Chapter 06…

 In Order to Survive

“…Excuse me. Do you need medicine? Do you need medicine?”

From one end of the small Ako Village to the other, Kuna kept walking around again and again.

In her hands was a basket. Inside were twenty potions with yellow caps.
The basket was heavy for the slender arms of the girl, but Kuna carried it carefully, approaching villagers whenever she spotted them.

“Excuse me. Do you need medicine?”

After her grandmother passed away, the pharmacy came to be run only by Dorf and Kuna.
Dorf ordered Kuna to produce potions for sale. So she had no time to grieve.
Kuna had never sold the potions she made before, but her grandmother Madeli had always praised them highly, so she did not panic at Dorf’s instructions.

However—reality was harsh.

“I heard Dorf’s potion healed his master’s injury instantly.”
“Isn’t it on par with Madeli’s potions?”
“As expected of Dorf. He really took over the pharmacy well.”

Dorf’s blue-capped potions sold like crazy.

But—

“What is that? It’s just disgusting and has no effect at all.”
“There’s no way I’d pay for something like that. Take it off the shelves.”
“His senior apprentice is so talented, so why can’t Kuna even make proper potions?”

Kuna’s yellow-capped potions received nothing but terrible reviews from customers.

That can’t be true. Kuna insisted to Dorf that she made them correctly following the proper procedure.
She had even tasted them after mixing. She had not put defective products on sale.

But the bad reputation quickly spread throughout the small village, and yellow-capped potions stopped selling entirely.
Concerned about this situation, Dorf coldly told Kuna:

“Don’t come back until you’ve sold every last potion you made.”

…So Kuna walked the village holding her basket, desperately trying to get someone to buy them.
Not only along the main road, but also housewives by wells and tree shade, farmers working the fields, and children playing in the square—she called out to anyone and everyone.

“These are freshly made potions this morning. Please, I beg you, please buy them.”

But no matter how desperately she tried to sell them, no one even looked at her.

Worse, every time Kuna spoke, laughter echoed from somewhere.
Her stomach growled loudly. Red-faced, Kuna quickly pressed her stomach, but since she had eaten nothing since yesterday, it kept growling.
More laughter followed. Among them was Sharyleen, dressed neatly as always.
Embarrassed and miserable, Kuna’s thin body trembled slightly.

Then a housewife who lived next door passed by.
She had probably stopped by the only butcher shop in the village. In her plump hand was a wallet not yet put away in her bag.

Kuna rushed toward her like she was throwing herself at her.

“Please, please buy a potion. I beg you.”
“…Well, I suppose I have no choice. How much is it?”

Kuna’s face lit up instantly.

“Th-three hundred Neka!”

At last, she might sell her first bottle.

“Huh? Isn’t that a scam?”
“…Eh?”

Kuna’s hopeful expression froze instantly.

“Why is it priced the same as Dorf’s blue-capped potion? At most it’s worth one hundred Neka. If I’m going to accept a failed potion made by an abandoned child, I feel like I should be the one getting paid.”

At those words filled with contempt, Kuna’s vision darkened.

Madeli had once told her clearly before falling ill.
That Kuna’s potions were good enough to be sold in any pharmacy.
How happy she had been to be acknowledged by her strict grandmother.

—But now, alone, she no longer knew what was right.

Tears flowed from Kuna’s eyes.

“…I’m sorry.”

As Kuna apologized, the housewife looked annoyed, while Sharyleen watched with a mocking smile.
Cornered, head bowed, Kuna’s dry lips kept spilling words of self-degradation.

“I’m sorry for trying to sell defective potions. I’m sorry. But please buy them. Even just one—”

(…A dream)

When she opened her eyes, she met overgrown grass.
The air smelled different from the village. She was in a forest. Realizing this, she recalled her memories.

Within seconds, she remembered everything.

She had been falsely accused by Sharyleen, punished by whipping, and exiled to the “Forest of Death.”
It seemed she had lost consciousness after being thrown into the forest. She tried to sit up, but severe pain throughout her body prevented her.

Through the gap between clenched teeth, Kuna let out a heavy breath.

“…So it was eight years ago.”

Even now, she was still haunted enough to dream about it.
Days of clinging to unsold potions and crying endlessly.

Even in scorching summers and freezing winters, Dorf would send Kuna outside and order her not to return.

As those days repeated endlessly, Kuna’s emotions slowly faded.
She lost her smile first, then her tears dried up, and the internal mechanism controlling her emotions rusted away.
Since Kuna had always been rather expressionless, Dorf only insulted her for lacking charm and cuteness.

(Ah… am I going to die?)

A vague thought drifted through her mind.
If she stayed like this, she would surely die. Starvation, beasts, infected wounds worsening—without even needing Sharyleen’s poison, Kuna would lose her life.

She thought it didn’t matter.
Her entire body ached terribly, and her head was heavy with fever.
Now that she had been exiled from Ako Village, she had nowhere to go.

Then, suddenly, Kuna noticed a color.

A perennial plant with small orange flowers blooming abundantly, surrounding her fallen body as if enclosing her.

At that moment, she thought she heard a voice.

Madeli, her lifesaving mentor.

“If you want to live, take this hand. If you want to die, just keep rolling there forever.”

Madeli, a pharmacist but with a rough and bold personality.
She had been a little frightening, but she never hesitated to take Kuna’s timidly extended hand.

“You’re Kuna from today. You were found lying among the flowers of Kuna.”

When Kuna looked confused, the wrinkled old woman grinned and explained.

“This orange flower is called Kuna. Not very pretty, you say? How rude. I like this stubborn flower the most—”

“…I won’t die.”

Before she realized it, Kuna had spoken.

“I won’t die in a place like this.”

Repeating it like an oath, Kuna focused on the plants before her.

Her vision, slowly adjusting to the darkness.

Whenever she found useful medicinal herbs, she shoved them into her mouth.

She chewed thoroughly. Bitter—she almost spat it out. The taste hadn’t changed no matter how many times she had eaten it before.
If only she had a pot to cook them in. Thinking so, she covered her mouth with a cut-up hand and swallowed desperately.
Even if it was covered in beast urine—it didn’t matter anymore.

Only one thing mattered: she would not die here.

“Live, live, live!”

Before she knew it, tears were running down her cheeks.
It seemed she had recovered enough strength to cry again. Proud of her own persistence, Kuna wiped her eyes forcefully.

But then—

“…Grrrrowl.”

A beast’s growl echoed.

When she looked up, dozens of red eyes were approaching.
Drooling magical beasts surrounded Kuna.

Ordinary village girls would have screamed or frozen in fear. Or perhaps they would have run away in panic.

But Kuna did not lose her composure. She snorted.

“So you beasts… were drawn by the smell of my blood?”

The encirclement tightened slowly, like hunters closing in on prey.
At the center, Kuna slowly stood up and smiled fearlessly.

However—Sharyleen and Dorf, who had exiled her, did not know this.

Kuna had been taken in by Madeli at around the age of five.

—And the place where she had been found… was the “Forest of Death.”