“I should have noticed sooner,” Lord Felix said, frustrated. “I’ve let everyone down.”
He must feel responsible for the outbreak. But I mean, up until a little while ago, I was relaxing at home too.
New diseases were difficult to identify unless their symptoms were extremely overt. In this case, the onset of the illness had resembled the common cold, so it would’ve been unreasonable to expect Lord Felix to detect it quickly, especially when he was often performing monster exterminations away from home.
“It’ll be okay, Lord Felix!” I said. “Besides, look how quickly you dealt with quarantining people. It’s amazing! Thanks to that, many of your workers are still healthy.”
As I stood in the hallway, the unaffected servants passed me by, fastidiously attending to their duties. It was then I noticed that Mars was sitting at my feet.
“Oh? Did you follow me, Mars?” I asked.
The cat looked up at me and said, “Meooow.” Her gaze shifted to stare at one of the servants.
I instinctively understood what she was implying. “Can you tell who has the disease?”
“Mreow.”
“I thought so! That’s incredible! Will you help me, then?”
She waved her bushy tail once and exclaimed, “Meow!” as if to say, Leave it to me!
Cats had keener senses than humans, so they were better at detecting mana. The type of mana they could perceive depended on the person—er, cat. The wavelength that Mars picked up was likely one that could be disrupted by illness.
Thanks to regaining Lilybell’s memories, my ability to sense mana was superior to the average human’s. However, I was no match for a cat working with its specialized wavelength, so Mars would make a very dependable assistant!
I asked Mars to seek out the people she sensed were infected and arranged for them to be quarantined right away.
Lord Felix watched us, muttering, “Yet another extraordinary sight.”
“Heh heh!” I puffed my chest out, happy that Mars had been praised. “Aren’t cats amazing?! Not only are they charming and adorable, but they also have abilities that the average human could only dream of!”
“The cat is impressive, but frankly, its actions are beyond the realm of belief for me. I was talking about you. Actually, never mind—now isn’t the time. What should I be doing?”
I wouldn’t have blamed Lord Felix for being distracted by my cute little cat, but despite being surprised by her talent, he quickly switched gears. I liked that about him—he was serious and competent.
“This panacea shouldn’t cause any harm, but I do want to test its effectiveness. Just in case, let’s try a bit on a robust person with mild symptoms first,” I said.
Lord Felix brought me to a room of patients. I asked if anyone would be willing to try my panacea, and much to my surprise, all of the servants and knights in the room raised their hands.
Oh my! Everyone here is so kind!
The panacea was one of Conrad’s formulas, so I was confident in it to a certain degree. However, since I was neither a doctor nor an alchemist, I couldn’t guarantee that it would work. I’d been afraid that no one would want to try a suspicious medicine made by an amateur, but apparently that fear was unfounded.
Grateful for everyone’s generosity, I chose a knight who seemed to have the most physical strength. The largest of those who had volunteered, he looked like the type to rarely catch colds.
“Ohhhh!” The knight roared so loudly, I started to doubt whether he was actually sick. “I can’t believe I get to be the first to try Lady Lucille’s medicine! Yessss! The goddess of luck is smiling on me!”
Um, he’s clearly delighted about this, right?
His unbridled joy left me bewildered. Meanwhile, the other people in the room began to voice their frustrations.
“Being the first implies a trusting relationship, right? Why couldn’t it have been me?!”
“Ugh, this sucks! If I were over two meters tall and stronger than that beefy knight, would I have won?”
“Hey, if you can shout that loud, you must be fine! How’re we gonna know if the medicine works if you’re already healthy?! Switch with me!”
“Shut up! You’re just jealous! I don’t normally catch colds, so even these symptoms are painful for me!”
The argument unfolding in the room was beyond my understanding.
“Umm...” It’s not even my medicine. It’s Conrad’s formula. I just made it for the first time, that’s all.
Someone tapped on my shoulder. Turning, I discovered the source was Sir Kain standing behind me.
“Swimming in popularity as usual, I see! Lu, if you wait for them to finish bickering, you’ll never get anything done. Go on and try out the medicine!”
He has a point.
I tested the medicine on the knight, and after confirming that it worked without issue, I went around the manor to administer it to the rest of the patients.
“Lord Felix, I’m going to make more raspweed panacea,” I said. “Please distribute it to the people in town with Sir Kain!”
“Understood,” Lord Felix replied. “However, the disease is epidemic at this point. Do you have enough raspweed to supply medicine to the entire population?”
“Heh heh! There’s plenty growing nearby, so I always go pick it with Grandpa Randy when I’m bored! Just look!” I smugly took out all the raspweed I’d crammed into my handy dimensional space.
“I see. This is no longer enough to surprise me. Instead, I will simply say thank you, Lucille. I truly appreciate it.”
“Don’t sweat it. Now, let’s all work together!”
And so, the mysterious illness sweeping Leeuwenhoek was quickly brought under control.
Later on, when Lord Felix was sharing further outcomes, he looked at me with an indescribable expression and said, “Lucille, there are a number of people who said that your medicine cured not only this disease but also chronic illnesses they’d been suffering for a long time.”
“Why, that’s wonderful! Nothing is more important than one’s health!”
“Uh...yes, indeed.”
I knew Conrad’s formulas were perfect!
I once again felt grateful for my memories of my beloved owners, of whom I was very proud.
As an aside, when everything settled down, Mars tried to monopolize my attention, as if to say, I helped you, so you’ll reward me, right? Needless to say, the other cats became jealous. As a result, I was sentenced to the “cat pile” treatment for the next few days. But if anything, it was more of a prize than punishment!