Chapter 41 - Operation Supreme Stutter (FD) (Patreon)

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Chapter 41 - Operation Supreme Stutter

「I wonder if they will listen.」 Agwyn muttered with uncertainty painting her voice.

「 Now's not the time for doubt!」 Elrhain pushed her forward, 「This is exactly why we meticulously planned operation Supreme Stutter for situations like this!」

「B-But, I don't think I can explain complicated medical terms in Uorian with my lisp! W-What if they hear wrong and-」

Agwyn still wanted to let Elrhain be the one to propose the potential cure for this 'Swampling's Curse.' Or at least the dehydration caused by it.

And yes, the symptoms servant Nana showed were definitely of severe dehydration. It was something Elrhain and Agwyn could tell at a glance.

Many epidemics in the history of humanity on Earth had led to epoch changing tragedies, with one of the notable ones being cholera. The outward symptoms of this dhionne curse made the two kids recall the conditions of rescued nuclear settlements from deep in the wastelands, where many mutated diseases ran rampant.

Immediate analysis and vaccine production were not possible most times. Hence Agwyn's Reclamation Company had guidebooks written by various experts on the field on how to best reduce or even wholly treat symptoms of the plagues, diseases, and radioactive illnesses that the fate-forsaken denizens of the nuclear wastes were so prone to suffer from.

This was why Agwyn was actually more knowledgeable than Elrhain in emergency first-aid. But she had extreme insecurities about speaking up in front of strangers with her broken lisp.

「It does not matter! Since we will use knowledge from Earth that can tangibly affect this world, we have to be super careful not to raise any suspicions. Especially with Auntie Lillian! She's too sharp and will definitely hound me if I am the one who comes up with the proposal. But when you do it, you can just say that you read it in some memoir that you forgot the name of.

All you have to do is play cute. Everyone knows you only read memoirs because you have nothing else to do when I scour the archives. Hence, it's not weird if you remember some titbits from one scroll but forgot other details. Since this is the first time we'll use the 'I read it in a scroll' excuse, we can brush away the suspicions without too many complications. Trust me, cute is justice, and especially when cuteness saves the world! You be the vanguard, and I will support you from behind.」

「…. I like that you called me cute, but I feel you are insulting my intelligence.」

「Y-You misunderstand!」 Elrhain stuttered as his enthusiastic gaze wavered for a second. The boy then kept urging her to go forward, and Agwyn finally complied.

Indeed, her lisp was one of her sore points. But the real reason she wanted Elrhain to be the one to speak up, despite knowing that it might raise some eyebrows, is because she wanted him to gain the prestige that he deserved. She was growing tired of all the snubs calling him unworthy of her.

Agwyn sighed before clasping her cheeks hard and skipped forward with her signature' cute little girl jumping on a rain puddle' hop.

Elrhain gave her a thumbs up. The little girl snorted.

She donned the cutest expression she could while tugging on Slanout's sleeves, "Uncle Swanout, um, why doesn't the lealing auntie give the weak servant auntie more water and salt?"

Agwyn's sudden actions took aback the Onthoakt, and he could not answer for a while.

"Lealing? Salt?"

"… healing! You see, Annie read in a scwoll in grandpa Archive Keeper's cave that you have to make the weak servant auntie drink water and honey and salt juice!"

"… I don't understand." But before Slanout could say any further, servant Harund who heard their conversation, looked like he saw a ray of sunshine in the abyss.

"P-Princess!" The young man abruptly kowtowed in front of Agwyn, making her a bit frightened. "This unworthy servant begs you! I will give my life to you if-"

"Servant Harund! Watch your mouth. Do you want the clan to punish you for disrespect? How dare you talk like that to the-"
Agwyn saw the situation turning in a direction she didn't want, so she had to bring out her ultimate weapon.

She sobbed.

And the whole venue turned as silent as a grave.

Agwyn's soft whimpers echoed for a while as she used her palms and the hemp of her robe to wipe away her tears, "W-Why won't you wisten to Annie… I just want to save the weak servant auntie and her baby…."

Slanout scratched his head, not knowing what to do, while Harund's face lit up. "T-Truly, can you save her?"

Agwyn nodded.

"The scwoll said so. If the weak servant auntie drinks water and salt and honey every hour, she will get good. Other discs do this, and the aunties there can beat curses. Annie isn't lying! I saw it in the scroll, honest!"

It was then that Elrhain joined in like a cavalry saving the day. The little boy held Agwyn's hands and spoke out.

"… If you don't have better ideas to save the baby in that Aunty's tummy, then it's either this or death."

As the words left his mouth, both Slanout and Harund paled. This time, even Harund's parents joined him in kowtowing to the two, and no matter what the Onthoakt said, it could not stop this despairing family's pleading.

Elrhain insisted, "Besides, since Annie read this in a discwalker's memoir in the archives, I think it is worth a try."

Slanout alternated his gaze between the two kids, then the watch member who stood awkwardly behind them, and finally towards the cursed female servant who lay there in the bed of straws. He saw Harund's bleak yet hopeful gaze, and the emotions on the face of the cultivators who were listening in on their conversation.

… after all, they too had family members in the mortal realms. A terror like the Swampling's Curse did not have eyes or conscience; it did not choose who to infect and who to not… and servant Nana wasn't the only pregnant woman in the settlement.

Earthloch Siorrakty's subjects, whether cultivator or not, had an ingrained sense of worship towards the main house deep in the bones. The legendary grand elder, the chieftain and chieftainess, and the great shamans and mages in their service raised nothing but confidence.

To them, they could do no wrong.

Slanout, being an Onthoakt, was still clear-headed. After all, the princess was but barely above three cycles old. Even if she was of the ruling house, how vast can her knowledge of healing really be? True, it was an impressive feat that she could read memoir scrolls at a tender age. But he would not put his absolute trust in a child.

It was common sense. Kid's her age could not tell the difference between a rock and a fruit. The fact that almost every common dhionne in the Siorrakty worshipped her after the girl had caused the heavens to collapse a season ago would not suddenly turn her into a wise sage.

But… as the prince said. They were grasping at straws. The Swampling's Curse did not have a cure in as far as Slanout knew. The only choice was to grit through the pain. Yet even if the curse passed, the damage it can cause to a village, if not correctly handled, can be devastating, needing many cycles to fully recover.

'… maybe it is better to let the princess do what she wants. Who knows…' the Onthoakt thought, then he called over the healer who was resting at the side after depleting her manna.

The tired woman greeted the two children with reverence at first but frowned as she listened as Agwyn lisped out what she had read on this 'scroll'.

Weirdly enough, even though her speech was a mess, the incoherent words and sentences were making sense the more she spoke. Yet even though the girl made good points on how the illness in the scroll and Swampling's curse showed familiar symptoms, it did not raise confidence in the healer.

"It is not advisable to let the cursed eat or drink anything other than medicine until the purging is completely over. Food will simply irritate her bowel, worsening the purging."

"B-But the scwoll!" Agwyn indignantly raised her hands, and the healer glanced at the awkward Slanout with tired eyes.

"This may be unrelated, but Agwyn and I read a lot of memoirs of delvers and discwalkers in the archives. Since they use simple Uorian letters and not the runics of cultivation scriptures. It's fun reading about all the experiences they go through and the things they see in so many foreign lands." Elrhain said. "And in many travel stories about the three great deserts of Uoris Diosca, they said that discwalkers who lose their way suffer from severe cramps in their muscles, sunken eyes, and wrinkly dry skin. Just like the weak servant auntie."

"… My lord, the lost in the desert do not suffer from irritated bowels or purging. And the symptoms you have mentioned are caused by a lack of water…huh? Wait!"

"Yes, as if their muscled had shrivelled up like dried fruits! Them, and the weak servant auntie too! Even if we cannot solve her irritated bowels, we can at least do something about the symptoms Annie mentioned." Elrhain exclaimed, ignoring the amazed eyes of the adults around. He knew that it was jarring to articulate so smoothly like adults as a toddler, but he had to do what had to be done.

"Also, why can they drink medicine and not other things? I don't believe the Onthoakt would spend high-grade medicinal elixirs for a servant, so you must make the medicines with mundane herbs. Am I right? And tell me, do these medicines have light ingredients such as water, honey, and salt?"

The healer pondered for a while before finally nodding, much the good Onthoakt's awkwardness.

"So, I don't see any problem letting her drink this…this different kind of simple medicine Annie read in the memoir! It's not like we are forcing the weak auntie to eat a kilogram of meat!"

Standing beside Elrhain, Agwyn pitifully chirped along, "Can you let Annie save the little brother or sister in the auntie's tummy? Pwease? I promise I won't be a bother."

Which was the last hit that broke through this tribal healer's mental defence.