Chapter 22
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 22
Chapter Title: Emergency (2)
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"Then.... Let's begin the first emergency meeting of the Ian Mercenary Corps."
Rin declared solemnly to the two people sitting beside her.
Tanya and Mika exchanged a quick glance before clapping quietly without making a sound.
In the cramped two-person room, Rin and Mika sat on the empty bed, along with Tanya.
And Ian lay on his bed.
...What are they suddenly doing in my room?
Ian, who had been lying on his own bed, quietly turned his gaze to the three of them.
Ian, bedridden with a cold, had first been discovered at lunchtime by Rin when she came to fetch him.
He had tried to say it was just a simple cold and that he was fine, but Rin had dashed out immediately and urgently summoned all the members....
And the result was this current situation.
Ian looked at the three crammed into the tiny room and lifted his head.
"...You'll catch my cold too. Just get out."
"No, no. The leader being sick is a state of emergency."
In a situation like this, just staying put? Ridiculous.
Rin shook her head at Ian's words.
With a serious expression, Rin turned to the other two.
"Right?"
"Um...."
Anyway, whether it was a big deal or not, it was a big deal.
Without the leader, the rest were still novice mercenaries who couldn't even write mission reports on their own.
Mika and Tanya nodded quietly.
Up to acknowledging it as an emergency situation...
But there was no need to crowd into the patient's room like this.
It was a holiday with no missions anyway, so Ian had planned to just rest easy for the day. He said,
"It's a holiday anyway, so everyone just rest."
"No way!"
Rin shot to her feet at Ian's words and shook her head.
The mercenary leader Ian was sick and incapacitated—an emergency situation.
When the leader became unable to command, normally the vice-leader would take over.
...Truth be told, he didn't recall ever officially establishing such a position, but regardless, Rin was the most senior after Ian.
In other words, Rin was the one in command in the current situation.
I'm the most senior in the mercenary corps... the one responsible.
They say a position makes the person.
Rin suddenly felt a surge of responsibility.
"I'll take responsibility and handle it."
"...The cold?"
Rin nodded and turned her gaze to Tanya and Mika.
She had called them for a meeting precisely for this.
"Then, everyone, let's figure out how to cure the leader's cold.... Find a way."
Catching the sudden question off guard, the two hesitated without an immediate answer.
But Rin nodded as if she understood.
When Ian was leader, he always stepped up first with his opinion. Now, as acting leader, it was her turn.
With that thought, Rin spoke first.
"Isn't there a potion for times like this?"
"I heard healing potions don't work on illnesses."
"Mika, don't you know any other elixirs or something?"
"Uh...."
Mika pondered for a moment before suddenly recalling some information she had read in a book.
"I heard Ent's fruit can cure illnesses...."
"That's it!"
Rin was about to say it was a good idea when a tremendous sense of incongruity hit her at the name.
...The Night Tail corpse from last time had sold for gold coins. A monster of that caliber?
"How much is that?"
"...50?"
"Silver?"
"Gold...."
"...Nothing cheaper?"
The meeting hit an immediate snag.
While Rin and Mika huddled together, racking their brains for something they could afford with silver coins,
"Um...."
Tanya cautiously raised her hand to get their attention.
"A cold... doesn't it just go away if you rest?"
Rin and Mika's gazes snapped toward Tanya.
Tanya suddenly found herself on the receiving end of their sharp stares.
The leader was sick, and she was saying something so irresponsible?
As those silent, piercing looks turned on her, Tanya's confidence dwindled, and she lowered her hand again.
In truth, if they dug deep into the cause, the reason Ian had caught the cold was because of Tanya.
Tanya had offered the most realistic opinion, but unable to push it forward assertively, she quietly bowed her head.
Ian, lying still and listening to the members chatter—knowing they wouldn't heed dissuasion—checked the time and spoke up.
"Lunchtime's passed. Aren't you going to eat?"
"...Ah!"
Only then did Rin remember that she had come to fetch Ian for lunch.
"But Leader, do you think you can eat lunch?"
"...I'm just going to sleep."
"No. You have to eat something."
"You guys eat first."
Still, they couldn't all just starve together indefinitely....
Rin thought it over before turning to the other two.
"Alright, then let's eat lunch, each find a method on our own, and meet back up."
The three exchanged meaningful nods and left the room.
"......"
Ian decided to use the time to get a bit more sleep.
"Leader!"
After an indeterminate amount of time asleep,
Ian awoke from shallow sleep at the sound of Rin's voice.
The first to return to Ian's room was Rin.
She arrived with a confident expression, holding a cup of something unidentified in her hand.
As Ian sat up, Rin held the cup out to him.
"Here! Give it a try."
...There probably wasn't any cold medicine.
Ian took the cup suspiciously and carefully inspected its contents.
The steaming liquid inside looked, at a glance, like clear water.
Unable to tell what it was from appearances alone, Ian cautiously took a sip and grimaced.
His cold dulled his sense of taste, so he couldn't properly identify it, but the liquid left a burning hot sensation as it went down his throat.
"...It's booze."
"Hehe. I went all the way to the market and bought the exact same stuff from back home."
Rin nodded confidently.
While wandering the market, she had luckily recalled what the old men back home used to say.
"The old guys said one shot of this cures a cold."
Ian closed his eyes briefly without responding.
His head felt a little dizzy, but as heat spread through his body, the fatigue seemed to ease somewhat.
Of course, even if it was just the alcohol's illusion, his mood had improved a bit anyway.
It wouldn't help much with actual treatment.... But folk remedies from the countryside were all like that.
"How is it, Leader?"
"Yeah.... Feels quite a bit better."
"Oh, really?"
Rin beamed with a proud smile.
"Next?"
"This one by the bedside...."
Following Rin, Mika was the next to visit Ian's room, laying out all sorts of items she had gathered from here and there.
Mika's prepared method.... was warding off evil spirits.
What Mika held in her hand was her precious secret magic book that she had been saving.
It was something she had bought for a hefty sum at an old bookstore in some city she had stumbled upon during the journey to Labyrinth City.
If Ian had checked its info, he would have seen it classified as a miscellaneous item with no effects—a useless book.
But its exterior looked quite convincing, enough to stimulate a novice mage's gaze and purchasing urge.
Though the spells inside were too complex and arcane for Mika to master even one properly, she had kept it, thinking it might come in handy someday.
Following the book's instructions, intricate talismans tied in complicated knots were hung around the room.
"Be careful with that one. The direction has to be right."
"L-Like this?"
"It's tilted too far to the left."
Rin carefully positioned the talismans according to Mika's explanations.
"Then, north.... Where's north?"
"Probably this way?"
Mika watched as she carefully peered into the book, sprinkling handfuls of salt in various spots around the room.
"Ooh.... Mika, you look like a real mage."
"I am a mage."
Mika, who had been concentrating intently with a cautious expression, finished the final step and looked up.
For now, she had used every method from the book that seemed doable.
In the room where dim sunset light seeped in,
the space Mika had decorated looked like an altar for some suspicious ritual.
Mika looked around the room with a proud expression.
"Good. Perfect. I've driven out all the bad luck, so the cold should clear up in a day or two."
...Doesn't a cold usually go away around then anyway?
Ian muttered softly from under his blanket.
After receiving praise that his condition seemed a bit better and leaving in good spirits, Rin and Mika returned to their rooms.
Finally, peace returned to Ian's room.
...It was clearly a holiday, yet it felt like a more exhausting day than usual.
As Ian lay back down after seeing the two off, the fatigue he had forgotten about slowly washed over him.
Just as his eyes began to close and his heavy body sank into the bed, drifting toward sleep—
The wooden door creaked open, and someone entered the room cautiously.
It was today's final guest.
"Um... Leader?"
"...Tanya?"
Ian lifted his head toward the door, and Tanya, holding something, stepped carefully inside.
"Sorry I'm late. I don't really know much about this kind of stuff...."
Taking in the room lavishly decorated by Mika, Tanya shrank back a little and gave Ian an awkward smile with a voice lacking confidence.
"I borrowed the kitchen and made some porridge...."
As Tanya drew closer, warm steam rose from the bowl on the tray she carried, filling the air with a soothing, comforting aroma.