Should we go talk to Lovren Right away? Well, I think it was better for us to go back to Weena Rhyn first and report about Rhyn’s stall. I was sure she had calmed down by now.
But before we left, I remembered that there was something I wanted to ask Grandma Jill.
「Hey, does the scarlet waterweed medicine have any effect on the surroundings?」
「What do you mean?」
「Yesterday――」
She explained that when she saved a boat from the Modoki attack, she felt some discomfort with her Water Magic and that the cause may have been the spilled Scarlet Waterweed potion or the Modoki’s dissolved body.
Then Grandma Jill nodded her head in agreement.
「I see… If it’s someone in your class, they might be able to feel it. Perhaps that’s the effect of the Scarlet Waterweed potion」
「Is that so?」
「You can use the Space-Time Magic, can’t you?」
「Nn」
「Then it’s no wonder that you’re so sensitive」
Then Grandma Jill explained to her.
「The water in this lake has a slight amount of magic power in it」
「Magic power?」
「Yeah. It’s a magic power similar to Space-Time magic?」
「Hmm, but why?」
「Well, we don’t know much about that either. All I can say is that it’s been that way for hundreds of years」
People living around here seemed to live their lives thinking that was the way it was, and don’t question it much.
「Of course, it’s so slight that you wouldn’t normally be able to feel it at all. Even you can’t detect it either, right?」
「Nn」
Indeed, if it hadn’t been for the Scarlet Waterweed potion, we wouldn’t have noticed it either. It seems to be a very small amount of magic power.
However, it wasn’t completely unaffecting the surroundings. It has become an endemic disease that has taken root in this country.
Apparently, it is not caused by pathogens, but by continuous consumption of the water from Vivian Lake, which is their water source, since birth.
In fact, the disease is not endemic in areas of the country that get their water from other sources.
The process is simple. If they keep drinking the water from the lake, they will accumulate Space-Time Magic power in their body.
As a result, the magic power of the water made them feel slightly hasted. In other words, the water in the lake acted as a very weak Haste potion.
However, since the effect was really slight, no one noticed it. Because no one noticed it, the person’s senses and the body’s reaction to it keep deviating from each other, causing fatigue to build up and making the person even more intoxicated. This was the true nature of the endemic disease.
The reason why adults rarely develop the disease is that once they do, their bodies will get used to it and it becomes less of a problem. Many of them might even adapt without developing the disease at all.
Also, no matter how severe, no one died from the endemic disease alone. It must feel like terrible car sickness.
Besides, it can be cured quickly by ingesting a special medicine. Therefore, the people of this country did not consider this endemic disease to be that important.
It was like measles, which you may get only once in your life and was not deadly. Of course, some die from complications due to other illnesses or from accidents caused by poor health, but that was no different from the common cold.
「And the cure is also imbued with Time-space Magic-type magic power」
Scarlet Waterweed, which grew only in the Vivian Lake ecosystem, was tolerant of that water.
Simply put, the stems had the effect of repelling and disrupting Space-Time Magic, which protected itself from the waters of the lake.
And inside, it seemed to have the power to accumulate and control the magic power contained in the water it absorbs from its roots.
By extracting those effects from the scarlet waterweed, a cure for the endemic disease could be created.
When they took the medicine, the Haste effect on their body was further enhanced. As a result, the brain would be aware of any sensory discrepancies and adjust to them immediately.
The human body was an amazing thing, it seemed that once it understood the feeling, it would never get sick again.
「According to a guy who had an aptitude for Space-time magic, it’s only 1/100th as effective as Haste, even after they have taken the potion and are enhanced」
But to Fran, who was used to using Haste regularly, it must have felt like a big discrepancy.
Moreover, if the water itself was filled with magic power, it was even more difficult to act as usual.
However, some questions remained.
From what we just heard; an endemic disease was not the kind of thing that can be transmitted. So how was it possible that an epidemic like this year’s could happen?
It was inevitable that there would be a certain number of cases every year, but I didn’t understand why there would be a sudden epidemic.
When Fran asked that, Grandma Jill gave a few reasons.
「It’s caused by various things. First, the number of children born. Do you know how some years, after a war or something, there are more children born than any other year?」
In addition to that, the number of patients could also increase after a few years of accepting immigration from foreign countries. After all, if there was an increase in the number of people who were not resistant to the disease all at once, it could be a trigger.
「It also depends on the climate. In years when it’s a little warmer and there’s a lot of fog, the amount of water that gets into the body increases. That’s sure will increase the number of patients」
「I see」
「Other reasons include the popularity of new types of crops that use a lot of water and the development of new methods of making sake. Aah, there was even a time when the popularity of water-soluble incense led to an increase in the number of patients」
Since water was an inseparable part of human life, trivial reasons could lead to an increase or decrease in the number of endemic patients.
「So what’s the reason for the increase in patients this year?」
「I don’t know why it’s so widespread this year. Maybe you could ask Weena Rhyn-sama about that」
So, it was not under the jurisdiction of the Adventurer’s Guild? Certainly, the reason for the epidemic disease was the responsibility of the government and research institutions.
We were going back to Weena Rhyn after this anyway, so let’s ask her then.
