The School Nurse’s Secret (1)
〈It’s alright, Gale. Everyone falls down at least once in their life. If it’s too difficult, shall I teach you how not to fall?〉
He was a diligent alchemist who never gave up on his research, despite the limitations of being human.
Gale, who had been alone her whole life, helplessly fell for the warmth that Fritz offered.
‘So this is what love feels like.’
Perhaps she hadn’t become an alchemist to create the Golden Elixir—but to meet this man.
All her past failures weren’t due to a lack of skill; they were simply fate.
She hadn’t failed—she had gone through the process to meet him.
Thinking this way brought her peace.
Gale married Fritz, wanting to be a woman in love rather than a defeated alchemist who had failed in elixir synthesis.
〈I’ll take care of the difficult parts. You just live peacefully.〉
Following Fritz’s words, Gale focused only on simple alchemy that wouldn’t fail, assisted his research, and handled the household chores.
Gradually, she was pushed out of the lab, but she still enjoyed a stable life with no reason to stumble or feel despair, just as he had taught her.
With Gale’s help, Fritz’s research progressed rapidly.
Other alchemists criticized Fritz, claiming the results were really Gale’s work, but he didn’t care at all.
He eventually achieved the breakthrough needed to attempt the Golden Elixir he had dreamed of his whole life.
Yet, Kuran did not acknowledge him, nor did he provide the Philosopher’s Stone.
〈Hmph, I can do it even without that stone.〉
So Fritz threw himself into his research, but the results were always disastrous.
〈If I just try a little more, I think I can succeed! Why won’t Kuran give me the Philosopher’s Stone?〉
〈Calm down, Fritz.〉
〈What makes you think I’m any less capable than you! He must be discriminating against me for not being a mermaid!〉
〈……〉
〈Ah, that was a slip of the tongue. You know how I feel, right? Even if Kuran doesn’t acknowledge me, I can do it on my own.〉
〈But that research should have been conducted with Kuran’s permission from the start…〉
〈Come to think of it, you also have a Philosopher’s Stone! Where did you keep it, my wife?〉
〈Fritz.〉
〈I’m not asking to take it permanently, just borrow it for a moment. Along with the experiment notes.〉
Fritz’s words were closer to a demand than a request.
‘If it’s necessary for him…’
Gale agreed to his request. Around that time, she also discovered she was pregnant…
〈Again… another failure. I even used up all the Philosopher’s Stones. Damn it!〉
It was then that Fritz’s patience reached its limit.
〈Go to Kuran immediately and get the Philosopher’s Stone, Gale!〉
〈But that requires Kuran’s permission… agh!〉
With a snap, Gale’s face turned sideways.
〈You repeat the same words like a parrot. Do I look funny to you too, my wife?〉
Thus began the physical admonishments, which grew harsher over time.
Even after Gale revealed her pregnancy, Fritz did not rejoice but only grew more irritable.
Dangerous experiments always required Gale to assist him, due to the risk to the baby.
〈Fritz, please let me step aside this once. The gases from this experiment could harm the baby.〉
〈You don’t trust me? Now my words don’t matter even though you’re just assisting?〉
〈That’s not what I mean. Please, return to the you from before, Fritz!〉
〈If only you had brought the Philosopher’s Stone, none of these experiments would have gone awry!〉
Fritz raged with harsh words, yet Gale never considered leaving him.
〈You’ve done well, Gale. Just a little more to go.〉
On days she forced herself to participate in dangerous experiments while pregnant, Fritz would pick a small dandelion growing under the wall, praise Gale’s help as “90% good,” and award her a high score.
Gale would sniff the dandelion and smile bitterly.
Her work had never earned a perfect 100 from him, but it had never fallen below 80—an oddly tender consistency.
Soon after, an explosion occurred during an experiment with the elixir.
Gale, standing too close to the equipment, felt her body ripped apart in pain.
‘So this is how I die… what about my unborn child?’
As her vision, drenched in red, began to darken, a blinding white light flashed.
〈Hey, are you conscious?〉
Gale was saved by the Closset couple from the Island of Wisdom.
When the heavily pregnant wife was in mortal danger, her husband carried her to the Grand Sage.
The Grand Sage Kuran used the single vial of Golden Elixir on Mrs. Closset.
Thanks to this, she survived childbirth on the island and, while recuperating there, happened upon Gale.
〈Why didn’t you just let her die?〉
Having lost her sight, and with the grief of losing her child, Gale could no longer find a reason to live.
〈If you die, Gale, will you be okay with losing a precious future connection?〉
〈What good is that? There’s no meaning in living in the present.〉
〈This child’s name is Lucna, Gale.〉
Mrs. Closset placed the baby’s tiny hand into Gale’s as if shaking hands.
Gale, bitterly thinking, ‘If only I had been here two months earlier, my child could have been born like this!’
From her perspective, the gesture only provoked anger. She quickly withdrew the child’s hand and turned away.
〈You know, Gale, I had a strange feeling as soon as I saw you that you would be by Lucna’s side. You, who endured today.〉
With that, Mrs. Closset left the Island of Wisdom.
Gale stayed in bed for some time after that.
Even Fritz, who had encouraged her at first, gradually became neglectful. Around then, she also realized he had dabbled in dark magic.
She also learned that another woman had been visiting his lab.
Colleagues who came to deliver messages said the two looked unusually intimate, as if sharing an important secret.
〈If you’re going to say things like that, don’t come to me.〉
Gale shut herself away, swallowing her despair.
It wasn’t Fritz’s infidelity that caused her suffering.
It was the fact that, despite knowing all the horrific truths, she still loved him and craved his love.
Eight years passed with her trapped inside her home.
One day, a visitor whom Fritz knew came, seriously injured.
Gale already knew he was a dark mage and a spy surveilling the Island of Wisdom.
〈Give this letter to Fritz when he returns.〉
The spy handed her important documents just before dying. Gale, being blind, assumed she wouldn’t be able to read the letter.
‘Something’s suspicious.’
She immediately retrieved a wooden box hidden under her desk and felt for small glass bottles.
She dropped one onto the letter—an elixir that temporarily raised the ink.
The letters swelled up like braille on the paper, and Gale began reading them with her fingertips.
The contents were shocking.
‘The Closset family… annihilated?’
The first thing that came to mind was the tiny hand of the infant she had touched eight years ago.
Had Lucna, now eight, also died?
‘Why did Fritz get involved in something so terrible!’
She had assumed that Fritz, frustrated with the wall he hit in the Golden Elixir research, had merely dabbled in abnormal dark magic—but he had done far worse than she imagined.
‘Focus… focus.’
According to the letter, Lucna’s body had not yet been found.
The letter’s main instruction was to secretly search all the girls of the Golden household and eliminate Lucna.
‘I want to save that child.’
The warmth of the infant’s tiny hand stirred something in her, long suppressed over eight years.
Gale set out, leaning on her staff, carrying a few essentials. She doused the house in experimental oil.
She then lit the letter from the dark mage and threw it toward where the old sofa had been.
The flames quickly engulfed the house, incinerating the spy’s corpse and furniture completely.
Her past and the helplessness that had bound her vanished in the fire.
Only ash and bricks remained.
Finally arriving, Fritz found Gale standing amidst the destruction and grabbed her, shouting.
〈You set the house on fire? Are you insane?〉
〈Yes, I suppose I went mad.〉
〈Why?!〉
〈I want to protect the child. That’s why I’m leaving.〉
For the first time in years, Gale smiled brightly.
Those around her assumed she had gone mad over losing her child, and they did not stop her. Fritz did not either.
Gale left the Island of Wisdom and headed for the Golden household.
The journey was difficult for someone blind, but she did not give up.
Finally meeting the Count Golden, Gale handed over an elixir she had developed in the past.
〈What is this?〉
〈It’s Gender Juice. An elixir that temporarily conceals gender characteristics.〉
Although the recipe had already spread on the black market, Gale’s version was particularly potent.
〈If you know Lucna Closset’s whereabouts, please give this to her. Soon, dark mages will investigate all the girls of the Golden household.〉
Gale advised that the dark mages were targeting the extinction of the Closset family and told them to conceal Lucna’s gender carefully until she came of age, then departed.
