GDTEA Chapter 86

Please Think Positively

Sharti swallowed dryly.

Even wanting to calm down, she couldn’t ignore the goosebumps crawling up the back of her neck. The ominous premonition felt at moments like this always tended to be accurate.

“Doctor, explain.”

The Tower Master, who had been observing the mana movements around Sharti, sensed the seriousness and immediately demanded an explanation.

Sharti took a breath as calmly as possible.

“This is a poisonous plant. Flamboyantly colored enough that it can’t be mistaken for a wildflower.”

Sharti conveyed the characteristics of the purple poisonous plant to the Tower Master in detail. She even drew pictures to explain the form of the roots that were presumed to contain poison.

In any case, the Tower Master was the master of Sedipia Village, and the village chief alone wasn’t enough to warn about a poisonous plant that looked far from ordinary. The Tower Master’s power was needed to create and supply an antidote.

Above all, if someone had deliberately planted the poisonous plant as a resource for rebellion, it was a serious problem.

“To my eyes, it just looks like a really ordinary wildflower. A common white flower that looks like a cosmos.”

The Tower Master’s eyes, gazing at the wildflower—no, the purple poisonous plant—sank coldly.

Sharti, glancing at the Tower Master who looked complicated, felt her heart pounding.

‘A poisonous plant that looks different depending on the person. It’s just like the hallucinogenic plant that floats around like a superstition.’

The Tower Master also opened up the possibility of a hallucinogenic plant and immediately took out a communication device.

“Check with the village chief right away.”

At the news that not just any hallucinogenic plant, but a poisonous plant that could deceive even the Tower Master’s eyes was spread throughout the village, the Deputy Tower Master moved urgently. Karun, who was nearby, also realized the seriousness of the situation and gathered the mages belonging to the Krofl Mercenary Group. All the mages in Sedipia Village moved in unison to find the purple poisonous plant.

Shortly after, as expected, the Deputy Tower Master and all the mages reported that they could only perceive the white wildflower’s existence and couldn’t see the purple poisonous plant.

Only the mages were unable to recognize the poisonous plant.

“Ha, were these people really planning to wage war with the Magic Tower?”

The Tower Master glared at the hallucinogenic plant with blazing eyes. Still, none of the characteristics Sharti had explained were visible to his eyes.

On the other hand, Sharti, who had been carefully considering various things in her head, recalled her conversation with Tein.

[Teacher. Hallucinogenic plants are made by humans. They’re fake plants made through bad research!]

‘An artificially created hallucinogenic plant grew using the massive mana underground as nutrients.’

If that was the case, how much of a lethal dose would the poison liquid in the roots that absorbed mana have? There was no way they would have created hallucinogenic plants just to take one person’s life.

‘Not life, but something else to steal?’

Sharti found the purple poisonous plant before her eyes more chilling than any poison in the world. Even knowing she had to observe and research it for antidote development, Sharti couldn’t readily touch it like before.

‘Were they really targeting the Magic Tower, the mages?’

The village chief said there were no people among Sedipia Village residents who were poisoned by the purple poisonous plant, but there was no certainty that the poison would only work on mages.

‘A resource for rebellion.’

The cruel and sinister greed that Marquis Bridend, the nobleman with the scorpion emblem, had hidden in this mountain village for many years instilled a terrifying sense of fear for the first time, enough to give her goosebumps.

“Doctor, are you also well-versed in poisons?”

Then the Tower Master spoke to Sharti, whose face had turned pale.

“Your herb mixing skills seemed decent.”

Sharti, catching on to what the Tower Master was saying, immediately rummaged through her bag.

She took out all the antidotes she had brought and placed them on the table.

“We need to extract the poison.”

However, because a day had passed since collection, the granules of the roots presumed to contain poison had all shriveled up.

“That’s easy.”

With a confident expression, the Tower Master tapped his ten fingers, densely adorned with rings, in the air as if playing piano keys.

Even if it looked like a wildflower, he could distinguish the roots, and thanks to Sharti drawing pictures to explain, he was no longer swayed by the deception before his eyes.

Following the Tower Master’s hand gestures, the surrounding mana was sucked in as if supplying nutrients to the purple poisonous plant.

“Right. My magic power must be more appetizing than natural mana.”

When he poured in both magic power and surrounding mana completely, the purple poisonous plant finally began to be visible to the Tower Master’s eyes. Above all, the roots of the poisonous plant were gradually swelling as if they had never withered.

Sharti hurriedly grabbed an empty bottle and a needle.

‘Now’s the time.’

Sharti, who had already put on gloves, carefully burst the root granules with the needle. Then thick poison liquid flowed out.

Sharti diligently collected it in the bottle without spilling a single drop.

Only after extracting poison liquid to fill a palm-sized bottle did the Tower Master withdraw his magic power.

“These too.”

“Hm?”

Sharti held out a heavy bundle of cloth she had taken from her bag to the Tower Master.

“Antidotes aren’t made in a snap.”

“…….”

Especially since side effect experiments had to be conducted multiple times, antidote production required a large amount of poison liquid. Having no words to refute the instruction, the Tower Master received the cloth bundle with a disgruntled face.

How much had she pulled to make the cloth bundle this heavy?

Thanks to the mana overflowing in the village, it wasn’t tiring work, but it was annoying labor. The Tower Master thought of the dozens of workers outside. He took out his communication device.

“Ah, the people outside also have work to do.”

Collecting hallucinogenic plant information. Identifying the number of purple poisonous plants in the village. Confirming the existence of other hallucinogenic plants in the village. Securing necessary items for antidote production, etc. Sharti naturally assigned tasks to the workers the Tower Master was about to command.

“…….”

The Tower Master silently flicked his fingers and obediently kept his place. He couldn’t grumble when one unrelated doctor was struggling alone, while he was practically the master of the village.

Having been diligently extracting poison liquid by moving the needle with magic for a while, the Tower Master paused for a moment.

“But isn’t this kind of work done by an assistant? Why aren’t you calling your assistant, the slave?”

Sharti, who had been recording various abnormal poison reactions on paper, turned her head.

“It’s dangerous.”

The Tower Master blinked at the sensible reaction he hadn’t anticipated.

“……Ah. Dangerous.”

“How can I call someone with no experience and no resistance to poison? We haven’t even figured out what kind of poison this is yet, so dangerous.”

“……Right. Poison is dangerous. Ah. Yeah.”

The Sword Master of the Neweiton Empire and war demon was a weak person to be protected to Sharti.

Chewing over that gap, the Tower Master bit his twitching lips.

On the other hand, Sharti became anxious when Ren was mentioned.

‘Ren must be worried.’

She felt impatient as time was flowing helplessly without being able to explain properly. Yet, at the same time, thinking of Ren who would be fuming about touching dangerous poisonous plants gave her energy. Then, as yesterday’s contact came to mind together, Sharti fumbled for a moment.

‘Ah, come to think of it, the poison Ren was infected with was also one I’d never seen before.’

Suddenly, she recalled the moment when she was treating Ren who had deep lacerations on his abdomen and thighs, and belatedly learned of his poisoning and became flustered.

It was poison so strong that it seeped into the wounds and was absolutely impossible to detect poisoning from external appearance.

[Well, if you hit your head and were poisoned, with your body and mind weakened, your head could malfunction.]

“…….”

Sharti stared blankly at the poison liquid in the bottle.

The unresolved doubts and unclear causes. And the unexpected commonality.

‘What if, no, perhaps…….’

Could this poison be connected to Ren?

Her crimson eyes, beginning to approach the truth, trembled. Meanwhile, Sharti’s unconscious was already moving her hands according to the mixing method she had used to detoxify Ren’s poisoning in the past.

The Tower Master quickly delivered the insufficient herbs from outside.

‘Even this precious Didot herb.’

With much better quality materials and assistance, it seemed that antidote improvement was proceeding successfully.

Beeeeeeeeep-.

“……!”

At the warning sound that seemed like her ears would fall off, Sharti stopped her hand just before completion. It was the village’s intruder alarm sound that the Tower Master had set up.

As interference came just before completing the antidote, the Tower Master took out his communication device with a displeased expression.

“What is it?”

What appeared in the communication device was a middle-aged man resembling a toad. He repeatedly wiped his sweat under the angry gazes pouring from all directions.

The middle-aged man, who had been making an awkward smile, seemed to be earnestly expressing something, then said something to the village chief with an exaggerated chin gesture.

The Tower Master, who received the situation from the Deputy Tower Master through the communication device, let out a sneer.

“Ah, that lackey?”

The only doctor in Ashu’s village and the spy planted by Marquis Bridend had returned to the village.

“Ahem, I have my home here, so where would I go?”

Equipped with shamelessness at that.

And at that moment, Sharti completed the antidote by adding a small amount of what could be called the final powder.

Sharti’s unexpected discovery and activity had unfortunately overturned Marquis Bridend’s scheme before it even started.

****

The antidote Sharti completed was entrusted to the Deputy Tower Master. Instead, around the time the Tower Master personally greeted the spy sent by Marquis Bridend, Sharti, who finally came outside, was breaking out in a cold sweat at an unexpected situation.

Flowers. Sharti, who had difficulty holding a bouquet made of a hundred flowers at that, couldn’t raise her face in the burdensome situation.

“-May I hear your answer, Doctor?”

Ashu, dressed handsomely, asked with a tense face.

Sharti, standing face to face with Ashu instead of Ren, bit her lips with an awkward feeling.

“Please think positively, Doctor.”

It was a request full of sincerity, both shy and courteous.

At the heart conveyed along with the thick flower scent, Sharti squeezed her eyes shut.

“I…….”

Then there were little hands pulling at the hem of her robe.

“We like Deer Princess too!”

“Like!”

The children of Sedipia Village, who had arrived at some unknown time, looked up at Sharti with bright faces identical to Ashu’s.

“You, you all, when…….”

As if the children’s assistance wasn’t in the plan, Ashu’s face ripened redder than a radish. However, when Sharti hesitated under the children’s clear and pure gazes, Ashu overcame his embarrassment and came forward actively.

“We can start from a relationship where we get to know each other step by step. You don’t have to feel burdened and can treat me comfortably. I just want permission.”

The area around Ashu’s eyes behind his glasses was red.

“Could you give me a chance?”

It was a confession.

[I like you, Doctor.]

It was nothing less than a love confession.

Though she was greatly flustered by Ashu’s sudden confession, whom she had only seen as Virena’s ideal type, Sharti’s face also flushed red at her first love confession heard so directly.

Above all, with the innocent children’s eyes watching, she floundered, not knowing what to do.

Meanwhile, the girls still immersed in the fairy tale wriggled their cheeks and turned their heads sharply.

“Where’s the Demon King mister?!”

The girls, captivated by the Demon King’s devoted love more than the prince, hurriedly ran to find Ren.

Sharti wouldn’t have known. Though children’s hearts change several times a day, once they were properly hooked, they didn’t let go until they saw the end.

“There he is!”

Finding Ren was quick. The girls, who discovered Ren blankly fiddling with a small box on the second-floor balcony of the Krofl Mercenary Group’s lodging, stamped their feet.

The distance was too far. So they just started yelling.

“The doctor is kissing Ashu oppa-!!!”