Chapter 14:
Heatstroke
I SAT AT THE drugstore counter, staring outside. There were visible heat waves in the air.
“No wonder,” I mumbled.
The temperature explained the lack of customers. Kirio Drugs was located a bit awkwardly at the edge of town, so I understood why leaving home to visit the store was a bummer on a day like this.
Noela kept trying to latch on to me. Normally, I’d have been fine with that, but since she was super fluffy, I wished she’d give me some room during the summer. I was sweating like a pig, and no matter how much I hydrated, I still needed more water.
I watched as someone outside kind of wobbled toward the store. Hmm? A customer in this heat? Did they really have to drop in today?
“Reiji…?”
The visitor turned out to be the elf Ririka. Frankly, she looked like she was about to turn into a mummified elf.
“Welcome,” I said. “What brings you here on such a hot day?”
Ririka glanced around the store, appearing disappointed. “It’s nowhere near cool in here.”
“Sorry. This whole building’s pretty old,” I explained. Did she come all this way to cool down? I may as well show some hospitality.
I readied the rotating cooler Paula and I had collaborated on, inserting some icy gel, then poured lukewarm grape juice into the metal vessel.
“What’re you doing?”
“Just trying to give you a hand cooling off.” The vessel inside the machine spun as I turned the handle. I got a cup and poured juice in; the container was so cold, I couldn’t even hold it long. “Here you go.”
“Grape juice?”
The rotating cooler was extremely powerful. About a third of the juice had frozen, turning the beverage into a kind of sorbet. “Have it while it’s still cold.”
“A-all right.” Ririka lifted her thin eyebrows slightly, then she put the cup to her lips and drank. “Ah! I-It’s chilly! And delicious.”
“Awesome, right?” Hats off to the craftsmen who made that rotating cooler possible.
“It is.”
Ririka took her time enjoying each sip of the cold drink. She’d looked exhausted and thirsty when she entered the drugstore, but now she had some of her usual fire back.
By the way, after I rejected Noela’s attempts to cozy up to me, she’d fled to the basement under the living room—the room Mina’s mother had used. We stored fruits and vegetables down there, since it was pretty cool.
“So,” I asked Ririka, “what’s up?”
“Folks in the forest are dropping like flies because of this heat.”
“Er…will they be okay?”
“It seems like they’ll get better if they rest a little. But, um, people are concerned it might be some kind of pandemic,” Ririka explained, looking anxious.
Pandemic? I could see why she’d be worried. But it was summer, so food spoiled quickly. It could just be food poisoning.
“Even after drinking one of the drugstore’s potions, they don’t recover,” Ririka added. “I’ve been trying to figure out what to do. I just don’t know.”
That’s why she came all the way from the woods…
“Even my brother fell victim.” Ririka looked as though she was on the verge of tears.
Once I’d listened to her explanation, another thought crossed my mind. Heatstroke. Folks around Kalta said this summer was hotter than usual, with especially high forest temperatures.
“I always imagine the woods as being cooler,” I said.
“Cooler than town, yes. But, still, no one who lives there is used to this kind of heat.”
In other words, the elves’ bodies couldn’t adjust to the sudden shift in temperature.
“If this is what I think it is, it’s not a pandemic,” I assured Ririka.
“R-really?”
“Yeah. Don’t worry. I can’t say for sure, since I haven’t seen anyone afflicted, but I’m pretty sure it’s heatstroke.”
I think that’d explain why my potions didn’t help. They heal external wounds and stop blood loss. If they worked on heatstroke on any level, it’d be as hydration.
“Huh? R-Reiji, what’re you saying?!” Ririka blushed, embarrassed.
“Er…heatstroke?”
“Y-you said it again?! I mean, we’re in the store!”
“Uh…”
“L-Like, it’s still noon!” She stole a glance at me, cheeks bright red.
“Yeah. Hence the heatstroke.”
“You repeated it!”
“Why do you keep reacting to me saying heat—”
“I don’t want to talk dirty here! Th-this isn’t the right mood and atmosphere for my f-first time…” Ririka turned away.
What the hell is she talking about?
“I can’t believe you’d be so forward as to suggest stroking me,” she added. “You’re a bigger playboy than I thought!”
“HEAT! STROKE!” I yelled, breaking into a sweat. Ririka was definitely only half listening. For Pete’s sake! What a silly mistake.
“You’re being confusing.”
“I’m not! I’m saying the name of a medical condition, not asking to touch you.”
She looked a bit relieved. “Then you should call it something else! I’m sure other people would make the same mistake as me.”
“Doubtful.” I shook my head and sighed, then agreed to formulate a heatstroke treatment.
In the lab, I reflected on how people in this world fell back on drinking a potion whenever they felt at all ill. They needed to understand better that these potions weren’t cure-alls.
I gathered the necessary ingredients and got to work.
Emergency Beverage: Hydrates even better than water. Mitigates dehydration induced by fever/excessive perspiration.
If those elves have heatstroke, this should help. You were supposed to drink something along these lines right away after feeling heatstroke’s effects, so giving them the emergency beverage now might not be incredibly effective…but it was better than nothing. Anyhow, this heat wave might continue.
So far, I only produced a single dose of emergency beverage, so I whipped up enough to last ten people forty-eight hours. Once I finished mass-producing the drink, I headed back into the drugstore.
“I’m done, Ririka.” I handed her the new product.
“Water?”
“It’s not just ordinary water. It’s special water that’s effective against heatstroke.”
“Ah. How much…?” She reached for her bag.
I stopped her. “I honestly don’t know whether it’ll work, so it’s on the house.”
“You know, I’m afraid someone might take advantage of you one of these days. You’re too nice for your own good.”
Maybe, maybe not. At any rate, I’d volunteered to make this emergency beverage prototype, and I didn’t know whether it would work as advertised. So, of course I wouldn’t ask Ririka for money.
“Since this isn’t a pandemic, could you come back to the forest too?” Ririka requested. “There’s a lot about heatstroke I just don’t understand.”
“Sure,” I nodded.
After telling Mina about the situation, I peeked into the basement. Noela was hugging the stone wall to cool off.
“I’m heading out for a bit, Noela. Watch the store.”
“’Kay.”
Ririka helped me load the emergency beverages into a cart. Once everything was ready to go, I had Griffy pull the cart, and we headed for the woods.