🔊 TTS Settings
Chapter 59
Meril flinched at the sight of Rani’s sparkling eyes.
“By any chance, did others with the same symptoms gradually start to lose control of their limbs?”
“…There were a few who did. They were patients under my teacher’s care.”
At that, Meril turned to me, realization dawning on her face.
“Don’t tell me… you’re showing the same symptoms?”
I couldn’t help but grin.
“The time has come, Meril.”
“…Pardon?”
Meril looked utterly confused. Time for what?
“It’s time for our Cartieron family to start swimming in piles of money!”
Rani shot up from the bed, making Meril gasp.
“Miss Rani!”
“I don’t have time to be lying around, Meril!”
“No, right now is exactly the time for you to be lying down! Please—”
“I know this illness, Meril!”
“And how would you know something not even I—”
Their argument was interrupted by Hider, who walked in just in time to witness the scene.
He sighed and placed the items he was carrying on the table.
“Young Master, Miss Rani is trying to get up. Are we just… letting this happen? I don’t think we should.”
“I agree. Rani, sit back down.”
Hider’s voice was sharp, his mood soured from her prolonged illness.
But Rani didn’t back down in the slightest.
“But I can cure it! Just hear me out, Lord Hider!”
“…You can cure it?”
“Young Master, you’re not seriously listening to her, are you?! Don’t fall for it!”
Though Meril protested, Hider turned his attention to Rani’s impassioned plea. Seizing the opportunity, Rani threw off the covers and stepped down from the bed.
Then she pointed to her tingling leg. The paralysis had begun.
“See? This isn’t just a cold. My limbs are slowly becoming paralyzed.”
“No way…!”
Meril’s face went pale. She knew exactly what this illness was. Her teacher had lost every patient to it.
They’d classified it as a newly emerging disease, with no commonalities among the afflicted. Her teacher was currently collaborating with other physicians to study and name the illness, trying to develop a cure.
And now, of all places, that same disease had appeared in this closed-off mansion?
She didn’t want to believe it. But Rani, smiling brightly while claiming her limbs would be paralyzed, wasn’t helping.
“That’s not really something you say with a smile, Rani.”
Hider spoke gravely, and Meril nodded in agreement. Yes, this wasn’t something to joke about!
“It’s fine. I know how to treat it. I even know where it came from!”
Rani declared confidently.
Hider had grown used to Rani’s odd behavior. In fact, the entire mansion had. Her strangeness was now a fact of life.
“How could you possibly know that? Not even renowned doctors—! This has been classified as a new illness!”
Hider raised a finger to his lips.
Meril, seeing the gesture, bit her tongue. But her flaring nostrils made her frustration clear.
“This disease came from the mountains. More precisely, it started from eating a snake that lived there.”
“…A snake?”
Hider blinked, and Rani nodded enthusiastically. She remembered this plotline from the original novel—it was this very disease that killed Sornya.
Only now did it click. All the blame had fallen on Hider back then. Kiera had used it as an excuse to torment him more, accusing him of everything—saltiness of the sea included.
So Rani remembered it well.
Especially the part where, once the cure was discovered, Kiera fed it to a perfectly healthy Karte instead of Hider, who had actually been infected. Hider had to beg to get even one dose.
These fragmented memories… were about to make them a fortune!
Rani, now fired up, continued her explanation.
“Yes! It’s a parasite that lives on the snake. The disease spreads through saliva, so it’s most easily transmitted during shared meals.”
Considering how often she ate street food outside, it wasn’t surprising she’d caught it.
“…Then how can it be treated? Do you know the remedy?”
Meril, entranced, asked the question almost instinctively. Rani’s explanation sounded so plausible that she was starting to believe it.
“You need to harvest serpent raspberries and boil them into a thick paste. Boil it for three days over high heat to eliminate the toxins and preserve the medicinal properties.”
“That’s all it takes?”
“Yes. Of course, ample rest is also necessary!”
“…But it’s already autumn.”
“Exactly.”
“Which means it’s out of season to find serpent raspberries.”
Serpent raspberries bear fruit in spring. By now, the fruits would be long gone. The trees could still be found, but not the berries.
But Rani smiled breezily.
“That’s no problem at all. Cartieron’s fields grow crops year-round, regardless of season!”
Meril turned to Hider, silently asking for confirmation. He nodded.
“Serpent raspberries, huh? Good. We can find those trees right here in the Cartieron estate.”
Meril stared blankly between Rani and Hider. She wasn’t entirely sure what they were talking about, but if they could really get the raspberries, then that was a relief.
Doing something was better than doing nothing and watching Rani waste away.
Meril gazed outside with a dazed expression. It had taken only a day. Just one single day for the previously empty fields to become overrun with ripe serpent raspberries.
“How… how is this even possible…?”
Standing beside her, Rani beamed.
“Our estate has a druid!”
Her face practically glowed with pride.
“I don’t know what a druid is, but… if we can make the medicine, then thank goodness. If it truly works…”
“We can distribute it through the Del Trade Group. But…”
Rani gave Meril a sidelong glance. Meril tilted her head at the strange look.
“Can we release it under your name, Meril?”
“My… name? But the remedy is yours, Rani. You came up with the formula.”
“Still, it would look far more credible coming from you. I’m just a maid, but you’re a physician.”
“But that would mean I’m taking credit for your discovery.”
“No one will believe it if it’s under my name anyway. And until someone else figures it out, people will just keep dying. What matters is saving lives, right?”
Meril’s eyes wavered. In that moment, Rani looked like a saint.
She wasn’t chasing glory—she just wanted to help people. There weren’t many like that in this world. And she was doing all this while still recovering from her illness.
“Miss Rani…”
Moved, Meril softly whispered her name. Among all the miracles happening in the Cartieron estate, Rani was starting to seem like the greatest one of all.
As Meril wiped away tears, Rani added:
“Of course, for pricing, we should consult the Del Trade Group. And a portion of the profits will go to Cartieron. Is that okay?”
“Not to you, but to the Cartieron estate?”
“Yes! After all, it was grown and made by everyone here!”
Meril thought to herself: maybe Rani really was a guardian angel sent from heaven to save Cartieron.
