The Sailor's Secret
This was a disease once called incurable even in the world Juhwa had come from.
It was the scourge that plagued sailors during the Age of Exploration, beginning in the fifteenth century.
The reason it struck those who sailed long distances was simple.
“Crossing from continent to continent is an incredibly long campaign, and the amount of food that can be kept fresh aboard a ship is limited.”
In other words, it was a sickness caused by a lack of vitamin C.
Therefore, the cure was almost embarrassingly straightforward.
“Just consume enough vitamin C and the problem is solved!”
Yet if she kept her mouth shut, scurvy would torment the people of this world for a very long time.
Even in the modern era, the existence of “vitamins” had not been discovered until the twentieth century.
“That’s why they can’t figure out why scurvy occurs in the first place.”
So she had no choice but to explain it as simply and convincingly as possible.
“These men returned from the Eastern Continent quite recently, didn’t they? They must have been isolated on a ship for a long time, eating only a limited variety of food. Because they couldn’t take in enough nutrients, internal bleeding occurred throughout their bodies. That’s what made them ill.”
Fortunately, both Sylvien and Raphael seemed to find the explanation plausible. Sylvien asked,
“Then you believe there is a way to treat them?”
“Yes. The treatment is very simple. We only need to replenish what they are lacking.”
In the modern world, a few vitamin injections would end the matter. But here, no such thing existed, so they would have to rely on food.
“Please prepare the fruits, vegetables, and medicinal herbs I request. For now, the most urgent items are oranges, lemons, limes, and……”
“That is nonsense!”
At that moment, a man who had been quietly listening from the corner suddenly shouted.
He looked to be in his forties. The man in physician’s robes strode forward.
“I, Isaac, have served as a physician for half my life, yet I have never heard of such a treatment!”
Canna’s brow furrowed sharply. Still, it could not be helped. For someone of this era, his reaction was only natural.
However—
“Prescribing fruit for syphilis? How typical of a woman to suggest something so crude.”
She could understand disbelief in the cure, but the insult about her being a woman was harder to bear.
Canna shot back at once.
“Listen, Physician. If it were syphilis, mercury treatment would have worked. Yet I hear not a single sailor has recovered so far.”
“That is……”
Isaac’s face darkened.
“If it is not syphilis, then they may have been infected by the Black Fog. The fact that mercury had no effect suggests the possibility of Black Fog infection.”
“If someone is infected by the Black Fog, their mind collapses and their hair and eyes turn black.”
“No! Not every infected person undergoes that change.”
“But most do. Has even one of your patients shown such symptoms?”
At last, Isaac was at a loss for words.
Yet he refused to yield and stammered on.
“……The Black Fog of the Eastern Continent may be different.”
At this point, he was simply grasping at straws.
Even he seemed embarrassed, his face flushing, but he stubbornly continued to attack Canna.
“At least that theory is more credible than the nonsense that eating fruit will cure them! Your Excellency, what could a woman who has only ever set a dinner table possibly know? Please reconsider……”
His desperate plea cut off abruptly. He regretted it immediately.
Sylvien was not smiling.
“I am sorry, Your Excellency. I……”
“You are forbidden from entering this ward for the time being, Physician Isaac.”
It was a clear order to leave. Isaac’s face turned crimson as he trembled, then bowed deeply and hurried out.
Sylvien spoke as though nothing had happened.
“I will have everything you requested prepared at once.”
“Thank you. Ah, I will go select the medicinal herbs myself.”
“As you wish. I will assign an escort knight shortly, so please wait at my residence until then. That will be where you stay, Lady Canna.”
That would waste an entire day. The sailors’ condition was worse than she had thought; there was no time to lose.
“No, I will go now. I will take the ward’s guards with me instead. And……”
Canna looked Sylvien straight in the eye, emphasizing each word.
“I will stay here in the ward, not at Your Excellency’s residence.”
I have no desire to see you any more than necessary. Her gaze said it plainly.
That was not the only reason.
“The patients are in poor condition. It would be better if I remained here.”
“Very well.”
Sylvien smiled gently. It was impossible to tell whether he truly understood her intent.
“As you wish, Lady Canna.”
“Why is Raphael……?”
It was not a guard who followed her out, but Raphael.
“I know a good medicinal herb shop. I will take you there.”
What was this about? She had thought he would not even want to speak with her.
Well, it does concern Sylvien, so he has no choice.
Indeed, throughout the carriage ride, Raphael never once looked at her.
“Um, by the way……”
When she spoke first, Raphael glanced her way.
“That priest’s robe you are wearing.”
“……?”
“Do you wear it even in summer? Isn’t it hot? Black must absorb more heat. Doesn’t it trouble you in summer?”
He was dressed in priest’s robes—more precisely, the funeral garments of a defrocked priest.
The Great Temple really is merciless. Forcing him to wear that for the rest of his life instead of a prisoner’s uniform.
Ordinary priest robes were pure white. But the robes of a defrocked priest, one stripped of holy office like Raphael, were as black as shadow.
It looks similar to a pastor’s cassock.
Raphael asked seriously, as though confirming he had not misheard.
“Why do you ask?”
“Just a small curiosity.”
“……I do not mind the heat, so it is fine.”
“I see. What about winter, then? Can you wear a coat over it?”
By now, Raphael’s gaze suggested he doubted her sanity.
After all, the original Canna—Juhwa—had despised Raphael terribly and would never have chatted with him like this.
Yes, yes. I’m not crazy, I’m not crazy.
Still, Juhwa had behaved so terribly in the past. Among all her wrongs, the worst had been—
pretending to like Raphael.
Once, Juhwa had used her head.
She called it Operation Jealousy.
She had deliberately confessed to him while Sylvien could see, throwing herself into his arms.
Raphael had frozen completely.
Like a tree struck by lightning, he had gone rigid, stopped in that moment, and lost all words as though his tongue had been cut out.
But Sylvien had not been fooled. He had merely sneered and that was the end of it.
The problem was that Raphael had believed it was sincere.
Perhaps because he had once been a priest, he possessed an unexpectedly innocent side beneath his sharp, blade-like appearance.
“Why are you doing this, my lady?”
Had the past come back to him?
Raphael’s voice was ice cold.
“I know very well that you despise me. Please do not mock me.”
Yes, she had despised him. More accurately—
she had been jealous.
Sylvien and Raphael were far too close. Raphael was the only person Sylvien spoke to without honorifics.
She had even written in her diary, Are those two perhaps lovers? and suspected them.
Juhwa, are you an idiot?
She had groveled before the maids yet behaved outrageously behind Raphael’s back; it had been anything but wise.
“I had no intention of mocking you.”
Yet Raphael turned his head without answering. It was dismissal.
Of course. He must hate me terribly.
A sigh escaped her as she recalled everything Juhwa had done to him. There was nothing left but sighs.
The medicinal herb garden was magnificent.
She had expected something like a Korean teahouse, but the entire endless plain was a medicinal herb garden.
If you drank tea here, you could truly feel like an immortal.
But it would be an expensive kind of immortality.
No one but the wealthy could even enter. The basic admission fee alone was several hundred gold.
“Over here.”
Canna held out the list of required herbs she had written down.
“Please wait a moment.”
While Canna sat in a chair, Raphael went to find a staff member and requested the herbs.
It was not something she had asked him to do. He had volunteered, saying he knew this garden well.
Of course, he is only being courteous because I am Sylvien’s wife.
Considering what Juhwa had done, even that could not have been easy.
“There is a large quantity, so packaging will take some time. Will that be all right?”
“Really? Then I will go help as well.”
“……You, my lady?”
“Yes. The patients are not well. Would it not be better to finish quickly with one more pair of hands?”
Raphael’s face hardened into a frightening expression.
“No.”
“Pardon?”
“That is not work suited for you, my lady.”
“……?”
She found it strange, but soon understood.
As he said, packaging medicinal herbs required an expert’s touch. Mishandling them could ruin the herbs.
“If you are worried I will pack them clumsily, it is fine. I can do it well.”
“That is not the issue.”
“……?”
Then what was the problem?
She looked at him questioningly, but Raphael did not answer. Instead, he changed the subject.
“Would you care to look around the garden?”
“……All right. I would like that.”