But honestly, even Serbil himself felt deeply uneasy this time.
Two of his cherished subordinates had been seriously injured.
He didn’t care if he himself got hurt. But for his men to be harmed as well…
As the emperor’s attacks grew increasingly severe, Serbil was reaching the limit of his patience.
He had even considered withdrawing from the capital altogether and returning to his territory to live quietly, but…
‘No. Not until I find Ailet.’
Two years ago, Ailet had clearly said she would open a clinic in the capital.
He didn’t know why she had disappeared, but that was the only thing he had heard from her, so he couldn’t leave the capital.
If only he could find Ailet.
Please. If only he could hear the reason, then he would leave for his territory immediately.
Worried about his injured subordinates, Serbil lowered his head. Before leaving, he politely bowed.
“Then, I shall see you properly at Your Majesty’s birthday banquet.”
“…Very well.”
“I wish peace upon the Saintess as well.”
“May the light of the Lord be with you, Your Grace.”
After greeting both of them, Serbil turned and left the audience chamber. He could feel piercing gazes on his back, but he had no time to care about such things.
‘Ailet.’
He was anxious.
It had already been over two years.
Ailet. Why was it so difficult to find just one woman?
He was growing exhausted. But he couldn’t give up.
‘It seems she is protected by some kind of magic.’
‘Magic?’
‘We searched her house—the one Your Highness stayed in—countless times. But when she was there, we couldn’t see her. We heard from the Magic Tower that such magic exists. It manifests naturally through one’s will. They called it distortion.’
‘Then does that mean Ailet doesn’t want to see me?’
‘That… could be the case.’
After leaving the audience chamber, Serbil raised a hand to cover his face.
Why?
She had said she would stay by his side.
He never imagined she would be such a cruel woman, tearing his heart to pieces like this.
Had he been a burden to her because he hadn’t regained his memory? Or… had she somehow realized that he had?
Even so, she couldn’t just leave him behind like that.
At first, he searched every corner around the village. Her range of movement wouldn’t have been that wide.
But Ailet had vanished without a trace. So after a year, he came to the capital and deployed all his subordinates to search for her. Yet he couldn’t find her at all.
When he went to the Magic Tower and asked again, he was told that unless she revealed herself, finding her would be impossible.
‘How frustrating.’
Returning to the ducal residence, Serbil headed first to the knights’ annex.
He needed to check on the two knights who had been injured while protecting him during the assassination attempt.
One was lying in bed in pain, while the other was sitting upright.
Serbil looked at the subordinate who had been stabbed deeply in the shoulder and seemed better than expected, and asked in surprise,
“Are you alright?”
“Yes, Your Highness. Would you like to see my wound?”
The knight instructed a servant to remove the bandage.
“What?”
“You’ll understand when you see.”
As the bandage was removed, Serbil’s eyes flashed upon seeing the sutured wound on the knight’s shoulder.
“You once said you were treated with stitches like this, Your Highness.”
“That’s right.”
The knight nodded.
“The name of the physician who stitched my wound was also Ailet, Your Highness.”
“…!”
Serbil felt as though his heart had dropped straight to the ground.
At last, she had revealed herself.
After stopping by Howle Clinic to disinfect the shoulder wound of the patient I had treated and checking its condition, I was on my way back home.
I had even bought a bag of bead candies that Ain liked.
‘Why do I feel so uneasy?’
For some reason, I had chills today.
Since I stayed in the herbal shop, I rarely saw patients close to death, but today it felt like that kind of situation.
And bad premonitions never seemed to be wrong.
When I returned to the herbal shop, a man was inside, coughing up blood and begging for help.
“Cough—cough! P-please save me!”
Flash!
Jaint (32): Poisoned, will die within 1 hour if not detoxified (Gauge 20/100)
A status window I hadn’t seen in a while appeared above the man’s head. Poisoned? This ordinary-looking man?
“Ah! Ailet, what do we do?”
Panicked, Ain supported the man and shouted.
“What do you mean what do we do? Ain, let’s move him to the bed!”
Fortunately, the man was light enough for the two of us to carry. I quickly ran to the storage and brought a detoxifying agent.
After administering a basic antidote, I planned to identify the exact poison and treat it properly.
Watching Ain feed him the antidote, I examined the patient and my face darkened.
‘Oh no.’
This poison wasn’t easy to obtain. In other words, the antidote wasn’t easy to get either.
It was a lethal poison—expensive, and so was its antidote. This was not a case I could handle.
“This can’t be…”
Was I supposed to give up like this? What had this man done to deserve being poisoned with something so costly?
I searched his body.
At least I needed to find identification and contact his family. But he had nothing, and he began coughing up blood again.
Bright red blood spilled onto the floor as if dragging him toward death.
“Ugh…”
“P-please…”
Helpless, I stamped my feet in frustration. When his gauge dropped to 5, and his fingernails began turning blue, my vision blurred.
My eyes grew hot.
This was because I wasn’t good enough.
If I had continued researching and studying instead of hiding here, maybe I could have saved one more life. No—if I had continued as a physician, I might have saved him.
Stupid Ailet. The duke isn’t even looking for you—why did you hide like this?
At that moment—
A small vial was suddenly extended in front of me.
“Here.”
Turning my head, I saw a familiar face.
It was that knight.
“…What? How did you get here?”
“It’s an antidote. I’ll be going now.”
The man whose shoulder I had stitched suddenly appeared behind me, handed me a vial, and disappeared without a trace.
I couldn’t believe it.
This was definitely an antidote.
‘Why would he give me this?’
I took a drop myself—there was no change.
“Ugh…”
The man’s remaining strength was now 3/100.
I hurriedly gave him the antidote, and though he spilled some, he gulped it down.
‘Please!’
Then a miracle happened.
It truly was an antidote—his gauge instantly rose to 50!
As he stopped coughing blood, Ain’s gloomy expression brightened, and he cheered.
“That’s a relief! That’s a relief!”
“Sniff… W-where did that man go? Wait—Ain, wipe the blood off this patient’s face.”
“Okay!”
I stepped outside to thank him, but suddenly a chill ran down my spine.
Why did that man have an antidote?
Usually, someone who uses poison also carries its antidote. Could that knight have been the one who tried to kill this man?
‘What on earth is going on?’
I quickly left the shop and looked around.
‘There!’
At the corner of an alley, I spotted the hem of the man’s clothing.
“Excuse me!”
But he ignored me and turned the corner. I ran after him.
I knew that alley was a dead end—he had nowhere to escape.
Smiling, I turned the corner confidently.
“Got—!”
But the smile on my face slowly faded.
“Got me?”
A low, deep voice echoed from the end of the alley where a man stood waiting.
‘Ah.’
My heart trembled sharply.
