GDTEA Chapter 106

Sleep Well

After finishing a neat dinner, Sharti returned to the inn and laid the sleeping Tein on the bed.

Having explored Bibanten Street tirelessly until evening and eaten a hearty dinner, it was only natural that sleep would overwhelm him.

‘I hope Tein grows much taller by the end of this trip.’

Tein was smaller than his peers.

According to Virena, he had been separated from his mother’s care since he was a newborn and barely survived, which left his body quite weak.

[That child’s mother had a weak constitution.]

Vireta had muttered bitterly while recalling her daughter, Tein’s mother.

Thanks to studying herbs with Sharti and taking good care of his health, he had become as healthy as other children his age, but his build was still small.

“I want to fatten him up a bit more too.”

The soft, squishy feeling when she poked the child’s cheek was adorable.

Unable to poke the sleeping child’s cheek, Sharti simply watched the sleeping Tein with a pleased expression, then carefully tucked the blanket around him before standing up.

She approached the window and looked out at the evening sky.

‘What a shame.’

Since it was a rare high-rise inn, she wanted to enjoy the wide-open view, but she didn’t open the window. She didn’t want to wake Tein with the cold wind.

‘Of course, opening one window wouldn’t make much difference.’

She would have to be satisfied with just looking down at the evening streets of Bibanten.

“But where did Ren say he was going?”

After finishing dinner, Ren had whispered with the scammers—no, the Mondia gang—then escorted Tein and Sharti to the inn, but had been away ever since.

Since Ren rarely left her side, she was curious about this sudden business of his.

Sharti pulled a chair over to the window while waiting for Ren and sat down. With her arms resting on the windowsill and her chin propped on them, she admired the scenery that grew more beautiful as the sky darkened.

“So pretty…”

Since there were academies in various fields, the northeast had well-developed lighting equipment.

There were no burning braziers or candles visible, only streetlights using magic stones and lanterns developed jointly by the academies floating above the sunset sky.

The large glowing orbs looked just like the fairy lights from fairy tales.

‘In the mountains, it was always just darkness.’

Though it was merely an ordinary street with unusual lights floating in the sky, even the white condensation forming on the window seemed special alongside the soft glow.

As Sharti gazed blankly at the night view outside the window, she suddenly noticed a long structure in the distance.

‘Is that the clock tower?’

It was the clock tower said to be built at the center of the northeastern academies.

Sharti recalled the dark truth about the academies she had heard from the Mondia gang.

[We lower-class people gathered after seeing the academy employment recruitment notices. The northeast is famous for good employment, so many people came.]

[Especially the academies need a lot of people. Since the nobles can’t bring servants from home, they need people to work in their place.]

All those who applied as academy workers were hired.

However, not all of them received the same pay or did the same work.

[At first, they said we’d be servants. When we followed the guide, there were young noble brats waiting for us, and ha! Those looks in their eyes…]

[From that moment, we weren’t people. We were just objects. Objects that had to be useful.]

They weren’t experimental subjects from the start. For a while, they served as convenient hands and feet.

And the peaceful time was short.

[All academies must submit a research and development report once a month.]

Naturally, research and development had to find something new of one’s own.

But when a cold medicine already on the market is perfect, how easy would it be to add something more to it?

So writing reports was quite burdensome for students who entered the academy.

[So they came looking for us. Saying they’d try making new medicine.]

Instead of adding perfection to perfection, they chose cruel curiosity.

[They said there’s no more perfect experimental subject than a person. Because the reactions are immediately visible.]

[The noble who chose me was pleased that he could add several lines about symptom changes to his report.]

[Of course, all the reports those bastards wrote were just about side effects or discovering incompatible ingredients.]

They had no passion to dig deep into something and develop or research it.

As long as the annoying reports were solved, time and wealth would handle the rest. What’s important for a doctor is basic knowledge and medicine compounding and manufacturing methods, so as always, the academy would continue to produce many skilled doctors.

[So you can imagine how surprised we were when you gave us the antidote.]

[You’re so much more skilled than those bastards, and you made the antidote right away after checking the symptoms!]

“Haaa…”

“You’ll make the ground sink at this rate.”

“…!”

Startled, Sharti turned her head to see Ren, who had returned covered in dust.

“Did you fall somewhere?”

As Sharti carefully approached so as not to wake Tein and reached out her hand, Ren held out what he was carrying.

It was a heavy object wrapped in paper.

“Hmm?”

“I thought you’d need it.”

When she unwrapped the paper, two somewhat worn books appeared.

They were books with detailed descriptions of medicinal and poisonous herbs handled in various parts of Bibanten Street.

“Where did you find these?”

She looked at the dust on the spine that hadn’t been wiped off yet, then looked up at Ren.

Ren rubbed his head and neck sheepishly.

“Those scammers—no, the gang members—told me. They said there’s a place in Bibanten Street that collects old books too.”

Remembering Sharti saying she could study by getting books for free, Ren had obtained books in a similar way.

Considering they were traveling, just two books that would really help Sharti and Tein.

“…You were there until this time looking for these?”

“There were quite a few books.”

And probably a lot of dust too.

Sharti just smiled.

Imagining Ren rummaging through those dusty books with the Mondia gang, the fingers holding the books kept tickling.

“Thank you. Tein will like them too.”

“Good thing you’re pleased.”

Ren chuckled and immediately went into the bathroom attached to the room.

Sharti stood alone, rubbing the book covers.

‘How sweet of him.’

Though Ren’s large build, tanned skin, thick eyebrows, and strong facial features could easily make him look threatening, to Sharti’s eyes he only appeared simple, clumsy, and kind.

‘But why did I hiccup at that moment…’

Even though she trusted that Ren’s threats didn’t apply to her and Tein, when he struck the wall, her body reacted sensitively to the threat, contrary to her heart and thoughts.

‘Ren might have been bothered by that too, which is why he went looking for the books… I should have been more excited.’

Sharti belatedly regretted her lukewarm reaction, making excuses about Tein.

Moreover, since she was bearing all the travel expenses, Ren must have wanted to do something. Despite going through the trouble of personally rummaging through that dust pit, he didn’t add any particular words.

“I should thank him while giving him water.”

To properly express her gratitude, Sharti put the books down on the bed for a moment and picked up the water bottle prepared in the inn room.

It was a water bottle with lemons floating in it.

‘Is it because of the lemon? It smells good.’

Sharti sniffed the bottle and took a sip of the lemon water.

“Cough, hack…!”

Sharti covered her mouth and coughed at the strong taste that seemed to burn her esophagus.

Tears formed slightly at the corners of her eyes.

‘It’s alcohol!’

Naturally, Sharti had never drunk alcohol before.

She had become an adult this year, and since a doctor never knows when they might face a patient or when someone needing help might come, she had never even gone near alcohol.

Since Vireta also avoided alcohol as the head of the household, Virena was the same, so there had been no opportunity to encounter alcohol.

‘Why is there alcohol…!’

Shouldn’t they mark the bottle if it’s alcohol!

Sharti reflexively glared at the water bottle—no, alcohol bottle—that had nothing marked on it.

She didn’t know this, but the cheap, strong liquor supplied in Bibanten Street all had alcohol markings at the bottom of the bottle. They only marked the bottom of the bottle so they could swap labels with expensive liquor.

‘What if a child drinks this!’

Fortunately, Tein had only drunk the apple juice given by the Mondia gang as payment for his sermon that scamming people was bad.

It was when Sharti was putting strength into her hand to tightly close the alcohol bottle lid while fuming.

“Going to drink water?”

An arm reached over Sharti’s shoulder and a large hand took the alcohol bottle she was holding.

Having just finished a light shower, Ren sniffed the lemon scent and frowned.

“Alcohol? You were going to drink this?”

“No. I drank it by mistake.”

“You drank it?”

Sharti quickly nodded. Then the Ren before her eyes appeared as two people.

“Uh… Ren?”

When she blinked and shook her head, there were more Rens.

Just one sip. But one sip of strong liquor was on a different level.

“Sha, your face right now…”

Sharti’s face had turned red as a beet from just one sip of alcohol, enough to fluster Ren.

She wasn’t dizzy. She just saw too many Rens before her eyes.

‘What did they put in the alcohol!’

Or maybe alcohol was originally like this.

Sharti made a tearful face and first checked her legs standing straight.

At least her legs weren’t losing strength and her body wasn’t swaying from weakness.

“First, Ren! Try not moving.”

“…That’s what I should be saying.”

Ren looked at Sharti with a puzzled expression.

While Sharti’s feet weren’t moving, her upper body was swaying here and there.

Ren was twitching, ready to extend his arms at any moment just in case.

“Mm, who’s talking?”

In the midst of this, Sharti focused her eyes, trying to find the real Ren.

When that still didn’t work, Sharti reached out and firmly grasped Ren’s cheeks.

Staring blankly at Ren’s face, which filled both her hands, Sharti grinned.

“Got you.”

“…”

Ren burst into brief laughter.

How could she smile so cutely after carelessly drinking alcohol?

“You should go to sleep now, Sha.”

“Mm, I have something to tell you, Ren.”

“I’ll listen tomorrow.”

They needed to talk about tomorrow’s schedule, but it seemed better to put Sharti to bed first.

Ren immediately picked up Sharti and laid her on the bed.

Fortunately, Sharti, who had been thinking a lot all day, closed her eyes smoothly as soon as she was laid on the bed.

As Ren watched the sleeping Sharti for a moment and tried to get up, he saw that she was unconsciously holding onto his clothes.

“Thank… mm… Ren, thank you…”

“Really…”

Ren chuckled and leaned down, briefly kissing her forehead.

“Sleep well, Sha.”

Now that she didn’t wear her robe even when sleeping, he could see Sharti’s face in its literally defenseless state.

Ren carefully pushed away the hair covering Sharti’s face one by one, then withdrew his lingering hand.

It was the moment he turned his gaze to cover Sharti with the blanket one last time.

“…”

“…”

Meeting round, bright eyes, Ren froze.

Tein was lying on his side in the same sleeping position, just blinking his eyes.

Ren gulped down dry saliva.

Before Tein’s pure yet sharp rebuke could fly, Ren pointed to the end of the bed.

“I thought you’d like them, so I brought them.”

“…!”

Discovering the two books Sharti had briefly set down, Tein bolted upright.

Tein crawled across the bed and hugged the books to his chest. Then he returned to his sleeping spot with the books and lay down.

Having carefully covered himself with the blanket, Tein pointed to the floor with his round eyes.

“Ren should sleep on the floor.”

“…Right.”

He had naturally planned to do so, but somehow it felt like he was being kicked out.

Ren watched Tein squirm into Sharti’s embrace and obediently close his eyes, then got up.

Feeling a complicated envy, Ren busily laid out bedding on the floor.

It was a lonely night.

At the same time, in the shopping district of Chelonar County in the east—

“Search every nook and cranny! Right now!”

“Yes!”

“Oh my, young miss…!”

The knights and servants of the House of Chelonar were frantically searching through the darkness.

“Th-there! She’s there!”

“Eryl!”

Count Chelonar ran over in shock, discovering his young daughter walking barefoot through the streets as if sleepwalking.

As Count Chelonar embraced and lifted his young daughter, Eryl whimpered.

“…Don’t wanna. There, there, Papa is there… I have to go to Papa. He’s looking for Eryl…”

“Eryl, Daddy’s here! Right here!”

“Wuu… Papa…”

As the Count repeatedly stroked her back and soothed her, Eryl nodded drowsily and soon fell into a deep sleep.

As his daughter’s symptoms of unknown cause grew increasingly severe, Count Chelonar’s heart was being torn apart more and more.