GDTEA Chapter 111

A Noble Skeptic

The merchant trudged out of the count’s estate.

The merchant had only average medical knowledge, and since he was no physician, he had no way of conducting an examination. So, contrary to his hopes, he had no chance of meeting Lady Chelonar directly.

Instead, the head butler had purchased all of his antidotes at a hefty sum.

[If the young lady shows signs of improvement after drinking your antidotes, we will be in touch.]

That was all.

As he handed over the list of antidote ingredients and walked away, his lingering regret dripped with every step.

It was clear that many merchants had come and gone before him, with little improvement to show for it. That must have been why they had offered only money, regarding him with eyes that held no real expectation.

“They think my antidotes are the same as all those others! Mine are far more effective! Hmph!”

The antidotes made by the young woman — a physician living deep in the mountains — were, without a doubt, the finest available.

Many who saw the list of ingredients regarded them with suspicion, but once they witnessed the effects, they couldn’t buy more fast enough.

Thanks to that, the merchant, who had built connections with many nobles, took immense pride in the medicines, antidotes, and formulas he brought back from the mountains.

“Well, in that case, I’ll have to stay in the area for a few days. Surely those antidotes can’t be entirely useless?”

The moment rumors spread that the cherished daughter of the House of Chelonar had suddenly fallen ill with a mental affliction, countless whispers flew across the eastern lands.

Given that the head of the House of Chelonar held the position of leader of the neutral faction, there was no precedent for any mental abnormality manifesting within the family. In other words, the likelihood of it being a hereditary mental illness was low.

Because of that, the prevailing speculation was that it was either madness brought on by a curse, or a mental breakdown caused by poison.

“I can’t just sit around waiting for word. I’ll call on the wealthy households in the area and……”

Just as the merchant pulled out his list of wealthy figures within the Great Empire of Neweiton from inside his coat, a pitch-black shadow appeared out of nowhere, and someone stepped directly into his path.

“Wh-who’s there?!”

The moment he looked up, the merchant stumbled over his words.

Overwhelmed by the sheer height and build of the robed figure blocking his way, he frantically looked around him.

“I-I don’t have any money!”

Damn it! He had been muttering to himself without thinking, and before he realized it, he had wandered off the main road and into a narrow side alley beyond the Chelonar estate.

The merchant hurriedly curled in on himself in a desperate attempt to protect his belongings.

“It’s been a while.”

“Hm?”

The merchant blinked at a woman’s voice he had no business hearing in the dead of dark night.

Then, from behind the looming figure that had blocked his path, a familiar silhouette emerged.

“Who… who might you be?”

But beneath the familiar robes was a face he had never seen before — a woman with hazy, indistinct features.

As the merchant stared with wide eyes, the robed woman — Sharti — smiled faintly.

“As it happens, I’ve developed another new formula. You did place an order with me, didn’t you? A medicine good for skin beauty and nourishment.”

“Uh……. Wh-wh……?”

Having recognized Sharti, the merchant gaped open-mouthed and pointed a finger at her.

She had taken down her hood. And on top of that, she wasn’t writing notes — she was speaking in a perfectly ordinary voice!

Ren wanted to break the finger being pointed at her, but for now, he held back.

“Let’s move somewhere else.”

“This way.”

At Ren and Sharti’s direction, the merchant gulped down a dry swallow and followed the two of them.

Led into a modest tavern, the merchant hastily ordered a drink and downed it straight from the bottle.

Somehow, the tension drained out of him. He was genuinely relieved to see Sharti appearing at the very moment he had felt most at a loss.

“I always acknowledged your talents, but to think your skills had reached the point of restoring even your voice, your face — everything!”

Kheuh~! The merchant, face flushed, grinned and slapped the table repeatedly.

With this, medicines made by Sharti would sell even faster. What a perfect marketing pitch.

Yet for all the merchant’s boisterous excitement, Sharti and Ren’s reactions remained lukewarm.

“Ahem. But I never imagined you’d leave that mountain and come all the way out here. What brings you to this place?”

Someone living in hiding deep in the mountains would have no reason to have business this far out.

Sharti answered only with a soft, subtle smile.

Unskilled at acting as she was, with neither a hood to conceal her expression nor written notes to mask a trembling voice, she had to be as sparing with her words as possible.

“Do you even need to ask?”

Ren stepped in, never one to mince words.

“Why else would my ‘wife,’ who happens to be a physician, travel all this way?”

Ren placed particular emphasis on the word wife.

The sudden shift in how he referred to her nearly made Sharti reflexively turn her head, but Ren gripped her hand tightly, holding her in place. After all, the merchant had mistaken them for newlyweds.

Realizing Ren’s intention a beat too late, Sharti pressed her lips together to suppress a twitch at the corner of her mouth.

“Could it be — you’re here because of Lady Chelonar?”

Meanwhile, the merchant’s eyes lit up in an instant.

In that moment, the weary gaze of the Chelonar estate’s head butler, who had looked upon him with such dismissiveness, flashed through his mind.

“But miss, they won’t allow anyone without a medical license to examine Lady Chelonar.”

That was unlikely to be a problem. She had brought Tein along precisely with that possibility in mind.

If there was a physician who could treat the young lady’s illness, they would allow an examination regardless of status or standing.

‘Of course, as a count who founded an academy, he would never openly permit an unlicensed physician to conduct an examination. He’d be condemned for it.’

But Sharti saw no reason to share this line of reasoning with the merchant.

Merchants deal in the buying and selling of money and information. There was no need to test the reliability of a man swayed by coin.

“That’s why I need your help, sir.”

“Your help, you say……?”

“Please tell me everything you know about Lady Chelonar’s symptoms. In return, I’ll make you a new antidote.”

“You’ll make one for me? For me specifically? Ahem, I mean — why go out of your way to give it to me?”

The merchant, who had brightened at first, cleared his throat and smoothed his expression. Then, doing his best to look indifferent, he watched Sharti’s reaction with barely concealed suspicion.

“That’s exactly what I said.”

“……Pardon?”

Ren shot a glance at Sharti, crossing his arms as though displeased.

“It’s a count’s estate, no less. If the cause of the illness or a treatment is found, they’d offer an enormous reward.”

An enormous reward! The merchant gulped down a dry swallow.

“The thing is, my wife is a dreadful noble skeptic.”

“A noble… skeptic?”

The merchant blinked at the unfamiliar combination of words, and Ren clicked his tongue in response.

“Ever since she nearly suffered a terrible ordeal at the hands of a wretched noble long ago, she’s been reluctant to deal with them, apparently.”

“Ah. So that scar……”

The merchant glanced at Sharti and nodded to himself.

“……”

Since not everything Ren said was a lie, Sharti was able to nod along with a composed expression.

Even wearing a magic stone, she could not simply walk through the gates of a noble household in the Great Empire of Neweiton. She might be caught before she could even get Tein out.

“Even so, there’s a significant difference between you examining the young lady directly and simply hearing the symptoms from me.”

“Actually, my assistant is inside the estate right now.”

“Your assistant?”

The merchant looked at Sharti in surprise.

A husband and an assistant — she was quite the capable young woman.

“My assistant can conduct the examination in my place.”

“If we say they’re a physician you hired separately, there shouldn’t be any issue.”

Ren backed her up, and the merchant slowly nodded.

It wasn’t a difficult arrangement.

“What if you were to take on the role of intermediary?”

“Hmm, that’s fair. I’d certainly be able to secure a more generous reward than you could.”

They might even try to short-change a physician without a license on the reward. In that case, splitting the compensation while playing it safe was the better deal.

The merchant lifted his plump cheeks in a satisfied smile.

“Either way, I’ve been selling your medicines all along — so in that sense, this is just more of the same, isn’t it? Very well. I’ll cooperate with your assistant.”

The merchant handed Sharti a notebook containing not only general symptoms, but also details about Lady Chelonar’s condition that had not been made public.

Sharti immediately opened the notebook and carefully read through each symptom.

“What does your assistant look like?”

“Orange hair, wearing a flat cap, bundled up in several layers of clothing, and about this tall. One notable thing — the way they speak is remarkably mature for their age.”

“Ah, orange hair and height that’s……. Hm?”

The merchant scratched his head at the table height Ren had indicated.

“Are you, by any chance, referring to an orange-haired…… child?”

“You’ve seen them at the estate?!”

Ren and Sharti reacted immediately.

Taken aback by their intense reaction, the merchant fidgeted with the bottle, looking uncomfortable.

“I’m afraid the child may be rather difficult to find.”

At the news that Tein was hiding all over the estate to avoid the count’s knights, Sharti’s face went pale.

‘How badly did they frighten that child?!’

Sharti clenched her teeth and balled her hands into tight fists.

Tein was sharp, yes — but he was also a soft-hearted, easily frightened child.

“I’ll go.”

Ren covered Sharti’s clenched fist with his hand and looked at her with steady, resolute eyes.

“I’ll go with him and search.”

He had already felt uneasy about simply sending in an unfamiliar merchant alone.

Sharti would surely not eat a single proper meal while worrying about Tein, so it was better for him to go personally and bring the child back.

“But……”

“It’s fine. Nothing will happen.”

But even at this moment, none of them — Sharti, Ren, or the merchant — knew.

That the child Ren would bring out would turn out to be more than one.

“Then I’ll trust only you, Ren. You have to come back safely with Tein.”

“I will.”

It was because he succeeded in bringing them out safely that there was a problem to begin with — but none of them knew that yet.

****

Tick, tick, tick—

In the late hours of the night, where candlelight flickered gently, Tein had been hiding beneath the bed, dozing off.

At one point a growl from his stomach had brought a dangerous moment, but thanks to his quick move to clutch his belly, he had yet to be discovered.

Rustle……

At a faint, grating sound against his ear, Tein wriggled with the fussiness of someone still half-asleep, then slowly opened his eyes.

“……!”

The instant his eyes opened, Tein was startled and once again clamped both hands over his mouth.

“……”

There, in the darkness beneath the bed — silhouetted against the candle, the room’s only source of light — a figure had crawled in under the bed behind him.

Tein had reflexively moved to back away, but then he realized the dark figure was considerably smaller than himself.

‘A baby angel?’

His eyes, now fully awake, sparkled with curiosity.

As Tein leaned his face in toward the figure that had hidden under the bed, Eryl was there, blinking slowly with heavy, half-lidded eyes — impossible to tell whether she was asleep or awake.

Just as Tein carefully reached out a hand —

“Hurts…… it hurts……. Papa……. Eryl…… it hurts so much…….”

Eryl was murmuring softly, like someone talking in her sleep, her small hands clutching fistfuls of her own hair.

Then, as if trying to go somewhere, she kept trying to raise herself up from beneath the bed, only to bump her head over and over.

“Papa, I have to find Papa……. I have to go…….”

She didn’t seem to feel the repeated blows to her head at all — Eryl’s behavior was not normal.

Tein quickly reached his arms out toward the little baby angel. Whenever he had whimpered, his grandmother, his older sister, and his teacher had always held him exactly like this. Tein wrapped his arms snugly around Eryl, who was younger than himself, and whispered in the tiniest voice.

“There, there. The stars are playing peekaboo. The moon is smiling down. There, there. It’s time for the good little one to go to sleep. There, there…….”

“……”

Beneath the gentle pat of Tein’s small hands, Eryl’s murmuring gradually grew quieter.

But still, her eyes remained half-open, and the hands clutching her hair had not loosened their grip.

“If it hurts, it can be healed. I’ll bring my teacher, and then it’ll all be better. Just hold on a little longer. For now, you have to go to sleep.”

Tein thought of Sharti, whom he so desperately wanted to see right at that moment.

With nothing he could do for the little baby angel who was in pain, his tiny nose stung with the urge to cry.

Swallowing back his tears, Tein patted Eryl through the night.