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As Haru resumed her performance, more elves gathered there, as it had been a while since they had something fun to do like that… And Crim was standing on the outer row, where she turned around feeling someone behind her.

And there she saw…debating whether to raise her voice or not, a blue haired elven girl.

“Ah…umm…hello again…”
“Oh? If it isn’t Selena. What happened?”

The girl awkwardly spoke to Crim, who replied rather indifferently.
Selena seemed taken aback by that unbothered response, her eyes widening.

“It’s just…it seemed like people were having fun here, at least from the sound of it, and since my brother was feeling a bit better today…”

She was still hesitant to speak freely, and her gaze was following an elven child wrapped in a blanket, who was walking toward Haru with an enchanted look on his eyes.
Every time his little unsteady feet wobbled a little Selena would twitch, until Crim decided it was enough.

“Then go, and see to thy brother properly. Remain close at his side.”
“But…after everything I did…”
“Heh, it’ll take much more than that to get rid of me. And bringing up things like that will only sour the merry mood here, so just forget it ever happened.”

Crim chuckled after saying that, and the girl thanked her in a low voice as a tear rolled down her cheek.

◇◇◇

*”…Yeah I know the cure for that.”*
“…Jade, are you certain?!”

…Eventually, all the children went back home, including Selena’s brother, who was seen off by everyone.

They decided to consult with Jade about the boy’s symptoms…and she instantly knew what it was.

*“Yes, those symptoms line up perfectly with a stronger version of Enfeebled that sometimes affects players too.”*

Enfeebled…a disease spread by ghost type enemies. It was a status effect that caused constant ticking damage, and ramping exhaustion.

*”There’s a bunch of alchemist quests involving NPCs afflicted by status effects that show up like diseases, and they’re usually solved by finding the cure… This is probably one of those too, so as long as he takes the right medicine for long enough, he’ll be fine, but…”*

She paused for a short moment, looking at everyone there before continuing.

*”I can’t get there right now, so another alchemist is going to have to prepare it.”*

When she said that, everyone’s eyes naturally fell on the only alchemist there…Selena.

*”…It’s probably going to be a difficult concoction for you to prepare, but do you want to do it anyway?”*

Everyone looked at the girl as Jade asked her directly…and she raised her head with determined yes.

“…Yes, I’ll do anything. So please…help him.”

Knowing there was a way out usually made people change…and the girl who looked so crestfallen moments earlier had a new glint of hope in her eyes.

*”…Alright, I might be far away, but I’ll do everything I can to be of assistance too. There’s just another issue. It requires a lot of rare ingredients, and I’ve ran out of them…”*
“Jade, just tell us what we need, we’ll go collect everything.”
*”I had a hunch you’d say that, Crim. I’ll send you a list of all the ingredients and where to find them later.”*

Jade said that, having already expected that Crim would be so eager to do it, and then hung up the call.

…After that they began forming groups to collect the materials.

“I think I just overheard something interesting here. Could I also have a look at that list of ingredients?”
“Hm? Lawran?”

Suddenly, someone else joined their conversation. Surprisingly, the leader of the traditional faction, Lawran, also wanted to join them.
He gave a passing glance to Selena, who was looking at him with caution, and then took the note with all the ingredients listed on it from Crim.

“…You can find this…and this is not too far from the village. I’ll share this with my men and those I know in the traditional faction to search together.”
“…But why, Lord Lawran.”
“Because I want to protect everyone in the village. That obviously includes you and your brother.”

Lawran gave a quick reply after Selena asked that.
But then he let out a self-defeated laugh as he muttered.

“…Or at least that’s what I thought I was doing. Somehow, I refused to take a proper look around me until one of them felt compelled to go after my life.”
“Lord Lawran…”
“It won’t do much to amend my past neglect, but now I want to help too.”

After he said that…Selena gave a reluctant nod.

“Suzaku…”
“Yeah yeah, whatever you want. It’s not like I’d be able to say no after everyone decided to join, so stop looking at me like that already!”

Meanwhile, Suzaku scratched his head awkwardly while giving in to Da’at, who had been staring intently at him the entire time. Haru was more than happy to help too.

“Ahahah, well I’m sure that Suzaku would’ve helped too even if he didn’t say he would.”
“…Hmph, whatever you say.”
“In any case, we’ll all help too, obviously.”

Volunteers came one after another, and before they realized, they had put together a sizable team.
Maybe they were just going with the flow in the moment, but all the positivity quickly dispelled the gloominess covering the city, and everyone was smiling again.

*A new wind has arrived.*

Crim noticed things were changing, so she took the stage and raised her voice.

“Well then… Everyone, let’s split up and gather everything within the day!”
“ “ “ “Yeahh!!” ” ” ”

Finally…after such a long time, cheerful energetic voices echoed through the Flowery City.