The shop closes three hours before the sun sets. Thanks to the appearance of Flower Knight Hector, tea leaf sales were very good today. Well, in other words, there were many women who came for fortune-telling. I don’t know how many times I’ve repeated the words that their love won’t bear fruit.

I hope the maidens understand that there is nothing more barren than falling in love with a flower knight.

After changing the open sign posted at the entrance of the store to “preparing”, I went out to buy something. I go around to buy groceries, daily necessities, and ingredients for medicines. The shopkeepers everywhere I go ask me for advice, and when I answer something based on the expected line, they give me a freebie or a discount as a thank you. Then, by the time I get home, my hands are full of extra items.

I intended to buy just a little bit, but for some reason this happens every time and my reputation as a fortune teller rises again. This is not what I wanted at all. I want people to compliment me on how effective my medicines are.

(Since I’m home early…I think it would be nice to go to the forest.)

I was able to finish my shopping relatively early today. It would still be two hours before sunset. Usually, I prepare dinner and then mix the medicines, but sometimes, when I have spare time, I head to the forest to gather ingredients for the medicines.

This town faces the sea and forest, making it an ideal place to live for those who make medicines. Thanks to the ocean, trade is flourishing, and there are many plants that can be used as ingredients for medicines growing in the forests nearby, making it a convenient place to buy or gather them on your own.

(I’m running out of ingredients for the ointment, so I’d better get some.)

There are materials that can be purchased, but there are also ingredients that will not work unless you collect them yourself. It probably has something to do with my magical powers. Grasses that are useless to other humans are good ingredients for medicine for me. I have to gather these things myself.

I packed a pouch on my waist with medicines that can provide first aid and are useful in case I am attacked by something, and carried a bag with many compartments for gathering.

Time is short, so I won’t go into the forest, but will likely forage around its entrance. In truth, the materials are more plentiful in the forest, but there are magical beasts in places where the sunlight is difficult to reach. If something happens and I can’t leave the forest until after sunset, the chance of being attacked goes way up.

(I can’t see my own prediction line, so I have to take all possible safety measures.)

The creature called a magical beast was originally just an animal. Then over time, they mutated and reproduced.

It is said that until a long time ago, monsters with magical powers called “demons” existed in this world, and when they mingled with animals, demonic beasts were born. The children born from these monsters do not revert back to animals, and the number of monsters continues to increase.

Animals and magical beasts look almost the same, but they are recognizable because they always have twisted horns. Above all, they are ferocious. Hungry monsters and beasts are always ready to attack.

One of the important tasks of the knights is to exterminate these magical beasts, and although they must be hunted quite often, their numbers do not seem to be decreasing.

However, if left unchecked, the number of these beasts will continue to increase, the number of animals in the forest will decrease, and if the animals that provide food disappear, human towns may be attacked, so there is no choice but to continue hunting them.

However, since magical beasts dislike light, most of them do not come out from the depths of dark forests where trees grow thickly. There are rare cases where they appear near the town as if they got lost, but the knights deal with such magic beasts immediately, and there is little danger even if they go into the forest for a little while. Just in case, I try not to enter the forest when the sun is about to set.

Plants that are treated as weeds can be collected in abundance around the forest. It means that you can take as much as you want if there is no one else who uses it.

(…Yeah, well done. That’s enough for today.)

I was on my way home before the sun turned red, but by the time I arrived back in town, the sky had already turned indigo. The houses were lit and the streetlights were shining, so it did not feel dark, but night was near.

The aroma of soup wafting from some house whetted my appetite, and I was just about to go home and have dinner when someone wandered up from a side street.

A man with a slightly dirty cloak and a hood covering his eyes. His hunched back makes it hard to tell, but he is quite tall. At first glance, he looked like a vagrant, but the clothes peeking out from under his cloak were clean, and I guessed that he was just pretending to be a vagrant for some reason. He is a very strange man.

However, the reason why I couldn’t take my eyes off him was not because of his clothes or because he looked suspicious. Above the man’s head, there was an astonishing line of anticipation.

(That’s the color of death…!?)

I remember the first time I saw it. On the day my parents went out together, what stretched above their heads was a black, somewhat eerie line of anticipation. I didn’t know what the color was showing when I first saw it. Without knowing it, I sent off my parents who said, “Be a good girl and stay at home”–the two of them came back as mute corpses.

So there is no mistaking it. That man will die if he continues like this.

(Why is he dying? Is there any way to help him?)

Each time the cloaked figure takes a step, the expected line of death grows. More than twice as fast, the expected line of injury also grows. He must not go that way. He will die, or if not die, he will be badly injured. Then he should stop.

“Wait!! Stop!!”

Of course, even if I call out, it won’t stop him. He probably didn’t even think he was being called out to by me. He didn’t seem to respond to my voice, and his line continued to grow. So instinctively I ran over to the man, grabbed his arm and pulled hard.

“You can’t go there! You’ll die!”

In hindsight, a woman who suddenly grabbed his arm and said something like that would have been very suspicious. The person she had forced to stop had a surprised look on his face under a deep hood. And I was very surprised when I saw his face…because it was so beautiful that it could be likened to a flower, with wide, honey-colored eyes.

(Flower Knight…!?)

Both he and I froze in confusion, and after a few seconds, I heard the sound of a neighing horse and loud thump, and my gaze was drawn in that direction.

A horse pulling a carriage on the road suddenly went berserk, throwing the driver onto the road, whereupon the carriage lost control, veered off the road, and plunged with great force into a stone wall.

To the place where this man, Hector, would have walked if I hadn’t stopped him. Perhaps this accident would have been the cause of his death. The best evidence is that the colors of death and injury have disappeared from above his head.

“You…Who on earth are you?”

“First aid is needed!! Please call for support!!”

Staring blankly at the accident, and realizing that he might have been involved in it, Hector called out to me with suspicion, but I interrupted him. I may be a suspicious person, but saving lives comes first.

I am a pharmacist and a healing wizard. I had some medical knowledge, and I rushed to the scene of the accident thinking that if I had to, I would have no choice but to stealthily use my powers.

“Are you okay!?”

The horse was tragically crushed between the carriage and the wall, but fortunately there was no one inside, and the man who was thrown from the driver’s seat by the rampaging horse apparently only suffered bruises. If there are no immediate injuries, the rest can be handled by experts.

After confirming that no one was in serious condition, I dragged the man off the road to the edge, told him not to move too much until the Knights came and saw a doctor, and gently gave him a handful of medicine to help with his bruises. Then I left the place as if to run away. Or rather, I actually ran away.

It’s unbearable to leave an injured person behind, but I wanted to disappear before the knights arrived to deal with the accident. I don’t know if the knight disguised in a dirty cloak went to call for help or didn’t want to be found, but he was already gone. I slipped past the onlookers and ran all the way to the shop.

While out of breath, I returned to my shop, closed the door and locked it, and sat down on the spot. I feel awfully tired.

(Of all people, I can’t believe I ended up helping someone I didn’t want to get involved with today…)

I didn’t expect to see a man who is the epitome of glamour roaming the streets wearing a dirty cloak. I don’t know what he was doing, and I don’t want to know, but I hope I won’t inadvertently get involved now.

(… I just acted a little suspicious after seeing his face for a moment. I’m sure, maybe, I’m fine. I’ll never get involved with him again…)

That was how my encounter with Hector Alderde, the Flower Knight, came to an end. I told myself that this would be the last time I would be involved with him, but my words were quickly shattered.