Chapter 34
While contemplating the dilemma before , I grabbed the hem of my dress as if it were a dry mop.
“Well, it must be a difficult request?” Walter said, whispering with a serious expression on his face.
“Yes, it’s difficult, but…”
I, too, murmured with a heavy sigh.
Walter’s expression beca heavier. I couldn’t decipher what he was thinking, so I felt nervous for a mont.
“Why… What are you thinking?”
“Hm… You look fine on the surface, but maybe it’s that…?”
“That…?”
“It’s the sickness that makes that part where you sit on terribly uncomfortable.”
“The part… where you sit on..?”
I couldn’t understand what he was saying, but I suddenly shouted.
“…What?!”
“It’s all right, you won’t even need this much dicine for it. Ah, but don’t be stingy with the application, just put on a lot. Though if it’s gotten serious already, then you should see a doctor, even if you’re embarrassed. Any illness is nothing to be ashad of…”
“I-It’s not like that at all!”
“…It isn’t?”
Walter, who had excitedly taken out a new kind of dicine from his dicine cabinet, put back down the bottle in his hand, sullen.
“I’ve never guessed wrong…”
“It’s for soone else, not .”
“Oh? It’s soone else’s sickness? Has it gotten out of hand? If so, then just dicine won’t suffice anymore.”
“I told you, it’s not like that!”
At my words, he stroked his beard and took a sip from the bottle that was next to him.
“Before you lecture —”
He held up the bottle with clear amber liquid inside. “It’s a concoction of herbs.”
Without anyone asking him directly, Walter answered first, as though he sensed what I was about to say.
“Your wife has succeeded in making you give up drinking, I see.”
“Of course. This is just herbal juice.”
“…All right.”
I nodded half-heartedly.
“So, what’s wrong with that person?” Walter asked, returning back to the subject at hand.
I finally made up my mind and brought up the issue.
“Walter, please take a look at this dicine.”
“dicine? What dicine?”
When he asked, I opened my pocket and handed over a bottle with round pills inside it.
“This.”
Walter adjusted his glasses and inspected them closely. He opened his mouth again. “It’s a pill. Do you want to find out what’s in them?”
“Yes, I actually have the prescription,” I said, then gave that to him as well.
“Oh…?”
Walter’s eyes glistened as he gazed at the piece of paper.
“You’re asking to analyze the dicine even though you already have the prescription? How interesting. Really interesting.”
“What?”
Walter had an interested look on his face.
“If you want to analyze this even though you have the ingredients listed down, then that ans you don’t trust the person who made it. Isn’t that the case?”
I averted my gaze.
“It’s not to that degree…”
“But, you’re suspicious of the dicine. Am I right?”
I couldn’t bring myself to be honest with him, even though he kept insisting. “I just want to make sure. To double-check.”
“Yes, sure. If you say so.”
Walter opened the bottle, sniffed, then placed a few on his palm. He slled them a few tis again, picked so out then popped them into his mouth.
“Walter, wait—”
To my surprise, I reached out to him, afraid that the effects might be different if soone other than Amoide took them.
“Hmm… This…Yeah, it is…”
With his eyes closed, Walter chewed on the pills for a long ti.
“….”
Then, his eyes turned serious. “Selena. Who’s taking this dicine?”
He hurriedly spat out the pill in his mouth.
“….”
I shut my mouth like a clam again.
“I don’t know who it is, though it seems like they’re important to you?”
“…Yes.”
“You want them to live?”
“Of course.”
I could feel Walter’s expression dimming.
“W-what’s the matter…?”
“No, no. Continue. What are that person’s symptoms?”
“He suddenly collapses without any reason, but sotis it seems like he’s too healthy.”
“He’s doing fine?”
“Yes. He’s strong.”
As I stared at the bandage on my hand, I also rembered him crushing the snake’s head.
“What kind of strength?”
“Just… normal strength.”
The mory of Amoide lifting in his arms made my face sowhat hot. I brushed a lock of hair behind my ear to forget how he looked without clothes on—and diligently ca up with another mory.
[ Get lost. ]
“And, he’s got a terrible personality.”
“Personality?”
“Yes, he’s always in a sour mood. I think it’s been that way even before he got sick.”
This was just a guess, though.
“Well, it’s possible for a man to have extraordinary strength. Although I’m a pharmacist, not a doctor.”
“People who co here regularly don’t think that way.”
Anywhere you went, the treatnt from a formally trained doctor would be expensive. However, since Walter was competent enough to concoct dicine that was as good as that kind of treatnt and better yet with a relatively low cost, of course, people would flock to his pharmacy.
“Anyway, he’s sick, but I’m just wondering if there’s another reason for it.”
“Another reason?”
“From this…”
“You think there’s sothing in the dicine?”
I nodded my head vigorously.
“What if it’s poison and not dicine?”
Hearing my claim, Walter opened up the paper with the prescription on it and read it again.
“I know that the prescription itself, it… looks normal enough,” I said.
“The dicine and the prescription match perfectly, Selena.”
“Then, that ans…”
“There’s no problem with the prescription. Neither with the dicine.”
“Really?”
“If there were traces of poison in this dicine, then wouldn’t the one taking it be dead already?”
“But, that would be too obvious…”
“It’s obvious if you die at once.”
“Yes, still…other people’s stories aren’t always pleasant. There’s this saying—cody at a distance, but a tragedy from up close.”
If it was soone else’s story, then I can just enjoy watching with my arms crossed. Unfortunately, this was my story, so I couldn’t just stand by and do nothing.
In fact, it might be all too simple to approach the matter.
‘As long as I don’t kill my husband.’
The reason Selena faced such a cruel demise was because she poisoned her husband. So, all I needed to do was not do that.
Right now, I had no reason to poison him because I knew how the narrative went. It would be simple. If he’s happy, then I’m happy. Let’s all be happy. That way, we can all have a happy ending that way.
Regardless,
There’s no way everything would be that easy.
“….”
Amoide was already ill, and he’s set to die young.
At that ti, his wife, who would be next to him, might still be unfortunately involved and falsely accused of murder. Or, there was still a possibility that soone would assassinate him under the guise of his illness, then lay the bla on .
Either way, it wouldn’t change. My death was inevitable at this point.
So, at all costs, Amoide needed to live.
“By the way, didn’t you say that the person taking this is precious to you?”
“…An important person.”
I barely rembered to correct him. There might not be much difference on the surface, but there was a subtle difference between the two words. No, they’re totally different.
“Anyway, you want that person to live, don’t you?”
“…He must live.”
Because if he does, then I can continue living as well.
“Then, it’s going to be difficult.”
“What will be difficult?”
“This dicine.”
“You said it’s made exactly according to the prescription?”
“Yes. Painkillers are commonly prescribed for neuro stabilization and pain reduction.”
“…Of course.”
That ant this dicine wasn’t for essential treatnt.
“It’s a prescription drug for patients who suffer from extre pain. It’s a very potent formulation.”
“He does look especially in pain whenever he collapses.”
“Well… It’s a prescription for a person who has only a few days left to live. The purpose is to reduce their pain so they can pass on peacefully.”
For a mont, the strength in my legs that kept up wavered.
“Are you all right?”
“Yes…I’m fine.”
I stumbled and grabbed the edge of a desk. I slowly opened my trembling mouth. “Then, is there no hope anymore since he’s taking this dicine?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Will there be any difference if I try to stop it?”
“I’m not sure.”
“I an… He’s been very, very healthy lately. I feel like he’s being more energetic, and he’s had a better complexion nowadays. Is there still no hope?”
I grabbed Walter’s arm tightly.
“Selena… Well…”
Walter seed to be surprised by my sudden onslaught of questions.
“Even I know…”
…I knew that Walter wouldn’t have the answers I wanted. Nevertheless, I couldn’t stop clinging onto hope.
“The doctor who takes care of the patient would know his constitution the best.”
“…Yes.”
There was nothing wrong with the dicine. That was clear.
His body was in a really bad shape. He might be holding out this long only because he was already exceptionally strong before he fell ill.
“I understand. Thank you.”
I gently let go of Walter’s arm.
Even though I had already confird what the ingredients of that dicine were, I felt even more frustrated.
Trapped in a complex maze, I managed to find a single ray of light from a miniscule opening.
However, it wasn’t an exit, so the despair that flooded my senses was far greater.
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