A Genius Pharmacist Whom the Empress Is Obsessed With

For the Hat.

The child’s name was Shinon.

On a midnight that passed, the place Shinon led Edun to was somewhere beyond the farmland, downstream of the river.

“Th-there.”

That place was supposed to be a house? Edun was quite startled.

The place Shinon pointed to was entangled with rotten leaves and broken wooden pillars. No matter how you looked at it, it seemed more like a gathering of various garbage washed away by floods than a house.

“P-please wait here for a moment. I’ll go tell my mom.”

Shinon cleared away the tattered piece of cloth that was fluttering on the fallen wooden pillar and went inside.

With such an appearance, it was natural that the interior of the house was in a mess as well.

Even if a sick person and a child tried to build a house, how well could they build it? They just roughly carved out a square foundation, and that was all they did, using broken and rotten wood and mud to halfheartedly build the walls.

The straw mat on the floor was covered with mold, and the nameless moss covered the wooden walls.

“…With a place like this, even a healthy person would likely get sick.”

As anger surged within Edun, he secretly caught the ants crawling up the wooden wall and threw them outside.

*

Shinon’s mother didn’t seem normal from her appearance alone.

The thick cloth wrapped around her whole body seemed insufficient, as dirty bandages were tightly wound around her face.

“Hello.”

Edun bowed lightly as he put down his bag.

The woman did not respond to Edun’s polite greeting and only looked at him. Her eyes, visible above the bandage, were filled with an intense sense of wariness.

“…Perhaps it’s because she was driven out of the village.”

What means does a sick woman have to protect herself? Even if a grown man lightly swung his fist, she would not be able to resist and would collapse without any resistance.

So she had to stay on guard, and continue to be on guard.

“I’m the new pharmacist who arrived in Mellow a week ago. I heard you’re feeling unwell, may I take a look?”

“…”

“I just want to confirm your symptoms, you can just show me your hand.”

Despite Edun’s continuous requests, the woman remained unchanged. It seemed that speaking to her any further would yield no significant gains.

“The room is quite dark. If it’s not too much trouble, may I turn on the light?”

The woman still did not respond with any form of answer.

Edun opened the door as wide as possible, then rummaged through his bag and lit a candle before sitting down in his spot. From now on, it was a time of waiting.

Although he wanted to immediately give her something to eat and relieve her from the agonizing pain, obtaining the patient’s consent was the priority for now.

No matter how well-intentioned, favors that are not desired by the other party should not be bestowed.

“Mom, this pharmacist helped me.”

The continuing silence became too difficult to bear for Sion, who approached his mother quietly and spoke.

But even in the face of her only son’s words, Sion’s mother only looked at Edun with stern eyes.

“Mom, don’t worry. This man didn’t hit me. He even gave me delicious tea. So, he’ll also help you get better.”

“…”

“Mom, you’re in a lot of pain, right? So-“

Sion couldn’t finish his sentence.

As Sion grabbed onto her rag-like cloak, the woman struck him. This was why Sion’s nose bled and he hastily stepped back, groaning.

“I told you not to touch me!!”

The woman’s voice, heard for the first time, was incredibly harsh. Even though her son was suffering, she only trembled all over, without making any other movements.

With the situation as it now was, Edun could no longer passively observe.

“Sion, come here.”

At Edun’s call, Sion crawled over on all fours. Edun quietly pulled out a clean cloth and wiped Sion’s face. Thankfully, besides a broken nose, he didn’t seem to be injured elsewhere.

“Keep the cloth under your nose. Tilt your head slightly forward. If blood comes out and you tilt your head back, it’s not good.”

After handing Sion a white cloth, Edun looked at the woman.

The sharp-eyed woman had tears that she couldn’t hide in her eyes.

“I’m afraid I might catch the disease.”

With that short sentence, I could understand the woman’s actions.

She wrapped her body tightly and couldn’t even touch her hands because she was afraid of her only son catching the disease.

“Madam.”

Edun’s hoarse voice made the woman shudder.

“I need to take a closer look, but it seems that your disease is not contagious. So please don’t worry too much.”

“H-How do you know that?”

“When I saw it in my pharmacy, Sion’s body was a bit thin, but very clean.”

“…Is it because I’ve been covering my body with this cloth all this time.”

“It seems difficult to prevent the disease with your current cloak, madam.”

Edun reached out his hand to the woman and spoke.

“So, please don’t worry and just show me your hand at least.”

Perhaps convinced by Edun’s persuasion, the woman lowered her cloak and reached out her hand to Edun.

“I-Is it really okay? In case it spreads to you, the pharmacist…”

The woman’s hand, floating in the air, was trembling uncontrollably.

“It’s really okay. So please relax.”

After smiling at the woman, Edun carefully observed her skin.

On the back of the goddess’s hand, clustered eruptions resembled clusters of grapes. Numerous layers of particularly white keratin were piled up on top of the eruptions, and in places where the eruptions were particularly severe, there were yellow pustules.

“You forcibly tore off the blisters, didn’t you?”

“…It was too disgusting and itchy.”

“Yes, you could feel that way. Do you often soak your body in the river?”

“…Yes.”

Edun gently placed her hand down. As soon as Edun finished the examination, the woman asked urgently.

“Can it really be cured?”

“Isn’t that why I came here?”

Edun chuckled as he rummaged through his bag. What he took out was a bowl and some herbs.

***

According to Edun’s judgment, the woman’s skin disease didn’t come from any physical pain.

The woman’s skin was just sensitive.

When I used to work at Estelon Sanatorium, I was able to meet unique patients.

This man came to the sanatorium in a rush, saying that he broke out in hives all over his body while eating peanuts.

Even though Eden observed the patient multiple times, he realized that the patient wasn’t sick at all. It was just that his body had become sensitive to peanuts for unknown reasons.

Eden prescribed medication to relieve the hives while removing the toxins accumulated in the patient’s body.

Thanks to Eden cleaning his body multiple times, the man didn’t break out in hives as severely as before when he ate peanuts. Although he still experienced a slight itchiness.

“It’s difficult to return the body to its original state once it becomes sensitive.”

As a final prescription, Eden advised the man to avoid peanuts whenever possible. Especially when he was feeling exhausted or had major concerns.

The same was true for women.

Due to the excessive damage to their liver and lungs, women’s skin had disrupted energy flow. As a result, their skin became unusually sensitive to minor stimuli.

The skin is meant to protect the body.

Although it was actually a harmless stimulus, the overly sensitive skin perceived it as excessive and worked hard to protect the body.

The rash that rose like small beans and the thick accumulation of dead skin were evidence of that.

So the only way to heal the women was to restore the disrupted energy in their damaged skin and alleviate the pain they felt.

After overcoming rosemary and wormwood, Eden gave the women a mixture of lavender oil.

“Try to wash your body lightly in clean water, preferably in an upward motion, and apply this medicine all over your body.”

Rosemary and lavender were good herbs for moisturizing, and wormwood had a cooling effect. These three types of herbs were the perfect prescription for women suffering from itchiness and inflammation.

The woman nodded her head and left with Sion.

Since he had given her medicine to alleviate her pain, the remaining tasks were to heal her weakened liver and lungs and improve the external environment.

“Well then, why don’t you tidy up the house for now?”

Improving the environment was the first priority. Even if clean water was poured in, if the water container was dirty, the water inside would still become dirty.

Without hesitation, Eden started to clear away the rotten leaves and branches that covered the house.

To create a place where the tired woman could rest.