Shota's Isekai NTR Adventure Chapter 2023: Allergic reaction?

Thanks to the swift pace of the royal guards, we reached the Merman Empire in practically no time flat.

Actually, I noticed they were employing certain items that propelled us faster than the usual speed. These were obviously potions sourced from the sea witches.

Now that the rift between the sea witches and the Merman Empire was bridged, it looked like plenty of exchanges had flowed between the two factions.

For starters, the royal guards were now relying on sea witch potions themselves.

Back in the old days, something like that would have been utterly unthinkable.

Because of this, we ended up pulling into the Merman Empire after just a single day on the move.

Right after getting there, they didn't haul me off to the palace.

Rather, they guided me to a manor sealed tight by the royal guards. The massive number of guards posted around it showed how dead set they were on cutting this spot off from everything else.

Still, spotting me under the royal guards' escort, they let me pass inside.

Stepping into the manor, I discovered the Merman King there to greet me, his face etched with a heavy frown.

He had spearheaded this issue personally, so it hit him hard on a deep level. Plus, letting any harm come to these folks from other races...

To put it bluntly, he'd lose all credibility as the Merman Empire's leader.

It'd be the same as shaming his whole bloodline.

That's precisely why he was banking on me having some way to crack this crisis.

I wasn't holding out much optimism myself, yet I trailed the Merman King along to check on the sick ones.

Upon reaching them, I found myself wearing a puzzled expression.

Even though I wasn't a trained healer and knew little about ailments like these, the state of these other race members revealed a few key details to me.

"Is this an allergic reaction?"

The way these other race members looked reminded me of someone gripped by a major allergic episode. I figured allergies were a universal thing across worlds, but on second thought...

In a place with only medieval-style medicine and healing magic available, folks didn't sweat allergies much to begin with. If a reaction hit, magic could fix it up easy.

Here, though, it appeared they were dosing them with potions and healing magic just to hold things steady.

Even so, despite every effort, the patients weren't improving one bit.

"Does this mean that there’s something in the water that’s causing this allergic reaction in them? If that’s the case, then why did they show no signs until now?" This question raced through my mind as I studied their states.

Drawing from what I'd learned about allergies in my old life, these symptoms screamed a brutal allergic response. Reactions like this normally kicked in fast, with no waiting period.

The delay in symptoms for these patients made zero sense whatsoever.

That they kept reacting even after healing pointed to some ongoing contact still sparking the trouble...

"Perhaps there was a reason why they were exiled in the first place?" Piecing together what I knew, this stood as my ultimate hunch.

The Merman King shot me a tense, narrowed stare, but I kept quiet since my ideas weren't fully formed yet. Spilling my guess now would only stir up empty expectations.

More importantly, the focus now fell on whether I could offer any real help to these sufferers.

"Where’s the kraken?"

The Merman King looked taken aback by my words, but he stayed silent and headed into another chamber. He emerged moments later, the kraken trailing right behind him.

The kraken shot a sour glance at the bedridden patients, yet it slunk over to me like it anticipated an order.

I had no clear idea of my next move myself, never having tapped the kraken's abilities before, but the contract we'd sealed made this feasible.

This was the exact ability I required in this moment.

Especially since these patients had shown no such issues back in their original homes.

As the kraken drew near, I held out my hand for it to coil around.

I wasn't sure on the details of merging our strengths, but this move just felt instinctively correct.

Once the kraken looped around my hand, I sensed the link binding us and the raw might it carried.

Leveraging that bond, I pulled on the kraken's energy to summon water spheres encasing the patients.

Deep underwater as we were, water already bathed them all around. But the spheres I formed stood apart from the everyday seawater they'd been in.

For one, these water balls held swirling currents deep within.

With those currents spinning inside the spheres, it felt like hidden elements were being forced outward.

Before long, the water balls looked entirely distinct from the surrounding liquid.

Purified by the force of those currents, the spheres became nothing but spotless, pure water.