Lui and Arthur

“Demon… forest…!?”

I spoke as gently as I could to the child, who covered his mouth with his bony hands and begun to tremble.

“Everything’s okay. We are in the Demon Forest, but there is a barrier around us, so no monsters can get in.”

The child, who opened his eyes hollowed out by malnutrition wide, seemed to be watching me carefully.
His eyes were filled with fear and anxiety.

“Rather than that, you must be hungry, right? I made you a meal, why don’t you eat up?”
“M, meal… I, I get to eat something?”

He was probably not fed properly, so he asked me timidly. I was boiling with anger at the environment in which the child had been brought up.

“Of course. There’s plenty for the other child too, so let’s eat without worries, okay?”
“!! Arthur, is Arthur okay!?”

Is Arthur the name of the other child, I wonder?
When I told the panicking child that has not noticed the other child, that he was sleeping next to him, he started to cry when he saw in the bed.

“Good, that’s good…”
“Oh, stop crying, you’ll get dehydrated if you cry too much.”

I hurriedly wiped the child’s tears and handed him a bottle of sports drink I had brought along.

This is something that has recently appeared in my refrigerator and tastes great after sweating from weeding.
It is one of the most convenient things I have.

“Drink this first.”
“Eh, o, okay…”

The next thing I knew, his dry skin was back to its childlike resilience! Even the color of the skin, which had been dark, turned white!

Huuuhhh!?

“Yummy… my body feels much better… ah, looking again, I don’t seem to have any wounds!? W, was this perhaps an extremely expensive potion…”

The reason your wounds were healed is because of Richmond who cast a healing spell on you! But more importantly, it’s just a sports drink, not a potion, okay!?

So potions are a thing, huh? You know, that medicine that restores physical health and mana…

This is just a sports beverage, though!?

“No, rather than a potion, this is a drink that replenishes the liquids that your body is missing, it’s not something so grand… at least I think so? Ah, my family member has treated your wounds with healing magic.”
“Healing magic!? There are people here who can use such incredible magic!? As I thought, the potion must have been something incredible, too… I, I’m sorry, I don’t have any money to pay you back!!”

“I don’t need your money!? Anyhow, don’t worry about anything right now aside of getting well! Here, now eat this rice gruel, okay?”

As I was handing him a spoon and a bowl of the rice gruel, I heard “Ugh…” from the bed next to us.

“Arthur.”
“Mh… Lui…?”

It seems that Arthur has woken up.

“Arthur? Are you able to get up?”
“!? W, who!?”

He was startled, but he didn’t have the strength to get up, so he sank back down into the bed when he tried to rise.

His bony arms fell helplessly onto the bed.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Fuji… Kanade Fujii. Ah, I apologize for not introducing myself earlier, little one.”
“Oh, I apologize, too. Umm, my name is Lui… this is my twin younger brother, Arthur.”
“Eh, twin!?”

The reason I was so surprised was because Lui was very tiny.

Arthur seemed to be around six years old, but Lui only looked like a four-year-old to me.

Both of them certainly had the same platinum-blonde hair, but…

“Ah, pardon me. I was rude there.”
“No, I’m smaller compared to Arthur, so it’s understandable.”

I thought he was pretty mature for a four-year-old, but he was actually six, huh… no, he’s quite mature even for a six-year-old.

“You probably haven’t been given much food until now, so it can’t be helped. Well, from now on, eat well, so you can grow up!”

While talking to Lui, I put a cushion on behind Arthur’s back and helped him to sit up.

“Drink this further, Arthur.”
“?? T, this is… we were attacked by a monster, then a dragon…”
“Yes. I will explain later, so let’s drink this first, okay?”

Come to think of it, it is written in the House Summoning Instruction Manual that the food in this house has the effect of maintaining health and recovering physical strength and Mana…

That means, this rice gruel, too…?

“What is this…!? My body feels lighter…”

Yeah. It restored his strength, didn’t it? It also has a health maintenance effect, so maybe their malnutrition is gone, too?

“Arthur, has your belly deflated?”
“Eh, my belly… i, it did… my belly that was swollen even though I was starving has now deflated!!”

Alright! Just as I thought.

Since it’s “Health maintenance,” it means you have to be healthy first to stay healthy, right? It did heal them first, after all!

“You two, try some of this rice gruel. You must be hungry.”

Even though they might not need rice gruel anymore, and I could feed them normal rice now, I don’t want them to throw up because of upset stomach, so they will have to do with this for today.

“Rice gruel…?”
“It’s rice cooked until there are no grains left. It’s lightly salted, so it should be easy to eat.”

They tilted their heads in confusion, so I thought they might not have eaten rice before. ”Anyhow, give it a try.” I suggested.

They scooped it up with a spoon and put it in their mouths, swallowing it down with a gulp.

“”!? Y, yummy!!!””

They said and looked at each other in surprise.