According to the village chief, the hands of Ursines were too large and rough, so delicate work like making pastries was done entirely by the resident harpies. The workshop was supposedly only twelve buildings away, but that meant a full kilometer walk from the honey harvesting facility because of how spaced out the structures here were.

"Ah! It's coming again! Save me!"

The somewhat faint shout of a girl could be heard from one of the buildings we passed by.

"Not this again…"

The chief remained put and made such strange remark as the four of us ran towards where the desperate sounding scream came from.

"Get them away from me! Please!"

"Calm down, honey. Calm down. There's nothing here…"

Inside the house we ran to was an Ursine girl limping around with a strange posture, with her mother patting her back and trying to calm her down. The girl looked distressed; her eyes were red and wide open as she frantically turned her head left and right. The mother was fatigued, perhaps because she had been keeping watch of her daughter for an extended period of time without rest. While she noticed us coming in, she didn't bother turning towards us to greet us.

"Hello. I'm not in the mood to receive visitors, sorry."

"We apologize for intruding your home. We thought something was wrong when we heard the desperate scream earlier…"

"Ah! It's coming again! Save me!"

"No, nobody is coming. Calm down, honey. Why don't you go lie down in bed?"

The village chief eventually came in to explain the situation to us as we watched the mother trying to get her daughter to stay put.

"This girl has been plagued with strange hallucinations, headaches, and a strange walking posture for about a week now."

"Has anyone else had the same problem?"

"None. Even her mother who has been by her side the entire time is fine."

"That doesn't sound like a normal disease…"

"We requested a doctor from Suva town to come over, but even he was not able to tell what was wrong."

"Perhaps she was poisoned?"

"She's too young to have made enemies here in town. It's a small town, so everyone knows about each other's relationships."

"What about with outsiders?"

"She usually patrols downstream with two other harpies, but they don't recall her ever meeting anyone hostile."

"And those two are still healthy?"

"They are."

"Would you mind if I felt her forehead?"

"Go ahead."

While they couldn't use magic, the Ursines and other beastly races did have a small amount of mana that allowed them to enhance their physical strength through a passive means that they weren't aware of. By putting my hand on her forehead, I was trying to detect if there was an abnormal flow of mana within her body. The lack of abnormalities suggested that she was not cursed, either.

What a strange incident. It wasn't a known disease, and wasn't a poison either, since something strong enough to damage a bear-like creature like this girl would likely be very noticeable or have infected someone else as well.

"Chief, I have a question."

"What is it?"

"It's about the honey this town harvests. Does the honey ever come out bitter?"

"Sometimes, yes."

"Could you show me where to find the hives that produce that kind of honey?"

"Certainly. Are you suspecting bitter honey is causing her to be sick?"

"No, but I'd like to make a potion for her."

Most bitter tasting plants had some sort of medicinal property to them. If the bees in this town could make bitter flavored honey, then that meant there was bound to be some bitter tasting plants in the area. I was hoping to find some willow trees, since the bark could potentially help her muscles and headaches, and perhaps some lavender flowers to deal with her anxiety.

Worried that I'd get stung by bees, I made Casath come along while carrying a bucket of water. The chief said bees didn't like getting their feet wet, so all I thought he would need to do is dump the water on me in the unlikely event that I did get attacked. Well, it's not like we were going to be knocking on beehives, so it's probably unlikely that any bees would get provoked in the first place. Hanung followed along since she couldn't let herself be separated from Casath, and Amber joined as well since she didn't want to be the only one left behind.

"Yuck! This stuff is so bitter!"

"That's a wild blackberry…"

I did specifically tell the three that I would be able to spot a willow tree if we encountered one in our path, and that lavender flowers were purple, but Hanung just decided to pluck anything she could find, especially if it looked close to being purple, and taste it to see if it was bitter or not. I tried stopping her on several occasions, but seeing how she somehow wasn't poisoned by the wild berries and flowers, I gave up on that thought.

Not too far away from town, we eventually stumbled upon a few willow trees. I was too lazy to cut out some of the bark, so I had Hanung act like a woodpecker and peck into several trees so I could collect the wood chips that fell down. Afterwards, we wandered around the flower meadows to pluck out some lavender, as well as a few other plants along the way, and came back right around sundown. Or rather, since there were too many bees in the meadows, I had Amber carry out that task with the other two, while I casually walked back to town alone. I don't know why they readily agreed to let me ditch them like that.

In the end, none of us had to be drenched in water, so I used the water in the bucket that Casath carried to brew something for the girl to drink. I wasn't sure what the girl could possibly stomach, so I decided to make tea rather than a potion, since the liquid might be too thick for her to handle. To aid with digestion, I added in some peppermint that I collected earlier in the forest, and added a bit of honey so the drink wouldn't be too bitter.

"Please give this to your daughter. Try to feed her something, too. It might not be a good idea to only have her drink tea on an empty stomach, after all. I also left enough for one more pot of tea in the kitchen."

"Thank you…"

I set a pot of tea down on the bedside and left the Ursine mother alone with her daughter.

"Excuse me chief, do you have any guest houses in this town?"

"Ah, my apologies. We don't have one, but you are all welcome to stay at my residence tonight."

There was no guarantee that what I brewed would be able to make the young girl healthier, so I decided to stay in this town for at least a full day to observe the situation. There was also the problem that we had no food rations for the road, too, so I didn't want to risk traveling without supplies even though it would only be a four or five hour trip on open fields to get to Suva town. It was already nighttime, after all, and I really didn't think it would have been a good idea to travel so late with minimal preparations.

* * * * *

I expected the village chief's residence to be fancy in some manner, but it was no different from other regular households. He lived in a house with two floors, with a living room, kitchen, and bathroom on the first floor. The second floor had three bedrooms and a common room. While I'd like to call this a modest home, the fact that it was bear-sized meant that everything was about twice as large as I was accustomed to seeing. This could very well be considered a small mansion in terms of size.

The largest of three bedrooms was used by the chief and his wife, while the other two bedrooms were used by his two children. I insisted on having our group sleep on the large couches in the living room, but the chief's children insisted on letting us use their two bedrooms while they would sleep over at their friends' homes that night. For dinner, the chief treated us to a literal mountain of slow roasted honey-glazed meat, honey-baked potatoes, and honey-roasted vegetables for dinner. It seems like a lot of residents in this town had quite a sweet tooth, probably because of the abundance of honey…

We idly chatted about various topics with the village chief's family as the meal went on. Among the things we talked about was why despite being the eldest person in the village, the chief only had two children, neither of whom had their own children. As it turns out, the Ursines were behaviorally similar to wild bears, whereby they had children quite late in their lives and often had miscarriages. Because their attempts at having children were infrequent, and because the Ursines often gave birth to at most three cubs at a time, their population was always quite low, and living to see grandchildren was considered a miraculous event.

The family apologized for not being able to accommodate all of us in single rooms, but I told them there was no need to worry about that, since the fact that everything was twice as large as what we used meant that the beds were large enough for two people to share. I initially wanted to have Casath and I in one room and the two girls in the other room, but Hanung absolutely could not bear being separated from her half-brother, so we ended up having Amber and I in one bedroom and the other two in the other bedroom. There wasn't anything in particular we could do to pass the time, so I decided that I would call it a night early after taking a bath.

"You know, a question just came to my mind. How come the three of you never seem to speak up when I make some sort of decision? We could have traveled on and reached Suva town before midnight if you three wanted to."

"I'm your shop assistant, and the other two are hired help, so you're the leader of the group."

"I'd rather be considered equals with you three, though."

"We don't mind, anyways. We wouldn't have had a lot of chances to go sightseeing like this if it wasn't for you."

"I see. Well, I guess I'll go to sleep first. Have fun dividing up the bed. Wait… what are you doing?"

While it was understandable that Amber would want to put things on the bed to divide it in half, I was more curious as to why she was holding some rope.

"Making sure you don't do anything weird."

"Aren't you the one doing weird things, holding that rope?"

"If I tie you up, then you can't violate me."

"Why would I even violate you?"

"You thought about doing it before, so I don't want to take any risks."

"What are you talking about? When did I… Right, I did think about that before, when the succubus broke into my room."

"See, you didn't even deny that! Now let me tie you up so you can't do anything to me!"

"Wait, wait! Hold on! I only had those thoughts because it would have been in a dream! I definitely don't want to do anything to you in real life unless you consented!"

We lived in the same house, after all, so I wouldn't want to get her so mad that she would quit her job as my shop assistant. Still, I can't believe she has that bad of an impression about what I would do at nighttime. I thought it was quite clear from the succubus incident a few weeks ago that I only wanted lewdness in my dreams.

"Are you really not going to try to do anything?"

"I promise I won't. If I do end up doing inappropriate things, then feel free to tie me up for the rest of our trip. Now, please put the rope away."

After a short moment of silence, Amber reluctantly stowed away the rope she was holding.

"Anyways, have fun with whatever you're doing. I'll just go to sleep now."

"It's only 9 o'clock."

I'm not even sure when Amber usually slept, but I normally went to bed at around 11 or 12, since bottling the daily shipments took quite a bit of time.

"But I'm tired, after everything we've been through today. Goodnight."

"…"

I promptly tossed the blanket over my head, turned my body to the side facing away from the bed divider, and closed my eyes.

* * * * *

The next morning, I woke up with several scratch marks on my face, and it wasn't because I did anything inappropriate. As a matter of fact, Amber tended to have vivid dreams and was very active in her sleep. Based on what she was saying while sleep-talking, it seemed like she dreamed of herself as a tiger trying to hunt some prey on an open field, with me being the prey.

I thought about waking her up last night to complain, but felt that violently shaking her so late at night would have likely caused a misunderstanding, so I decided to go downstairs to sleep on a couch instead. What bothered me the most was that nobody, not even Amber herself, seemed to question why I had scratches on my face when they came downstairs later in the morning. They just casually walked into the dining room to enjoy a light meal before we departed for Suva town.

"Um… Excuse me…"

The quiet voice of a young girl called out to us while we were having breakfast.

"Oh? You're the girl from yesterday."

It was the formerly sickly girl, led inside by her mother and one of the chief's children.

"Yes… Thank you for the medicine yesterday."

I got up from my seat and walked over to the girl and her mother.

"Are you feeling better already?"

"I still have slight headaches and see some weird things, but the pain is light enough that I can keep myself calm, now."

"Well I'm glad I was able to help. I'll tell your mother how I brewed the drink you had yesterday, so you won't need to worry about not having medicine after I leave town."

"Thank you."

The girl still looked a bit frail, but she was definitely in a much better condition than yesterday. Her mother thanked me profusely and gifted me a large fruit basket as thanks. I asked Casath to hold onto it since it was way too large and heavy for me to handle.

I still felt troubled, though: the girl had some unknown health problem that could only be alleviated but not cured, it seems, and she was most likely going to pass away in a couple months if it were to get any worse. It's probably best if I didn't tell them that and let the girl enjoy what's left of her life while she still can…