Chapter 70: Visiting the Doctor
Ailea cowered when she saw the doctor. She hadn’t expected someone like him. He looked weak, and how could she trust him? He was a captured prisoner, his ankles shackled. She coughed nervously at a loss for words.
Clint looked displeased, and kicked the chair. “Don’t be sick all the time, Joaquin.”
“Oh, I’m dying! Torturing a hostage, you sowed the seed of enmity against the Khanna Empire!” Joaquin violently exaggerated.
Clint slapped the back of his head and shut him up. He turned to Ailea. “He might not be trustworthy, but he’s a reputable doctor in the area that we recaptured. Because the medical technique of the Khanna Empire is more outstanding than Teniac, beli…” Clint side-eyed Joaquin. The man was innately weak and fragile. He clicked his tongue and continued. “Don’t believe me. Should I just kill him and bring in a new one? Doctor, you look sick.”
“No! I’m healthy!” Joaquin spoke in a hurry. He took out a small tube and grabbed Ailea’s arm. “Miss, when did these black spots begin to appear?”
“It was the beginning of sixteenth winter. I was 16 at the time.”
It started with her thighs. Small spots began to form. She didn’t think much of it at the time, but after a while, the black spots spread to her back, arms, legs… everywhere. After her 17th birthday, the spots had even spread to her face.
“His Grace took some of the poison, right?”
“Ah, yes. His left hand… ugh—!” Ailea grunted lowly. When she had tried to recall her past memories, Joaquin slapped her arm with the tube he was holding without consent. Within seconds, the tube was filled with blood.
Ailea was good at handling pain. She didn’t burn in a sea of fire for nothing.
Clint looked out the windows, unable to look at blood. He had killed countless men on the battlefield, yet couldn’t handle seeing blood drawn from his wife’s slender arms? Weak.
Joaquin checked the toxins in the blood with his reactive agents. The result was the same as Clint’s. The likelihood that her blood wasn’t from poison was near high. “It might sound as if I’m boasting, but I am a renowned doctor in the Khanna Empire.What you have is most likely not poison.”
“It’s not poison… but how can it move through my hand using detoxification magic? asked Clint.
“The basic detoxification magic that you mentioned is a physical-type, and it can also transfer non-poisonous elements. For example, you can transfer the ink used to draw someone else’s tattoo.”
“What do you mean?”
“Have you ever tried using detoxification magic after that?”
“Yes, when Ailea was asleep.”
At those words, Ailea asked with widened eyes. “Wh-when I was asleep?”
“I’m sure you won’t let me do it when you’re awake. But it doesn’t work anymore.” He suddenly asked Ailea as he paid no attention to her concern. “Two years ago… do you remember sleepwalking?”
“Sleepwalking? Me?”
“You don’t remember? Two years ago, when I visited you at night, you fell from the stairs and hurt your knee. Because you were walking around while sleeping, I climbed over the wall.”
At that time, she was so surprised to see Clint’s hand that she didn’t listen to him properly.
Joaquin, who was listening to their stories, spoke. “A curse it seems…” His back then turned chilly as he uttered the word ‘curse’. “Hnngh—!” he shrieked inwardly as the cold blade touched his neck.
“Say it again,” Clint said coldly, pressing the blade deeper into his skin.
Joaquin trembled in cold horror. Clint was no human—not now and not on the battlefield—but a demon. His reputation exceeded his appearance. He had killed many who had opposed him with his sword. Fortunately, he was a bit more patient to those who didn’t resist.
Joaquin breathed, calming himself. “I’ll say it again, Your Grace, but you won’t find another doctor of equal in the Khanna Empire who bears a variety of knowledge like I do. If you kill me now, it’ll be difficult to find a cure for your wife.”
Clint lowered his sword. The doctor had a point.
Ailea noticed that Clint’s aura had changed when he held the sword, sometimes even to the point of wondering whether she was looking at the same person. Was this his true set? The thought of it frustrated her. She wanted to know more about him, even the good and ugly.
“Frankly speaking, your detoxification magic is the basis of the basics. I don’t think that the nature of your wife’s disease is connected through such basic magic. When the basic magic is connected, the curse becomes weaker, therefore breaking the ritual.” Joaquin looked at Clint. “There’s someone who put a curse on your wife. It isn’t natural. I was going to say that you had used a detoxification magic to slow the curse before you shoved that sword in my neck.”
“…Ritual?”
“Yes. I had suspicions when you said she had sleepwalking symptoms. An adept wizard with a considerable amount of mana must’ve placed a curse on her.”
“…”
“But we don’t know exactly how to cure it until we use other methods to check the poison’s symptoms. It may be rare. If it’s a curse, then it’s impossible to figure out who placed the curse on her, and even more to prove that it was a curse. Curses are difficult to break unless you find the one who placed a curse on her.”
Ailea dropped her head.
“You should think about who will benefit from this if your wife. If they held another ritual to inflict a similar curse, that’s a clue worthy of investigation to find out their weaknesses. You should be able to find a way to cure her from the afflicted disease. Either it’s those women who adore you, or those who have vendetta against the royal family that are the main culprit.”
Clint closed his eyes, then slowly opened. “Or someone who wants to be an empress?”
“…Empress?” Joaquin asked.
“It’s fine if you don’t know.”
“How will I be able to treat her even if I don’t know?”
“…Since when did you become my wife’s doctor?”
“Pardon? Isn’t that why you brought me here?” Joaquin asked brazenly.