Chapter 37: The Price of Curiosity
freewebnovel.c(o)mIt was just before noon by the time I had finished the morning’s field work and roughly replenishing the reduced medicine with Drug Discovery.
One thing lead to another, and it seems I’m working a lot …
“Well I’m having fun so it’s fine, though.”
With a tumble, Noela, who was lying horizontally all stretched out, came rolling over into the medicine room.
“What’s up, Rolling Noela?”
She stop right next to me.
“Master… … my stomach hurts…”
“Your stomach hurts? Did you eat something weird?”
Shake shake; Noela shook her head.
Didn’t eat anything weird. It was a nut that fell by the side of the street. I at that.”
“That’s what’s called ‘something weird’.”
Potions are for external wounds, so it won’t help….
Ah, I haven’t made anything to quell stomachaches yet?
Mina poked her head into the medicine room.
“Reiji-san, Noela-san, lunch is ready-.”
“Noela, right now, doesn’t need it…”
“Oh my, how unusual. What’s wrong?”
“Ah, it seems like her stomach hurts right now.”
When I told her I thought she would be worried, but Mina had a slightly angry look on her face.
“Ah-! You ate something lying by the side of the road, didn’t you-? Geez, I told you not to, Noela-san!”
“You know her well.”
“Because Noela-san will eat whatever looks edible lying on the side of the road whenever we go shopping together.”
Good grief; Mina sighed.
“No matter how many times I told her, ‘You’ll get a stomache you know? I warned you, okay?’ she didn’t listen to me at all…”
“So this is Noela reaping what she sows after all.”
Tumble; Noela rolled over to me.
“Master… don’t abandon me … Master…”
Making puppy dog eyes at me is cheating, this fluffy girl.
But if she doesn’t fix her bad habit of eating random things she finds, then she’ll continue to do the same thing if I make the stomach ache medicine.
“I get it, I get it. I’ll make the stomach ache medicine later. … Hey, Mina.”
Leaving Noela behind, I went into the living room with Mina.
“Do you have any ideas for a method to get Noela to stop eating random things.”
“H-m. Maybe she’ll stop if Reiji-san harshly tells her to …”
“… You think?”
“Uu… I don’t really know. Rather than being hungry, it feels like she’s curious, like ‘I wonder what this tastes like,’ and then she puts it in her mouth.”
“They say that curiosity kills the cat. … Although it’s a werewolf in this case.”
“It seems like she likes crunching on the rockshow nuts that Kodra-san leaves for us … She might have picked the habit up there.”
Curiosity about the flavor…
The rockshow nuts…
Oh yeah, she said it was a nut she found today too.
… If that’s the case, then That might fix her bad habits.
“I’ll try making a medicine to counter it.”
“Eh? Is that kind of thing something you can make?”
“I think it’s worth attempting.”
Noela was writhing on the floor when I returned to the medicine room.
“Master~. Master~….”
Oh right, I left her like this after saying I’d make stomach ache medicine.
“Will you promise that you won’t eat random things anymore?”
“Will…! Noela, won’t do it anymore…”
It would be best if she stops after this experience, but let’s make this medicine first in case she doesn’t.
Title: Operation Oblate.
Gugyuuu~; Noela’s stomache sounded.
“Master, my stomach grumbled.”
“Yup, it grumbled.”
“Will go eat lunch.”
She has the energy when it comes to meals… this trait is very much Noela.
Standing up, Noela trotted out and left the medicine room.
Good timing.
I don’t have to worry about the plan being found out.
I snickered as I proceeded with my drug discovery work.
“Just you wait Noela, if you break your promise with me, you’ll meet a dire fate….!”
Using the new drug on something that looked like Noela would pick up and eat, I left to begin Operation Oblate before returning.
Now then.
Let’s make that stomach ache medicine and give it to Noela to carry with her.
[Stomach Medicine: the main ingredient, ocresol, will stabilize the digestive system, and has the effect of increasing its performance.]
It seems like my stomache medicine is very effective, and Noela’s stomach ache was soon gone.
—
The next day.
Mina and Noela went shopping together in line with my plan.
I watched their departing figures while watching over the shop.
“Well, nothing will happen if Noela keeps her promise though -”
I bet she probably won’t.
Which will it be – while I was thinking that, Noela returned immediately, with her mouth warped into a へ shape.
This girl; she broke it immediately.
“What’s wrong Noela? Returning already?”
I asked her while grinning, and her eyes welled up with tears.
“Master, Noela broke her promise… no more, won’t eat things I pick up anymore … mouth, so bitter … the thing lying there, bitter…”
I gave her a potion to wash the taste out since she was so pitiful, and Noela gulped it down with great vigor.
Mina returned while chasing after Noela.
“Reiji-san, Noela-san ate a nut lying on the ground and started crying that it was bitter … Even though I thought it was a nut that wasn’t bitter at all … It’s something that’s normally eaten.”
“That was the new medicine I made for Operation Oblate.”
I placed the new medicine on the counter with bang.
[Bitter Coating α: A liquid that gives off an intense bitterness. It wraps the object in a thin membrane. It does no harm to the body.]
Mina brought her mouth towards my ear in order not to be heard by Noela.
“So you mean you set a trap for her to eat?”
“Well, that’s basically it. I would have been happy if she kept her promise. But if she didn’t I could try out the new medicine’s efficacy; it was a win-win plan.”
Waa~; Mina made a sound like she was admiring me.
“As expected of Reiji-san~. I thought it would have been fine if you told her off strongly. But she puts all sorts of things in her mouth, so this will certainly make her think, ‘If I eat random things on the ground it will be bitter.’”
Speaking of medicinal types, it’s similar to a repellent but it’s aim is a little different.
It teaches you that eating something is bitter, and robs your appetite of that thing.
“Bitter, I hate it … Noela hates things on the ground, I hate bitter things…”
The new product showed a suitable effect, and it successfully gave Noela trauma when it comes to eating things off the ground.
I feel a bit sorry for her this time, but it’s much better than having her eat something weird that medicine wouldn’t be able to cure.
The new medicine Bitter Coating α will play a valuable role in keeping the town clean for use against animals that rummage through the garbage.
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