CH 78

The Create a Wake-Up Medicine Plan

All of us except Harukara were taken to the guest room. It was a large room that would house all of us, similar to the room aboard the leviathan. It seems that the demon race had a tendency for everyone to share a big room.

“My apologies, but please refrain from leaving the room until tomorrow. The room includes a restroom and a bath. We’ll be bringing in meals when the time comes.”

The demon was being polite on the surface, but he was essentially saying “You’re a suspect, so don’t go anywhere.” I’m glad it’s just house arrest though. They’re not keeping a careful watch on us, so I have a few methods I can use. Yup, quite a few.

“Alright then– Things have gotten real bad, but we know what steps need to be done.”

I had everyone take a seat before discussing further.

“The demon lord herself seems to be someone we can reason with, and I highly doubt that one hit could’ve done her in. That’s why I’ll be making some medicine that could wake her up. It’ll take less time than trying to create a recovery spell.”

“Azusa-sama, before we consider how we’re going to give the recovery medicine to her, how are we going to make it? This is a closed room. There are definitely lookouts right outside the door and in the hallways.”

I pointed towards somewhere far behind Leica.

Leica turned around and noticed what was there.

“You’ll be leaving through the window and searching for plants that can be used as materials to make your medicine– That’s the plan right?” Leica said.

“Yup, that’s right.”

I got up and looked out through the window, giving extra caution towards the ground. We seemed to be on the fourth floor.

“There doesn’t seem to be any guards here. I should be able to sneak out so long as I fly. I’ll then look around for stuff that can be used to make this wake-up medicine. In particular, I’ll need to search for stuff that could provide a strong stimulus. The range of plants that would work for this purpose is relatively wide, so I’ll grab whatever I can and make something based on that.”

“But ane-san, where are you going to find any plants? There’s just stone pavement around here, not even any grass.”

“Rosary, you go and look around.”

“Eh?”

“Go and scout out the area. This is the demon race’s stronghold right? In that case then there’s a good chance that there’ll be some kind of herb or crop plantation near the castle. It’s essential when holding the fort while under siege. If there aren’t any, I’m sure there’ll at least be a garden. It’s likely we’ll find a large variety of plants there.”

In Japan there were a lot of castles that had gardens built alongside them. It happened among the castles built during and after the Meiji period, but it wasn’t uncommon for daimyos prior to that to try to grow crops given all the land they possessed.

“Understood! I’ll head off now, for Harukara-anego!”

Rosary left by passing through a wall.

I’m just praying there’ll be a spot somewhere we could harvest. In the meantime, what I should do is-

The door opened. As expected it was it was a demon coming in to check up on us.

“Sorry~, I want to take some medicine and it needs to be mixed with water. May I have a cup and a spoon?”

“Please use the cups that are already in the room. There should be enough cups for everyone. Though, those cups aren’t very well suited for mixing medicine, so I’ll bring back another one as well as a spoon.”

The watchman gave out a lot of pressure, but was someone who listened well to requests.

Of course, the spoon and cup will be used to concoct the medicine.

Before we received the spoon, Rosary came back. It was sooner than expected.

“Ane-san it was just as you thought. There was an area in the castle that had lots of different kinds of plants!”

“Alright then, let’s head on over!”

“Azusa-sama, allow me to go”

“The one they’re most wary of is you Azusa-sama. Not to mention that if the one who’s coming to deliver the spoon finds that you’re not here, things will get complicated.”

“That is true… But Leica, can you fly in that form?”

“I’m also capable of doing this kind of transformation.”

Leica turned into a small dragon, around the size of a person.

“As a giant dragon I can turn into a small human, so it’s no surprise that I could also turn into a small dragon. I’m not particularly used to it though since it’s a transformation I’ve hardly ever needed to use…”

“You should be able to sneak out and collect some herbs then. If you could, then please Leica!”

While Leica was gone, I received the spoon and cup from the lookout demon. We could treat the spoon and cup as part of the room’s tea set or something after we’re done using them.

Farufa and Sharusha didn’t have much to do, so they were praying, eyes closed. There were girls this small praying this hard, so if You’re out there then help us out.

After some time, Leica came back through the window in her small dragon form with plants and herbs in tow.

“Would what I have here be enough? I think I’ve brought quite the variety!”

“You did great Leica!”

The plants here were quite different from the ones in Nantelle. That’s to be expected considering how the climate here was so different. Still, there were a number that looked to be of a species related to the ones found in Nantelle, so I should be able to make something work.

“This is pretty similar to a thistle. And is this one some kind of daisy? Alright, I think I can do it.”

I got working, grinding down some of the plants, desiccating some with fire at times when needed.

“Um, Azusa-sama… What sort of medicine is this wake-up medicine?”

“In short, it’s one that’s super bitter. Any actual medicinal properties are more or less secondary.”

“Eh…?”

“Living creatures recognize bitter things as poison. I mean, if poisonous things were tasty, we’d be consuming poison nonstop and die off right? There are exceptions, but generally sweet or tasty food are considered safe and necessary for life, while bitter foods are things that shouldn’t be eaten.”

So if I were to make use of this primal concept–

“If we can get something really bitter into her mouth, she’ll reflexively try to spit it out. That’ll wake her up– I hope.”

In truth, there are tons of unknowns in play here, and I can’t really guarantee anything until I actually try it. I can only pray things will turn out well…

Concocting the medicine itself didn’t take much time at all.

There was some gooey green substance collecting in a cup, and you could tell just by looking at it that it was bitter.

“She should wake up if we can get this into her mouth. As a side note, this stuff is actually crazy good for your health.”