I added the new eye drops to the shelves, and they sell pretty well to grandpas and grandmas.
There are also people coming to the store to give their thanks for being able to see their grandchildrens’ faces clearly.
If it makes them so happy, then making those eye drops was the right thing to do.
“Um~ Reiji-san? Is it alright if I ask you to go shopping? We’re running out of ingredients, so…”
“Un. Do you have a list?”
“Yes, here it is.”
I took the shopping list from Mina.
For the record, Mina is this house’s ghost, so it seems like she can’t leave from here.
“Will Noela come too?”
“Will go.”
Leaving the shop keeping to Mina, we left the store while carrying a shopping basket.
“Have a nice trip~. Be careful-“
Noela waved back to Mina, who was standing in front of the store, waving her hand.
“- will definitely, return safe.”
“Where are you intending to go?”
We walked through the town that had returned to its normal calm after the festival was over.
Alright then. What shall we buy today…
I unfolded the list from Mina.
[Woolen panties.]
Bu-!?
What are you making me buy?
… Or like, you can wear them as a ghost? Panties?
No, well, she has a real body so there’s a need, huh…
“Master, face red. Why?”
“Nothing… that Mina, did she give me the wrong note…?”
Being so reliable but having an unexpected flaw is pretty common.
When we made a u-turn to return to the store, we heard loud, flustered footsteps and a scream.
“H,heeeeeeeeelp-“
“Wait wait wait wait, why are you running? Let’s talk properly, why why why –“
When I looked over my shoulder, there was a 20-something man and a similarly aged woman chasing him.
That woman’s hand was grasping a large, around 30 cm long, knife.
The man’s eyes were full of tears, and the woman had an almost demonic angry expression, and her eyes were bloodshot.
These … are people you shouldn’t get involved with no matter what.
They’re running this way, but when I moved to the side to give them room and avoid them, they came directly towards me.
Why are you coming here!?
When he met my eyes, he made a face like he found his god.
“P,please save me-“
“N,nononono, impossible! Do something about it yourself!”
Going around me, he hid behind me as if using me as a shield.
“S,sorry! Please do something about her!”
“Even if you tell me to all of a sudden…”
“Jiral … why are you running…”
When I heard the girl’s voice from behind me, I trembled.
Very timidly, I turned my head, and a glinting knife was thrust at my throat.
H. Hiiiiiiiiiiii!?
“U,um, I’m Reiji … the sh,shopkeeper of the pharmacy over there, and I,I have absolutely nothing to do with the two of you-“
“The pharmacy’s shopkeeper – Aa, you’re the rumored alchemist – what are you doing with Jiral – there isn’t anything fishy going on between you two, right? Right? Right? Right? RIGHT!?”
She seems to be quite the yandere…
Or she could originally be a girl like this.
With out even trying to give excuses, Jiral clung to me while trembling.
Someone help me out here. Noela…
A. No good.
She’s avoiding reality with the shopping basket over her head.
“I really have nothing to do with it. – Hey, stop hiding and say something.”
“Ferris, is kind of weird, Alchemist-san – do something, please.”
“I’m not weird, I’m not weird, I’m not weird, you’re the weird one, Jiral, doing things with this shady alchemist, just how am I weird –
Ah-. Ah-. Ah-. Geez, I’m completely involved now.
“I get it, I get it, I get it, so, a,anyway, Ferris, san? Lower the knife – if you don’t, we won’t be able to get anywhere.”
At my fervent persuasion, Ferris-san let the knife fall onto the road.
She covered her face with both hands and began to sob.
“I I I I I I I’m not the one who’s wrong, why does everyone say bad things about me – why, why, I’m not the one who’s wrong.”
E-.
Eh- eh-.
She’s an emotionally unstable person…
Oi, you. Jiral.
What are you trying to pull, sneaking away?
Looking at this scene, I look like I’m making Ferris-san cry, rather than being someone who was pulled into a lovers’ quarrel.
I grabbed Jiral-san by the scruff of the neck.
“I wonder if I can’t have you explain the situation to me first.”
“Ah-, yessir…”
There are spectators, so we moved to a park with no people around.
We sat Ferris-san down at a bench.
Seeing the still crying Ferris-san, Noela patted her head comfortingly.
“Ru!?”
Grab
; arms circled around her body, and Noela was caught by Ferris-san.
She’s flailing, so I moved away from the bench and heard about the situation from Jiral.
“I’m really sorry about just now. “
“Forget it. … What happened with Ferris-san? Um, sorry to pry, but your relationship with her is…?”
“Ferris and I recently started going out … so we’re lovers.”
“Heh – aah- I see.”
I unconsciously had a rude attitude about it.
“She was that angry and then crying so much … was it a fight?”
I seem to be wrong, because Jiral-san shook his head.
“No. It happens a lot recently. Today was the worst it’s ever been. Although you might be able to call it a fight. … It’s Ferris’ anxiety. You can call it excessive, of something like that…”
Haa; I made that kind of meaningless sound.
“She was so worried about me that she was saying, “I can’t sleep at night,” … at first I thought it was adorable, but it keeps escalating more and more…”
From what I here, she seems to be a girl with anxiety and deep-seated jealousy.
Things like, is he fooling around with another girl.
Or things like, she became strangely angry just from him striking up a light conversation with the female shop worker when he went to go buy bread.
Is this the case where love that’s too strong becomes hate…?
When I look at Ferris-san, she’s fluffing Noela and being soothed.
Her expression is loosening. Her looks are completely different from just now.
Noela is also engrossed in the fluffing.
Fluffy is justice, after all.
This might be something close to animal therapy.
“And so, I want Reiji-san to do something about it.”
“So you’re tossing the problem at someone else <sup>1</sup> .”
“There’s definitely something possessing her! Whatever that evil thing is has completely changed Ferris into this. Her extreme delusions are also terrific, she insists that I’ve said things I haven’t, and also the reverse, where it’s as if the things I’ve said weren’t said…”
“If it’s that disagreeable, won’t it be better if you broke up? Jiral-san, you’ve just about had it, right?”
Jiral-san’s face lost color and became complete white, and he laughed without any strength behind it.
“… Reiji-san. Do you want to hear the story about when I tried to bring up breaking up?”
“ – Let’s leave it at that.”
I replied immediately.
She was running all around town with that big knife.
It isn’t too hard to imagine that it would become a huge catastrophe.
“And so, if Reiji-san drives out the demon possessing Ferris, she should definitely return to the woman she was!”
“I’m not an exorcist, thought.”
“Ah, sorry, your primary vocation is an alchemist, right?”
“I’m not moonlighting as an exorcist either. In the first place, my actual vocation is a pharmacist.”
Most likely, it doesn’t matter if I’m an exorcist or an alchemist, or a pharmacist to Jiral-san.
He bowed his head deeply.
“… Please save Ferris! And also, by extension, save me…”
I sighed as I gave up.
“…I get it. I’ll see what I can do. But if it’s really a demon possessing her, there’s nothing I can do, you know?”
“Thank you so much!”
Jiral-san gave me a handshake.
I said I’d do it, but what can I do about it…?
Medicine can’t exorcise a demon…
In the first place, is she actually possessed?
I can’t make that judgement at all, so I’ll just try doing what I can.
Right now, Ferris-san is playing with Noela.
If you just see this, she looks like a normal girl you’d be able to find anywhere.
“This is just a possibility, but I wonder if THAT…?”
“That, is it?”
I nodded at the mystified Jiral-san.
“I have preparations to make, so please come to ‘Kirio Drug’ tonight. I’ll give you the medicine there.”
“… W,wait a second – you mean for us both to come together!?”
“She’s your girlfriend, right? Do something about it, please. Because she’s probably not possessed by a demon.”