Chapter 10
Chapter 10
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 10
Chapter Title: The Pharmacist's Secret
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The wolves of the ducal family guided him to a safe house prepared not far from the imperial palace.
The capital's citizens were too busy enjoying the New Year's festival to notice anything else, leaving the area around the safe house as silent as the grave.
Creak.
The empty house was clean and desolate.
“This is the man named Donovan. He's definitely the one who went looking for the lady.”
Lennox Carlyle looked down at the man kneeling on the floor and felt a twinge of disappointment for some reason.
He was just an ordinary-looking young man, the kind you could see anywhere.
Feeling a bit deflated, he gave the order.
“Untie him.”
The moment the gag was removed, the man called Donovan cried out in fear.
“Sir... you didn't have me dragged here because of my debts, did you?”
A brief look of bewilderment crossed the faces of the two men.
Lennox dropped to one knee, meeting Donovan eye to eye.
Then he cut straight to the chase.
“Do you know Juliet Monad?”
“M-Monad... you mean that count's daughter?”
“What's your relationship with Juliet?”
“Th-That... wait a minute. R-Relationship? I've never even met the lady!”
Donovan denied it desperately.
He seemed to have grasped the situation he was in.
“Then why did you go looking for Juliet?”
“W-Well... patient information is such a sensitive matter.”
Donovan glanced nervously at Lennox with an awkward expression.
But the moment the knight behind him placed a hand on his sword hilt, Donovan shouted at once.
“It was because of my mother!”
* * *
Terrified, Donovan quickly spilled everything he knew.
Though Donovan rambled incoherently, Lennox and the ducal knights were able to piece together his story.
“..... Sylphium.”
“Sylphium?”
“I-It's not a harmful drug!
As you know, lots of noble ladies take sylphium too.”
Lennox furrowed his brow.
It was a medicine he knew well.
Sylphium was a precious herb that grew in the empire's south. Steeping and drinking the root lightly as tea had contraceptive effects.
Aside from its high price, it had no side effects on the body, smelled good, and was widely used as a birth control drug.
Only then did Lennox understand why this man had been lurking around the count's residence.
Even for a fallen noble family, House Monad was an old aristocratic lineage.
Moreover, Juliet Monad was an unmarried lady of marriageable age.
What if she had taken a wrongly prescribed medicine and something happened? That was why she had ordered it. His mother had sent the herbs as requested, and that was the last prescription record for Lady Monad.
But Donovan was still hesitating, glancing at him warily.
If that was all Juliet had ordered, there was no reason for him to be this nervous.
Sensing something ominous, Lennox asked immediately.
“What's mistletoe used for?”
“Mistletoe is fine. In fact, it's a good herb that prevents miscarriage and protects the child in the womb. The problem is that the lady ordered it together with sylphium flower.”
......Child?
“The effects of sylphium flower are completely different from the root. The sylphium usually taken as a contraceptive is the root, but the flower is far more toxic than the root and is used to induce abortion.”
The air in the room froze solid.
But Donovan's thorough explanation didn't end there.
“If taken separately, there's no issue, but if sylphium and mistletoe are taken together, there's a risk of miscarriage. Th-That's why I was going to tell her that if she really was pregnant, she shouldn't take the medicine and should get a proper examination instead...”
Donovan's words trailed off unfinished.
Bam.
Before he could even finish, Lennox Carlyle kicked the door open and stormed out.
“My lord!”
The ducal knights hurriedly chased after him.
But Lennox didn't wait for them. He mounted the black horse tied in the courtyard at once.
The streets were empty because of the midnight fireworks show.
Thanks to that, as he galloped madly toward the ducal residence, Lennox Carlyle could think of only one thing.
'Juliet.'
He could explain.
He had to explain.
“Mistletoe is fine. In fact, it's a good herb that prevents miscarriage and protects the child in the womb.”
“Sylphium flower is far more toxic than the root and is used to induce abortion.”
Birth control.
Sylphium.
And Juliet.
When those ominous, chaotic words combined, a single memory flashed through his mind at once.
Forgotten Juliet