The Quack Lady - Chapter 28

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 28

* * *

Demian’s daily routine was extremely simple.

The child spent most of the day with just paints, parchment, suitable ink, and brushes.

‘Really, with just those four things, he doesn’t say a single word.’

It was convenient from the standpoint of needing to observe, but it was also worrying on one hand.

‘I need to somehow make him learn that conversation is comfortable.’

So I decided to use a slightly different method.

“So you’re asking for this, right?”

When I held up the paint in my hand and shook it conspicuously, the child half-closed his eyes and reluctantly nodded.

“You don’t need this?”

When I shook the ink in my other hand, the child’s lips pouted.

As the child’s head nodded readily again, I smiled and asked the next question.

“Then shall I give you the paint first? Or the ink first? Or shall I give you both?”

“…!”

Soon a flustered emotion settled on the child’s face.

“Nod to the right for paint, to the left for ink, and if you need both, please tug on my clothes.”

At my words, the child thought for a moment, then lightly tugged on my clothes and let go.

When I handed the ink and paint to the child without hesitation, the child ran off and began scribbling something again.

‘This should be effective.’

Even though it seemed like teasing, this was one of the treatment methods.

By making him obtain something through expressing his intentions, he would learn the positive effects of conversation.

The problem was….

Since I had to ask simple things several times in expanded questions, it was killing me.

“Ugh… Well then, shall we organize today’s schedule?”

When the child started drawing like this, I would sit across from him and silently organize the child’s chart.

Roughly including behavioral observations and what the child would need going forward.

In other words, while making a treatment plan.

‘He’s definitely improved at expressing himself compared to the beginning.’

And now on the third day, the child was clearly expressing his emotions more noticeably than at first.

The child who had hesitated even with small nods at first was now expressing his feelings through small actions among various choices.

Of course, along with slightly more varied expressions.

This was also proof that the child was in a comfortable state.

‘But… why on earth does he draw that?’

The problem was that the child’s drawing, or more precisely, the act of painting the parchment black, hadn’t improved.

‘Should I try guessing like twenty questions?’

At first I thought it was just expressing an unstable mind, but something seemed strange for that.

Some places were expressed with curves, and some places were left as bare parchment.

‘But I can’t just ask about it.’

It was then, while I was vaguely worrying about what to do about this.

Suddenly feeling something lightly tugging on my clothes, I looked to the side.

“Yes. What do you need? Shall I give you water?”

The child who had approached me was hesitating for a moment while looking up at me.

The child’s eyes, sparkling in the light today, contained an intelligence that wasn’t there at first.

As I silently watched that sight, the child reached out one hand and grabbed my hand.

Then.

“What is… this?”

The child placed a brush on my empty hand.

Unable to believe it, I looked back and forth between the brush and the child, and the child smiled faintly.

As if asking for some help….

Wait, help?

Afterwards, I slowly opened my mouth and asked.

“By any chance… are you asking to draw together?”

At my words, the child nodded slightly with a somewhat surprised face.

The child’s heart was beginning to move little by little.

* * *

On the day we arrived at the Count’s Manor, the thieves who attacked the carriage were not ordinary thieves.

They were highly trained mercenaries.

However, who was behind them was still shrouded in mystery.

Given the situation, he couldn’t inform the Count either. Eruten had no choice but to investigate on his own.

‘Is this place a bust too?’

It was just when he had followed the sentry from behind to understand their patrol route and was about to turn back.

“Did you hear that news? They say another doctor came to treat the Young Baron this time?”

“This time we’ll be dealing with another corpse. What kind of illness could it be….”

“Hey! Didn’t you hear the Count’s words! The Young Baron isn’t sick.”

“But he wouldn’t have a hobby of just calling doctors to kill them.”

The knights sighed simultaneously.

However, Eruten, who was listening to all this from up in the tree, felt a chill down his back.

‘Not sick?’

It was when he was pondering for a moment in front of a situation he had never even considered.

“Besides, this time they say some maid is doing the treatment?”

“Now even a maid? What on earth is the Countess thinking, really….”

Among the group, the only woman was Rtemeia.

Eruten’s face hardened coldly as he recalled this fact.

* * *

The Count frowned while holding documents in one hand.

As he skimmed through the contents of the documents, he eventually let out an incredulous breath.

“Do you think this makes sense.”

The documents he was holding should have contained information about Rtemeia.

However, on the paper was written that even simple birthplace information was unknown.

“How could a commoner who didn’t even have proper birth registration be able to operate so openly in my domain?”

The Count was usually famous for managing his domain meticulously.

He had efficiently managed births, deaths, immigrants, and the poor separately, and the domain residents pledged loyalty to him for this.

However, the paper in his hands now negated all of that.

“So I thought she might be an immigrant who crossed the border and looked into that as well… but didn’t gain much.”

“Ha! To think this is possible.”

Once again, a hollow laugh leaked out of his mouth.

“I tried to ask Barten, who was the director of the treatment facility at the time, but he had already passed away.”

The attendant handed him another document.

It contained brief information indicating that Barten had died in an accident.

“Someone must have helped. Otherwise, there couldn’t be a person without records in my domain.”

The Count’s face hardened coldly.

He clasped his hands together and brought them near his mouth, muttering.

‘Could she possibly be connected to the royal family?’

The unstable political situation was constantly on his mind. It was when he was beginning to fall into deeper contemplation.

“But there’s another strange point.”

The attendant carefully approached and pointed to a part of the documents placed before him.

“If you look here, there are no records of her parents either.”

“What?”

Following that, the surprised Count’s eyes turned toward the documents.

Originally, the section that should have been filled with the parents’ names along with the child’s name contained only the child’s name.

As if she had simply dropped from the sky.

“While commoners may delay birth registration due to circumstances, it’s impossible for the parents’ section to be completely blank, Count.”

“What if the parents were lost…”

“In that case, we also manage and record them separately.”

“That means…”

As he trailed off, the attendant bowed his head slightly.

“…Someone must have registered on her behalf.”

“Yes. It seems so.”

“How bold of them.”

If she wasn’t an orphan or an immigrant, there was only one answer.

A foreign substance that had illegally infiltrated his domain.

For now, she was nothing more or less than that.

‘But why on earth?’

If she was just going to work as a maid at the infirmary, other adjacent domains would have been better environments than Bernoff with its strict domain administration.

“What shall we do?”

The attendant asked him as he was lost in thought for a moment.

However, it didn’t really matter.

The unchanging fact was that the immature girl was creating cracks in everything from the Count’s manor to his own achievements.

An unreadable smile crossed the Count’s lips.

Thinking he had gained the upper hand, he once again put down the documents with a leisurely attitude.

“Summon the one who manages the domain residents’ registry immediately.”

A strange gleam flashed in his blue eyes.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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