Chapter 728

Consulting Mariel-chan
The next day, after making all sorts of meals to help with Okaasama's morning sickness, Oniisama and I left the mansion.

Well, "help" mostly meant making sure she never had an empty stomach, so I prepared easy-to-eat mini rice balls, chilled udon, and rice porridge.

Since warm food could make the smell more noticeable, I made everything cold.

For dessert, I made mini sandwiches filled with bananas and strained yogurt.

And of course, French fries.

For some reason, in my previous life, there were so many people who craved them during morning sickness.

Not thick wedges, thin-cut fries.

I also recommended weak barley tea to replenish minerals.

And lemon water with sugar and salt added to make a sort of homemade oral rehydration solution.

I'd left all the tofu I had with the head chef, so once I got back to the dorm, I'd have to make more.

We stopped by Baron Mayor's mansion on the way, met up with Mariel-chan, and then returned to the academy.

After we got back to the special dormitory, we all had dinner together from what the head chef had packed for us, or rather, an absurd number of stacked lacquered food boxes so huge they were honestly intimidating. Afterward, I told Mariel-chan I had something to discuss with her, and we moved to the lounge.

“Ehh!? Cristea-sama's Okaasama and Her Majesty the Queen are both expecting!?”

After making her promise over and over that this was top-secret information, I told her, and she was stunned.

“Um... does that mean... umm, via... no, I mean... because of the chocolate? Is that it?”

“Ah... yeah, I think so. Considering the timing, it's probably because of that...”

“Whoa... so it really works. Then I guess the Valentine's project is going to be shelved...”

Wait, she'd been thinking about that?

“Chocolate will probably end up being treated less as a luxury food and more as... via... umm... something closer to fertility medicine.”

Well, I lived in an environment where cacao was relatively easy to obtain, you know?

That didn't mean I had any intention of giving up chocolate as a treat.

“Putting that aside, it sounds like both babies have unusually large amounts of magic, so the mothers are suffering from severe mana depletion. Their morning sickness is bad too, so right now the only thing anyone can do is have them eat small amounts frequently to keep their energy up.”

“Ah... yeah, there really isn't much else that can be done at the moment… I'm sorry, but I never worked in obstetrics in my previous life, so I don't know very much.”

I see.

Mariel-chan had been a nurse in her previous life, but she'd never worked in obstetrics.

“I only know the general knowledge myself, so it can't be helped. Anyway, when it comes to mana depletion, there *is* one possible solution.”

I told Mariel-chan what Mashiro had told me about the Magic Amplification Grass.

“Huh? Isn't that basically like cordyceps? If I remember right, its effects were things like improving immunity, boosting vitality, and helping with fatigue recovery...”

“I see. So over here, that translates into increasing mana. That just makes me want it even more.”

“Hmm... but if it's that rare, wouldn't it not only be difficult to obtain, but also incredibly expensive...?”

“Exactly. More importantly, the question is whether monster corpses are even left behind long enough in the first place.”

“They usually get eaten completely, don't they?”

A powerful monster meant a huge amount of mana, in other words, a quick way for other monsters to increase their own magic power.

Even if a stronger monster killed one and left some of it uneaten, smaller monsters looking for scraps would probably finish it off, so it was questionable whether enough carrion would remain to become a breeding ground.

“My homeland is covered in snow, so sometimes they stay there until spring. That's where they grew.”

Mashiro spoke up, as if proving his story wasn't just something he'd made up.

“Come to think of it, they're called cordyceps because they parasitize insects during the winter and grow as mushrooms in the summer, right? If that's the case, then since it's summer now, doesn't that mean there's a chance they'll be growing?”

Drawing on some random knowledge she'd picked up from an anime or something, Mariel-chan suddenly lit up as though a light bulb had gone *ping!*

“Mm... if you're lucky, maybe? But I think my clan has already patrolled our territory and gathered them all. The chief manages all of them together.”

According to Mashiro, even among Holy Bears, if a cub possessed an exceptionally large amount of mana, it could severely drain the mother's magic and put her in danger.

Because of that, when the season came, the leader of the pack would search for Magic Amplification Grass and collect it so it could be distributed where it was needed.

“I see… then I guess there's no way we'll be able to get any.”

I'd heard Holy Bears generally disliked humans because there had once been periods when they were hunted excessively for their fur.

So I couldn't exactly ask them to share it with humans...

“If it's Magic Amplification Grass, I have some.”

“Huh?”

Two ears suddenly poked up from Mariel-chan's shadow, and then Ruby hopped out.

“Ruby! You really have Magic Amplification Grass!?”

“I do. I happened to find some growing on the corpse of a monster that had fallen onto a cliff ledge and gotten stuck there. It happened to be in a blind spot from the flying magic birds overhead, so I was lucky.”

As he spoke, Ruby took out a fairly large jar from his Inventory.

“So this is...”

“Eeeugh... that's so gross...”

Since Mariel-chan had Ruby sitting on her lap, she had the closest view, and she leaned backward while peeking at the jar through half-closed eyes.

Inside the jar were dried-up chunks of flesh and a faded magic stone, and from them grew something that looked somewhere between a mushroom and a cluster of thin, spindly branches.

“Unfortunately, this is all I have, so I can't give all of it away. It's so rare that I kept some back, hoping I'd find a way to cultivate more.”

Apparently, Ruby had tried raising it himself, hoping to farm it somehow, but it attracted other monsters, and after several failed attempts, he'd been forced to give up.

“What if... we grew it inside a barrier so it wouldn't attract anything? Like somewhere inside the grounds of this special dormitory...?”

“Ah.”

Th-that's it!

What do you think about this chapter?