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 blood-shot. 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.
“What, what happened, Enfi?”
“You’ve got to hear this! We finally managed to perfect the procedure for brewing a new type of potion. This is going to change the world! Even though all we did was to mix the herbs that we gathered into the solution, we managed to produce a purple potion!”
The only reply he received was a “Hah?”
Enri had no idea how this was amazing. Was the potion purple because they infused purple cabbage into it?
“And it can cure wounds! The healing speed’s on par with alchemically-refined potions!”
Enri raised his hands, showing off his delicate, slender arms that were unmarred by injury. Enri thought, “I have bigger biceps than he does”, but Nfirea didn’t stop there.
“Which is to say!”
“Yes, yes, that’s wonderful, tell us about it later.”
Kaijali spoke as he took a step forward.
“Ani-san here looks like he’s been sleeping too little and partying too hard. Maybe he’s high or something? Ane-san, let me take care of this. Why don’t you go back first?”
“Will it be all right?”
“Sure it will. I’ll splash some cold water on his face and when he calms down, I’ll bring him over. If you take too long, others will get worried. Say, what about Obaa-chan?”
“Obaa-chan’s still got her head buried in her research… I don’t think she’ll be coming for breakfast. I’m sorry, you went through all this trouble to prepare breakfast for us…”
“Ah, don’t worry about it. I was thinking that Lizzie-sama would probably be doing that.”
Situations like these had come up quite a few times already, so that wasn’t a surprise.
“Then, Ane-san, you should head back first.”
With that said, there was nothing to do but leave.
“Then, I’ll leave him to you.”
As he watched Enri leave, Kaijali turned a cold stare on Nfirea.
“Do you know what you just did? The only time a girl listens to a man talking about what he likes is if she likes the person. If she doesn’t like that person, then that blabbering’s only going to turn her off!”
“…I’m sorry, I just thought that since we made that amazing discovery… but it was really amazing! Revolutionary, even!”
Kaijali interrupted the motor-mouthed rant with a chopping motion. Clearly, Nfirea had not gotten the message he was trying to convey.
“Look, Ani-san. Are you alright with this? You’re in love with Ane-san, aren’t you?”
Nfirea replied with an “Mm,” and nodded his head vigorously.
“Then you have to make her the most important person in your heart. More important than your potions.”
“…I get it. I’ll try.”
“Do, or do not. There is no try. You need to win her heart. Me and the rest of the lads will do our best to support you. Plus, it’s not just us, even imouto-san agreed to help you out. I hope you get yourself together and do your part, Ani-san.”
“Mmm…”
“If you’re just waiting for her to say “I like you” first, then more likely than not, someone else is going to snatch her away! You’ve got to work up the courage to tell her how you really feel.”
That line pierced Nfirea’s heart like a dagger between the ribs.
“Still, despite everything I said, looks like you’ve been doing pretty well on that front yourself, Ani-san. Used to be you couldn’t even say a word in front of her. Now you can carry on a normal conversation, right?”
“That was because I didn’t have much chance to talk with Enri unless I came around to gather herbs… Now that I’ve moved into the village, I’m around her a lot more.”
“That’s it, that’s the spirit. All that’s left is to gather your courage and step up to the plate. Maybe you should show off your strength first. According to the villagers, strong men are still the most popular. Well, for the forty-nine year old women in the village, anyways.”