Then Kudkan turned around belatedly with an expression of not understanding.

“……What does that……”

“It means I’m going to end the Ompupus that has spread on this island.”

Unlike Kudkan who looked very surprised, Jane’s face remained as indifferent as before.

She tilted her head sideways and said.

“So don’t speak in circles. I’m not idle enough to interpret and answer each of your words one by one.”

“……”

“I’m busy.”

Jane then pulled the door handle and brazenly put a period to her statement.

“As you know, being hated.”

Kudkan mumbled. As if he completely agreed with her words.

He stood up with his cane and said.

“……I’ll guide you to the hospital room where the patients are.”

“Do that.”

He quietly understood her colleagues who had left Jane behind and gone ahead.

***

Cardinal Mallen Rendman of Febrya vaguely felt that something was going wrong.

He wasn’t quick-witted.

However, he was light-tempered, cunning, and crafty.

So he would notice things unfavorable to him even if belatedly, and it was his iron rule to use any means necessary to distinguish right from wrong and not suffer even a fingernail’s worth of loss.

It had been three months since he was stationed in Andis under High Priest Madrian’s orders.

During his time here, no existence had grated on his nerves this much.

“That court pharmacist.”

One holy knight guarding in front of the military barracks quietly began.

Not knowing that Mallen was inside the barracks.

“I’m sure.”

Mallen’s ears perked up.

Had one clever holy knight noticed the uneasiness he was vaguely feeling? Just as he was about to feel pleased.

“I’m sure she’s fallen for one of us.”

“Bullshit.”

Bullshit!

While Mallen was inwardly fuming, the holy knights’ conversation continued.

“Bullshit? Think about it carefully. Otherwise, there’s no reason for her to stare at us like that, right? Don’t you think?”

“……Is that so?”

What do you mean is that so!

The state of these so-called holy knights’ conversation!

It was then.

The surroundings became quiet at the following words.

“Every single day too. Without even sleeping.”

“……”

Every single day. Without even sleeping.

Even Mallen couldn’t deny those words.

Jane really did, every single day, day and night, following the every move of the priesthood personnel with her eyes.

From the sculptors creating the giant statue of Febrya’s god Anaxionia, to the priests proselytizing Andis, to the holy knights guarding the water and food warehouses.

Whatever they did, she was always staring.

Very intently.

How much must it have been for Andis’s elder Kudkan to chase after her and say something.

— What makes you different from the Febryan court pharmacists who left first? Can’t you truly see those who have caught Ompupus here and are becoming living corpses?

Jane had said something then, and Kudkan had left with a fed-up face.

And she still watched the priesthood personnel.

As if observing the inside of pests.

Like now.

“……Phew. What should I do?”

At the voice full of excitement coming from outside the barracks, Mallen’s insides burst.

“Such a pretty woman has completely fallen for me, so suddenly…… my heart is beating.”

“……I have nothing to say because your attitude change is too honest. Why do you think it’s you? And your heart must have been beating earlier too.”

“Somehow…… our eyes kept meeting……”

“Are you listening to me? You said it was bullshit earlier.”

“Somehow……”

“……”

“I should go and at least try to talk to her……”

Unfortunately, the man’s words tinted with pink didn’t even finish and scattered into the air like they were blown away.

The holy knights hurriedly saluted, not having dreamed that Mallen would come out from inside the barracks.

“……Tsk.”

Mallen clicked his tongue and passed in front of them.

Then he went to the water warehouse right next to them, grabbed a water bottle, and went to the court pharmacist sitting on the stone steps across from him.

With an expression that said he was annoyed to death.

In fact, he had no choice.

According to schedule, the court pharmacists who came here due to the priesthood’s cooperation request should have quietly just breathed and returned after a week.

Fortunately, the court pharmacists were quite perceptive.

Mallen had only lightly pressured them by gripping their shoulders and saying ‘stay comfortably’ but they immediately understood what he meant.

So they quietly returned without doing anything.

Everything seemed to flow according to natural order.

Until an unexpected variable appeared.

Jane.

One girl had been left behind, and he didn’t even know where she had been holed up all this time. Andis was an island quite far from Febrya. It was difficult to send her back immediately.

But the panic was brief. When he thought about it briefly, it didn’t seem like it would be a problem.

Just one girl.

He thought she would live as if she didn’t exist.

And his prediction was correct.

Except for the part where she monitored the priesthood’s activities day and night and thoroughly grated on his nerves.

“Court pharmacist Jane.”

At Mallen’s call, Jane’s lips twitched and then immediately closed.

Thanks to him roughly throwing the water bottle at her with a thud.

“I’ve heard rumors that compared to your outstanding abilities, you have no dignity or refinement no matter how hard one looks, but I didn’t know you’d be this lacking.”

“……”

“Has no one taught you until now that staring at people like that isn’t polite? Or else.”

Mallen twisted up the corners of his mouth and stabbed with dagger-like words.

“Since you’re an orphan with no one, do you need to show it off to feel satisfied?”

Jane stared at the water bottle thrown into her arms, then lifted her gaze.

“……Cardinal.”

For a moment, Mallen flinched without realizing it.

“You forgot something.”

Because she was smiling with a face that said she was genuinely delighted to death.

“Chief. Chief pharmacist.”

Grinning.

With one hand supporting her chin.

“That title will end soon too, so I’m trying to hear it a lot while I can.”

Mallen found it difficult to define her attitude in one word.

Beyond arrogance, somewhere……

Right.

It was an attitude that was somehow subtly insane.

Mallen’s face instantly contorted, but Jane, as if she didn’t care whether he did or not, hummed and opened the water bottle cap.

Then she looked directly into Mallen’s eyes and turned the water bottle opening toward the ground.

Glug glug glug……

“Right now, this is…….”

Cardinal Mallen Rendman.

He was the person with authority second only to the high priest in Febrya.

“What are you doing……?”

He couldn’t believe what he was seeing right in front of him — water being deliberately spilled from the water bottle he had given her. Even until the water droplet hanging at the end of the bottle opening pitifully dripped down.

“Ah, you didn’t know.”

Jane carelessly dropped the water bottle to the ground with a perfectly fine-looking hand.

“I have no dignity or refinement.”

She still had a face that said she was delighted to death.

“But I do have hand tremors.”

Mallen felt difficulty not only with her attitude but also in determining his own attitude.

If it were up to his feelings, he wanted to grab her hair right away. He wanted to curse at her. Until she shed as many tears as the water from the bottle spilled on the ground.

But there were too many watching eyes.

She had daringly spilled the water he had given her for all to see, and if he punished her for just such a thing, it would rather be unseemly for the priesthood’s dignity.

“But I’m upset.”

The girl who had been grinning until just moments ago rested her chin on her knees again and spoke in a tone that sounded deeply hurt if one listened briefly.

“It’s holy water from the priesthood that you’ve been thoughtfully providing every time with a face that says you hate the sight of it to death, but my hand slipped and I spilled it all……”

……Slipped?

Let my hand slip toward your hair too, shall we?

The moment Mallen thought that, Jane swept past him quickly, her silver hair fluttering.

“I’m thirsty.”

While saying words mixed with arsenic.

Goosebumps spread across Mallen’s back.

As soon as he urgently turned around, his vision went dark. Jane had gone to a nearby well and was approaching a citizen drawing water, acting friendly.

“Could you give me some water?”

“……!”

Mallen felt dizzy. At the same time, he felt like all the blood was draining from his body.

He had to stop Jane.

He definitely had to stop her, but before the frozen man could take even one step forward—

“It’s refreshing.”

Jane’s sip was faster.

She glanced at Mallen, then gulped down the rest of the water in the bronze water container. Seeing that scene, Mallen really didn’t want to believe it was reality.

This was something he had never expected at all.

For a Febryan to draw and drink well water from Andis……

When the water warehouse was overflowing with Sha’s holy water, to drink well water from Andis where plague was spreading……!

His heart beat like crazy.

His face turned pale white, and sweat poured down the back of his neck.

Soon a warning voice rang in his head.

That things had gone wrong.

Properly wrong at that.

***

Kudkan’s faded gaze didn’t leave the court pharmacist and the priesthood cardinal.

Though he couldn’t hear the content of their conversation due to the distance, they were definitely conspiring together.