Chapter 68: Chapter 68

Translator: Latte Editor: Sasha

After talking to Caville, Elody returned to the lab.

As the emperor’s delegation and the people of the temple left, the mansion went back to its calm and harmonious atmosphere once more.

The familiar atmosphere made Elody feel at peace again.

However, she somehow felt indebted to Princess Larissa.

If Caville didn’t love her, then he shouldn’t be forced to marry her.

But…

‘Why am I doing this?’

Caville and Larissa were fated to be a pair. No one should have been able to drift the two apart!

It was as if Elody had interrupted their relationship herself!

Elody had been hearing those kinds of whispers in her head, and it wasn’t just once or twice.

Recently, there had been times when her head spun, causing her to feel dizzy.

She was clearly under a lot of stress.

Though, Elody eventually dismissed the thought and cleared up her mind.

‘First, I must find out what the Temple is plotting.’

To do that, she had to gather as much information as possible.

Thus, Elody called Marie over.

“Marie, I need you to send someone to Rhondia. When Sirka returns, please tell him to contact me as soon as possible.”

“Yes, madame…!” Marie exclaimed as she nodded her head and left the lab.

And Elody, who was left alone, unfolded the documents of the herbs she had researched so far.

It was important to reveal the secret of the magic tools that the Temple had, but fundamentally, it was also important not to rely too much on the Temple and the Imperial Government.

She had to garner the power of the territory so that she would not become a victim of the tug of war between the Temple and the Imperial Government.

Initially, the Duchy of Cernoir had maintained its own independent power when the first duke reigned the land.

Now, Caville had made great strides in the war, therefore, it was certainly plausible to get them both on his side.

However, Caville himself didn’t really need to side with anyone.

‘Because the land has its own province in the first place.’

But this alone was not enough. Economic power was needed to affect the entire Friar continent, including the capital.

In a word, money was important.

‘I have to earn much more than now.’

Elody had studied all about medicinal herbs in the past few years.

It was not an exaggeration to say that she knew all the herbs in the Western continent.

These were the things she studied to get the antidote for her incurable disease after all.

When she was struggling to find some sort of relief, Elody found out about a lot of good things to use as business items.

But there was no time. She was too busy just selling red ginseng, and at that time, she was dedicated to researching her illness.

‘But now is time to start.’

Now was the time to unfold the business ideas that had been sleeping in the dark.

‘What should I do first?’

As she was pondering for a while, someone knocked on the door of the lab.

Elody thought it was Anna, since she ordered her to bring back some tea. Thus, she let them in.

However…

“……”

The person who entered the room was not Anna.

It was someone she had never thought would ever come to visit her.

That person was Heinz.

His expression was very dark.

Elody panicked and tried to ask what was going on.

‘Did he tell someone?’

Heinz came in front of Elody and boom!

He immediately kneeled on the ground.

“…!”

‘Ouch, his knee must have hurt… Is he alright?’

Elody stared at Heinz’s knee.

But surprisingly, he did something even more shocking!

Slam! Slam!

He was slamming his forehead to the ground!

No one could imagine how surprised Elody was when he did that.

‘What the? Why is he doing this?! Is he crazy?!’

“Si-Sir Heinz! What are you doing? Please don’t do this! J-just…! Let’s just stand up and talk, alright?”

“I… Forgive me.”

Heinz raised his head and apologized.

Blood flowed down his forehead.

‘Has he really gone mad…?’

“…Did you tell someone about my illness?” Elody asked, seemingly anxious.

“……”

Heinz seemed to be pondering for a moment at Elody’s question.

The duchess told me not to tell anyone about her illness, but the servants already knew.

So, of course, he naturally informed them about the name of the disease without having second thoughts.

‘I don’t think the madame knows…’

The servants seemed to be hiding the fact that they knew about the madame’s illness.

There must be a reason as to why they kept it a secret.

Elody had an impatient look on her face.

“Go ahead, tell me, who did you talk to?”

“That’s not it…”

In fact, she was right, but Heinz pretended he didn’t as he didn’t want Elody’s resentment.

The servants were keeping it secret anyway, so he thought that this would be for the best.

“Then why are you doing this?”

Elody’s eyebrows were crumpled.

‘I didn’t tell anyone, why would I kneel for that? Besides, it’s just a bleeding forehead.’

But he was still uncertain.

Heinz lowered his head and spoke, “I have misunderstood madame… and even blamed you.”

“……”

“I wanted the princess to marry the lord as well. I thought madame was an extravagant and insidious person.”

Elody had nothing to say.

‘…Why is he telling me this?’

She was well aware that the mercenary knights, including Heinz, hated her.

But… to think that he thought of her as an extravagant and insidious person… There was a bitter taste in her mouth.

“And… I also thought of madame as grotesque and nasty….”

“Alright, you can stop talking.”

Heinz was silent for a moment, he realized that he had said too much.

“It was my misunderstanding. I came because I wanted to apologize.”

“It’s alright… Now hurry up, my maid, Anna, will be coming soon.”

At Elody’s words, Heinz felt like a huge mess.

Elody frowned as she saw the blood flowing from his forehead. It must have been very painful…

As Elody thought in her heart, Heinz said, staring at her.

“I swear my loyalty to the duchess. I will bear true faith and allegiance to you, madame.”

Elody couldn’t say anything because of that determination in his eyes.

“Why…?”

For some reason, Heinz couldn’t answer that question.

“I hope that madame… will live happily with the lord.”

Actually, it was because he felt sorry for the duchess, but he couldn’t just say that.

Just for that reason, he was willing to swear his allegiance to her.

Heinz wanted to be a good person, but he felt strange somehow. Was it because she reminded him of his sister? He truly wanted the duchess to be happier than anyone else.

“…That doesn’t seem to have anything to do with loyalty.”

Elody still looked at Heinz with suspicious eyes. But Heinz didn’t care.

“…If you have anything you want me to do, please tell me. If you have someone in mind that you want to kill…”

“N-no! That’s not needed! Just calm down, alright…? Can you please go back?”

Elody was anxious. It seemed as if Anna could come here at any moment now…

Heinz and Elody had absolutely no reason to talk alone.

Elody was afraid that her illness might be revealed if people became suspicious of the two.

She was not suffering from a terminal disease, and she was regularly taking her medicine.

“Go! Fast, fast!”

“Then… do you know when you will die?”

‘What? What is he…’

‘Is he doing this to get through me when I die?’

But there seemed to be no malice in his expression.

Elody said firmly, “I’m not dying! I couldn’t tell you last time, but my disease is not the Siren’s Tears. It’s not a deadly illness.”

“……”

Heinz stared at her in disbelief.

“I’m not lying. So, please forget about all of it, please.”

“But…”

“Can you please leave?”

“Are you really not dying?”

“……”

Elody glared at Heinz. Did he want her to die quickly, or what…?

However, Heinz’s expression brightened. He laughed cheerfully even though there was still blood on his forehead.

He raised his voice and asked, “Is that true?!”

“Ah! Please do not speak so loudly!”

“…Alright. But I’m still going to devote my loyalty to madame. If there’s someone who offends you….”

‘Argh! He’s making me lose my mind!’

“Go out quickly! Go get treatment!”

Elody eventually began to push his back. Though he was unexpectedly strong.

Heinz was pushed out of the lab by Elody. Elody shut the door tight.

“…!”

And then.

Heinz wandered away from the lab and ran into Anna.

As soon as Anna saw Heinz, her eyes turned to that of a beast.

“Why did Sir Heinz come out of the duchess’s lab?!”

“…Well, I had something I needed to ask her,” Heinz panicked and immediately ran away.

Heinz felt as if a huge weight had just been lifted off his shoulders! It was so refreshing to confess his sins to the madame!

And the best thing was that she wasn’t dying…!

“Madame! Madame!”

Seeing Heinz snarling past her, Anna went into the lab in a rush.

“Madame! I saw that brute-! I mean, Sir Heinz, leaving here! He didn’t harm you, right? There was blood on his forehead! Did you hit him?”

“…No, I’m fine.”

“Why was he here? I should really kill that loser… Oops! I’m sorry, that’s not what I meant. What were the two of you talking about?”

“Just, well, he hurt his forehead, but he couldn’t go to the barracks because of the lack of medicine.”

Elody made a rough excuse and calmed Anna down.

Anna wondered about what happened but soon went back to the greenhouse.

Elody, who was left alone in the lab, looked again through the list of medicinal herbs.

‘A drug that could gain a lot of money… ‘

Elody’s gaze stopped in front of the name of a herb.

‘Peropesia Herbs!’

It is made by a magical combination of the ‘Peroa’ herb, which is a common wound-healing herb, and ‘Persiak’ herb, which is a nerve stabilizer.

Before looking for salvation herbs, Elody tried to combine multiple herbs directly into her frustrated heart to create a new one.

When the two herbs and Elody’s mana fused together, the herbs were born as separate things with completely new effects.

‘Of course, there were cases where it became ordinary grass or poisonous grass without any function…’

Anyway, this medicinal herb, which fused two completely irrelevant medicinal herbs with mana, had an unusual performance.

It became a drug for hair loss.