Episode 34
Alone in the room after everyone had left.
I stepped out onto the terrace and gazed at the moon shining brightly.
Soon, when the permission to visit from Ludwig arrived, I would go to the Karsian ducal palace and hand him the important key.
And as sure as the coming dawn, there was something I needed to ask of him.
Something only the Duke Karsian could do.
Last night, I tried to recall any clue to solve the illness.
I hadn’t been idle all this time, trying various methods…
As my head throbbed, memories of the original work surfaced.
‘Despite the desperate support from the Drenihan duchy, Lisbeth disease remained an incurable disease. Geniuses from all over the country rushed to develop a cure, but there was no progress.
Sierra Drenihan vanished with the morning dew of the prison, but even if it wasn’t for the death sentence, she wouldn’t have lived long due to Lisbeth disease. She deserved punishment for her actions.
Avenging my brother, Arzen, felt satisfying yet uncomfortable, probably because I couldn’t forget those pink eyes that stared at me from the prison. When my heart was troubled, the Crown Prince always comforted me, saying that life was as fragile as a thread.’
Since witnessing Sierra’s execution, Jenna has been haunted by a small trauma.
It was a common story for the weak female lead to be distressed by the villainess’s demise while the male leads comforted her by her side.
As Jenna constantly self-indoctrinates, it’s about how, even if Sierra Drenihan hadn’t been executed, she would have lived a life on death row due to Lisbeth disease and would have died around the age of twenty.
‘The cure for Lisbeth disease was never developed. It was determined to be an unknown area, and as many geniuses fell into fruitless efforts for the substantial rewards offered by the duchy, even the imperial family stepped in to halt development. After all, a cure was never going to come.’
Perhaps because Lisbeth was an incurable disease and a wedge had been driven in, I seemed to have been indoctrinated too.
All I remembered about Lisbeth disease from the original work until now was Jenna’s pessimistic soliloquy.
But there was one clue hidden in the original work.
Last night, it suddenly came to mind.
The so-called “Jenna Who Saved the Emperor” episode.
The Emperor of the Terium Empire had a chronic illness that caused severe headaches.
As the disease worsened over time, his son, the Crown Prince, also became deeply worried about the Emperor’s health.
The Emperor sometimes experienced strange hallucinations and would suddenly become a violent lunatic, terrifying his subjects.
Becoming a lunatic due to being unable to overcome my headaches was a long-standing hereditary disease of the Terium imperial family.
As the Emperor’s condition deteriorated, endangering the imperial family, Jenna stepped forward.
She had met a genius doctor when she was in an orphanage as a child.
The doctor had succeeded in developing countless cures for incurable diseases when he was young, becoming a genius among geniuses in history by creating the first-ever “potion” as a therapeutic drug.
However, his wife, who was suffering from an incurable disease, passed away before the doctor could develop the cure.
Devastated by the despair of not being able to save his wife, the doctor disappeared from the world.
Rumors abound that he must have died along with his wife after he went missing.
But in reality, he was wandering the streets, earning a modest living by helping those in need of his small services.
Eventually, he ended up at the orphanage where Jenna had been.
The remarkable Jenna recognized him as the once-talked-about genius doctor from her time at the orphanage.
Seeking a wandering stranger based solely on her impression from the orphanage was no easy task.
Nevertheless, Jenna, with the help of the massive information guild of the Karsian ducal family, eventually found the doctor not long after.
Jenna earnestly persuaded the doctor, who had been living apart from society, and whether it was Jenna’s sincerity or not, the doctor, along with substantial support, developed a headache medicine for the Emperor.
Jenna then administered the medicine to the Emperor, and its effectiveness was confirmed, alleviating the Emperor’s madness.
This episode became an opportunity for Jenna to receive favor from the highest authority in the country.
What was important to me here wasn’t just resolving the Emperor’s madness or Jenna’s brilliance.
It was the incurable disease that the genius doctor had desperately tried to develop a cure for, only to abandon his research due to his wife’s untimely death.
‘That was Lisbeth.’
As Jenna persuaded the doctor, she learned about his hidden past, and in that context, it was revealed that his wife had suffered from Lisbeth.
Since his wife was afflicted with the same disease, the doctor devoted himself to developing a cure for Lisbeth.
In fact, there had been considerable progress in his research, and the doctor himself was confident that he would soon be able to create a cure.
However, his wife’s rapid deterioration in health left no room for him to intervene, and she passed away.
‘He’s the only one now.’
He was the closest to developing a cure, and he had researched Lisbeth more deeply than anyone else.
I had to find him.
* * *
Thinking about personally intervening to cure the disease kept me awake even when I lay in bed.
Will everything go as planned?
Jenna was able to find the doctor due to a combination of Karsian assistance and coincidence.
Will such a coincidence favor me too?
Even if I find the doctor, I’m doubtful whether he will cooperate with me, and can he really develop a cure?
There was nothing certain.
But there was no more room for giving up.
I had to try, even if it meant just taking one step forward.
I was on my way to the garden to clear my mind of miscellaneous thoughts.
Meeting Orzen right in front of the gate as if he had just returned home was unexpected.
‘What time is it, anyway?’
The chamberlain rushed to support Orzen, who seemed intoxicated.
“‘Look who it is, my neice?”
Orzen was in a state of high spirits since his father had recently entrusted him with many important tasks.
He was aware of his own shortcomings compared to his exceptional father in every aspect.
Yet, there was no effort to improve, and he still had the demeanor of someone who had been gambling.
“Enjoy it while you can. I’ve asked the Lord to lift the punishment on Jeria, and it won’t be long before she returns.”
The chamberlain tried to calm him down and take him to his room, but Orzen didn’t budge.
“It’s not like he’s going to listen to everything you ask. My uncle seems to think of my grandfather only as a father, not a patriarch.”
I chuckled, and Orzen’s arrogant expression stiffened.
How foolishly self-absorbed he was.
He still thought of himself as the youngest grandson.
If he threw a tantrum, even grandfather couldn’t do much but give in to what Orzen wanted.
But that had its limits.
It was grotesque to see an adult throwing a tantrum.
“At least Jerria seems to have some conscience. She couldn’t even meet my eyes. But my uncle and aunt seem to have no guilt at all.”
“Guilt? Why should we feel guilty about that? It’s our niece who has raised such a fuss over her younger sister’s prank.”
Orzen laughed sarcastically, spewing out sophistry.
“Well, what a lowly blood? It seems like those so-called deeds of yours resemble seeing my sister-in-law.”
“….”
What, you bastard?
