Episode 73
Clatter, clatter.
Inside the swaying carriage, only the sound of Ivan retching filled the air. As always, it was an unbearable motion sickness.
While Natasha mechanically patted his back, her face remained strangely blank.
“Ugh…! Ugh, huff… Natasha. Since earlier, ugh, what’s wrong…?”
“What?”
“No, your expression has been… ugh!”
Ivan hurriedly stuck his head back out of the window. Then, as if he had no strength left, he leaned halfway against it, swaying helplessly.
“I think I got swindled. No matter how urgent it was, I should’ve at least drafted a contract.”
“Ugh… what?”
“Sigh. Never mind.”
Natasha smacked Ivan’s back with a loud thud.
“Argh! Hey, I’m a patient here!”
“Hey? Is that how you talk to your elder sister?”
“Sister, my— Ugh, ugh!”
Ivan, grumbling irritably, was interrupted once again by dry heaves. Natasha shook her head.
“I told you I could go alone.”
“It’s dangerous…”
“But it’s just the eastern region. Estelle is there too.”
“What if those guys, ugh, do something…?”
Natasha let out a deep sigh. She knew exactly what Ivan was wary of. That was why she had brought him along in the first place.
“You should have at least taken some herbs. Didn’t Vasily pack some for you?”
“I said I’m fine…”
He barely managed to reply in an exhausted voice. Natasha debated stuffing some herbs into his mouth right then and there but decided against it.
She knew he had an obsessive aversion to medicine.
“I hope the affected areas aren’t too widespread.”
Muttering under her breath, Natasha unfolded a map.
—We’re at our wit’s end! Complaints about the grain from that region are pouring in from everywhere, but we really have no idea what’s going on! All we did was receive grain from the farmers like we did last year and sell it. That’s our only crime!
The Liet Trading Company didn’t seem to be lying. If something had gone wrong in the distribution process, there were still too many loose ends.
—Yes? Yes, that’s correct. So, the contaminated grain… it’s from areas in the east, closer to the south. Yes, yes. It’s not a vast area, but as you know, the east is a fertile granary region. The grain produced there alone is enough to feed the central region for a year.
On the map, obtained through a bit of coercion from the trading company’s owner, the production sites of the contaminated grain were marked separately.
Coincidentally—or perhaps not—these locations almost perfectly overlapped with the areas Vasily had mentioned, where similar incidents had been reported.
Three adjacent territories: the Viscounty of Bastia, the County of Orléans, and the Barony of Saint-Pierre.
Their first destination was the Viscounty of Bastia, where the most victims had surfaced.
Clatter, clatter.
Only the sound of hooves striking the desolate ground echoed through the air.
***
As soon as Ivan stepped onto solid ground, he suddenly seemed completely fine, as if his motion sickness had never happened.
Upon arriving at the outskirts of the Viscounty of Bastia, a grim atmosphere hung over the village.
“…The situation is worse than I thought.”
Patients lay scattered on the streets, their breaths feverish and labored, left untreated without any care.
“Excuse me.”
“Hhh… ugh…”
Natasha spoke to the nearest patient, but they barely seemed to understand.
“Damn.”
The two of them slowly walked deeper into the village. The only sounds were the groans of the sick and the occasional retching.
“…Water… But… not enough bandages…”
A weak voice caught Ivan’s attention, and he followed the sound.
As they walked further in, more patients lay sprawled on the ground, almost like corpses.
Finally, at the village’s innermost part, Natasha encountered an unexpected figure.
He moved swiftly, tending to patients, skillfully preparing medicine.
If she hadn’t recognized him, she would have mistaken him for the village doctor.
“Oh, Doctor… Doctor…”
“Just hold on a little longer. The physician went to gather medicinal herbs this morning. He should be back soon.”
His voice was gentle—so gentle that Natasha almost doubted her ears.
Did that guy even have a voice like that?
Light green hair, blue eyes, and thin, familiar glasses.
Natasha knew who he was.
“…What was his name again?”
They hadn’t been close enough for her to remember his name off the top of her head.
The man turned his head at her murmuring, looking shocked—as if he had never expected to see her here.
“Natasha-sunbae?”
Damn. He knew exactly who she was. That left Natasha no choice but to greet him awkwardly.
“Oh, uh, yeah. Junior. It’s been a while, hasn’t it?”
“It’s been about seven years since you graduated from law school.”
“Right. Not that I don’t remember, but, you know, it’s common courtesy to introduce ourselves when we meet again. Should we reintroduce ourselves?”
“It’s Norman, sunbae.”
Norman.
He had been a year below her at law school.
They hadn’t been particularly close, but they had taken a few classes together, so she remembered his face.
“Oh, of course, I knew that! But what are you doing here?”
“I should be asking you that. Weren’t you a divorce lawyer?”
“…Well, yeah, but I got interested in this case.”
Looking at how severe the situation seemed, Natasha chose her words carefully.
“In that case, I’d prefer if you left.”
He couldn’t have suddenly switched professions from lawyer to village doctor. That meant he was also investigating the toxic grain case.
Natasha had been asked to help with lawsuits before, but she had never been told to back off.
And now, she was hearing that from a junior? That stung her pride.
“That won’t be possible. My client has suffered significant damages from this issue.”
“The Petrov Duchy? Or the Richard Duchy?”
“….”
“It hardly matters. Either way, when they say ‘significant damages,’ they probably mean something like, ‘We were supposed to make 200,000 gold but only made 150,000.’ Just petty complaints, really.”
Natasha frowned slightly. What was this junior even saying?
“I don’t want to dilute the essence of this lawsuit with arguments like that. This concerns the lives of hundreds, even thousands.”
“Maybe not lives, but we can’t just back down either.”
Hadn’t hundreds of villagers fallen ill with high fevers? Not to mention Jeanette’s bakery had taken a serious hit.
Seeing that Natasha wouldn’t back down easily, Norman let out a small sigh.
“You might change your mind after seeing this. Follow me.”
“What?”
“I’ll show you where the contamination started.”
After briefly explaining to the patients, Norman stood up and gestured for them to follow as he headed outside.
“What do you think?”
Ivan’s voice had dropped a tone, clearly irritated by Norman’s attitude.
Natasha could easily tell that the unspoken part of his sentence was ‘If you want, I’ll drag that bastard back here and make him kneel.’
‘Let’s follow him for now.’
Rather than argue, she decided it was more important to confirm the source of the contamination.
Though displeased, Ivan silently followed behind Norman.
“Doctor! My mother is still on the brink of death. Please do something…!”
“Please hold on just a little longer. The physician will return this evening.”
“Doctor! Thanks to your help last time, my son’s condition has improved greatly. I caught a deer to show my gratitude!”
“Thank you. That’s a relief.”
As Norman stepped outside, waves of trust and goodwill from the villagers poured over him.
He had completely assimilated into their community.
***
How long had they been walking?
After about thirty minutes of trekking through the forest, Natasha’s thoughts started to wander.
What if he’s leading us into a trap? Like, a deep cave or something?
Staring at the back of his head, all sorts of theories popped into her mind.
The biggest mystery was which noble house Norman was working for.
The most likely scenario is one of those three territories. The County of Orléans? It’s a bit rural, but it’s still a count’s domain. Though, it’d be a waste for a top law school graduate to end up there…
Just then, Norman abruptly stopped.
It was so sudden that Natasha nearly smacked into his back.
Before she could demand an explanation, he raised a finger and pointed ahead.
“…What’s that?”
Through the foliage, they saw something horrifying.
Gush!
A clear liquid was pouring into the river in torrents.
That liquid was flowing from what looked like a black hole, suspended in empty space.
A magical tool? A device that manipulates space would be an incredibly expensive product.
No matter how she looked at it, that seemed to be the source of the contamination.
“That hole—where does it lead?”
“The first site of the Magecraft Factory. It’s located in a remote mountain area, 300 kilometers from here.”
Magecraft Factory. As soon as she heard the name, she could roughly grasp the situation.
“The Mage Tower…”
“That’s right. The production of magical devices is fundamentally under the jurisdiction of the Mage Tower. Naturally, since magic defies the laws of nature, it inevitably produces various pollutants.”
“But legally, facilities should be established to handle such magical waste.”
“The world doesn’t always operate according to the law.”
Norman replied with an indifferent expression. It was a rather disillusioned statement for a lawyer to make.
“This river is the villagers’ primary source of drinking water. They’ve been consuming it directly, contaminated with that substance.”
Norman’s face twisted in anger.
“And the result is exactly what you saw earlier. People are dying, and the Mage Tower is turning a blind eye.”
“So? Why did you show us this?”
“Now that you’ve seen it, you should understand. The Mage Tower is involved in this. No matter how powerful the Petrov or Richard Duchies are, getting entangled in this will only bring trouble. Isn’t this enough reason to step away from the case?”
It seemed he was utterly convinced that Natasha was working for the ducal houses.
“Isn’t it the same for the Count of Orléans?”
“The Count of Orléans? Why bring that up all of a sudden…?”
“Then, are you working for the Viscount of Bastia?”
Realizing what Natasha was implying, Norman’s face contorted in an instant.
Although he had always carried a somewhat strict air, he had once resembled an exemplary student. Now, however, he exuded a menacing aura.
“Don’t lump me in with that kind of lawyer. It’s incredibly offensive.”
“What?”
“I’m different from you.”
He spoke sharply, his tone icy.
“I’m not like lawyers who sell their pride for money and exploit commoners for the sake of nobles.”
Crack.
Unknowingly, Ivan clenched his fist so tightly that a chilling sound echoed through the air. Natasha silently restrained him by gripping his forearm.
Instead, she stepped between him and Norman, flashing a lighthearted smile.
‘That’s amusing.’
What should she do with this naive young master who knew nothing of the real world?
• ❁ • ❁ • ❁ •By Esraa• ❁ • ❁ • ❁ •
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