Ch.34The Homeless Test Subject (5)

“Lalala, lallala.”

Brasya hummed as she came down the stairs.

“Is Mirella in her room?”

“Yeah. She’s there. She seems to be in a bad mood. When I went in, she started hitting me.”

“I see. Where are you going?”

“I’m gooooing to see the piiiigs.”

Brasya, in an exceptionally good mood for some reason, bounced out the back door with an off-beat spring in her step.

She really does seem to have a good personality.

* * * * *

I caught the postman just as he was about to leave for the northern road and handed him a letter.

“Please make sure this gets delivered.”

“Another letter to this Alreina person? I can’t guarantee it’ll reach her properly.”

“We don’t have any other options. Please just take it.”

In a game, you could simply enter the recipient’s username and send it directly to their mailbox.

But this is now the real world inside what was once a game.

Such convenient systems no longer exist.

Still, I can’t just not reply when Alreina keeps sending letters like this.

If even one of them reaches Alreina, that’s enough.

“Jack!”

Just as I was about to return to the shop, someone called out to me.

I turned around to see merchant Judanto entering the village in his carriage.

“Hello, Mr. Judanto. You have quite a lot of goods today.”

“Today’s the regular delivery day for potion ingredients, isn’t it?”

“Ah, right. Please give me a ride.”

I climbed up to the driver’s seat next to Mr. Judanto and headed toward the shop.

Everyone must be wondering.

How do I get ingredients to make potions in this Starting Village where there’s practically nothing?

The method is quite simple.

The Potion Association sends the ingredients.

You know how franchises in real life have headquarters that send ingredients, right?

It works the same way here.

In each region’s city, the association has a large warehouse as a base, and from there, they regularly send ingredients to the smallest shops.

In our village’s case, we receive our stock from the warehouse in Odelin City.

But to send supplies to every village would require an enormous number of carriages and drivers, and the maintenance costs would be ridiculously expensive.

So in some regions, they make agreements with private transporters like Mr. Judanto.

Mr. Judanto brings necessary daily supplies to the village along with potion ingredients.

Then I predict the next order quantity based on current inventory depletion and inform Mr. Judanto, who delivers this information to the warehouse. The quantity I ordered arrives with the next delivery.

So why not just make potions centrally and distribute them?

Obviously, if they sent completed potions, the probability of them being stolen en route would be very high.

Potions are expensive, so losing boxes of them would result in severe losses.

That’s why they send ingredients rather than finished products.

While potion ingredients become valuable when combined, they’re almost useless in their raw form.

And the recipes for making potions are top secret, available only to licensed individuals like me.

So nobody covets potion ingredients.

There’s no point in stealing them since they’re worthless and you can’t make anything with them.

Only after coming to a potion shop where the shop owners make them with secret recipes do they become products that can be sold for money.

That’s why Adelheid kidnapped me directly.

I arrived at the shop and organized the ingredients.

Our shop has a storage room that we added to the back, connected to the interior.

We stack boxes of ingredients there and bring them out to the preparation counter when needed to make potions.

“Mirella! Let’s organize the inventory together!”

I called up to the second floor, and shortly after, Mirella came running down.

“Today was delivery day?”

For someone who went upstairs angry earlier, Mirella’s expression doesn’t look bad now.

The reason for her anger was clearly Alreina’s letter.

To Mirella, who likes me, Alreina’s letter probably looked like a love letter.

But what can I do?

Opening someone else’s letter was wrong, and it’s not my fault that Alreina wrote that letter.

Besides, both Alreina and Mirella look like children to me.

Maybe when they become adults, but right now, I’m not sure.

“I’ll put this away, so go to the carriage and bring more.”

As I was about to enter the storage room shakily carrying a box, Mirella laughed.

“Move aside, weak potion shop owner. I’ll do it.”

Mirella pushed me aside and effortlessly lifted two boxes at once.

Having received Vint’s Opener buff for an extended period, Mirella now possesses strength comparable to an adult man.

In terms of physical strength, I might actually be inferior to Mirella now.

I wonder how this NPC named Jack has managed to survive until now.

“By the way, brother.”

While stacking boxes, Mirella casually opened her mouth.

“Will Alreina come here when her adventure is over?”

“I’m not sure about that.”

Based on my knowledge of the original work, Alreina never returns here.

If she follows the good route, she defeats the final boss and returns to the royal palace to a hero’s welcome. If she follows the evil route, she destroys the world.

The Starting Village doesn’t reappear in either of these two routes.

Of course, that was probably because there wasn’t a shop owner who gave out free potions, items, and strategy guides.

No one can know what impact my unexpected actions will have on this world.

They might have no effect at all, or they might create a new route.

For example, a farming route where she returns to the Starting Village and settles down.

But this Mirella is really concerned about it.

I smiled and reached out to pat Mirella’s head.

“Mirella. Don’t worry.”

“W-what…?”

Surprised by the sudden physical contact, Mirella stepped back and bumped into the stacked boxes.

“You’re worried about what kind of relationship I might have with Alreina, right?”

“What are you talking about…! Do you think I care about something like that?!”

Mirella affirmed it by strongly denying it.

“It’s not that kind of relationship. You don’t need to worry.”

“Seriously… who asked…”

But the corners of Mirella’s mouth turned up slightly.

I couldn’t help but laugh at that blissfully happy smile.

* * * * *

Brasya began managing the pig farm in earnest.

When rumors spread that Brasya had the ability to communicate with pigs, the villagers became excited too.

How could they not be excited at the prospect of meat finally appearing on their tables, which until now had only featured crops and fish?

But it’s still too early.

Just twenty pigs.

We can’t eat meat right away if we want to increase that to a hundred or a thousand.

I shut myself in the shop and conducted research after research.

I’ve been working on a pig estrus and pregnancy accelerator that has consistently failed so far.

Everything else works well, but this one stubbornly refuses to be made properly.

After somehow managing to create a few potions for clinical trials, I headed to the pig farm.

But from the entrance to the farm, I heard strange sounds.

Whistles blowing and the clamorous voices of people.

What’s going on?

Hurrying over, I saw Brasya and the village children gathered in front of the pigsty.

They all had white bands around their heads and held colorful pom-poms made of fabric scraps in both hands.

Tweet! Tweet!

Brasya was blowing a whistle loudly in the middle of the gathered children.

Tweet! Tweet!

“Go! Go!”

The children waved their pom-poms and chanted slogans in time with the shrill whistle.

Tweeeeeeet!!

Blowing the whistle for a long time, Brasya ran from the left side of the children to the right.

“Waaaaaaah!!”

In sync with this, the children did a wave with their pom-poms.

“Ya-ya! Ya-ya! Ya-ya!”

Then they put their arms around each other’s shoulders and swayed left and right.

It was like watching a baseball stadium cheer squad.

What are they doing?

I approached and looked inside the pigsty, and was absolutely flabbergasted.

Multiple pigs were lined up in rows and columns, collectively mating.

Tweet! Tweet!

“Go! Go!”

Encouraged by Brasya and the children’s cheering, the pigs enthusiastically moved their hips.

I could only stare blankly at this extraordinary scene.

After a while, as the pigs reached their climax and collapsed one by one, the cheer squad erupted in cheers.

“Waaaaaaah!!”

Tweeeeeeeeeeet!!

Brasya, who had been blowing the whistle loudly, spotted me and shouted.

“Jack!”

“It’s the potion mister!”

The children’s attention turned to me, and they swarmed around.

I patted their heads and asked, “Why are you all here?”

I asked the children who were grabbing my legs and making a commotion.

“The goblin sister told us to come cheer for the pigs!”

“Ah, I see…”

Brasya wiped the sweat from her chin with the back of her hand and smiled broadly.

“Hi, Jack. The weather is so nice today. What’s that? I was just getting thirsty.”

Brasya reached for the “Pig Estrus Potion” and “Pregnancy Accelerator Potion” in my hand.

“No!”

I hurriedly hid them behind my back.

“These are special potions. It would be a disaster if you drank them carelessly.”

“Eek!? Really? I thought they were drinks.”

Brasya is a half-goblin with pig genes mixed in.

No one knows what would happen if she drank them.

“By the way, how did you do that?”

When I pointed at the pigs, Brasya smiled brightly.

“It’s nothing special. Just like this, come on! Let’s do it one more time! Heave-ho! Heave-ho!”

At Brasya’s encouragement, the exhausted pigs got up again and mounted the females.

“Waaah! Mate! Mate! Mate!”

The children enthusiastically resumed their cheering at the sight.

“Having a thousand pigs is just a matter of time now.”

Brasya giggled.