episode_0040

“Louis!, Lia! Don’t take strange paths!”

“Yes~”

Louis and Lia run with their arms outstretched and wander around in the forest.

It swoops down from a bush on one side, sticks out its face, or climbs on a tree branch to look around.

Watching the little children wander around freely like fish in water, I took out the foraging dagger I had brought with me in advance and began collecting in earnest.

Because they are such active children, difficult situations arose even at the library.

Louis, who hates books, seemed like he would get bored at any moment and complain, but contrary to my expectations, he stayed quiet and read the book with me, which was fortunate.

The problem was Lia. As typical children, they did not like to sit still, so they wandered around the library and poured out books.

Thanks to this, I ended up bending over to the librarian one after another, and my back made a loud squeaking sound like the back hinge of a broken flip phone.

Lia had scolded Louis that he should read the book, but it seemed like she had no intention of reading the book herself.

When I felt like I needed to read a book to collect data, Lia brought me a storybook and asked me to read it, and as I was pampered, it took a while.

“Um…let’s see…”

It brings back memories of the herbal medicine list I saw at the library. I leaned down and looked at the short-grown plant.

It had a slightly dry stem, and a transparent fruit with a transparent interior hanging like a bell at the end. It looked like the fruit called Lasigul that I had seen in a book.

The book ‘Rashigul’ says that if you put your ear to the bell-shaped fruit, you can hear an unknown sound, and it is said to be an herb used to detoxify poison.

I put my ear to the transparent fruit to see if this plant was the Rashigul from the book.

I hear something. Very quietly, the sound was similar to the sound of waves that you would hear if you put your ear to a conch shell.

It is definitely Rashigul. With confidence, I take out a picking knife and lightly remove the fruit part. Then, a bell-like sound rings, different from the one from before.

“Oh…”

I also felt like it was fun because it felt strange. Finally, something feels like fantasy. I felt that.

If this were a world without worries, I would probably just gather all day long.

I must not forget my original purpose. With that promise, I put the fruit in a leather bag.

“Come on, oppa!”

As I was rummaging through my leather bag, Lia came up to me pretending to be friendly and handed me something. I could easily tell that it was a plant.

“Is this just smoke?”

The flower bud is hollow and emits white smoke.

The book clearly states that if a person suffering from mental disorder is inhaled with the scent of this white smoke, his/her condition will improve.

“I know this is a herb that is a bit difficult to find. Where did you get it?”

“It smelled like something refreshing, like mint herbs, so I followed it there and there it was! This is what you’re looking for, right?”

Seeing Lia smiling brightly, I patted her head to compliment her.

“That’s right, thank you.”

Due to their nature as beasts, they have a better sense of smell, hearing, and eyesight than other normal humans, so they seem to be able to easily find herbs that are said to be difficult to find.

I think it was a good decision to bring Lia and Louis. I never thought I would get help like this.

I stuffed the smoke paste Leah gave me into my leather pocket and took out a piece of parchment from the inner pocket of my robe.

A piece of parchment with the appearance of a medicinal herb drawn just in case. Lia looked at it and nodded.

“If Lia helps your brother again, how about I buy you some chicken wing skewers?”

“Good!”

Lia pricked up her ears as if she was happy and made a bright expression while wagging her tail.

“Then, can you bring back the same smoke plant as before and the herbs that were drawn on the parchment?”

“Yes! I understand, oppa!”

“But don’t go too deep, because it would be a big problem if you get lost.”

This is a forest. This place is full of trees and bushes, so you can easily lose your way, and if you do, you can easily get into trouble.

I say it’s okay because I have memorized the way to and from there, but it would be a big problem if these kids wander around freely and end up lost.

“It’s okay, Lia knows her brother’s scent, so she can find him anywhere if he’s nearby!”

As he says that, he sniffs and twitches the bridge of his nose. I smiled brightly as I looked at Lia, who was beating her heart with pride.

“Oh…really? What does your brother smell like?”

The question was asked out of simple curiosity, and Lia raised her eyes and seemed to think about it a little.

“Hmm~ Strange smell?, Oppa sometimes has a smell that makes me excited… and sometimes he smells very reassuring.”

It was a very abstract word, a smell that lifted my heart and a smell that reassured me.

“Lia seems to have a very good sense of smell.”

Lia laughed at my question and crossed her arms and shrugged.

“Hehe! So, trust Captain Lia and follow him, Captain!”

A play on a situation that suddenly occurred. I took a lightly saluting stance as if responding to him.

“But what is Louis doing on that tree?”

Louis, who had been up the tree earlier with his tail sticking out from the branch, had no intention of coming down.

I asked Lia with a worried expression, wondering if there was something wrong.

“Ah~ Don’t worry about Louis.”

“Huh? Why?”

In response to my curious question, Lia looked up at the tree where Louis was and narrowed her eyebrows as if she felt uncomfortable.

“Ugh…your brother has a hobby that I don’t understand.”

A hobby you don’t understand? I tilted my head left and right at Lia’s ambiguous answer. Then Leah pulled me close to me and quietly whispered in my ear.

“Louis’ hobby is collecting bugs.”

Bug collecting? After all, all young children will enjoy collecting bugs when they are young.

When I was young, I secretly collected bugs, so of course, if my mother caught me, I got whipped, but I still enjoyed it a little bit.

“Ah, boss!”

Louis jumped down from the tree and ran towards me, holding something in his hand.

Lia distanced herself from Louis with an expression of disgust, or perhaps even contempt. Since I’m a girl, I guess bugs are a bit creepy.

“Oh, Louis, did you find something?”

What is it? beetle? Or it could be some other strange bug.

“Ta-da!”

What he was holding in his hand was none other than Sky Cow. The only difference was that the sky cow had a brass color. I looked at that sky cow and looked back on my memories.

The medicinal bug listed in the plant encyclopedia as an appendix was clearly one of those medicinal bugs, the Brass Sky Cow.

Not only plants but also bugs are used as medicine, but finding the medicinal bugs is more difficult than you might think.

In the case of plants, you can see them with the naked eye, so you can find them quickly if you put your mind to it, but in the case of bugs, they are so small that they are not visible to the eye, so it is difficult to find them.

“Oh, it’s a brass sky cow! It must have been hard to find, right?”

It is one of the insects used as medicine and is characterized by its brass color. It is one of the main ingredients when using a recovery potion.

“Hehe, this is a gift for the boss hyung.”

Since he was still a living insect, his wings were flapping and he almost got scared for a moment, but if he ignored this favor, Louis would definitely get hurt.

After stopping with trembling hands, I accepted the Sky Cow that Louis handed me, pushed the brass Sky Cow into the empty bottle containing the potion, and closed the cork.

“Now, this is a gift to Lia!”

At the word gift, Lia’s eyes, who had distanced herself from Louis, brighten.

“What is it, what is it?”

Lia perked her ears and waggled her tail as if she was happy. Lia blushed and stretched out her hand, as if she couldn’t hide her excitement.

Still, I wondered if he had given me another gift just because he was my younger brother, but for a moment I felt sad when I saw Louis’ mouth turn into a crescent moon.

Louis puts something on Lia’s small hand.

What is resting on that small hand is something alive, or more precisely, something alive and wriggling. And that too, in a very unpleasant way.

“Aaagh!”

Leah let out a sharp scream and waved her hand to throw the bug away.

The bug flew away and stuck to my face with a ‘nice’ sound.

The slippery texture is similar to the feeling of touching an earthworm. The only thing that is different is that I feel something like a wriggling, unpleasant tentacle.

“Ugh, wow!!! Fuck!!”

I screamed at the unpleasant feeling and hurriedly took the bug off my face. And that too while mixing in swear words.

The situation seemed to have been resolved by removing the bug, but I ended up breaking into a cold sweat.

No matter how surprised the situation was, he ended up saying the six-headed letter in front of innocent children.

In TV programs, it was said that most people watch and learn from the actions of their elders and imitate them.

I was worried that these innocent children might listen to my words and follow my instructions, so I carefully checked on their well-being.

Lia is crying and throwing a soft punch at Louis.

Louis is smiling brightly as he is being beaten by Lia. Fortunately, the kids didn’t seem to hear the six-letter word I spat out.

As I let out a sigh of relief, I heard a sound I shouldn’t have heard. From the mouths of innocent children of the new nation who must protect that dream.

“Fuck you!”

“Hey, guys?”

“What do you mean by fuck?”

I was so troubled by that innocent question that I had no choice but to frown and wash my face dry.

I’m sorry Asha, if you probably resent me…I don’t think I have anything to say about that resentment. I’m serious about this.