“Hold those thoughts. The stall owner asked me to bring you by her store later so she could thank you in person, so save all that for her. I won’t remember any of it. This lady is really good at taking advantage of good business opportunities, so she’ll love your ideas.”
“I’m not saying anything that impressive.” Misha laughed, surprised by Geord suddenly cutting her off. “Okay then, could you take me to her shop after we go to the library? I don’t need her thanking me or anything, but I’d love to see her cute accessories.”
They continued walking with that idle talk, and shortly before arriving at the library, they noticed Yuu and Teto walking ahead of them. Misha waved to them.
“Yuu, Teto! On your way home from studying?” she called out to them, seeing the bread they were carrying. At her voice, the two boys jumped and spun to face her.
“Oh, Misha! It’s been a while. Are you heading to the library?”
“Hi, Mr. Geord. Thanks for all the fruit you gave us the other day.”
Misha smiled as she watched the boys politely thank Geord from their time together at the festival. And then she tilted her head, noticing something was off.
“Just you two? Did Anna stay home?” Misha asked, noticing the lack of the little girl that normally hung between the two boys. Misha hadn’t thought much of it until the question made the boys’ expressions fall.
“What’s wrong?”
Concerned by their reaction, Misha knelt down to look the downcast Yuu in the eye.
Now looking down at her, Yuu was clearly anxious.
“Anna...got sick. She has a fever. We think she has the same thing granny has. It was really bad, so mom made her stay home.”
“She complained a lot because we had a test today, but we couldn’t risk her spreading it to anyone else,” Teto said, showing the bread and cookies he was holding.
“A test? Oh right, you get rewards if you do well,” Misha murmured, recalling the explanation the kids had given her before. Sweets baked with sugar were quite expensive, so they were a special thing for kids in the poorer parts of the city.
“Yeah, so we’re bringing these back for her,” Yuu said, carefully wrapping up the cookies.
Misha gently patted him on the head. “That’s so nice of you.” Though it was just as rare a treat for him, he was willing to give it up for his sister, who was too sick to get her own. And she knew Teto would probably split his haul with Yuu the moment he saw that, so she couldn’t help but reach out and pat him on the head too.
“So your granny isn’t feeling any better?” Misha then frowned, Yuu’s words catching up to her. She was disappointed in herself for forgetting about their sick grandmother after saying she would help.
“She felt better after the medicine you gave us, but once we ran out, she got sick again...”
“You should have said something. I would have brought you more.”
The two boys silently looked at their feet.
Geord couldn’t help but sigh. Having grown up in the forest of a foreign country, Misha had no idea of the value of the herbs that she used in her medicines. He had heard stories during their journey to Redford of when she and her mother had traveled to various villages around her forest giving people medicine for free. Any compensation they received came in the form of meat or vegetables. With that as her primary experience giving out medicine, not even her time working with the royal herb garden had helped her recognize how valuable these plants could be. In her eyes, medicine was just something you gave to people who needed help.
Meanwhile, in Redford, medicine was almost always something that had to be imported, and so it was typically quite expensive. Taking medicine from a friend of their children without paying would have been an absurd idea to the adults in the family. It was easy to imagine them telling their children quite strictly not to bother Misha for any more.
After a moment’s hesitation, Geord plopped a hand on top of Misha’s head. “So, what are we going to do?” It would be easy enough to explain how the situation came to be, but he knew Misha would want to help these people more than anything. If they didn’t get involved, both the adults and the children could do nothing but wait for someone else to come along and help them. The issue with adults was that they had things like responsibilities, obligations, and pride—things they wanted to protect even at their own expense.
Misha hesitated for a moment. “Can we go pay Anna a visit?” she finally asked the boys.
“Are you sure that’s okay?” Yuu responded, his face twisting. His grandmother and his little sister were both sick. He wanted Misha to come help them more than anything. But even at seven years old, he understood how valuable medicine was. He knew it took a lot of money to get it, so he had fully understood when his mother had told them not to press Misha for help. Anna was the one who couldn’t grasp the idea, leaving Yuu and Teto to try and console her as she just asked “Why not?” over and over.
But...but...
While Yuu was on the verge of tears, and Teto watched him with obvious concern, Misha grabbed the both of them in a big hug. “I already told you, didn’t I? If my friends are in trouble, I want to help. If there’s anything I can do, I want to do it. You three were my first friends here in the city.”
Misha’s gentle whisper finally broke the floodgates; tears started down Yuu’s face.
“E-Everything... Everything’s gotten weird,” he said. “Not just granny. Everyone around us is starting to get sick, but they’re all trying to be sneaky about it, like it’s some big secret. I... I don’t get it...but it’s really scary...” The fear building up in his chest poured forth as he began to sob. Teto also started to cry, watching his friend break down.
These kids saw what was going on around them far more than their parents realized. Even if no one explained anything, they could tell something was wrong, and that caused fear and anxiety to start building up.
“Yeah, I understand. It’s really scary, but you’ve been trying really hard to keep it together, right? It’s okay. I’m going to go and make everything better.”
Misha’s expression turned grim as she consoled the two boys. People around them were all getting sick, and the adults were trying to hide it. There was a clear future that pointed toward. A glance backward showed Geord’s expression was just as grim as hers.
“There’s no way of knowing without checking...” Misha whispered so the boys wouldn’t hear her over their own crying, but the concern in her tone reached Geord perfectly. Then she raised her voice, mustering her own cheer. “So first, we need to go see for ourselves!”
She rose back to her feet and took the two boys’ hands as she started toward their home.
They arrived to find the neighborhood around Yuu’s house suspiciously quiet.