The Quack Lady - Chapter 57

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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 57

* * *

Selian looked at the girl sitting across from her.

Her fluttering milk tea-colored hair, and above all, the shining eyes beneath it were extremely irritating.

Especially those pink eyes full of intelligence, as if she knew everything, gave off a strange sense of displeasure just by meeting them.

“You seem to think you’re something special just because you figured out Brien’s symptoms.”

“…”

“Brien will be examined directly by an imperial physician. It’s an urgent matter, so I’ve already sent a letter asking them to come quickly.”

While Selian spoke about various things, Rtemeia didn’t say a word.

She just stared at her silently without speaking.

Displeased by this, Selian immediately stood up from her seat.

“It seems you have nothing more to say. You may leave now.”

She had only agreed to meet because Brien had pleaded with her.

But this was unbearably arrogant.

How dare she ask to meet me and then not say a single word.

Just as she was about to take a step away.

“May I ask just one favor?”

“Didn’t you hear what I just said…”

“Please dismiss everyone here. I have something important to tell you.”

Those eyes were more serious than ever, leaving her momentarily speechless.

She wanted to send her away just like this, but…

‘Could there be some problem with Brien?’

Concerned, she gestured to the maid beside her.

Soon the maid dismissed everyone and left.

“Now, what is it you want to say? If it’s nothing important, I’ll hold you accountable for wasting my time…”

“Since when?”

At the child’s question, Selian’s brow furrowed deeply.

“What…?”

“Hand tremors, cognitive impairment, falls, loss of muscle function…”

“…!”

Soon her eyes, distorted with shock, turned toward Rtemeia.

Her gaze had become even deeper than when they first met.

These were the eyes of a ‘real’ doctor that she had feared so much.

* * *

Parkinson’s disease.*

Symptoms that occur when certain brain functions decline due to aging.

The difference from other diseases is the shuffling gait, as if walking in stops and starts.

“At first I wasn’t sure. Usually patients don’t notice and let it pass.”

Because Parkinson’s occurs due to aging, when symptoms appear, most people think it’s just because they’re getting older.

That’s why early onset is often missed.

“But when I heard about the symptoms, I understood. What the Duchess wanted to hide wasn’t the Marchioness, but herself.”

She couldn’t say anything to my words.

She just trembled with her eyes, as if she had received a great shock.

“You would have known best yourself. Not many people would understand that your body suddenly won’t obey you.”

“…”

Silence became affirmation. She let out a dry breath.

“So you’ve figured out that there’s something wrong with my body.”

“Yes.”

“Then you also know that it won’t be treated as a disease.”

In this world, vision decline due to aging or changes in gait were just signs that death was approaching.

They weren’t the kind of things treated as diseases.

“No. It is a disease.”

“What?”

“The Parkinson’s I mentioned is a disease where various phenomena appear in combination. Especially, cognitive dysfunction can occur along with muscle degeneration.”

“Cognitive dysfunction means…”

I explained in detail the differences between other diseases and Parkinson’s to her, who was still confused.

“Usually only symptoms from muscle loss occur, or only symptoms from brain function problems occur, but Parkinson’s rarely has both together.”

“…”

“That’s why the prognosis isn’t good.”

“You mean I’m not just acting this way because I’m getting old…”

“Yes. You have a disease.”

At those words, she closed her eyes tightly.

A somewhat refreshed expression and a sigh of relief followed.

“Then there’s a treatment?”

She asked me carefully.

However, I couldn’t give her the answer she wanted.

“There is, but a complete cure will be difficult.”

“…”

“As I said, the prognosis isn’t good.”

Parkinson’s was one of the diseases with extremely rapid progression.

Problems combining the brain, nerves, genetics, and more aren’t easily solvable areas.

So once cognitive impairment begins, no one can predict the speed of progression.

“…I see.”

She calmly accepted the results placed before her.

“Lately, as you said, I can’t remember things well. Recently I even forgot my daughter’s promise to go to the capital to buy clothes for my grandchild…”

She trailed off, saying ‘It was a day I had been waiting for so long.’

“…With the situation like this, I feel like death has come right up to my nose.”

She clasped her hands together.

As if trying to forcibly hide the trembling.

“…I thought if I showed my anger conspicuously, you would distance yourself from me.”

“…”

“Instead, it seems that anger made you discover everything about me.”

“It’s okay. I’m naturally pretty easygoing anyway.”

I deliberately shrugged my shoulders and smiled.

The Duchess, who had been smiling slightly following me, calmly offered me an apology.

“I’m sorry. That day…”

The Duchess trailed off. I grinned at her.

“Ah, it’s okay. When people get sick, they naturally become sensitive.”

“When people get sick…”

She seemed satisfied with something as she muttered those words and smiled.

Then she looked at me and asked very carefully.

“Then, could you grant this old woman one request?”

* * *

There was no reward for breaking through the deep cave.

Eruten looked forlornly at the completely empty space.

“This can’t be…”

This was definitely the right place. However, the house that had been there was gone without a trace, as if that day’s events were a dream.

Rather, seeing the weeds that had grown abundantly, he even began to doubt whether this might not be the place.

‘This is the right place.’

He muttered while looking at the axe marks on the large tree beside him.

Those marks were wounds made by the children’s clumsy axe work.

“Was it all just a dream?”

Faced with this unbelievable situation, he searched through his memories.

“These are fireflies! I caught them so you and big brother wouldn’t get lost!”

Come to think of it…

“Where around here could there be fireflies…?”

It was a massive rocky mountain.

Though there was a small forest, due to the geological environment of being basically a mine, it wasn’t a place where fireflies could live.

‘Then where on earth did they catch the fireflies from?’

In that moment when everything felt confusing, a memory from the past suddenly surfaced.

“Eruten. Fairies sometimes reveal themselves in the form of young children. So you must treat children well when you see them.”

“Like how I treat big brother?”

“That’s right.”

It was his mother’s voice, which he could no longer remember clearly.

‘Why that particular day’s memory, of all things.’

He shook his head. Then he began searching for more traces of the children who might be somewhere out there.

As he left the spot, a pair of butterflies that had been nearby flew up.

The butterflies circled around where Eruten had been, as if wishing for his well-being.

* * *

After exchanging a few words with the Duchess, I left that place.

‘But I never expected her request to be something like that.’

Recalling the situation from earlier, a frustrated sigh escaped my lips.

“Don’t tell Brien about this. I’ll talk to her when the time comes.”

Normally, a doctor should inform the caretaker about such matters.

Of course, if the patient refuses, we do wait…

But this situation, where we don’t know how much time is left, is different.

I naturally refused, but the Duchess was adamant.

“I can’t burden a child who’s about to give birth. That child will have to go through just as difficult a time as I am.”

“…”

In the end, I had no choice but to trudge out of there.

Of course, I left word that I would visit every day.

Parkinson’s patients suffer greatly mentally due to the rapid progression of the disease.

“I’ll visit every day, so you absolutely must not have strange thoughts! Understood?”

She said I was quite a troublesome child and cheerfully bid me farewell.

‘I really need to do this properly.’

I immediately began walking toward the apothecary room located in the Marquis’s mansion.

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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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