~CHAPTER 76~
“Ethan?”
“Are you looking for something?”
Ethan approached Lincia with his usual awkward smile. Lincia’s mouth opened on its own at that moment.
“I was wondering if there is a drug that can make someone lose their memory.”
Lincia’s eyes widened in surprise at her own words.
She had not intended to speak so honestly to Ethan. Yet the words had spilled out as if her mouth had escaped her control. As Lincia tried to figure out why, Ethan spoke.
“Thank you for your honesty. I had wanted to ask since the Grand Duchess seemed troubled lately… Would it be inappropriate to say I am glad to know now?”
Ethan, speaking like a rapid-fire, blushed. He seemed shy but not a bad person. Lincia, still shocked at being deceived by Harbirich, felt her attention waver for a moment.
In fact, Lincia had been thinking about Harbirich constantly since yesterday. She usually did, but this time her focus was entirely on negative feelings that seemed impossible to shake off.
Ethan picked a book as if he had also come to find some information, saying he would return soon.
Before returning to the apothecary, Ethan hesitated slightly and spoke to Lincia.
“I will also look into drugs that might affect a person’s memory.”
“…Would you do that?”
“Of course. If it can help the Grand Duchess, I would be truly glad.”
Ethan lowered his large frame. Behind his glasses, his gray eyes trembled mercilessly whenever they met hers, as usual.
“I will come for a check-up next week.”
“Alright.”
“If you need help, please feel free to let me know anytime.”
Ethan bowed and withdrew. Lincia watched his retreating figure with a complicated gaze.
Ethan was one of the few people in the Grand Ducal Castle who treated Lincia kindly.
Yet Lincia found it difficult to grow close to him. Unlike Oberock, she felt gratitude for Ethan’s careful examinations, but somehow she always hesitated.
***
A month had passed since Oberock had been imprisoned in the underground prison.
Or was it two months?
Time was impossible to gauge in the darkness. Oberock blinked his blurred eyes.
Contrary to popular belief, from the moment he realized that Yulias cared for Lincia, he had suspected he might be in such danger.
“I want a child like my sister, but I cannot give her one.”
…Yulias was the type to twist the limbs of anyone connected to his sister and throw them into the riverbed.
Yet Oberock had never imagined suffering this fate in a Northern castle.
“Ah, Nizi… somehow…”
Should he have anticipated this as well?
Oberock forced a hollow laugh through his split lips. Each time, it felt as if the air pockets in his lungs burst, and his chest hurt.
It was not only Yulias Durand who was insane.
“Useless.”
Oberock remembered the man who coldly looked down on him and spoke.
That day, Duke Cassius evaluated Oberock with cold, bloodless eyes.
Oberock could be certain that if there had been anyone capable of replacing him, the Duke would have cut off his hands.
He had never expected the Duke to imprison him, even surpassing Yulias.
Now, Oberock wished for only one thing. He wanted to die. If he could not leave this place, he would rather die.
During his imprisonment, Oberock suffered several fevers. His hearing and eyesight had deteriorated due to the high fevers.
Yet he did not die for one reason.
Every time he reached the brink of death, a physician appeared from somewhere, treating him just enough to keep him alive.
Oberock was now most afraid not of Yulias or the Duke, but of that physician.
At that moment, he sensed movement beyond the prison bars. Oberock parted his cracked lips.
“Kill me… huff…”
The footsteps stopped. Oberock instinctively realized that the man beyond the bars was watching him.
He mumbled incoherently.
“If you end this pain here… huff… I will push for you to become a royal physician. I… cough… though of low rank, my skills…”
He realized he was rambling incoherently, fever having taken his reason.
Now he was no longer a royal physician. He could no longer bribe anyone or rely on his once-celebrated skills.
Now, trapped in the underground prison, all he could do was wait for death day by day.
Oberock hunched over on the cold, damp stone floor, coughing painfully.
Someone in the shadows quietly watching asked.
“I have a question. Answer honestly, and I will let you go peacefully.”
“I will… huff… answer anything.”
Oberock was desperate.
In this state, nearly blind and deaf, he only sought rest.
The one watching him bent down slightly.
“…Do you know about it?”
***
Early in the afternoon, Harbirich received unexpected news.
“…That physician is dead?”
The physician whose liver had swelled so badly it burst when touching Lincia was dead.
The messenger brought the news, his face pale as paper.
“Yes, he was alive this morning, but around noon when I went to deliver his meal…”
The messenger could not finish his sentence, swallowing hard. Harbirich guessed from his action that the corpse was in a terrible state.
He rose from his seat.
“Does Ethan know about this?”
Though he had intended to kill Oberock from the beginning, Harbirich still had information to obtain from that physician.
“I-I don’t think he knows. If Count Chester had seen him, he could not have been unharmed…”
The messenger swallowed again and started hiccuping. Harbirich looked on, unimpressed, and gave his order.
“Bring Ethan.”
While the messenger went to fetch Ethan, Harbirich prepared to depart for the outer estate.
The purpose of imprisoning Oberock in the underground prison was one: to interrogate him under optimal conditions.
In the North, it was a common method. Prisoners were confined, whipped wounds were sprinkled with saltwater for disinfection, and a single blanket was thrown in before freezing.
When people teetered between life and death, their minds would loosen appropriately.
In that state, a confession drug could make nine out of ten prisoners reveal even the number of their neighbors’ underwear.
The problem was, that royal physician was among the rare few immune to the confession drug.
“Being a physician, he seems resistant to the drug.”
After Ethan’s report, Harbirich ordered the development of a new confession drug. That had happened a week ago.
Before that, he had personally confirmed that Oberock could endure at least another month, thus issuing the instructions.
Therefore, Oberok should not be dead now, unless someone had interfered.
