A Cold Is Cheating (2)
“My lady?”
Sas stared at me with a strange look.
“Why have you suddenly picked up that pen?”
“Physician, you said all the other doctors have gone out on house calls, didn’t you?”
“Yes? Ah, yes.”
“Then the only ones left in this building are you and that apothecary.”
“That’s correct, but why do you ask?”
The physician looked at me as though he couldn’t fathom why I would pose such a question.
“Because I’m not entirely confident I can handle two grown men at once in this body.”
The moment I finished speaking, I shoved the medicine bottle I was holding straight into his mouth.
I had already removed the stopper.
“Ugh, ughhh—! Ughhh—!”
Caught completely off guard, the physician swallowed the liquid that poured down his throat.
With my hand clamped over his jaw, he thrashed violently.
It was a rather suspicious reaction for someone who had simply drunk the cold medicine he himself had prescribed.
“What’s the matter?”
I confirmed he had swallowed it all before releasing my grip.
“It’s only ordinary cold medicine, yet you’re overreacting.”
“Cough, hack! Aaaargh—! No, no—!”
The instant Sas broke free from my hand, he collapsed to the floor.
He tried to shove his own fingers down his throat.
Not a chance.
I seized his wrist in an iron grip.
An old physician who had spent his life turning book pages could never overpower me with brute strength.
“What the hell are you doing!”
Sas twisted his wrist and screamed.
“Let go! Let go right now! I said let go—!”
“What am I doing? I’m simply letting you taste the medicine first so His Highness the Third Prince can take it with peace of mind.”
“W-what?”
“Physician.”
I crouched down opposite the ranting Sas.
“I may not know much about medicine, but I know a thing or two about poison.”
“What are you…?”
“Why would coffinwood leaves be in a cold remedy?”
The moment the name of the poisonous herb left my lips, the physician’s face turned deathly pale.
“Coffinwood? What kind of outrageous nonsense is that!”
Sas shook his head frantically.
“I-I’ve never used anything like that—!”
Coffinwood was a deadly tree imported from the far-off Eastern Continent.
Its toxicity was so potent that assassins typically coated arrows or blades with the poison.
I twirled the fountain pen I held in my other hand.
“I was under the impression coffinwood was a poisonous tree.”
“How dare you accuse me! There’s no way something like that would be in the medicine!”
“Exactly. There’s no reason such a deadly toxin should be in the medicine.”
Schick—
I pressed the nib of the pen against the side of Sas’s neck.
The sharp tip easily broke the old man’s fragile skin.
When he felt the metal slowly digging into his flesh, his face grew even whiter.
“Why are you suddenly doing this to me!”
“You reacted far too strongly after drinking the cold medicine you prescribed yourself. I simply developed a reasonable suspicion.”
I tightened my grip on the fountain pen.
“Let me ask you this. Why did you try to kill His Highness the Third Prince?”
“Nonsense! Stop spouting nonsense! When did I ever do such a thing!”
“The one spouting nonsense is you.”
I rose to my feet and, without the slightest hesitation, stomped on the physician’s shoulder.
“Aaaagh!”
“I saw that apothecary put the coffinwood leaves in with my own eyes. Are you still going to deny it?”
“I didn’t! I never did! If anyone put it in, it must have been him! He must have done it on purpose!”
Sas pointed an accusing finger at the apothecary standing behind the reception desk.
“It was him—!”
But his desperate attempt to drag someone else down with him failed.
The apothecary was far sharper than Sas had given him credit for.
“It wasn’t me! I’m innocent!”
The young apothecary immediately presented the prescription Sas had written.
“Look, it clearly says to add four coffinwood leaves right here!”
Just as the apothecary claimed, the prescription contained exactly those instructions.
Meanwhile, Sas—betrayed by the very assistant he had trusted—screamed from beneath my foot.
“Y-you—! Get off! Get off me! Get off right now—!”
“Four leaves. Enough to kill, yet not quite enough to guarantee death. A very clever amount.”
I grabbed the fallen physician by the collar and hauled him up.
The moment our eyes met, he spat out curses.
“You bitch! Do you know who I am? I am the chief imperial physician who has served His Majesty the Emperor for ten years! The chief physician! How dare you!”
Cornered, he resorted to waving his title around. How predictable.
“And what of it?”
“W-what…”
“Have you not realized that the fact you are the chief physician only makes this worse for you?”
At my words, the physician’s faded eyes trembled.
I raised an eyebrow and gave him a mocking smile.
“It would be quite the spectacle if people learned that the chief imperial physician plotted to assassinate a prince.”
“Y-you—! Who would believe the words of a lowly maid like you!”
“There may be no one who would listen to me, but even if there are people who would listen to you, it seems you won’t be able to speak.”
It was about time for the poison to take effect.
“Ugh, hah, k-khhk!”
Sure enough, the physician clutched his chest and gasped for breath.
“If only you had answered my questions promptly from the beginning.”
“You— you—!”
“So why did you try to kill him?”
“Who said I tried to kill anyone! I never did! I never—!”
He was still talking a lot, which meant he could endure it.
But I had no intention of waiting any longer.
“Unfortunately, we’re running out of time.”
“What, aaaargh—!”
I stabbed the fountain pen into the physician’s thigh.
He crumpled as if his legs had given out, his whole body shaking like a leaf.
The white cloak he wore quickly soaked through with bright red blood.
“Who put you up to this?”
“Hah, hah, huuuurgh!”
Sas clutched his punctured thigh and panted.
He looked up at me with terror-filled eyes.
“My lady, no, young miss… why are you doing this to me…?”
The poison was spreading. Blood was flowing.
For an aged body, the pain must have been unbearable.
“You would have no reason to kill the prince yourself. Someone must have ordered it.”
“Ugh, ughhhk!”
“Who was it?”
Finally, tears streaming down his face, Sas clung to my leg.
“My lady, I was wrong. I was completely wrong. Please, just spare my life! Spare me!”
“You’re the one devouring your own life right now.”
My voice was cold.
“The faster you answer, the faster you’ll receive the antidote. So why aren’t you talking?”
“T-that…!”
Sas hesitated until the very end.
He seemed to be thinking of someone, yet couldn’t easily bring the name to his lips.
I already have a good idea who it is.
It was more than enough to guess.
It would be the very person he had mentioned himself only moments ago.
“As I thought.”
I spoke quietly.
“It was Her Highness the Second Consort, wasn’t it?”
Sas did not answer.
But it was easy to tell that my guess had been correct.
The moment he heard my words, the strength left his shoulders in resignation.
“I-I merely… did as Her Highness the Consort asked. I had no choice…”
“What exactly did Her Highness the Second Consort ask of you?”
“She said… if the opportunity arose, I was to send His Highness the Third Prince into the arms of the angels…”
Edwin’s desperate cry to Lloyd that day in the garden rang in my ears.
What had he done so wrong?
Nothing.
If there was any sin at all, it was simply the crime of being born a prince.
The sin of possessing noble blood yet owning nothing.
You really have lived a difficult life.
I smiled bitterly.
“M-my lady, please spare me. I have my own circumstances too!”
“You there.”
I ignored the clinging physician and turned my head.
“M-me?”
The apothecary jumped, eyes widening into perfect circles.
“You’re an apothecary, so I assume you know how to prepare an antidote?”
“Ah, y-yes, of course.”
“Then do it.”
At my command, the apothecary hurriedly approached the physician.
He made Sas vomit up the poison, then fed him a charcoal solution.
Having barely passed the critical stage, Sas looked somewhat more comfortable than before.
“Let me warn you.”
I looked down at the defeated physician and continued.
“Do not touch the Third Prince—or anyone connected to the Third Prince’s Palace—ever again.”
“O-of course. How could I dare? I will never touch them.”
“If you break your promise, I will pay a visit to House Zail.”
I leaned close to the cowering physician’s ear.
“And I will tell your wife every single atrocity and act of corruption you’ve committed. I hear more than half of House Zail’s wealth came from what your wife brought into the marriage. If she abandons you, you’ll have to cough up all that fortune.”
Sas’s eyes widened so much they looked ready to burst.
“H-how could you possibly know that…”
“There are ways of knowing.”
I met the old physician’s gaze and smiled sweetly.
“So keep your mouth shut. Do not speak of what happened today to anyone.”
“H-hik.”
“If you do, I’ll make sure you learn exactly what is more painful than death.”
At my final words, Sas nodded frantically, trembling all over.
“Y-yes. I will engrave it in my mind.”
“Good.”
Thud—!
I struck the back of Sas’s neck.
Like a light being switched off, he lost consciousness instantly.