Way of Life
"You over there, bring me some water. Plenty of it."
"Y-yes!"
"You start a fire and boil the water he brought."
"Yes!"
"Thule"
"What is it?"
"Is that the only knife you had?"
"I only made one."
"Then there are a lot of blade parts, right?"
"Yeah…"
"Bring everything, and bring as much cloth as you can, even if it's just rags."
"I-I understand."
Unable to resist, I brought the man home.
Then this guy saw my brother Al's swollen leg and immediately started giving orders to my friends.
"He doesn't have cellulitis, if it's pale yellow, it's usually staphylococcus aureus... scientific oil is less likely."
He's muttering things that don't make sense
"Are you a doctor?"
"No, I'm not a doctor, I was just taught. My local doctor can cure something like this right away with magic."
"Well, magic is expensive, right?"
"I don't know about it here. When did he get his fever, or rather, his leg injury?"
"Um, I think it was about seven days ago."
"Then sepsis hasn't set in yet? No, we can't rule out the possibility because he's not well-nourished. His temperature is still high, so we'd better treat him right away."
"W-what should we do?"
"When the the others come back, everyone should hold this guy down. He'll go wild."
"Eh?"
"Hold him down, I'll cut open the wound and let all the pus out."
"Are you trying to kill him!"
"I'm going to cut him so he won't die. And bring some booze, as strong as you can get it, preferably unpasteurized."
While telling me that, he made my younger brother eat something.
"What did you feed him?"
"It's a painkiller. It's only comforting, but it's better than no painkillers. I believe I also brought a suture kit with me... and some cotton pads for disinfection, thank goodness."
―――――――――――
"He still has a fever."
Later that night, the man cut off my brother's leg and squeezed out the creepy liquid.
He poured alcohol on him, stitched up the wound, and slept in the same room as my brother.
The next morning, my brother was sleeping very calmly.
"What are you..."
"Me? I'm the Empe..."
"Empe?"
"Cough*, cough*! Hmm! I'm a humble traveler. My name is... that's right. You can call me Shiro Zeris."
"Shiro? Strange name."
"Haa! Shiro is the name of a great hero in my hometown!"
"I don't know such a hero!"
"Haaaaa! That's why you kids from the countryside! Go to the Empire! There are 25 volumes of Shiro's Heroic Tales, so buy them all and memorize them all!"
"The Empire is that empire that has been talked about lately. Are you from the Empire?"
"Hmm? Ah? Ah... ah! No... I, wrong, I don't know, I'm, just, a traveler, understand?"
"Damn it…"
"What's wrong?"
"I know you're not a bad person... um... thank you for what you did to my brother."
"Y-yeah?"
"But! It's the Empire's fault!"
"What do you mean?"
Since the Empire came, this city has become a mess.
They said it was because they needed a lot of empire-related buildings.
Many adults, including my parents, were sent out.
Apparently, they were forced to do unreasonable things and many died.
"Ha? What is that? I don't know about that, though?"
"This city... this shanty town is going to be demolished."
"Is that why there are piles of rubble around here?"
"Yeah"
"Who are the people living here?"
"I don't know, I heard everyone was kicked out of town."
"……"
"………"
The man, Shiro Zeris suggests.
"Then do you want to prepare to leave?"
"How? We're kids!"
"I'm not going to tell you that you can't do anything because you're a child. Just believe me, I'll teach you how to live a better life than you do now."
"That's a lie!"
"It's true. I've been taught this since I was 10 years old, as long as I use the name of the hero Shiro, I won't lie."
No comments:
Post a Comment