CH 26

Translator: “Imouto_Hunter”                                             

After that, the three of us rested until time was up, and then walked down the hallway together. Today’s objectives were massage training and curing the girl, so I didn’t do anything else. There’s no way I could have done anything with Twintails, and Sensei had used up most of her concentration. Twintails leaned on Sensei’s shoulder, with her hips still weak from her near-death experience. The reason she’s leaning on Sensei and not me is so that she doesn’t receive too much stimulus. Her whole body is still very sensitive from what happened, so if I carelessly touch her in the wrong place I could end up with a repeat of what happened earlier. Just as Sensei could tell me her most sensitive areas, she also knows her least sensitive areas. She pays careful attention to where she touches her as she supports her.

On our way to the staircase leading downstairs, there was an open door and a commotion coming from nearby.

The three of us got closer and peaked inside. Inside the room appeared to be a male guest, the concierge, and a woman on the ground convulsing and foaming at the mouth. In addition were two female waitresses looking after the fallen girl.

「Hey, what is this!? Give me a break!」

The guest yelled overbearingly as the concierge apologized. It looks like the girl collapsed in the middle of servicing him.

「So, what is it? What’s up with this place? Can’t you manage your women?」

Looks like a troublesome guy. He had a bad look in his eyes. First thing’s first, I need to cure that girl. I exchanged glances with the apologizing concierge, moved to the girl’s side, and began the massage. I call it a massage, but I really just raised her upper body and placed my hand on her back. As I raised her upper body, she threw up all over my clothes.

「What’s with you guys?」

The man raised his voice at us who had suddenly appeared. I ignored him and continued activating my magic. The same as I did with Twintails, I went through cure injury, cure illness, and cure status abnormality spells all rank F.

(Hmm?)

I passed cure injury and cure illness with nothing happening, but I felt a reaction with cure status abnormality. But the feeling I got from it was exactly the same as I got with Twintails. That’s why I had a feeling something was strange. Fortunately, Cure Status Abnormality (F) was able to cure her. She stopped convulsing and regained consciousness. She must have had some vomit in her trachea, as she started coughing violently and then quickly settled down. The waitresses had her drink water.

「Excuse me please.」

While still leaning on Sensei, Twintails came closer to me and whispered.

「I just remembered, but when my body started having problems it was after servicing this same guest.」

I took a fleeting glance at the man. He was still shouting at the concierge. I let Twintails know how it felt when I cured this girl.

「The exact same feeling as when you cured me?」

I nodded. It was most likely from the same source. After thinking for a bit, Twintails went and told something to the waitress. The waitress then quickly ran downstairs.

「I’m very sorry, don’t worry about the money. If you wait a few minutes, we can have a replacement ready for you.」

The concierge was on his knees apologizing. It may have put the guest in a good mood, as he started acting arrogant. He made a fuss demanding that a replacement be brought in right away.

「How about you bring the whole sidelines in here? I’ll choose from there.」

「Dear customer, that’s a bit…」

「What’s wrong with you? Were those apologies just for show? If you’re really sorry, isn’t that the least you can do?」

Since I’m just a bystander, I let the woman sit on the sofa while I watched the argument from a distance. The waitress that left earlier returned with a different young concierge and what looked like two bouncers. The man looked at the bouncers, and started backing off as I expected him to.

(He’s that sort of guy, huh? He puts on a strong appearance against people weaker than him, but he loses his cool as soon as he has to face someone tough.)

I made that assumption based off of some clients I worked for in Japan. The young concierge talked to the older concierge while showing him a ledger.

「Dear customer, do you have a minute?」

His words were polite, but his tone was more forceful compared to earlier.

「Yeah?」

He must have noticed the change in atmosphere. The man still raised his voice, but it was clear that he was bluffing.

「Please take a look at the ledger. The dates that you came here as well as your partners for each night are written here.」

He continued.

「And here are the dates and names of our workers who reported illness.」

The concierge’s eyes glowed with strength.

「They bear an incredible resemblance. Do you have any idea why that is?」

「Of course not! Are you trying to blame one of your guests!?」

The man’s voice was loud and angry, but his eyes were restless. They darted between the concierge, the bag on the table, and Twintails behind the concierge. He made eye contact with Twintails, and looked shocked.

「Whatever! I’m never coming to this place again! I don’t need the replacement so just give me my money back!」

「I’m terribly sorry, but I ask you to please wait a minute.」

The man started heading to the table, but the bouncers stood in his way. The concierge took his bag and started inspecting the contents.

「What are you doing looking in a customer’s belongings!? I won’t allow it, I’ll sue you!」

He tried to stop the concierge, but the bouncers wouldn’t allow it.

「As the manager of this place, I have the authority to check customer’s belongings.」

The concierge’s hands didn’t stop as he spoke, checking each things one by one. Then, he took out a single potion. The light shone on it, and its color was a pale purple. A color I had never seen before. He revealed an empty potion bottle, and smelled the nearby odour. He gave a signal to the young concierge.

「Call the guards immediately. Please escort our guest to a different room. Treat him as our guest, but be forceful.」

His tone of voice was harsh. He spoke politely, but it was as if he was talking to an enemy. The bouncers escorted the man downstairs, who was still ranting and raving.

「Thank you, Tauro-sama. This is all thanks to you.」

「Were you able to figure out what was going on?」

「Yes, he was most likely drugging these girls in secret.」

That must be what the potion bottle from earlier was for.

「I believe it to be a type of aphrodisiac. If the ingredients are too concentrated or unrefined, it can cause a multitude of undesired side effects.」

It’s a very dangerous type of drug, the concierge explained.

「Our store exists because of these girls. I can’t allow them to be harmed.」

He was fairly angry.

「We’ve had a lot of girls fall ill recently. It’s thanks to your help that I’ve finally been able to figure out a possible cause for it.」

”I’d like to thank you as well”, the concierge said as he bowed towards Twintails and Sensei.

Twintails aside, Sensei was actually sick and didn’t have a status abnormality. I thought that, but I didn’t say it.

「We’ll do our best to follow through with the investigation.」

The concierge said with a powerful voice. It looks like the other shops will be helping too. They’re going to see how many girls are currently ill and deal with it accordingly. This brought me some relief.

Afterwards, guards, a concierge from a different store, and a real doctor came to the scene. It was a big commotion. As a self-alleged doctor, I left in order to not be found out. The concierge really wanted to thank me, but he looked so busy that I told him I’d come by another day. My coat was still covered in vomit, so I sent it to the cleaners. I returned home in just my undershirt and cloak, but it wasn’t too cold as it was still four in the afternoon. I put on a different coat, thankful that I had purchased extra clothing. I went to the garden to take a look at my herbs that I had watered with potions this morning.

「Ohh!」

All nine of my herbs were looking so healthy you couldn’t tell it was them. They were so lively I could feel it. It was the opposite of the eyesore that they were this morning.

(It looks like potions really do work to keep medicinal herbs healthy. My theory was correct.)

“Mmhmm”, I nodded to myself. I thought for a moment that this could be useful to artificial cultivation research, but I quickly rejected the idea.

(I don’t know how much herbs are needed to make a potion, but this would definitely be cost-ineffective.)

There’s no way the Royal Magic Academy hasn’t already tried it. Artificial cultivation is meaningless if you have to expend a bunch of potions to make it work. It was getting close to dinnertime, so I headed out.