Chapter 35
“Ah, this is making me thirsty. Ahem…”
Looking at the disappointment dawning upon my face, Walter fanned the air with his hands and took the bottle of herb juice next to him, gulping it all down.
Still, no matter how much I looked at it, it didn’t seem like juice.
“That’s not juice, is it?”
“…Did I get caught?”
At my persistence, Walter finally relented. “I brewed it a while ago. It’s mixed well. Do you want a sip?”
Walter offered the bottle to me.
“Next time, perhaps.”
I shook my head and turned him down. It wasn’t a good time.
Even if I wanted to drink a bottle by myself and sit on the sidewalk as I lamented, if Camilla were to hear about how a ‘Duchess’ would do that, she wouldn’t let me off with just a simple scolding.
“This isn’t just alcohol. It’s medicine. Medicine, I tell you.”
“Medicine?”
“The ingredients I used are all good for the body. What good am I if I don’t do that as a pharmacist?”
He smiled and took another gulp from the bottle.
“Just how many bottles of that do you have?”
“Huh? Hmm, about seven bottles?”
Saying so, he pointed to the glass bottles lined up on a shelf.
“Does your wife know about this?”
“Of course not. Why would I tell her?”
On the outside, the glass bottles had labels sorted by the date, the names of all kinds of herbs on them.
“These look exactly like medicine.”
“Right? The color makes it look like that, too. Besides, I really only used the best medicinal herbs! It’s better than some stupid medicine.”
“It’s still a drink, though.”
“Whatever’s in it, alcohol is either medicine or poison. But that’s because I doubled the potency of this formulation, except for the toxicity of the alcohol.”
Walter was overflowing with pride.
“The more I drink this, the more I gain strength! Day and night! There’s no other place you can get this.”
Finishing his words, he burst into laughter as he crossed his arms.
“…If it’s that good, then give me some.”
“What, just give you some? I used expensive ingredients! I can’t give it to you for free… Huh?”
Realizing that it was another person that responded to him and not me, Walter’s voice faltered, and immediately stared at the person.
“Li… Lily.”
“Long time no see, Selena.”
“It’s nice to see you again.”
It was Walter’s wife, Lily, who entered the pharmacy while Walter was in the middle of bragging about his homemade liquor.
“Yes… It’s nice to see you.”
Because of the silence around us, it was easy to hear the sound of someone’s teeth grinding in contempt.
Walter tried to hide the bottle he held behind him, but when Lily looked sharply into his eyes, he sneaked it back up and placed it on the table.
“I’m here to say sorry. I shouldn’t have kicked you out that time just because I was swept up by my anger.”
“No…It was my fault.”
I could understand Lily’s feelings. I would be angry, too, if I looked after the store while my husband was off to the racetracks. Though I couldn’t bear to see the scene unfold before my eyes, so I just memorized the prescription again.
“It’s been a while… Did you both have a nice chat?”
“Yes, it’s been a long time… But, I should get going. It was nice to see you again.”
I slowly backed away, just as my instincts told me. Behind Lily, I could feel Walter’s pleading gaze, telling me not to leave him to his fate. Nonetheless, I myself had to continue to live. As they say, no one should involve themselves in a lovers’ quarrel.
“Oh gosh, we haven’t seen each other for so long, so you should take a gift with you home.”
“A gift?”
“Looks like you have someone sick at home. And, this drunkard over here made a lot of healthy tea.”
Lily pointed to the bottles on the shelf.
“Oh.”
Walter’s expression right now looked as if the world had ended. He was screaming quietly by himself, but Lily didn’t quite seem to care.
“Come now, take it! It’s a small gift from us. Isn’t that right, darling?”
“O-of course. It won’t be a waste if you take it, Selena.”
“That’s right. You’re a great pharmacist, so you know how to make everything, from painkillers to stomach medicine.”
Lily shifted her gaze from her husband to me.
“So, go ahead and take it. I want to do this much for you, dear. You’ve worked so hard for such a long time.”
As she said that, Lily walked over to the shelf and started taking the glass bottles one after another.
Walter was forced to help his wife with the rest of the glass bottles she couldn’t carry by herself.
“Are you sure I can have it?”
I asked Walter carefully. Although Walter right now seemed to have had all his energy sucked out, as if his blood were all gone.
“Yes, of course. I’d be delighted if you took these off my hands, Selena…”
Walter continued to mutter gloomily. “I’ll be fine…”
As Lily continued to glare at her husband, I obediently picked up the bottles.
“Thank you, then.”
On our way back to the estate in the carriage, I said nothing.
Rona sat in front of me and was quiet as well, watching me as I was extremely serious.
It seemed as though she was curious about where I had been and what I had been doing, but she didn’t say anything because of the sombre atmosphere.
‘Was I mistaken?’
I could feel my determination loosen up within me just as the energy I had slowly drained. Raymond should be a good doctor, then, seeing as he didn’t do anything to the medicine.
Regardless, he was still the most likely suspect to poison Amoide.
Who else was there? Or maybe…my hunch was just all wrong? Amoide might die right on schedule, and that means I’ll die as well.
I’ve thought about it a lot.
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