IHBAVD CH 12

Two years passed.

I was running an herbal shop in the capital together with Ain.

The reason was that I was afraid that if I ran a clinic, I might run into the duke or somehow get entangled with him.

Fortunately, my herbal shop was doing quite well, and it had gained a reputation in the capital. Even the physicians liked our “Rabbit Herbal Shop” very much, so we had many regular clients among them.

Moreover, the 13th Street where I lived was far to the west, quite distant from 1st Street near the imperial palace where the duke stayed, so there was no chance of running into him.

However, what was unexpected was that even now, the duke wasn’t chasing after the saintess.

‘That’s strange. I heard the duke loves the saintess so much that he personally takes on escort duties wherever she goes.’

Unlike the original story I knew, Duke Berriot wasn’t following the saintess around that much.

I once happened to see Saint Yurvella Entry during a procession in the streets. She was a beautiful woman with sacred silver hair and sky-blue eyes.

Her name was Yurvella. Truly a noble name befitting a saintess.

If only she were a little less beautiful, maybe our villain wouldn’t have fallen so deeply in love and raised his sword against his brother.

‘Why are you so pretty?’

I even found myself resenting the saintess with her benevolent smile.

During those two years, while living in the capital, I secretly heard news about the duke.

He returned to the capital about a year after I arrived, greeted the emperor, and seemed to have resumed his duties normally.

The duke was very diligent and respected by the people.

‘What is this?’

Had his rebellious, villainous tendencies really disappeared while living with me?

Was his time living in the wild somehow healing? Or had the story twisted because I never became his physician?

Well, if so, that’s a relief.

‘But who was the one who nearly butchered the duke in the first place?’

Whenever I recalled Duke Berriot lying on the verge of death in the Verita herb fields, a chill ran through my chest.

Who would dare do such a thing to the emperor’s own brother?

The more I thought about it, the stranger it seemed, but I shook my head, telling myself it no longer concerned me.

As I was lost in these thoughts, Ain—now a bit older than two years ago—approached me.

“Ailet.”

“Oh, Ain.”

“What are you thinking about so deeply?”

“Nothing much.”

I smiled and patted his head. But Ain frowned.

“I’m not a fox right now. You’ll mess up my hair. Stop it.”

“Tch, looks like our fox is going through puberty.”

“Ha, seriously. The Howle Clinic asked for their usual herbs again.”

Ain shook his head and handed me the order sheet.

“Oh, right. I’ll go myself.”

As I stood up, Ain looked apologetic.

“I can go.”

“Your looks attract too much attention. You said you had trouble last time.”

“Ah, that’s nothing. I’m fine.”

“It’s fine. The boss doesn’t have anything else to do right now anyway~.”

I smirked at Ain and headed into the herb room.

To be honest, Ain had grown so handsome that he even had a fan club in the area, which made deliveries troublesome for him.

At this point, I was seriously considering making him an actor instead of having him do deliveries. That face would be wasted otherwise.

Thinking that, I checked the list of herbs requested by Howle Clinic and carefully took them out from the drawers.

Although Ain sometimes helped with deliveries, I handled selecting the herbs myself. There were too many complicated and expensive ones, so it was work I had to do personally.

After placing all the requested herbs into a basket and packaging them neatly, I tied up my hair and prepared to go out.

Though unlikely, I had continued dyeing my hair in case Sate might come looking for me. Half of my hair was now a dark brown.

Staring at the dyed ends, I let out a small laugh.

‘Let’s stop dyeing it now. Why would a villain duke who regained his memory bother looking for a peasant woman from the mountains? I was overthinking it.’

He had probably already found and hired a proper physician. Deciding this would be the last time I dyed my hair, I left the house.

“Welcome, Ailet.”

“Hello, ma’am.”

Arriving at Howle Clinic, which wasn’t far away, I handed over the herbs to the owner and received payment.

“Oh dear…”

Just then, Doctor Howle came out from the treatment room, wiping sweat from his forehead with a handkerchief.

“What should I do…”

It was the first time I’d seen such a capable doctor so flustered, so I widened my eyes and asked,

“What’s wrong?”

“Well, the wound is too severe…”

Doctor Howle explained the situation.

A man who had been fighting someone nearby had been stabbed and came here since this was the closest clinic. But the stab wound was so deep that it was beyond his ability to suture.

“It looks like I need to suture nerves and blood vessels, but my eyesight isn’t what it used to be…”

Doctor Howle was over sixty. It made sense his vision would be declining.

“…Um.”

Honestly, I didn’t want to step forward, but feeling sorry for the young man’s future, I spoke up.

“Would it be okay if I did the suturing? Before running the herbal shop, I used to run a clinic in my village.”

“You, Ailet?”

“Yes.”

“Can I trust you?”

Doctor Howle looked me up and down with a thoughtful expression.

Well, of course it would be hard to believe.

But the patient came first.

“If you don’t like what you see, you can just kick me out.”

“Ah, that works.”

With no better option, he nodded.

Only then was I able to enter the treatment room, where I saw a man with a lean build lying on the bed.

‘Huh.’

There was indeed a stab wound on his shoulder. Seeing it reminded me of Sate—no, Duke Berriot—and made my chest ache.

Sate, who had lived like family with me.

But also the memories of betrayal.

‘Why am I still like this? Get a grip, Ailet.’

Shaking my head, I took out the finest suturing thread and began carefully stitching the nerves and blood vessels.

It had been a while since I’d performed a real procedure, but I had kept practicing, so the surgery went smoothly.

“Could you cut this last part with the scissors?”

“Alright.”

“It’s done. Just disinfect it now.”

“Oh, impressive, Ailet.”

Doctor Howle kept exclaiming beside me, making it hard to concentrate.

“Could you be quiet?”

“Our Ailet has a pretty face but a scary personality.”

“Our doctor has a kind personality but a scary face.”

When I shot back with a grin, Doctor Howle pouted, asking what was wrong with his face.

“…”

At that moment, the patient’s expression changed subtly.

Why that look? Was our conversation too… middle-aged?

Thinking he might be annoyed by the noise, I apologized.

“I’m sorry. Just a bit more disinfection and we’re done.”

“It’s fine. Please proceed.”

He answered crisply, and I guessed he was a soldier or knight.

But what kind of situation had led him to such an injury?

After carefully examining his shoulder wound again, I told him to return in two days and sent him off.

I had no idea that this would become my mistake.

Saint Yurvella looked at Duke Serbil Berriot, who was kneeling before Emperor Edion, with pity.

Just moments ago, he had been attacked by the emperor’s assassins, yet here he was, kneeling and pretending to pledge loyalty to his brother.

From what Yurvella had heard, Serbil himself was unharmed, but several of his subordinates had been seriously injured.

‘Sigh… why is Edion like this?’

Yurvella, who had awakened as a saintess in childhood, had grown up as childhood friends with both Edion and Serbil.

But as they grew older, Edion developed a severe inferiority complex toward Serbil, who excelled at everything, and began to hate him.

Despite being engaged to Yurvella, he constantly doubted her—accusing her of loving Serbil.

But in some ways, that wasn’t entirely false. Yurvella had originally loved Serbil.

However, for the sake of the empire, she had been prepared to set aside her feelings and calmly become empress.

Yet Edion’s repeated assassination attempts against Serbil made her uneasy.

“Serbil, your complexion looks poor. Is something wrong?”

Edion asked.

“No, Your Majesty.”

Despite having just attempted to assassinate him, Serbil responded calmly to the emperor’s shameless question.