to go alone,” Elaine told me. “Please come with me, Sir Reiji!”
“I mean…okay, I guess.”
Once I agreed to accompany her, Elaine downed the Drink & Ride. I got on Griffy first, then took Elaine’s hand and sat her behind me.
“Wh-what should I hold on to, Sir Reiji?”
“How about my shirt hem?”
Elaine turned me down instantaneously. “How unromantic!”
Unromantic? What’s that even mean?
In the end, she grabbed my hips.
“You ready?” I asked.
“Yes.”
I gently squeezed Griffy’s sides with my heels. The griffin spread its wings wide and flapped them, running forward. Eventually, it rose into the air.
“Eeeeek!” Elaine gripped me tightly, screaming like a junior high schooler on a roller coaster. “This is terrifying!”
Wait. Didn’t she say she wasn’t scared when she rode Griffy before, because she got so sick? That means the Drink & Ride’s working. “How’re you feeling, Elaine?”
“I can’t believe how brazenly I’m holding on to you! My heart’s racing!”
“That wasn’t what I was asking…” I wanted to know whether she felt sick. “Griffy? Could you barrel roll, then fly up and down?”
“Kyuu!” I took that as an affirmative, since Griffy proceeded to do as I’d requested.
“It’s not bothering me at all!” Elaine exclaimed. “Just the feeling of taking off made me sick last time!”
“Glad it’s working!”
Shortly after, Griffy landed, and I helped Elaine down.
“Thanks, Griffy.” I patted the creature’s head lovingly.
I’d only given Elaine my hand to help her off the griffin, but she kept holding it afterward. “With Noela gone, this is my chance,” she told me, adding dejectedly, “Any time I try to make a move on you, she’s livid!”
“I think it’s about time you let g—”
“I refuse!”
Why?
“Garrrooooo!”
Hearing a beast-like howl, I turned to see Vivi riding astride Noela’s wolf form. “G-gah! Noela, if you run this fast, I’ll fa—byaaah!” Just like that, she tumbled off.
“Groooo! Grrrroaaar!”
“Sh-she’s here!” Elaine sprinted around me as Noela chased her, enraged.
“Noela, don’t,” I interjected.
She stopped in her tracks, returning to her human form. “Master no buddy-buddy with Drills!” she warned, making a big “X” with her arms crossed in front of her.
“What’s wrong with just helping her a bit?!”
“No! Master Noela’s master,” she said defiantly.
“Y-you can’t keep him trapped forever!” Elaine objected, and the two started bickering.
Could we just take a sec to check on Vivi, please?
“I’ll take my leave for today, Sir Reiji,” Elaine announced. “And I’ll gladly make use of this medicine. Goodbye!” She departed via carriage.
“Can’t drop guard with Drills.” Noela shook her head.
✦ ✦ ✦
A few days later, I get word from Elaine that the Drink & Ride worked perfectly; she hadn’t needed to worry about motion sickness at all during the shipboard celebration. Other nobles, seeing that she’d conquered her seasickness, had even told her that they had the same problem. Apparently, lots of aristocrats got motion sick.
Upon learning that, I wound up making more Drink & Ride, turning it into a product specifically for nobility.