CH 46

Fusaki-kun and I advance towards the depths of the forest.

I’ve been in and out of the forest since I was a child, so I’m used to it, but Fusaki-kun’s steps are light too.

He moves without any hesitation.

It seems like we’re off the path with the signpost.

“We’ll be fine on the way home~.”

As I look left and right, Fusaki-kun notices and responds ahead of me.

He raises his left wrist to show me something.

“Can you see this? There’s a really thin thread wrapped around it.”

“Eh? Thread…thread…”

Even staring at it, I can only see Fusaki-kun’s slim wrist.

I shake my head and say that I can’t see it.

“Then come closer look.”

He steps out of the tree’s shadow and stands in a spot where sunlight is filtering through the leaves.

The sunlight falls on his wrist.

Fusaki-kun raises his wrist and tells me to look again.

A faint sparkle appears on the thread.

“This is the thread. I forgot the name, but there’s a spider that makes very thin and sturdy thread, and I use that thread.”

“Is that a garden spider?”

“Yes, that’s the one! As expected, you know a lot, Nee-san.”

The threads of the garden spider are famous.

They are so thin that they are almost invisible, yet they cannot be torn even by strong pulls.

It is said that if multiple threads are braided together, they can withstand the sharpness of a knife.

This is the first time I’ve seen it in person.

“You see this? I stretched it out from the entrance.”

“You did that?”

“Yes! It’s essential when going to a new place or somewhere you’re not familiar with.”

I thought to myself, “As expected of Fusaki-kun.”

He is definitely more accustomed to exploration than me.

“You won’t get lost if you stay with me! Come on, let’s go.”

“Okay.”

He had a reliable presence that was unexpected for a boy.

I can see why he was chosen by Duke-sama.

Afterward, we harvested some tree nuts.

We picked the most pungent and astringent ones we could find.

“What are we going to use these for?”

“To preserve the seven leaf grass.”

“Oh, I see. But I thought the preservation method differed depending on the shape of the leaf. Do you already know which one it is?”

“I have a general idea. If you grow it in this environment, it’s probably the fourth leaf.”

The seven-leaf grass is numbered by the shape of its leaves, and my prediction is that it is the fourth.

The temperature is not too high or too low, and the humidity is higher than normal.

There are many well-grown plants around, especially those that prefer shade.

The shape of the leaves is a long oval.

“If you crush it, it can be turned into a disinfectant, so it can be used for healing or detoxification potions.”

“Hmm, I didn’t know about that. The shape does seem to suggest that though.”

“We’ll know if we check.”

“True. Let’s hurry then! If we’re late, His Highness will be angry.”

Check the time on the clock.

Yuren-kun said to come back by evening.

There is a little less than two hours left, with some time to spare.

We can’t spend too much time searching, so we hurried through the forest.

Twenty minutes later…

I found a grass growing in the corner of the shade of the tree.

“Found it!”

“Really? Where?”

“Over there. The grass growing under the tree.”

There is a plant of the shape that I described with my mouth growing where I am pointing my finger.

There are other plants growing around it, but they have a different shape.

The color is a bright shade of green.

The stem grows straight and is thick.

“Wow, you found it well. There’s only one growing.”

“It was easy to find because one leaf had a different shape, you know?”

“I had no idea at all. I found the one before by chance too. It’s amazing to be able to search and find them.”

Praise keeps coming out one after another, like Yuren-kun.

“So, do we not pick it yet?”

“It’s still not ready. We need to prepare first.”

I took out a fruit from a tree and crushed it right there.

I poured the squeezed juice onto the seven leaf grass.

Next, I borrowed some soil and mixed it with the mashed flesh.

“It’s done. Now all we have to do is pull it out and insert the stem.”

“Do we have to do it for each one? That sounds troublesome.”

“Hahaha, it’s certainly a hassle, but if we don’t do it, it will wither.”

Saying that, I snapped the stem.

The folding point is also determined, in the middle of the ground and the first leaf.

If it deviates too much, the effect will weaken.

“But we were able to get one, right?”

“Yeah. I’d like to have about three more if possible.”

“Well, let’s hurry up and find them! We also need those strongly smelling fruits.”

“That’s right. We already used one.”

One fruit is consumed per tree.

We only found two on our way, so I want to prepare two more.

“Anyway, it smells so bad. But hey, have I gotten used to it? I can now smell the sweet scent now.”

“Eh?”

Sweet scent?

I don’t smell it…

Yes, I had crushed some fruit so close that my nose was getting silly.

That’s why I didn’t notice it.

The dangerous scent surrounding me.