Great Root Herb 2
I searched the cave’s inner depths while looking after Isabel.
I found it.
On the wall thick with thorny vines, there it was—the Great Root Herb from Kunoichi's Circumstances.
Now all I need is Isabel’s urine.
I stared at Isabel intently.
No matter that I was her husband, asking your wife to pee for you was an awkward request no matter how you cut it.
The effect should be kicking in soon.
And though I felt bad for Isabel, I had already mixed Golden Flower, a herb with a strong diuretic effect, into the tea she was drinking.
Apparently it worked well, because as time passed, Isabel’s expression grew increasingly troubled.
“Nngh…?!”
“Isabel, is something wrong?”
“It’s just…”
She hesitated, as though answering was itself a burden.
Her body couldn’t move because of Rose’s Punishment, but leaving her bladder to a man was another matter entirely.
Still, if she kept holding it any longer, she’d reached her limit.
“Um, I…”
Isabel had reached a crossroads.
She could keep holding it until she had an accident halfway through, or she could put herself in her husband’s hands.
“I… need to pee.”
In the end, Isabel entrusted herself to me.
It seemed she’d rather ask me for help, even if it mortified her, than wet my back in the middle of it.
“Understood. I’ll help you relieve yourself.”
“I-I’m sorry…”
“No need. Urination is a natural thing. There’s nothing to be ashamed of, and nothing to apologize for.”
I lifted Isabel so she could let it out, then spread her legs toward the thorny vines.
“Nn… I-it’s embarrassing.”
“Just bear with it a moment.”
It was an extremely humiliating position, so Isabel squeezed her eyes shut.
“You can go now.”
“Y-yes…”
She was so tense that nothing came out for a while.
“I’m sorry.”
“I’ll help get things moving.”
“Hya?!“
I stroked her lower abdomen to coax the flow out, and then, as though it had all been a lie, a bright yellow stream came rushing forth.
“Haaaaaah!”
Her moaning is insane.
I’d felt it before, but Isabel’s voice was pure and beautiful.
Just hearing her like that was enough to make me hard.
Riiip—
The moment the urine of the perfectly composed Isabel touched it, mind, body, and spirit aligned in a flawless harmony, the thorny vines split apart.
At last…
Just like in the game, the hidden chamber beyond was flooded with sunlight so bright it hardly felt like a cave at all, and all kinds of plants grew there in abundance.
And in the center stood an orange plant with a flower bud the size of a man’s forearm—that was the Great Root Herb I had been searching for all this time.
. . .
I wanted to eat the Great Root Herb on the spot, but for Isabel’s safety I forced myself to hold back.
Better safe than sorry.
While I gathered the Great Root Herb carefully, I also harvested the lilies growing beside it.
This was really why Sumire came here in the first place.
The lily Sumire had brought back for the neighborhood child didn’t seem to have any special abilities, but its fragrance was first-rate.
Unlike that dangerous pink flower outside.
I picked a few lilies for Isabel, who was still suffering from the shame of having peed in front of her husband.
Then I wove them together into a flower crown.
“Isabel.”
“Yes?”
“Did you enjoy today?”
I placed the crown on her head.
For a moment Isabel froze like a broken cat, then answered in a tiny voice.
“I did… yes.”
“I’m glad.”
With that, our little date was over, and I took Isabel back to her family home.
At the house, Adelia was preparing dinner.
I don’t see Isolde.
The eldest daughter, who ought to have been helping her mother prepare dinner, was nowhere to be seen.
Did she go to meet John?
Knowing Isolde’s personality, she probably stormed off to see the village chief and demand that he let her marry John.
Of course, the chief would never marry off his only son to Isolde.
“Damn it!”
Isolde came home partway through dinner.
Judging by her face, things hadn’t gone well, just as I’d expected.
“This is all your fault!”
When Isolde saw Isabel, she snatched up an object and hurled it at her.
Of course, I threw myself in the way and blocked it.
“Isolde! What do you think you’re doing?”
Shocked by her outburst, Adelia raised her voice, but Isolde only got angrier, the audacity of it making her all the more brazen.
“Shut up! Why did you have to give birth to that thing and make my life miserable?”
At Isolde’s words, Adelia was left speechless, unable to say a thing.
Apparently unable to stand the sight of her mother, Isolde turned on her heel and headed for her own bed.
“Isolde… at least eat dinner. It’s fresh rabbit.”
“I’m not eating! And I told you, I like rabbit meat!”
“......”
If you gave beautiful garbage a human form, maybe that was it.
“Haa… Ian, I’ll apologize for her.”
“It’s all right. As long as Isabel is safe, I don’t care about anything else.”
If it were up to me, I’d like to beat her until dust came out of her, but I couldn’t very well do that in front of Adelia.
I’ll have to settle the score when the chance comes.
Isolde’s selfish personality was made very clear in In the Countryside.
No matter how pretty she was, her personality was atrocious, so everyone had no choice but to avoid her.
Ian, at least, was kind enough to indulge her, but even that she had kicked away with her own feet.
Because of that, Isabel was abandoned in the mountains, and Adelia became a prostitute.
If I could just get rid of Isolde, everything would be solved—but unfortunately, family ties weren’t something so easily discarded.
“I’m sorry.”
“Pardon?”
“I’m sure my sister has a very hard time because of me. If I weren’t here, she’d have been married long ago…”
Isabel believed that the reason Isolde was angry was because of her.
Seeing Isabel’s fragile expression, heavy with guilt, I carefully took her hand.
“Don’t say that. If you weren’t here, I wouldn’t have had the love I have now.”
“But…”
“And even if you weren’t here, Miss Isolde still wouldn’t have married properly.”
In truth, Isabel’s Rose’s Punishment had played a major role in why Isolde couldn’t marry John.
But Isolde’s selfishness couldn’t be ignored either.
If Isolde had been a dutiful woman, John would have used every means available to convince his father, the village chief, and marry her.
Because he couldn’t, this mess happened.
Isolde was the kind of woman who believed that beauty excused everything, so her personality probably wasn’t going to change anytime soon.
Then, suddenly, one thought struck me.
If I cure Isabel’s incurable disease, won’t she become prettier than Isolde?
It was possible.
Isabel was the daughter of Adelia, the former most beautiful woman in the village, and the younger sister of Isolde, the current most beautiful woman in the village.
Her looks were simply buried under the curse of Rose’s Punishment; she was by no means ugly.
If I cure Isabel’s disease, Isolde may even get another chance to marry John—and that woman would definitely curse her.
If that happened, I could move the “re-education of Isolde” scenario forward a step sooner.
The problem was that curing Rose’s Punishment was impossible even for a priest of bishop rank.
They didn’t call it incurable for nothing.
But if it’s Angel’s Rest, that’s a different story.
Angel’s Rest.
A small lake from The Returner Hero’s Circumstances, where, once a year during a lunar eclipse, the angel who had guided the shadow of the sun by the goddess’s command would come to wash the ash from her body. If you were the first to enter the lake after the angel left, you could cure any illness or injury.
It’s practically a pseudo-elixir.
If my memory was right, Angel’s Rest was hidden in the mountain north of Entiel Village.
It’s a bit far, but for Isabel, it’s a distance worth bearing.
Still, I’d have to line up the lunar eclipse date in advance.
If I messed that up, I’d waste an entire year.
I can get the date from the church’s help.
For the Sun God’s order, solar and lunar eclipses were hugely important, monumental days.
If I built up enough contributions, they’d surely tell me the date of the eclipse.
“Isabel, this time too, please say ‘ahh.’”
“Nngh, Mother could do it…”
“I want to do it for you.”
I fed her the food, one bite at a time, while I sorted through everything I needed to do next.
. . .
Once I reached camp, I was finally ready to consume the Great Root Herb.
Great Root Herb (???)
A medicinal herb overflowing with yang energy.
After unlocking the Apothecary class, I’d been able to use item appraisal on herbs specifically.
Thanks to that, I could see information even I couldn’t when playing as Sumire, the protagonist of Kunoichi's Circumstances.
“That description is awfully bare.”
Still, my level was too low to reveal much.
“If I eat it like this, that’d be a waste, but I can’t help it.”
Usually, elixirs had to be made through special methods before they could be properly absorbed.
But I didn’t have the skill yet to turn the Great Root Herb into a proper elixir.
And I can’t exactly hand it to someone else either.
In the end, what mattered to me wasn’t my stats—it was escaping my pathetic little endowment and becoming properly hung.
“Well then, thank you for the meal.”
I carefully put the Great Root Herb into my mouth.
Chew, chew.
I gnawed on it slowly and waited for the effect to kick in.
“So far I don’t feel anything at all—ghk?!”
Suddenly, pain surged through my stomach as if it had caught fire.
I had the feeling this was what it would be like to eat lava raw.
I’m going to die. I’m not kidding—I’m actually going to die.
The question hit me.
This was completely different from the effect when Sumire ate it in the game.
Why? What’s the difference between me and Sumire?
Compared to Ian, Sumire was obviously a talent on a hero’s level.
Even ten Ians probably couldn’t stand up to one Sumire.
But even if there was a difference in their abilities, the conditions for consuming the elixir shouldn’t have been any different.
Then what?
The pain kept drilling deeper into my skull.
Just when it felt like I might really die like this—
The world flashed before my eyes.
And it wasn’t my own life flashing by, but Ian’s—this body’s original owner.