The Doctor's Fatal Decision
Information brokers existed in every corner of the world.
They were not officially sanctioned institutions, but everyone knew of them in the shadows. If you had the money, anyone could make use of their services.
So even a suspicious woman like me can get what she wants with enough coin.
“What information have you come to purchase?”
“I’m not here to buy information,” Canna replied. “I’m here to provide it.”
“What?”
The informant frowned. Then, with a look of clear displeasure at having wasted his time, he shot up from his seat.
“We don’t buy information from people we don’t know. Get lost.”
“Who said I was selling?”
With a heavy clink, Canna set a pouch of gold coins on the desk.
The informant, who had already begun to turn away, froze mid-motion. One thousand gold. It was the money she had received from selling the jewels at the pawnshop earlier.
“As I said, I’m not here to sell information. And I have no intention of demanding payment.”
“……”
“I’ll pay one thousand gold in exchange for you listening to what I have to say.”
“We have our own sources. For someone of unknown identity…”
“I guarantee that soon enough, there will be people coming to buy information about me.”
“……”
“And my information will fetch an enormous price. A thousand gold? That’s nothing. It’ll be worth whatever they’re willing to pay.”
She whispered in a seductive tone.
“Believe me or don’t. It makes no difference. Just sit down in front of me and listen. You have nothing to lose, do you?”
At Canna’s words, the man gave her a suspicious look. However, he soon dragged a chair over and sat down.
“Fine. Let’s hear it.”
“You know of Prince Casil Isaberg, don’t you?”
The man’s expression immediately twisted. It seemed he, too, regarded the depraved prince with utter disgust.
“Yes. The prince who was sent into exile. Fortunately, he has already left this place. What about him?”
“From what I hear, on the last day of his exile, he was pretending to be a commoner, wandering around the Debor dimension when he got beaten by a woman and knocked unconscious. The woman had black hair.”
Having given the obvious clue of black hair, she knew he would immediately realize the woman in question was her—Canna Valentino.
As expected, the man’s eyes sharpened with interest.
He leaned forward and asked, “And then? What happened?”
However, Canna simply opened her empty hands.
“That’s it.”
“……”
“That’s all the information I’m providing.”
The man grumbled in annoyance.
“Hey, what the hell am I supposed to do with just that? There has to be a follow-up, doesn’t there?”
“Who knows.”
Canna smiled faintly beneath her hood. A smile no one could see.
“I think that much is plenty.”
After leaving the information broker’s den, she returned to the infirmary. She called over the escort knights Silvien had assigned her. To one of them, she handed a sealed letter.
“This needs to be delivered to the imperial palace. Can you send it for me?”
“Yes, understood.”
“Thank you. Please make it as quick as possible.”
He took the letter and left immediately. Once this letter reached the Empress, everything would go according to plan.
Of course, before that.
Silvien will check the letter first.
“This is the letter that the Duchess of Valentino asked to be delivered to the imperial palace.”
The quill stopped mid-stroke.
Silvien looked up.
Canna had asked for a letter to be sent to the imperial palace?
Suspicion flared inside him at once. Was she dissatisfied that the incident had not been made public and that Casil had escaped punishment?
Without a moment’s hesitation, Silvien broke the wax seal and unfolded the letter. He read it through.
…….
A moment later, he folded it again.
He placed it neatly back into the envelope, resealed it with fresh wax, and handed it to the knight.
“May I send it, Your Grace?”
“You may.”
It was a perfectly harmless letter.
He had briefly wondered if she might mention the events of the other day and file a formal complaint, but.
There’s no way.
Silvien shook his head, inwardly mocking his own imagination.
Yes, there was no way.
Because if she did, it would put him in a difficult position.
Canna loved him.
Although she had shown a somewhat changed side recently, he had never once doubted her love. The past seven years had been more than enough to convince him of that.
Besides, hadn’t he saved her life this time?
So there’s no way she would do anything to harm me.
It had been a brief lapse. He pushed Canna from his mind once more and focused on his documents.
He did not think of her again even once after that.
Several days passed like that.
Despite her own injuries, Canna threw herself into treating the patients. The condition was simple enough to treat, so there was little to worry about.
She planned their meals and meticulously checked that they consumed a fixed amount of fruit juice and medicinal herbs each day.
The results were excellent.
The sailors’ conditions improved visibly with each passing day.
The swelling in their gums gradually subsided, and the ulcers on their skin no longer oozed pus. By supplementing the severely deficient vitamin C, they were slowly regaining their health.
The more they improved, the more anxious Izek became.
What if that incident becomes known to the world?
Izek had provided the black-haired woman’s information to Prince Casil and had insisted to Varlix that she must be punished.
He had even participated in the “hunt.”
It was a stroke of pure luck that the Duke of Valentino arrived before I could loose the arrow.
He had claimed he went there to save her, but Silvien had not seemed entirely convinced.
He had simply chosen to let the matter drop rather than dig deeper.
But what if he changes his mind and investigates the truth? What if he decides to punish me?
That was not all.
Shockingly, the sick sailors’ symptoms were improving little by little!
This can’t be real. How can they possibly recover just by changing their food and drinking some herbal soup?
If the sailors recovered, what would become of him?
He could imagine it all too easily. A doctor who could not cure an illness that a mere woman had cured. A doctor who had spouted absurd claims that it might be an infection from the Black Fog. A doctor who had even dragged Alexandro Addis into the matter.
If that happened, Izek’s career as a physician would be over.
No. I cannot allow this to continue.
It was then that a heavy knock sounded at the front door.
“Who is it?”
He opened the door, but no one was there.
What is this?
Instead, a single letter and a small package had been left on the doorstep.
Who left these?
He checked the letter first.
The handwriting was crooked and uneven, as if deliberately written with the left hand to disguise the author’s penmanship.
The woman is planning to report this matter to the imperial palace.
If it becomes known that I attempted to hunt nobles again while in exile, it will bring harm to me, to the lord who cooperated with me, and to Doctor Izek as well.
Therefore, I intend to frame that wench.
Sneak into the infirmary and mix poison into the sailors’ medicine.
I have already bribed several ward personnel, so if you go at the date and time I indicate, you should be able to administer the poison without running into anyone.
Kill the sailors with the poison.
Kill them all at once, on the same day, to make it appear as though that woman did it. Then I will orchestrate events so that she is framed as a Black Apostle and executed.
Be sure to burn this letter.
Izek’s heart plummeted.
The only people who knew about that day were those who had been in the forest.
In other words, this letter had come from Prince Casil himself.
But the woman was going to report it to the imperial palace? His fingertips began to tremble violently.
This could not happen. It must not happen.
He tore open the package with shaking hands.
Inside was a small glass vial containing a red liquid and a key to the infirmary.
“Ugh…”
A pained groan escaped him as though his throat were being crushed.
Was he really supposed to kill the sailors?
But he was a doctor.
A doctor who saved lives.
A doctor can only practice if he stays alive!
His mind snapped into focus.
Yes. He had to survive.
If that woman spoke of the incident, Izek would surely die.
Prince Casil and the noble Varlix might survive, but he would not. He would die for certain.
That’s right. And if the sailors die, my reputation remains intact. I can continue working as a doctor.
Izek swallowed dryly.
Now that the decision was made, his hands no longer shook. Only his eyes burned with a fierce, desperate light.
This is the only way to survive.