“Rion— Have you been eating well?”
Smiling as brightly as possible, I turned back to find Hyperion, who had only finished his cranberry juice and hadn’t touched the rest of his food, welcoming me.
“Yeah, this, this tastes pretty good.”
The sailors sitting around us were glancing at Hyperion. It seemed like the attention from so many people at once was making him uncomfortable, and the food wasn’t going down easily.
“Other things taste good too, but maybe not to Hyperion?”
At that moment, Nereus appeared out of nowhere, smiling brightly, as if it was hard to believe he had just been beaten by Gilbert earlier.
“Stop messing with my hair.”
…He laughed while ruffling my hair.
Like he was patting a dog’s fur, Nereus ruffled my hair roughly, then laughed and quickly whipped up a large sandwich for Hyperion.
“Our meals aren’t that great, right? They’re a bit messy.”
“Oh, no. Where I’m from, we have designated meal times and eat in small groups, so it’s nice. It looks like everyone is close.”
“Really? That must be tough for a young one.”
With Nereus’ help, Hyperion began focusing on his meal again, and I left the dining room to head towards the room where the medicine was being prepared.
‘It’s going well.’
The distillation process was working perfectly, separating the substances. Feeling satisfied as I looked at the extract from the Kacho leaf, Gilbert placed a jar and a bag down next to me.
“Here, you said you needed this?”
“Thanks.”
What Gilbert brought was honey and flour, ingredients needed to make pills. First, I mixed the leftover charcoal with the ground herbs into the thickened concoction.
After mixing it several times…
“……….”
“…Shall I do it?”
“Yes.”
Gilbert swiftly began mixing the ingredients with the expertise of someone who had whipped meringue countless times. Thanks to his skill, air flowed smoothly into the mixture, making the herbs even thicker and more elastic.
Once the right amount of flour and honey was added and mixed again, the mixture turned into a dough. I broke off small portions, smaller than a fingernail, and rolled them into balls. Lastly, I coated them with powder and left them to dry.
“But didn’t you say these take a while to dry?”
“Yes, if we put them in a low-heat oven powered by magic circuits, they’d dry faster, but if we dry them naturally, it will take longer.”
‘We don’t have a magic dryer.’
If we had one, we wouldn’t need the oven, and it would dry them just the way we wanted… but it seemed like Ethan hadn’t requested such an expensive piece of equipment.
It’s a shame, but we’ll have to make do with natural drying.
“Where did you learn all of this?”
“I saw it while I was on the verge of death.”
“……….”
I see… Gilbert’s unenthusiastic reply slipped out.
“So, are you going to give all of this medicine to that kid?”
“No way, this is for our family. Take it 30 minutes after meals, three times a day. After taking it for two straight days, starting on the third day, take it before bed for three days, and you’ll be completely cured.”
“So, you found this out after being sick?”
“Of course.”
It’s not a lie. After dying and waking up, I simply returned to my current age.
“The only thing I’m giving Hyperion is the formula. And I should only give him information that an 8-year-old could come up with by themselves.”
“A statement fitting for a 6-year-old.”
“So, do you dislike it?”
“Of course not. It sounds exactly like something a 6-year-old would say. There’s nothing strange about it.”
Gilbert, who was sitting next to me and rapidly rolling pills, defended me casually. Of course, his tone was nonchalant, but the content seemed incredibly biased in my favor.
As I shook the first pure extract of Kacho leaf I made, I entered the room where Ethan was and borrowed a few materials. Well, I took a little.
Ethan had gone to interrogate, no, have a conversation with the orchard keeper, so it was easy to borrow them.
Still, to avoid surprising Ethan when he returned, I left a small note in the drawer with the list of materials, quantities, and my name.
After leaving Gilbert in charge of making the pills, I started working on something else, and it seemed to pique his curiosity as he kept staring at me.
“What’s that?”
“It’s medicine for Rion. I’ll make the family’s later.”
“Polaris.”
As I proudly looked at the liquid with a delicate jade hue, Gilbert called me in a serious voice.
“Huh? Why?”
“In my opinion, that boy isn’t that great.”
“………”
“He’s too skinny and looks like a bookworm, so I don’t think he’s the right person for you.”
—Said Gilbert, the thinnest man on our ship.
“Well, he does shine like polished gold, but he’s not some treasure to be sold off, and sparkling isn’t what’s important. What really matters in a person is…”
“Character?”
“The ability to take on at least 50 people by himself. It would be nice if he could at least beat Ner.”
“…Is that even possible?”
Something felt off about this conversation. Gilbert continued.
“But he has to be head over heels for you, and he must never force anything. Anyone who tries to use force to threaten you, even a little, is absolutely out of the question.”
“………..?”
“Anyway, that’s the conclusion.”
“What is?”
“Dad thinks he’s not that great. You need at least another 10 years to evaluate him properly. Besides, Polaris, it’s too soon for you to be dating.”
“Ah, I don’t even plan to.”
Gilbert, really, truly.
He was so much like Nereus.
***
We ate well, and with Hyperion feeling better, we decided to take him to the Navy’s 13th branch. Since Nereus was too dangerous for a public appearance, Isaac, with his innocent face, acted as the guardian.
Isaac tightly held both my hand and Hyperion’s in each of his hands. I shook Isaac’s hand and hurried him along.
“Isaac’s dad, Isaac’s dad. Before we go, can we stop by the telegraph office and get a magical carrier pigeon? Dad said it was okay. Please?
“Captain did?”
“Yeah.”
The magical carrier pigeon was different from ordinary ones. Originally, there was a seventh family along with the sixth, but it had been entirely consumed by the ‘darkness,’ a threat that only came to the visionaries, leading to the family’s downfall.
The name of the family that disappeared was Opium.
Before Opium vanished, they collaborated with magical scholars to create the ‘magical carrier pigeon,’ which is now the only remaining trace of Opium in this world.
And because of that, it had an exceptional function.
When you receive the magical carrier pigeon from the messenger station, you are also given a seal for wax stamps with a newly drawn bird design. When you seal a letter or small parcel with this, it transforms into the shape of a beautiful bird and flies to its destination.
The messenger station had a downside: if you didn’t have a personal code or didn’t know the recipient’s code, you couldn’t send anything. But this wasn’t much of a problem for me.
“Rion, let’s get one for you too, okay?”
“For me? But…”
“Dad said it’s okay. I don’t have any friends on the ship. Could you do it? I think it would be nice.”
As I stared at Hyperion while asking, his face flushed red, and he nodded.
‘He’s been shy ever since he was a child, hasn’t he?’
Isaac, who was holding my hand, tightened his grip.
“Isaac dad, if you’re going to start saying nonsense, please don’t.”
“I don’t say nonsense.”
“Whatever you’re thinking right now, don’t say it.”
“Alright…”
We received our seals from the messenger station. Isaac, worried I might lose mine, put it on a long chain and hung it around my neck.
Isaac tried to turn Hyperion’s seals into a necklace as well, but I stopped him, saying that I wanted to put it on him myself.
After leaving Isaac in the hall of the messenger station, I dragged Hyperion to a secluded corner.
“Rion, take off your shoe.”
“Huh?”
“Hurry.”
As I cornered Hyperion against the wall, telling him to take off his shoe, I briefly wondered if we looked like bullies to outsiders, but that wasn’t important.
‘The boy went missing and just returned. The navy won’t ignore that and not investigate.’
Moreover, a boy like him? There’s no way he had any influence within the navy. Even though the navy supposedly didn’t care about nobility, Pharus was on a completely different level from other nobles.
In short, if Hyperion returned to the navy, there was a good chance they’d conduct a body search under the pretext of checking his health or something.
‘If the worry is exaggerated, it is good luck [because it did not happen], and if it turns out to be true, it is even better [because preparations have been made, the seals will not be discovered because it has been hidden].’
After hesitating for a moment, Hyperion finally took off his shoe.
“You only need to take off one, not both.”
I lifted the insole from inside his shoe and slipped Hyperion’s seal underneath, then pressed the insole back down to hold it in place.
“It might be a bit uncomfortable, but bear with it. Things made by Opium don’t break easily.”
Hyperion seemed to have no understanding of why I was acting this way.
“I don’t want you to lose anything—your belongings, your position, or your status in the future.”
“My things?”
“Yes, Rion. Your family doesn’t love you.”
At my words, Hyperion’s eyes flickered with a wounded look.
‘But seeing as he didn’t deny it, I guess he knew deep down.’
It’s a lie to say that a child knows nothing. He probably knew but chose to ignore it, pretending otherwise, because his environment made him feel insecure.
“But I care about you.”
“………..”
“You haven’t known me for even a day, but this can happen. Just as your family, who has spent their whole lives with you, doesn’t love you, someone you’ve only just met can care for you deeply throughout your life.”
Though we had spent several years together, all of that had disappeared now. So, if you ask me whether the Hyperion in front of me is really the same as the one I knew, it’s hard to say for certain.
Still, I couldn’t discard those past memories, so I could only accept that this Hyperion was also my friend.
…And if, along the way, I could also save the Caelum pirate crew and Nereus, that would be even better.
“You need to send a letter. I’ll do it too.”
“Okay.”
“Never lose it. I won’t lose mine either.”
“Okay, I promise.”
After getting Hyperion’s confirmation, I handed him a note.
“Memorize this.”
The note contained knowledge that would later be recognized as the treatment for the disease known as White Rot. It wasn’t a complete cure, just the beginning of what would eventually become one.
In the past, it had taken more time to discover the cure. But if I gave Hyperion a hint of the treatment now, it would help reduce the number of casualties and quickly solidify Hyperion’s standing.
“Memorize it, and when you enter the 13th branch and they ask if anything happened, tell them. Got it?”
Of course, I left out the part about the Kacho leaf from the formula. The medicine could still be made without them.
‘I’ll send that information to the medical association later.’
Why would I give away all the information for free? Knowledge that could make money was something I would keep for myself.
Anyway, just getting the magical carrier pigeon and giving the formula to Rion felt like I had crossed a major hurdle.
Even though the magical carrier pigeon could only be sent to someone if you knew their code, that wasn’t much of a problem for me.
I had already memorized all the important codes before I came back.
