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Chapter – 03
Already well underway, huh?
As we stepped into the building, buckets stained with blood were everywhere.
Most people wouldn’t know, but in the underworld “bloodletting” was used as one of the most sophisticated methods of poisoning.
Bloodletting itself originated from a modern medical theory about balancing the body’s four humors. But if you bribed a doctor, there was no more refined method.
You feed the target a trace amount of poison over time, then when they’re weakened, the doctor—pretending to treat them—bleeds them dry with a flourish. They die immediately.
On the surface it looks like they died while receiving treatment, so suspicion of poisoning is completely avoided.
“Put me down.”
Come to think of it, that doctor was insisting on doing bloodletting—something he usually wouldn’t do for common folk. Maybe he and the poisoner were in on it together. Or maybe he was just a quack.
Either way, I charged at the man who had raised the awl toward the patient.
“Hey!!!”
I rounded my back and headbutted him; the doctor staggered and collapsed to the floor.
“Who are you! How dare you—!”
The doctor raised his hand. He looked like he was about to slap me, he raised it so high as if to knock out a molar.
“Enough.”
“M-My lord Duke?”
But the doctor was stopped when the duke grabbed his arm. The doctor’s demonic glare immediately softened.
Too bad. If I’d landed a hit, I could’ve used the pretense of treatment to examine his medicines.
“It’s an honor to have you come this far. This child is…?”
“She’s a child I brought. I don’t understand why you lunged at her.”
“That man tried to kill someone!”
I pointed at the doctor and shouted, making my finger tremble as if I were an innocent child shocked by the scene.
“You mustn’t kill people! Bad!”
The doctor, who’d been wearing a sulky expression, smiled ingratiatingly.
“Little one. This isn’t killing—this is saving lives.”
“Ugh!”
“Ha ha. You were quite frightened, weren’t you?”
The doctor reached out, feigning kindness, to pat my head when the duke’s cold voice cut across.
“Someone appears to have poisoned the well.”
“…What? Wh-what is that supposed to mean…?”
Thanks to that, the doctor’s blood-smeared fingertips stopped right in front of my face.
“Find out what kind of poison it is, and focus on antidotes—this isn’t an epidemic treatment.”
“Y-Yes? Oh… ha ha! It’s perfect timing. Bloodletting is also very effective as an antidote! It not only removes toxins but restores the balance of humors. Just wait a few days and you’ll see.”
“All right. And treat this child as well.”
What?
Duke, are you trying to get someone killed right now?
I looked up at him again with the most pitiful face I could muster.
“You want me to be pricked with that awl too? But it doesn’t even work….”
When I put on an innocent face, the doctor bristled.
“Ha ha, little one. I graduated top of my class from the kingdom’s premier medical college—one of the brilliant geniuses. I guarantee you: there’s no disease bloodletting can’t cure!”
“No, that’s not true. People die from it….”
Just as I muttered quietly, the doctor spoke again.
“Aha, you’re afraid of the bloodletting, aren’t you? Look, that maid over there has already recovered and is moving about.”
What? That woman recovered because of me.
“But I gave that woman Skima herb when she had stomach pain….”
“You there.”
The duke, who had been quietly listening, called the maid over.
“What’s your name?”
“B-Biki.”
“Did you receive bloodletting treatment?”
“No. I was feeling faint and that child gave me something to eat, and my stomach pain went away immediately.”
See—you can’t trust those quack treatments!
Just as I was about to bask in my triumph, the duke turned his head toward me with a look that suggested he found something suspicious. I felt a jolt of alarm.
“W-Well, where I come from we take Skima herb when our stomachs hurt, and I gave it to her because she said her stomach hurt….”
“Ha ha ha ha! Skima-what? Did you play house all by yourself?”
“You don’t even know what Skima herb is? Are you stupid?”
I stared silently at the doctor who glared back at me.
His hair was brittle and split at the ends, his eyes bloodshot, and his smile unnervingly uneven.
Why did he look so unsettled?
“Also give them Skima herb.”
“Eh? No, Duke! Are you really going to believe a child’s words?”
The doctor said incredulously, but the duke merely regarded him silently.
“Ahem. Then, little miss, is there anyone else willing to eat this—Skima-whatever herb? I won’t be responsible for what happens!”
The doctor raised his hand as if to show off. His veiled threat made the patients pale and fall silent, and he quickly lowered his hand when no one volunteered.
“What to do? There are no volunteers. Little one, it’s a pity—who’d want to undergo such a nonsense treatment?”
Then—
“I’ll take it.”
The doctor and I turned at once. There, a girl who looked as if she’d been bled dry was propped weakly against a bed.
“Doctor’s treatment is too scary… Viki said it helped her, so I’ll trust what this child says.”
At the girl’s words, all eyes turned to Viki. Viki nodded gravely.
“Then I will too!”
“I will have that herb!”
Suddenly public opinion flipped. A few hands went up, and then, seeing that, others quickly raised theirs too. Before long there was a scramble to be first in line, afraid they might miss out.
This was an unexpected harvest.
“Everyone calm down. There’s plenty of Skima herb!”
I grinned at the doctor, who could have been either an accomplice or an ordinary charlatan.
See? This is “skill”!
When the duke was told the treatment would require ten baskets of Skima herb, he even lent the “Vertier Senior Knights.”
“No, it’s like this: the Skima herb has five-pronged leaves.”
“Yes! Is this the right plant?”
I made a circle with my thumb and forefinger and nodded.
Good—now they’re finding it properly.
The knights were clever. At first they fumbled a little, but after a few demonstrations they found it quickly.
While the capable knights gathered the herb under the blazing sun, I was left under the shade of a tree giving directions.
The weather was fine, the breeze pleasant, and eight baskets were already filled.
Everything was perfect except for one little thing.
“Duke, um—”
The duke glanced down at me at my voice.
“Aren’t you hot…?”
“Not at all.”
Ah—I’m hot! It’s stifling!
For some reason I didn’t know, the duke had come wrapped in a cloak down to his ankles and had tucked me inside it. He ordered that I must not step out from under the cloak, and that if I talked to the knights I should do so only through the cloak’s slit.
Being inside the cloak was unpleasant, but the most uncomfortable thing was the awkward silence between the duke and me.
Then the duke’s aide came running over in haste.
“Your Grace, we fed the well water to small animals and they all showed signs of poisoning. It’s certain someone poisoned it. However—”
“However?”
“Right now we can’t determine what kind of poison it is, so the investigation will face difficulties. If we can’t identify the poison, we can’t figure out how it entered or catch the culprit.”
The duke clenched his fist tightly at the aide’s words. I peeped my face out of the cloak and looked at the aide.
“Just boil it and you’ll see!”
“…Boil it?”
“Yes! Put yellow stones, blue stones, and some bits of iron in it and boil it. Then gather the drops that form and set them on fire! That will tell you what kind of poison it is!”
“What are you talking about?”
The duke looked at me suspiciously. But I couldn’t help smiling.
Opportunity!
This is a poisoning attempt aimed squarely at the duke’s household. Serious, yes—but given their level of knowledge, it’s likely they won’t be able to identify the culprit.
When the aide gently asked, “Little one, how do you know such a complicated thing?” I shot back,
“Complicated? What’s complicated? How to identify a poison? Don’t you know that? Aren’t you stupid?!”
The aide’s pupils flickered in confusion.
“Then I’ll find it for you! But give me a reward if I succeed!”
Since it was a serious issue, the prize could be generous. Besides, I could catch the poison and the culprit.
I smiled at the duke.
So, what do you want to do?
