Ch.297297. Mountain Lord (6)

In truth, I considered this proposal to be quite a shrewd deal on my part.

Meat fruit and its tree, which can grow meat from plants… just hearing about it reveals its immeasurable value.

From my perspective, it was a crop with potential to create value beyond measure.

To be frank, proper meat is a luxury item for ordinary people in this world.

For the middle class of this world—skilled craftsmen in cities, independent farmers in rural areas, or even small-scale ranch owners and above—meat might not actually be that scarce.

The urban middle class can buy meat daily from butcher shops, delivered from nearby farms and ranches.

In rural areas, there’s even access to wild game for hunting and plenty of meat by-products, so those in the middle class don’t need to worry about finding meat.

But… what about the urban poor or landless serfs in the countryside?

Urban poor either catch filthy rats and stray dogs, or rummage through garbage for rotting meat—if they can find any meat at all.

Rural poor risk their lives poaching in hunting grounds patrolled by gamekeepers, or catch small birds and field mice… their situation is marginally better, at best.

Regardless, in an era where at least half of the Western Continent’s population lives in poverty and hunger, being able to grow meat from plants… and even in mountainous regions like this…

To be honest, if I were to deliberately create the right environment and use druid magic to run plantation agriculture, I could potentially satisfy the entire meat demand within the Frankish Kingdom single-handedly.

Once the production system is properly established, the market would be flooded with meat—not that prices would crash, but rather that demand would be so high it would all be consumed.

However, I should be cautious.

Since many nobles derive their income from large-scale ranches, this could be seen as a direct provocation, and furthermore, ranches aren’t operated solely for meat production.

In this era, ranches produce fur and leather—winter necessities—as well as milk, eggs, and wool for textiles.

Especially with wool, the economic scale is so vast that even someone of my high rank couldn’t handle the consequences of carelessly disrupting it.

No matter my rank, there’s nothing to gain from earning the enmity of countless people.

Anyway, considering the tremendous value of meat fruit, I had made it the object of my negotiation, but their reaction was somehow strange.

[“…That much we can offer as thanks for forgiving our children… but is that really all you want?”]

“Hmm? Well, meat fruit should be…”

It was as if they didn’t properly understand the value of meat fruit. Their oddly misaligned response to my words made me realize:

‘Ah, of course… they wouldn’t know about the outside world.’

While ordinary forest folk who aren’t murderous lunatics might occasionally trade with human territories (the Kingdom of Core), these ones had deliberately isolated themselves in mountain valleys to avoid interaction.

Considering humanity’s cunning and devious nature, their avoidance of contact is understandable, but who would have thought it would result in such ignorance of worldly matters?

Of course, being unworldly doesn’t necessarily mean they’re stupid, but their lack of knowledge doesn’t seem to work in their favor in this situation.

‘Sophie, what should we do? Fleece them completely?’

[“…They’re the desperate ones, aren’t they?”]

‘Yes. But… once we get what we want, do we really need to cheat these magical beasts?’

[“True. We don’t need to dirty our hands unnecessarily.”]

So while the situation—them not knowing the value of their assets—certainly presented an opportunity to take advantage of these magical beasts before me…

After a brief internal consultation with Sophia, I decided to show them some “consideration” in this matter.

“Alright, let me state my terms for negotiation. I—”

※ ※ ※

About an hour after beginning our “negotiation,” the forest folk and I were able to generally sort out the current situation.

The negotiation terms were simple: they would provide me with the meat fruit itself and information about it, and in exchange, I would completely heal the forest lord.

Of course, they noticed through my reaction that the meat fruit held considerable value, but regardless of knowing this, they apparently couldn’t refuse to exchange it for their lord’s life.

And this negotiation proceeded with both parties putting up their souls as collateral through the forest lord’s mystical powers.

[[“We hereby swear. If the contract—”]]

A contract with souls as collateral means that if one violates the details, the ownership of one’s soul—including not just immediate life and death but everything after death as well—would be transferred to the other party.

Thanks to this, the contract became a medium for building mutual trust, and the forest lord could now entrust his body to my hands—or more precisely, to my contract.

[“I place myself in your care.”]

“Understood. Our elders often suffered from this disease too, so it should be resolved without issue.”

As I mentioned earlier, the Age Disease is a condition caused by imbalance between body and soul, and the solution involves rebalancing these distorted elements.

In the forest lord’s case, his soul had risen to high-rank level while his body remained somewhere between middle and high rank.

[“Soaking in hot springs improves the condition…”]

“That only alleviates the symptoms. It can’t cure it completely.”

[“…Is that so?”]

Immersing oneself in magical hot springs can delay death but cannot postpone it indefinitely.

A large supply of magical energy causes the soul to grow just as much as it develops the body, so this is merely a temporary measure.

[“Then… the human medicine I took recently that made me better…”]

“Some treatment ingredients must have been mixed in. Though… that medicine probably wasn’t particularly good.”

What’s used to treat Age Disease is a plant that can be gathered in its natural state. It’s a plant called the Age Herb, named for its use in treating Age Disease, and can be found without much difficulty in deep otherworlds.

The Age Herb, which resembles an orchid in appearance—probably a mutated orchid—is actually used as a poison plant in normal circumstances.

This is because the plant has the bizarre effect of increasing the physical age of whoever consumes it.

A fully grown Age Herb adds roughly 10 to 20 years to the consumer’s physical age, and since this is an immediate effect with no antidote, it’s a lethal poison.

Bluntly speaking, if you force someone to consume the concentrated extract of just 10 roots, you could kill an average human through old age, but… when it comes to Age Disease, it’s a different story.

For Age Disease where physical growth lags behind soul growth, drinking a decoction of this Age Herb accelerates the slow physical growth.

“…Therefore, taking this medicine will cure you.”

[“Indeed, so that’s how it works. I understand.”]

After I calmly explained these facts, he seemed to have a question.

[“Sir. But tell me, do you actually have this Age Herb plant?”]

“Not at the moment, but I can simply make it bloom. Like this, for example.”

After tapping the ground with my staff to stimulate the magic and soil, a dead plant seed buried in the ground seemed to transform, and then changed into an Age Herb seed that bloomed magnificently.

[“…What?!”]

[“W-what is this…”]

They showed outward surprise, perhaps because even the forest lord’s mystical powers couldn’t produce such a sight, but I paid no mind to that and plucked three roots from among the six Age Herb flowers that had bloomed.

Holding the herbs I had extracted using earth-controlling nature magic, I channeled magical energy into them, gradually removing the toxic elements dangerous to living beings…

“…It’s done. This should work.”

[“Thank you…”]

After I finished the basic processing and handed the Age Herb to the forest lord, he hesitated briefly, then sniffed it once before biting into it forcefully…

The change that followed in the forest lord’s body appeared almost like time rewinding.

Life force returned to his withering, dying body, and energy gradually reappeared in damaged body parts, slowly restoring their functions.

[“Thank you, truly thank you…!”]

The forest lord himself was the first to experience these changes, and moved by the restoration of his body, he bowed his head in gratitude…

“Just keep your promise, Forest Lord.”

[“Of course! Gladly!”]

I too smiled, secretly feeling proud of having saved a life.