The Adult-Game Heroine Gives Her Little Sister Medicine

Sunlight slanted in through the gap in the window.

Elena sat on the edge of the bed, gazing at the salt statue in her palm.

The white crystal glowed softly in the morning sunlight.

A relic of an ancient god.

It was the relic she had vowed to find someday after becoming an adventurer—the relic she wanted to secure by finding its location before the nobles searching for it.

A relic said to be impossible to find even if one devoted an entire lifetime to the search was in Elena's hands.

Mister had given it to her as a gift.

She rubbed the surface of the statue's head with her thumb.

Each time the smooth texture brushed her fingertips, it overlapped with the sensation of Mister's rough hand stroking her head.

The corners of her mouth rose on their own.

She couldn't suppress the smile that kept slipping from her lips.

Today was a day off.

"Nng~."

Mister had gone to explore the Northern Mountains himself.

He told Elena to take the day off, saying he would scout the area before the dungeon appeared.

Today was the day Doctor Roen came.

Roen visited around this time every week to examine Ellis.

Elena cooked porridge in the kitchen.

She brought the steaming porridge to Ellis and gently shook her shoulder.

She scooped up porridge with a spoon and fed it to her.

"Sister, I can eat by myself."

"Stay still."

Ellis laboriously raised her upper body and opened her mouth, and Elena carefully fed her the porridge after blowing on it to cool it.

After feeding Ellis all the porridge, she prepared the medicine.

Mind-dulling medicine.

The medicine Roen had prescribed would prevent Ellis's illness from worsening.

Ellis had been blessed with extraordinary intelligence, but her mind couldn't withstand it, and she had fallen ill.

Roen said that giving her medicine that made her mind hazy could prevent the illness from worsening.

Following Roen's instructions, Elena opened the packet containing the powdered medicine and poured it into a cup.

And one more.

Twice as much as before.

Roen had said Ellis had developed a tolerance to the medicine and told her to add another packet.

She poured another packet of powdered medicine onto the powder gathered on the surface of the water.

The powder scattered.

The powder sucked in with her breath triggered a fit of coughing from Elena.

"Cough! Cough...!"

For an instant, her head spun.

Her vision blurred, and her thoughts grew sluggish and sticky in a strange sensation.

Even a tiny amount left Elena's mind hazy and reeling.

Shaking her head to clear her mind, Elena mixed one more thing into the water.

"Mister told me to mix this in."

Bluish powder.

It was powder made by drying and grinding mana grass.

It was the mana grass that had glowed most intensely. She had been flustered when Mister told her to feed it to Ellis, but she had decided to trust and follow anything he said.

After mixing it well into the clouded water, she brought the medicine to Ellis's lips.

Gulp. Gulp.

As Ellis drank, the trickle running down her cheek and neck was wiped away with a towel before it reached her clothes.

As the water level gradually lowered, both of Ellis's hands took hold of the cup.

Ellis accepted the cup and swallowed gulp after gulp.

It was just then, as Elena was giving her the medicine and clearing away the bowl.

***

Knock, knock.

The sound of someone knocking on the door.

"Miss Elena, it's Roen."

Roen had arrived.

Men were forbidden from entering the women-only lodging, but the landlord knew about Ellis's condition and had made a special exception for Roen.

When Elena opened the door, Roen entered with a medical bag in hand.

"Did you give her the medicine?"

"Yes."

Roen sat beside Ellis's bed, checked her pulse and pupils, and nodded while checking her forehead for a fever with their fingertips.

After pausing for a moment, Roen asked,

"Her condition is stable. But you mustn't let your guard down. I can only slow the worsening, not prevent it. For your sister's sake, you can do anything, can't you?"

"Y-yes."

Elena's shoulders stiffened slightly.

"I trust you, Miss Elena. Just look at you now. Aren't you doing a wonderful job as an adventurer? You're a wonderful older sister Ellis can be proud of."

"It's all thanks to Mister."

Elena smiled shyly, unable to contain herself.

"You've grown wonderfully. I never expected word to spread that you were already comparable to a B-rank adventurer after such a short time. As expected, you were born with the fate of a carriage bearing a sacred duty."

Roen took the packet of medicine prepared earlier from the medical bag and set it beside Ellis's pillow.

"Miss Elena."

"Yes."

"You remember that I told you before what was needed to cure Ellis's illness, right?"

"Yes."

A relic sleeping in an ancient shrine.

Ellis needed its power.

"I've found the location of an ancient shrine."

Roen glanced around, eyes darting.

Roen lowered their voice after carefully checking that no one was listening.

"This information was extremely difficult to obtain, but I'm sharing it with you alone, Miss Elena. I searched for ancient documents and cross-checked the testimonies of retired priests. It took more than half a year."

Roen took a rolled-up piece of parchment from the medical bag.

"There's a high chance that an ancient shrine is located here. Go there. Given your current abilities, you should be able to overcome it."

Elena accepted the parchment.

"Find the salt statue there. If we strengthen her fragile vessel with the power of an ancient god, we can fundamentally alleviate Ellis's illness. She won't have to rely on the mind-dulling medicine anymore."

Roen's gaze was serious.

"It won't be an easy journey. A guardian protects the relic in the ancient shrine, and to undo the barrier, you'll have to prove your chastity. Miss Elena, just in case I have to ask... You're still a virgin, aren't you? We should examine you to see whether you were raped while asleep..."

"This?"

Elena held out the salt statue.

Roen's words cut off abruptly.

Roen's eyes widened.

Roen's mouth hung half-open as they stared at the statue.

"This is... Where did you..."

Roen reached out and traced the statue's surface with a finger.

Roen's complexion changed. Their eyes widened as they picked up the statue.

"Where did you get this?"

"Mister brought it for me."

Elena answered calmly.

Roen's expression twisted in an instant.

As Roen set the statue back down on the table, they tried to guess who the "Mister" Elena had mentioned was, and it didn't take long to arrive at the answer.

"E-Eck? Surely you mean that Eck?"

"Yes."

Roen frowned.

"How could that human scum... How could a man who lusts after women sully this sacred mission? No, but how?"

"Mister brought it for me."

"He's a man who lusts after women and makes a habit of assaulting them..! How could someone like that undo the seal? There must have been a pure person beside him... No."

Roen shook their head.

"There's no way he wouldn't reach out with those claws even after seeing a pure woman. And even purity alone isn't enough to undo the seal. Only someone as noble, pure, and radiant as Ellis could..."

"Mister isn't like that."

"Miss Elena, why didn't you bring it back yourself...!"

Roen raised their voice.

"This should have been a journey toward a sacred mission. You, born with the fate of a carriage bearing a sacred duty and Ellis's older sister, should have undertaken it yourself. How could you borrow the hand of someone so filthy?"

Roen's voice trailed off, and their head drooped.

"The sacred journey has been defiled..."

Roen glared at the floor and muttered something under their breath. Their quiet, grave voice, almost a soliloquy, gradually grew louder as they condemned someone.

Roen's eyes flashed toward Elena.

"Tell me honestly. Have you ever given your body to Eck? Has he touched your body?"

Elena's brow furrowed.

But she answered dully,

"No."

"Are you sure? If you're too frightened to tell me, we're here for you. Just relax and..."

"No."

She cut them off firmly.

"Did you kiss him? Have you ever held hands? If you've shown him your bare skin even once, tell me."

"I said no."

Roen turned their gaze toward Ellis.

"What about Ellis? If Eck saw Ellis's noble appearance, there's no way he would have let it pass. Did he touch Ellis?"

"Yes, he did."

"Kk...! Kkiiiiaaaaaaaaagh!!!!"

Roen's complexion turned deathly white.

Roen sprang to their feet and screamed.

Elena remained silent for a moment before answering.

"Mister saved Ellis. A burglar broke into our home, but Mister appeared just in time and saved her before anything happened."

Roen grew even paler.

"So he's saving her for later."

Roen's voice was horrified.

"He's not touching her now so he can save her for later. There's no doubt about it. I hear he likes mature women. He raised a girl who hasn't even reached adulthood so he could keep her and devour her later...! How can anyone be this filthy? Ellis, too, had already been touched by the claws of such a vulgar man!"

Roen gripped the medical bag.

"I-I have to report this immediately...!"

Before completing Ellis's examination, Roen opened the door and hurried away.

The door closed.

"...."

Elena stared blankly at the salt statue as a smile spread across her lips.

"Mister... Hehe."

Letting out a foolish laugh, she collapsed beside the bed and propped up her chin.

"Ellis, do you know how amazing Mister is? He taught me swordsmanship and how to hunt monsters. Look at this beautiful relic, too. If we have this, can we make a cure?"

"Sister..."

Ellis, who had only been pretending to sleep, slowly opened her eyes and gave an awkward smile.

"Do you like Mister that much?"

"Yeah. I like him so much."

"I thought you'd only have difficult experiences because of me. I'm so relieved."

"It really was lucky that Mister was there. I'll introduce him to you later, too. Once we make the medicine and you recover completely, you'll join our party. Wouldn't that be amazing?"

As she watched her older sister's face melt into the bed, Ellis felt a burden lift from a corner of her heart.

Elena rambled on for a long while, then grew teary with a dazed expression.

"Mister, don't go. Sob. How can you raise me however you please and then just leave me?"

The blanket she had buried her face in grew darkly wet, starting around her eyes.

Ellis stroked her sister's head.

Ellis's head felt stuffy, as if it were filled with cotton.

"Ellis, I'm just going to sleep for a little while..."

Elena let her words trail off and fell asleep while sitting against the bed.

"Sister?"

Ellis called to her sister.

There was no answer.

Ellis reached a thin arm out from beneath the blanket and poked her sister's cheek.

"She must have been tired."

Ellis climbed down from the bed and picked up the salt statue from the table.

With her head considerably clearer from the medicine's effects, she gazed at the salt statue meaningfully.

And then,

Lick.

She licked it.

The statue's surface wore away as she licked it with her tongue like she was eating half-melted ice cream.

Holding the statue, which was too large to grasp easily with both hands, she began licking it continuously.

Once it had melted down to a size suitable for her mouth, she tilted her head back and pushed it down her throat.

"Salty."

She licked her salt-coated lips, then licked her palm as well.

While her sister slept, Ellis brought out the empty bottles from the kitchen.