Dance Time

I desperately ran to the large hall on the first floor, which was apparently the practice place. The sound of Raul’s footsteps steadily approaching behind me was exquisitely terrifying!

“Ah! Shitoen!”

Just as I was almost at the hall, I met Shitoen and her companions coming from the corridor on the opposite side.

Surely Raul would not attack me in front of other people.

Just as I thought that…

I heard Raul click his tongue beside my ear, and a chill ran through me from the bottom of my heart.

“I am glad, Prince Saryu. We thought we might be late… Oh, good evening to you as well, Lord Raul.”

Shitoen smiled with relief. From behind me, I heard Raul’s respectful voice say, “Princess Shitoen.”

I was relieved too!!! I was truly glad I had run into Shitoen!

My leg had nearly been broken!

“W-Were you busy? Was today hectic?”

When I asked while wiping the sweat from my forehead, Roze spoke with an irritated face.

“I told you already! We properly said the other day that she was going to take part in an exchange meeting with the court medical team!”

Ah, that. I understood, but Mone looked at me coldly. She did not voice it, but only moved her lips to say “bear-brain,” which annoyed me!

“I was rushing about because of Lady Shitoen’s outfit, so I asked Miss Mone and Miss Roze to accompany and guard her.”

Eaton was the only one! The only one who explained it normally!

“How was it? Did anyone harass you or anything?”

Somehow, I ended up asking that.

When one spoke of the court medical team, it was all men.

In the royal capital, doctors were men. If one went to the countryside or the frontiers, women were also active under the name of herbalists, but in the central region, a person like Shitoen was still rare. Or rather, exceptional.

Since she had His Majesty’s official approval, I did not think anyone would do anything reckless, but…

I must have looked worried.

Shitoen blinked in surprise, then soon giggled.

“My. Then perhaps the crown princess attended as well because she was worried about me.”

“Yulia did?”

When I asked back, Shitoen nodded with a smile still on her lips.

“She attended from beginning to end… and even made a wonderful offer.”

“A wonderful offer?”

I tilted my head.

“The main topic this time was what happened in the County of Sheen. I once again presented the medical team with the explanation that beriberi was not an infectious disease, and they accepted and understood it.”

…Come to think of it, there had been something like that.

“After that, the medical team also asked questions about pellagra.”

“Pellagra?”

I did not really remember hearing that. Then Roze raised an odd voice.

“Prince, you don’t know? For all your experiences, you’re sheltered!”

“A greenhouse-raised bear, then.”

Mone was frowning beside her too.

“You know, the thing that often spreads in orphanages and prisons. When that appears, it is a serious matter. They isolate people or close the place down.”

Raul quietly explained right beside me.

When I heard orphanages and spreads, I clapped my hands and said, “Ah.”

“That one! The one where the hands become like fire blisters and the skin breaks open!”

“Yes. In the early symptoms, the skin begins peeling, and when exposed to ultraviolet rays… sunlight, they develop hypersensitivity. After that, their gastrointestinal condition worsens, followed by loss of appetite and ulcers inside the mouth, then disorientation… um… They may become confused.”

Shitoen explained it to me, but…

I see. So that did not just make the skin ragged.

“But if they isolate people or close the place down, does that mean it is infectious?”

When I asked, Shitoen shook her head.

“Since the same symptoms appear in the same district, this too was once suspected to be a bacterial infection, just like beriberi… However, pellagra is also called niacin deficiency, and it is an illness caused by specific nutrients being lost from the body. Therefore, isolation is not necessary. What is important is administering the nutrients that are lacking.”

For some reason, Roze nodded with a knowing expression.

“When I heard Lady Shitoen’s explanation, I thought, oh, that makes sense. After all, places where pellagra appears are always awful, or rather, the food they eat is always the same menu.”

“They buy cheap things like corn or buckwheat flour in large quantities… and keep serving the same meals. That must be why.”

Mone continued as well.

Ah, so it meant their nutrition became unbalanced. Vandel’s anemia was the same, and so was beriberi from white rice.

“It is easy to say that people should enrich their diet with a balanced variety of foods, but as Miss Mone said, there is the issue of budget. Also, when people try to simply fill their stomachs, their meals become strangely biased.”

Shitoen lowered the corners of her brows with a sad expression, but then immediately broke into a bright smile.

“Then Lady Yulia said, ‘It will have to be in a form with a limited budget, but if you would like, shall I provide aid to facilities in need?’ She said that if an application was submitted, subsidies would be provided to orphanages and various facilities in the name of the crown princess.”

“Yulia did?”

My eyes widened.

Mother often made donations to monasteries and churches, but…

“Lady Yulia inherited her parents’ territory as it was, and she apparently deposits those taxes in a bank. Then she said she would not mind using the interest as subsidies.”

When Yulia’s parents died in an accident, Yulia inherited both the territory and the title.

That said, she usually lived in the royal palace, and all her living expenses came from the royal family’s budget, so all the money was deposited in the bank.

The territory’s tax revenue was also proper and in accordance with the law, and if there was a poor harvest or something, Yulia apparently supplemented the shortage herself and paid it to the royal family.

Once a year, she went to the territory and apparently purchased necessary things such as farm tools and watermill houses.

“That is right. Yulia does not ‘bestow charity.’ She ‘subsidizes.’”

Mother bestowed charity. Or rather, she scattered money depending on her mood.

But with Yulia, there was an application, and if it was extremely reasonable, and if there was a shortfall, she gave assistance.

That was the form she took.

“I think it is truly wonderful. Self-help efforts are important. Otherwise, once that supporter is gone, everything will collapse.”

Shitoen nodded vigorously.

“It sounds like the crown prince will draft the difficult documents around that part.”

Roze said that. Crown prince, do your best.

“We also agreed that I would discuss systems such as visiting medical care with everyone from the medical team going forward, and this meeting ended there.”

Seeing Shitoen’s satisfied face made me happy too.

Whether correct opinions were accepted within a group or not…

That depended on the capacity and broad-mindedness of the receiving side.

And also…

It required a youthful sensitivity that could think of new things as “interesting.”

If customs and old systems were deep-rooted, or if the organization itself was exhausted, new opinions and new winds would immediately be crushed.

It seemed the Tidros royal palace was functioning normally.

Good.

Shitoen’s knowledge was being put to use.

“Then shall we proceed to dance time soon?”

Eaton opened the door.

For some reason, it made a strange creaking sound, and a vast hall appeared before our eyes.

I heard Raul swallow behind me.

It must have looked to him as if the gates of hell had opened…