PTMH 08

Chapter 08

When I stepped out onto the street in my new clothes, everyone was talking about my brother’s poisonous mushroom incident.
But no one said a word about finding an antidote. It seemed like everyone was just happy that Felix was occasionally getting a grip on reality.

Before heading to the general store, I stopped by the village hall to pay this month’s taxes.

“Ahem, hm.”
Axel glared at me with obvious displeasure as I calculated the tax.

Axel’s friends, who had been hit by Baron’s stone yesterday, stood beside him with swollen foreheads.
All three of them looked equally surly. Their crumpled faces were quite the sight.

“Thirty silver coins for both your share and mine, right?”
“…Yes.”

I handed over the money with a calm expression, pretending I knew nothing about last night’s events.
If this money had been taken by them and I couldn’t pay the tax, I didn’t even want to imagine what would have happened.
Thinking about it made a chill run down my spine.

Axel stared at me until I turned my back, then, as soon as he grabbed the door handle, he called me back.

“Miss Hazel.”
“…Yes?”

Why are you calling me so menacingly?
I nervously turned my head, but Axel’s face, when I looked at him again, seemed much gentler than before—almost a little deflated.

He hesitated for a moment, then let out a rough sigh.
“No, go ahead.”
“Y-yes.”

I didn’t waver. Thud, thud.

“Think carefully about that proposal.”
“…Y-yes.”

Before Axel could grab me, I quickly squeezed through the door crack. The silver coins in my skirt jingled as they bumped against my thigh.

There are days when I have money left even after paying taxes. The world looked beautiful today.

When I arrived at the store, my brother was sitting quietly at the counter, reading a newspaper.
It was real. I’d seen him cover the paper and sleep, but I had never seen him read it. The effect of the poisonous mushroom exceeded my expectations.

I rubbed my eyes, unable to believe the sight.
He greeted me with a clear voice, completely sober, without a trace of alcohol.

“Hazel, you’re here?”
“Brother… what are you doing?”
“Can’t you tell? I’m reading the newspaper.”
“You can read?”
“……?”
“……”

Felix glared at me with his usual intense eyes. But it wasn’t scary at all.

“You tend to underestimate your one and only brother’s intelligence. My intelligence isn’t all that different from yours, you know.”

“Brother, why are you talking so well today?”
He let out a deflated laugh. I was the one surprised, but he seemed even more flustered.

“Hey, I was smart back in school. I was first in our year.”
“There were only two of you in the same year anyway.”
“Still, first is first.”

He rambled as if showing off, then buried his face back in the newspaper, even making notes with a pen.

“Anything interesting in there?”
“The usual stuff.”

His answer, as if he read the newspaper daily, felt a bit unsettling. And although he had taken the mushroom, his speech was too coherent, and his eyes were too clear to seem hallucinating.

I moved closer to observe his condition.
Perhaps thinking I was curious about the news, he started reciting things without being asked.

“The first prince has retaken the capital. The fourth prince is on the run.”
“…I see.”

I couldn’t hide my disinterest. After all, the civil war in the Abraksia Empire had been following a similar pattern for fifteen years.

Fifteen years ago, the emperor of the Abraksia Empire died without naming a successor.
The problem was that he had thirteen sons from three empresses.
A week after the emperor’s death, only three of the thirteen princes survived: the first, fourth, and thirteenth.

The thirteenth prince wasn’t found, but he was practically dead. His whereabouts had been a mystery for fifteen years.

The first and fourth princes’ forces were so evenly matched that the empire was effectively split in half.
So the civil war showed no signs of ending.

But no matter how severe the war became, Luden Village was always peaceful.
Being at the empire’s far western edge, deep in the mountains near the monster territories, the village had ironically become the calmest place.

“Any other news?”
“Just that the territory of the dark magic rebels has shifted a bit?”

The prolonging civil war, along with dark magic rebels making life harsher for the empire’s citizens, kept the villagers in a constant state of tension.

As I read the articles with a heavy heart, my brother muttered casually:
“Fight hard. Anyway, the emperor is the thirteenth prince.”

…?
What does that even mean?

“Brother, what did you say?”
“Nothing.”
“But you mentioned the thirteenth prince.”
“You must have misheard.”
“….”

Impossible. Was this nonsense a side effect of the mushroom?

“By the way, what happened to the window? When did it break?”

Felix smoothly changed the topic with his usual slick tongue.
I, embarrassed, rolled my eyes and scrambled for an excuse.

“I-I broke it while cleaning.”

“Hazel, if you lie, it’ll be obvious…”

“Wow, you did all this alone?”

I ignored him and checked the newly stocked bottles of purified water on the counter.
One, two, three, four… fifty bottles.

It was truly beyond my expectations.
Having arrived early, my brother had carefully divided the purified water and labeled each bottle.
It must have taken at least three hours to do this alone. I couldn’t help but admire the unexpected achievement. The effects of the poisonous mushroom were amazing in every way.

My brother grinned at my praise. His unnecessarily sharp nose seemed to rise even higher.

“I’ve always been smart and handy.”
“And you’ve only used that talent for drinking until now?”
“A talent is most beautiful when wasted.”

After speaking this nonsense so confidently, he quietly rose from his seat.
Sensing something ominous, I narrowed my eyes.

“Are you going to waste your talent now?”
“On the contrary.”
“…What?”
“Hazel, just wait a bit. I’ll make you rich.”

Felix’s confident smile was creepily ominous.
For the record, I don’t particularly want to be rich.
My dream is just to build a decent two-story house in the center of the village.
Of course, to achieve that modest dream, I’d need to sell about thirty thousand bottles of purified water.

I looked at my brother’s suspiciously confident face and pleaded sincerely:
“Brother, you don’t have to earn money. Just don’t cause trouble.”
“No, Hazel. Just trust me.”
“….”

How am I supposed to trust him?
Ignoring my worried gaze, Felix left the store like the wind.

“I’ll be back!”
“Mm…”

I nervously watched where he disappeared and absentmindedly picked up the newspaper.
A note in red pen caught my eye:

“Within a week ~~~ will arrive in the west.”

“…?”
What’s this?
A week? West?
What does ~~~ even say? His handwriting is impossible to read.

I pondered the cryptic note, then remembered that he had eaten the poisonous mushroom and closed the newspaper.

“Brother’s always been impossible to understand. Better not waste my energy on strange things.”

Turning my head, I saw the neatly arranged bottles of purified water.
The counter was spotless, and the wooden floor gleamed as if waxed.
It seemed that Felix had cleaned up while under the mushroom’s influence.

“Not bad… actually.”

A small smile slowly appeared on my lips.

Thanks to my brother, today had been a surprisingly pleasant day.