“Hey, I’m here to buy more medicine.”

At Arne’s excuse, blurted out in confusion, Jella’s eyes grew round.

“But didn’t you buy a lot of medicine yesterday?”

“The medicine was effective.”

“Really? Was my medicine that effective?”

“Yes, yes…”

“Don’t just stand there, come inside. I’ll show you other medicines too!”

Jella, instantly delighted, said with a broad smile.

Arne, though inwardly startled, followed Jella, thinking this was an opportunity to directly verify the sacred object.

“If you’re not busy, have some tea before you go. Since you’re a regular customer.”

Jella guided him to a table inside the pharmacy.

Then she asked him to wait a moment and disappeared, returning shortly with two steaming cups of tea.

“It might taste strange. This is my first time making tea myself.”

Arne looked at the tea in the cup and gulped.

‘Surely there isn’t poison in this tea too…’

Though highly suspicious, Jella was staring at him with bright eyes.

Finally, as Arne succumbed to her gaze and took a sip of the tea.

“Urgh!”

The tea Jella served tasted terribly bad. Unable to bear the awful taste, Arne clutched his lower abdomen and collapsed onto the table.

“Oh no, customer? Customer! Are you alright?”

Jella jumped up in surprise and shouted.

“My stomach, my stomach…”

A gurgling sound came from his lower abdomen.

“Ugh, urgh! My stomach, my stomach…!”

“Pain reliever! Take this pain reliever!”

Jella hurriedly brought a pain reliever from the pharmacy and handed it to Arne.

With his mind blanking from the intense abdominal pain that felt like his intestines were twisting, Arne hastily swallowed the pain reliever Jella offered without thinking.

And at that moment.

“Kuhurk!”

“Kyaaak!”

Jella screamed with both hands on her cheeks. Arne had spat out blood. Just like Yupheon, who had vomited blood after taking the hangover remedy she had made!

“Customer, could it be you have that special constitution that can’t absorb magical power…!”

“Magical power…? Special constitution? What are you talking about?”

“I told you when you bought the medicine yesterday!”

“I don’t know! I don’t remember!”

“H-here! There’s even a warning label on the medicine bottle…”

When Jella pointed to the warning written in large red letters on the bottle, Arne became angry instead.

“When would I ever read such a thing!”

Jella stomped her feet and said to the shouting Arne.

“First, we need to get what you swallowed out, so I’m going to hit your solar plexus. I’m really sorry.”

“Hit my solar plexus…? Hueogh!”

Before Arne could finish speaking, Jella forcefully struck his solar plexus with her fist infused with magical power.

With a short scream, the tea and stomach medicine he had just swallowed came gushing back up.

After retching for a while, the exhausted Arne finally fainted.

“Oh my, what should I do?”

Jella quickly examined Arne’s condition.

She felt terribly sorry for not only making a perfectly healthy customer sick but also hitting him.

Moreover, because he had been coughing up blood until just now, his mouth and shirt were soaked with red blood, making him look even more ill.

“But he definitely said the medicines he took yesterday were effective, so what’s going on here?”

Jella’s medicines turn into poison as soon as they’re made. That’s why she used the method of dropping a bit of magical power into her medicines to neutralize the poison.

But in cases of special constitutions like Yupheon’s that cannot absorb magical power, the body cannot absorb even a drop of magic, so the poison isn’t neutralized.

However, if he couldn’t absorb magical power, the medicines he took yesterday should have been poisonous too.

Unaware of Arne’s lie, Jella muttered with a serious expression, not understanding what was happening.

Just then, the pharmacy door opened with the sound of a bell.

“Sister, you were looking for me… Hueooogh!”

Felitz exclaimed in shock upon discovering the blood-covered Arne collapsed on the table.

“D-did you finally kill someone?”

“That’s not it!”

Jella turned to Felitz, bristling.

However, because her hands were also covered in blood from examining Arne earlier, the timid Felitz became even more frightened.

After much commotion, Jella and Felitz moved Arne upstairs.

After laying the unconscious Arne on the bed, Felitz cautiously asked Jella as she heaved a deep sigh.

“Isn’t this the customer who came yesterday?”

“…Seems like he has a special constitution.”

“Didn’t you say there’s maybe one person with that special constitution in the entire continent?”

“……”

Jella’s expression became even more serious.

‘To think there’s another person with a special constitution that can’t absorb magical power besides Yuphe.’

In fact, the reason this customer couldn’t absorb magical power was because of Arne’s soul inside the man’s body.

However, unaware of this fact, Jella only felt increasingly sorry, thinking she had hurt an innocent person.

“By the way, why were you looking for me, Sister?”

At this point, Felitz asked, diverting her attention.

“Ah, that. Could you run an errand for me to somewhere far?”

“Far? How far?”

“Just go to the Holy Nation, find a person named Johannes, and deliver this letter.”

“Johannes would be the former Pope, right? Someone like me wouldn’t be able to meet him, would I?”

“Don’t worry. If you show him this, he’ll meet with you.”

Jella handed Felitz the holy grail and letter that had been placed on the table.

“I’ll pay you well. Please, Felitz. You’re the person I trust the most.”

“Oh come on, what payment between us, Sister. Just leave it to me.”

Felitz confidently said, beating his chest at Jella’s added words.

Soon after, Felitz left the pharmacy with the holy grail.

All this happened right next to the unconscious Arne, who was snoring loudly after being knocked out from the blow to his solar plexus.

***

Imperial Palace Underground Prison.

“Tsk. To think such vermin still remained in the empire.”

Niel muttered, looking at the captured men with an expressionless face.

This morning, the palace was turned upside down because His Majesty the Emperor had returned with blood on him after going out incognito.

Amid the chaos, Niel, who remained calm, said that dangerous groups had appeared in the capital, and his subordinates immediately searched for and captured those involved.

These were associates of the assassins who had raided Jella’s pharmacy the previous night, a vicious group that would do anything for money.

“I thought I had cleaned up thoroughly.”

After Jella left five years ago, Niel had cleaned up every corner of the empire to return to her someday.

But recently, he had been somewhat negligent of other matters while focusing on Jella’s affairs, and these fellows had reappeared in that gap.

He had been keeping an eye on them, planning to round them all up at once, but they just had to target Jella.

The captured individuals refused to reveal their backer, but Niel’s capable aides tracked down the trail in less than half a day.

“It seems Count Luke was behind them.”

“Count Luke?”

Niel, sitting at his desk in the office, received the report, slightly frowned as he questioned.

He was someone with no connection to Jella whatsoever.

“So, where is the Count now?”

“Ah, about that… He bought a lot of medicine from a strange pharmacy yesterday, collapsed after taking it, and then suddenly disappeared as soon as morning came. So his residence is in quite an uproar…”

“Medicine?”

“Yes, Your Majesty. And that medicine… it seems to be from the pharmacy of that Jella Irene whom Your Majesty has been keeping an eye on.”

“……”

Niel’s lips remained closed.

After a brief silence, he spoke.

“Let’s bury the matter about the medicine.”

“Your Majesty, if Jella Irene is really making poison, isn’t this a dangerous situation?”

“There’s no definitive proof that the Count collapsed because of her medicine. There must have been another reason.”

“But…”

According to the investigation, the Count had vomited blood immediately after taking Jella’s medicine last night. Since the Count had no prior health issues, it was highly likely that he collapsed because of her medicine.

Normally, Niel would have summoned all related parties and conducted another investigation even without definitive proof, so his aides couldn’t understand his order to bury the matter.

But their understanding of Niel’s decision was not necessary.

“That woman is not of a nature to harm people.”

Niel stated with certainty.

If she had been such a woman, he wouldn’t have taken so many detours to save her.

“Since it seems certain that the Count hired the assassins, find his whereabouts and investigate if he has been showing any unusual behavior recently.”

It was also suspicious that the Count, who had no connection to Jella, visited the pharmacy and bought a lot of medicine, and sent assassins after her.

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

The aides, who had momentarily questioned his decision, nodded and withdrew.

Only after checking all the remaining documents on the desk did Niel leave the office.

He hadn’t yet changed his clothes due to resolving the attack from the previous night.

Having engaged in hand-to-hand combat with Cail Aleret in the alley in front of her pharmacy, then taking an assassin’s sword in her bedroom, and subsequently being left on her floor all night, his appearance could not be described as presentable.

Nevertheless, he maintained an impeccable and neat appearance without the slightest dishevelment.

This was probably due to his innate noble demeanor and habits from birth.

Upon arriving at his bedroom, the head servant bowed to him and said.

“I have prepared bath water for you, Your Majesty.”

“Thank you, Alex.”

Niel nodded slightly and walked toward the bath connected to the inner part of his bedroom.

While absently undoing his buttons, he noticed his torn and darkly stained shirt.

Suddenly, he remembered her angrily covering his wound with both hands last night.

That voice that snapped at him, saying this was no time to check his body.

Those trembling hands, saying the bleeding wouldn’t stop.

And…

“You, you hated me, didn’t you?”

Those eyes trembling finely toward him,

“You said you would kill me, didn’t you?”

That expression of hers spreading with bewilderment.

“If you said you would kill me, why do you speak as if you actually like me?”

Yes, why does that expression…

Why does it…

From the moment he recalled her, an indescribable sensation spread from his fingertips, and Niel slowly closed and opened his eyes.

His eyes languidly curved at her lingering image that wouldn’t disappear.

It’s truly inexplicable. Why is she so…

“Why is she so pretty?”

A soft chuckle.

His true feelings, which he would never have uttered in front of her, quietly flowed out with a low laugh.