Player Who Became A Constellation [EN]: Chapter 50

50

Salad wore a surprised expression.

After they entered Harma Territory, she began teaching Loki basic pharmacology.

Though termed “basic,” Elven pharmacology was intricate and challenging for humans to grasp.

However, Loki not only found it easy to understand but also quickly mastered the manufacturing methods.

Loki diligently wrote down everything Salad taught him in a blank notebook.

Once finished, he merely glanced at his notes, and they dissolved into light, permeating him.

While Salad was astonished by this mysterious phenomenon, Loki reached for the herb she was holding.

The herb floated in the air, then was finely torn, minced, and mixed with other herbs with supernatural speed.

“……!”

It was a truly bizarre sight.

A scene of medicine being made without any tools!

“Excellent. That was a great help, Salad.”

Salad was delighted and nodded, thrilled that he had called her name for the first time.

***

Harma Territory was essentially a ‘refuge’ for displaced people.

It had suffered the least from the war’s devastation.

Harma Territory forcibly conscripted refugees to control them and doubled taxes to secure military funds.

Nevertheless, the number of refugees only increased, never decreased.

The more refugees gathered, the more dilapidated Harma Territory became.

The constant influx of refugees, coupled with the heightened sensitivity from the war’s fatigue, led to frequent squabbles and disturbances.

Naturally, public order deteriorated, corpses lined the streets, and epidemics broke out, claiming many lives.

In such a territory….

“…….”

A young man stared blankly at his right arm.

Blood flowed from his right hand, with yellow pus visible. His hand trembled, yet he felt nothing.

He was neither a pharmacist, herbalist, nor healer, but he knew that if he left it untreated, he would lose the use of his arm.

And if that happened, making a living would become nearly impossible.

So, he sought out a pharmacist.

The pharmacist, wearing a bird-beak mask [a common plague doctor’s mask], frowned at his arm and waved him away.

“I told you, I don’t have any!”

As a result, the man dropped his money bag, his entire fortune, onto the ground.

He desperately clung to the pharmacist.

“Please! Some kind of medicine…!”

“…I’ve sold all the medicine I had. Besides, that festering wound needs to be cut off. Of course, if the medicine was effective, I would have done something….”

The pharmacist groaned and shook his head.

“My medicine can’t handle it. Go find another pharmacist or herbalist. Even if you find one, they will definitely… mostly say you need to amputate.”

The pharmacist took a breath and continued.

“You can’t buy precious medicinal herbs with that money. At best, I can only prescribe disinfectant. Of course, even if you cut it off and disinfect it, the chances of survival are slim….”

“…….”

This was essentially a death sentence.

Cut off his arm? In this world, where no one would hire him, how could he survive with only one arm!

The pharmacist pointed a finger and warned.

“Remember my words. If you don’t cut off that arm right now, you’ll die.”

With those words, he turned away.

The man wept, overwhelmed.

“…Damn it! Cut off my arm? How can you say such a thing so easily?”

He resented the world.

“What did I do to deserve this? Huh! What did I do wrong! How can the world do this to me! Azellan Constellation [likely a deity or celestial power in this world] who created the world! Please! Please heal my wound!”

He cried sadly. Then, a man approached him.

A man wearing a crow mask that covered his entire face except for his mouth and nose.

He bent down and picked up the fallen money bag. The man was horrified.

“T, that’s my money! It’s my money!”

A robber come to steal his money?!

He instinctively tried to reach out, but he couldn’t even lift his arm.

“……!”

The crow-masked man, Loki, looked at him and said to the girl hiding behind him, Salad.

“I know about pharmacology, but I don’t know how to treat patients. So, will you examine him? Salad.”

Salad looked at the man’s arm and muttered softly.

“…The wound is severe, but it’s not so bad that he needs to lose his arm.”

“That’s what she says. Will you buy medicine?”

“……?!”

He didn’t need to be amputated?!

The man’s eyes filled with hope.

But he quickly shook his head.

The pharmacist had said he needed precious medicine. But the man’s only wealth was the few copper coins in the money bag.

“I, I can’t buy it. I, I don’t have money. I don’t have money…!”

“What do you think?”

Loki looked at Salad.

“…It’s a severe wound, but it’s not an epidemic. Festering wounds can be treated with simple herbs.”

“Really?”

“Yes, El….”

Salad started to say ‘Elf’ but stopped herself.

“…Anyway, medicine made with the skills I learned in my hometown is enough to cure it.”

“I see.”

The man frowned at their words.

They seemed suspicious.

They wore masks similar to the bird-beak masks used by healers, pharmacists, and herbalists, but it was a crow mask. Besides, a girl, not a man, examined him directly.

He looked like a ‘scammer’ at first glance.

“I’ll sell it cheap. Will you buy it?”

At Loki’s words, the man clutched his rotting arm.

“…Are you going to scam me?”

“Scam? Ah, I see. Well, I heard a scammer came and went. Then let’s do this.”

Loki pointed to the medicine bag Salad carried.

“I’ll give you the medicine first. Try using it.”

“Wh, try it first?”

“Yes. It’s not too late to pay after that.”

“…N, no matter how good the medicine is, there’s no way it’ll have an immediate effect….”

Then Salad spoke.

“…It’s okay. It won’t heal instantly with the medicine I made, but for that kind of wound, it can reduce swelling and remove pus.”

“That’s what she says.”

The man hesitated.

But his arm was rotting, and he didn’t know what would happen if he waited any longer.

He had no choice.

The man groaned and looked at his entire fortune, the money bag Loki was holding, and spoke with difficulty.

“Really… will it really be cured?”

“Believe it or not, it’s up to you.”

“…I’ll get treatment.”

Either way, he would die if he didn’t get treatment. He had to grasp at any hope.

“I’ll buy it! How much is it?”

Loki took a copper coin and held it in front of the man’s eyes.

“The copper coins here and….”

Then he pointed at the man.

“I’ll hire you.”

“Wh, what?”

Loki smiled at him.

“Spread the word that the medicine is good.”

***

Ash looked at Loki and Salad in disbelief.

The two of them were setting up their camping tent and selling herbs in front of it.

Salad examined the condition of those who came, and Loki handed over the herbs according to Salad’s instructions and sold them.

‘Was the word herbalist… real?’

Word spread, and before he knew it, a long line formed in front of Loki.

They were all refugees wanting to buy herbs.

“Is this place really effective?”

“I heard the medicine is cheap.”

“I heard they only sell one to each person. But it seems like there’s not much medicine left. If you don’t buy it quickly, it’ll run out.”

Ash was stunned as he listened to the refugees’ stories.

Elven medicine seemed to be a panacea.

“…Uncle.”

Ash looked down at the sudden voice.

A snot-nosed kid held out copper coins in both hands.

“…Give me medicine.”

“…….”

Ash was dumbfounded. Not because they were selling herbs as herbalists, but because he, the prince of a country, had to act like a herbalist himself.

“How did I end up in this situation….”

A royal family doing odd jobs for a herbalist?

If the rebel nobles heard about it, they would point fingers and laugh.

Ash crushed the herb he was holding, but he had no choice but to shut his mouth at Loki’s next words.

“You have to earn your keep, don’t you?”

“…….”

“Leave if you don’t like it.”

“…Okay. I’m not that shameless.”

Ash sighed and looked at the snot-nosed kid.

“…Are you going to buy it?”

“Yes! I’m going to heal my mom!”

Ash handed over the herb, and the child grabbed it. He even grabbed Ash’s hand and smiled brightly.

“Thank you! Uncle.”

“…….”

The child disappeared with the herb, and Ash looked at the hand the child had grabbed and said to Loki.

“Why are you selling this medicine for such a small amount of money when you could sell it for more?”

“I don’t need a lot of money. Wouldn’t it be enough for a day’s accommodation?”

“…….”

In the end, he was doing this to raise money to take a break.

Ash looked in the direction the child had disappeared and said.

“Pitiful. Pitiful. But….”

Ash looked at the hand the child had grabbed and whispered in a very small voice.

“───….”

It was Ash’s own whisper, and the sound was so small that no one could hear it.

“……?”

Salad was startled by the muttering and looked at Ash.

“…….”

Loki glanced at Ash and narrowed his eyes.

‘What did he just say…?’

I must have misheard.

Just as Salad was looking at Ash and doubting her ears, she realized that her bag was empty.

“Excuse me….”

Loki shifted his gaze to the side.

Salad hesitated and opened her medicine bag.

“We’re out of medicine.”

“…I see.”

Loki looked ahead.

The refugees were still lined up, waiting to buy medicine.

“Let’s withdraw now.”

Loki said to Salad and Ash.

“I’m going to the inn.”

“…What about the others?”

Salad asked Loki, giving the refugees a sympathetic look, but Loki said in an indifferent tone.

“I don’t have any medicine, and I’m not free enough to help others.”

At Loki’s words, Salad drooped her head as if she was discouraged. Then she looked at the refugees with a worried look.

“Do you feel sorry for them?”

“…Sorry?”

Me? Humans?

Salad shook her head from side to side with all her might at Loki’s words.

“No, not really!”

There’s no way I’d worry about humans!

Salad shouted inwardly.

Loki, who had no way of knowing that, nodded.

“That’s good then.”

Looking at the two of them, Ash felt a strange feeling.

He felt left out.

Ash blankly looked at Salad.

He didn’t like the way Salad was walking behind Loki.

It was when Loki was about to get up while tidying up his seat.

“…Huh? Traveler!”

At the familiar voice, Loki turned his gaze to where the voice came from.

The alley of the road.

There was a familiar face there.