# Side Story (19)
My room.
No, Saten's room looked like a place for manufacturing drugs.
The fact that we had to wear gas masks, and the white lights too.
If a passerby saw this, they'd probably call the police without a second thought.
"Come this way, Ahjussi."
"Uh, yeah."
Saten, wearing a gas mask, guided me to the desk.
She showed me the desk and explained the manufacturing process.
"First, to treat modern people's sleep issues, I crushed sleeping pills. Like this."
Crunch- Crunch-
Saten began crushing the sleeping pills using a small mortar.
Then she placed the powdered pills on a plate and covered it with a lid.
"This part is done. Next, I need to use mana. This is a personal question, but what kind of power do you think is contained in mana, Ahjussi?"
"Power contained in mana?"
Hmm.
What kind of power is in mana?
I wracked my brain trying to figure out what power might be in it.
But no matter how much I thought about it, no answer came.
"I don't have knowledge or mana, so I don't know."
"If you had to think of something?"
"Mm, still nothing."
"You lack imagination, Ahjussi. Well, that's okay. I can fill in for your lacking imagination. The answer is this."
Saten closed her eyes and began muttering something.
It wasn't Korean, so I didn't know what she was saying.
But I could tell she was chanting some kind of spell.
Then, after muttering to herself, Saten shouted toward the powder on the plate.
"Eliminate people's dreams."
"What, that's it?"
"Yes, that's it. Don't tell me you couldn't see the technique, Ahjussi?"
What technique?
If someone said that in real life, they'd be socially isolated.
Instead, Saten looked at me strangely, as if I were the weird one.
"The Ahjussi who was my teacher is dead."
"That's why I told you, I'm not that person."
"No, you're still Ahjussi. This is fine too, I'll just teach you magic again anyway."
But I don't have mana?
However, Saten looked determined to teach me magic no matter what.
Her expressionless face was quite scary, so I changed the subject by asking.
"So, what did you just do?"
"Ah, I just used mana to transform the properties of the sleeping pills. And to answer the earlier question, mana..."
Contains the user's thoughts.
Saten said this while taking out the powder and condensing it into a pill.
"Originally, I used blood as a medium to use magic. Because of that, I had to self-harm every time I fought."
"Wh-what?"
"Ah, but now I don't fight unless someone picks a fight with me, so I'm clean."
Saten stopped what she was doing and showed me her wrist.
Fortunately, it was clean without a single scar.
"But this world is somewhat convenient, I'd say. There are many things to use as mediums. Probably because usage instructions are written everywhere, it's easier to materialize thoughts."
Chatter chatter-
Saten explained mana and magic to me while making the pills.
However, her explanation was too long and the content was too difficult to understand.
*'It feels like going to school without studying math at all.'*
I can't understand any of the content.
As I listened to Saten, I briefly became a woodpecker nodding along to her words.
Before I knew it, Saten's pill manufacturing was complete.
"This is that pill. It's medicine that prevents you from dreaming."
"If she takes this, Estia won't have nightmares...?"
"Yes, that's right. If it fails, she'll have weird dreams like you did, Ahjussi."
I never want to have that dream again.
Should I say it'd be better to be taken to hell instead?
I took the medicine from Saten to test it and left the room.
Outside was Luna, who had just woken up half-asleep.
"Wh-what?"
Luna rubbed her eyes and looked at us.
Then she started shouting in surprise.
"Zo-zombies! A zombie outbreak happened, right!? Those gas masks! Zombies have finally appeared, right!?"
"That can't be. There are no zombies in the world."
"...Really?"
Why is she disappointed?
Inwardly, Luna expressed her disappointment and lowered her head.
It seemed like she wanted a moment for the Hero to step up.
"But there are no zombies."
"I-is that so...? How sad..."
"More importantly, Luna, if you have nothing to do, want to come along?"
I'm thinking of helping Estia.
When I said that, Luna vigorously shook her head and followed me.
It was the moment when an unemployed Hero got rehired.
Estia basically sleeps.
If you can't see Estia normally,
it means she's lying on a bed somewhere sleeping.
That's how much Estia sleeps.
"She's sleeping now too."
"She is!"
"You know what state Estia is in right now, right?"
Nod-
Luna nodded and answered.
"Of course! I even shared a room with Estia at first! We got along well!"
"Oh, really? How did you end up sharing a room?"
"Just, Ahjussi said there were no rooms and threw Estia into my room! Estia was in really bad shape back then!"
"...That wasn't me."
No matter how many times I hear it, I can't get used to it.
Lee Jun-woo from another world.
What kind of life did he live?
As I thought that, I felt like some words were passing through my head.
"...A book? Library...?"
"Huh?"
"Ah, never mind. Let's hurry and give Estia the medicine."
Saying something that would sound strange to others,
I put the pill in Estia's mouth.
"If Estia seems to be in pain, you wake her up. And if she starts thrashing around..."
"You want me to restrain her, right?"
"That's right, Luna is smart after all."
"Wh-who do you think is stupid! You're just using me!"
"Not using, coexisting. Let's use the right words, Luna."
Anyway.
When Estia thrashes around, I'll leave it to Luna.
We quietly watched Estia sleeping on the bed.
"Mm, mmnya... hmm..."
Estia was deep in sleep, unaware that a pill had entered her mouth.
It didn't look like she'd wake up anytime soon, but we couldn't be sure yet.
If she started having nightmares, we planned to wake her immediately.
*'I absolutely can't let her see the dream I had...'*
That was a terrible dream that could cause trauma.
Just thinking about it gave me goosebumps all over.
"Mmm, there's no particular reaction."
"Wait. This is important."
"Then just a moment!"
Patter-
Luna shouted "just a moment" and ran to the living room.
Then she came back with her phone and started watching N-flix.
"Hehe, I didn't finish watching yesterday. I need to watch the replay!"
"You need to stop watching dramas."
"Why?"
"The fact that you don't know is the problem."
I should get her into some small group later to socialize her a bit.
Choosing groups where she'll cause the least trouble.
As I was watching Luna absorbed in her phone,
"Uh, uhhh..."
Changes began to occur in Estia's body.
As if having some painful dream, she started tossing and turning and rolling on the bed.
"I-isn't she having a nightmare!?"
"It looks like it... What's the problem...?"
Is there a problem with Saten's medicine?
The most likely scenario was that there was a problem with Saten's medicine...
I brought Saten from her room and asked her about this situation.
"Saten, what seems to be the problem?"
Saten answered firmly.
"Estia is the problem. My medicine has no issues."
"Confidence is good, but... isn't there a problem with the medicine?"
"There could be. But Ahjussi, you need to know this."
Medicine can't always help.
Saten said this while looking at Estia.
"Medicine helps, but ultimately it can't address the fundamental problem. That's why other factors are needed to fix the issue."
That's just sales talk.
Isn't that the same thing as diet supplements?
Saten seemed like a genius at K-marketing.
"So basically you're saying the medicine you made failed."
"It's not a failure, please correct it to 'unfortunate.' And the problem originally lies not with the medicine but with oneself."
"And I have to figure out what that is myself, right?"
"Right, because Estia doesn't really think of it as a problem."
The problem.
What method is there to solve the problem?
Saten said medicine is just supplementary.
To provide direct help...
"I have no choice but to act myself..."
Plop-
I approached the bed and lay down next to Estia.
"Aah! What are you doing to a sleeping girl!"
Luna shouted something at that sight, but I ignored her and did what I had to do.
Lying on the bed and looking at Estia, her expression looked pained.
As if having a nightmare, she was making groaning sounds.
*'I shouldn't think about doing business with Saten. I'll probably get sued.'*
Making that resolution, I covered Estia's body with a blanket.
Then her frowning expression gradually began to relax.
However, she still made sounds as if in pain.
*'In the end, is this the only way to keep Estia from having nightmares?'*
I held sleeping Estia's hand.
Estia's muscles, in a sleep state, flinched in surprise for a moment.
But perhaps recognizing my warmth,
her body slowly relaxed and accepted my touch.
Meanwhile, Estia's expression and sounds had all returned to normal.
"Hehe..."
Estia sleep-talked with a smile, as if having a good dream.
"Oppa's hand... I like it..."
"So basically I'm the medicine."
Whatever, I don't care.
I had a bad dream too, so I'll just sleep more.
I closed my eyes next to Estia, who was sleeping happily.
"...If this was the plan, why did you call me? How annoying."
Saten said she was annoyed and returned to her room.
And Luna...
"Why do you scold my legs but hold Estia's warmly!"
She got angry at me and squeezed in between us.
As for Hare, who had her most important room stolen...
"..."
She looked at us without saying anything, then went into the kitchen.
I was most scared of Hare's behavior among the Hero Party.
*'Still.'*
Rather than suddenly fixing it with medicine, it's better to gradually reduce her sleep.
*'If I hold her hand, she has fewer nightmares at least.'*
With that thought, I went to bed with Luna and Estia.
It felt like we were all having good dreams.