It had been like this for a while lately. Whenever she wanted to focus, her attention would get divided and her work efficiency would drop. Even now, half her brain was preoccupied with figuring out how she would deal with things once she got back to the medical center. Her mind was totally disorganized and she would end up forgetting what she had been trying to think about in the first place.
“Tell me, Dana. Do you normally get enough sleep?”
“Huh...?” Dana blinked. Her naturally fine face and fair skin made it hard to tell, but upon close inspection, her skin was more sickly pale than fair, and there were faint dark circles under her eyes. “Yeah, I sleep. I make sure to get a minimum quota.”
Just like with budgeting money, there were some things that couldn’t be cut back too far. That was why no matter how busy things were, Dana made an effort to get at least a little sleep. She’d take frequent naps throughout the day to make them add up to at least the minimum amount. But was this really working? Now that Lacey had brought up the subject, Dana had a feeling that she wasn’t waking up feeling as rested as she used to. She was always yearning to sleep more, the morning sun was detestable, and her body was heavy when she woke up.
Dana grimaced and went silent. Seeing this, Lacey wrote the word “sleep” in the blank space on the paper and added in a cute drawing of a person fast asleep.
“Getting rest isn’t just about sleeping. The quality of your sleep changes depending on what you do beforehand. I read in a book once that if your sleep quality is bad, it can cause all kinds of health problems.”
“So you’re saying all of this can be solved if you cast some sleeping magic on me?”
“That could be one way of doing it, but if you rely solely on magic, the burden on your body will still add up. So I’m going to create an artifact that improves your sleep quality indirectly rather than directly. I think that right now, you aren’t actually recovering while you sleep. It’s like taking damage and then jumping right into the next battle before healing up.”
Dana was a holy woman and was in charge of getting everyone else healed. This analogy helped get the idea across to her.
Allen had kept his mouth shut so far while deep in thought, but now raised his hand and asked a question. “How do you plan to increase sleep quality, big sis Lacey? All sleeping is is lying down in bed and shutting your eyes.”
Tee had flopped over asleep on Lacey’s lap, but now its snot bubble suddenly popped and it blinked open its bleary eyes. The way it could sleep so soundly was enviable.
“Maybe, maybe not. You know, I’ve wondered about this for a while, but have you ever noticed how there are some days where you can lie down and go right to sleep, but there are other days where it takes a while?”
“I guess there are, yeah.”
“What kind of days are those? And what times do you get sleepy?”
Allen shut his eyes and thought about it. Then his eyes flicked back open and he lifted his face. “I feel like I go to sleep right away when I’m worn out. As for what times...well, at night, of course...oh, but when it’s cold out and I’m in front of a fire, I get drowsy. And Lane’s still small, so her hands get warm when she wants to sleep.”
Dana surmised that Lane was Allen’s sibling. Strangely enough, young children’s limbs would grow warm when they were sleepy. Dana knew this well, since she’d taken care of many children at the orphanage. When they were wrapped up tight in a blanket on cold days, they’d fall fast asleep with a relaxed look on their face. Recalling this brought a soft smile to Dana’s face.
In short...
“You’re going to create something that warms up the body before sleep?”
“Yes! And to accomplish that, I think a ‘bath’ would be best!”
“A bath...?” This wasn’t something that the average townsperson would be familiar with. While Dana of course knew what this was, Allen had never heard of it before. He stumbled over the word when repeating it.
“Yes!” Lacey nodded happily.
Dana just couldn’t keep up with whatever Lacey had in mind. She wanted to understand her, but it seemed that would be a challenge after all.
∗ ∗ ∗
“Okay, Tee, that fruit looks like it’s the biggest one. It should be good. Go ahead!”
“Nkwee!”
“Uwa—wa—waugh!”
Tee, gripping the treetop with its talons, used its beak to drop a large fruit. On the ground, Allen caught it. The fruit was large enough to fill his arms. It was shockingly large up close.
At the back of the mansion was a bountiful field where rustling palm trees grew and bore coconuts.
The spell that Lacey had cast on the coconut wore off, and the now-heavy fruit weighed down Allen’s arms. “Oowah?!”
“Maybe that one’s a little too big, actually... I don’t know much about coconuts, but they’re definitely not supposed to be that big, right?” Dana could only murmur. She was so stunned by the extraordinary herb patch and bedazzled by the colorful flowers, that it was all getting to be a bit overwhelming.
“After I infused my mana into the soil, the area around the garden went a little wild.”
“You call this a little?”
Dana figured that she shouldn’t pry any further. She narrowed her eyes, put a hand on her cheek, and sighed.
Lacey didn’t notice this action. Instead, she examined the coconut that Allen was holding and lightly flicked her finger up and down. “I want to split it in half like this, if possible.”
Not even Lacey had split a coconut before, it seemed. Her magic wasn’t all-purpose—the formula had to be modified depending on the material makeup of the object to be cut. In simpler words, she needed to create “coconut-cleaving magic.”
“Ummm...” Lacey twirled her index finger and devised the formula in her head.
Allen set the coconut on the ground, smacked his bicep, and threw out his chest. “You’ve got me here, so let me handle it. I’ve split coconuts lots of times! Although this one is a bit oversized. All right!”
Since he was asking to do the job himself, he must have been confident. Allen used a thick snapped branch to forcefully pry off the fruit’s husk.
Dana had seen coconuts before, but she didn’t know how they were peeled, so she observed with great curiosity. Tee had flown down from the treetop at some point and was now watching Allen’s movements with its head tilted, making warbling sounds.
What Dana had thought was peel was actually, upon closer inspection, a thick layer of fibers. It was almost like tree bark was stuck to the outside of the fruit. When this was removed, the stiff exterior of a light brown fruit was revealed. It was much smaller than it had been before, but it was still about the size of two human heads.
“Yaaah!” Allen picked up a broad-bladed knife that had been leaning against the wall and raised it so that the blunt side, not the edge, faced downward. Then he swung it down with all his might at the fruit sitting on the ground. The knife hit it with a thunk!
He repeated this multiple times, gradually forming a cleft in the coconut.
“Do you have a pot I can use, big sis?”
“Wait a moment, I’ll bring one.” The moment he asked, Lacey zoomed away, then swiftly returned carrying a pot.
“Thanks,” Allen said. Struggling with the bulk of the coconut, he swiveled the knife around and this time hit the fruit with the edge of the blade. A clear liquid spurted out, which he hurriedly directed into the pot.
“This is coconut water, right?”
“Yeah. Since we’ve got it, it’d be a waste not to use it.” Allen grinned at Lacey.
A vast quantity of coconut water proportionate to the size of the coconut itself swirled around in the pot. Allen drained out every drop of water, then swung the knife down once more. The coconut split in half and opened up, revealing hard white flesh.
It was a big coconut, so they divided the rest of the work. The flesh was shaved off with a blade. One pot wasn’t enough to hold it all, so they got another bowl out. The shavings kept piling up.
“Don’t strain yourself, Dana. Allen and I can handle this.”
“Thanks, but sometimes it just makes me feel better to do something different. Those herbs helped my pain subside too.”
So Dana claimed, but last night she had been thinking about the mountain of work to be done once she got back to the medical center and hadn’t been able to get good rest. However, as she’d watched them work, her head had gradually cleared. She could hardly contain her enthusiasm.
Lacey held the coconut in place while Allen shaved away the inside. Dana slowly shaved the other half.
Tee waddled over to the trio out of curiosity, flapping its wings. It stared at the pile of coconut flesh, then took a small peck at it with its beak.
“Nkwoo?!” Tee shivered. It straightened its posture, then moments later flopped down. “Nkweeeeee~”
It was enraptured. Tee glanced at Lacey for a sign. “You can eat it,” she told it.
As soon as it got the okay, Tee ravenously pecked at the shavings at breakneck speed while making “kwee kwee” noises.
“Looks like Tee’s enjoying it.”
“The parts besides the water are tasty too.” There really was a use for every part of the coconut.
By the time Tee had finished fattening itself up and lay down relaxedly in the garden, the inside of the coconut had been all cleaned out.
“So what are you doing with this, anyway?” Allen finally asked. They had been working without knowing what it was for.
Allen had been nervous around Dana and could only make small talk, like:
“I’ve got a newborn baby sister named Lane. She keeps getting heavier, so my mom’s been complaining lately that her back hurts.”
“Really? That’s unfortunate. I can really relate.”
But now he’d gotten completely used to speaking with her. Dana was much happier to be talked to like this rather than be put on a pedestal.