Chapter 5: Weighing Nostalgia Against the Future (part 3)

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.