A Genius Pharmacist Whom the Empress Is Obsessed With

Sacrificial Lamb

A tingling, warm sensation enveloped his entire body as he felt as if he could fly. Sven was able to open his eyes with a refreshed feeling.

“Where am I?”

Although he thought it was his lodging, Sven was momentarily taken aback by the unfamiliar scenery that greeted him.

Without saying a word, he blinked his eyes, only to realize belatedly that he had collapsed in the alley due to abdominal pain.

“I must have been in pain for sure.”

Sven slowly felt his stomach with one hand. The excruciating pain that had engulfed his whole body had disappeared as if it were a lie.

“My stomach feels completely better. It’s as if someone treated me.”

He stood up and turned his head around, and caught sight of a table.

On the table were his belongings, several unfamiliar bottles of medicine, and a thin wooden board. Thin wooden boards like that were used for writing.

Sven approached the table and checked the wooden board.

– Avoid cold, greasy, or spicy food for the time being. Avoid overeating and chew slowly and frequently. Due to your constitution being cold, it is best to consume warm food. It is recommended to mainly eat beef, venison, and tomatoes, and avoid chicken, eggs, and pork. –

The back of the wooden board also had instructions on how to take the medicine.

After putting down the wooden board, Sven picked up one of the bottles. Inside the bottle, which was only the size of his index finger, was a brown liquid.

“I remember it said to drink this before meals.”

Hesitating for a moment, thinking it might be poison, Sven swallowed the medicine. If they had wanted to kill him from the start, they would have just left him to die in the alley. There was no need for such a troublesome act of bringing him to an inn and treating him, only to kill him with poison.

The sweet and bittersweet medicine went down his throat.

“Is this medicine? It tastes so good!”

The typical medicine was so bitter that it was difficult to swallow, but if it were this medicine, it seemed like one could drink more than ten bottles.

After emptying one bottle of medicine in one breath, Sven sat down and examined the medicine bottle.

The benefactor left no trace about himself. Seeing the deliberately left wooden board, it seemed as if he would not come back.

However, she couldn’t pretend not to know. Since she had received a favor once, it was Auran’s knight to repay it somehow.

Furthermore, in order to protect the empress who had chosen him, he had to find a capable doctor or pharmacist.

He didn’t know who the sender was, but the empress always wore painkillers. Every time she drank the medicine, her face would scrunch up.

Fortunately, Sven had many clues as to who made this medicine.

‘The person who can make medicine of this level must definitely be registered as a doctor or pharmacist.’

If he checked the pharmacists in this area, including Stolstand, it seemed that it would not be difficult to find the benefactor.

‘Of course, I can also go to the place where this medicine bottle was sold and ask.’

There was a red string fluttering on the lid of the medicine bottle. It seemed to be a unique symbol of that pharmacist.

Sven wrapped the bottle in a cloth and carefully put it in his embrace.

*

The sound of horse hooves resounded loudly.

The sun had long set, but Iden was riding across the field on horseback.

He was slightly surprised that the man lying in the back alley was from the royal palace, but that was all. Whether the patient was valuable or common, to Iden, a patient was just a patient.

The important issue was something else.

A piece of parchment found in the man’s pocket. Seeing that it had the symbol of the royal family, it was definitely not a forgery.

The moment Iden saw the document that was written about the Mellow disease, he had a gut feeling. It meant that Cynon and his mother were in danger.

‘I have to move them to a different place before that woman catches them.’

Iden urged his horse on, pushing his feet forward.

***

At the moment Iden was riding, a luxurious carriage was also traveling on the road.

Although it was quite late, the inside of the carriage was bright as day, because the owner of the carriage, Commander Fenyard, had not yet finished his work.

If Sven was here, he would have shared the work with him, but since Sven was absent, Fenyard had to handle the Mellow affairs as well as the knight’s business himself.

Due to dealing with the affairs of the knight’s order and wrestling with them all day, Fenyard could finally check the Mellow surveillance report that Sven had sent late at night.

“… Can I really solve this?”

Deep wrinkles formed on Fenyard’s forehead as he read through the report.

According to the records, five or six years ago, a sudden outbreak of an infectious disease occurred in peaceful Mellow.

It wasn’t fatal enough to cost lives, but a considerable number of people suffered from severe rashes and itchiness.

‘In those times when the cost of medicine seemed to have skyrocketed to the sky, considering the period.’

Even in the palace, every effort was made to stabilize the cost of medicine. However, some blinded by money, including certain legislators and pharmacists, resorted to desperate and dirty deeds to increase the price of medicine.

As a result, a jest spread throughout the entire empire, saying that to take just one medicine, one had to starve for a month. Jokes circulated that there was no difference between dying without medicine and starving to death.

‘Even if money is terrifying, it’s rare for someone to endure pain for a long time. It’s human to suffer as if a small thorn is stuck in tender flesh.’

People weary of suffering in Melo sought relief by emptying their entire fortunes to produce various medicines. They even visited physicians and pharmacists in Stolstand.

[However, it seemed that no medicine worked, and in some cases, symptoms worsened after taking the medicine.]

To invest everything one had and still not escape from pain, it was clear what would happen next.

Those engulfed in agony and anger sought scapegoats to vent their frustration and resolve their misfortune.

‘Expelled a woman pointed out as the cause of the epidemic…’

According to the documents, that woman was indeed just a victim of the epidemic, but to those who had gone mad, she did not appear that way. All because she was the first to contract the disease.

[The woman expelled from the village was named Lofnero. After taking medicine from an unidentified pharmacist, her condition seemed to worsen even more…]

[Since the epidemic, people in Melo developed deep distrust for physicians and pharmacists…]

Pennyard sighed deeply and covered the documents he had been reading.

It wasn’t expected to be easy from the beginning, but there seemed to be much hidden in Melo than initially thought.

Moreover, the epidemic had not yet been resolved. The documents only mentioned the expulsion or confinement of those infected.

‘Those who were infected back then might still be trapped.’

If so, how should he treat them? His dilemma deepened even further.

***

Thunk.

A woman, dragged and bound by a rope, was harshly thrown into the secluded courtyard.

Thrown with such force that the woman, now collapsed on the ground, seemed unable to regain her senses. She moaned briefly, her head bowed continuously as if finding it hard to recover.

Every time the woman moved her head, her face peeked through the disheveled hair.

‘Even if she’s said to have recovered, it’s hard to see it clearly like this.’

With a cane in hand, Leta walked towards the woman.

“Look up.”

“…”

The woman said nothing. She simply kept her head bowed.

“You’re not going to look up?”

“…”

Annoyed by the ongoing silence, Leta lifted the woman’s face with the cane.

She slowly raised her head, perhaps because of the sharp tip at the end of the cane.

Under the flickering torchlight, the woman’s face became clearly visible.

“It has definitely improved.”

Using the cane, Leta began to lightly tap the woman’s arms and legs. Every time the pointed tip of the cane touched her, the woman trembled like a bamboo tree and raised her arms, spreading her legs.

Not only her face, but also the woman’s limbs were much cleaner compared to before.

“…How did you do it?”

“….”

Even though her body trembled, the woman did not answer.

Leta narrowed her eyes.

“Tell me.”

“….”

“Speak! Say something! What did you do! Did that filthy disease improve!”

Leta’s voice, demanding her to speak, was suddenly filled with tears.

Leta could never forgive this woman named Lorne.

Because of the disease that she brought, because of the medicine she made her father suffer.

For several years, he had been screaming like a monster, trapped in a dark room without seeing the sunlight.

Every time she saw her father’s body stained with patches and ointment, Leta’s heart shattered.

And that’s not all. In order to cure her father’s illness, Leta had to take on a huge debt.

Because only with the medicine they brought, her father could sleep a little, could maintain his sanity.

But why is it that only that woman, who brought all the misfortune, is miraculously getting better?

“Tell me, how did you cure that disease!”

Leta couldn’t control her anger and began to strike the woman with the cane.

“Because of you, because of what I did because of you! How dare you!”

Leta was clearly the one inflicting violence, but tears began to overflow from her eyes.

“So this is how it ends.”

After striking the woman with the cane for a long time, Leta gasped for breath and put down the cane.

“…That woman, didn’t you have a son? Where is he?”

Ropeine, who had been bowing her head until now, raised her head for the first time at the mention of her son.