96. Malnutrition

After finishing our conversation, we decided to focus on solving the “divine curse” first.

“People aren’t collapsing without reason. It’s malnutrition and anemia. Not some mysterious disease, but anemia.”

The lusterless hair, white lines on fingernails, and pale eyelids all indicated severe iron deficiency.

How could anyone get sufficient nutrition in a place where fertilized eggs were considered the finest delicacy?

Feeling weak when standing up, collapsing frequently. Though not a special disease, some people never got up again. With weakened immunity, they caught all sorts of minor illnesses.

And not knowing the cause, they couldn’t prescribe proper treatment.

The environment wasn’t healthy enough for childbearing, so the birth rate must have dropped too. Women of childbearing age couldn’t get pregnant without knowing why, which was probably also blamed on “the mountain tribe’s god being angry at them.”

From a modern person’s perspective who had abundant food, it’s terrifying how dangerous poor nutrition can be.

The problem could be solved by going down from the mountain and eating well, but as it was a nutritional deficiency, providing the necessary nutrients would only be a temporary solution.

“I don’t know about other issues, but anemia can be treated with iron supplements.”

The soil here is full of iron oxide, but I couldn’t just make children eat dirt.

Inkheart helped the collapsed people recover naturally by sharing his spirit power, but he knew nothing about nutrition. So he didn’t understand my explanation.

“Anemia? Why anemia when no one has lost a lot of blood?”

A sudden thought struck me, and instead of explaining, I snapped my fingers.

“A Spirit King can shave metal, right?”

The majestic Great Spirit King’s wind was reduced to a magic wand in an instant.

I packaged tiny fingernail-sized amounts of extremely fine iron powder that Sylphid made on pieces of paper. The particles were so fine that humans couldn’t handle them, so Sylphid even did the packaging.

Ignoring Sylphid’s complaints about the audacity of assigning menial tasks to a Spirit King, I called the children who had collapsed before and distributed iron supplements.

“Normally these should be in capsule pills, but we can’t expect such luxury here.”

Capsule pills wouldn’t be available even if we went to Castle Inkheart a thousand years later.

“Here, since it’s hard to eat as is, swallow this bean-sized package with the paper. Hmm, one per day?”

“What is this?”

“Iron pow—… medicine that prevents collapsing. If you take it consistently, you’ll get better.”

Inkheart helped distribute iron supplements to the children but couldn’t feel at ease.

“Will this really work?”

“If they benefit from taking iron supplements, it will be easier for them to accept that they got sick from not eating meat. Then they’ll understand that land where animals can’t live is also difficult for humans to live on.”

If this doesn’t work, then I’ll have to rely on Arshama.

I thought of Arshama, who unlike us, wasn’t distributing medicine but had shut himself in his room.

Meanwhile, the children who received the medicine happily returned home.

“Mom, this is medicine from the spirit mage! He said if we take one every day, it can prevent the divine curse!”

Tikal, Koroso’s friend, excitedly distributed iron supplements to his family.

“I’ve heard about the spirit mage at the village entrance who cares for people. Since it’s given by a spirit mage beloved by nature, it must be effective.”

Tikal’s mother accepted the medicine, thinking anything would help. But Tikal’s father was different. He firmly believed in the mountain tribe’s faith.

“Sniff, sniff, this so-called medicine smells strange?”

“Ah! The spirit mage’s friend said not to open the paper and just eat it as is! Dad, leave it alone!”

Tikal’s father ignored his son’s plea and opened the medicine. The black powder that was supposed to be medicine looked very suspicious to him.

“What is this!”

* * *

Heavy snow was falling in the northern mountains.

The avalanche that swept away Anette and the foreign prince who suddenly jumped in had stopped, but there was no progress in the search.

It’s already the third day. The Inkheart army was in chaos after losing their Grand Duchess.

“What about Count Alexei’s side?”

“His life or death is not our concern, but we couldn’t find any trace of him either.”

“Your Highness, it would be good if you could get even a little rest. You haven’t eaten or slept properly for three days now……”

The knight’s well-intentioned advice couldn’t continue as it met Darius’s glare that looked like it could kill.

“My wife is not before my eyes.”

That was enough reason for him not to eat, not to sleep, and to search for Anette who had disappeared into the snow.

How many times has this happened now?

Why did he lose Anette again?

How many times had Anette disappeared from his grasp, leaving him behind?

Without even a chance to hold her.

He had decided to follow whenever Anette went ahead.

Darius took out a mirror split in half from his chest. A special mirror where one piece was with Anette and one with Darius, allowing them to see each other when they looked into it.

Something he had packed in Anette’s belongings hoping she would recognize it.

But since Anette disappeared into the snow, no matter how much he looked, the mirror reflected nothing.

If she knew she had the mirror, she would have shown her face at least once.

“Haven’t you found it yet? The mirror I hid?”

Or.

Perhaps she never intended to look into it in the first place.

Should he just break it? To not have such a hateful hope.

Darius raised the mirror high. His arm, which was about to throw it forcefully, ultimately fell powerless without doing anything.

“How could I give up my expectations of you?”

No matter how many times he cautioned her, Anette always went ahead of him. But in the end, she always returned with an awkward smile, saying she was too busy and in a hurry.

So.

It would be the same this time.

When this wretched snow stopped, Anette would return to his side with a smile as if nothing had happened. Not understanding how he felt.

* * *

Clack. Something fell from my pocket as I walked hurriedly.

“Anette, you dropped this.”

Koroso, who had somehow gotten closer, quickly picked up the item and handed it to me. The first Inkheart had settled in one part of the mountain tribe’s village and was caring for the tribe’s sick.

“Thank you, it’s precious. I would have been in trouble if I lost it.”

“It’s the mirror you look into whenever you get a chance, right? Why do you look into the mirror?”

“Because I miss someone.”

A mirror shared with Darius, split in half. I didn’t even know I had it. I found it while unpacking here.

How happy I was when I first discovered it. But my hope that ‘maybe I could contact Darius with this’ was immediately dashed.

No matter how much communication capability the mirror had, it seemed impossible to connect to someone across a thousand years.

“If you miss someone, why look at a mirror? It only reflects your own face.”

“This mirror is special, sometimes it shows the face of the person you want to see. If your heart is truly desperate.”

Hearing my explanation, Koroso quickly looked into the mirror with curiosity.

“What? I still only see my face.”

“……Maybe our longing isn’t strong enough. Both yours and mine.”

Sigh, I sat down unconsciously while looking at the mirror that only showed my face.

I missed him.

Even though having a face next to me that looked exactly like him from a thousand years ago gave my heart some comfort, it wasn’t the same as the real thing.

What are you doing right now?

* * *

Several days had passed since we distributed iron supplements to the villagers.

“After taking the medicine the spirit mage gave me, I really feel more energetic than usual. The dizziness when I get up is less too.”

“If you can get it, eat meat instead of this medicine. If you continue not eating meat, no medicine will be effective.”

“Alas, is it easy to see meat these days? It’s hard to find even a lizard.”

However, while some people were happy about the effects, others were anxious and protested.

“How dare they distribute this as medicine!”

“Everyone, you shouldn’t eat the suspicious medicine these people are distributing!”

“Oh my, what are you doing to the spirit mage who has been caring for us!”

“Do you know what’s in the medicine given by this so-called spirit mage beloved by nature? Look at this, everyone!”

“It’s just iron powder!”

“Iron, iron powder? That can’t be!”

The temple said that the “divine curse” was evidence that the mountain tribe was being punished for wrongdoing against their god.

The shaman frightened the mountain tribe, saying that if they didn’t atone quickly, more people would collapse from this mysterious disease.

But when Inkheart explained that he had discovered the cause of the disease and that it was a treatable illness, not a curse, the believers became upset.

What then was everything they had believed and explained to others until now?

The pro-temple faction gathered in front of Inkheart’s temporary residence, protesting and throwing stones.

When the temporary residence that Koroso had cleaned with his small hands became dirty, he was greatly distressed and blocked the people.

“What are you doing! Why are you throwing stones here!”

“Get out of the way, you nuisance! Annoying little kid!”

“An orphan like you has no business interfering in adult matters! What would you know!”

“How would a foreigner know whether our tribe should hold a sacrifice or not?”

“Inkheart is a foreigner, right? He’s just jealous that the mountain tribe is receiving the god’s love and doing well by offering sacrifices!”

“If we keep this spirit mage here, the god will surely become more angry!”

“Inkheart even diverted the temple’s sacrifice! It was a sacrifice that our god gave us to offer!”

‘So it ends up like this after all.’

“Koroso, go inside.”