✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧
Thank you for the kofi Tina ❤️
✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧
Lately, Freck felt like he was walking on thin ice every day. It was because of the Crown Prince, Julion, whom he served.
‘I hope Her Highness has some free time today.’
Recently, Freck only had one wish. That Rohiriel would have some free time and spend it with Julion.
Whenever Julion was with Rohiriel, he became more lenient.
His sharpness disappears, and he loosens up as if he had become a different person.
‘He wasn’t always this gloomy…….’
Freck thought, looking at Julion’s back as they walked. Since when did his master become so sensitive?
No, maybe ‘sensitive’ isn’t the right word….
“He’s gone mad.”
Freck, startled by his thoughts, covered his mouth in shock. He glanced over at Julion, but Julion, preoccupied with something else, paid no attention to Freck.
Once again, Freck was witnessing what he called Julion’s ‘crazy antics.’
“There are too many stones on the road.”
Julion held his sword upright in its scabbard and smashed the stones rolling on the ground.
Crack!
The hard stones turned into dust, scattering into the air. Watching the spectacle, Freck gulped down his saliva.
‘Why is he so upset that he even tormented the stones today?’
The other day, he had to call in the construction workers at short notice to install higher handrails on all the stairs in Garnet Palace.
The reason was that it’s a busy palace with many patients, and if someone were to fall, it could lead to a serious accident due to the low railings.
While it wasn’t entirely unreasonable, it wasn’t a matter urgent enough to hastily schedule repairs on the railings.
“The garden doesn’t seem to be properly maintained.”
Julion made his way slowly and deliberately through the garden, crushing the small stones along the way.
Finally, Freck, unable to hold back, uttered a word.
“Your Highness, why are you breaking all the stones? The gardeners may have intentionally left them… It’s a garden, after all.”
But before he could finish his sentence, Freck regretted it.
Julion’s chilly gaze shifted from the stones to Freck. Suppressing the urge to cough, Freck quickly bowed his head.
“I apologize. Please continue crushing them.”
Julion glanced at Freck for a moment before speaking in a cold tone.
“In that case, we should dismiss all the gardeners. Prioritizing aesthetics over pedestrian safety doesn’t qualify them as true gardeners.”
“……?”
“If someone were to trip over a stone while walking or, in the worst case, collapse due to poor health and hit their head on a stone, wouldn’t it be a serious issue?”
This is ridiculous.
There was no one around who would trip over such visible stones, and the idea that someone passing through the palace would collapse due to illness and hit their head on a stone… did Julion truly believe such a scenario could happen?
Freck couldn’t comprehend it.
Fortunately, Freck was currently bowing deeply, which helped conceal any bewildered expression he might have shown otherwise.
However, Julion cruelly asked for Freck’s opinion.
“Don’t you think so, Freck?”
“Um… yes. As you say, Your Highness, I’ll tell the gardener to be careful.”
“Make sure to do that. Clearly instruct them not to leave anything on the path that could cause someone to trip over.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
Cold sweat ran down Freck’s back.
If Julion had truly ordered the dismissal of the gardeners, Freck would have been engulfed in guilt and likely unable to sleep at night.
‘I’ll just keep my mouth shut from now on, so I don’t say anything wrong.’
With that, Julion turned away, having smashed all the stones in the vicinity of Garnet Palace.
Entering Garnet Palace, Freck secretly sighed in relief. Now, when he met with Rohiriel, Julion would return to normal.
However, Freck’s hopes were brutally shattered.
“Did the princess go to meet Countess Rivolain? Alone?”
“She went with Hemion.”
“Ha…….”
Julion scratched his head in frustration.
Freck lowered his head in disbelief.
While Julion was nervously walking, a welcoming voice reached them from a distance.
“Your Highness!”
It was Viscount Pailson, with his green hair fluttering around him. Although meeting with Rohiriel would have been ideal, having Pailson around was also fine.
He always brought plenty of work, and Julion returned to normal when dealing with those tasks.
“Pailson, didn’t you say there was no more work to handle today?”
“There is, and it’s urgent.”
Julion smirked slightly as he looked at Pailson, who was pushing up his glasses as he responded.
“Let’s go to the office.”
With that, Julion entered the office with Pailson. When they sat down at the table instead of the desk, Freck quickly served them tea.
It was a Ferimandt tea, made by Rohiriel for Julion to drink when tired.
Julion took a brief look before lifting the teacup.
Although Julion usually didn’t drink much tea, he always emptied the cup when it came to Ferimandt, which suited his taste.
With a sense of pride, Freck tried to place a teacup in front of Pailson as well.
“…Surely you’re not planning to give that to Pailson.”
However, upon hearing Julion’s sarcastic tone, Freck instinctively changed the trajectory of his hand, moving the teacup beside Julion.
“No way. I thought Your Highness liked Ferimandt, so I prepared two cups in advance. Haha…”
Beside them, Pailson looked back and forth between Julion and Freck with a strained expression.
However, as Julion’s mood was more important to Freck than Pailson’s, he deliberately turned away, focusing on brewing another tea.
“Viscount Pailson, you might want to try Earl Grey tea; it’s energizing.”
“…I don’t think I’ve seen you like that before. Quite audacious.”
Seeing Freck, Pailson glanced at the teacup without much interest and got straight to the point.
“Dirty and unpleasant, but it must be reported. Your Highness, do you recall my mentioning the unidentified body completely burned in the fire incident last time?”
Gulping down the tea Rohiriel gave him, Julion nodded.
“Of course. I have asked you to investigate separately. Have you found anything?”
“You hit the nail on the head. …… Take a look at this.”
Pailson handed over the documents he brought.
Julion’s brow furrowed as he studied the papers.
“As Your Highness mentioned, some of the permanent resident physicians of the Palace, who regularly communicated with their families, suddenly lost contact recently. Two of them didn’t even come home during their vacations, causing their families to worry and come looking for them separately.”
The residents are divided into those who permanently reside in the palace and those who enter in the morning and leave in the evening.
Permanent residents usually receive vacations every month, and they often use this time to meet their families or spend time with their lovers.
Listening to Pailson’s explanation, as they turned the last page of the documents, information about three palace residents was listed.
<Lionel Crainet (29 years old) entered the palace as a trainee at the age of 15 and is currently working in the emergency department, preparing for the state examination to be a palace physician.
Zeloi Pian (30 years old), recommended to enter the palace five years ago, was promoted to palace physician last year and is currently working in the pharmacy department.
Fabrio Tuken (27 years old) passed the training exam at the age of 20 and was teased for being a slow learner. However, he quickly progressed, becoming a palace physician last month. Worked in the pharmacy during the trainee period but has currently moved to the emergency department.>
“So, these three individuals…”
“Yes. They are suspected to be the owners of the bodies burned that day.”
❀ ❀ ❀ ❀ ❀ ❀ ❀ ❀
Returning to the palace, I headed straight to the pharmacy. There were detailed records of the emperor’s progress after prescribing new medicine for him.
“Here it is.”
I unfolded the emperor’s chart, and, next to it, I unfolded Harkiel’s chart.
Since they had completely different diseases, a perfect comparison was impossible, but I could grasp the overall trend.
‘Indeed, they look alike.’
Resistance to the medicine.
The reactions when attempting detoxification were remarkably similar.
“I need to approach this differently.”
It can’t go on like this.
Just as I had lost my mother, we would lose the Emperor.
I rearranged the charts.
I needed information.
Deeper knowledge. I need to know what I’m missing.
“Your Highness, where are you going?”
“I’m going to the imperial library. There’s something I need to look into.”
After leaving the pharmacy, I couldn’t move immediately.
“Your Highness!”
Several physicians were waiting for me in front of my pharmacy, all looking anxious.
“Everyone… what’s going on?”
Confused, I asked, and the physician at the front hesitated before speaking.
“Well, it’s… We wanted to ask you something important, so we came here despite the breach of etiquette!”
It was a physician with short brown hair.
Behind him, several other physicians were all giving me the same look.
“Oh, sorry for not introducing myself earlier. I’m Lionel Crainet, working in the emergency department!”
