There Were Times I Thought It Impossible

Author: Iwashi-zukushi
Raw: https://ncode.syosetu.com/n3388fm/43/
Translator: Lilia v4
Editor: Yuriko AYA

The afternoon of the day after I had secured the cooperation of the forest giants and Nora.
This time I was to meet Lady Dominas and talk.

Incidentally the Demon King had wanted to sit in as well, but as one would expect she seemed busy and the times did not match.
So today I had Gerda come.

“Knowing that one, the arrival will likely be at the last moment.
So there is no need to be so tense from now. And I am with you.”
“Yes. I am counting on you.”

I nodded, kokuri, at Gerda.
Yes, to be honest I cannot imagine what sort of person it is.
Blunt with Kira, from what I heard, and yet it is not that there is no feeling.
A person who will draw a map, but does not arrive at the idea of guiding you. Well, demonfolk, though.

At any rate, if Gerda associates with that one as a childhood friend, it is surely not a bad person.

As I was thinking that, I heard footsteps coming this way.
I exchanged a glance with Gerda for an instant, cut the conversation, and waited a while.

A kon kon of a knock on the door, and then it opened with a gachari.

“…On time.”
“No, that is certainly so, but there must be a better way to put it.”

What came in, unhurried, was a small woman.
Black hair left to grow, so long it nearly hid her right eye.
She seemed quite indifferent to what she wore as well; a robe that looked expensive was rumpled.
Her features were regular… but, how to put it, she gave a terribly unfortunate impression.

Only… the presence that drifted from her, or perhaps it was magic? That was something tremendous.
Perhaps there was something close to the Demon King, even, at that level.
As one would expect of the one responsible for the field of magic.

“If I am on time there is no problem. Wrong?”
“Hmh… one could say it is not wrong, and one could say it is.”
“What is that.”
“It depends on the other party, so the result is not the same.”
“What is that. Unreasonable.”
“This sort of thing is not only reason, you see.”

Lady Dominas speaking flatly, Gerda explaining with a wry smile.
Hmh… what is this mysterious space.
It is worklike, and yet somehow it does not feel mechanical or hostile.
Is this, too, because of how long the two have known each other?

While I was thinking that, Lady Dominas suddenly turned my way with a gurin.

“So, this child is the one?”
“Ah, the one. Asha the apothecary. …Though I do not know if ‘apothecary’ is the apt expression.”
“I see.”

No, no, I am a mere apothecary, you know!? I am a physician, but I also think it odd to leave the expression apothecary behind!
I kept that tsukkomi inside.
I still do not know what Lady Dominas’s rhythm is like.

“I am Asha; I have been granted an introduction.
I look forward to working with you.”
“Nn. I am Dominas. Likewise.”

So saying she held out her right hand, so I took it as well.
We shook hands a while. Lady Dominas made a somehow puzzled face and let go.

“…Weird.”
“The expression, I told you.
What is weird how?”

At the sudden mutter Gerda asked, wryly smiling.
Lady Dominas stared hard at the hand she had shaken for a while, then raised her face.

“The seeds of illness are extremely few.”
“…What? Wait, Dominas. Did you know that sort of thing was on your hand?”

At Lady Dominas’s mutter, Gerda and I both went wide-eyed.
Because there should be no concept of pathogens or the like!
Gerda is an exception, having been with me from the start of making soap and understanding it in outline.
That there are few is probably because I wash my hands more carefully than other people, but, to tell that just by touching.
Lady Dominas looked puzzled at our surprise.

“Eh. I thought everyone knew.”
“There is no way one would know such a… no, it is true we have never confirmed such a thing.”

Come to think of it, one does not check one by one whether what one can see, others can see as well.
From one’s own view it is a matter of course.
With a type like Lady Dominas, that a matter of course is not another person’s matter of course is what happens.

But if she truly can tell the presence or absence of bacteria by contact… I would like her cooperation in various ways.

“As for that special skill of yours, Lady Dominas, I would like to confirm various things another day, if I may.”
“What. I don’t mind.”

…She really does not seem a bad person. One way or another, she seems willing to cooperate.
Then, after looking at my face a while, Lady Dominas suddenly made a face as if she had remembered something.

“Come to think of it. Is Kira well?”
“Ah, yes, she is well. Thanks to you, she has been a tremendous help.”
“I see. Then, good.
…I heard the gist from Gerda. You think of uses like that well.”

Oh, she had been concerned after all, I was thinking, when this remark.
E-er, how far am I allowed to talk?

“Well, you see, that is… er, how much have you heard?”
“The gist. Previous life and so on.”
“Ah, you have heard that far… Precisely, it is knowledge from that previous life.”
“…I see. Then I would like to hear the talk another time as well.”
“Yes, I would be glad to then!”

So Lady Dominas is the researcher type, perhaps.
She has some difficulty with consideration, but she is by no means a bad person.
Perhaps when something slightly draws her interest her field of view narrows all at once, that sort of thing.

“Well, that is that.
Today’s business? Besides small talk.”

Lady Dominas asked.
Hmh, this speed of switching is science-typed as well. No, is that saying too much?

“Yes, what I came for today is, in fact…”

Prompted by Lady Dominas, I explained the contents I had come for.
It was a consultation on whether we could make ink with a magical treatment applied.

At my explanation Lady Dominas nodded several times, hm, hm, looking interested.

“I see, I understand the talk.
I think I can.”
“Hoh, as expected of you, Dominas.”
“Of course. In the domain of magic, there is not much I cannot do.”

At Lady Dominas’s reply I nearly choked.
Er, I feel I have heard that phrasing somewhere!?

“E-er, is this… a place one is allowed to laugh…?”
“…Was there something funny?”

Ah, I slipped; that just now was apparently said ordinarily.
I would have to gloss it somehow.

“No, I am sorry, it resembled a line from a novel I read a little long ago.
Then, may I ask this of you?”
“Nn, leave it to me. It will take a little time, though.”
“Thank you. I think that is only natural, so it is all right.”

So saying, I bobbed my head.

Well.
That does not take time meant, for her, can be done on the spot, and
that takes a little time meant can be done in a few hours that same day, I learned that night.
She suddenly called at the workshop with attendants, so I honestly wondered what it was.

Are there nothing but cheats on this island after all!!
Such a mutter slipped out, despite myself.