01.

Febrya Calendar, Year 776.

Madrian de Kan, the high priest of Febrya, declared a massive religious war.

The war she started spread like wildfire and continued to this day, seventeen years later.

Without allowing a single defeat.

The consecutive victories in war made Febrya a powerful nation, and the country’s authority was completely attributed to the priesthood.

All Febryans praised and followed the high priest.

Like a god, so to speak.

Right now, including the puppet emperor sitting across from Jane.

“I command pharmacist Jane to go on a business trip. A cooperation request has come from the priesthood, so go to Andis to uncover the cause of the Ompupus endemic disease and return.”

“……Chief.”

“……”

A trace of fatigue appeared on the emperor’s face.

He sighed briefly and waved his hand carelessly as if annoyed, then parted his lips again.

“Oh, right, right. It was chief.”

To correct her title.

“Chief pharmacist, Jane.”

Even after the emperor corrected himself, Jane remained buried deep in the sofa, silently trimming her split fingernails.

Then suddenly, she lifted her head and asked.

“But is it really okay to uncover the cause of Ompupus…… Your Majesty?”

She continued with a face that said it probably wasn’t.

“Whether pharmacists or knights or whatever, when the priesthood, which has far more personnel than the court, makes a cooperation request, there are usually two cases.”

It was past two in the afternoon.

The emperor couldn’t hear a word of what Jane was saying.

He just wanted to go to his bedroom and get some sleep. He was also feeling drowsy after having just finished lunch.

“One is when you have to chase after them like a dog wherever the war ends and take care of all the dirty work.”

It was also because he had drunk heavily all night with beauties at his sides.

“The other is when they need a facade.”

The emperor scratched his forehead.

He thought it would be nice to relax in a hot bath if not a nap.

“I think this business trip order is the latter.”

A hot bath…….

Just the thought made him drowsy, and the emperor’s eyes were about to close when—

“What is Your Majesty’s opinion?”

“……”

“Your Majesty.”

The emperor, who had been blinking his fish-like eyes, glanced at the secretary sitting diagonally and straightened his posture, nodding his head.

“I think so too.”

“……As expected, right? So……”

Jane, who had been nodding quite seriously, suddenly tilted her head and smiled brightly.

“I don’t want to go.”

“Right, right, don’t go…… What? Don’t go? Where? To Andis?”

“Yes. I don’t want to go.”

At the completely unexpected answer, the emperor’s sleepiness vanished completely.

What to do about this?

She was someone who, if told she’d be beheaded, would ask ‘Will you bury my corpse in a sunny place?’

He leaned forward as much as possible with the intention of coaxing her and whispered so only she could hear.

“Didn’t you hear? It’s a cooperation request sent directly by the high priest herself.”

Then Jane sighed lightly.

……Ah, sent directly by the high priest herself.

Then Jane asked a question that deviated from the flow of conversation.

“Your Majesty, what does a chief pharmacist become when promoted?”

The emperor straightened his upper body and answered confidently.

“Isn’t it the first pharmacist?”

“What comes after that?”

“……There probably isn’t anything?”

Then Jane straightened her back and smiled.

Filling her ash-colored eyes with arrogance.

“Give me what comes after that.”

The current court’s first pharmacist was Haim Bartzsen, who had taken in Jane when she was an orphan. She was now demanding from the emperor a position higher than that Haim Bartzsen.

Meanwhile, the emperor’s mind worked quickly.

He also knew what the reason was for the priesthood to request cooperation from the court.

But knowing didn’t change anything.

Madrian de Kan.

She was the high priest of Febrya.

So a mere court pharmacist couldn’t do anything about the high priest’s plans. Responding to the cooperation request that was like a command came first.

The emperor, who had finished thinking, shrugged his shoulders.

“I promise.”

Then he quickly pulled out documents bearing the priesthood’s emblem from his chest and spread them out hurriedly.

As if checking an errand note.

“That…… how many was it. Ah. Here it is.”

“……”

“One chief pharmacist and…… right, bring three more pharmacists.”

“……The High Priest is mobilizing quite a lot of idiots, no, personnel for this facade. Isn’t there a separate time frame? An estimated time to return.”

The emperor brightened considerably.

“That’s right, that’s right. That was also written here.”

“……”

“Found it. It says one week.”

……One week.

Jane, who had briefly lowered her gaze, immediately lifted her head.

“That’s enough.”

It should seem quite natural.

The emperor missed Jane’s additional comment.

Having resolved the matter requested by the priesthood, he quickly dismissed Jane with the intention of hurrying into a hot bath.

“Oh.”

She, who had been about to leave the office, turned back around.

“I’ll return when I want to.”

The emperor was speechless.

“Your return……”

Hadn’t it always been a mess anyway, even without saying so?

Like getting left behind.

He was about to say, don’t get left behind, but shut his mouth and waved his hand instead—half hoping she’d figure it out on her own, half annoyed.

“Oh, right, right. Now go on.”

A few days later.

The emperor eventually heard the familiar message……

“Your Majesty, one pharmacist has been left behind in Andis.”

He asked with a tone of ‘again this time?’

“……Jane?”

The chamberlain replied in a tone that confirmed, ‘again, this time.’

“……Yes, Your Majesty. What shall we do?”

“Well, won’t she return on her own as she said? Besides, Febrya priesthood’s priests and holy knights are stationed in Andis……”

The yawning emperor stretched fully.

“She’ll probably return without being able to do anything.”

***

“Haah……!”

Jane woke up from sleep, breathing heavily.

She looked as if she had had a nightmare.

She wiped away the cold sweat glistening on her forehead and was about to search for something habitually with trembling hands when—

“You seem to be hated.”

“……”

It wasn’t a very pleasant thing to hear immediately upon regaining consciousness.

When she turned her head to the side, Kudkan, the elder of Andis with white hair, was sitting politely at a distance neither far nor close.

“The pharmacists who came with you have already left.”

“……”

“Leaving you behind.”

Jane wasn’t greatly disturbed.

Though she didn’t go on business trips often, she was frequently left behind.

Whenever she traveled in and out of Febrya, she suffered from particularly severe body aches. During that time, her colleagues often abandoned her and left.

As she had expected, like today.

Jane leaned against the wall and sat down. Then she turned her head left and right as her neck and shoulders were stiff, and parted her dry lips.

“……Being hated.”

Then she sneered and answered slowly.

“Isn’t Andis the same? Not only by Febrya, but by all neighboring countries as well.”

Kudkan said nothing.

He just silently gazed at the young pharmacist left alone in Andis with his faded eyes.

Jane took out a hair tie from the bag beside her and asked.

“How many days have passed?”

Kudkan quickly caught the meaning of the question.

“Ten days.”

Ten days.

The time Jane had hovered between life and death. To be exact, she had suffered for two full additional days.

Since she had lost consciousness from the moment she left Febrya.

She continued her questions while tying up her long silver-like hair that reached down to her waist.

“How many patients?”

“As confirmed so far, four hundred and forty-two.”

“Deaths?”

“……As of this morning, it became seven.”

“What did those idiots do?”

“……”

Kudkan found it difficult to choose his words.

Not because he didn’t know who the idiots Jane was referring to were, nor because he couldn’t speak carelessly about them.

Simply because they had done nothing.

“If you’re asking what the pharmacists from Febrya did…… they spent time and left.”

Jane nodded indifferently as if she had expected as much.

“I heard the death occurrence cycle is quite regular, is that correct?”

“That’s right.”

“Roughly how long?”

“……About a month and a week.”

Approximately 5 weeks.

Jane quietly lowered her gaze. She blinked her ash-colored eyes slowly as if lost in thought, then lifted her head.

“Seven.”

Then she looked into Kudkan’s faded eyes and grinned.

“That will be the end of the deaths.”

Silence followed.

Jane put strength in her legs and stood up. Though her body was heavy like wet cotton, it wasn’t difficult to move.

It was when she was about to grab the door handle and leave the room.

Kudkan asked.

“The Febryans who came here all said it was because we don’t believe in your god, do you think the same?”

It wasn’t a voice with an edge.

But it was also a voice that could sharpen at any time.

Andis.

A vassal state where Febrya priesthood personnel had been stationed for three months due to the Ompupus endemic disease. At the same time, it was also the only vassal state that the great empire Febrya hated.

“That’s a rude question.”

Jane, who had only slightly turned her head, spoke to Kudkan’s gaunt back.

“Rather, shouldn’t you first ask whether I believe in god?”

“……You are also a Febryan.”

“Elder.”

She continued in a somewhat annoyed voice.

“I’m going to be promoted this time. To an unprecedented position in the court.”