At the End of the Shattered Remains of Pure Love - Chapter 3

It was early evening. Noam had finished his consultations earlier than usual and hung up the ‘Closed’ sign. Usually, he saw patients until later, and there were many patients who came in, but for some reason, it was unusually quiet today.

Thanks to this, he was able to have dinner at the time when others were eating. But it hadn’t been 10 minutes since he hung the ‘Closed’ sign when…

The door he had locked was shaken violently.

He was startled and shrugged his shoulders as he was about to scoop a full bowl of lentil soup. He swallowed hard and was about to touch the handle.

The door shook violently once again. He stepped back, thinking it might be a robber. Sweat trickled down.

However, what he heard from beyond the door was a heart-rending cry.

“Please help me! Please! Please save my baby!”

The cry, with unclear pronunciation due to tears, shook his ears. Noam, who was going to tell them to come back tomorrow morning if possible, opened the door in bewilderment.

A woman with disheveled hair was crying while carrying a child on her back.

***

“There are symptoms of tuberculosis. How long has she been like this?”

“Today, I heard she collapsed today. I heard she was doused with cold water…”

“There are also signs of being slapped. Was she abused?”

It was a bit strange to ask if she was abused in front of the child’s mother, but it was part of the diagnosis process anyway. Noam stared at the woman who just shook her head silently while looking at the child’s reddened and swollen cheek.

It had been an hour since he gave up his meal and accepted the mother and daughter.

After laying the child wrapped in a blanket on the bed, he administered a fever reducer. The fever seemed to go down for a moment but then rose again. Noam started brewing herbal medicine that could be used for cough symptoms, rummaging through the drawers.

Although they said she collapsed today, the disease in her lungs seemed quite old. Noam asked the woman again.

“Madam, are you sure the child has only had a fever today?”

“She’s had minor illnesses on and off. She coughed occasionally too. But she’s never been this sick. Isn’t that normal for all children? Surely my daughter isn’t the only one who gets sick like this. She was definitely healthy until yesterday. She ate well and played actively…”

The woman shook her head and burst into tears. Then, under Noam’s cold gaze, she lowered her head. He asked if she had ever given the child medicine when she had these minor illnesses.

Elaine was too ashamed to even nod in response to this question. Medicine was too expensive. They were so poor that even putting food on the table was difficult.

To clothe the rapidly growing child, she needed to buy fabric and alter it. But even that was a burden for Elaine. No matter how hard she worked, their situation didn’t improve.

Perhaps understanding her mother’s circumstances, young Jeanne would recover from fevers within two days.

She often had a cough, but it seemed to improve when she’s dressed a bit more warmly. Elaine was secretly grateful for such a child. But was that a precursor to tuberculosis?

“If this medicine doesn’t work, it might be a bit difficult.”

“What do you mean by that? Doctor, you…”

“I’m not a doctor, madam. I’m an apothecary.”

She was about to ask if there was any difference between a doctor and an apothecary. But the concern on his face left her speechless. Pendley. Until she came to this village where she currently resided, she had wandered through cities. It was to evade pursuit.

She had constantly moved with her nursing infant, and as a result, she was treated as a beggar woman wherever she went. Her beauty was useless in the face of such poverty.

No. If she drifted into a brothel, it would surely be useful. Many landowners had also proposed she become their concubine. Even Lord Braims here had done the same.

But she was a woman who had fled because she disliked being called a concubine or the like. So she was fine with living any way she could. As long as she could avoid Khalil…

No. As long as she could avoid that monstrous man born to that terrible Empress.

She didn’t mind being treated as a beggar or a pauper, nor did she care if she was treated as an unmarried woman who had an illegitimate child with a stranger. However…

“Please, save my child. I don’t care who you are. If you can just save my child…”

“Madam.”

“The child is everything to me.”

“I didn’t mean to discourage you.”

Noam sighed. His temples throbbed as if being pricked by needles. He wet his dry lips with his tongue, then said he knew a doctor who had worked in the Imperial Court among the doctors he knew.

The woman’s face darkened at this. A doctor not from the village. Moreover, a skilled doctor who had worked in the Imperial Palace would surely not be cheap to treat. Was that why her expression darkened?

However, it seemed impossible to treat the child at his level. Even as a village apothecary, he was just a mediocre person who couldn’t become a doctor, and although Noam was quite skilled among them, he knew his own limitations best.

So he had intended to send them away if possible, but the sick child was too pitiful.

“If the treatment cost is a burden…”

“No! Please! I’m begging you like this. Please just save my child.”

The woman clung to his feet. He looked at the tears wetting her pale face. Despite being worn by hardship, she was more captivating and beautiful than the landowner’s wife. He swallowed a sigh and then helped the woman up.

“Stay with the child. I’ll be back before dawn.”

Noam immediately went to his neighbor’s house and borrowed a horse. The doctor he was seeking help from was one who had worked in the Imperial Court for 30 years. He was experienced from his long service and not unkind, so Noam was confident he wouldn’t refuse his request, but still, he wasn’t sure.

Noam rode the horse, recalling the time he had worked as an apprentice under him.

Thus, he arrived at the mansion where the doctor was staying just past midnight.

Currently, that doctor was working as the personal physician for the lord’s family in ‘Ildmor’, a domain not far from ‘Pendley’, the village where he resided. He stopped the horse in front of the mansion’s gate and earnestly pleaded with the guard.

“Please. Call for Doctor Jacquard who works here. If you tell him Noam has come, he’ll know.”

He wiped his wet forehead repeatedly and pleaded with his hands clasped together. The guard looked at him with an annoyed face and cleared his throat. Understanding what he meant, Noam took out a few silver coins from his pocket and pressed them into his hand.

“What should I say is the matter?”

“If he’s not in a hurry, I’d like to ask him to examine my patient. It’s tuberculosis, but the symptoms are a bit severe. The fever rash is different too…”

Noam explained the situation in as much detail as possible. It was to demonstrate that he wasn’t trying to falsely summon the lord’s personal physician.

“Alright.”

The guard turned away reluctantly. Noam sighed.

Some time passed.

In the distance, the guard was approaching. He swallowed dryly.

“Hey. They’re saying you should come into the mansion…”

The guard said with an uncomfortable face. Noam was surprised but soon nodded. He followed the guard into the mansion.

His eyes nearly rolled at the lavish interior, unfamiliar no matter how many times he saw it, but he barely managed to calm himself. As he followed for quite a while, the guard turned his head. Something felt odd.

“Um…”

“Go in.”

He looked at the guard. This was the lord’s study. He knew the layout to some extent because he had stayed in this mansion and worked as Doctor Jacquard’s apprentice.

He swallowed dryly and stared at the guard. The guard made an irritated gesture as if to say ‘what are you doing?’. Finally, Noam, pale-faced, knocked.

“Come in.”

The lord’s voice was heard. Noam swallowed hard and then stepped inside. The lord’s study was very spacious and lavish. But it was his first time. Despite having stayed in this mansion for quite a long time.

“My, My lord, hello. I, I don’t know if you remember me, but I’m Noam…”

“Raise your head. I heard that the symptoms of the patient you’re treating are different from ordinary tuberculosis and are serious. So you were trying to take your master Jacquard with you?”

“Huh? Yes, yes.”

Noam, raising his head, answered in confusion. Come to think of it, there weren’t just the lord in the study, but two more men.

One was Doctor Jacquard, and the other was a man he had never seen before, but he too seemed to be a nobleman, sitting opposite the lord.

“What are the symptoms of the tuberculosis?”

His lord asked. Noam, who had been glancing more frequently at the nobleman beside him than at the lord, replied with a “Pardon?”. Doctor Jacquard, standing to the left of the lord, put his hand to his head. Noam, flustered as if his feet were on fire, began to describe the symptoms.

How the fever rash appeared, how the breathing sounded, how the pulse was beating…

“Is that child perhaps a Peruchica child?”