Chapter 35

Chapter 35

“Ah, this is making me thirsty. Ahem…”

Looking at the disappointment dawning upon my face, Walter fanned the air with his hands and took the bottle of herb juice next to him, gulping it all down.

Still, no matter how much I looked at it, it didn’t seem like juice.

“That’s not juice, is it?”

“…Did I get caught?”

At my persistence, Walter finally relented. “I brewed it a while ago. It’s mixed well. Do you want a sip?”

Walter offered the bottle to me.

“Next time, perhaps.”

I shook my head and turned him down. It wasn’t a good time.

Even if I wanted to drink a bottle by myself and sit on the sidewalk as I lamented, if Camilla were to hear about how a ‘Duchess’ would do that, she wouldn’t let me off with just a simple scolding.

“This isn’t just alcohol. It’s medicine. Medicine, I tell you.”

“Medicine?”

“The ingredients I used are all good for the body. What good am I if I don’t do that as a pharmacist?”

He smiled and took another gulp from the bottle.

“Just how many bottles of that do you have?”

“Huh? Hmm, about seven bottles?”

Saying so, he pointed to the glass bottles lined up on a shelf.

“Does your wife know about this?”

“Of course not. Why would I tell her?”

On the outside, the glass bottles had labels sorted by the date, the names of all kinds of herbs on them.

“These look exactly like medicine.”

“Right? The color makes it look like that, too. Besides, I really only used the best medicinal herbs! It’s better than some stupid medicine.”

“It’s still a drink, though.”

“Whatever’s in it, alcohol is either medicine or poison. But that’s because I doubled the potency of this formulation, except for the toxicity of the alcohol.”

Walter was overflowing with pride.

“The more I drink this, the more I gain strength! Day and night! There’s no other place you can get this.”

Finishing his words, he burst into laughter as he crossed his arms.

“…If it’s that good, then give me some.”

“What, just give you some? I used expensive ingredients! I can’t give it to you for free… Huh?”

Realizing that it was another person that responded to him and not me, Walter’s voice faltered, and immediately stared at the person.

“Li… Lily.”

“Long time no see, Selena.”

“It’s nice to see you again.”

It was Walter’s wife, Lily, who entered the pharmacy while Walter was in the middle of bragging about his homemade liquor.

“Yes… It’s nice to see you.”

Because of the silence around us, it was easy to hear the sound of someone’s teeth grinding in contempt.

Walter tried to hide the bottle he held behind him, but when Lily looked sharply into his eyes, he sneaked it back up and placed it on the table.

“I’m here to say sorry. I shouldn’t have kicked you out that time just because I was swept up by my anger.”

“No…It was my fault.”

I could understand Lily’s feelings. I would be angry, too, if I looked after the store while my husband was off to the racetracks. Though I couldn’t bear to see the scene unfold before my eyes, so I just memorized the prescription again.

“It’s been a while… Did you both have a nice chat?”

“Yes, it’s been a long time… But, I should get going. It was nice to see you again.”

I slowly backed away, just as my instincts told me. Behind Lily, I could feel Walter’s pleading gaze, telling me not to leave him to his fate. Nonetheless, I myself had to continue to live. As they say, no one should involve themselves in a lovers’ quarrel.

“Oh gosh, we haven’t seen each other for so long, so you should take a gift with you home.”

“A gift?”

“Looks like you have someone sick at home. And, this drunkard over here made a lot of healthy tea.”

Lily pointed to the bottles on the shelf.

“Oh.”

Walter’s expression right now looked as if the world had ended. He was screaming quietly by himself, but Lily didn’t quite seem to care.

“Come now, take it! It’s a small gift from us. Isn’t that right, darling?”

“O-of course. It won’t be a waste if you take it, Selena.”

“That’s right. You’re a great pharmacist, so you know how to make everything, from painkillers to stomach medicine.”

Lily shifted her gaze from her husband to me.

“So, go ahead and take it. I want to do this much for you, dear. You’ve worked so hard for such a long time.”

As she said that, Lily walked over to the shelf and started taking the glass bottles one after another.

Walter was forced to help his wife with the rest of the glass bottles she couldn’t carry by herself.

“Are you sure I can have it?”

I asked Walter carefully. Although Walter right now seemed to have had all his energy sucked out, as if his blood were all gone.

“Yes, of course. I’d be delighted if you took these off my hands, Selena…”

Walter continued to mutter gloomily. “I’ll be fine…”

As Lily continued to glare at her husband, I obediently picked up the bottles.

“Thank you, then.”

On our way back to the estate in the carriage, I said nothing.

Rona sat in front of me and was quiet as well, watching me as I was extremely serious.

It seemed as though she was curious about where I had been and what I had been doing, but she didn’t say anything because of the sombre atmosphere.

‘Was I mistaken?’

I could feel my determination loosen up within me just as the energy I had slowly drained. Raymond should be a good doctor, then, seeing as he didn’t do anything to the medicine.

Regardless, he was still the most likely suspect to poison Amoide.

Who else was there? Or maybe…my hunch was just all wrong? Amoide might die right on schedule, and that means I’ll die as well.

I’ve thought about it a lot.

Maybe once we’re dead, Camilla would want to bury her daughter-in-law and her son together in a fit of rage. She could kill me in any way, not just poison! Of course, that meant I’d be murdered.

I turned my attention to Rona, who was sitting across from me.

The country I was in right now, though illegal, had an active slave market. It was a place where you could throw away anyone none-the-wiser, and it would be easy to dispose of someone like me as if I were a lowly rat or bird.

“Milady, is something the matter?”

“Huh…? No.”

“But, what are all these?” She asked, tapping on the bottles that were on the carriage floor.

“That’s…”

I didn’t know what to answer, so I hesitated.

“It’s a gift.”

Well, I wasn’t wrong.

However, the gift-giver looked as if he were handing over his children…

What would Rona think if she came to know that I was on my way back to the estate with seven bottles of liquor? I decided to downplay it.

“It’s a herbal concoction. I heard it’s hard to get anywhere else.”

I was thinking of how to get rid of these, but Rona suddenly replied with an excited voice.

“This is alcohol, right?”

Of course, Rona saw through me right away.

“How did you know?” I asked in surprise.

“How could I not know?”

Her eyes flashed as if she were a snake in front of a rabbit.

“Ah, yes, well. You’re right.”

I forgot that Rona was the strongest drinker you could find at the estate.

“Good liquor can’t hide its scent.”

“Where did you hear that?”

What exactly did a tightly sealed glass bottle smell like?

“Hmm… The date… it still needs to be fermented. You have to wait a bit until you drink it.” She checked the labels on the bottles one by one.

“Rona, you want to drink it?”

“Eyy, you know me well, Milady!”

“I know you drink well.”

I smiled at her.

“Drink… well?”

Rona tilted her head to the side in her confusion.

“Ah, well, there’s a word like that, too.”

[ T/N: Selena uses the word 말술인, which means ‘person who drinks alcohol reeeeally well’. ]

I leaned back against my seat and laughed heartily.

“When it’s ripened, I’ll give you a bottle.”

“Really?!”

Rona squealed, placing both hands on her cheeks and letting out a scream for joy. “Really, really?!”

“Of course.”

And with a smirk, I added. “To share with Robert?”

“Oh my gosh.”

She looked ecstatically at the bottles.

“You’re not going to drink any, Milady?”

“When will I ever drink that stuff?”

“You can share it with the Master!”

“With Amoide?”

“Yes… While the mood is cozy, after teatime…”

Another fairytale was unfolding before Rona’s eyes.

“That’s not going to happen.”

Just us two, facing each other and drinking—It was scary just thinking about it…

“His attitude towards you has become much softer these days, Milady.”

“But, that’s…”

At that, I gazed at my hand, the one meticulously wrapped in bandages. The injury was serving me a lot better than I expected.

It had a great effect whenever he was feisty.

‘It does make me a bit guilty though…’

Still, it was still very useful. The carrot and stick method was good and all, but this was the best method to tame him.

It was incredible how one injured hand can rein in such a ferocious man. However, it was a weapon with a limited shelf life. I had to stop using it at the right time because I couldn’t just have a bandage on my hand for the rest of my life.

Nevertheless, I was still worried about what would happen if Amoide would just return to how he used to treat me before.

So, I’d decided to use this weapon for just a little longer.

‘If I didn’t have this, he would just continue to ignore me.’

I felt a bit guilty for deceiving him.

Walter’s pharmacy was quite a distance from the Ducal estate, so the sun was already setting when we returned to the mansion.

“The Madam is looking for you.”

And, as we arrived, Camilla was right there waiting for me.

“Where did you go?”

Camilla’s sharp eyes scrutinized me.

It seemed that she already knew that I didn’t go to see my siblings.

Ah… The carriage driver.

I even gave him gold coins just so he wouldn’t talk. Still, I had no expectations since he wasn’t one of my people.

With that in mind, I decided to abandon any excuses I had on the tip of my tongue.

“I went to a drugstore, but you already know that, Mother.”

“You’re not making any excuses?”

Against my nonchalant response, Camilla was dumbfounded.