Kensei Arc – Chapter 13

Chapter 13 Transactions

“Hey, what do you mean, don’t go out on the town!”

The next day, Claire’s angry voice echoed in the mansion’s office.

The inside of the room is not gorgeous, but the solid furniture creates a high-quality space.

Clare flung open the door and trudged along the scarlet carpet, thrusting her hands on his office desk and approaching the person she was looking at.

“What, you didn’t listen to the explanation properly?”

Leaning his back deeply on his black leather chair, Geek faces her.

The shaky smile he was still showing completely disappeared, and she looked into the calm eyes of the lord’s representative.

“It’s going to be a problem if you go out on the streets too much. The events of last night were already urgent. You don’t know how much turmoil there is among the residents. It’s annoying when someone wanders around with an anxious look on their face.”

“That is……!”

That was a valid point.

Yesterday was an emergency, so Claire and Iris didn’t have time to think about what happened next.

As a result, residents often saw the two of them rushing around town in the evening.

Louis and his group of heroes already stand out.

Additionally, Louis didn’t seem to be in a good condition, so there had been some unpleasant rumors going around town since last night.

“…”

Claire thought about it for the first time when he pointed it out to her, and she gripped her hands tightly as she sat on the desk.

However, whether that was acceptable was a different matter, and her emotions were screaming out that she wanted to go find him right away.

Behind her, Iris, who must have guessed everything from the conversation leaking through the door, peeks out at her with a somber expression on her face.

“But then, what should I do about the medicine…?”

“Search here”

When Claire spits it out, unconvinced, a plain answer comes back.

“Neither Kensei-sama nor Saint-sama are familiar with this city.”

“That’s why we said it’s more efficient for us to search for it manually.”

“I just want you to make sure you don’t cause any more anxiety to the residents.”

Geek says so, his calm eyes shining as if he were acting as a lord.

“…I’d like some medicine, please.”

Claire could only bow to him.

She swallows her frustration that she can’t even go looking for medicine on her own, and makes a request to the government official.

“Yeah, leave it to me.”

Geek nodded vigorously.

◆

In conclusion, no medicine was found.

First day.

Realizing that they couldn’t hide their anxious expressions, Claire and Iris were unable to go out into the city and just spent the day feeling anxious on the grounds of the mansion.

There was no report on medicine that day.

 the 2nd day.

According to yesterday’s report, that specific medicine seems to be disliked everywhere, and major trading companies don’t sell it.

That’s why today, Geek said, he’ll them visit private shops scattered around the city.

There were no reports of drugs that day either.

 Third day.

Since the antidote for Louis was not found in the past two days, dark clouds were beginning to form over Louis’ treatment.

According to a report from Geek, they have been visiting most of the drugstores on the street in the past two days, but were unable to find one.

They had him search the back of the town, but to be honest, there was little hope.

What should I do starting tomorrow?

Claire had been waiting patiently, but she was about to reach her limit.

4th day.

Claire broke free from the servant’s restraints and ran into town.

Over the past three days, Louis’s weakness had clearly become stronger.

As expected, she couldn’t hold back any longer.

In the city, she found a store that seems to sell medicine, and rush there to see if they have any medicines.

However, no medicine was found.

As she was doing that, just as they had been told, Claire’s appearance started to cause a commotion.

But she couldn’t worry about that.

Iris also joined her in the afternoon.

As expected, she was a saint, and due to her position, she couldn’t run around the city like Claire, but she decided to check out the church.

Claire just runs, believing that there is medicine.

However, in the end, no medicine was found that day.

Day 5, day 6.

Similarly, Claire and Iris run through the city.

However, they were unable to discover the medicine…

◆

(I couldn’t find any medicine today either…)

That day, a depressed Claire was found at the entrance of the mansion.

It’s been a week since Louis collapsed.

Claire, who had been running around the city without a break that day, desperately searching for medicine, seemed extremely depressed when faced with the reality that she had achieved nothing.

Over the past week alone, Louis had become so weak that I thought he was a different person.

The lively energy emanating from his whole body disappeared, and the sound of thin breathing began to echo.

The gloomy atmosphere in the hospital room makes you think they are in a terminal medical field on a battlefield.

The doctor who is looking at him says that he still has some leeway and that it will take a little more time for him to completely weaken.

However, to begin with, it is a poison that can kill an ordinary person in a week.

Louis was able to survive because he was a hero, but with no sign of the medicine being found, this was no comfort at all.

In the face of this harsh reality, she’s afraid she’ll lose Louis like this. That fear slowly invaded Claire’s heart.

Ever since the day Claire decided to fight alongside Louis, she couldn’t say she hadn’t imagined losing him.

But then she was on the battlefield, and she thought she would die to protect him.

She never imagined that she would be watching him die like this, right in front of her, but unable to do anything about it.

She clenches her fists and resists the fear of losing Louis that threatens to take over her body.

“…He called for me”

That was the time.

The Arzen family’s retainer stopped Claire.

Geek is calling her. He bows respectfully.

Even after Claire and the others went out looking for the medicine, anxious about the drug discovery reports that never came up, the Arzen family continued to search for the medicine with all their might.

Therefore, there was a possibility that the drug was found there.

With her fleeting hope in her heart, Claire bows to the maid and heads to the office where Geek is waiting.

The Arzen family’s office was on the second floor, on the opposite side of the mansion from the entrance, which was shaped like a square around the courtyard.

Claire walked to the front of the room, swallowed her saliva in front of the solid wooden door, and knocked within one breath.

“Get in”

“Excuse me”

Geek is there. He sat in the chair at his office desk in the back of the room.

“I heard you called for me, but…”

Claire followed the voice and entered the room, but the voice asking about his reason calling for her stopped and disappeared.

There was a small bottle on his office desk that was big enough to fit in the palm of his hand.

The pink liquid sealed in a small glass container closely resembles what Claire was looking for.

No way. In front of her, Geek pushes the small bottle forward.

“Here, this is the thing you’re looking for.”

“!”

Claire’s reaction was quick.

She quickly walked to his desk, held a small bottle of medicine in her hand, and stared at its contents.

The liquid glistening inside the small bottle was certainly what Claire and Iris were looking for.

She was overjoyed when she found out that the medicine was real.

Considering that with this, the poison that had inhabited Louis could finally be exterminated, all the hard work up to this point would be worth it.

“There are conditions for giving it to you.”

However, Geek disapproves of Claire.

Is it gold or a monster material?

Geek says to Claire who is skeptical.

“Oh, it’s not money.”

“…Then what?”

Up until that point, Geek had only been acting as a representative of the lord.

However, the sincere expression he had been wearing disappears and he smiles maliciously.

“It’s your body.”

“…………Eeh?”

“Didn’t you hear? Your body.”

Claire was stunned, unable to understand Geek’s words for a moment.

Then, as understanding gradually spreads, intense anger arose along with it.

“I think you, or your family, had an obligation to support the hero…!?”

“Ah, that’s true. But this isn’t the Holy Kingdom.”

Geek speaks.

According to him, it is a decree issued by the Holy Kingdom to each country, but since it is a country-to-country issue, its contents are open to some degree of interpretation.

Therefore, although the Holy Kingdom ordered other counties to do everything in their power to support the heroes, in this country it only obliges them to provide the minimum support, and it is said that the minimum support has already been provided.

Then, Geek also mentioned medicine.

This was an emergency drug originally owned by the Arzen family, and given the current situation where it was difficult to obtain, it was something that they couldn’t part with in case something happened.

That doesn’t change even if they are heroes, and that is why the Arzen family has put all their efforts into searching for the medicine.

However, they did not think that it was something that would be so hard to obtain, and since the current situation has become irresistible, he had no choice but to use it.

However, since there is a risk of running out of emergency medicine, they cannot just give it to them for free, and this is the condition for that.

Claire heard all of this, but of course she couldn’t understand it at all.

Before she knew it, she was no longer using honorific language and was questioning Geek based on her emotions.

“Do you understand? If Louis dies like this, there will be no way to defeat the Demon King, right? If that happens, you will die soon too!?”

“Of course I know that”

“Then…!”

If you know that much, why can’t you understand! ? Claire is furious.

“But you know, if I had to choose between the chance to get a woman from this, and having a chance to lost that woman, I would be better off dead.”

“…!”

Claire couldn’t understand what Geek was saying.

(How dare you prioritize your own carnal desires in a situation like this…!?)

Claire puts Louis first, and here Geek puts his own desires first.

The two people’s ways of thinking are too different.

When Claire realized this, she felt that further discussion was pointless and tried to leave.

“Are you sure? If this continues, the hero will die, right?”

However, her steps were stopped by a voice from behind.

“You’ve been searching all over town for the past four days and haven’t found it, right? Do you think you’ll be able to find it if you search again?”

That’s  true.

For the past four days, Claire has searched every corner of the city. Towards the end, they even hit the black market merchants lurking behind the city.

However, no medicine was found.

Even so, I don’t think I’ll be able to turn around and find it again.

“Ugh…”

The current situation was completely deadlocked.

I grit my back teeth.

“Are you going to reject me here? That’s fine, with me you know? But I only have enough share here for today. There’s no way he’ll be able to make a full recovery later.”

Perhaps sensing Claire’s emotions that were about to explode, Geek said this and shook the small bottle in his hand.

“what will you do?”

Geek’s endlessly amused gaze pierced through her frustration, and even as she struggled with the current state of not being able to help Louis.

◆

night.

The saint Iris was seen in the hospital room where Louis was sleeping.

Iris’s search for medicine today ended in disappointment, and she lay depressed next to Louis sleeping on the bed.

The church was unable to help Iris…

Gizania’s poison is recognized as a poison that is almost never contracted.

As a result, there are not many medicines that were originally stockpiled, and due to storage problems, many of them end up rotting and being thrown away by this time of year.

As a result, with Lilius’ flowers about to bloom in a month, there were very few medicines in existence.

As Iris was worrying about her current situation, she felt the door to her room open.

She reacts to that sound, and Iris, who has put aside her thoughts, lifts her head from where she had been looking down.

She walked in and it was her best friend Claire.

Claire had a small bottle of something in her hand.

Iris lets out a small gasp as she sees the pink liquid sloshing around in the corked vial.

“Claire, that’s…!”

“Well, I finally found it.”

When Iris asks, she smiles and holds up the vial to show Claire.

—From this day forward, the hero will gradually start to get better.

Iris didn’t notice the fleeting smile on her best friend’s face.

A small glass bottle filled with medicine that Claire obtained.

It was the small bottle that Geek held up to Claire in his office.

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