Chapter 2:
I Just Want to Get Stronger
AS I TENDED the herbs in our borrowed meadow, I took a deep breath and glanced around for Noela, who’d come with me. She was nearby, playing with some pill bugs. I vaguely remembered doing the same as a kid. Noela supposedly couldn’t stand insects, but pill bugs were apparently fine.
I heard voices in the meadow. “One, two! One, two!”
Looking toward the cries, I saw some Red Cat Brigade mercenaries jogging together. The brigade was in charge of the town’s safety, so it made sense that they trained every day. Annabelle, the mercenaries’ leader, was at the front of the pack. Behind her was a bunch of beefy—er, tough-looking—guys. At the very rear was a boy I’d never seen before.
“You’re laggin’ behind!” Annabelle yelled.
“Yesh, ma’am!” The boy responded in a strained voice. Although he was struggling, he was just managing to keep up.
“Peel joined mercs, Master,” Noela told me.
“‘Peel’?”
“Yeah. Peel. Shoemaker’s son.” No wonder I’d never seen the boy with the mercs before.
I watered and weeded the herbs, harvested a few we’d run out of, and began to leave the meadow. The mercs were still training. I figured their routine must be tough, especially since it was technically part of their job.
“My life’s pretty slow-paced next to theirs,” I murmured.
Perhaps assuming I felt downcast, Noela rushed to praise me. “Master not slow! Master smart. Only Master make potions!”
“Thanks, buddy.”
“Groo!”
The mercs greeted me as Noela and I passed. “Hey, Medicine God!”
“Guys, could you please stop calling me that? I’m no god.”
Annabelle piped up herself. “Working in the meadow today?”
“Yeah. Mina’s watching the drugstore for us right now.” I then glanced at Peel, who was clearly exhausted.
“You ain’t done yet, Peel!” A veteran mercenary needled the shoemaker’s son to get back to his workout.
“That boy asked to join us a while back,” Annabelle told me. “Who knows what he was thinkin’.”
“I respect him,” I replied. “He’s working hard despite how tough this must be.”
“I know he’s goin’ whole hog, but he ain’t ready for the real job yet though,” Annabelle said, scratching her head. “Ain’t nothin’ wrong with a shoemaker’s son inheritin’ the family business. No call for him to join us.”
“Peel said no like making shoes,” interjected Noela. She was apparently familiar with the boy’s circumstances.
“Huh. Must be nice to have some choice,” mused Annabelle. I guessed that many of her mercenaries had nowhere else to go.
“Reiji, bro!” Doz, Annabelle’s second-in-command, waved. I returned the gesture. “Get ripped with us! C’mon!” His face wore the best grin.
I gave him a smile of my own. “No thanks.” I knew for a fact that I’d end up like Peel. Speaking of which, the boy somehow completed his training and was now lying on the ground, arms and legs outstretched.
“Looks like we’re all done here,” Annabelle said. “We’re gonna head back into town.”
“All right.”
The Red Cat Brigade went on its merry way. Peel, however, was still catching his breath on the ground. Noela trotted up and handed him a water bottle. “Here. Drink.”
“Ah… You’re the little wolf girl from the drugstore, right? Thanks.” Peel took the water and chugged it down.
“Must be rough being a mercenary,” I said.
“Oh, Mr. Pharmacist. Good day.” Peel turned his head toward me. “They let me join just the other day, but I can’t keep up.” He laughed awkwardly.
As Annabelle had implied, Peel’s frame was scrawny. It was hard to believe he’d be fit for combat. “Why’d you decide to join the Red Cat Brigade?” I asked.
“Well…” He turned his melancholy gaze away from me. “I guess I want to be stronger.”
Wh-what kind of reply is that? Oh, man, wait. Could he be…? “I…I see.”
“If a monster attacks Kalta and the mercenaries can’t handle it, I want to be equipped to protect this town myself,” Peel continued.
Ah, yup. I figured him out. This was a path all boys eventually went down. Imagining a normal guy like themselves strutting his stuff during a crisis. Even I had dreamed about it. In fact, back in junior high, I thought about it a lot.
I stared blankly into space as Peel continued. “We train pretty much every day though, so I never have the chance to recover. My muscles hurt like crazy,” he concluded, sighing.
Basically, his ideals differed from reality.
Out of nowhere, Noela jabbed Peel’s shoulder. Even that caused sharp pain in his muscles. “Gah!” he yelped.
“Peel weakling. Noela strong.”
I smacked her head. “You could be right, but don’t taunt him.”
“Mr. Pharmacist, I…” Peel bit his lip with a pained expression, then repeated, “I just want to get stronger.”
“I think you’re telling the wrong person.”
Peel shook his head. “I’m not! Doesn’t your drugstore have medicine that makes people stronger?!”
Oh. He means Strength Up. That treatment briefly raised your physical attack power, to use video game lingo. It was basically a form of doping. “That product only works temporarily. It’s not like it keeps you strong forever. Besides, if you aren’t tough to begin with, you won’t get much stronger even if you do drink it.”
“Wha…? How will I get strong effortlessly then?” Peel looked miffed.
He honestly planned to use Strength Up for that? I guess basic bodybuilding isn’t his thing.
“No whine!” Noela brought her arms up into an X-shape at Peel, rebuking him. “No bother Master!”
“At this rate, I’ll just be extra baggage forever,” Peel lamented.
“Okay, okay,” I replied reluctantly. “Fine.”
“You’ll devise a treatment to make me stronger?!” The shoemaker’s son pushed his face close to mine.
I shoved him away. “Getting stronger will depend on you. But, well, I suppose I might be able to give you a hand.”
“Thank you so much, Mr. Pharmacist!”
Now that I promised to create some kind of treatment, Peel gingerly staggered away. I understood that the brigade’s training would help him get stronger, but it was obviously rough. “Shall we go home?” I asked Noela.
“Groo!”
Mina met us as we returned to the drugstore. “Welcome back!”
I quickly entered my lab. Most boys going through puberty dreamed of getting stronger—even I had—so I wanted to help Peel out, if just a little. That said, I couldn’t simply create magic medicine to strengthen him immediately.
Well, actually, according to my medicine-making ability, I could. Now and then, my skill showed me how to make something that seemed unsettling in more ways than one. If I were a bad guy, I could probably make bank, huh?
I decided against making it, since it seemed kind of sketchy. My skill respected that, thankfully, and helpfully informed me of the materials and process for an alternative that even used some ingredients Garon had given me.
I mixed the ingredients into the drugstore’s icy gel.
Muscle Chill Gel: Cools afflicted area, reducing muscle pain/exhaustion.
“Hopefully this helps,” I muttered.
The new treatment didn’t smell terrible, but it gave off a scent that was definitely…unique. I put some on my fingertip and then rubbed it on my arm. “Whoa! It’s so cold!”
Is it just me, or is this gel more frigid than ice? The soothing sensation made it seem even chillier. Wait—I’m familiar with this kind of gel. It’s basically a chemical-based cold compress! No wonder it’s got such a distinctive aroma!