A Future I Want to Grasp

Author: Iwashi-zukushi
Raw: https://ncode.syosetu.com/n3388fm/31/
Translator: Lilia v4
Editor: Yuriko AYA

“This lump is what you wanted to make, is it? But what is it used for?”

Gerda, who had been staring at the soap as intently as I had, asked.
Well, of course. You wouldn’t know what was what!

“Um, you see, this is… for example, like this.”

Unhurried, I put my hands in the mud and dirtied them, wacha wacha.
I opened both hands and showed them to everyone.

“Hands dirtied like this, you see—if I do this…”

I rinsed them lightly with water, but of course the dirt did not come off easily.
I took some soap, rubbed it a little on my hands, and worked up a lather.

“Oh, what’s this, why are there bubbles like that?”

As expected of Nora; she seemed curious about why it happened.

“This was originally something very sticky, hardened.
So if you wet it and spread it, it foams like this.”
“Hoh hoh. So the foaming itself has nothing to do with the function?”
“Hmm… if it starts foaming poorly, that can be a sign the function is falling off.”

As I said it I washed my palms with the lather I had raised, then the backs, the fingertips, under the nails, between the fingers, around the wrists.
As if my previous life’s memory had returned, my body moved on its own, washing carefully, washing, in a motion I knew.

I rinsed, jaba jaba, and checked how clean they were.
Yes, not bad at all!

“And like this, you can get your hands clean.”
“Wait, wait, why do they get this clean!?”

Nora took my hands, surprised. She stared at them, front and back, intently.
Yes, it’s strange, isn’t it.

Soap, in my previous world’s world, had apparently existed even before the Common Era.
But here it had been used hardly at all.
Because the noble class could clean everything from clothes on down with a magic called ‘Purification.’
Being able to be clean was itself a kind of status.
Commoners washed, of course, but water-washing was about the most of it.
And with water whose sanitary condition was never good… the effect could be imagined.

On this island we could use tap water, so it was much better, and add the effect of soap, and you got this.
But asked why it got this clean… there was a lot I would have to explain.

“This thing called soap dissolves what causes the dirt and makes it easier to wash away with water.”
“Hah~… so there’s a thing like that.”

Nora nodded again and again, impressed.
Come to think of it, Nora and the dwarves were always covered in oil and mud.
If they could wash with this soap… it was no wonder she would think so.

“That said, there are limits. It can’t make just anything clean.”
“Ah. Well, that can’t be helped.”

Stubborn oil stains and the like… I wondered. Probably tough, I thought.
I felt bad for Nora looking disappointed, but I did not think it would do just anything.

Gerda, who had been listening, tilted her head and opened her mouth.

“I understand that the hands become clean. But what does that have to do with medicine?”
“Ah, this isn’t medicine… but like the liquid just now, it can reduce illness.”
“What? How do you mean?”

Yes. By this world’s common sense, you prescribe medicine or use healing magic after you get sick.
But that is not enough.
There is also that it exceeds my physical limits, but more than that, it is obviously better not to get sick in the first place.
Less burden on the body, and less medicine used.

“There’s something like an invisible poison that causes illness, and this soap can wash that away.
By doing that, you can prevent getting sick in the first place.
It’s called prevention.”

Prevention. Hygiene for that. Disinfection for that.
To be as little unclean as possible, as clean as possible.
Whether you do this or not changes the rate of illness a great deal.
Or even after illness or injury, it changes a great deal.

“Just washing your hands changes that much?”

Kira asked, looking puzzled.
I nodded, cleanly.

“Yes. That invisible poison I mentioned, for example, is on your hands a lot.
We eat with those hands… well, that can’t be good for the body, can it?”

At my words, Kira, and even Gerda and Nora, stared at their own hands.
That’s why you can’t see it. But if you’re suddenly told a thing like that, it can’t be helped.

Incidentally, as a bacterium on the palms, Staphylococcus aureus is a famous one.
It causes food poisoning, pneumonia, and the like. It can also bring on meningitis or sepsis, so it is not something to take lightly.

“Proof is better than argument. First, try washing your hands with this.”

So saying, I held the soap out toward the three of them.
They exchanged looks…

“Then I’ll go first.”

Nora, who had been full of interest, took it.
Then Gerda, then Kira, took it, worked up a lather as best they could unused, and washed their hands.
They copied what I had done, and rinsed at the end.

“…I see. I can tell quite well that my hands feel refreshed.”
“They feel… lighter…?”

Gerda and Kira stared at their just-washed hands, puzzled.
Yes. After you wash properly with soap, they feel somehow lighter… as if the burden has lessened.
Nora, incidentally, had the lather vanish in no time on the first go, so she washed a second time, a third.

“Hah~… the more you wash, the more you can tell the difference.”
“With your work, Nora, that would be so.”

For what it was worth, among us Nora’s hands were by far the dirtiest.
From her point of view, this feel of washing had probably come through especially well.

“And you see, this soap can be used to wash clothes as well.
Dirt and such comes clean~”
“Hoh.”
“Ho hoh.”
“Is… that so?”

Three different reactions, but all of them quick.
Was this a woman’s heart, after all?

When I actually tried an experiment dropping oil stains… they watched as if they would eat into it.

“Dirt on clothes, too, becomes a source of illness if you don’t clean it properly.
So by using this soap to wash hands and body and clothes, we prevent illness itself from occurring.”
“Not curing illness, then.”

I nodded at Gerda’s words.

“Yes. A change of thinking, you could say.
What I want to do is not to cure illness.
I want everyone to live in health.
One means to that is curing illness.
In that case, not getting sick at all is best, isn’t it?”

At my words, they all looked as if they had been caught off guard.
That they nodded at once with faces of understanding—flexible, or high in comprehension… I was truly grateful.

“I see. That is why you tried to make something that is not medicine, but can prevent illness.”

I nodded at Gerda’s words.

“To be honest, there’s also that there’s a limit to turning through patients with no prevention, you know.”
“Well, yes.”

Even if it had settled a little, the second day had been reasonably thriving.
Gerda and Kira, who knew that, could only smile wryly.

Well, that aside.

“And so, Gerda.
I would like to ask the Demon King for a place and a budget to produce this soap and various other things.
Could you make an opportunity for an audience?”
“Ah. If it is that you have a proposal, she would likely make time at once.”

Gerda nodded readily at my request.
And in fact we were granted an audience the day after next.

Now then, this is where I show my presentation skills!
…Ah, I remembered my previous life’s seminar presentations and my stomach started to hurt…
They never even let me present at a conference…