"Ha... Ha... Doctor... I've brought it, the eggs."
The boy who pushed Vin toward the snake in order for himself to survive stopped before one of the biggest and cleaner tents around the camp.
A short man wearing glasses looked up to see him, his eyes filled with surprise.
"Lesser Giant Snake's eggs? Are you sure, Rokk?"
The boy, Rokk, nodded and handed the short man the basket he was holding.
"Yes, Doctor!"
"Ohhh! That's incredible! A real, no, three real eggs of Lesser Giant Snakes! Great job you have done there, Rokk! I could save more people now!"
There was a smile on Rokk's face, his eyes filled with hope.
"With this... My mother will be cured, right?"
The Doctor stopped smiling after he heard that. He slowly lowered the basket he raised high earlier and looked away.
"I could only say it was fifty-fifty, unfortunately," he confessed.
"Eh? But..."
Rokk wanted to protest, but the Doctor immediately give him the reason.
"Your mother's illness had reached critical level. Demonic energy from her wounds had started to affecting her inner system... Even with Lesser Giant Snake's eggs, the chance to completely neutralize these accumulated Demonic energy was still slim."
Rokk could only grit his teeth in hopelessness after he heard that. After all, what else could he do now?
Just to get these eggs alone, he had risked his life, barely survived after he sacrificed a strange man who saved him in critical moment. The guilt had stuffed his chest heavy since now, and if even after he had done something so vile his mother still couldn't be cured... What was him? A bastard?
"I see," said Rokk, holding his tear.
He then stared at the Doctor.
"If I wanted to completely cure her... What can I do to help?"
The Doctor looked hesitant before sighed.
"Right... Maybe if you could bring someone who could use Light Magic, or get the rare Tilm flower, the Demonic energy inside your mother could be completely expelled, but..."
"I see! Thank you, Doctor!"
Before he could even finish speaking, Rokk had already dashed out of the tent.
"Hey, wait... Haa~ that kid, he better not do anything rash and lost his life out there..."
After another heavy sigh, the Doctor sit down back on his chair and began to making more reagens and antidotes the refugees needed.
"Cough! Cough! Cough!"
While he focusing in drug making, he suddenly coughed loudly. He wiped his mouth, his eyes dimmed slightly after he saw blood on his palm.
"When will this suffering end?"
His murmur left unheard. Just as usual.
Here, he should only focus on his job. With that, his food and safety would be guaranteed, not like refugees that have only their lives left.
...
"It's worse than I thought..."
Vin stepped in front of the camp.
He could only cover his mouth after seeing how dirty the living enviroment the people living here was.
There was trash and mud everywhere. Everyone walk with downcasted gazes, losing hope for tomorrow. It was unimaginable for a man who came from modern era like him.
There's about 500 people there. Everyone without exception looked thin and malnourished.
"Just what had happened here?" He muttered under his breath.
As Vin approaching the camp, the men who standing guard at the entrance noticed him and stepped before him. They aimed their spears toward him.
"Stop there!"
"Who are you?"
Vin halted his steps and raised his hands.
"W-woah... Wa-wait, guys. Calm down. I am just a normal traveler."
Instead of calming them, his words only raised their suspicion toward him.
"Um..."
Their stared at each other in tense atmosphere for a while before the guards finally lowered their spears after they confirmed that Vin didn't have any dangerous weapon. Or rather, Vin didn't have anything except his clothes, which was why they wary of him earlier.
"Name?" Asked one of the guards that looked like their leader.
"V-Vin," Answered Vin.
It was the first time he was facing with armed people. It somewhat shaken him, forcefully reminding him that this world was not Earth, but Tjarem, a world where skill, magic, and sword is the norm.
"What do you want from us?"
'I want to visit your camp,' was what Vin wanted to say before, but seeing how cautious them are toward him, Vin changed his approach.
"A-actually, I just wanted to ask what happened... It's the first time I saw a camp of people here, so..."
The guards looked at each other before focused back on Vin.
"Are you live around here?" Asked the leader.
"Y-yes... Y-you could say it... that way..." Nervous, Vin accidentally affirmed the guard leader's question.
The looks they gave him told him that he had became a strange man for them now. That embarrased him slightly, but he still wanted to know what had happened to them, so he opened his mouth again.
"So... What actually happened to you people?" Vin asked them about that again.
They sighed before answering him.
"You really don't know it?" One of them looked at him from hair to toe strangely like he just met an alien.
"We are refugees," Answered the guard leader.
"The Hero was defeated again in the war. We came from Halleim. That place maybe already turned into Demon Nest now. Heh, and even after we came all the way to the Capital, the nobles living there rejected us, refused to let us in."
"They forced us to fend for ourselves in the wilderness until now. But now that epidemic had started to spread amongst us... Maybe our end is already—"
"Captain!"
The guard leader continued to lament, but one of his subordinates stopped.
That was something that left unsaid until now. They still don't want to believe that there wasn't any hope left for them. So they wouldn't let their leader said that.
Otherwise, what was the point of surviving until this point?
The guard leader smiled weakly in response.
"Well, that's it. You got the idea, lad."
Vin gulped and nodded, his face slightly pale.