They piled into Shan Li’s wagon and found themselves in a village packed with other carriages. On Miyako’s shoulder sat Umi, now completely transformed into an ordinary cat. On the way, several villagers shot curious glances at the two unfamiliar girls, but Shan Li paid them no mind and drove the wagon onwards.
The evening sky was growing dark by the time they reached their destination.
“Okay, we’re almost there!”
Shan Li’s usual demeanor of a friendly traveling merchant was gone. She was panicking.
The wagon stopped in front of an ordinary-looking house.
“Whose house is this?”
“It’s mine,” said Shan Li.
“It looks quite normal. I imagined it would be—”
“You thought it would look more Continental? Or maybe you thought it would be more grand?” Seeing that the two of them were at a loss for words, Shan Li smiled like a cat. But her expression lacked her usual confidence. “Normal’s best. If you stick out from the crowd, people get the idea that you’re loaded, and nothing good comes from that,” said the young girl—er, the thirty-year-old skilled traveling merchant.
That’s probably her own brand of worldly wisdom, thought Miyako.
“All right, in here!”
Shan Li led them to a room on the second floor, probably a bedroom. Before even going in they could make out the sound of someone coughing violently.
Umi’s ears sprang up at the noise.
“I sense a plague... Miyako, Fuuka, keep away from it!”
“Uh, okay?” said Miyako.
Shan Li didn’t react to the young girl-sounding voice. It seemed as though she couldn’t hear Umi.
“Only my master and her family can hear my voice.”
“F-Family...”
Miyako blushed.
“Here goes... Nyaha!”
Umi shook her tail.
“Is this... Protect?!”
“Whoa, I feel a lot more energetic somehow.”
Sparkling blue light emanating from Umi’s tail filled the air like snow. When Miyako breathed it in, she felt more energetic, or perhaps that the light purified her body in some way.
“Hmm? So you can cast Protect? You really can do white magic. That should stop it from spreading at least a little,” said Shan Li.
“Huh? Oh, ahem, of course!” said Fuuka.
Shan Li assumed that Fuuka had used white magic, and Fuuka quickly played along.
“I’ll leave it to you, my white mage.”
Shan Li said that, then opened the door. Inside was a girl. She lay sprawled on a bed, deathly thin. Her sunken eyes turned to look at them, but there was no light behind them. The coughs she retched out one after another sounded very painful.
“This is...”
As soon as she saw the state the girl was in, Fuuka appeared to be thinking.
“Excuse me, Shan Li-san. Who is this girl?”
“She’s my daughter. I’m one of those working single mothers. She started feeling bad late last night, and she’s not gotten any better! The doctors don’t have a clue what it is!”
“I see...”
Fuuka lost herself in thought. I expect Shan Li remembered me saying a few days ago that white magic was the choice of girls from noble families.
White magic was a subdivision of the magic arts that focused on healing, enhancement, and making tools and medicines. The legendary sorceress Laplace, Youngest Daughter of the Dragon and one of the first mages, established a branch of the arcane arts based around attacks and weakening enemies, and this became known simply as “magic.” On the other hand, the arcane arts that descended from the magic Our Blessed Lady of the Springs preferred were, for reasons of convenience, called “white magic.” Those who narrowed their focus of white magic to just healing and built their repertoire there were called “healers.”
Society viewed the manufacture of medicines as the pastime of young, noble ladies in particular. But for a disease like this, wouldn’t it be best to call for a renowned white mage or healer from the capital?
At the level of a lady’s hobby, it was possible to deal with the slight injuries that took place at home, or someone who felt generally unwell. A disease like this that kept the girl in front of them pinned to her bed was usually outside the scope of that sort of white magic.
“This is...”
“Argh, stay back. Stay back!”
As Fuuka approached, the girl began writhing in pain.
“Come on! This lady is a white mage!! Behave yourself!!!”
“It’s all right, Shan Li-san! That’s one of the symptoms of the disease.”
After Fuuka hurried to quell the misunderstanding, Shan Li calmed down.
Fuuka took a few steps back, and the girl’s breathing calmed down.
Miyako was out of her depth, and could do nothing but watch and hold Umi in her arms.
Fuuka pondered something for a little while, before turning to Umi and whispering quietly, “Umi-san, please dispel the Protect spell you cast on me.”
“Nya? Have you lost your mind? It might be infectious!”
“I know that, but there’s something I’d like to check.”
Faced with a threatening look from Fuuka, Umi let out a sigh. At the same time, the veil of blue light covering Fuuka faded away.
Fuuka walked towards the bed. This time, Shan Li’s daughter showed no signs of being in pain.
Miyako held her breath and kept watching.
“Fuuka-chan...”
Miyako had noticed—or rather, she knew—that Fuuka had a stronger sense of responsibility and was kinder than anyone else. Fuuka could never give up on a sick child.
“...This feeling.”
Fuuka brushed her hand against the girl’s forehead.
“This cloudiness in the eyes.”
Next, her eyelids.
“And this smell...”
Fuuka took a sniff.
“Umi-san, can you cast Protect on me again?”
“Nyaa.”
A blue light once more shrouded Fuuka. The mighty water spirit cast with a single flick of her bushy tail a spell that a human would need a long chant to replicate.
Fuuka chose her words carefully in conveying her thought process to Shan Li, who was watching the scene with worry.
“I only have eight books on medicine memorized, but—”
“Fu-Fuuka-chan, you really do go the extra mile with your studies...”
“But this is definitely miasmal autointoxication. It’s a magical ailment where poisonous magic—that is, miasma—starts to build up inside the body,” explained Fuuka matter-of-factly.
This disease was troublesome because the miasma built up from inside the body, and applying healing magic would have no effect. In fact, quite the opposite: the blessing from the healing magic would inflict damage on the body. If it were a normal disease, they could use the Undine’s water-affinity healing magic to cure it there and then. But since all it took was someone cloaked in the Protect spell approaching her for her to start writhing in pain...
“The disease is likely quite progressed... At this rate, I’m afraid your daughter won’t make it.”
“That can’t be!!”
“She might not even have until tomorrow morning.”
“Th-The doctor never said anything like that!”
“It’s an exceedingly rare case, so there is a possibility that my diagnosis is mistaken... But if I’m right there’s only one way to treat it.”
“Ah!” Miyako realized what that might be. “Moonlight grass?”
Fuuka nodded.
Moonlight grass. A tremendously rare alpine plant, said to work against all diseases. According to Fuuka, only moonlight grass had an effect on miasmal autointoxication.
“There was some moonlight grass on the mountain roads, on the way to the hot spring!”
Miyako and Fuuka nodded in mutual understanding.
Shan Li clasped her small hands together and looked at the two of them.
She can be a little forceful, but she’s always cheerful and brings us tasty things to eat, this traveling merchant from the Continent. There’s no way we can let her down, no matter what.
“Shan Li-san, please bring the wagon out!”
No one would deny the nighttime mountain roads were terrifying. The girls might even run into monsters. Even so, Miyako grabbed Fuuka by the hand and set off.