by Kiri Komori
“Hm… Well, anything you make is guaranteed to be of good quality, so a medium-grade one should do just fine… Lico says drinking some antipyretic should be enough to cure him, and Fei Lu has good apothecaries.”
“Yes, like Doctor Rob!”
“He’s a doctor, not an apothecary.”
“Yes, but he’s a good doctor!”
“That he is.”
I wasn’t going to argue with her about Rob’s skills, but the captain of the Azure Knights was going to need better facilities, stronger medicine, and a skilled doctor. To that end, my meddling might be pointless, but…
“You know what? Let’s buy those ingredients from Giyaga. Think you could make it that way, Tina?”
“Yes, I’ll handle it! I’ll supply you with an ideal, high-grade antipyretic for him!”
“R-Really?”
…When did this girl learn to speak like a merchant?
I didn’t mind though. It was adorable in its own way. But it didn’t feel like something a six-year-old would say… Though still, it was adorable… Very cute… And being cute meant it was fine.
“Then I’ll go get those whatcha-ma-call-its from the mountain.”
“You can’t even remember what they’re called! It’s dangerous. You can’t, Dad. Don’t worry, I’ll go pick them.”
“Really? Sounds good! I’ll come with you!” Nakona joined in on our conversation.
“Collecting ingredients, huh? I’d like to join in too,” an unexpected voice chimed in.
“Hm?”
“Huh…?”
“Ah…”
Lico entered the room, clad in her suffocating armor.
She always was an inquisitive alchemist…
“Then I’m definitely going,” Tina said. “I want to check my own ingredients!”
“Fine, I’ll just close up the counter and tell Giyaga we’ll be going out…”
I settled on all four of us going. I wasn’t especially opposed to the idea, but I did need to ask for one thing…
“Lico, change into something lighter.”
“No.” She shook her head. “I fought a monster here just yesterday. It could still be hiding nearby.”
I sighed. “Fine, watch our backs.”
“Got it.”
“The monster… Do you think it’s still somewhere around here?” Tina asked.
“Yeah. It only ran away… Though if it took a shot from Lico’s shotgun, I imagine it won’t be moving around for a while.”
For what it was worth, I had my sword sheathed at my waist. I had it strapped on my right side, not my left. I didn’t know how well I’d be able to fight with just my left hand, but it was better than nothing.
Tina was unusually silent.
“Anxious?” I asked her.
“No…”
…Tinaris. You want to heal my arm, don’t you?
She was always polite and didn’t act the slightest bit like a child. But that’s probably because she was bothered by the fact we’re not blood-related. And it seemed like she always knew that we weren’t. And, come to think of it, that was strange, since I’d never brought it up with her.
Pops or Ma might have told her at some point, but…it still seemed like Tina naturally knew she wasn’t actually my daughter. And even despite that, Tina cared for me and wanted to go that far to help. Even though she shouldn’t need to concern herself with that.
Aaah, this is no good… Thinking she cares this much makes me smile despite myself.
“I think there should be plants growing around here,” I said as we reached a specific spot on the mountain.
“Ah! That’s White Peach Grass! It’s rare!”
“Oh. And that’s a Walpurgis flower,” Lico pointed out one of the flowers.
“Huh?! That’s a rare ingredient! We have those flowers growing around here?!”
“Look, Tinaris, that’s a White Wolf’s Stone. If you crush it into powder, it should be an ingredient for heart medicine. Refining it is back-breaking work, but even if you don’t use it, the powder sells for good money.”
“I’ll take it with me!” Tina said excitedly.
“And that’s Alfis flowers and the Yujin grass. With Alfis flowers, you just have to boil the flower. If you transmute it with water, it creates good anemia medicine. Might be useful once you get a little older. Study up on it.”
“Thank you! I’ll remember this!”
“Also, if you take Duana, Lilith, and Alfis flowers and mix them in with spring water, it should create headache medicine. Mixing Yujin grass with Yukari grass should produce disinfectant. Plus, if you use Yukari grass with either Mittel or Romary herbs and mix them in a flask, they should produce oil. That oil has a lot of uses and sells for high prices. You can use it to make shampoo, body soap, or face lotion.”
“Wow! I should jot all of this down…”
I watched the two of them dubiously.
“Daddy?” Nakona looked at me curiously.
“O-Oh… No, it’s just…the two of them sure are getting worked up.”
“Hehe, yeah, they are. But it’s fine that they get along… I mean, Lico looks kind of scary, but she’s really nice… I can’t believe the Crimson captain left someone as nice as her.”
“Well, I agree with you on that, but…”
Lico’s a good woman. She’s earnest, and even with half her face mangled, she is still a maiden at heart. But…that man picked Kelt, so I can’t very well say he has no eye for women.
“The way you said that makes me sound pretty bad too,” I told Nakona.
“Well, yeah… But at least you’re not choosing to remarry.”
“You little… You say that after all the trouble you caused the other day?”
“No, like, I mean, it doesn’t really matter to me anymore? Just talking to you like this is good enough for me.”
“…Nakona…”
Was this because of the monster attack yesterday? She was probably so scared that it made her change her way of thinking… She’d gotten so mature.
“Were you scared yesterday?”
“Yeah, I was… But it made me think that I wanna get stronger… No, I’ll definitely get stronger. I am your daughter, after all!”
“Nakona…”
“And I’m Tina’s older sister too. I gotta stay by her side and keep her safe. I mean, I get the feeling that she doesn’t so much want to be an apothecary as she just wants to fix your arm… She’s a really good girl. I just can’t match her, y’know?”
I couldn’t believe this was the same Nakona that came to me a couple of days ago. It was…really astounding. And I was surprised Tina even talked to Nakona about that.
I…I’m just…I’m just so…
“You must be getting old, Daddy… Your tear ducts are working overtime.”
“D-Don’t say that out loud…!”
♣♣♣
“I’LL be going, then. I should be back in a few days…”
“Don’t worry. I’ll keep your inn safe, or my name isn’t Licorice Avide.”
“Well, I guess I can set my mind at ease since you’re here…”
“Miss Lico, please teach me a lot about alchemy until Dad comes back! Please!”
“All right. You can handle the cooking then. Because I won’t be cooking anything!”
“Is that something to be proud of?” I asked her tiredly.
Come noon, I left for Fei Lu with one bottle of Tina’s high-grade, ideal quality antipyretics in hand. Giyaga said he’d be making his way to De Marl tomorrow. I couldn’t see him off, but next month, he’d be stopping by the inn again before setting out to the demi-human continent. By then, he would have sorted things out with the contractor that would pave a road to the mountain’s hot spring.
A hot spring…
I didn’t know much about them, but Tina was pretty adamant about having one. The idea of being able to bathe in naturally hot water did seem appealing to me, but… Was it really something to be this obsess
ed over?
“Could you help me train while you’re here, Miss Lico?” Nakona asked her.
“I don’t mind, but…I’m not great when it comes to close combat. The caravan’s guards might be better for that.”
“I’m having them teach me too! But I want to learn how to fight like a knight.”
“Do you, now…? Well, I think Marcus is best qualified for that then.”
“Yeah. I’ll have Daddy teach me when he comes back.”
Nakona turned to look at me expectantly, as if waiting for affirmation.
Don’t look at me like that.
…Nakona said she faced off against a monster. Even if only to just buy time. And she said she did it because she was my daughter, my own flesh and blood… Maybe that was why she was so hot-blooded? But, I supposed, learning self-defense wasn’t a bad thing.
“You’re really helping me out here, Lico, but shouldn’t you go back to De Marl sooner rather than later?”
“Doing follow-up reconnaissance after repelling a monster is part of the mission. Should be fine even if I take my time. Besides, I’ll have that Giyaga man deliver the report of what happened for me.”
“Okay then. I guess you should keep an eye out for what the monsters are doing. But there’s a lot of wild animals around here too, so do be careful. Even if they’re not monsters, they can be dangerous.”
“Hmph, who do you think you’re talking to?” Lico cocked an eyebrow at me.
…Good point.
They didn’t call her De Marl’s Devil Knight for nothing.
“Be careful out there, Dad,” Tina said.
“See you soon, Daddy!” Nakona pumped her fists enthusiastically. “And don’t forget to get us presents!”
“Go on, already.” Lico shooed me away.
“Right. I’m off.”
I waved to my two adorable daughters and to Lico as I set out. My girls waved back at me.
Dirbleu… I’m sure you’ll still be recovering from your disease, but, sorry… I’m going to have to gush about my little girls when I meet you.
I mean, both my daughters are just too cute!
♣Afterword
HELLO, everyone. My name is Kiri Komori. It’s a pleasure to meet you all. Thank you very much for picking up Reincarnated as the Last of my Kind Volume 1!
I would like to extend my sincere thanks to all of you who read this book: to the editors who helped make this release happen; to Yamigo, who drew the wonderful illustrations; to everyone involved in the production of the English version and, of course, to the family and friends who supported me every step of the way.
This series has already been completed on the novel uploading website Shōsetsuka ni Narō, but I wrote “Me at Age Five” and “Can Never Let Your Guard Down” especially for this book. You will have plenty of new content to enjoy even if you’ve read the web novel version.
Incidentally, when I got the offer to have my series translated and published in English, I thought: “Really? You want to publish my baby? Even with all the fantasy jargon?” I was really surprised and nervous. But having received some reviews from readers abroad made me want to see people around the world enjoy this story.
I really do think this is an invaluable, wonderful opportunity I’ve happened upon. Having my work cross the language barrier and reach people across the globe… I think that’s a truly lovely thing!
It’d be wonderful if more of my works could be translated in the future!
-Kiri Komori