The Two Leaders

“I'll leave that to you, then, I'll go get Nfirea.”

“That's more like it! A capital idea! Ane-san, let me go with you.”

Although this would leave the house empty, Enri wasn't bothered by it. After all, there had never been any issues with thieves breaking in before.

Together with Kaijali, Enri left the house just after Nemu did.

The wind blew in Enri’s face, carrying with it the scent of the grass and warmed by the gentle light of the morning sun. Enri took a deep breath, and when she turned to look at Kaijali, he was breathing in the scent as well. Enri couldn’t resist laughing at the sight, and Kaijali scowled, trying to regain his lost dignity with a fierce expression. Perhaps the Enri of the past would have been afraid, but Enri was used to life with the goblins now, and she knew this was just how he smiled.

On this refreshing, cool and clear day, Enri proceeded to the house next to hers.

It had been left ownerless from the tragedy that had befallen their village recently, and had become the home of the alchemists from E-Rantel, the Bareares.

The house was occupied by two people, Lizzie Bareare, the wizened old woman and her grandson, Enri’s good friend Nfirea Bareare. The two of them spent their days cooped up in the house, processing herbs to make potions and other medicines.

Not working closely with other villagers was a good reason to be isolated, and in the worst case scenario, to be kicked out of the village. But it was different for those two.

In every village, an apothecary ― someone who could prepare medicines in case of disease or injury

― was indispensable. They could be said to be important enough that the villagers would plead,

“you don’t need to do anything except make medicine for us”.

This went double for a place like Carne Village, which had no access to priests who could use healing magic. For larger villages, priests would double as the village apothecary.

Priests would charge an appropriate fee for their healing magic. Or rather, it might be better to say that they would need to charge the fee. If the villagers could not afford to pay, then they would offer up their labour instead. For those who lacked the ability to even do that, the priests would use medicines compounded from herbs, since herbal cures were less expensive than magical healing.

One of the goblins in the village was a cleric, and he could heal minor wounds with ease, but the villagers had come together with the opinion that he should save up his power for an emergency, unless someone was very badly hurt . Not to mention, the cleric’s healing spells were very limited and lacked the ability to heal diseases or neutralize poisons.

Even so, despite the vital job they performed, the villagers didn’t dare to go near them.

The reason for this was abundantly clear as one approached the Bareares’ residence.

Enri scrunched up her nose, as did Kaijali. The house they were approaching was wreathed in an acrid odor. All things considered, it wasn’t actually that bad, but it still felt awful. The smell released from crushing up herbs might be off-putting, but ultimately it was only the scent of plants, and was not dangerous in itself.

Breathing through her mouth, Enri knocked on the door.

She knocked quite a few times, but nobody answered the door. Just when she thought nobody was home, the sound of someone approaching came from the other side, and after a lock was hastily fumbled with, the door opened.

ー !?

She did not want to react with her expression or words, but the smell coming from inside the house was truly horrific.

It was painful.

A harsh, stinging pain seared her eyes, nose and mouth. Worse still, the vile stench from inside the house suggested that the miasma around the house was nothing more than what had leaked out from inside.

“Good morning, Enri!”

Nfirea’s eyes, which were visible from between the gaps in his long hair, were wide open and bloodshot. He must have stayed up all night for alchemical experiments again.

She did not want to open her mouth to speak when she was enveloped by the eye-watering gas, but it would be rude not to return a greeting.

“G-good morning, Enfi.”

She felt her throat dry out as she said that.

“Morning, Ani-san.”

“Ah, good morning, Kai… Kaijali-san… Huh, it’s morning already? I was working so hard I didn’t notice. Seeing the sun makes me realize how the time just flew by… ahhh, I’ve been doing so many experiments recently, I need to get out of the house.”

Nfirea stretched like a cat and yawned.

“Looks like you’ve been burning the midnight oil, huh―”

Enri was about to add “breakfast’s ready, come over with your Obaa-chan”, but Nfirea interrupted.

Or rather, instead of saying he interrupted her, it might be better to say that she was overwhelmed by his boyish enthusiasm.

“It’s amazing, Enri!”

Nfirea rushed up to her. His work clothes reeked of that same stinging odor which filled the rest of the house. Although Enri wanted very much to back away from him, she forced herself to endure it, because Nfirea was her dear friend.