“S-Sorry... Did I really hit you that hard?”
She seemed to think it was her fault. Sewell shook his head.
“No, you didn’t. When winter approaches, I often get a bit sick. They say my lungs are weak. My bronchial tubes in particular.”
It had been like this since Sewell was a baby—it was just a fact of life. He had essentially accepted his ailment, but when winter came along and brought his worsening condition along with it, he couldn’t help but feel a bit depressed. Every year, he spent the winter months almost entirely stuck in bed.
Greta looked totally serious as she listened to Sewell’s story.
“Do you cough up phlegm?” she asked.
“Hmm, not really. It’s just dry coughing.”
Greta paused for a moment, deep in thought, before curtly saying, “Wait here.” She popped into her house quickly.
Left at the doorstep, Sewell looked up at the sky, which was coated in gray. It would probably snow in a few days.
If the snow sticks around, it would be fun to make a snowman with Greta...
Soon, Greta returned and handed him the basket he had earlier given to her.
“Take this home with you.”
Noticing its weight, Sewell peered into the basket and found something inside.
“What’s this? Blue candy?”
“It’s a special medicine I created that will help you stop coughing. Take one in the morning and one before bed. They’re in the form of a sweet, so they shouldn’t be bitter. Also, have a teaspoon of honey in the evenings. I bet you have some, don’t you? Got all that?”
Sewell could only stand there in surprise. Meanwhile, Greta reached out and grabbed his hands. They were cold, and she rubbed them to warm them up. There were a number of blisters on her small palms, as well as the remnants of some that had burst. These had probably come from the labor-intensive work of grinding up herbs with a pestle and mortar.
“Not only that, but don’t let your throat get too dry. Drink lots of water every day. Got it, blockhead?”
“Y-Yeah!”
“Good.”
Greta knew way more than he did about the world, so Sewell vowed to do exactly as she’d ordered.
✧ ✧ ✧
A week later, Sewell’s excited voice rang around Greta’s shack.
“Greta, it’s amazing! You’re amazing!”
“Keep it down.”
“Every winter was so hard for me, but thanks to the candies you gave, I haven’t coughed in the slightest!”
Sewell’s excitement was understandable. The day Greta had given him the cough drops and advice, he had drunk a lot of water and taken some honey and a cough drop before going to bed. The change had been palpable. On winter nights, Sewell would often wake himself up with his coughing, but he’d slept through the night. Not only that, the medicine his doctor had given had tasted awful, so he had secretly disposed of it while pretending to still be taking it. Greta’s medicine was far more delicious, and it even became something he looked forward to each day.
“You’re incredible, Greta. It’s like magic!”
Greta looked embarrassed in the face of Sewell’s unabashed joy.
“Are you drinking enough?”
“Yeah, two whole bucketfuls!” he said with joy.
Having reached her limit with Sewell’s ridiculousness, Greta snorted as she said, “That’s way too much!”
However, Sewell’s eyes were glittering.
“You smiled! I knew your smile was incredibly beautiful too!”
“Enough of that!”
“Ouchie!”
Greta gave Sewell a quick smack to distract him from her embarrassment. It was a light, playful smack, so it didn’t hurt Sewell in the slightest, but he played along and let out a loud cry.
However, Sewell soon grew quiet. Of course, Greta noticed this change in him.
“What’s up?”
Sewell didn’t reply immediately—it took him a moment to get the words out.
“Greta, I have a request. I’ll pay you.”
“If it’s about the cough drops, don’t worry. They’re thanks for the lasagna and cookies you bring.”
“It’s something else.”
Greta squinted at Sewell as he beat about the bush. Finally, he managed to say it.
“Our housekeeper is sick. She’s been stuck in bed, and her fever won’t go down.”
“Have you gotten a doctor to look at her?”
“We did, but the doctor doesn’t know what the cause of her illness is.”
Greta scratched her cheek awkwardly as she looked down at the crestfallen Sewell.
“Fine... I’ll have a look.”
“She might be a bit rude to you, though, Greta...” Sewell said, clenching his hands into fists. Sewell’s housekeeper had looked down on Greta before, calling her filthy. “But all the same, she’s done so much for me.”
“I said I’d help, jeez.” Greta stood up, as if bored by the conversation. “You wanna help her, right? Then let’s get going.”
“All right!”
Yes, Greta was amazing. Sewell followed behind the girl, completely taken by her.
“Who in their right mind would allow a witch to help them?!”
Sewell’s housekeeper’s reaction was far more intense than he had anticipated. The middle-aged woman, who was stuck in bed, had enough energy to shout, but not enough to get up.
Sewell’s live-in housekeeper had looked after him since he could remember, yet this was the first time he had seen her so angry that a vein bulged on her temple.
“Oh, quit your whining,” Greta said angrily. Sewell moved in to speak up for her.
“Please, madam, Greta’s come to help. Her medicines really do work. I’m sure she can help you!”
“Young master—! You’ve been hoodwinked by this wicked witch! Ohh, how will I ever explain this to the mistress?”
Sewell was at a loss for what to do in the face of her crying, but Greta spoke up with a cool air.
“I don’t give a rat’s ass if you die in this bed. But to be honest, if you’re going to die anyway, then it won’t matter if a creepy witch like me helps you or not. If you get better, then that’s great, but if you don’t, then you were just gonna die anyway.”
Greta had simply stated her piece without a trace of anger. This detached explanation was perhaps the scariest thing for Sewell’s housekeeper.
“I...I’m going to die?”
The color drained completely from the housekeeper’s face.
“Yep. Unlike witches, normal people die quickly. You think you can delay the inevitable, but any time bought amounts to barely a thing.”
Perhaps Greta’s threats had worked, for the housekeeper finally agreed to be seen by the witch. All the same, she complained at every stage, from the examination to the prescription. For her part, Greta let the words wash over her without blinking an eye.
Then, on the way home, Greta told Sewell a surprising fact.
“I know you can keep a secret, so I’ll let you in on something, Sewell.”
“Hm? What is it?”
“Your housekeeper often comes to my place. Asking for ointments.”
Sewell couldn’t believe what he was hearing, but Greta continued with a grin.
“Her bangs are long, right? They’re to hide this big purple boil she has there. Her rude behavior towards me is just to throw people off about how she actually comes to see me. What a poor performance, all for the sake of covering up a lie.”
Sewell didn’t know how to reply.
“I think she was in shock when I came with her employer’s young master, scared that she’d been found out,” Greta went on. “If she had enough energy to leave her bed, she would’ve come and got the medicine from me herself, I think.”