And Then, the Spoils

Author: Iwashi-zukushi
Raw: https://ncode.syosetu.com/n3388fm/
Translator: Lilia v4
Editor: Yuriko AYA

“Right then, let’s have Doctor Asha accept this as a welcome!”

What Elma brought out as she said it was a hot sandwich.
Butter spread between the bread, bacon in the middle, apparently fried in a pan.
Something like a panini, perhaps.

“Y-you went out of your way to make this!? Thank you!
This butter and bacon are domestic too, right? So there are cows as well.”
“Ah, on the outskirts of town. Water buffalo too.”
“Heh… ah, then, is there cheese and such as well?”
“Ah, of course. When it comes to food, this town doesn’t want for much.”

I answered Elma’s proud smile with a smile of my own, and putting together everything I had seen and heard so far—
the climate and what they could get seemed close to Italy.
Not identical, surely, but for now it seemed safe to think of it as quite close.
I had heard mozzarella was made from water buffalo milk, too.

Thinking that, I took a sip of the lemon water—and my eyes went wide despite myself.

“Eh, that’s sweet—is there sugar in this!?
W-wow, I never thought you’d have even that.”
“Heh. You know the taste of sugar, then? As expected.
I never put it in my mouth till I came to this town, sugar.”
“That figures, it’s precious…”

It was lightly sweet, but the sweetness was clear alongside the lemon’s tartness, and I could not help raising my voice.
Yes. In modern Japan it overflowed as a matter of course, but in this world sugar was still a luxury.

“We’ve got honey too, but I thought this would surprise you more.”
“No, really, I was startled. A happy miscalculation.”
“What, are you that fond of sweet things?
Then shall I treat you to more?”

Elma was grinning, thoroughly pleased.
Was she the type who simply loved to entertain, I wondered.
At any rate, I could not have her wasting sugar that might be precious, so I waved a hand, light.

“Ah, no, that is part of it, but.”
“Hm? Part of it, but?”
“Hmh. Could it be that sugar has to do with treatment as well?”

Gerda showed her usual perceptiveness, and Elma looked puzzled.

“Gerda, treatment? How d’you use sugar for that?”
“No, I don’t know either.
But Asha is the sort of girl who has nothing but treatment in her head, so I thought it might be.”
“Wait, wait, I’m not that bad, really!”

The estimate was so inflated I could not help raising my voice to stop them.
The two of them watched me, laughing, looking like they were enjoying themselves.
Damn, was I being teased!? I thought—and even so.
Before I knew it, I was smiling too.

 

“Thank you for the meal.”
“What, we’re going to be in each other’s care from here. This much is nothing.”

When I finished the hot sandwich, drained the lemon water, and bobbed my head, Elma waved brightly.
That’s right, I had to work hard from here, I was thinking again, when—

“Then, Elma, I’ll leave the payment here.”
“…Hold on, Gerda, that’s far too much.”

Elma looked at the silver coin Gerda had set down, smiling wryly, at a loss.

Yes. In this country, currency circulated properly.
Gold coins, silver coins, copper coins, that sort of thing.
I did not yet know the exact rates, but one silver coin was probably a fair sum.
After all, it apparently came with plenty of change for two people’s hot sandwiches and lemon water.

But at Elma’s protest, Gerda put on a pleasant smile.

“I’m always in your debt, Elma.”

As she said it, she winked, deftly, with a snap.

That. Is. Why.
Why was every one of those gestures so natural with this person!
A grown-up beauty who’s a natural-born lady-killer… If I walked around town with Gerda, was someone going to stab me…?

That aside.

“I’m sorry, Gerda, for letting you treat me.”
“No, you’ve only just arrived and won’t have much on you, so don’t mind it.”

I bobbed my head, and Gerda smiled, light.
Yes. I who had been seized as a witch and sent here as I was had been penniless.
To be precise, I had received some immediate funds from the Demon King, but they were by no means abundant.
And so this was inevitable.

“And if I’m going to get something, I’d rather it be a thank you.”

So saying, Gerda smiled.
Again. This person, again…
That said, she was right, so I turned to her once more.

“Yes. Thank you, Gerda.”

I returned a smile, from the heart.

 

After that, we went around the shops Elma had told us of and the ones Gerda knew, and by the time we were done the sun was beginning to sink.
At last we were heading for Granny Dia’s workshop.
…Loaded with a great deal of baggage.
To be precise, Gerda was carrying most of it by herself.

“I’m sorry, Gerda, making you carry almost all of it…”
“What, this much is light. Don’t mind it.”

Feeling guilty, I bowed my head again and again.
I had bought all sorts of things sold at the market here.
And then Gerda carried them as if they weighed nothing, and put up the money besides, telling me not to hold back…
I would pay her back when I got ahead… though Gerda would probably laugh and refuse.

“Still, all this olive oil and beeswax—what are you going to use it for?
It hardly seems related to herbalism.”
“Ah, actually, they go into ointments.
But I’m thinking of another use as well.”

I gave Gerda’s question a rather vague answer.
For what I had in mind, there were still experiments I would have to run.
Until those experiments were done, I could not say anything definite.

“Another use? Will you tell me that as well?”
“Of course. If anything, there’s something I’d like your help with… though I don’t know yet if it will take proper shape.”

In theory it ought to be possible, but that was the theory of my original world.
Well, even if the experiments failed, I thought I could probably manage a minimum, at least.

“To check that, I’d like you to help me a little more, Gerda.”
“Ah, of course. If it’s something I can do, tell me anything.”
“Fufu. Thank you. It might be rather a lot of work, though.”

As I said it, I shifted my grip on the other load I had bought at the market… a great deal of cloth.
Surprisingly, this country apparently grew cotton as well.
So this, too, was domestic cloth.
It was quite carefully made, I thought: densely woven, the threads packed tight. Good cloth.

“That cloth—will you use it for bandages?”
“That too, of course.”

So saying, I smiled, meaningfully.