I put a hand on her head. "It's a struggle, yes... but it's rewarding. I get to see the
city, and the country, rebuilt the way I want them to be. If the result is more people
smiling in the end, all the better."
"Well... Okay, then," she said. "But if there's anything I can do for you, just say the
word."
"Of course. I'll be counting on you."
Liscia and I smiled broadly at one another.
But just as we had a good mood going...
Pshhhh.
...suddenly, we heard a sound like air leaking out of something.
When I looked up ahead, wondering what it could be, I saw someone with a large
barrel on their back using a metal cylinder on the end of a hose extending from that
barrel to spray some sort of mist on the ground.
That person was an exotic-looking woman with skin not quite as dark as a dark
elf, but still brown, and blond hair. She looked to be in her mid-twenties. She was
probably beautiful, and she had a shapely figure, but with the triangular mask she
wore over her face and the barrel slung over her back, it all went to waste. That
woman's forehead had the third eye unique to the three-eyed race shining on it.
"Hehehe... Hohoho... Ahahahahahaha! Filth will be sterilized!" After that threestage laugh, the woman enthusiastically sprayed the ground and huts with some sort
of mist.
That all-too-incredible scene left Liscia, Carla, and Owen all speechless. As for me,
I felt my head starting to hurt again.
"What are you doing, Hilde?" I asked wearily.
Her name was Hilde Norg. In a show of appreciation for our support and the
redemption of their honor, the three-eyed had lent her to us to help reform our
system of medicine. She was their one and only "doctor."
In this world, there were very few doctors in the sense that a modern Japanese
person would think of the term. The ones who carried out the vast majority of
medical treatments were light mages, and the ones who administered herbal
remedies to help ease the symptoms of illness were medicine men and women.
Many of those light mages were affiliated with the church, and therefore most of
the hospitals were also attached to church buildings. That was why it was normal for
people in this world to go to the church when they were sick, but for the three-eyed,
it was a little different.
Because their medical technology was far more advanced, they could treat most
illnesses and injuries in the homes. When they came down with an illness so serious
that it couldn't be treated in the home, that was when they would first seek medicine
mixed by the doctor. Naturally, that doctor was the foremost expert of her race, and
so she could only prepare medicine for so many of them.
The one over there spraying a disinfectant (limewater, probably), Hilde, was the
one and only doctor of her race, considered to have a high degree of medical
knowledge, even by the standards of the three-eyed. However, with the way she was
dressed now, she just looked like a farmer spraying agricultural chemicals.
Hilde had been letting out a loud, enthusiastic laugh until a moment ago, but now
she wore a dark smile and had a heavy atmosphere around her. "Honestly... haven't I
told you people to pick up your cats' droppings?! Because you people keep leaving
them lying out in the open, there's bacteria all over this place! Oh, for goodness sake!
Unclean, unclean!"
This time, as he sprayed disinfectant, she stamped her feet indignantly. She might
have seemed emotionally unstable, but this was business as usual for Hilde.
She, with her knowledge of pharmacology and an eye for bacteria that was
considered excellent even by the standards of the three-eyed, also demonstrated an
obsession with cleanliness that was strong even by the standards of her race. To the
point that it was normal for her to walk around with disinfectant like that.
It wasn't always good to be able to see too much.
"I see you're the same as ever, Hilde," I said.
"Hm? You're... Who're you?"
I took off my conical hat and showed my face.
Without much surprise, she said, "Oh, just the king, huh," and returned to the
work of spraying disinfectant.
"Calling me 'just' the king is a little mean," I said. "It's technically an important
position, you know?"
"Then try to dress the part, why don't you?" she asked. "I thought you were some
hobo."
She was as harsh as ever. I'd had an image of doctors being harsh even back in
my old world, and it seemed things were the same here. Hilde in particular wasn't
the sort to care much about the position of the person she was talking to.
Hilde's philosophy was: "Illness strikes us all, good and evil, rich and poor, male
and female, irrespective of race. Then, before a doctor such as myself, all patients are
equal."
That was her argument, apparently.
"Anyway... Hilde, let me introduce you," I began. "The two ladies are—"
"I know who they are," Hilde said with a sigh, as if it was a given that she'd know
who they were. "They're famous, aren't they? The princess and the daughter of the
former General of the Air Force, right?"
"Huh? What about Sir Owen?" I asked.
"I don't want to know anything about that filthy old man."
"What?!" Owen protested. "Who are you calling filthy?! I take care to groom
myself properly!"
"Stay away, you musclebound moron! I hope you've washed yourself properly?!"
she shouted.
Pshhhh.
"Hey now, little girl, don't spray that weird mist on me! I am clean, you know?
Every day, I pour water over my naked body, then rub myself down with a dry
towel!" Owen shouted.
I was suddenly forced to imagine a macho man bathing naked in the dawning
light of morning. Yeah... It felt dirty just imagining it. Perhaps having imagined a
similar scene themselves, Liscia and Carla both looked ready to puke.
I-It felt like dwelling on this any longer was just going to make everyone's mental
state worse, so it was time to change the topic.
"B-By the way, Hilde, what are you doing here today?"
My forced attempt to change the topic got a snort from Hilde.
"If I leave the people here to their own devices, they become unhygienic in no
time. I'm making regular visits to instruct them on hygiene and to disinfect the area."
"Makes sense..." I said. "By the way, is your partner with you today?"
"Don't call him my partner." Hilde spat the words out, seemingly annoyed. "If
you're looking for Brad, he's 'outside.' He said, 'If I have to examine fattened pigs, I'd
much rather treat the untainted wild dogs'... or some such nonsense."
"...I see he never changes, either."
"Maybe you could you tell him off, too, sire," she said. "That guy always pushes
lecturing the junior physicians off on me."
"I-I see..."
The Brad who had come up in our conversation was the other doctor acting as a
pair with Hilde to push forward the reform of this country's medical system. His full
name was Brad Joker. He was a human male, and his skills as a medical practitioner
were good, but... his personality was a bit of a problem.
I can't see Brad ever being able to explain things to others. Showing off practical
skills in the field will offer guidance to his juniors, but Hilde's going to have to be the
one to hold lectures...
"Hey, are you listening to me, s-i-r-e?" Hilde snapped.
"I-I get it," I said. "I'll try talking to him, at least." If she was going to press me on
it with that angry smile, I just had to nod and agree with her.
"So? What is the king and his entourage doing here?" Hilde demanded.
"Oh... I was planning to visit the chief of the mystic wolves," I said. "While I'm at it,
I thought I might poke my head in at the job training facility I have Ginger running,
too."
"Oh, so that's the sort of business you had." Liscia clapped her hands as if she
finally understood something.
Oh, now that I thought about it, I hadn't told her what we were doing, had I?
"Then, once I've had the mystic wolf elder make a connection for me, I plan to go
'outside,'" I added.
"Ohh, you're going 'outside,' are you, sire?" Hilde asked. "In that case, maybe I'll
tag along."
"Huh? Why is that?"
"That should be obvious. To knock some sense into that examination-obsessed
idiot, that's why."
Hilde had a smile on her face, but her eyes weren't smiling.
"W-Well... Just try to not to go overboard, okay?" I asked nervously.
"Um, you keep talking about going 'outside,' but what exactly does that mean?"
Carla hesitantly raised her hand and asked.
"If we're talking outside from the perspective of being inside the city, it can only
mean outside the walls," Hilde said coolly.
"By outside the walls... could you mean...?" Liscia seemed to have figured
something out and had a pensive look on her face.
Yeah... It was probably exactly what she was imagining.
Regardless, thus was our group of a foreign traveler, a female student, a dragon
maid, and a macho man joined by a female doctor.
...Yeah. This group was making less and less sense.
Our first stop was the job training facility Ginger was in charge of.
The mystic wolves' Kikkoro Distillery, which produced miso, soy sauce, and sake,
among other products, was in the former slums. So was Ginger's job training facility.
Both had required considerable room, and this had been the only suitable place.
While it went without saying for the training facility, the Kikkoro Distillery also
had an easy time securing workers here, so it wasn't a bad location. That alone made
it worth having fixed the place up.
The job training facility was surrounded by brick walls, and there were a number
of buildings inside the compound. The place had just opened and so they were only
teaching reading, writing, and arithmetic to the applicants, but the intention was to
experiment with all sorts of different ideas in the future, so the number of buildings
had increased.
When we went to enter through the front gate, a number of children ran out from
it.
"Goodbye, Ms. San!"
"Goodbye!"
They were all around the age of ten, maybe. They weren't that well dressed or
groomed, but they seemed full of energy.
When we looked in through the gate, the former slave who was now Ginger's
secretary, Sandria, was waving to the children. "Goodbye, children. Take care on
your way home."
The slight smile she saw them off with was a gentle one, very different from the
ill-tempered demeanor she'd had when we first met.
So, she can make an expression like that, too, huh...
While I was thinking that, Sandria noticed me and gave a respectful bow. "Why,
Your Majesty, how good of you to come visit us."
"Hey, Sandria," I said. "Is Ginger in?"
"He is in his office. I will show you the way there."
We followed Sandria into one of the buildings.
It was a simple, boxy design with no frills, but you could tell this building had a
lot of rooms even from the outside. It would have looked like a hospital or school to
a modern Japanese person.