Chapter 07
—
“Who is it?”
Aedric frowned. The attendant hurriedly reported.
“It is Her Highness the Princess.”
“Let her in.”
Aedric said. The door opened, and a girl with curly blonde hair, no more than fifteen years old, entered.
It was Betty Serna Kesmel, the sole princess of the Kesmel Empire.
“I greet His Highness the Crown Prince.”
“Betty.”
Aedric tried his best to soften his expression. Though he bore all sorts of dangerous epithets, he had no desire to act harshly toward his only sister.
“How are you feeling today?”
“I’m a little better than yesterday.”
But Betty’s cheeks were pale as she said this. Her skin was naturally fair, but this went beyond that. She was ashen, almost like a corpse. Anyone could see she was unwell.
Aedric’s face hardened as he looked at her.
Betty said she was better than yesterday, but to Aedric, she looked worse than before.
She suffered from an unexplained cough. It wasn’t like his mother, who coughed up blood, but she was constantly ailing.
So he had sent the imperial physicians stationed at the military encampment to Betty, and dragged Idith to take their place, but…
He immediately scolded the ladies-in-waiting who had accompanied her.
“What exactly are the physicians doing, that the Princess looks worse than before?”
“Well…”
The ladies-in-waiting bowed their heads, frightened by the Crown Prince’s reproach. One wrong word and it seemed a storm of blood would break out.
When the ladies-in-waiting failed to answer, the Crown Prince’s face twisted further. Finally, the eldest among them managed to speak.
“Th-the imperial physician says he cannot determine the cause…”
At that, Aedric spoke in a grim voice.
“And so?”
“He has been brewing and sending up tonic herbs to strengthen the body…”
Aedric’s eyes grew increasingly menacing. The lady-in-waiting could not continue, stammering and then kneeling down.
“Brother, please don’t be angry.”
Betty said urgently, placing her hand on the back of his. Aedric glanced briefly at the pale, thin hand resting on his, then said flatly.
“The duty of the imperial physicians is to treat the imperial family.”
“But…!”
Betty opened her mouth with an urgent expression. It seemed another imperial physician was about to be executed.
However, Aedric paid no heed to her words.
“Drag the physician out.”
At that, the attendant waiting by the door bowed his head and quietly withdrew.
As the door closed, Betty made a tearful face.
“Brother!”
Aedric had only said to drag the physician out, but Betty had long since grasped the hidden meaning.
No, she couldn’t not know. How could she, when physicians’ heads were routinely hung at the imperial gates?
“Please stop! I’m fine, cough, cough!”
Perhaps due to heightened emotions, Betty began to cough repeatedly. Aedric frowned at the sight.
“Escort the Princess away.”
“I’m, fine… cough, cough!”
Betty coughed incessantly while clutching Aedric’s sleeve. But Aedric ignored her.
“I said to escort the Princess away.”
He growled fiercely. The trembling ladies-in-waiting hurriedly supported Betty and led her out.
Even as she was being led away, Betty kept looking back with a tearful expression.
Only after she left did Dewis enter. Aedric waited until the door closed before commanding.
“Execute that damn physician immediately.”
“Sir…”
“What is it?”
Aedric ground his teeth and asked. Dewis glanced at him cautiously before speaking.
“How about seeing the new imperial physician?”
“Do you want to see two physicians hang in a single day?”
“Still, she—”
“Stop the nonsense and properly examine that woman.”
Aedric gave the order to dismiss and sat at his desk, beginning to read documents. His gaze had grown more menacing than before.
Feeling a headache coming on again, he closed his eyes tightly.
—
***
—
Following Aedric’s instructions, Dewis selected a few trustworthy individuals and sent them to the military encampment.
Of course, he said nothing to Idith. Idith was unaware that people sent from the imperial court were staying near her, and continued her daily routine.
In the meantime, five more critical patients were fully cured and discharged. Those Dewis had planted recorded everything and sent it as a report.
“Ha… This is astounding.”
Aedric lamented as he read the report. This time, it contained even more absurd tales than the previous one.
Critical patients, assumed to have ruptured internal organs and not long to live, had walked out on their own two feet, perfectly fine?
“I’ll go to the military encampment. I’ll see for myself whether it’s true or not.”
—
***
—
Upon arriving at the military encampment, Aedric looked around, sensing something strange.
For some reason, he felt an awkward and unfamiliar sensation. He had clearly come to the military encampment, yet it didn’t feel like he was at a military encampment.
“There’s no smell of rotting corpses.”
A military encampment is a place everyone shuns.
The dusty ground was always littered with corpses missing limbs, and when you turned your head, you’d see maggots swarming over the flesh of the dead.
It was a place where the number of dead was so vast that even the bodies couldn’t be properly disposed of, leaving behind a gruesome scene.
That was a military encampment.
“As the report stated, there isn’t a single corpse.”
Dewis was right.
There were no corpses, nor could they find a single person lying down or suffering from illness. No one was weeping in a daze, nor were there those dragging their severed parts and screaming they didn’t want to die.
There were only knights, bandaged but moving their limbs perfectly fine with indifferent expressions.
“Ugh, Y-your Highness the Crown Prince!”
A knight who had been sitting in the training yard cleaning his sword spotted Dewis and Aedric and quickly stood up. The knights nearby also hurriedly rose to greet them.
Aedric gave a cursory nod in reply and carefully examined the knights’ faces. He was checking if there was anything unusual.
However, contrary to before, the knights’ faces showed not even a trace of suffering, let alone the aura of death.
“Your body…”
Aedric looked suspiciously at the knight before him. He was one of the faces he remembered. He was one of the knights severely wounded in the battle against Kallad, and until a few days ago, he had been told he was on his last legs.
“Yes, I’m fine!”
The knight said, bowing his head.
Aedric couldn’t hide his complicated feelings as he looked at that face. Even seeing him walking around perfectly fine with his own eyes, he couldn’t believe it.
How on earth can he walk around so perfectly?
“Thanks to the new healer who came recently.”
Aedric asked, his expression like he had bitten into a bitter persimmon.
“Is she any good?”
“Yes, more than just good. She’s truly remarkable.”
Though he expected some hesitation, the knight spoke without a moment’s doubt.
“I thought for sure I’d lose my arms and legs, but thanks to the healer, my limbs are still attached.”
He had nearly lost an arm and a leg in the battle against Kallad. Fortunately, the limbs were only half-severed, but he thought he would never be able to hold a sword again.
But Idith solved all those worries.
She told him he wouldn’t be able to use his limbs as perfectly as before, and there might be occasional pain, but he would be able to hold a sword and walk again. And just as Idith had said, it came true.
When he confirmed that his limbs were intact, the knight momentarily wondered if Idith was actually a reincarnation of the legendary saint.
One of the knights standing behind him said with an awkward smile.
“Actually, I also thought I would surely die. But the healer saved me.”
At that, the knights around began to chime in one by one.
“That’s right! Not just me, but I heard the vice-commander has also entered a recovery phase!”
Lies.
The same ones who usually couldn’t even meet his eyes and trembled before him were now chattering with joyful voices.
Aedric, looking down at them with cold eyes, moved toward the infirmary without a word. Surprisingly, it was crowded with people.
Just then, a familiar voice was heard.
“For wounds like this, you can apply this. Oh, but you can’t go inside right now. There’s a patient who absolutely needs rest.”
When he briefly turned his gaze, there she was. Idith, who had only ever trembled with her mouth tightly shut in front of him.
When he sent her to the military encampment, he thought Idith would run away. Even if she didn’t run, he thought she’d be too scared to do anything. Just as she always did in front of him.
But contrary to his expectations, Idith was chattering away animatedly with a lively face. And against knights who would normally have been hostile toward healers.
“At that rate, it’d be quicker to think she has a power to control people’s minds.”
Frowning, Aedric didn’t hide his displeasure as he strode toward them. The knights, sensing the Crown Prince’s presence, stepped back in surprise, and Idith’s gaze followed.
At that moment. Idith’s face, which had been full of laughter, hardened stiffly.
Upon spotting Aedric, she wiped all trace of the smile that had bloomed on her face, bowed her head deeply, and hastily greeted him.
“I greet His Highness the Crown Prince.”
Clicking his tongue in displeasure, Aedric strode into the infirmary.
He was curious about what method she used to prevent people from dying, what this frail-looking woman had done with the knights. Suspicious she might be learning strange sorcery, he intended to search the infirmary.
But suddenly, Idith blocked his path.
“You cannot enter right now.”
Aedric glared at her with cold eyes and said.
“Get lost.”
Yet Idith, trembling, still blocked his way.
“There are patients who absolutely need to rest.”
Aedric let out a low chuckle.
Did that woman even know she was trembling all the way down to her fingertips? Yet she still spoke defiantly. It was utterly ridiculous.
Aedric turned his gaze to the attendants. He was about to order them to remove this woman from his sight. But Idith remained steadfast.
“Even if you are His Highness the Crown Prince, you cannot enter unless you are a patient.”
The patients hospitalized in the infirmary were severely injured. They had barely had their lives saved. If an outsider entered and caused an infection or complications, even the High Priest, let alone Idith, wouldn’t be able to save them.
Many patients die from complications even with modern medicine; in this place where medicine was not advanced, complications meant certain death.
“Is that so? Is that what you’re saying.”
The moment Idith’s answer was heard, Aedric drew a dagger from his bosom.
The people around gasped in surprise at his eccentric behavior. A silence that could freeze everything fell.
Just as Idith was about to close her eyes tightly. The blade seemed to aim for Idith but suddenly changed direction.
“Huh…!”
Stifled gasps escaped from all around. Dark red blood was seeping from Aedric’s fingertips.
He had cut his own hand.
Aedric extended his bleeding hand and asked calmly.
“Now, I am a patient too. Is entry still prohibited?”
