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Turning to the voice’s origin, Juerd’s party were there standing as if they owned their place. Well, that’s probably just my bias speaking; they probably don’t intend to seem that way. Since this is the Hunter Guild, it’s not strange for their party to be here. However, with the saintess candidate, Shelate, in their midst, I’m already starting to feel depressed.
Thinking that it might be better if I handled someone as bothersome as her, I asked Ciel, 『Shall we switch?』 but she instantly said, 『No.』 I guess she noticed that I was trying to redirect trouble away from her.

「It’s just as Sir Juerd says. If there’s someone in need and you have the means to help them, it’s one’s duty to lend a hand. The difference in money shouldn’t matter.」
「That’s right, it’s as these kids say.」

Sure enough, Shelate joined the fray, and the woman was quick to take her side. The appearance of these new faces bewildered Mia, and I’m really feeling bad for her. Mia is skilled and capable, but she’s still inexperienced in being an attendant.
That’s why it’s unreasonable to expect her to perfectly handle this situation; frankly, even veteran attendants probably wouldn’t be able to handle this chaos.

It’s very troubling, since now that our classmates are involved, running away is no longer a viable option. If we run now, it’s clear as day that they’ll bug us when classes start again.

「Human life is precious. Please look at the boy; he’s suffering so much… Don’t you feel bad for him?」
「Miss…」
「You should understand what to do now.」

*’I don’t,’* I answered in my mind, but before Ciel could respond, 「One moment, please,」 the voice of an old man echoed.
Just as I thought things couldn’t get more convoluted, a completely unexpected new face appeared; I guess this is what it means when trouble comes in threes.
Turning towards the man, he wears what appears to be a butler’s outfit, which I anticipated. If the circumstances were different, I’d probably be admiring his look.

「If… No, could you instead cede the herb to the Ghnestark family?」
「I don’t know who you are or where you’re from, old man, but my son’s life is at stake here. You’ve got guts to take this opportunity from me.」

And so the woman fearlessly snapped at the old butler. They say mothers are strong, but I don’t think this is the best situation to display that strength.
She’s probably not thinking right now, but depending on the situation, this action could turn their family’s future into a bleak one. After all, only affluent families can hire butlers, like nobles, for example.

Also, unlike the mother before us, this old butler has a tenacious personality.
He isn’t convinced that Ailneige has the herb yet. He did blurt out ‘If,’ after all. He probably intended to say, 「If you have the herb.」 Despite that, he didn’t continue his words, most likely to prevent us from hiding the fact that we have the herb just in case we really do have it.
After all, had he started with, 「If you have the herb,」 it would have been easy to say, 「I don’t,」 and he surely didn’t want that.

Well, the conversation is proceeding with us left in the dust.

「A life is at stake? It’s the same for us. Besides, the Ghnestark―the master of the house has presented an adequate reward as well.」
「Money isn’t everything. Rather, since you have the money, you can still get help even if you miss this!
My son doesn’t have long to live!」

As I thought, he really was related to the request with the bigger reward. That aside, at this point, it’s almost refreshing how the mother isn’t backing down. Though that doesn’t excuse her ignoring one very important fact.

「The one to decide is her, isn’t it?」

Saying so, the butler turns to us, with the others following his gaze. It seems like Ailneige finally has a place in this conversation.

『How should I respond to this?』
『Honestly, I don’t know either.』
『Oh, Ain, are you perhaps angry right now?』
『In this situation, we’ll need to give away the herb to continue working as Ailneige, but regardless of how we handle this, there will probably be bad blood as a result.』
『Is that so?』
『To put it simply, the one that doesn’t get chosen might hold a grudge.』

To put it differently, we choose who will live. For better or for worse, Ciel doesn’t really have much interest in other people’s lives, so she is unlikely to be conflicted about their survival. However, had Ciel been the type with a strong sense of justice, like Juerd, for example, this decision would have weighed heavily on her heart.

If we choose neither, they probably wouldn’t agree unless we prove that we don’t have it.
There’s a chance that they’d even notice that we have a magic pouch and people might target us for it, but the bigger problem is what’s inside.
If anyone ever knows that our pouch is filled with A-rank+ monster materials, we won’t be able to stay as the low-rank Ailneige.

We can forcefully resolve this situation if we sacrifice our peaceful student life. However, I personally would rather not have us adjusting our lifestyle just because of these pseudo-speculators.

『Then what should we do?』
『Who would you prefer to help, Ciel?』
『Who are you angry at, Ain?』
『The woman who came to us first, and Shelate and Juerd, who intervened even though it was none of their business, escalating the situation, I suppose? The person from the Ghnestark family is on thin ice, but he still had some consideration for us.』
『Still, I don’t really want to hand it over either. It could be a necessary material for Ain’s body, after all.』

Even without my personal biases, I agree with Ciel.
Mother Fii apparently knows of a better material, but we don’t even know if that material is easy to come by.
It might be something that can only be harvested once every century. It might not even be available anymore. Until we know more about it, letting go of this four-leaf clover is a great risk, objectively speaking.

However, with how much I love looking at Ciel, I unfortunately realized it. That there is a material that would be extremely suitable for making magic circuits.
Probably the best material we could ever have.