The pharmacy owner had underestimated her, thinking she was just a young girl, but it turned out to be none other than Leah Piert! He quickly changed his attitude.

“Oh no, that’s not it! I was deceived when I bought them!”

He hastily explained the whole situation.

Recently, medicines from the Piert merchant group had become so popular that supplies were hard to secure, but he bought them because a passing merchant was selling them. He wouldn’t have bought them if he’d known they were fake.

“You’ve been running this pharmacy for years, and you just bought something from a random passing merchant? What made you trust him?”

“Well, he was selling at such a low price…”

When Leah stared at him intently, the pharmacy owner mumbled an addition.

“He said they were items the warehouse keeper had secretly set aside… and because the ducal family is so powerful these days, he was selling them cheaply before getting caught…”

Leah clicked her tongue.

That was impossible. The Piert merchant group’s medicines were managed directly by the research facility, with herbalists and knights taking turns guarding the warehouse.

She coldly assessed the pharmacy owner.

“In short, you were blinded by greed.”

“Leah, I don’t think he was blinded by greed so much as deliberately keeping his eyes closed.”

At Helix’s finishing blow, the court physician thought to himself:

‘To say such things so openly… Perhaps Helix is the more frightening one.’

But Leah nodded like they shared the same mind.

“You’re right, Helix. He knew there was a problem but pretended not to, selling them as our products.”

The owner hunched his shoulders at Leah’s cold words.

“I didn’t do it knowingly. Please be merciful and lenient…”

“Enough.”

Leah cut him off.

“How many have you sold and to whom?”

Everyone around looked puzzled. The court physician blinked and asked:

“Lady Leah, why are you asking that?”

“Because we need to find out who bought medicine from this guy and recall the fake medicine.”

“What? Recall the medicine? Why?”

The court physician asked back.

“If we report this to the Herbalist Guild, they’ll handle it themselves.”

Others seemed to agree with his words. Leah suddenly realized:

‘Recalling fake products is too much like modern capitalism!’

In the Kingdom of Peiren, the guild’s authority took precedence in such matters.

Besides, unlike her previous life in Korea, this world didn’t have airtight systems, no CCTV, no mobile phones, no account tracking.

‘It would definitely be difficult to recall fake medicine.’

Leah made a troubled sound and then cautiously asked:

“What if we offer a reward for bringing back fake medicine?”

The court physician tilted his head.

“Um… wouldn’t people just raid pharmacies and steal all medicines, real or fake?”

“Oh no.”

This wasn’t some plunder economy.

Leah’s face paled. It would be troublesome if trying to recall fake medicine only encouraged mass chaos.

‘This method won’t work.’

Once Leah decided it was impractical, she quickly abandoned the idea. Her mind raced.

‘So what should we do now?’

How could they minimize damage, identify the perpetrators, and punish those who planned this?

Leah briefly held her head in her hands.

‘I can’t multitask!’

Helix quickly took her hand.

Pong.

Warm mana flowed into her through his hand.

The sensation made her heart soften momentarily, and when she looked up at Helix, he spoke firmly in a gentle voice:

“Leah, I’m here beside you. Don’t worry alone.”

“Helix… are you an angel?”

Leah’s eyes grew wide and dewy. Her emotions showed transparently in her gaze.

‘Where did such a handsome and kind-hearted man come from?’

Helix responded with equally warm eyes.

‘That’s just how you see me.’

Honey practically dripped from his eyes as he looked at Leah.

“Ahem, ahem.”

The court physician beside them awkwardly cleared his throat.

“So, miss, what shall we do?”

***

Pulled from their private world, Leah quickly collected herself.

‘First, we need to minimize the damage caused by the poisoned fake cold medicine.’

From what the pharmacy owner said, it was clear the merchant selling fake medicine was doing this deliberately. If left alone, more poisoned fake cold medicine would spread and the damage would increase. They needed to catch that person first.

Having made her decision, she said to the pharmacy owner, “I’ll give you a choice.”

“W-what is it?”

“Will you be dragged to the Piert ducal mansion, or will you go to the Herbalist Guild and confess everything truthfully?”

Either choice meant ruin.

The pharmacy owner, inwardly sobbing, chose the option that seemed less painful.

“I’ll go to the Herbalist Guild…”

“Good choice. Go there and spill everything in detail.”

“Leah, wouldn’t the Piert knights be better at making him spill everything in detail?”

At Helix’s words, the pharmacy owner’s posture unconsciously straightened.

“No! I’ll confess everything properly at the Herbalist Guild!”

“We’ll check later. Do it well.”

“Yes!”

Knights waiting outside dragged the pharmacy owner out and loaded him into a carriage. Leah ordered:

“Two of you close and guard this pharmacy, and you go to the ducal mansion and ask for a skilled artist who can draw portraits quickly.”

“An artist who can draw portraits quickly and well?”

“Yes. We need to draw a composite sketch.”

Helix asked, “Are you going to put a bounty on that merchant?”

“Of course we need to put up a bounty.”

Leah smiled slyly.

“But we won’t be the ones putting it up.”

***

Leah stormed into the Herbalist Guild, dragging the pharmacy owner along.

“What? Someone is distributing fake medicine?”

Orkul, the guild leader, was shocked.

“Who, what kind of medicine… and why?”

“Finding that out is the guild’s job, I heard.”

Leah pointed at the bound pharmacy owner who had been dragged in.

The pharmacy owner, now looking dazed, mumbled the whole story.

How an unknown merchant entered his pharmacy and tempted him with Piert merchant group medicines at a cheap price. How he fell for it completely and made a bulk purchase.

The court physician explained the rest. They had coincidentally discovered a patient who had taken the suspicious medicine, and when they analyzed its components, they found it was not only fake but also mixed with poison.

As the situation became clearer, the guild leader turned pale.

“…Someone is deliberately distributing fake medicine.”

Leah nodded.

“To contain this before it grows, we need to catch the people behind it. Before they do more of this nonsense.”

The guild leader looked at Leah sitting across from him, inwardly sighing.

‘I thought she was just a young noble lady who happened to gain magic.’

She was more than he expected. His mind began to recover from the shock and assess the situation.

The Piert Ducal Family was a major player in the pharmaceutical industry, both in production and funding.

‘And someone distributed fake versions of the Piert Ducal Family’s medicine…’

Since this was a pharmaceutical industry matter, they had informed the Herbalist Guild as the representative body and passed the ball to them. If they didn’t take proper measures, the Piert Ducal Family would surely step in.

Honestly, an angry Piert Ducal Family could sweep aside the guild and everything else, then absorb all the unemployed herbalists into their research facility and monopolize the industry.

‘But since they sent Leah Piert, perhaps they don’t intend to use such extreme methods?’

He assumed she had been sent by the ducal family, not imagining that Leah herself was investigating and handling this matter.

In any case, she was not just young but a young woman, a noble lady who had grown up seeing only good things. She was also a flower of high society.

‘She might act smarter than her age… but still. If I placate her well, we can resolve this at our level.’

Orkul the guild leader unconsciously relaxed, feeling relieved.

“The young lady is right. Now, please leave this matter to our guild and return home.”

The court physician nervously rolled his eyes at this obvious attempt to treat her like an ignorant child. Helix also frowned at the guild leader’s increasingly casual posture.

“…”

Leah stared steadily at the guild leader.

‘This guy is just like the others.’

She inwardly sighed at how they immediately looked down on her for being a young woman, and nudged Helix.

“By the way, how similar was that fake medicine to ours?”

“Very similar.”

Helix said, “The scent when first opening the bottle, the initial taste, and even the aftertaste were almost identical. There was a slippery foreign sensation in the middle, but the aftertaste and its lingering intensity were similarly strong… most people wouldn’t notice.”

He continued seriously, “The problem is that they only imitated the scent and taste but didn’t consider the medicinal effects of the herbs at all.”

“That’s why it’s fake medicine.”

“Yes. But if they focused only on taste and scent without any thought to medicinal effects, I wonder if they were targeting something specific.”

“Right. This isn’t about imitating our medicine to sell for profit in the market, but purely about causing damage.”

Helix nodded at Leah’s words.

“To imitate it this well would require considerable knowledge of pharmaceutical manufacturing.”

The court physician interjected, “Not just pharmaceutical knowledge, but making similar bottles would be expensive too. Glass bottles aren’t cheap. Without other benefits, who would go to such lengths just to damage the Piert Ducal Family…”

Leah smiled faintly and looked straight into the eyes of the guild leader, who had been watching cautiously without joining the conversation.

“It must be Trow, right?”

***

Leah’s smile deepened.

“Does the guild leader know what the Trow merchant group is up to?”

Guild Leader Orkul unconsciously straightened his posture.

A warning. This was a warning.

‘Seeing how you’re trying to handle this situation casually, you must not fear our Piert Ducal Family? Perhaps you’re trying to curry favor with the corrupt Trow Count family?’

The guild leader’s mouth instantly dried up as he understood Leah’s implication.

“How would I know anything about the Trow merchant group’s affairs?”

“Is that so?”