To the men who have seen a tick magnified,

"Oh, no, that's a creature called a . They are small like dust and do not harm you directly, but their carcasses and feces can make weak people feel ill when inhaled.

Jin explains politely.

Salute nodded his head again and again. Jin further explained what he knew about their ecology.

"As far as I know, these mites like to breed in warm and moist places.

"My God!　So you're saying that all that warmth and dampness in the room, which you thought would be good for your throat, has had the opposite effect!

Yes, but only when it comes to ticks.

"Oh my God. ......"

Salute sagged. Jin pats him on the shoulder and follows up.

"No, I think it was good for your grandson's health. So, I think it will be much better if you clean out the mites from that room.

Salute looked up and grabbed Jin by the shoulders.

"Jin-dono!　Thank you!　Let's get on with it!"

Jin then offered a few more words of advice.

"As for the bedding and pillows, I think you can get rid of a lot of dust mites by vacuuming them out with a vacuum cleaner.

"Oh!　That's one way to use it!

With that Salute ran down the corridor.

The remaining members were Jin, Reinhardt, Matheus, and the head of the Guild of Magi Engineers, Reimer Gebhardtof.

Reimer addressed Jin,

"Jin-dono, could you sell this microscope to our guild as well?

Jin said. Jin had expected this and immediately nodded his head.

"Please put this to good use.

"Of course I will!"

After the discussion, the microscope was sold for 500,000 dollars.

And then there was more,

"If you use this vacuum cleaner to suck the air in the room and filter out the dust, ......"

Jin said,

"Oh!　That'll get rid of the dusty feeling in the room!"

Reimer Gebhardtov responded. That's what I'm talking about.

"In that case, the size of the filter's mesh is the size of the dust to be filtered out," advised Jin.

Hitoshi advised.

"Well, let's have Salyut do the test run of the prototype.

Rymer Gebhardtov laughed at this. Hitoshi laughed along with him.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

6:00 p.m., dinner time.

The mayor of the town, Salyut Berlusi, had laid out a hearty meal.

Roasted whole kokarisk. Steak of mountain lion. Dried barracudo (a fish similar to pike) grilled in salt. Stew with vegetables and meat. A colorful vegetable salad. Airvale juice. White bread.

It was more food than I could eat.

"Mister Jin, as you said, I cleaned the room and vacuumed the bedding before putting Yus to bed, and his symptoms improved dramatically!　I can't thank you enough!"

I can't thank you enough!" He even came to pour wine for Jin himself.

"I had no idea that the Kingdom of Egelea possessed such magical technology ...... and was so advanced in the treatment of disease ......."

Reimer mutters in an impressed voice. Jin pretended not to have heard him.

"Jin, you did a great job again today.

After a sumptuous dinner, they came back to their room and relaxed in Reinhardt's room.

"I am amazed at your knowledge, Jin-dono. I'd like to quit the army and become your apprentice, but that's not going to happen.

Unusually, Matheus seemed to be a little drunk.

"So, what happened to your request to make an automata?"

Reinhard asked. Jin had forgotten all about that.

"Well, I think you'll be happier if you get well and play with your human friends instead of automata, don't you?

Jin laughed.

That night, everyone was a little drunk, so they decided to rest early.

Jin was the only one who did not get drunk because of his constitution, but he was somewhat tired after everything that had happened, so he went back to his room.

After closing the door, Reiko opened her mouth.

"Father ......"

Her voice sounded kind of downcast.

"What's wrong, Reiko?"

"You said earlier that you'd be happier playing with your human friends. ......"

Jin immediately realized what was bothering Reiko. Reiko becomes unstable when such a topic comes up.

"Yeah, in her case, I mean."

"...... What about your father?"

Her voice was even darker. Jin approached Reiko, who was still standing and not moving, and hugged her.

"Reiko, I told you before that you are my daughter.　You should be proud. You are the only girl in the world whose parents are Magecraft Meisters.

"Father, I am not a girl, I am an automata. So count me as one."

"Yes, but I don't consider you just an automaton. So you are my daughter and I count you as ."

"Thank you for ......."

The darkness is gone from Reiko's voice. Jin is relieved.

"Well, I'm going to bed."

"Yes, I'll be up all night, so you can rest easy."

* * * * * *

"You're getting weak. ......

Weakened, sir. ......

With the village of Kaina in sight, the peddler, or rather, Roland Raglan, the outside sales representative of the Raglan Trading Company, was at his wit's end.

There was no salt.

It all started with a roadblock. This was due to a cliff collapse that occurred just beyond the village of Doppa.

That was on the 5th.

Roland, a merchant, did not stay in the town of Charles but went to the neighboring town of Gohoho.

There he sold his goods and even bought some of them.

When he returned to Charles to check on the situation, he was told that the road had been opened to traffic.

Trust is the first thing for a merchant. And moreover, the village of Kaina was the village that had given the Raglan Chamber of Commerce its first big breakthrough.

"This is a mistake. We must hurry.

Roland drives the wagon to the village of Kaina in a great hurry. It was a bit of a forced march, passing through the town of Charles on the way to Doppa on the 7th.

Yesterday, in the village of Toka, salt was sold for three times as much as it should have been.

Salt was in short supply because soldiers of unknown origin came and bought it in large quantities at that price.

A merchant, whom I did not recognize, came and sold nearly 100 kilograms of salt at three times the price.

The merchant must have made a fortune.

And Roland had to bring salt to the village of Kaina as well. So he secured only one jar of 20 kg as a minimum.

"I guess we'll have to ask them to bear with us this time and go back in a month for the next one.

Roland had taken it as the merchant's responsibility to deliver the salt alone in half a month by horseback, not by wagon.

Now it is gone.

The jar of salt that had been there until last night, when they stayed in a rest house halfway between the villages of Toka and Kaina.

Salt, a necessity for daily life. The jar of salt that we had reserved to deliver to the village of Kaina was gone before we knew it.

Roland thinks that it was stolen.

The price was nothing. There were more expensive items in the package and Roland had the money from the previous sales in his pocket.

"Weak ......"

In fact, Roland's son, Eric, was not with us this time. He is busy as a technical director at Alban.

He brought along a newcomer, Bote.

Roland will not be on the road any longer. It was decided that he would be working in-house soon. So he brought the newcomer with him to take over.

"I never thought this would happen in what could be my last business relationship with the village of Kaina, with whom I have built a good relationship. ......"

The road had been relatively safe until now, with soldiers stationed nearby due to the presence of the Inard Mine. Roland had not heard about the recent breakout.

Roland was depressed because he did not expect the salt to be stolen.

"Anyway, I guess I'll just have to go to the village of Kaina and tell them the truth about what happened. ......"

"Yes, sir."

Roland's wagon was now slowly making its way up the pass, a far cry from yesterday.