Three days have passed since I arrived in the village of Merte. The situation surrounding the village was rapidly improving.

　Not to mention the fact that I was able to ward off the disease with the fruit of Jiria Ookus, and also the fact that the cause of the plague was clarified and the fears of the villagers were gone.

　Sickness comes from the mind. If we knew that the village was not suffering from an unknown epidemic, but from a poisonous river water, we would not have to worry so much.

　Use a well to drink water. Do not eat river fish. Children do not swim in the river. If we take such measures, no more people will get sick.



　But even if no more people get sick, it will still take a long time for those who have been poisoned to recover. Besides, it is not only humans who are affected by the poison.

　The soil, for example.

　When it comes to agriculture, we can't say that we don't use water from rivers. If the waterways were to be blocked, the crops in the fields would die across the board. There is no choice but to continue as it is.

　However, since the water contains poison, there is a high probability that the crops will be poisoned. Can the harvested crops be eaten? Even if they can be eaten, is it possible to tax the food that might contain the poison or sell it on the street for money?

　Before that, the poison could kill the crops. It's quite possible that the poison left in the soil could affect crops for the next year and beyond.

　In that sense, the effects of the basilisk were so wide-ranging that we could only see the full effects of the disease after this one.




　That's where I come in.

　What I have just described was predictable in advance.

　And if you have predicted it, you are prepared for it.

　I had brought a potions for the sick and a pile of holy water to purify the soil, in addition to Jiriah Ookus fruit.



　Both of these items had been provided by the Mother Goddess' temple.

　As for where the connection with Mother Earth was formed, it was the guild's salting request that had been cleared up earlier. In that one, he said, "I hear screams every night from the communal cemetery near the orphanage. I want you to do something about it".

　I was able to exorcise the banshee that was causing the screaming, and through this connection, I was able to establish a connection with the shrine of the Mother Goddess of Earth, the parent organization of the orphanage. This time, he used that connection to stock up on potions and holy water in large quantities.


　Well, to be honest, I don't know if the holy water is effective against the poisons of the rotten sea, let alone the potions to restore stamina.

　However, the Earth Mother Goddess, as her name suggests, is a goddess of the earth. The villagers would believe in the effectiveness of the holy water if they were told that it was made in her temple. It would lead to their spiritual stability.

　At the very least, it would keep them from losing their fields to desperation and falling into the hands of thieves.



"Really, I'm so grateful for everything you've done for me...


　The one who bowed his head in horror was the priest Sailor.

　There is no such thing as an inn in a remote village, and I've rented a room in the church and am staying there. Inevitably, I would be living under the same roof as the priest who was in charge of the church, and for the past three days I've been sharing breakfast and dinner with him.

　However, it's not just the two of us. There are more than one person living in this church besides me and the priest.

　And as for who they are--


Come on, let's go feed the dragon!

Let's go!

Go!


　Three children attached to the priest come to me with their voices in unison to make their case.

　They are all orphans from the village who have lost their parents and live in the church as orphans with no other relatives.

　They are all orphans and live as orphans in the church. I'd like to have a little more time to talk with the priest Sailor, but....

　To get back at me for disturbing you, I give you a mountain of deer and wild boar from the nearby mountains that I've been hunting with Klau Solas for the past three days, every time we eat.

　Kukku, eat your fill and get fat. You're too skinny to begin with.

　--I'm too skinny to begin with," he said, neatly hiding his wicked inner thoughts.



It's all right, all right, all right. But are you that fond of waivers and dragons?

'I love it!　That's so cool!　I'm going to be a dragon knight myself in the future!

Me too!

Me too!

Then so am I!

Hey, boy, there's the priest.


　I stared at Sailor, who raised her hand in the midst of the children, with a half-eyed glare, and she tilted her head cutely at me.

　Yeah, don't act like a woman with eighteen daughters acting like a child!

　If it doesn't look good on you, well, it looks good on you, and that's why you're having trouble reacting!



　Priest Serra's complexion is much better than it was three days ago. All the sick people who were once overflowing in the church have returned home, and they must have been able to rest sufficiently. The potion I gave him must have helped him to recover his strength (stamina).

　The dark circles in his eyes and the puffiness in his cheeks disappeared as he recovered his stamina, and as he ripped the melancholy from his face, he began to show me his true personality.

　Gentle and modest was my first impression of him, but this priest of the Dharma God also had a rather mischievous side, just like the one we just saw. Well, he might have been just trying to fit in with the kids.



　After that, we headed out of the village together.

　Needless to say, the dragon the kids were talking about was Klau Solas.

　The wyvern was popular in the village of Merte, as it was in Ishka. The dragon knight was said to be an admired figure even in the remote villages.

　As expected, he wasn't allowed to enter the village, but since he was given permission to use the vacant lot behind the village, he was allowed to wait there.



　Crow Solas, as usual, does not try to befriend anyone other than me, and will not hesitate to threaten me if I approach him, even if he is a child.

　The trio knows that, and that's why they wanted to come with me like this. Klau Solas is a bit of a good-natured (?) guy when I'm around. It gets better.

　The trio's eyes light up as they see the wyvern, which flaps its wings happily in recognition of my appearance.

　I'm going to give them some apricots as usual, but then it occurred to me that I'd have to beckon the trio to give them some apricots. Next, I beckon Klau Solas to join me and signal with my eyes, you know what I mean.


　

　I've seen it with my own eyes. Now that things have calmed down, it wouldn't hurt to give them a little distraction.

　It would be a good way to score points with the priest Sailor, who is still smiling and watching over the children.


　Crow Solas was purring in disapproval as the feeding shifted from me to the kids, but I'm going to hunt with him later, so listen to us for now - and hold him down with my eyes.

　Just as well, is a misnomer, but I had an idea of what we were hunting. According to what I'd heard in the village, there had been an increase in the number of orc sightings in this area recently.

　They seem to have come from the Holy Kingdom territory to the south, and there is a high possibility that they have established a settlement near the border.

　It would be easy to find their base of operations if we searched for them from the sky. It would be a suitable prey for hunting.



　Goblins and orcs have an excellent sense of smell of a certain kind, and there is a high probability that they will appear in a weakened town or village. If left unchecked, they could attack villages around here.

　Only a couple of days remain before Ilia arrives. When I was thinking that he would be an easy opponent to win the villagers' favor - I was surprised to see Iria return at noon that day.

　Apparently, she had bought a horse herself and rushed over, rather than a carriage. When I thought about it calmly, Ilaria was a sixth level adventurer just like Lars. I have enough savings to buy a horse, I belatedly thought to myself.

　When Ilaria saw me chopping wood with the kids at the old church, she made three zeros with her eyes and mouth.

　Maybe three seconds later, she says, "Why are you here! And they will shout at you.

　Now, what could I say?

　I began to formulate words in my head to soothe Ilaria.