Chapter 6: The Master Archer

Chapter 6:
The Master Archer

 

AFTER I OPENED THE DRUGSTORE, things got pretty busy for us day to day. I lined the shelves with regular potions and energy drinks I’d mixed. I planned to create more types of medicine, but I was going to wait for requests before I produced them.

Things went surprisingly smoothly. Noela was a huge help, serving as our drugstore’s counter girl. On top of that, Mina was great at housework, so she handled everything from cooking to laundry to cleaning. Talk about a talented ghost, right?

Oh, I almost forgot—the store’s name. I ended up keeping it simple: Kirio Drugs. I wrote the sign in Japanese, so needless to say, Mina and Noela had no clue what they were looking at.

The drugstore had emptied out for a bit, so I figured it was time to settle down and eat some of the lunch Mina made us.

“Do ghosts have to eat?” I asked her.

“I don’t need to, but honestly, I prefer having lunch with everyone.”

“They do say meals taste better when you eat with others.”

Noela just dug into her food, nodding furiously. I had no idea whether she’d been listening at all.

“Oh, right!” Mina exclaimed. “Mr. Reiji, did you know there’s a festival in town today?”

“Whoa. Really?” Hunh. Now that she brings it up, I did notice that the town was oddly busy.

“There’ll be lots of stalls and events,” Mina continued.

“Such as?”

“Well, I believe the biggest one is the long-range archery display.”

“Archery display?”

“Mm-hmm. Every year, the elves’ most talented archer shoots a target that’s super-duper far away—whoosh! It’s quite amazing.”

“That sounds awesome.”

I would’ve been lying if I said I wasn’t interested. After all, I hadn’t seen a single elf since coming to this world. They were typically gorgeous, so I thought that I’d love to meet an elf at least once.

A voice came from the storefront. “Pardon me! Is the drugstore manager in?”

I swallowed the food in my mouth and rushed over. “Yes. How can I help y—”

Speak of the devil! The customer was an elf with long ears, just barely shoulder-length blond hair, blue eyes, and a beautiful face. On the elf’s back was a longbow, and they wore leather boots.

“Ah, at last,” the elf greeted me. “You’re the manager? Well, aren’t you a cute boy?”

“Uh…boy? I’m a grown man. Anyway, how can I help you?”

“Ah, yes. I’m here with a request for the alchemist wunderkind.”

“That description’s not quite right either. But, well, my potions and energy drinks are over there on the shelf.”

“I don’t need those. I require direct help.”

“Er…what do you mean?”

“My name’s Kururu. As you might have surmised, I’m an elf.”

“Pleased to meet you. I’m Reiji.”

“What a cute name! Ah—I mustn’t get sidetracked. I’m out of my element, talking to you!”

“Hunh. Is that so?”

Kururu looked mischievously at me. He’s a guy, right? What’s he thinking?

“It’s about the archery exhibition at the festival today,” he explained. “I’m the one performing.”

“Oh, really? I’m looking forward to seeing that.”

Kururu shook his head, clearly disappointed. “I’m happy to hear that, but I’ve realized there’s a chance I might not live up to your expectations!”

I wondered whether this was false modesty—or if that was even a concept in this world.

“Why not?”

“Apparently, my bow’s not in the best condition. I can’t seem to hit my target.”

Can’t hit his target? Hold on. The festival’s today. “Er…how does that have anything to do with me?”

Kururu flashed me a relieved smile. “I want you to do something about it.”

“Practice on your own.”

“You’re the only one I can count on, Reiji, my dear.”

“I’m not your ‘dear,’ either.”

“If you help me out, I promise you can have your way with me!” Kururu giggled, casting me another sidelong glance.

“Do you really think we accept that as payment?”

“What, would you prefer that I woo you? Now, don’t misunderstand. I’m not saying that’s my preference. I just thought it might make you happier. I swear, I’m definitely not at all enticed.”

I was an idiot for getting excited about an elf dropping by. “Why ask me? I can’t imagine drugstores are the best place to go for this kind of thing.”

“I heard rumors of an alchemist who gave Kalta’s elders so much energy, it was like they were young again. That’s why I thought, if I asked you, your butt might… Er, you might help me hit my target.”

At the moment, I couldn’t help thinking that he could “target” plenty of other guys. “I guess that’s true. But isn’t hitting your target a matter of skill?”

“I’d like you to prescribe a treatment that lets me hit my target with complete accuracy!”

“Like hell I can create something like that!” That was getting into magic territory.

“Listen, dear Reiji, I’m completely serious! That’s why I want you to give me everything you’ve got!”

Pounding his chest, Kururu spread his arms wide. I’m not jumping into your arms, pal.

“I don’t know what to prescribe,” I replied. “Are you sure you haven’t gotten rusty or something? Could someone else take your place?”

“I’m the forest’s best archer. Even if I wanted to decline, nobody could replace me. And, by the way, this definitely isn’t a problem with my skills. I’ve been practicing day and night.”

“Fine. I get that a lack of practice didn’t cause your problem. But, in that case, why did your skills take a nosedive?”

“That’s what I’ve been asking you!”

“Actually, you’ve just been hassling me this whole time.”

If I don’t do something, this elf isn’t going to leave. Hrm. He practiced “day and night,” but his skills got weaker anyway…?

“Hey, could you be overworking yourself? You know, practicing too much?” Considering what he’d said, that seemed like a reasonable explanation—sometimes overtraining could backfire, after all.

I pointed at Kururu. He tried to clasp my hand, but missed. “Ah—so close, yet so far!”

Well, that was close—I don’t particularly want this guy holding my hand, I thought. Wait a sec. I didn’t actually dodge his hand; he missed on his own. Aha!

“Hold on,” I said. “Could this be a vision issue? Do you find it hard to see because you’re tired?”

“Oh, now that you mention it…”

Focusing on Kururu, I picked up on his abnormal blinking and squinting. If he’d noticed that earlier, this would’ve been so much easier. It’s my time to shine.

“You’re clearly exhausted. Your eyes are strained,” I explained. “Therefore, you can’t hit targets at long range.”

I was no optometrist, so it wasn’t like I could give a full explanation. Based on what I saw and heard from him, however, eyestrain seemed spot on.

“I see,” Kururu mumbled. “So, I’m exhausted?”

I glanced at the encyclopedia behind the counter, looking up the ingredients for eye drops. Clean water and salt served as the medication’s base, so all that was left was to add shellfish. Luckily, Kururu still had two hours before his archery performance.

“Hang tight,” I told him. “I’m gonna whip you up some eye drops.”

“Eye drops? Those sound rather intimate.”

Jeez, what am I gonna do with this guy?

I left Kururu waiting in the drugstore, heading back to my laboratory. I was already tired; I hadn’t expected to deal with such overconfidence today. It would’ve been nice if he’d stuck to explaining his archery difficulties.

Still munching away at her lunch, Noela looked over. “Customer annoy? Feel better, Master.”

“Uh-huh. Thanks, Noela.”

She trotted close to me, and I recharged by patting her soft, fluffy head. Now that I feel a little less irritated, it’s time to get to work. Still, to be perfectly honest, even I found it hard to believe that I could make eye drops with just the ingredients in the encyclopedia.

Mina was drying her hands after finishing some cleaning.

“Mina, there’s still some omir shellfish, right?” I figured we should have leftovers.

“We do!” she replied, bringing some over. “Want to snack on them?”

“No. I’m going to use their broth to make medicine.”

Mina seemed baffled. “M-medicine?”

I had her boil the shellfish, prepare water and salt, and bring all the ingredients to my laboratory.

Noela was currently flopped over, sleeping. Time to mix the eye drops.

I added just a dash of salt to the water. All that was left was to pour in the boiled shellfish broth. I combined the three ingredients in the smallest bottle I had; as usual, the liquid glowed.

Eye Drops: Effective for eyestrain. Promote cell regeneration.

I’d mixed actual medication with just those three ingredients; anybody with the medicine-making skill could. “At this point, that skill is basically magic,” I muttered.

All right, let’s try this stuff. I dripped the eye drops into my eyes. “Ah…! Nice and clear.”

Heading back to the storefront, I passed the eye drops to Kururu.

“And these are?”

“They’re called ‘eye drops.’ Basically, they’ll relieve your eyestrain. One drop per eye. Got it?”

“Hrm.”

Drip, drip. Kururu tried them.

Man, I suck at using them myself, but he’s really good. I told him to keep his eyes shut for a bit.

“Why?!” he asked. “Don’t tell me you’re going to steal a kiss?”

“In your dreams.” And stop wiggling around like you’re embarrassed. “All right, that should be long enough. Open up. How do your eyes feel?”

“Huh? My vision’s so clear! It’s completely different!” exclaimed Kururu, clearly overjoyed. “Reiji, my dear, this is amazing! Thank you so much! I just want to eat you up!”

“Whoa—hey! No eating! Back up.” Pushing Kururu’s forehead, I held him at arm’s length.

“Oh, come now! No need to be shy!”

“I’m not. Personal space, okay?”

“Are you just acting frosty so you can do an about-face later?!”

“Nothing can squash your optimism, huh? If you’re happy with the eye drops, get going,” I suggested, pushing him away.

All of a sudden, Kururu’s expression changed entirely. “I’m going to hit my target for your sake!”

“Aw, man. Earlier, I was so intrigued by this archery event. You’re taking the wind out of my sails.”

“Catch you later, dear,” Kururu left the drugstore, waving.

He wasn’t guaranteed to hit his target just because I gave him eye drops, but I was honestly curious. After Noela woke up, I decided to spend some time enjoying the festival before the big archery event. The actual demonstration would be in the center of town, where a fifty-meter-long stretch of land led to a small target. Lots of people already sat in the audience.

When the time finally arrived, Kururu showed up with his longbow. The audience welcomed him with applause and cheers, and the elf responded like a pro. To be honest, it kind of pissed me off how charismatic he was.

Swoosh!

The first arrow glided through the air and struck the target perfectly. As the crowd showered Kururu in heavy applause, he raised his hands.

Once he exited the venue, it didn’t take him long to locate me. “This was all thanks to your eye drops! Thank you so much, Reiji, dear.” He tried to hug me.

“Whoa!” I dodged swiftly. “Close one. Really, you were skilled to begin with. Eye drops wouldn’t help much at that range.”

“That’s not true at all!” Kururu exclaimed. “I didn’t hit the target even once when I was practicing!”

“Well, that’s because you ran yourself ragged.”

I figured I could at least praise him for working so hard. All in all, Kururu was clearly immensely skilled.