Instead of using , we traveled to the fortress city of Felbane by riding on Logan. All 61 members of the Wolf Fang clan, led by Logan, ran at full speed! We caused quite a stir on the highway.

I bet the news that a massive pack of monsters charged all the way to Felbane will reach various guilds later. Nicee, my bad.

"What the—?! Who are you people?! An enemy attack?! But the fortress city of Felbane won’t fall to the likes of you!"

We had arrived at Felbane. More than ten guards stood lined up at the town gate in the city wall. As expected of a fortress city. There were also over fifty people waiting in line for entry procedures.

"Urgent messenger! We carry an urgent letter from Nise, the town magistrate of Solenalini, addressed to Count Coluna! Please handle this immediately!"

I shouted loudly. Feels kinda cool, like a samurai, right?

"What?! Call the gate captain!"

The guards were quite well-trained. A suspicious guy in a hooded robe (me), leading a pack of Wolf Fangs (also me), and a huge number of chicks... Ah, I sent the chicks ahead to scout the town, so they’re not here right now. Then there’s Irina. Yeah, aside from me being suspicious, there’s no real way to explain this.

Even I feel depressed saying it out loud.

"What’s going on?!"

A burly guard who seemed to be the gate captain came running from the gate.

"Sir! This person says he was entrusted with an urgent letter from Magistrate Nise of Solenalini addressed to Count Coluna!"

"Hmm, I’ll verify it. May I see the letter?"

I pretended to search my pocket and pulled out the sealed letter from my subspace compressed storage, stamped with the magistrate’s seal. In this world, if you seal a letter with a magic tool, it will burn to ashes unless opened with the corresponding magic tool. Otherworlds are terrifying.

"Here ya go."

"This is... indeed the seal of the town magistrate of Solenalini. No mistake. Since it’s urgent, you may pass. But you are an agent, correct?"

"Yeah, I’m an adventurer Nise asked to deliver it."

"Then we’ll just do the entry procedures. Come this way."

I was led beside the gate where people were lined up, toward a larger closed gate guarded by soldiers.

"Press your guild card and your tamed beast pendant against this magic tool. This will record that you’ve entered the town. You can leave from any gate, but make sure to have your card checked when you do."

I see. So this lets them monitor the flow of people in and out of the town. Of course, it wouldn’t work if someone forged the card.

"Got it."

"Take care. With so many tamed beasts, try not to cause any trouble. Also, Count Coluna’s residence is straight down this main street, then turn left at the square ahead. The town is huge, so if you get lost, just ask the guards."

"Roger that. Thanks for the help."

"Yeah, take care."

With that, I led Logan and the others into the town.

"...A tamer leading that many tamed beasts on an urgent errand in place of Magistrate Nise... I hope nothing bad is happening."

The gate captain was struck by a bad premonition.

"Now that we’re in town... should we head straight to Count Coluna, or gather some information about the town first...?"

"Yabe, what’s wrong?"

While still riding on Logan, I had stopped in the middle of the main street right after entering the town, lost in thought, when Irina called out to me.

"Ah, I was wondering whether it’s better to go straight to Count Coluna or gather some town information first."

"I see. Since it’s a big town, why don’t we gather information while heading there?"

"Ohh! That’s a surprisingly solid answer from Airhead Irina!"

"WHAT DID YOU SAY?!"

"Nothing at all~"

And so we slowly rode Logan down the main street.

Even so, it’s a considerably large town, but the energy feels pretty low. Quite a few shops are closed too.

Let’s peek into one of the open stores.

"Here ya go, welcome."

A rather listless middle-aged man greeted us.

"So this is a greengrocer. You’ve got a good variety of vegetables."

"This is actually on the low side for today. The farmer who supplies us caught a cold and is bedridden. Deliveries have been bad for the last two or three days."

"A cold, huh... By the way, you don’t look too well yourself, old man?"

"Yeah... I might be coming down with something too, or maybe I’m just worn out. My body feels kinda heavy..."

Wait, no way... right?

"If you’re feeling bad, you should see a doctor."

"A doctor? What’s that?"

"Eh?!"

Doctor doesn’t translate?! Oh crap—! ...Well, maybe not that bad. It’s just a conversation with a greengrocer.

"What do you usually do when you feel unwell?"

"If you offer some money at the church, they’ll cast on you. It restores your stamina. They can heal injuries too. When you don’t have money, there’s the town pharmacy or treatment clinics, but you can’t really rely on those..."

"So there are treatment clinics? Why can’t you rely on them?"

"Because the people who go there are the ones who can’t afford the offering for at the church... They’ll boil some medicinal herbs for you and it helps a little, but you can’t expect any dramatic recovery..."

Yeah, that makes sense. With my modern medicine mindset, I can’t really believe in instant dramatic recoveries anyway...

But here it is—the classic light novel template! at the church. I don’t know the going rate, but it’s either a corrupt priest squeezing people for profit or a beautiful sister working for peanuts and spamming . (This is Yabe’s personal opinion.)

Since I can’t use magic at all (though I freely control spirit magic, I don’t recognize it as my own power since I’m borrowing from the spirits), is something I really admire. Though if they told me to believe in God, I’d refuse 100%.

So learning recovery magic is basically impossible for me. I’d love for Irina to learn it if possible.

I glanced sideways at her.

...Probably not happening. 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

Squeeze squeeze squeeze!

"Whaa—?!"

Irina, your hand is changing shape again!

By the way, even though I’m riding Logan, Irina is currently sitting sideways in front of me. And her right arm is wrapped around my waist(?). This is the famous "princess carrying while riding together" position!? ...But it’s Irina, so yeah.

『Piyo—! (Boss! There’s a big crowd of people in the alley to the left!)』

"Oh, really? Let’s go check it out."

Following the chick’s guidance, I headed into the back alley.

In a corner of the back alley, a line of people had formed in front of a small stone building.

"What’s this?"

Looking closer, there was a sign that read "Bonteak Clinic."

When I tried to peek inside, someone complained, "Hey, get in line!"

"Ah, I’m not a patient. I just want to hear what’s going on."

I said that and went inside.

Then—

"Aaah! What am I supposed to do?! Everyone’s coming in with the same symptoms, saying they feel terrible. This looks like that... but it can’t be... Aah, I’m already out of medicinal herbs!"

"I’ve got some."

I took out some basic medicinal herbs from my subspace compressed storage and handed them over. There are many kinds of herbs, but these were harvested near the Fountain of Miracles. They’re relatively common, but because I sprinkled water from the fountain on them, they’re extremely effective.

"Ohh, thank you! I’ll prepare more medicine right away... Ah, I’m also out of water. I need to fetch some from the well out back!"

"I’ve got that too."

I gently extended a tentacle to the nearby kettle and poured water into it. Of course, it was Fountain of Miracles water. Extremely effective.

"Amazing! That helps a lot. I’ll get to work right away."

He quickly made a drinkable medicine from the herbs and water, then gave a sip to each patient in line.

After more than thirty minutes of clearing the line, the man was completely exhausted.

"That was rough."

"Yeah, it really was... Wait, who are you?"

He finally noticed and gave a carefree reply.

"I came because I had some questions. I’m Yabe. This is Irina. The Wolf Fangs outside are my tamed beasts."

"I’m Bonteak. I’m the director of this clinic... though I’m the only one here. So, what did you want to ask?"

"Since when have there been so many people feeling unwell?"

"Hmm... it increased sharply over the last few days. There were some people complaining of feeling sluggish or having a fever—like cold symptoms—before that, but..."

"Earlier you said the symptoms were like ’that’. What’s ’that’?"

"Well... you might not believe me, but I think it resembles poisoning symptoms from Poison Water Drake venom."

"Poison Water Drake venom?!"

"W-Whoa!"

Bonteak nearly fell out of his chair. He had the look of a slender, gentle young man.

"Yeah, the symptoms of most patients who came today match poisoning from Poison Water Drake venom. It looks like a cold at first, but as it gets worse, dark circles under the eyes and trembling hands appear."

"By the way, I heard you can receive at the church if you pay. Do you think it would help with these symptoms?"

I asked something that had been bothering me.

"I don’t think alone would be enough. It might restore some stamina, but it won’t remove the cause—the poison."

"Is there a detox potion or magic for poison?"

"There’s the spell , but its effectiveness is low if you don’t know where the poison has accumulated. And with Poison Water Drake venom, we don’t know where the poison builds up. So sometimes randomly casting works, but there are no records of this particular venom ever being cured with magic."

"What about antidote potions?"

"Squeezing the juice from Carnolesse fruit is known as a specific remedy, but it’s a rare fruit and usually impossible to get. Powder made from dried fruit also works, but the fresh juice is faster-acting."

"Is there any other way to detoxify it?"

"If you had the actual poison, you could probably make an antidote that neutralizes it... but as I said earlier, Poison Water Drake venom itself is extremely rare..."

"I’ve got some."

I pulled out a bottle of poison I had taken from some criminals from my subspace storage.

"No way! You have it?! How?!"

"Well, various reasons. This poison is useless to me, but you can use it to save people, right? Then take it. I’ll leave the antidote production to you."

"Understood! I’ll try to make it somehow!"

Bonteak smiled brightly as he gripped the bottle of poison.

"Ah, if you run out, I’ve got plenty more."

"Why?!"

I left the clinic without answering.

Poison Water Drake venom causing poisoning symptoms... It has a high lethality rate, with a lethal dose of just 3 grams. Using such a tiny amount of a highly lethal poison and administering it over several days...

"Ah!"

I dashed back to the clinic.

"Bonteak!"

"Wah! You startled me. What is it, Yabe-san? Is something wrong?"

Bonteak, who had been facing his desk, turned around and asked about my sudden return visit.

"Are you feeling unwell?!"

"Me? No, I’m fine..."

"Where do you get your water from?"

"My water...? There’s a well behind my own clinic, so I use that."

"Is it a private well on your own property, just for you?"

"Yes, that’s right... Wait, you don’t mean—!"

"It’s highly possible. But for now, don’t tell the townspeople yet. I’ll let you know when I find something out. Just focus on making the antidote!"

With that, I rushed out of the clinic again.

"Who on earth is that man...?"

Bonteak’s mutter didn’t reach my ears.