Chapter 1
‘Please… save me.’
Flames were blazing. Sparks rose into a pitch-black night sky with no stars. With every shallow breath, acrid smoke stabbed at her throat, and the air was thick with the metallic scent of blood.
‘Please, please… save me.’
Her master’s severed arm lay discarded like a chunk of meat. Kneeling on the blood-soaked ground, she begged for her life.
Until that very morning, this village had been perfectly fine. Now, she and her master were the only living souls left — if her master was even still alive.
‘Save… me… hic… sob…’
She clenched her fists so tightly they might shatter, watching her endless tears fall into the pool of dark red blood below.
Wracked with bone-deep terror, forced to grovel for her life without even knowing why her entire world had been crushed — the rage boiling inside her felt like it would melt her from within. In that moment—
Thunk—
Something tumbled to the ground in front of her.
‘Pick it up. It’s medicine.’
It was a small vial. She stared blankly at it for a moment, then asked without realizing it.
‘…Medicine?’
Medicine? Medicine?
‘Didn’t you beg me to save you?’
A man’s voice fell coldly onto the back of her head. Her eyes burned as she stared at the pitiful vial lying there like a pebble in the street.
You’re the one who reduced the village to ashes and slaughtered everyone in sight — and now you offer medicine?
She raised her trembling head. A deep hood shadowed the man’s face, a black mask covering it. In his hand was a small dagger, oddly engraved with an angel’s emblem. Amid it all, his striking blue eyes locked with hers.
‘It’s not poison?’
‘…Who knows.’
Amid the raging flames, in this place where even the sky was tinted red, the man spoke. Those piercing blue eyes looked down at her.
‘Whether what I gave you is poison or medicine — that’s your choice to make.’
“…!”
Blair Marie’s eyes flew open.
She was surrounded not by darkness, but by a heavy blanket pulled all the way over her head. Thrashing and gasping, she flung the blanket off, drenched in sweat.
“No wonder I felt like I was suffocating!”
Panting, Blair ripped the blanket away like an enemy and shoved it into the bathroom. She threw open every window.
“What a miserable dream to have…”
She clicked her tongue softly. The weather was unbelievably clear, yet the morning felt like a bad omen. Of all things, why dream about that day now?
It had already been six years. Six years since her hometown Orvie was turned to ashes and she’d settled here in Affron. The young girl back then was now twenty-one.
‘Still, I thought I’d forgotten all about it after running the pharmacy.’
A breeze brushed her face as she stood gloomily by the window. Blair soon forced up the corners of her lips.
“No, maybe it just means today’s sales will be good.”
It was just bad luck passing by — or so she told herself.
And maybe it really was.
“How much for all this again?”
“That’ll be two hundred peek total.”
“That’s pricier than I thought. Can’t you cut me a deal? And maybe throw this in for free?”
Annoying customers like this were just part of the job.
“Hey, haven’t you heard? If you haggle over medicine, you’re haggling with your own lifespan.”
“My lifespan…?”
“But I can give you a freebie. Just promise to come back, okay? Deal?”
“Cheh, stingy. Fine, I’ll come back since you threw in the freebie.”
It was one of those days. Thanks to a rush of big-margin medicines selling like hotcakes, her sales were four times higher than usual.
“Thank you! Oh, sir, please line up — line up!”
She’d been worked to the bone under all kinds of crooked bosses since she was young. At eighteen, the moment she came of age, she’d broken free and opened her own pharmacy.
Of course, it hadn’t been some magical overnight success — aside from that first week’s opening rush, she’d barely made enough to cover rent for three years straight. But today, people were lining up outside her door.
Apparently, the biggest pharmacy at the end of the street was temporarily closed for vacation. On top of that, a fire had broken out at another shop at the entrance of the alley.
A lucky coincidence — but she’d take luck in any form.
“At this rate, I won’t have to worry about living expenses for half a month.”
After a day with no time to even breathe, Blair finally saw out her last customer and looked at her empty shelves with satisfaction. She pulled out a bill from the counter and held it up to her nose.
“Mmm, what a sweet smell.”
She couldn’t help but smile at the unfamiliar yet welcome scent. Had she ever handled this much money since opening the pharmacy?
She thought of all the bitter days when paying the rent had been a struggle.
They say no one’s truly doomed forever. At this rate, she could pay rent and stock up on the herbs her master needed.
“Finally, my luck is turning. All that’s left is to succeed.”
She might have ended up on the outskirts of town, forced to settle in a dingy alley by lack of capital — but it wasn’t because she lacked skill that her sales had suffered.
She’d traveled the whole country with her master Aaron, a talented pharmacist, learning everything there was to know about medicine. Her skill in compounding was second to none.
The handful of regulars who kept coming back, even to this out-of-the-way alley pharmacy, were proof enough.
Blair was confident. Once people tried her medicine, they always came back for more.
Jingle—
Like that knight stepping through the door just now.
“Welcome! You’re back again?”
A group of knights wearing deep black robes filed in, the sunset behind them tinting the alley red.
‘Did he bring his companions this time?’
Their suspicious getup alone would make them memorable, but she had another reason to remember him.
Just a few days ago, the same shady knight had come in alone at this exact hour and bought an incredibly expensive painkiller — five hundred peek per bottle — without a single question. He was her ‘potential VIP client.’
“Did you bring your companions today? Should I get you the same painkiller as last time?”
If each of them bought one bottle — and maybe even more — how much would that be? Considering how easily he’d handed over a bundle of cash last time, there was no telling how many bottles they might buy.
Was this really her road to riches?
Beaming with a capitalist smile, Blair asked politely.
But the knights stood there in silence, just staring at her. Their faces were unreadable.
Her tiny pharmacy, already cramped and cute, looked fit to burst with those huge, bear-like knights crowding in.
‘What is this atmosphere? Did I jinx myself by celebrating too soon?’
With the rough-looking knights standing there like a wall, staring down at her, Blair felt a flicker of fear. Her heart shrank in her chest without her realizing.
“Uh… the medicine you already took… there’s no… refunds…”
Blair’s eyes darted nervously. Her timid voice was barely louder than a sick sparrow’s chirp. The knights exchanged glances. Blair suddenly felt like crying.
Did they find out she’d overcharged? Not that it was really overcharging — she’d just added a tiny bit extra…
“I could… swap it for something else, though…”
There was no way her medicine hadn’t worked. But if these knights insisted it hadn’t, there was nothing she could do — she’d be crushed like a bug.
Still, would a bunch of giant knights really gang up on one tiny pharmacist just to squeeze her?
Blair’s chin began to tremble in helpless anger and frustration.
“…”
The knights still said nothing. The suffocating silence made Blair’s legs inch backward on their own.
Step by step.
She flinched when her back hit something solid. Behind the counter was the compounding room and storage shelves — there shouldn’t be a wall there.
She turned her head — and her green eyes widened like lanterns. Another knight, dressed exactly the same in a black robe, was standing right behind her.
In that instant—
“Mmmpf!”
A thick cloth was shoved roughly into her mouth. A black sack dropped over her eyes, plunging her into darkness.
‘Damn it!’
Hoisted over a knight’s shoulder like a sack of grain, Blair thought bitterly:
Figures. It had to be today, of all days, when her luck seemed so good.
