The Quack Lady - Chapter 78

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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 78

‘Does it make sense to exchange life and memories?’

The Duke couldn’t understand.

Just as he was about to shake his head slightly and move on,

A terrible pain struck his head again.

‘Should I change the medication?’

Lately, the pain had been particularly troublesome. He grabbed his head with one hand and frowned.

“Your Grace, shall I bring you some medicine?”

The knight escorting him immediately asked the Duke.

The Duke raised one hand to the knight as if to say it was unnecessary.

“I’ll be fine if I get some fresh air for a moment. Don’t worry about it.”

There was plenty of time before returning to the ducal mansion.

He staggered toward the back of the manor.

It was where the forest was located.

* * *

Once I steeled my resolve, my steps quickened.

“Let’s go out quickly!”

I grabbed Eruten’s sleeve and pulled him along.

Eruten looked at me and smiled sweetly.

“Are you feeling better now?”

“Yeah.”

Feeling embarrassed, I wiped my nose.

“Tell me whenever you’re having a hard time. I’ll always be by your side.”

“Thanks, even if it’s just words.”

That’s when it happened.

I was about to playfully retort to his words as usual, when suddenly his steps came to a complete stop.

“What if it’s not just words?”

“…?”

I widened my eyes at the suddenly changed atmosphere.

Eruten, who had come closer before I knew it, was looking down at me with his characteristic deep red eyes.

‘What is this atmosphere?’

Feeling something strange, I turned my gaze to the side.

Then the forest undergrowth rustled and moved.

Both Eruten and I looked toward where the sound came from.

“It looks like something collapsed?”

“…”

Eruten nodded reluctantly with a clearly displeased expression.

“Let’s go check!”

“What if something dangerous jumps out? I’ll go first.”

He stepped in front of me protectively and began walking.

His slightly reddened earlobes kept bothering me.

‘He’s not getting a fever again, is he?’

My worry was short-lived though.

“It really is a person!”

“…!”

I rushed over to the man in one breath. But.

‘Wow, how can a person look like this?’

Unlike Eruten, he was a man with completely dark black hair and impossibly beautiful features beneath it.

‘This isn’t the time for this.’

Anyway, he was unconscious.

I quickly began examining his body with the stethoscope around my neck.

‘There doesn’t seem to be any particular problem.’

Thinking that, I lifted the man’s eyelids to examine his pupils, and I couldn’t help but be shocked.

‘My goodness, what is this? Pinpoint*?’

A phenomenon where the pupils become as small as needle points.

Pinpoint was a typical symptom of opioid drug addiction.

Which means.

This handsome man was a drug addict.

“No way, taking drugs to this extent…”

“…We should go back.”

What?

At the sudden words, I turned to look at Eruten.

Eruten’s face clearly showed a troubled expression.

“Do you know him?”

“I know him, but he’s not someone good to get involved with.”

His firm voice even carried conviction.

Not someone good to get involved with – does that mean he’s a noble?

‘Honestly, anything more than this would be difficult for me too…’

I was already overwhelmed just with the Duchess and the Marchioness’s affairs.

I definitely didn’t want to get entangled with any more nobles.

“Then just wait a moment.”

I was also worried about the collapsed man if we just left him like this.

Having no choice, I picked up a nearby tree branch and began writing.

I wrote that he needed to stop taking drugs immediately, and listed the names of herbs that had naloxone* effects that he should use.

Representative drugs among those that dilute opioid medications.

Hettion, Beha, Kaon, and so on.

‘This should be enough for basic detoxification.’

What remained were the withdrawal symptoms.

It was an antidote I had saved for treating the Duchess.

I decided to think about the consequences later and wrote that if necessary, he should come to the Marquis’ Research Lab.

I figured I could ask Tenoa to deliver the message since I’d be leaving the Marquis’ estate soon anyway.

“This should be enough, right?”

I quickly dusted off my hands and stuck the tree branch vertically into the ground.

“Let’s go.”

“You really…”

Eruten chuckled and extended his hand to me.

I giggled and took his hand, leaving that place.

Without knowing that the man lying there was lifting his eyelids.

* * *

At the commotion, Rowen’s eyes slowly turned toward the sky.

Through his blurry vision, a small figure came into view.

Milk tea-colored hair fluttering in the wind.

Suddenly, his heart made a thudding sound as it sank.

‘Lifne…?’

He tried to reach out, but his body wouldn’t move.

Soon the small shadow disappeared through the forest with quick steps.

‘Another hallucination.’

He slowly closed his eyes.

When he opened his eyes again, he was on a bed.

“Your Grace! Are you conscious!”

It was Srentte’s voice. He blinked his eyes and raised his upper body.

“My head is ringing.”

His lustrous black hair fell down.

He calmly swallowed the water his attendant handed him.

“I apologize. With my unnecessary suggestion, I put Your Grace in danger…”

He reported helplessly about how Rowen had been found collapsed in the forest.

“If some girl hadn’t told the knight that someone had collapsed over there, we wouldn’t have found him.”

Unlike the relieved Srentte, the Duke’s eyes flashed with interest.

“A girl?”

“Yes. It seems children who came out of the forest asked for help.”

“…”

Then was that shadow real?

As his eyes trembled in confusion, Srentte soon uttered incomprehensible words.

“Most importantly, it seems they found out that Your Grace is taking Seopid. I think it would be better to be more careful.”

With those words, he held out a small note.

〔Do not continue taking Seopid.

Even if it’s difficult, try to quit.

Taking a handful each of Hettion, Beha, and Kaon will help.

If it still doesn’t improve, come to the end room on the first floor of the Marquis’s mansion to get medicine.

*(There isn’t much.)〕

“This is…”

“Yes. It was written on the ground. The handwriting is small and round, so it seems like a child wrote it, but I’m not sure if it was that girl from earlier.”

Coincidentally, using the funeral as an excuse, there were many young nobles at the Marquis’s mansion.

“When I checked with Harod, his personal physician, he said it was a prescription for treatment purposes.”

A prescription written on the ground.

He crumpled the paper with one hand.

Then he frowned as if it wasn’t a big deal.

“I’ve already tried every method. There’s no guarantee that a new method will be effective.”

Just as he finished speaking and was about to get up, a bold voice once again stirred through his mind.

“I will protect our child!”

He clutched his head in pain.

“Your Grace! Are you alright!”

“Medicine… give me medicine.”

At his command, Srentte handed him medicine and water as if he had been waiting.

After roughly swallowing it, he thought for a moment then shook his head.

The boundary between dreams and reality was becoming increasingly blurred.

“…Don’t worry about it. I’m controlling it so it won’t show.”

“But…”

“If I conduct myself well, no one will notice.”

“…”

Was it because he had just encountered Lifne’s afterimage?

It wasn’t new, but strangely, he didn’t want to turn away from it.

After thinking for a moment, he commanded Srentte.

“But find out who that impudent brat was who wrote a prescription on the dirt ground.”

* * *

It was the forest undergrowth of the Marquis’s mansion.

That’s why they hadn’t thought the Duke would be collapsed in such a place.

“The palace will become chaotic.”

The low voice that had settled in his ear remained vivid as if it had been engraved in his mind.

Eruten recalled the knight’s cry that had echoed from the palace on that night when the surprise attack came.

“Your Highness! Rather, leave the palace! Go to the Eastern Region and find Count Abeurus! He will surely protect Your Highness!”

He had thought the Duke was involved in that incident.

But why did he warn me that chaos would come?

If he’s really connected to that incident…

“Eruten? Are you okay?”

A gentle voice.

At that sweet gaze, he quickly raised his head and looked up.

Faded wheat-colored hair and warm pink eyes.

That appearance seemed like the place he should return to.

At the incredibly peaceful feeling, he smiled freely.

“I’m fine.”

“That’s a relief, but… you look a bit anxious.”

Rtemeia made him sit down, saying he absolutely needed to rest, and handed him medicine.

“It’s a sedative. You’ll feel better if you take it.”

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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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