CH 90

“I picked up a sibling.”

Translated by Dawn

“I picked up a sibling.”

“Ugh…we’ve arrived. This is where I live.”

“Haa, we are here, at last, thank goodness.”

Natalie’s words elicited an involuntary sigh of relief. The word “thank goodness” could mean many things, but it was used in two main senses.

The first was, of course, the case regarding the vomit she vomited up from her stomach, which I would call the “Natalie vomit incident” for simplicity’s sake. The Natalie Vomit Incident……hm, this looks like it’d be a long story. To cut a long story short, the “vomit incident” made Natalie very sick, and I had to take care of her and clean up her vomit and phlegm.

The other reason was my confusion over the fact that I had lost my temper. It seemed that I had been in a “Murderer Mood,” not a “Runner Mood,” after having taken on the bandits, and my normally restrained emotions had come out a little too much.

Although I had managed to regain my composure now, I was worried that these feelings might turn into impulsive cravings. Now I think I can somewhat understand how serial killers feel…….

“…Rolando-sama? Rolando-sama? What’s wrong?”

“Oh, it’s nothing. It’s nothing, Gerolie.”

“My name is Natalie!”

“Forget about it, just show me the house.”

Apparently, I was so focused on my thoughts that I didn’t notice Natalie’s call and called her Guerory on the spur of the moment. ……Well, it doesn’t make any difference whether it’s Natalie or Gerolie.

Natalie led me into the house, which was a bit too abandoned to be called a house. The walls were cracked in places, and in some places, there were holes small enough to allow drafts to enter. The floor was also covered with dust, and it was so suffocating that one could hardly breathe.

It was obvious that she would eventually get sick if she had to live in such a place. So much so that the place she called home was a poor environment.

“Please wait a moment. I’ll get you some tea—”

“No, it’s fine. I’d rather see your brother or whatever he is.”

The purpose of my visit to Natalie’s house was……to confirm if her testimony was false. I came to see if Natalie was telling the truth when she declared that she had a brother.

I was taken to a place in the back of the ruins that was apparently being used as a bedroom, where I found a boy lying on a poorly made bed. Apparently, he was Natalie’s younger brother.

“Cough, cough…Ah, Nee-san, you’re back. Welcome back.”

“You don’t have to get up. Just keep still.”

“Un, thanks. Who’s that, by the way?”

He recognized me and asked me a question, so I analyzed the boy before introducing myself.

[Name]: Jean

[Age]: 14 years old

[Gender]: Male

[Race]: Human

[Occupation]: None

Physical strength: 400 (700)

Magic power: 60 (180)

Strength: F+

Endurance: F-

Agility: F

Dexterity: C+

Mental Strength: E-

Resistance: B-

Luck: E-

[Skills]: Appraisal Lv0, Cleaning Lv1, Arithmetic Lv0, Physical Enhancement Lv0, Plague Resistance Lv4

[Condition]: Fatigue (Extreme), Hunger (Extreme), Feeble constitution (Great), Weakness (Extreme)

I see, his name is Jean, but it’s not a particularly unusual name, so I’ll leave that part out of it. His age is 14, and he seems to be minor like me.

His physical strength and magic power were low because of his weak body. As for the stats, his resistance was quite high, just like his older sister Natalie. Apparently, he also had high dexterity.

No wonder his resistance to the disease was so high considering he was living in such a bad environment. Then there was the level 0 skill, which I had seen before.

After discovering the level 0 skill for the first time, I found out that when a skill was level 0, it meant that by taking actions corresponding to that skill, you would accumulate proficiency, and after a certain number of actions, the skill level would become 1 and you would be able to use that skill.

In other words, he had the talents of appraisal, arithmetic, and physical enhancement, but he was currently unable to use these skills, and could only use cleaning and plague resistance.

However, he might be able to learn skills that were not listed by performing certain actions, so the possibilities were endless.

“I’m ROLANDO. I’m an adventurer.”

“Nice to meet you, my name is Jean. What brings you here?”

“Ah, the thing is…”

Well, this now confirmed that Natalie was telling the truth when she said that she had a brother. ……Now, what should I do after this?

To begin with, the fact that Natalie stole a package from a bandit and converted it into money did not incriminate her according to the laws of this world. The existence of a bandit itself had no recognized human rights, and even if the bandits had claimed ownership of the goods in their possession, their claim would not be recognized.

Even if I had stolen the luggage, I could not be charged with a crime as long as the legal ownership of the luggage was not clear. In other words, what I had been concerned about up to now was the result of my previous life’s law, and to put it bluntly, it was my self-indulgent selfishness.

In view of her living environment, and in view of the fact that she acted impulsively due to their economic poverty and unavoidable circumstances, even if she was to be charged with a crime, there would be ample room for extenuating circumstances.

After all, the only important point of contention this time was “whether or not she lied to me,” and even if he had lied, there would be no problem at all.

“It seems that Gerolie was telling the truth. Congratulations, you have been vindicated.”

“…what are you talking about?”

“I told you my name is Natalie!”

How dare you! How dare you say that after all those brilliant fountain tricks you pulled off……? I’m not going to be fooled, you bastard. 

However, this time I had nothing to apologize for, so I guess I’d better call it quits. …Let me tell you I won’t apologize. I don’t apologize. No retreat, no flattery, no reflection.

“Uuh, cough, cough, cough, cough.”

“J-Jean! Are you okay!?”

While I was thinking about how to drop the matter with Natalie in this one case, Jean’s condition suddenly changed abruptly. He suddenly began coughing violently, and then he started coughing up blood from his mouth. The amount of blood was so great that even a non-medical person could easily imagine the danger he was in.

Natalie was unable to hide her agitation at this terrible event, but I calmly checked his condition and began to ponder what to do.

(Now what to do? Perhaps the recovery magic I learned recently will help me handle this, but there’s no reason to help him).

It might sound cold, but I wouldn’t be so naive as to save a stranger whom I just met. I was not like the protagonists in the novels who give charity without any compensation.

(But I feel like I owe Gerolie a debt of gratitude for the strange suspicion I cast on her, and I wouldn’t want to owe her anything if I could help it.)

I was thinking about these things as I piled up excuses in my head for helping her brother. I knew I was being a bit of a tsundere myself, but it wouldn’t feel good if he died here, so I decided to save him for the time being. What? If I’m going to save him, why didn’t I do so from the beginning? Shut up.

“Get out of there, Natalie. You’re in the way.”

“B-but, J-Jean is, Jean is..”

“Jean is, Jean is, shut up. I’m telling you to move out of the way so I can treat him. Or do you want me to just let him die?”

“Y-you can help my little brother?”

Instead of answering Natalie’s question, I made a gesture of pushing her away with my hand and pulled her away from the bed. Although I said I would help her, this was actually the first time I had ever used magic to treat an illness, so it was a rushed attempt.

“[Heal Cure]”

For the time being, I tried to treat Jean with the magic I used when Nathalie was sick, but there was no change in Jean’s condition. Apparently, this magic was not very effective.

“Then how about this. [High Heal].”

I cast a more effective recovery magic, but there was no indication that any such effect appeared. Come to think of it, I remembered from my previous life that heal-type magic was rather effective for injuries but tended to be less effective for illnesses.

If this was the case, then I should cast magic that was effective against illnesses. As I had mentioned before, magic was all about imagery. In other words, I thought that I should use magic with the image of purifying rather than curing the illness, so I applied light magic, which specializes in purification rather than recovery magic, and used a certain kind of magic.

“[Illness Purification].”

As I cast the spell, a blinding light enveloped Jean’s body. I used the magic while picturing in my mind’s eye the image of a virus or pathogen being extinguished in the body. It seemed to have an extraordinary effect, and Jean, who had been suffering until then, regained his composure.

“T-this is…I’m not suffocating, and my cough has stopped.”

“J-Jean! Are you all right? Are you in any pain?”

Realizing that the treatment was complete, Natalie rushed to Jean and voiced her concern, but when she saw that Jean was safe, she slumped to the spot and let out a sigh of relief. I looked at the analysis to be sure, but the frailty and weakness were gone, and he was in the same condition as when I first met Nathalie.

(Hmmm, glad it worked out. It wouldn’t have been nice if it had failed…….)

It was often said that one should not take cheap chances, and since I could not deny the fact that I had to do things on the spur of the moment this time, I sincerely hoped that next time I would be more relaxed in dealing with the situation.

I was thanked by both of them as if I had done nothing wrong, and while feeling a little uncomfortable, I came up with an idea and proposed it to them.

“Now that Jean’s illness is gone for now, what are you two going to do?”

“My little brother is recovering from his illness, so I’m going to go to work for a while.”

“Now that I’m better, I’m thinking of doing some work that I can do.”

“Is that so, then, are you interested in working for me?”

“”Eh?””

I was just planning to carry out a certain project and was going to hire some people for the project, so I decided to invite them to join me.

I told them that I would come back tomorrow morning to discuss the details with the other person, and decided to leave for the day.

“That’s right. I’ll give you this.”

“What is this?”

“It’s the money I got from selling the goods you stole from the bandits. Do with it what you will.”

“S-such thing. I cannot accept money from a benefactor who saved not only my life but also my brother’s life.”

After that, she stubbornly refused to accept the money, but when I told her that the money had originally come from her own pocket and gave her a few words to break her pride, she accepted it without hesitation. As she accepted the money, she mumbled something like, “Who am I anyway……” but I will pretend I didn’t hear it.

I also gave her an additional meal for today. And not forgetting to add that she should eat slowly and savor her food so that she didn’t vomit it up again…

By chance, I met the sister and brother and decided to pick them both up for a planned project, but I had no idea what was going to happen……. The thought of what lay ahead was almost discouraging, but I dragged my mentally exhausted body to dive into bed at the inn, wanting to just go home and sleep for the day.