I’m Not Doing This With A Friend Chapter 135

 

Mosquitoes.

 

Why hadn’t I thought of them before?

 

Thinking of it as a mosquito-borne disease, not a plague, explained why my parents’ illness hadn’t spread to anyone else.

 

“Professor.”

 

My voice trembled with the emotion I couldn’t suppress.

 

“Maybe Monstera is not a plague.”

 

“What…? If Monstera isn’t a plague, how do you explain why everyone is getting sick at the same time?”

 

“We don’t know for sure yet, but that’s what we’re going to find out.”

 

I scrambled out of my seat and left the lab.

 

“Don’t push yourself too hard today, go get some rest!”

 

I headed for Carson’s lab. I could call upon him with mana, and he would appear before me in a moment, but I didn’t need to.

 

His mage laboratory was just around the corner.

 

“Caon!”

 

I burst through the door without knocking, and Carson, who was sitting at his desk fiddling with something, looked up in surprise.

 

“Leen?”

 

“Caon. I need to make a quick trip to the capital, can you come with me?”

 

He jumped to his feet and strode over to me.

 

“Where to?”

 

If it didn’t seem endearing that he was doing me a favor without asking why, I wondered if he might be sick.

 

“The treatment center where Nancy works. You know where it is, right?”

 

🍃 

 

The confirmation process was quick.

 

I went to Nancy and asked her a total of two things.

 

“When your father was sick, did he ever get a mosquito bite that caused his skin to swell?”

 

She must have realized from the look in my eyes that I was asking something important, because she answered my question seriously.

 

“I don’t know about mosquito bites, but I remember some swollen spots on the arm that looked like venomous mosquito bites.”

 

Here I was half-convinced.

 

Monstera wasn’t a plague, it was an infectious disease.

 

“Pardon me, but do you mind if I ask how long he’s been ill?”

 

“Less than three months. It was just like Monstera, except it wasn’t contagious.”

 

“…Thank you for answering.”

 

After hearing both of these answers, I left the clinic. I started searching for anything related to Monstera.

 

And I found it.

 

All the patients with Monstera had swelling in one part of their body.

 

Maybe that’s why, even before I realized this, there were some physicians who claimed that Monstera was not an epidemic.

 

But that argument didn’t convince those who were already believing it was an epidemic.

 

Even after all of this, there was still one thing that kept me from concluding that Monstera and my parents’ disease were the same.

 

The rate of progression of the disease was so fast that Monstera couldn’t compare it.

 

Perhaps the disease had evolved over time, and the progression of the illness was too slow for Professor George.

 

No way.

 

“Because he ate the fruit?”

 

This confused me. Wouldn’t it make sense to have people take them, even if they quickly deteriorated afterward?

 

It might prolong their lives a little.

 

“No, my late parents went without it for over half a year.”

 

Calculating the rate of progression of the disease, they would have lasted longer if they hadn’t taken the remedy.

 

“So you’re saying that Professor George’s slow progression of his disease isn’t due to the berries…”

 

Was Professor George a special case?

 

Back in the Duchy, I sat at my desk and continued to ponder this.

 

Until the sun went down and dawn broke. I must have fallen asleep at some point, because when I woke up, sunlight was streaming in through the window.

 

“I must have fallen asleep at my desk.”

 

Getting out of bed, Carson helped me up.

 

I got up and headed back to the lab, I learned that my world had been turned upside down overnight.

 

The entire Empire had been infected with Monstera.

 

It was a disaster.

 

“…Infected people everywhere at the same time?”

 

I blurted out in disbelief, then frowned.

 

Something smelled foul. I had a hunch it wasn’t a natural disease.

 

But right now, the urgency was to stop the spread of the disease.

 

Luckily, as if in preparation for just such an occasion, there was one thing I’d made as a group project at the Academy.

 

‘Hans,’ I said.

 

It doesn’t make sense that we don’t have a mosquito repellent in a world where we have a demon repellent.

 

“Did I mention there’s no sense in it? That’s what we call practicality.”

 

There was no time to waste. I went straight to Hans with Carson.

 

Somehow, I felt a little guilty that I was using Carson for transportation, just like yesterday.

But I was in a hurry and needed his teleportation.

 

I asked Hans to mass-produce mosquito repellent.

 

It’s easy to make and inexpensive, so it shouldn’t take long for Hans’s big top to turn out a batch.

 

Hans showed his hidden talent and quickly got to work producing the mosquito repellent.

 

And while the repellent was being produced, I worked to spread the word throughout the Empire that Monstera was a mosquito-borne disease.

 

This part was not difficult.

 

I had learned from the people of Lysianthus what money and power meant this time. I looked at Carson with pride in my eyes.

 

“I’m glad I have a capable lover and prospective in-laws.”

 

Carson’s face lit up with emotion as he considered my words.

 

“A lover… prospective in-laws…”

 

I smiled a little at him, and then sighed.

 

Now that I’d put out the most pressing fire, I’d have to take care of the rest. There was so much to be done.

 

“Caon.”

 

Carson turned to face me at my call.

 

No, he just kept staring at me and then nodded his head slightly.

 

His gaze was always on me. The thought of what I was about to ask of him made it difficult to speak.

 

When I didn’t say anything, Carson smiled weakly, as if to encourage me to speak.

 

“I’m listening.”

 

I asked him, clenching my fists.

 

“Do you think you could take me to where the Monstera is spreading fastest right now?”

 

It wasn’t a plague, but that didn’t change the danger.

 

But Carson didn’t say no this time.

 

“What do you need me to do?”

 

“I need specimens. I need you to catch live mosquitoes. As many as you can catch.”

 

He grinned.

 

“I’ll be right back.”

 

He looks like he’s about to cast a spell and leave, and I grab his sleeve.

 

I knew the spell would protect him well enough, but I didn’t want to send him somewhere dangerous.

 

As I clamped my mouth shut and held onto his sleeve, Carson glanced at me, eyebrows knitted together in disbelief.

 

“You’re worried about me, Leen?”

 

“How can anyone be okay when they’re sending someone they love into a plague-infested place?”

 

Then Carson grabbed onto his heart and took a deep breath.

 

“Ha, that’s so cute…”

 

“I’m not kidding.”

 

Carson plastered a grin on his face.

 

“I know, and that makes it better. It makes me happy that you care.”

 

Carson bent his head down so that he was at eye level with me.

 

“But I don’t like it when you look at me like that. Leen, what was my major at the Academy?”

 

“Magic.”

 

“And what was I called there?”

 

“Serial wizard.”

 

Carson winced at my unthinking answer.

 

“…Other than that.”

 

“Psycho? Slayer? Dual personality? Pseudo-Northern Archduke?”

 

“…”

 

Carson’s face darkened with each word I spoke.

 

“Ah, I see.”

 

He finally opens his mouth, his face reddening.

 

“Yes, magic…!”

 

“Fjord’s dedicated attacker.”

 

“…Did I have a nickname like that?”

 

Actually, I just made that up on the spur of the moment because I thought Carson’s reaction was funny.

 

Well, it wasn’t wrong, was it?

 

What’s the real one, anyway? I think I’ve come up with everything.

 

I thought about it for a while, and then remembered that he’d said ‘magic genius’ as well.

 

“Magic genius?”

 

“…Mmm. That.”

 

He affirmed with a look that was somehow very annoyed, but then realized.

 

“Anyway, the bottom line is that I’m good at magic, so don’t worry.”

 

It’s no big deal to him. He smiled lazily and suddenly kissed me on the cheek.

 

Then he looked away, his face flushed.

 

“Bye, then.”

 

I stared at the empty spot where Carson had disappeared in the blink of an eye.

 

Slowly, I lifted my hand and touched my cheek where it had been warm. I was dumbfounded.  

 

🍃  

 

Despite my worries, Carson returned to the duchy less than half a day later.

 

He came back with a glass jar filled with hundreds of mosquitoes.

 

But something didn’t seem right about his expression.

 

“Caon, what’s wrong with your face? Did you get bitten by a mosquito?”

 

Alarmed, I rushed to him.

 

“Le, Leen…!”

 

“Where’s the bite? Your arm and face look fine, but is it inside? Let me see!”

 

I hastily tried to remove Carson’s clothes, but he blocked my hand with his own.

 

Carson blushed bright red and offered a non-explanatory statement.

 

“Rest assured, Leen, I was not bitten at all.”

 

The grip on his collar slackened.

 

“Then what was that dark look?”

 

Carson asked, pointing to the vial.

 

“I can sense the mana concentrated in those mosquitoes.”

 

“What…?”

 

All life has mana. But it’s limited, and the smaller the animal, the less mana it has.

 

But if he could sense the concentrated mana from the tiny mosquitoes…

 

“Caon, it can’t be these mosquitoes…”

 

I trembled and stared at Carson as he slowly closed and opened his eyes.

 

“Yep. Demons.”