CH 172

I Asked About the Strange Glass Sphere

“I’ll put it here for now.”

“Here is the water.”

I picked up the glass sphere from the floor and put it down on the table next to the bed.

It was then that Mr. Hannes came with a wooden bowl of water.

“Cough! Cough! Cough!”

“Drink it carefully and don’t spit any of it out.”

“…Cough! …Ah… Glug.”

As Phillip coughed violently, Mr. Hannes helped him sit up, and I made him drink the water with Ramogi.

Phillip somehow managed to drink all of it.

Now, he should recover soon.

“Oh? What is that…”

“Ah, it was what Phillip was holding. I put it over there so it wouldn’t roll away.”

Now that Phillip had finished drinking, it was just a matter of waiting for it to take effect. That was when Mr. Hannes noticed the sphere on the table.

“So he brought it all of the way here.”

“But what is it?”

He had been clutching it preciously, even when sleeping.

It wasn’t as perfectly round as the sphere I had seen with Ms. Isabela in Ractos, but it was still round enough to roll if there was nothing in its path.

“That was brought a short while ago by a merchant. He said that it would help improve the taste of the wine if we put it in the storage house.”

“Improve the taste…”

Would such a thing really work…?

I had never heard of anything like that in Japan… But perhaps this thing was magical and had special effects.

…Though, I didn’t feel anything from it…

After I had started to practice magic with Sebastian, I was able to detect magic energy. Though, only a little.

And there was something about the glass sphere that felt wrong.

“I think it was…a little over one month ago… It wasn’t the same merchant who we buy grapes from, but a different merchant. And he left this here after the visit.”

“One month…”

There was something about it all that made me wonder…

“What else did he do in the village, aside from giving you that sphere?”

As it bothered me, I asked Mr. Hannes for more details.

“Apparently, the merchant who usually visited us could not come. And he brought the grapes instead.”

“I see…and he just left the sphere as well.”

“Yes.”

So a different merchant from the usual one came and left that sphere along with the grapes for the wine…

“Now that I think about it, where are these grapes grown?”

When I was at the mansion, wine had not been served even once.

I didn’t know if Ms. Claire or Mr. Ekenhart drank, but it seemed odd that something like wine was not served at all in a noble’s house.

“Quite far away from here… In the lands of the count. We buy them from him and make the wine. Apparently, they do not have enough trees to make the necessary barrels.”

So unlike these lands, the count did not have vast forests.

Still…the count, huh…?

“Is this Count Barsler?”

“Yes. Count Barsler. As he likes wine, in exchange for selling us grapes, we send him our best wine.”

I didn’t know much about nobles in this world, but that name was familiar to me, because I had heard it recently.

Count Barsler… I did not expect to hear that name here…

Over a month ago…wine and grapes…the glass sphere…that store…the same disease that was spreading in Ractos…

While I was no detective, it seemed obvious to me that there was a connection.

“Do you send any wine to Ractos?”

“Well, it is the closest and largest town. So, of course, we send it to them. However, we cannot send too much, as much of it goes to the count…”

“Hmm…”

So they did send some to Ractos, but not a lot… In that case, it wasn’t too odd that none was served back at the mansion.

While it wouldn’t be impossible to acquire, perhaps they didn’t care to go through the trouble.

They did live much more comfortably than most people, but they didn’t seem to care too much about certain luxuries.

“I’m quite interested in this wine now. After all, it was very delicious. And since this sphere must be returned, perhaps I could  take a look at the storage house?”

“Of course, Mr. Takumi. And I am happy that you have taken an interest in our humble village.”

The whole village worked together to earn a meager living, so they were happy to have their work praised.

And while it may seem a little deceitful, I would take advantage of that and inspect the wine…

I didn’t know why, but I felt I might learn something that would connect it to that store.

“…As for Phillip…he seems fine now.”

“He is no longer coughing, and is resting peacefully.”

I picked up the glass sphere from the table as I looked at Phillip.

The Ramogi had been effective, and he was no longer coughing painfully, and his face was not red.

It would be best to just let him sleep for now.

“I’m sorry, but if he wakes up while I’m not here, could you give him the same soup that I had this morning?”

“Yes, very well. We will be preparing lunch soon, so we can have something ready.”

“Thank you.”

Before heading to the storage house with the sphere and Mr. Hannes, I asked his wife for some soup.

That soup was hot and would warm him right up. It was the best thing for someone who had drunk so much and was recently ill.

After all, the Ramogi had no effect on a hangover.

Well, I wasn’t actually sure that he had one in the first place.