🍲🍲🍲
THAT evening when Arthur came home with Annie, Olivia beamed with excitement as she said, “Arthur, I want you to give Freddy these mushrooms.”
“Did he request them?”
“No, they’re a gift. A thank you for taking such good care of my husband.”
“Oh, I appreciate it. Thanks.”
Arthur was eating a soup laden with dame’s cure mushrooms.
“This soup smells like butter,” he noted.
“I only used a little butter in it. It’s the smell of those mushrooms.”
“Huh. Well, I’m sure Freddy’ll be happy about these.”
The next day, Arthur arrived at work and, when Freddy arrived later, he gave him the basket of mushrooms.
“Huh? What’s this?” asked Freddy.
“A gift from Olivia. She wanted to thank you for taking care of me.”
“See you’re bragging about your wife early in the morning to your employer. Well, what have we here then? Let’s see… Oh my!”
“What is it?”
“These are dame’s cures! And a lot of them!”
Freddy took the basket and hurried into the waiting room where he grabbed the four corners of the cloth lining the basket and gently lifted out the mushrooms to lay out on a table.
For a moment he just stood there staring at the mound of yellow mushrooms, then said, “Arthur, I’m going out. Please take care of any customers that come in. If there are any complicated requests, just write them down and tell them the pharmacist is out so we’ll deliver the order when I return and take payment on delivery.”
“Is there a problem with the mushrooms?” asked Arthur. “Olivia said you’d be happy.”
“I am. I’m absolutely thrilled. I’ll explain later. I have to deliver these before they lose their freshness.”
And with that, Freddy rushed out of the pharmacy.
He didn’t return that day, or the next, or even the day after that. He finally came back the morning of the fourth day, when Arthur and Olivia were really starting to worry.
Just after Arthur opened the pharmacy that day, Freddy came in looking exhausted. He plopped into a chair with a thud.
“I’m finally back, Arthur.”
“Welcome back. I told Olivia what happened, and she was worried about where you’d gone off to.”
“Oh, yes. I didn’t explain anything. I’m sorry, I was in such a rush.”
“You took the mushrooms all the way to the capital, didn’t you? And got a reward for them?” Arthur ventured.
“Yes, I did. Hah, Guess I should expect a former mercenary to pick up on that. That reward, we’ll split it in half. Half for me, half for you and Olivia.”
“That’s all right. Who would ever accept money earned by someone else with a gift they gave?”
“I’m going to insist. Especially since this might end up causing trouble for Olivia.”
“What?!”
According to Freddy, there was a surgery trial involving removing diseased parts while the patient was unconscious using those mushrooms. This cutting-edge endeavor was being run by a group of doctors working in the castle, and they had a great need for these mushrooms since they had no side effects so long as you got the dosage correct. Unfortunately, however, they’d been foraged to extinction in this country and weren’t readily available on the market.
The doctors were able to import dried mushrooms from other countries that were producing large quantities of them, but the effects of the serum made from the dried versions weren’t as predictable.
“They can’t perform these surgeries unless the patient’s unconscious?” asked Arthur.
“Not everyone’s as resistant to pain as a mercenary. Some people die from pain or fear before the injury or disease takes them.”
“Yeah. I know.”
“You do?”
“Sometimes when you’re in the middle of a fight, you don’t even feel pain if you get hurt. I’ve seen some people pass out the moment things calm down and they realize they just can’t take it. Some people went on to die from it.”
“Maybe a pharmacist shouldn’t say this, but the human body is a mystery.”
“Yes, it is.”
“Anyway. Here’s your share. Exactly half.” Freddy set ninety-four large silver coins on the table with a jangle. One large silver was enough to give four mercenaries as much food and drink as they could want at a pub. Ninety-four of them was a huge sum.
“It was one large silver per mushroom,” explained Freddy.
“Really, Freddy—”
“They asked me if there’s more where those came from.”
“I doubt it. Olivia’s relentless when she’s foraging for mushrooms.”
“And the location?”
“That forest’s like her backyard. I’m sure she remembers where it is.”
“Uh, right. So, Arthur, promise me you’ll keep an eye out for anyone following you when you go home, all right?” Freddy warned.
“They want them that bad?”
“That’s the impression I got.”
“I’ll be careful, but I don’t want to bother taking a roundabout way to lose them. I want to go straight home. And there’s no way I can shake the pursuit while on Annie.”
“I’m sorry. Please forgive me for letting myself get caught up in the idea of making a lot of money.”
“I doubt that’s the real reason. I bet you just wanted to help someone, didn’t you?” said Arthur, his expression serious.
Freddy grinned awkwardly. “Oh, don’t go embarrassing your elderly employer by calling him out on the truth. Of course I wanted to help someone. I have a friend who’s kind of like an older brother to me. He studied medicine, and he was willing to give an arm and a leg for these mushrooms. He asked me to drop everything and bring him any if they’re ever found in this region.”
“What a good little brother you are.”
“Oh, cut it out.”
“And that older brother would put a mark on his little brother?”
“Not him, but the look in everyone else’s eye was something else.”
“Ah. I get it.”
That day before heading home, Arthur stopped at the town’s main shopping street and bought a hunk of pork and of lamb, eggs, and molasses. As he did, he noticed one man on a horse following him. Arthur casually took a look at them to see his pursuit was riding a large stallion and gave up on the possibility of Annie outrunning them.
“Don’t worry about it, Annie. We’ll just take our time going home like always,” he said, and they headed straight back to Soup Forest, though Annie’s steps were a little quicker than usual.
“I’m sorry, Annie. I shouldn’t’ve said that. Don’t be in such a bad mood,” said Arthur, giving her a carrot the moment they got home, which seemed to make her happier. He’d gotten the impression she was just a little annoyed.