Miss Sola, I have a question for you. I have a question for you.


　It was three days after Ilaria had been given a modified antidote to the antidote that priest Serra had called out to me.

　At first, I didn't recognize the priest's voice.

　At first, I hadn't recognized the priest's voice, because I had been distracted by something else entirely.

　The antidote I had given Ilaria three days earlier had worked immediately, eliminating all symptoms of the poison from her system.

　That was all well and good, but today the symptoms had returned.

　The implications of that fact are significant. Because I was thinking about it, I hadn't noticed the priest's voice.

　And then--


...wow.


　I couldn't even react when he grabbed both my cheeks with a muffled grip.

　As I blinked my eyes, the dark-haired priest was standing in front of me with a serious look on his face. Needless to say, the priest's ciliated hands were pinching my cheeks.

　Depending on how you look at it, it might have looked like me and Priest Sela were hugging each other.

　As the priest's hand left my cheek, I rubbed my cheek and asked him frankly, "........



You didn't answer my calls, so I just used my powers.

'Oh, you called me!　I'm sorry, I was just thinking about something.


　Apparently, I was so lost in thought that I was dressed to ignore the person in front of me. When I realized this, I rushed to apologize.

　Fortunately, the priest Sela immediately accepted my apology and smiled at me.

　Incidentally, the priest is half a head shorter than me, so if we were to face each other up close, he would look up at me a little.

　I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to find a way to make the most out of it, but I'm sure I'm going to be able to.


"So, what can I do for you?

I need to ask you a question, Miss Sola.


　When asked by me, the priest Sailor told me with a new expression on his face. But he quickly adds apologetically.


'But if you're tired, Sola, you can come back later. It must have been difficult for you to travel to and from Ishqa, right?


　As this priest had said, I had returned to Ishka only twice in the past three days, to check on the status of the Stampede and to report to the Ishka government that the Hydra had spread to the lower reaches of the Kale River.

　It was to check on the situation at the Stampede and to report to the Ishqa administration that Hydra's poison had spread to the lower reaches of the Kale River.

　Knowing this, the priest must have been concerned for my health.

　I was grateful for that concern. But to be honest, the round trip between the Ishqa and Merthe was not a big burden.

　What was more worrisome was Ilia's symptoms.


◆ ◆ ◆


　The improved version of the antidote using my blood temporarily repelled Hydra's poison, but after three days, it returned.

　It is effective, but it recurs - in this respect, it had the same result as the normal version (normal) antidote and recovery magic.

　However, the normal version did not take more than half a day for the symptoms to recur, so the improved version, which suppressed the recurrence of symptoms for three days, was effective.

　A simple calculation shows that there are ten bottles a month. If we had that much antidote, we would be able to survive even if we were infected by Hydra's poison.

　This was good news.



　However, if he continued to take the same thing over and over again, the effects would eventually wear off, just like any other medicine or magic. The period of time in which you can suppress your symptoms will also be shortened.

　It's far from a complete cure in that sense. But at least it should no longer be manageable today and tomorrow.

　This morning I saw that the swelling and sores on Ilaria's face had subsided. For a young woman, this is as important as life itself, in a way. I was relieved to hear that, too.

　Not so much for Ilaria, but rather for her mother, Priestess Serra, and her little brothers and sisters.


　-- so far, it was a happy ending.


　However, even though the immediate crisis was over, a new problem arose from this result.

　A person affected by the Hydra's poison requires ten vials of the antidote per month. In a year, that's 120 vials.

　Ilaria alone would have been no problem.

　But there are five people in the village who suffer from the same kind of symptoms as Ilaria. That means that they need sixty bottles a month, or seven hundred and twenty bottles a year.

　All those seven hundred and twenty bottles need to be mixed with my blood.

　And this is the minimum number.

　As I mentioned earlier, the three days that the new drug could suppress the symptoms could be reduced, but it would not be prolonged. As mentioned above, the number of days that the new drugs can suppress the symptoms may be reduced, but it will not be prolonged.

　As long as the poison is flowing through the rivers, there is no doubt that the number of people who will be affected by it will increase.

　Since the village of Merte, which is located downstream of the river, has suffered so much, there is no doubt that many more villages and towns upstream of Merte will be affected.

　If all the patients were to be saved, the number of antidotes would be ten thousand or twenty thousand a month. How many vats of my blood would be needed to produce that many antidotes?


　--that is, this is the new problem that has arisen. For all intents and purposes, there is not enough blood.


　You can't make a modified version of the antidote without my blood.

　How would we do it? I spent a lot of time worrying about it, but I didn't. I had no intention of turning myself into a mummy to help others.

　The only people I'd want to help in the village of Melte are Priest Sela and the three little brats. As for Ilaria, it's a matter of saving the priest Sela and the little guys, so that's why I'm including him in the count, and the rest is just barely including Lars, in order to keep my promise to Miroslav.

　As for the other villagers, I'm sorry, but they're out of my responsibility.

　I'll be able to provide them with the improved version that we brought to Melte village, but after that, they'll have to take care of themselves.


　But, of course, the villagers would not be convinced. They would naturally demand that we give them the same treatment that we gave to Ilaria, why are you helping her alone?

　If they refused, they would be met with an outcry of condemnation. If they refused, they would be met with a roaring rebuke. There is no doubt that it would be a disaster.

　As for me personally, I don't care what is said or done to me, but the problem is when the blame is directed at someone other than me.

　Most likely, it was the Sailor Priest. She is expected to face fierce accusations just because of her position as a priest of the Dharma God and mother of Ilaria.


　--You're a priest of the Dharma God, and that's all that matters if only your own daughter can be saved!


　I can't bear to imagine the priest Serra being blamed by the villagers for this.

　I know that it would be useless to appeal to the villagers that priest Sailor had nothing to do with my decision. Worst-case scenario, the little guy will be persecuted as well.

　The quickest way to avoid this is to take them all to Ishka. I have a specific excuse in mind.


　A call to arms for the Stampede.


　I'm a contributor to the village of Melte, and I'm sure there will be no one in the village who will openly oppose my cause if I raise this cause. It would be easy for me to leave the village with the priest Serra and Ilaria.

　This way, no persecution will come to the priest or the children.

　I would like to say that this would solve everything - but there is a problem with this.


　The problem is that there is no way that the priests of Serra would agree to such an idea.


　If I show you the full plan, first of all, the priest will undoubtedly make a different decision than I did.

　Perhaps the priest will leave Ilaria in my care and return to the village alone. I am sure that he will not mind my speculation that the villagers will persecute him, but rather he will be willing to tell them the truth and meet their anger head on. That's exactly what I'm going to do.


　How to prevent that from happening - this is the question I've been pondering.

　Considering the character of the Sailor Priest, he would not be able to know the truth and remain silent.

　If so, would I continue to hide the truth?　But I must say, this is a difficult one. The truth will eventually leak out from somewhere.

　Better yet, I'd like to ingratiate myself with the debt of gratitude for helping Ilaria and force the priest Sailor into my possession.

　That's exactly what I can do, if I make Priest Sailor Priest into a slave like Lunamaria, even if the priest finds out the truth, I can force him to stay in Ishka.

　........well, in exchange, I'd have to carry Priest Seela's resentment and disdain for the rest of my life.

　I don't want to think about it. My heart aches just thinking about it. Overruled, overruled, this was wrong.

　I shuddered as I closed the lid on my vicious thoughts.


◆ ◆ ◆


　I was so busy thinking about this and that that I didn't notice the priest Sailor's call.

　I hid the fact that I had been thinking about it all this time and asked the priest Seurat.


I'm sorry you're worried about me, but I'll be fine. So, what is it you want to ask, High Priest?

'Well then I'll ask you, but the other day Sola said that the new antidote was laced with dragon's blood.

'Yes. I told you.

''Based on the fact that Ilaria's symptoms returned today, I'm guessing that we'll need a significant amount of antidote in the future... how much dragon blood is left?''

It's...


　I'm at a loss for words. I didn't expect to be thinking about something similar - is that an exaggeration? In the current situation, it's natural for Priestess Sailor to be concerned about the remaining amount of antidote.

　Now, what should I say?

　As you can probably guess from the question, I have yet to tell Priest Sailor the truth that "dragon's blood = my blood".

　This is information that directly relates to my anima (anima) and my heart outfit, so I couldn't just tell him the truth no matter how much I was dealing with the Sailor Priest.

　So, if you want to trick the priest now, you can trick him. Would you say that the dragon's blood is only enough to cure Ilaria?

　But the lie will come out. And then the priest Sailor must be disappointed in me for lying to him. It was unbearable to imagine myself being looked at by the priest as a disappointment.


　--I'll just blurt it all out.


　This thought suddenly crossed my mind. In general, when I think too much, something bad happens.

　If I reveal the truth here, at least I won't have a future of being scorned as a liar. As for the issue of the lack of blood, maybe Priestess Sailor will have some strange ideas.

　Most importantly, rather than being a cold-blooded man who abandons others, it's better to be a hot-blooded man who tries his best to help everyone as much as possible, and that will win the priest Serra's favor.

　You might even be able to lull a priest Sailor into joining the clan in a lulling manner under the guise of solving a problem.


　...Yeah, that's right. Let's try to help as many people as possible without being evil or wise. If all we have to do is cut them down, we can do it later!

　As soon as I made up my mind to do so, I felt strangely lighthearted. Although I wasn't really aware of it, the idea of abandoning everyone but Ilaria seemed to be putting a lot of pressure on my heart.

　I guess it's not because I'm a good person at heart - but because I'm petty.

　Thinking about this, I opened my mouth to reveal everything to Priestess Sela.