Banana 'n' Banana

The pass has opened, so our work for the royal family is done. We're heading straight on to Sobana, the border city.

Apparently, a Transferer like me has visited Donkres Westendstadt, an Imperial city that shares a border with Sobana.

We plan to go meet him. If things go well, I'd like to bring him over to our side.

He may have become a loyal dog of the Emperor, but apparently he was conscripted as a mage, and the dragon he defeated was taken away from him.

If that's true, there's a good chance he resents the Empire, so he might be receptive to what we have to say.

Our work was done, but if we left immediately, it would get dark on the way down the pass, and the merchants who had waited desperately for it to reopen were on edge.

We could get caught in an accident. We decided to spend one night in the post town at the top of the pass.

But after we'd finished eating and were relaxing, beastfolk carrying injured people came from the darkened pass.

As expected—it was a carriage accident.

We set about treating them.

The injured were a middle-aged man, a woman around thirty, and a boy around twelve.

The man and woman seemed conscious, but the boy was unconscious. The woman was probably the boy's mother.

At a glance, the boy's injuries were the worst. His left forearm was bent completely out of shape.

I decided to examine the boy first. He wore a green jacket and black trousers, with a bandanna-like cloth wrapped around his head.

The bandanna was clean, so apparently there was no bleeding from his head.

"Melissa, could you give me a hand?"

"Of course."

"Anemone, look after that woman."

"Got it."

I had apparently become this so-called "Holy Knight" and should be able to use Heal, but I still didn't really know how. I was feeling my way through it.

When I slowly held my hand over him, I felt a sensation at the injured spot, as though a magnet were being drawn to it.

I see. So this was how I used something like my bioenergy to heal people.

But now that I knew that, I could use my hand as a sensor.

When I held my hand over an injured person's entire body, it was drawn toward any place with an injury or illness.

I examined every inch of the boy's body. He had some small scrapes and bruises, but his only major injury seemed to be his left arm.

The town gate opened at the commotion after dark, and the mayor hurried over.

"What is going on?"

"A carriage accident, probably—a collision, I think. Mayor, sorry to trouble you, but let them into town once treatment is complete."

"Of course."

"At this rate, more injured people might arrive..."

Now, I had to do something about the boy's arm.

There are two bones in the forearm that allow it to rotate: the radius and ulna.

I had dabbled in anatomy because I needed it for drawing. Naturally, I wasn't a doctor and didn't understand the internal organs, but I knew a little about bones and muscles.

If the boy's forearm was bent completely out of shape, both bones must have been broken.

But would it be all right to use Heal like this? Heal in this world couldn't regrow a missing arm.

—If so, wouldn't using Heal now cause it to fuse in its bent position?

I thought I needed to immobilize it first.

"Nyamena, give me a hand!"

"Sure thing~!"

I had Nyamena pull on the boy's arm.

"Uuugh..."

The boy's face twisted in pain. He was probably unconscious, but it must still hurt.

Without thinking, I held my hand over his forehead—and the boy's expression quickly relaxed. Apparently, my power could numb pain too.

"That's amazing, Boss. It works on men too, huh?"

"Forget that. Just hold him down properly."

"Sure thing~."

I stretched the boy's arm out with his palm facing up. I put a board from my Item Box underneath it, then felt around until I straightened the bones.

If it hadn't gone well, I would have needed to make an incision, but somehow it seemed to be straight now.

Then I used the power to its fullest.

"Oh! Looks like it fused properly."

Even if it was only a temporary fix, once it fused, we'd manage somehow. I put another board on top, sandwiching the forearm between them.

Then I wrapped it round and round with duct tape from Shangri-La. A real cast would probably be made solid with plaster, but with magic, it would heal right away—or so I assumed.

'O crows of the three thousand worlds who rule the dark of night, answer my call and perform here the holy miracle of healing—Sacred Heal.'

Naturally, the incantation was complete nonsense. But orange light gathered and seeped into the boy's forearm.

I really felt like a wizard—or rather, I was actually using magic.

"Ooooh!"

Cheers rose from the people around us.

"Oh! Usually when you use Heal to treat a broken bone, it fuses crooked. Did you immobilize it straight before using Heal?"

Judging from the princess's words, using Heal while a bone was badly broken really did cause it to set in a crooked position.

Couldn't they at least try to straighten it first?

But this was a world with almost no medicine. Perhaps complicated fractures were simply impossible to treat.

When I asked the princess, she said that in such cases, they amputated the limb and then used Heal to close the wound.

But what did they do if fragments of bone remained?

There didn't seem to be any such thing as surgery, so if I went too far, I might be branded a heretic.

I had to be careful.

But if my body had also acquired natural Heal, then if I broke a bone, I might have to straighten it myself first, or it could set crooked...

Treating my own body? What am I, Black Jack? That's not a situation I'd want to find myself in often.

I didn't know how long it would take for the arm to fuse, so I decided to leave it as it was for a while.

The woman who seemed to be the boy's mother and the merchant had finished treatment as well.

We had the treated man and the mother and son carried into town. I gave them painkillers as well.

"Primula, prepare some food and alcohol for the beastfolk who brought the injured here. They ran all the way here, so they must be hungry."

"Understood."

I took a pot, bread, and wine from my Item Box.

"B-Boss, is this really okay?"

"Of course."

The beastfolk were a black-and-white man and a tiger-striped man. The black-and-white man's face was black, but his nose was white, which was unusual.

Primula prepared the meal with practiced efficiency.

At the sight of the delicious-looking food laid out on the table, the beastfolk gulped, then dug in all at once.

"This is delicious! What the heck is this?" "I've never had wine this good!"

"Boss, what kind of meat is this? I've never eaten anything like it!"

"It's wyvern meat."

"Huh? Wyvern?"

The beastfolk looked at each other.

"What he says is true."

"..."

They looked puzzled, apparently wondering who the girl in front of them was.

"This is Her Highness Lilith Lala Kadan, the princess of this country."

"Y-you two, show some respect!"

The mayor desperately tried to make the point clear.

"A princess?!" "Royalty?!"

Both men tumbled from their chairs and crawled prostrate on the ground.

"There, there! You brought injured people here through the darkness, so you are heroes. Eat your fill."

"Heh-heh! Thank you kindly!"

The beastfolk sat on the ground and began eating.

"Hey, this is wyvern meat!" "We'll be able to brag about this!"

Hearing the commotion, townspeople and merchants staying there came outside to gawk.

"Lilith-sama, more injured people may still arrive."

"Indeed."

In that case, I should eat something too. Using this Holy Knight ability makes me hungry.

I gulped down some jelly-type nutritional food first. After that—when it comes to something easy and nutritious, it had to be bananas.

I searched Shangri-La for bananas and found 16 kilograms selling for 4,800 yen.

That's way too much! But apparently they were only sold in bulk, with no smaller quantities available.

Well, maybe it was difficult to sell cheap fresh produce in tiny amounts. I could put the excess in my Item Box anyway.

Since they were an unusual fruit here, I might be able to sell them for a high price.

"Click."

A bunch of slightly green bananas came tumbling down. But wherever they hit would probably turn black.

There were eight bunches in all. If sixteen kilograms made eight bunches, that was two kilograms per bunch, or 600 yen each. Wasn't that about what they cost at a supermarket too?

They say bananas are ready to eat when black spots appear—but I like green bananas.

I left one bunch out and put the rest in my Item Box. Then I peeled one and started eating.

"Kenichi! What is that bizarre thing?"

"It's fruit, but... it isn't very tasty, though it's extremely nutritious. Would you like to try it?"

The princess seemed interested, so I handed her one. Everyone else was wary.

I didn't think they needed to be that wary... Were they assuming it was insect eggs or something again?

The princess froze with it in her hand, so I showed her how to peel it.

"Hmm! What is this?! It certainly isn't very tasty, but it is sticky and has such a strange flavor. I have never tasted anything like it!"

My father once admired bananas he'd seen in foreign movies and bought some expensive imported ones.

I remembered him telling me about the first time he ate one. He'd expected it to be incredibly delicious, only to be disappointed by the taste.

"It's easy to peel, so it's convenient to eat, right?"

"And it doesn't have any seeds!"

"That's right. It's a seedless fruit."

"Good heavens! How does it reproduce without seeds?"

"It is propagated by dividing the plant."

"Oh! How peculiar."

Wild bananas have seeds, but the bananas sold in stores don't. They reproduce through division—in other words, by copying themselves.

Yoshino cherry trees are similar. They don't bear fruit, so they don't reproduce from seeds.

That's why they are propagated by cuttings and grafting. Every Yoshino cherry tree in Japan is a clone.

Because they are clones, they all bloom at once and all lose their blossoms at once.

"S-sell me some! How much will you take?"

The merchants swarmed around me.

"Even if you buy them here, they'll only last five or six days without an Item Box. Besides, they aren't very tasty."

"I don't care!"

"Then one bunch will be two small square silver coins—10,000 yen."

"Sold!"

I sold all seven remaining bunches—for 70,000 yen. A bunch that cost 600 yen selling for 10,000 yen was a pretty good profit.

Bananas can't be propagated from seeds, after all.

Beside us, the princess, who had said they were only so-so, kept eating bananas—two, then three.

She'd just eaten dinner, so where was she putting them? But the men watching her were acting strangely.

They were fidgeting. Their eyes seemed fixed on the princess's mouth. I immediately realized what was going on.

Apparently, they were looking at the princess's mouth and imagining something lewd—it was funny, but terribly disrespectful.

Someone besides me noticed what was happening: Nyamena.

"Boss, give me one too."

"You're going to eat it?"

She was usually wary of things like this and wouldn't eat them. What a rare occasion—so I peeled a banana and handed it to Nyamena, and she stuck out her long tongue and began licking it.

Nyamena's long pink tongue clung wetly to the white banana. Naturally, she knew exactly what she was doing and was deliberately provoking them.

Perhaps unable to stand watching, several of the men clutched their crotches and started heading back into town.

"Ahahaha!"

Nyamena laughed, clutching her stomach as she ate the banana.

"Nyamena, if you provoke them like that, don't blame me if they attack you."

"Ha, don't worry, Boss. That thing is completely in the past now."

"But you said beastfolk have fangs, so they can't do it with their mouths—so that's how you do it, huh?"

"Heh, want me to do it for you too, Boss?"

"What are you talking about? You did it plenty of times. You wouldn't let go once you had it in your mouth, and I was terrified you'd bite it off."

"W-wait, Boss, is that really true?"

"Of course."

Nyamena held out her right hand and froze, covering her face with her left.

"B-Boss... Please forget that..."

"Huh? It felt really good, so I'll ask you again sometime."

"Nyaaah!"

Nyamena let out a cute shriek and ran off into the darkness until she disappeared. Still, as a beastfolk, she should be fine even in the dark.

"The tiger guy blew himself up, nya."

"Oh! I see! Maylen! Come here!"

"Yes, Princess."

Perhaps understanding our conversation, the princess called Maylen over.

"Maylen, you should try this fruit too!"

"Here, Maylen-san. It may not be very tasty."

I peeled it and handed the banana to Maylen-san, and she began eating it hesitantly. The princess's orders were absolute.

"No, Maylen! You have to eat it by licking it with your tongue!"

Maylen-san sucked on the banana with a teary expression, and the remaining men clutched their crotches and fled into town.

This was pretty intense.

"Hahaha, this is hilarious!"

While we passed the time doing such pointless things, Nyamena returned from the darkness on the Sobana side.

But a beastfolk carrying someone was with her. As expected, another emergency patient had arrived.

We had him set down and treated him—he appeared to be a merchant who had been waiting in line behind us while we worked.

I recognized the fur color of the beastfolk man who had carried him.

The male merchant's right leg seemed to be broken. Apparently, his carriage had hit the cliff in the dark, throwing him out.

He had pushed things too far.

But it wasn't a complete break, so it looked like a lighter injury than the boy's.

I splinted and immobilized it first, then used Heal. I relieved his pain as well.

"It was something I gave you, but that power is quite convenient."

"Indeed. I only hope it will allow us to help many people."

"You don't often hear someone say things like that. Normally, your first thought would be to use it to make money."

"Well, I do charge those who have money."

"Hahaha, I see."

We waited for about another hour, but no more injured people seemed to arrive, so we went to bed.

I set up the tent and slept with the beastfolk. The women slept in the house.

"Anemone, you're going to have to sleep by yourself now."

"Mmm..."

"Because I can't touch you casually anymore."

"You can touch me."

"No, no."

It was getting dangerous, so I used a separate sleeping bag from Anemone. She pouted, but seemed to accept it.

When I was sleeping alone, Bell climbed on top of my sleeping bag.

"Bell, you're heavy..."

"Meow."

I stuck my hand out of the sleeping bag and stroked Bell around the neck. But after a while, Bell began rubbing her body against the tent floor and rolling around, purring.

She had acted a little strange the last time I petted her too, but...

"What?! It works on forest cats too?"

"Kenichi's power is dangerous, nya."

"Yeah, if someone used something like that on any woman, she'd fall for him instantly."

"We'd better be careful, or women will start flocking to him more than ever, nya."

"That's right!"

What, now I can't touch Bell either? This is ridiculous.

------◇◇◇------

—The next morning.

I woke up and ate with everyone. While we were eating, the town gate opened, and men hurried out in carriages.

Some merchants left first thing in the morning, but there were also some burly men.

I asked as they passed and learned they were from the blacksmith's shop. They were going to repair the carriages damaged in the accident on-site, then bring them to the post town.

Fortunately, they had only been damaged in the collision and hadn't fallen into the ravine.

I see—so that kind of work existed too.

After breakfast, I went to see the mother and son I'd treated. Apparently they were staying at an inn in the post town.

But on the way there, I was surrounded by women in flashy white and red dresses that emphasized their cleavage.

They were prostitutes.

"Hey! You're the eccentric guy camping outside, right, Boss?"

"Yeah, I guess..."

"We heard about your companions, so a whole crowd came rushing over last night..."

"Yeah, business was booming last night!"

The prostitutes said they had finished their night shift and were on their way back to their lodgings to sleep.

"Hey, hey, don't touch me."

"Oh, why not? If you come with us, we'll take good care of you~."

"Don't tell me you've never touched a woman at your age?"

"It's not like that. Just don't touch me."

But they ignored me, and one of the women who hugged me let out a strange cry.

"Faaaah!"

"Hey, what's wrong?"

"Haaah... What is this? It feels so good~."

"Really~?" "Seriously?"

One after another, the women who hugged me let out sighs.

"Faaaah!" "What's this~?"

"Mommy..."

But when one woman muttered that word, the others abruptly pulled away and burst out laughing.

"Pfft! What do you mean, 'Mommy'?!"

"B-but that's how it felt!"

"Well, it kind of did..."

The women looked at one another.

"Hey, enough already. This is Heal, you know. I'm going to charge you."

Since they had just finished a night shift, the healing effect must have felt good.

Once they were told it was Heal magic, they seemed satisfied.

"I'll give you everything I made yesterday, so do it some more!"

"Me too!"

"Us too, us too!"

"I said get off me!"

I shook off the prostitutes and escaped as far as the inn.

Damn, I'm hungry again. This thing has terrible fuel efficiency.

After eating two bananas, I explained the situation to the innkeeper and had him take me to the injured people.

When I first visited the mother and son, they were both in a room on the second floor. The mother was awake, but her son still seemed to be sleeping.

The woman wore a white nightgown, and her messy red hair was in a braid.

"Good morning. I'm the mage who treated you yesterday."

"Thank you. It was a blessing in our misfortune that such an amazing mage happened to be here."

"Well, your son was injured badly enough that he could easily have lost his arm... Let me take a look at him."

I pulled back the blanket and checked the emergency cast held in place by boards and duct tape. It seemed fine.

"It seems to have fused straight, and there's no swelling. How about you?"

"It still hurts, but I'm all right."

"I'll give you some painkillers. Take them after meals. Your internal organs weren't injured, so you can eat normally."

"Thank you."

"The fee for both you and your son will be one gold coin. If you don't have it on hand, we can discuss it."

"No, that's all right."

I received one gold coin from the mother. Since her son's arm had been bent completely out of shape and had healed perfectly, one gold coin was probably cheap.

She was a merchant, so there was no need to hold back. She had gone into this line of work knowing such things could happen.

Besides, Primula said the going rate was much higher. Anemone had examined the mother, but I collected the fee together.

According to the mother, they would have the carriage recovered, rest for a while, and then set off for the royal capital immediately.

They must have had some reason for hurrying.

"It may take your son a little time, though..."

"I'm considering leaving my son here in their care and going to the royal capital alone."

Apparently, her husband had collapsed from an illness, and she was going to the royal capital in his place.

"That sounds rough. Did your husband have a stroke or something?"

"Yes..."

"Then you won't be able to look after your child either..."

It was a tragic situation, but there was nothing I could do. The most I could do was use Heal on her one more time.

"Um... Are you the mage who removed the earth and debris that had buried the highway...?"

"That's me."

"Thank you. If the highway hadn't reopened, our whole family would have had to commit suicide."

After that, I collected silver coins from the other two injured people and returned to everyone else.

"Oh, Kenichi's back, nya."

When I returned, a merchant's carriage was stopped in front of the house, and Melissa was saying goodbye to the princess.

"Oh! Are you leaving now, Melissa?"

"Yes. I'm returning to the royal capital a little ahead of you."

"Take care on the way. Thank you for helping with the work."

"Since I'm sharing in the honor, I'm the one who should be thanking you."

"Haha."

Melissa climbed onto the back of the carriage and squeezed her body into the narrow space between the luggage.

If the load shifted, she might be crushed. Would she be all right?

"Here's Anemone's earnings."

"Put them in your Item Box, Kenichi."

I stored them in the Anemone folder in my Item Box.

"Does Anemone ever have occasion to spend money while she is with you?"

"Not very often, but... I've told her to deposit her money with the guild and use it if anything happens to me."

"Oh, I see..."

Something seemed off about the princess.

"Is something the matter?"

"I am sorry, Kenichi. You were living peacefully in the frontier, but I dragged you into the royal family's troubles."

"I tried not to display my power as much as possible to prevent this from happening, but I got carried away too. And since I said I would stand on Lilith-sama's side, I'll make sure I don't go back on my word."

"I am grateful to you."

In the first place, it was my fault for showing too much power and attracting the attention of royalty and nobles, but there was nothing to be done now.

But if I returned to the royal capital like this, there would probably be another dispute over my use of the royal family's power...

I stuffed all the luggage, the house, and the tent into my Item Box, then summoned my H○-Ace.

"All right, we're off to Sobana! Everyone, get in!"

"Let's go~!" "I never thought we'd be able to cross the mountains, nya."

"I doubt even Father has ever taken such a long journey."

"Yaaay!"

The princess took the passenger seat, while the two maids got in the back.

"Maylen-san, you have it rough."

"I-it's my job, after all..."

"Don't worry about Maylen. She enjoys being worked to the bone by me."

Her cheeks reddened, but... well, I'd had a vague feeling that was the case.

Once I confirmed that Bell was the last to get in, I closed the sliding door.

"All right, we're off!"

"Ooh!"

Those were the energetic voices of the beastfolk and Anemone.

But ahead lay the downhill stretch of the Hell Highway.

I would have to drive safely.