The Hard-Won Cold Medicine
What the heck, it was just Popcorn.
I thought something on the scale of a pterodactyl or a natural disaster was flying straight at me. Or maybe a nuclear weapon.
But man, it really is fast.
The air seemed to roar. Sometimes I thought I could actually hear it. At the very least, the feeling of air being shoved forward was real.
As Popcorn drew near, a gust of wind rushed right in front of me.
Is this what spirits are normally like?
This is pretty impressive.
At this speed, simply making the little guy fly somewhere could probably count as a weapon.
“Pipipipipipipipi!”
Popcorn flew in at blinding speed and slammed to a halt right in front of my nose. Even though it was midair, I could almost hear the screech of brakes.
“You’ve learned a new trick.”
I smiled, but Popcorn flailed its arms in obvious panic.
“Pipi pi! Pipipipipi!”
It waved its arms, pretending to stagger weakly or flop onto its back and struggle to lift them. Uh… I have no idea what you’re trying to say, Popcorn.
“Did Orange get hurt?”
The moment I asked, Popcorn collapsed in the air as if the world had ended.
Fortunately that didn’t seem to be the case.
Must have picked up something weird on the roadside again.
The way it kept pretending to lie down made me think it might have found a worm.
When I held out my hand, Popcorn wobbled over and settled onto my palm. It looked utterly devastated.
“If you brought back something unhealthy, the first thing to do is let it rest and feed it something nutritious. Medicine would be even better if we had any.”
I scooped out a small amount of Pudding’s light powder from my pocket.
“I don’t know if this will help, but it definitely won’t hurt. Try feeding it some.”
Once its stomach settled, it would be able to eat properly, and recovery would come faster.
“Pi!”
Popcorn’s eyes sparkled as if it had understood. It fluttered up from my palm and flew straight toward Pudding.
Pudding, who had been sticking to my body with its usual gooey grip, trembled with a puru-puru motion. It clearly didn’t like Popcorn getting close.
“Piht!”
Popcorn held its hand out to Pudding, demanding more powder. When Pudding tried to flee while making kkur kkur noises, Popcorn chased after it with piht-piht sounds. Eventually Popcorn lost its temper and started kicking without mercy.
The result was exactly what always happened.
Popcorn was sucked into Pudding like it had fallen into a swamp.
“…Pii… Pii… Pii…”
Half-absorbed into the slime, Popcorn reached both arms toward me, crying.
“You really should have learned by now. No matter how much you kick, you only end up getting dragged inside.”
With a sigh I pulled Popcorn free, then gently stroked Pudding’s body.
“I know you don’t like it, but Popcorn seems to be in real trouble today, so share a little medicine, okay?”
“…Kkur… Kkur… Kkur.”
Pudding had been desperately fleeing when Popcorn was kicking wildly, but the moment I touched it, the slime hurried to produce the powder. Plop, plop—light powder jumped out like fleas, and Popcorn darted around frantically collecting every speck.
After flying back and forth for a while, it seemed to have gathered enough. Popcorn spun in a circle and flew back to me.
What a clever little trick. With both hands full of light powder, it circled my body collecting beads of sweat. Seriously, why does it keep gathering that stuff?
Popcorn carefully rolled the sweat droplets into a perfect sphere, then tucked the light powder inside. When it shook the little orb like it was testing something, the powder sparkled and floated before slowly sinking. It looked exactly like a snow globe.
“You really are talented. How did you even think of that?”
“Piht piht!”
Popcorn puffed out its chest proudly at the praise. But it must have remembered its urgent business, because it suddenly clutched the orb and flew off toward the fields in a hurry.
What on earth was it up to this time?
I followed at a leisurely pace and found it having what looked like a very serious conversation with Sprout.
“Pipipipi… Pipi…”
It repeated the same act—lying down, getting up, staggering—just like it had done with me. Sprout had no eyes, so it probably couldn’t see any of it, but they continued anyway. After a while Popcorn plucked a tiny piece from the tip of Sprout, placed the light powder on the leaf like a plate, and cradled it carefully.
Popcorn spun around to look at me.
“Piht! Piht piht!”
It fluttered upward, shouted loudly several times, then shot into the sky in an instant—the same blinding speed it had arrived with. It really must have been in a rush.
“Ah, I forgot to ask if it found Orange.”
It wouldn’t have abandoned Orange just to pick up something else… right?
“…Kkur… Kkur…”
Pudding pushed its body forward, clearly asking for praise since it had behaved so well.
“Yes, yes, you did great.”
When I stroked it and called it a good slime, Pudding happily jumped down and crawled off toward the field. On the way it spotted a flying insect and leaped after it with a flap.
Both Pudding and Popcorn were working hard, even if I didn’t fully understand what they were doing.
Time for me to get to work too.
After a big stretch, I started on today’s task: setting rabbit traps.
Until now I had followed the villagers around to learn. I felt like I had the hang of it, so today I would make and set the snares myself.
The village men had offered their own traps, but I couldn’t keep relying on them forever. Making snares was something I needed to handle on my own now.
Besides, learning how to make traps alongside the children would be embarrassing for an adult. In this world, kids learned to make snares from a very young age. Fathers took their children along when setting traps and when checking them.
Without any special lessons, children absorbed the skills they needed through daily life. Someday, when I had a child of my own, I would take them along and teach them too.
Suddenly thinking of my father and mother made my nose sting.
Playing baseball and soccer together. Father giving his young son a piggyback ride. Mother holding my older brother’s hand. We traveled to mountains and oceans so often.
Mother’s warm smile, her loud scoldings when we misbehaved—I missed them so much.
We used to go watch baseball games in Gyeonggi often too. With me and my brother between them, our parents would cheer at the top of their lungs. I never realized how precious those moments were at the time.
Now I regretted not memorizing their faces and that happiness more clearly. My memories had already grown faint. I could still picture their general appearance, but the fine details—the shape of their eyes, the line of their noses—were gone.
And there wasn’t a single photograph in this world.
If only I could turn my phone on.
I had kept every item I brought from my original world. The phone that was now little more than a useless brick was safely stored away, but it had never powered on once. I didn’t know whether the charger had broken during the transition or if the phone itself was the problem.
Will I ever find a way to turn it on again?
Probably not. There was no electricity here.
Forcing down the heat in my eyes, I took a thin branch and carefully formed a small loop, then bent it round. This was no time to be lost in memories. I had work to do.
I threaded the bent stick through the loop and pulled it straight. When an animal like a rabbit or weasel passed by and triggered it, the snare would catch its neck or leg depending on the placement. Once the creature panicked and struggled, the loop would tighten until it couldn’t move at all.
The first time I saw an animal caught in one of these, I felt terrible. I couldn’t bring myself to kill it and stood there helplessly. But humans adapt. After a few times the sight no longer affected me. Now I could even drain the blood and dismantle the bodies without hesitation.
The worst part was the moment of the kill. Everything after that was just work.
After making about twenty branch snares, I stood up. While working the fields I had noted several spots where rabbit droppings appeared frequently. Rabbits tended to reuse the same paths, so setting traps where droppings were common made catching them easy.
Come to think of it, I saw something like a pheasant recently.
I should set a few traps there too.
As I headed toward the forest with the snares, Pudding followed, its body undulating. Unlike usual, it had puffed itself up enormously, walking as if it were heading into battle. The way it swelled and rippled almost looked like it was deliberately trying to appear threatening.
Is it trying to guard me?
Because it thought the forest edge was dangerous?
…No, surely not.
No matter how human-like Pudding acted, it was still a demonic beast. The idea that it would try to protect me was probably just my own wishful thinking. Besides, although it ate bugs and mice, it didn’t exactly look strong. Honestly, weren’t slimes supposed to be the weakest creatures?
If anything appeared, I would be the one protecting it.
Haha.
I chuckled softly. The thought that Pudding wanted to guard me was probably just my ego talking. It was because both Popcorn and Pudding followed me so well that I kept having silly ideas.
“If you’re coming, climb on.”
When I held out my hand, Pudding quickly hopped up. Once it was on my shoulder, the slime puffed up like a fighting rooster and glared in every direction.
Wow. It really did look like it was trying to guard me.
It felt like moisture touched my lips, then something popped and fizzed on the tip of my tongue. After that, something melted with a strange, soothing sensation.
I seemed to have felt it several times already. But I had been half-delirious with fever, so the memory was hazy.
Pipi pipi… pipi….
The spirit’s cry rang softly in my ear, as if praising me for doing well.
Ah, thank goodness. You haven’t left yet. You stayed right by my side.
Thinking that, Marguerite felt relieved and slipped back into sleep.
Even afterward, the occasional pop on her tongue followed by that gentle melting continued. Each time, a tiny rough fragment touched her tongue. It was incredibly small—about the size of a grain of sand, perhaps even smaller.
Maybe it was grass.
A fragrant scent filled her mouth and soon spread throughout her entire body. It was more aromatic and refreshing than the expensive herbs served at the royal palace. How could plain grass taste so good?
Marguerite marveled at the mystery and drifted off once more within that pleasant herbal aroma.
How long had she slept?
Her eyes suddenly flew open.
“…How strange.”
Marguerite vigorously swung both arms. She definitely hadn’t been able to move even a single finger before, yet now strength overflowed through her limbs.
Her stomach let out a loud, insistent gurgle. She was ravenously hungry.
“Pipi!”
“Ppi!”
The spirit and the small bird cried out at the same time and flew toward her.
“Spirit… Did you give me medicine?”
“Pipi! Pipipipipipipi!”
As if it understood her words, the spirit raised its arms high and answered with enthusiasm.
“Piht!”
The spirit’s eyes sparkled. It flew up slightly, kicked its legs in the air, then made grabbing motions as if snatching something. After that it flew around performing a series of bizarre actions that were impossible to decipher. It looked like it was kneading something, yet also like it was climbing a mountain. Marguerite was sorry to admit she had no idea what it was trying to show her.
“Pipi!”
After its energetic performance, the spirit pretended to wipe sweat from its brow as if exhausted. Then it proudly puffed out its chest.
“Hehe. I don’t know what you did, but thank you. Thanks to the medicine you brought, I’m all better now.”
“Pi…”
The spirit flew close, sniffed her lightly, then nodded in satisfaction.
When Marguerite turned her head, she noticed the other spirits gathered at the window. They all seemed to have been worried about her.
“Thank you.”
At her words the spirits fluttered their wings happily and soared into the air. A short while later, the fluffy spirit rode the small bird out through the window, and the rest of the spirits rushed inside all at once. They approached Marguerite, sniffed her one by one, and left satisfied.
…
She had wondered if spirits simply had a habit of smelling humans, but it still felt a little embarrassing.
“Do I smell strange?”
Marguerite lifted her arm and sniffed herself. Her unwashed body carried a faint scent of sweat. Still, that was a smell every ordinary human had.
She tilted her head and sniffed again. Just then her stomach gave another loud gurgle, and the carriage came to a stop.
“Miss! Are you awake?”
The coachman called from beyond the window. When she looked out, he stood there with a deeply worried expression.
“I’m fine now. I’m sorry for worrying you.”
“N-not at all, miss.”
The coachman blinked rapidly and lowered his gaze as if afraid.
“I’m so glad. The spirit brought something earlier. It seems to have worked wonderfully.”
“Oh…”
“I saw a small light carrying a rather large water droplet.”
When she asked for more details, the coachman swallowed hard.
“Inside the droplet was the most… truly beautiful sparkling powder. It was resting on a leaf, and it kept glittering. It was truly amazing to see.”
So it really had brought medicine. The spirit had done all that for her sake.
Her chest grew warm.
“I’ll prepare a meal right away. We passed through a village earlier, so I bought a few things that should be edible. Please wait just a moment.”
While the coachman prepared the food, the spirits continued visiting Marguerite one after another. They sniffed her, then danced with joy.