Chapter 26

Astelle again calmly explained why.

“In this situation, if rumors spread that the Emperor’s party also has a fever patient, the people who live around will panic.”

No matter how explained that it is not a fatal Innes fever, but an ordinary fever, farmers who lack knowledge about the disease will focus only on the part that says, “There is a fever patient in the emperor’s party.”

Rather, people might suspect that Astelle had a common fever to hide Innes’ fever.

“If that happens, this village will be labeled as the place where the infectious disease patient stayed.”

The damage will remain entirely for this village.

Rural villages in such a forest area raise vegetables and livestock and live by relying on barter with other villages.

Isolation from the outside could make it difficult for farmers to make a living.

“So I want to recover quietly here. People will be suspicious when they see Your Majesty’s doctor coming and going here, so I’ll make up the medicine myself. I just need the ingredients.”

Fever is common in the East, so I learned it hard from Gretel.

It wasn’t even medicine that needed rare ingredients. Most of them were available in the forests.

‘And… I also have to make a medicine to change the eye color.’

In fact, the most important purpose was this.

Originally, I was thinking of going out for a while to see the village and the forest with Theor tomorrow morning.

However, the opportunity to come and go out so naturally disappeared because I got sick.

The remaining medicine’s effect is about 3 days.

If not now, I may not have a chance to get herbs and make medicines.

Astelle finished the explanation calmly and waited for Kaizen’s permission.

However, the eyes of the people gathered in the room were a little strange.

Everyone just looked at Astelle blankly without a word.

‘Why are you doing that?’

When Astelle felt the doubt, Lyndon slowly opened his mouth with a blank face.

“You really have a deep thought, Lady Astelle.”

“… Pardon?”

Lyndon bowed his head slightly to Astelle.

“I was deeply impressed by the heart of considering the circumstances of the farmers here and taking care of our circumstances.”

“……”

Actually, I just wanted to make a medicine that changes the eye color, not more.

Looking back, the middle-aged doctor I met for the first time was looking at me with admiration mixed eyes.

Even Vellian looked a little surprised.

However, there were people who were not very impressed.

Kaizen, who was listening silently, suddenly asked.

“So you’re going to stay here?”

“Yes.”

“What about the child?”

Astelle turned to the doctor and asked.

“Wouldn’t it be okay to put Theor in the room across the corridor?”

“I think you can do that much because it’s not contagious unless you get a fever because your symptoms get worse.”

I thought so, but I was more relieved when I got confirmation from the doctor.

“Theor, did you hear it? You have to sleep in the next room today, can you?”

“Yeah, then I’ll sleep with Blin in a new room!”

I wondered if he would be scared, but Theor agreed surprisingly easily.

Well, even when Theor was at home, sometimes he went to my grandfather’s room and listened to old stories and fell asleep.

At this point, there was no way Kaizen would not allow it.

He stared at Astelle for a long time with an unpleasant face and was forced to accept it.

“Okay. Do what you want.”

“Thank you, Your Majesty.”

Astelle quickly turned her gaze.

Vellian was listening to Astelle interestingly from one side.

Astelle looked back at him and came up with a question as if she had thought it was late.

“Oh, it turns out that a pharmacist came here a little while ago. Can I go to her and get some herbs?”

For an instant, the face of Vellian became pale of that word.

“The pharmacist had come here?”

Kaizen, who did not know the situation at all, turned to Astelle with a strange glance.

“Yes, that old pharmacist.”

Astelle smiled as she watched the gentle-looking face of the Vellian get white.

As the eyes met, Vellian shook his head hastily.

‘Are you saying don’t tell Kaizen?’

Seeing that he was embarrassed a lot, he must have done it alone without the permission of the emperor.

If Kaizen knew, he would be angry that he did something useless without permission in his place.

‘But I’m not very sympathetic.’

Vellian used to observe Astelle interestingly.

When Astelle fought Marianne, Vellian watched as if he was watching an interesting play.

He likes treating people like puppets in a puppet show.

He always looked with curious eyes, and he was now pale.

He is like a poor audience who suddenly rolled over to the theater stage while he was watching an interesting stage.

Astelle said calmly to Kaizen.

“Ah, the pharmacist put good herbs in the bathwater before. She is growing medicinal herbs, so I want to get some medicinal herbs from her.”

“Yes, do whatever you want.”

Kaizen allowed it without much doubt.

Instead, he had one condition.

“But you can’t go alone. Take the knight as a guide and escort.”

“Thank you, Your Majesty. Then…”

Astelle turned to Kaizen after expressing her gratitude.

She stared at Vellian who had a tense face.

“If it’s okay, I’d like to ask Sir Vellian for guidance.”

Kaizen looked at Vellian with a puzzled look.

“Why?”

“I have something I want to share with him.”

“What do you have to say to him?”

“It’s personal matter. Sir Vellian, are you okay?”

“Oh yeah. Yes.”

Astelle smiled casually.

“Then, please prepare quickly.”

* * *

After a while, Astelle was walking on the road to the back door of the castle with a small basket.

Astelle checked the tools in her basket.

Inside the basket were tiny pruning shears for cutting small seedlings of hemp and branches.

Vellian was following her with an anxious look from the street one step away.

“… May I ask why you wanted to be guided by me?”

Astelle said she was natural as she went through the basket.

“You’ve got the pharmacist disguised as a maid and looked at my luggage and medicine box. She even sent me to a public bath and checked my clothes.”

“That…”

“Once you have satisfied your curiosity, isn’t it your turn to help me?”

Vellian was overwhelmed and bit his lip.

He tried to make an excuse that he wasn’t, but he seemed to give up.

“May I ask how you knew?”

“Whoever sees the maid will know that she is a pharmacist.”

Astelle didn’t need to explain anymore.

Vellian asked doubtfully.

“… Well… before, when Lady Marianne opened the medicine box, you noticed that the location of the medicine bottle was slightly different. I felt it back then, but Lady Astelle is really good at keeping an eye on it. A little, scary enough.”

“I’ll take it as a compliment.”

Astelle still hasn’t lost her smile.

“I’m sorry, but I was worried about what happened before. That… I ordered the pharmacist to check if there was any disease in the child. It didn’t mean anything bad.”

He didn’t do it with bad intentions.

He just wanted to take this opportunity to take a look at Astelle’s medicines and resolve his suspicions.

It was roughly like that.

Astelle answered coldly with a smile.

“As I said before, the child is weak and needs to be fed nutrition on time. His Majesty the Emperor took him to the hunting lodge in the heavy rain without saying anything, so I have no choice but to follow him. I don’t understand that it looked weird.”

“… Yes, now I see clearly. It was a misunderstanding.”

Vellian apologized with his head down.

I don’t think he’s very sorry, but I felt like he was out of energy.

“……”

“Well, why didn’t you tell His Majesty?”

“I think Sir Vellian will be in trouble if His Majesty knows.”

“… It is.”

Vellian honestly agreed.

The emperor was very concerned with Astelle.

He’ll be very angry when he finds out that his closest aide has done this useless trick.

Still, Vellian wanted to see if there was anything wrong with Theor.