In The Name Of Ingrad! (13)

The boring voyage continued.

Because of that, an incident occurred where I sometimes focused on taking care of Ing City through voluntary return, only to learn one thing and summon the relevant person.

“There’s information that something similar to White Death, though not White Death itself, is spreading as a hallucinogen. What is it?”

“It has been reported to have no addictive quality itself, but there is a drug where a person’s own will becomes the problem.”

When I asked what that was at Gamung’s words, Gamung had prepared the drug, as though he had known why I had summoned him.

And the moment Gamung took out the drug and showed it to me, the recipe, the effects of the medicine, and its name were transmitted into my head. It was literally a medicine belonging to the category of “narcotics” prescribed to people who had suffered great wounds, but I was able to receive the knowledge that it had been used quite usefully because its addictive symptoms were weak and its hallucinogenic effects were strong.

“Moon’s Yawn, huh…”

It was the name of the drug. Thinking that the effects and the name matched quite plausibly, I asked Gamung.

“Have you looked into its source?”

“We are tracing it backward, but it seems a fairly remarkable expert was involved, so we appear to have had the tail cut off. However, we are tracking other sellers, so there will be results soon.”

“It wouldn’t be the Information Corps, so who is handling it?”

“My fourth wife is leading her subordinates.”

Gamung had quite a few wives. It seemed to be a characteristic of the Tigerfolk.

Still, I could not understand making his wife take part in tracking such a dangerous organization, but Gamung spoke as though he had seen through my thoughts.

“Among the Tigerfolk, being able to handle outside work means one belongs among the ‘strong.’ You need not worry, Your Majesty.”

“…I’m sometimes curious, but is my expression easy to read?”

“Your Majesty’s expression is honest.”

‘Right, so I was an easy man…’

For no reason, I scratched my head and let out a sigh.

Honestly, Gamung was probably not the only one who thought that way, so it seemed most of my vassals might have been handling all sorts of matters while looking at my expression.

“I heard it is currently being spread at an extremely low price, so what are its effects like?”

“They say it causes an extremely powerful hallucination. However, in most cases, the drug’s effects wear off after about four hours and the person returns to normal, but the problem seems to be when it is taken several times in overlap.”

“They fall asleep, right?”

“That is so, Your Majesty.”

It was content about the side effects among the effects transmitted to me along with the recipe. It told me that if it was taken repeatedly, the person would fall into a deep sleep and could even end up dying.

Since they would die while sleeping, it might not be painful, but it was certainly a drug that had to be eradicated.

That was because someone could misuse it to harm others. So I said to Gamung,

“Find them thoroughly and execute them. There is no need to capture them.”

“Would that not be too heavy-handed?”

“A person does not have to die or have a problem occur for it to become a real problem. It is right to deal with it before a problem arises. Besides… I do not have a good feeling about this. It reminds me of White Death.”

“I understand. I shall dig into it thoroughly.”

Gamung bowed his head and withdrew, and the person who entered after him was unexpectedly Debik.

“What brings you here, Debik?”

“We received an urgent message from the Mining City, you see.”

Has some problem occurred?

I made a worried expression out of concern, and seeing that, Debik waved his hand as though to dismiss it.

“It is not a major problem. I do not think you need to make such a worried expression.”

“…My expression is easy to read, isn’t it?”

“A little… it is that way. Since it seems you will worry too much, I shall first relay the matter.”

At Debik’s words as he took out a letter and handed it over, I received it and read it, but I was a little puzzled.

“They found a salt mine?”

“That is so. They said it was a salt mine of quite a large scale, and if mined, it is estimated that we could obtain an enormous amount of salt, making it a great source of money.”

“…Isn’t salt obtained from the sea?”

“…The sea?”

We looked at each other with expressions that said we could not understand each other, and Debik asked me,

“It seems you have only eaten the highest-grade salt and mistaken it for the saltiness of the sea. Everything we eat is rock salt.”

In that moment, I had to experience the feeling of my head going numb.

I had thought all the salt I had been eating until now was sea salt. But when the reality was laid bare, the result was so absurd that it was bewildering, and the issue here was the matter of rock salt.

“That must have been brought in from outside all this time, right?”

“Mostly, yes. It is known to be mined mainly from the Southern Continent…”

“Then… what color is the salt?”

“Hmm… it differs every time, but grayish is the average.”

That meant there were many impurities. If it was salt that contained things such as lead or silver by mistake, it could become a major problem.

Ingesting small amounts would not be a big issue, but long-term consumption would become a serious problem. So to examine this, I first had to give an order to summon the maids and everyone inside the castle.

Debik looked puzzled at my words, but when I abruptly grabbed his hand and began looking it over from side to side, he asked me with a face that said he could not understand.

“What are you looking at?”

“I am checking whether you have heavy metal poisoning.”

“Heavy metal poisoning? Is there such a poison?”

“Hmm… in this world, yes, it would be easier to call it metal poison.”

“Could rust have somehow been mixed into the salt?”

It seemed the metal poison he was talking about here referred to tetanus. This made it difficult to explain, so I told him what I knew.

“In the case of rock salt, I learned that the finest quality should appear only white. But the fact that it is closer to gray means impurities are mixed in. And that means those impurities may include metals that are difficult to expel from the body, such as lead or silver.”

Only then did Debik nod, and soon, when Beni said most of them had been made to wait in front of the office, I said I understood and went outside.

Then, after telling everyone to hold their hands forward, I began examining them one by one. I began to see many maids who had symptoms that appeared specifically when someone had to be poisoned by heavy metals, and when I saw that those symptoms appeared especially strongly in human maids rather than beastkin, I had no choice but to fall into serious thought.

‘How did one treat heavy metal poisoning again…?’

In effect, the only thing I could rely on was the knowledge transmitted by Pharmacy, but this also seemed unfamiliar as a subject for Pharmacy, and aside from a few recipes, it told me nothing, making me feel unbearably frustrated.

Bluntly speaking, I was not a doctor, and the only specialized knowledge I had was what Pharmacy sent me, so I wondered if I had realized it far too late. Looking at my worried expression, Debik asked,

“Is there a problem?”

Since the maids might become agitated at Debik’s words, I shook my head and said,

“For now, it would be right to say there is no particular problem. Everyone, please withdraw. I apologize for interrupting your work.”

At my apology, everyone bowed their heads and withdrew. Only then did Debik, who remained, speak as though apologetic.

“My caution was insufficient. Please forgive…”

“No, more than that, finding a method is urgent… whew.”

“Is this heavy metal poisoning a very bad illness?”

“It is because it can possibly lead to death. Let’s go for now.”

It was the workshop I had visited after a long time, and Debik, who followed me inside the workshop, looked around and found it fascinating.

“There are all sorts of medicines here.”

“There was a time when I made many prototypes as trials. Now, even what is here is at a level I can barely handle, but I feel that among these, something might shine someday.”

After looking over the well-managed medicinal ingredients like that, I checked the recipes Pharmacy had told me. Then I scratched my head in frustration, and it was at that moment.

Beni entered the workshop and greeted me.

“It has been a while since you visited the workshop.”

“Ah, something came up. But what brings you here, Beni?”

“Since Your Majesty had a very troubled expression, I came rudely.”

Another person who had noticed my inner thoughts by looking at my expression had appeared. A sigh came out on its own. At this rate…

“What is the matter, for you to have such a serious expression?”

“Hmm…”

After thinking over how much I should tell her, I simply told her everything as it was and made her keep it secret.

Then Beni also looked at her own fingernails with a serious expression, and Beni asked,

“You said you do not know the treatment method well… I’m worried. If Your Majesty does not know it, then no one will.”

I reached the point where I wondered just what she thought of me, but something suddenly came to mind. Why were only humans exposed to heavy metals? Thinking that the problem might not be with a specific kind of rock salt, I asked Debik one thing.

“Could you perhaps call in around ten or so beastkin women from each tribe, including Hirna?”

“Why the women?”

“I want to ask them something. It might possibly lead to the answer.”

Debik said with a bright expression that he would do so and went outside, and the Beni left behind asked the reason.

“What are you going to ask them?”

“I am going to ask whether there is a plant the beastkin often eats.”

“A plant…?”

“Because I thought there might be a plant that is effective at expelling heavy metals. From what I just examined, the poisoning symptoms were overwhelmingly severe among the human maids, so I suppose that was why it occurred to me.”

“It could also be that beastkin themselves have good detoxification abilities, couldn’t it?”

That might be so. However, I thought there was nothing to lose by trying various things. Furthermore, it was the moment I realized that I had to inform the entire country of common knowledge about rock salt and the danger of heavy metals.

I once again realized that things that might be common knowledge to me could only be special matters in this world, and I intended to make this issue bigger and look for solutions in various ways.

“It’s work after a long time.”

“…I wish Your Majesty would become a little aware that you do too much work.”

I wanted to tell her that was not true at all, but it was the moment I ended up saying I understood to Beni, who was sending me a sharp gaze and trying to nag me.

After that, Debik gathered the women of each tribe and came with them, and there were quite a lot of them.

So I began examining the beastkin women’s hands in the same way I had done with the maids, and in the case of several specific tribes, all of them seemed to be in a poisoned state, while several tribes seemed to be perfectly clean.

Thinking that this might mean it was a matter of eating habits, I first asked them one question.

“Do you all cook for yourselves?”

Most of the beastkin women answered that they did, and after asking whether they knew how to write, I called maids and assigned them to those who could not write, then handed out paper and said,

“I would like each of you to write down everything you have enjoyed eating recently or foods you like, as well as seasonings you often use.”

They looked at me with expressions asking why, but rather than explaining at length, I asked them with sincerity.

“It is to save everyone, so I would like you to remember and actively participate.”

The beastkin women spoke as though making a vow, saying they would do so with their eyes blazing. It was truly something to be grateful for.