8. The Evening Primrose Inn
As soon as I heard the name ‘Evening Primrose Inn,’ I remembered where I had seen the innkeeper’s face before. It was something that happened when I was 20 years old.
– Sister Sherry, have you read this newspaper article?
– Miss, you’re the first to see the morning paper. How would I know? What is it about?
– It says that the owner of the Evening Primrose Inn got seriously injured while trying to save a child from being run over by a carriage. It seems the injury was severe enough to warrant an article and even a photo.
– Do we still have any of this month’s living expenses left?
– You’re asking to donate anonymously again, aren’t you? Yes, there’s still some left. Since our Miss at Stone House has little desire for luxury, the money isn’t spent easily.
I gently grabbed my Dad’s pants. He patted my head and snapped his thumb and ring finger together. This was one of our secret signals.
If he snapped his middle finger, it meant keeping a certain skill or talent secret. If he snapped his ring finger…
‘Are we in sync?’
My Dad spoke to the dejected innkeeper.
“Come to think of it, we had a light lunch. Berry, Theon, are you hungry?”
“I’m okay-.”
“Yep. I’m hungry!”
Though I didn’t actually remember having a light lunch, I raised my hand and nodded in agreement with my Dad’s question.
“So, it seems. Is there a restaurant in the Evening Primrose Inn? We’re looking for a place to eat.”
“Pardon…?”
“We might just happen to come across a sick child while dining.”
Since we couldn’t visit the inn directly for the sick child, the idea was to visit under the pretense of dining.
The innkeeper’s eyes welled with tears. It seemed she understood what my Dad was trying to convey.
“Of course…! Our place serves good food.”
***
On the first floor of the Evening Primrose Inn.
Reytan looked at a small boy shivering on the bed. The boy, even smaller than Berry, trembled violently. Berry glanced at the child and decided to step outside.
Perhaps it was because it reminded her of past pain.
“……….”
Reytan spoke to the innkeeper nearby.
“The medicine prescribed by the doctor didn’t work?”
“It got worse. The biggest problem is that his body temperature is dropping. Even now, his skin feels as cold as if it’s been hit by the winter wind. According to someone nearby, the medicine he used to take had worked…”
“I wonder if there’s a prescription left in Anne’s house.”
“There might be. All their belongings are still there.”
Upon hearing Reytan’s words, the innkeeper’s face brightened. There was a chance the prescription was still in the abandoned house where the knights had thrown the child.
“I’ll have someone retrieve it. In the meantime, I’ll send another doctor to examine him. You can pay for the treatment with this.”
“That much?”
The innkeeper’s eyes widened at the sight of seven gold coins Reytan handed her. One gold coin was worth 1 million Kona.
“The cost of the medicine won’t even come close to the value of one gold coin.”
“If there’s any leftover, use it for lodging.”
Reytan turned his attention back to the child, indicating that he had nothing more to say about the gold coins.
Seeing the child suffering in bed, Reytan couldn’t treat it as someone else’s problem. Theon, standing quietly beside Reytan, felt the same way.
“……..….”
Theon had been silently standing by Reytan’s side, gazing at the bed.
“Mom!”
It was under the blazing sun of mid-summer. His mother had suddenly collapsed one day, and for months, she couldn’t leave her bed.
Every time Theon looked at his mother, who was growing weaker and more emaciated, he feared she would leave him forever. However, he never expressed this fear outwardly.
He was eight years old. Theon spent his time training in swordsmanship alone, helping his grandparents, and staying by his mother’s side whenever he could.
Then, one day…
“Hang in there, just a little longer…”
“Honey! The doctor is here!”
While his grandparents left the room to greet the doctor, his mother, who had been groaning as if on the verge of death, grabbed his hand tightly.
It was an unexpectedly strong grip for someone so close to death.
“Theon, I have something to tell you.”
His mother’s voice came out with difficulty, as if her throat was being scraped with a knife every time she spoke. The sound of her labored breathing hurt Theon’s ears as well.
Despite his pleas for her to stop speaking, she handed him a small pocket watch and continued.
“This was something I found among your father’s belongings long ago. Until the day you can stand before him yourself, don’t let anyone else discover it.”
His father. There were so many questions he wanted to ask, but that was his mother’s last will.
“Huff… Huff…”
The boy, Anne’s younger brother, let out labored breaths, which sounded just like his mother’s final breaths to Theon.
Noticing the subtle change in Theon’s expression, Reytan sent the boy outside.
“Go and stay with Berry.”
“…Yes.”
Theon left the room.
Sniffling slightly, he rubbed his nose and pressed his eyelids with the palm of his hand. Good, the tears stayed in.
As he looked around for Berry, who was likely somewhere in the inn, a knight standing guard in the hallway spoke to him.
“Theon, are you looking for Miss Berry?”
“Yes. Do you know where she is?”
“She’s in the back of the inn, playing house with the others.”
Playing house? Theon found it strange, but he followed the knight’s directions.
Berry was only seven years old, but she wasn’t the type to engage in such childish play without a reason. At least, that’s how Theon saw her.
She was childlike but also mature in ways that sometimes made it seem like she knew more than he did.
The idea of Berry playing house was hard for him to imagine.
“Berry.”
In the backyard, Berry was grinding something with a mortar. She was chatting and giggling with the knights, but she looked up and smiled brightly when Theon called her.
There must be a reason for this, he thought.
Seeing her characteristic bright and playful expression, Theon was certain. Though the certainty came from nothing more than instinct, Theon knew he had a good sense of intuition.
“Teacher wants me to stay with you.”
Theon sat down quietly next to Berry. Being with her made him feel at ease.
He felt a similar comfort when he was with Reytan, but since Reytan was not only his Teacher but also a legendary Grand Master, it was impossible not to feel some tension.
To be honest, Theon still didn’t understand why Reytan had accepted him as a disciple. That morning, he had asked for a reason, but Reytan’s cryptic reply had been, ‘Because I saw the wind.’
“Is that so? Then, Theon, can you help with this? I’m going to gather more leaves.”
“Sure.”
Theon obediently took the mortar Berry handed him. The fresh, bitter scent of the herbs from the small wooden mortar filled his nose. It was from the crushed herbs, which had been pounded until juice started to seep out.
Berry quickly returned with freshly picked leaves and added them to the mortar. The tips of the green leaves had a reddish hue.
“Please add these as well.”
“What are you making?”
When Theon asked, Berry giggled.
“Medicine.”
“Medicine?”
“Yes. Anne’s brother is really sick, so I’m making medicine for him!”
Oh my, our Miss Berry has such a big heart.
The knights around Berry praised her, charmed by her kindness. They were touched by the child’s good intention to help the patient, but none of them actually believed that what she was making was real medicine. Theon nodded.
“I see.”
***
‘It’s Twentymoon Disease.’
I realized it as soon as I saw Anne’s brother. The symptoms described by the innkeeper had made me suspicious, but the sight of the triangular ears twitching between his red hair confirmed it for me.
It was a rare disease that affected the wolf-kin. The symptoms included dry, cracked lips that would constantly bleed from the fangs, a continual drop in body temperature despite raising the surrounding temperature, causing constant chills, and random blue bruises that would appear and disappear without reason.
The disease was called Twentymoon because those who contracted it would die after twenty months.
‘I didn’t know her brother was half wolf-kin. Anne is human, so do they have different parents?’
I wasn’t sure about their family situation, but now I understood why Anne had worked as a spy for my aunt. This disease was so rare that there was no definitive cure. The best treatment was to use medicine effective for each symptom to alleviate it.
That’s why the medicine was so expensive, even though the ingredients were common.
‘If you gather it yourself, it costs 0 Kona! But if you buy it at the market, it’s around 500 Kona?’
The cure for Twentymoon Disease was ridiculously simple, almost laughable considering the pain and death it caused.
If the patient drank the juice extracted from Evening Primrose leaves that had been grown for two years, for five consecutive days, the symptoms would disappear. Continued annual consumption would prevent the disease from ever returning.
‘Now, the question is how to give it to him…’
As I pounded the leaves in the mortar, I sneaked glances at the knights. They were humoring me, pretending to play along, but if they realized I actually intended to give this to Anne’s brother, they would surely stop me.
They would only see a child trying to feed a sick person some concoction made while playing house.
‘Hmmm, I guess sneaking in would be best!’
But my plan fell apart.
Now was the perfect time while Dad was still finishing his meal in the restaurant! But Theon refused to leave my side.
I tried every excuse—saying I needed to go to the bathroom or that I had left something in the carriage. Those excuses had worked on the knights, but Theon wasn’t buying it. He stuck to me like glue.
“Theon, I want to be alone…”
“Teacher told me to keep a close watch on you.”
There was no getting rid of him. I circled around the bushes where I had hidden the mortar, trying to figure out how to sneak into Anne’s brother’s room with it.
Since it was on the first floor, maybe I could climb through the window… Oh, but I could barely even reach the window frame.
“Are you going to leave the medicine behind?”
“Huh?”
I quickly turned around.
“You made the medicine for the maid’s brother earlier, didn’t you?”
“Uh…..”
Was he joking? I studied Theon’s face carefully, but there was no sign of humor on his handsome face.
“Theon, do you really think the medicine I made will work?”
“It’s made from herbs, right? I thought Teacher told you to make it. Just like when you said you were hungry earlier. Teacher can’t do it himself, so…”
“Oh. Right.”
A justification fell right into my lap.
I eagerly took the bait of Theon’s words.
