Episode 35

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“Where does it hurt?”

“Did that woman hit you?!”

At my words, both the butler and Tara turned pale.

The butler fumbled around looking for a stretcher, and Tara was furious, saying she should have killed Emma.

But after a moment, seeing me getting up by myself, both of them looked dumbfounded.

I looked at them and burst into a bright smile.

“You scared us, young lady! How could you play such a prank?”

Tara, who insisted on carrying me to my room despite my reassurances, scolded me.

I rubbed my face against her good-smelling back and replied.

“It wasn’t a lie. I really am hurt.”

“Where does it hurt?”

“My bottom… my tailbone hurts.”

It was true.

After falling twice, the area around my bottom, which had felt fine earlier, was now aching.

‘Oh, my aching body…’

I whimpered involuntarily from the dull pain, and Tara made a distressed face.

“Come to think of it, you said you fell because of that woman yesterday too. That wretched woman, I should’ve…!”

After a burst of anger, Tara gently laid me down on the bed with very careful hands.

“The doctor who came yesterday will be called back by the butler, so please hang in there a little longer.”

“Okay…”

“Oh, my poor young lady. You never have a day without getting hurt. Is there anything you want to eat?”

“No, it’s fine.”

“Oh, what am I thinking?!”

She murmured, looking distressed, then suddenly pulled something out of her pocket in a flurry.

And she gently placed it on my head.

The cool sensation on my scalp made my eyes light up.

“A tiara?”

“Yes, I made sure to take good care of it!”

“Aww.”

My nose tingled with emotion.

I almost had my tiara unfairly taken away by that wretched Emma!

Facing off against such a mean woman, who also had a higher status, couldn’t have been easy for Tara.

I felt a surge of gratitude towards Tara.

“Thank you, Tara… And you were really, really awesome!”

“Did I look like your personal maid now?”

“Yes! You were the best!”

When I gave her a thumbs-up, Tara smiled contentedly.

Then her eyes sparkled suddenly.

“Then please let me pinch these squishy cheeks a little, okay?”

“Well, that’s a bit…”

“Just the right cheek, okay?”

“Wait, ahhh…”

Squish. Squish.

Squish-squish. Squish-squish.

As Tara kneaded my cheeks to her heart’s content, a knock suddenly echoed through the room.

“Oh, could the doctor be here already?”

Tara went to check the visitor in my stead.

And then.

“You’ve had quite a turbulent day, haven’t you?”

“Huh? Grandpa!”

It wasn’t an outside doctor who came into the room, but Old Man Gordon.

I opened my eyes wide.

“You’re here already?”

“If you tell me someone’s hurt, of course I’ll come quickly! Whew, I nearly lost my breath getting here!”

It seemed he had come in a hurry, as he wasn’t even wearing his white coat.

‘Who else got hurt?’

While I tilted my head in confusion, Old Man Gordon gulped down the water Tara handed him.

After catching his breath, he clicked his tongue as he looked at me.

“Tsk, tsk. Who did this? They’ve turned you into a zombie!”

‘Zombie!’

I puffed out my cheeks in annoyance.

From a gauze fairy to a gauze monster, and now a zombie… I had earned quite a few nicknames in just one night.

“Let me take a look.”

Gordon opened his bag and laid out his medical tools, then carefully peeled off the gauze from my left cheek.

He looked at me with an incredulous expression.

“Tsk! This could be healed with just some saliva! Why did they wrap it up so elaborately?”

“Saliva? Eww, that’s gross!”

“Our family has a saying: even from the saliva of one who handles life, a single herb may grow!”

“Yuck! Your family is weird, Grandpa!”

Despite his gross words, Old Man Gordon continued the treatment meticulously.

He removed all the oversized gauze and gently rubbed the area with a disinfectant swab.

Then he applied a generous amount of transparent ointment and replaced the gauze with ones that were appropriately sized for a child.

‘Maybe it’s because I wasn’t often sick in my past life…’

Although I had experienced it yesterday, watching someone carefully treat me was a strangely ticklish feeling.

Especially since the person was someone I had once been at odds with.

I suppressed my squirming body and spoke up.

“Grandpa, did you catch all the blue fireflies?”

“Do you think catching a few would be enough?”

That’s why I was surprised Gordon had come back so quickly.

Blue fireflies are numerous but very small, making them difficult to catch, and the amount of extract obtained from them is minimal.

That’s why they aren’t commonly used in medicine…

While disinfecting the wound on my knee, Gordon glanced at me with a chuckle.

“I found their habitat, so the guys below me are working their butts off to catch them.”

“Why did you come her?”

“This brat!”

“Ouch!”

He pressed a bit too hard on the wound he was tending.

“Gently!”

“You’ve certainly grown into quite the boss, haven’t you? Who do you think I hurried over here to see?”

“For who?”

“For you, of course!”

Gordon shouted, looking annoyed.

“Who told you to get beaten up like that? Huh!”

“I didn’t get beaten up…”

“Is there anyone else looking like a beaten dumpling here?”

“I’m not a dumpling! And I hit them more than they hit me!”

“Oh, really?”

The old man sarcastically replied and continued the treatment.

After carefully applying ointment to my wounds and bruises, he picked up a dental mirror.

“Open your mouth wide.”

“Ahh…”

I had a lot more to say, but remembering Edwin’s advice to get my teeth checked, I obediently opened my mouth.

“Now close your teeth together.”

“Like this…”

“Tap your teeth up and down.”

“Tap, tap.”

“Good. Now you can close your mouth.”

After tapping my teeth with a small rubber hammer to check them, the old man said,

“You have remarkably healthy teeth. You can bite a few more times.”

“Hey! I told you, I hit them more and won!”

“Fighting with adults, and you’re proud of it.”

I said proudly, and Old Man Gordon wiggled his mustache in response.

He seemed to have heard bits and pieces about my fight with Svelnum.

The old man suddenly shook his head and clicked his tongue.

“You seem fine. Why did everyone make such a fuss and call me?”

“Who?”

“Who else? The people in this house!”

He added with a face full of dissatisfaction.

“The Duke, the young master, they all took turns pestering this old man to come here! Do you know how far it is from Travell Forest to here? A three-hour distance is no joke!”

“…”

“Even when I said I was on my way, Anderson made a fuss! Why did you have to mess with that ill-tempered woman… Tsk!”

The old man glared at me reproachfully, then turned his head and took something out of his bag.

“Drink this!”

I looked suspiciously at the mysterious brown bottle and asked,

“What’s this?”

“What else? The medicine made from the black buffalo ribs you specifically requested…!”

Gulp, gulp!

Before he could finish speaking, I quickly drank the medicine.

My tailbone was already aching, so this was perfect!

‘Even if the old man has a bad temper, he sure knows how to make great medicine.’

As I gulped down the barely bitter medicine like water, Old Man Gordon looked at me with a gloomy expression.

“That was the last one… sigh.”

“Ah—!”

Ignoring him, I took a refreshing one-shot of the medicine.

Thud!

The old man tenderly stroked the empty bottle I had put down.

“My little buffalo of 20 years… rest in peace until the day we meet again.”

“Black buffaloes are endangered now, so you’re not supposed to hunt them.”

“And yet you, knowing that, drank it all…!”

Of course, I knew and drank it anyway.

For the record, Gordon’s collections were at least a few decades old, so there were no legal issues.

‘As expected, it’s an elixir!’

Within minutes of drinking the medicine, the throbbing pain started to subside.

‘Great. Since I took it during my growth period, I won’t have any bone issues for at least the next ten years!’

Feeling triumphant inside, I decided to cheer up the gloomy Gordon.

“I have something for you too, Grandpa. It’s even better than black buffalo bones!”

“Enough. What could be better than that…”

“Really?”

Quickly, I pulled out the pouch I had hidden under my pillow, but the disheartened old man didn’t even look.

‘What about this?’

I slowly untied the tightly knotted top of the pouch.

Ssshh.

A sweet and fragrant aroma began to waft out through the small opening.

The scent was so enticing that it woke up even the gloomy Gordon’s nose.

As expected.

“This smell…?”

The old man, who had been hugging the empty bottle and sniffling, suddenly whipped his head around to look at me.

He pointed at the pouch I was holding with wide eyes.

“Is that… Fairy Herb?!”