Badlands Saga: Reincarnation in a Different World with Extreme Charisma - Chapter 23

Chapter 23   Turn Me Loose, Im Dr. FeelGood 4

“‘I heard there’s an apothecary here…’”

“Oh, it’s Noshin! How have you been?”

“Ah, Sigil! It’s been a while. My wife’s cough just won’t stop…”

I had been staying in a simple house, and beside it, a new one had been built, with several horses tied outside. This new house had effectively become my clinic.

“Master Fusha, what should we do? More people are here…”

“This is bad. If it keeps up like this, we’ll be stuck here until spring… I didn’t come here to open a hospital.”

“That’s because you help everyone in need, without hesitation.”

Somehow, word had spread about the child recovering from scurvy, and now people from all over the grasslands were flocking to me for medicine.

For scurvy, I could simply have them eat the citrus fruits brought from Subado. Coughs and joint pain could usually be treated with the medicines in my kit. But the real issue was that I was getting bored with this place.

While I didn’t dislike the grassland scenery, spending a week here had made me restless. The wasteland was my home, and there were at least a few books and other small diversions. But here, all I had was livestock, meat, tea, and wolves.

To be honest, I wasn’t inclined to stay any longer.

“If we stay here, more people will keep coming. The homeowner’s child is already much better, so we should leave tomorrow.”

“And what about all these people who’ve gathered?”

“I’ll have the trading caravan of the Mystic Army come here. If they bring citrus fruits, the same sickness as the homeowner’s child will be cured. For other illnesses, well… without alchemy tools, I can’t do much more than hand out what’s left of the medicine in my kit.”

“Even the nomads wouldn’t be able to stop me if I told them I was going to meet the Emperor.

I gave as much medicine as I could to the people who came to me for help, promised to bring a caravan from Subado, and somehow managed to set off. However, despite my efforts, people kept coming to me for medicine wherever I went, and it was quite troublesome.

Most of them weren’t seriously ill despite traveling incredible distances. The complaints were mostly things like long-standing back pain, headaches, or itchy feet. If I had the right medicine, I gave it to them, but for the rest, I could only tell them to rely on the trading caravan from Subado, giving them directions.

“Oh, is that a town?”

”Ah, that’s the edge of Tsutomuporita. ”

”The edge? ”

When I asked that, Urok, our caretaker, nodded proudly.

”Tsutomuporita is huge. It’s big enough to hold Ugamo, Zugi, Horido, and Subado—all of them inside. ”

”That’s practically a whole country. ”

“I don’t really get what people mean by a “country.”

“A country, is a unified entity. There’s a king at the top, with nobles below him, and citizens below them. They protect the people and the country’s interests from other nations.”

“Ah, then all the places we’ve passed through so far are part of a country. They’re all related to the Great Chief in Tsutomuporita. Even the neighboring Zvaibe tribe is family.”

I wonder if a country could be formed by perfecting marital alliances like this. For now, I’ll call it the Makiano Nation. It was enormous and stable, with no ambitious lords vying for the throne or rogue nobles turned bandits. There was just a king in the capital, bound by blood ties, and everyone seemed to live out their lives without any great ambitions.

“No rebellions from lords or anything like that?”

“Rebellion?”

“I mean, is there no one who raises a sword against the king?”

“Oh, yeah! Once every five years, there’s a big brawl to decide the Great Chief! It’s a festival!”

“A festival?'”

Upon hearing more, I learned that the Makiano nation had a sort of election system.

The influential leaders from various regions would nominate candidates, and those candidates would compete in the royal capital. The strongest one would become the Great Chief, supported by everyone.

This system was created by their founder, Laokan.

“About five generations ago, there was a king named Kodoriko. He was strong, but that was all. He wasn’t acknowledged by everyone, so he wasn’t allowed to participate in the next festival. That’s why we make our children study hard, so they don’t end up like Kodoriko.”

It seemed like their system was functioning fairly well.

Well done, Laokan.

As we discussed this, we entered Tsutomuporita and kept traveling through its massive expanse.

“Hey, no matter how far we walk, this town never ends!”

“Are you a country bumpkin, Kintman? We’re still on the outskirts.”

Tsutomuporita was as vast as cities from my past life. We walked and walked, and the town never seemed to end. Even when we reached a more open area, it was just farmland surrounded by residential zones.

The town was vast, bustling, and dazzling. People were dressed in brightly colored clothes, the inns had baths, and there were even sewage systems, making the typical stench of populated areas much less noticeable.

“I wanna live here…”

“They sure can send a huge army from a place like this.”

With their bodies relaxed after a hot bath, Kintman and Isara enjoyed their thick ham-and-melting-cheese sandwiches, washing them down with beer, all while looking blissfully happy.

The Makiano tribe put us up in an unbelievably luxurious inn for two nights. It felt more like a palace, with large public baths, steam rooms, flush toilets, and lavish meals paired with endless amounts of alcohol.

Of course, everyone else was thrilled too, indulging in delicious food and drink. Since it was all on someone else’s dime, they feasted without restraint. At night, some even snuck out for a bit of fun.

As for me, I was still growing, so I went straight to sleep after sunset…

Tsutomuporita was such an enjoyable town that I thought I’d like to return when I was older, assuming I survived.

However, all journeys must come to an end.

By the third day of our delightful time in the city, the fun was over. We finally reached our destination: the Great Chief’s grand palace, located at the northernmost edge of Tsutomuporita.

Standing before this colossal structure, so immense it made the luxurious inn from the past two nights look like a stable, I felt the same trembling excitement I had during the Winter War.

◆◆◆

[Scurvy] (Nomadic Regions)

A disease specific to nomadic regions, characterized by symptoms such as full-body fatigue, muscle pain, joint pain, bleeding of the skin and gums, and loss of teeth. It occurs due to a deficiency of nutrients found in raw vegetables and fruits.

The condition was named by Fu of the Wasteland, who visited the nomadic regions at the time [1] and also established a treatment method [2]. He prescribed various medicines to the nomadic people [3], created a trade network, and left for Tsutomuporita. His story [4] spread the name of the disease throughout the land.

This page explains diseases common in nomadic regions. For more information on other forms of scurvy, please refer to page 157, “Scurvy (Sailors).”

[1] Recorded in the “Urok Chronicles.” Other theories exist.

[2] It is said that he administered “Vitamins,” but there are other theories. Among them, the directive to “eat citrus fruits” remains a long-standing tradition in the area.

[3] Some of these medicines still exist today. Many remain unexplained, and research is ongoing.

[4] The relevant section of the play Mystic Army, based on The Northern Legends, portrays Fu of the Wasteland saving the landlord’s child and leaving without accepting a reward, saying, “A night’s lodging and a meal is thanks enough.” However, according to the “Urok Chronicles,” he actually stayed for about a week, bored by the desolate nomadic land as a child.

Family Doctor’s Handbook