Chapter 15
A harsh, painful sound echoed, leaving Esha more flustered by the dull sensation.
“Uh?”
“…Doctor, Esha.”
Alice lifted the corners of her mouth. The voice suppressing the pain was closer to a curse than a laugh.
“Since I brought it as a gift, have some pancakes.”
Alice forcefully shoved a plate of pancakes through the door gap.
“And you know…”
Seeing Esha inadvertently holding the plate, Alice spoke in a somewhat calmer tone.
“If it comes to cutting my flesh, please handle it with care. I wouldn’t want someone less skilled than me to slice my body.”
“Ha…”
“Please, take good care of me!”
As Alice struggled to take off her shoes, she lost her balance and fell on her backside. Esha stared at her in shock, but when their eyes met, she slammed the front door shut.
In the small victory of not having been subjected to a harsh insult, Alice collapsed onto the floor.
Of course, what came out of her mouth was a curse.
“Damn it…”
She had obtained the most crucial information about this village. More precisely, she had become convinced.
This was a crazy village.
***
In her mind, a map of the village was drawn, with a red star marked over Dr. Esha’s infirmary and the cabin.
“I need to investigate that cabin at some point. I should wait for Doctor Esha to go out.”
Was the cabin truly a place where the sins of unfortunate sinners were washed away?
Could it be that the youngest son of the Marquis of Nassau was dissected there?
After washing away the smell of formalin that had tickled her nose for the first time in a while with the scent of crushed weeds, Alice hobbled back to the clinic due to the pain in her foot, intending to look around other detention center a bit more.
Arno’s eyes widened.
“You’re back early… Did you get hurt?”
“I’m not sure. I’ll have to check now.”
She threw off her shoes and socks and placed her right foot on the examination table. It was red and swollen, but fortunately, there were no signs of fractures.
“It’s not too bad. I just need to rest a bit.”
With her foot pressed against the cold wall, Alice spoke to Arno.
“I visited Doctor Esha. As you can see, I received quite an intense greeting.”
“It’s not easy to be treated so coldly after bringing a gift. Did you provoke him?”
“My attitude might have been blunt, but I didn’t do anything deserving of being told he’d split my belly open and take out my intestines.”
“What?”
Arno straightened up from his slouched position in his chair. Alice explained everything that had happened earlier while putting her socks back on.
Arno’s sentiments were not much different from Alice’s, though their suggested responses varied greatly.
“Should we set fire to the cabin? If you want to see what’s beyond the walls, you need to tear down the wall.”
“Hey.”
“I’m serious. If we burn down that crazy cabin, that crazy doctor will have to rebuild from scratch. We can watch and uncover the secrets of ‘treatment’ then.”
“There’s no guarantee that ‘treatment’ is a proper act in the first place.”
“Has anyone ever come out after receiving ‘treatment’? There might have been guests before the advance party of the Marquis of Nassau.”
“Hmm…”
Alice pondered for a moment before knocking on the door to the second floor. After all, she needed to exchange information about Doctor Esha with Nathan.
Nathan frowned as soon as he heard that name.
He hadn’t had an experience like Alice’s with being offered new clothing decorations.
“You met that guy in a dress too? If it were at Canery University, such a perverse individual wouldn’t even make it through medical school; he’d be dragged off to a city hospital! How dare he call himself a doctor?”
“So you’ve talked with him?”
“Can we even call that a conversation? I went looking for him thinking he was my partner on the first day, but as soon as he realized I was a doctor, he slammed the door shut on me. I haven’t been able to exchange a word since… I only found out later that the cabin was the ‘treatment’ room.”
He probably hadn’t even approached the cabin, let alone gone inside.
Alice asked without much hope, “I smelled formalin wafting from there. Have you ever seen anyone who received ‘treatment’ there? Any adventurers besides us—”
“I don’t know.”
“…Adventurers or residents. No one could have left the village.”
“The residents are mostly holed up in the village! …Ah.”
Nathan cut himself off irritably before mentioning someone belatedly.
“Have you met a guy named Fiore? A big guy who looks down on people.”
“Oh… I met him during dinner on the first day. Why?”
“That guy is in charge of leaving town. If you have questions about treatment before going out, why not ask him?”
‘In charge of leaving town?’
The strange title could be inferred immediately.
“Now that you mention it, it was written in the town rules that residents should avoid leaving town as much as possible. Does that mean if something needs solving outside, it’s this resident named Fiore who goes out?”
“Exactly. For example, if there’s an urgent need for supplies, Fiore runs errands. Especially mail; it always goes through him 100%.”
Nathan grimaced at this point.
“Because of that, I couldn’t write anything properly in the letter I sent to Marie. To crush the villagers all at once, I’d have to request military support…”
“Would they really steal someone’s mail? Even for us, when we were sneaking in, the letter just said ‘I’m happy’ and we came in lying that ‘The professor wanted work,’ and nothing happened.”
“How can we know if there’s something going on behind this?”
“Well… If the letter envelope was tampered with, surely the professor’s fiancée would have noticed by now. From what I remember, the letter was opened neatly too. And somehow…”
“Somehow what?”
“Oh, never mind.”
She almost said something unnecessary: ‘Fiore didn’t seem like that kind of person.’
Of course, she didn’t trust Fiore’s conscience either; it was just his strange indifference that reminded her of how he had casually pocketed Alice’s wallet without even looking inside it.
Nathan chuckled softly.
“You’re not good at lying. Did you have dinner with him or something and develop some rapport?”
“Huh? What terrible thing are you saying? With that rude guy!”
“…”
Nathan was taken aback by her rough retort.
“What happened?”
“Well, before entering Reki, in the village…”
Alice explained everything that had transpired with Fiore—from the pickpocketing to getting hit on the nose in the restaurant—excluding the fact that her brother’s letter was in her wallet.
Arno clicked his tongue.
“So that thief was him? No wonder I noticed the way that lady was looking at him during our meal; it was unusual.”
“I don’t think I could have a conversation with him. It’s not really about liking or disliking him… If I suddenly act friendly, it’s obvious I’d be suspected.”
“Then should I go instead? I was thinking of trying to meet some of the villagers I couldn’t meet yesterday.”
The two doctors exchanged glances. Arno quickly understood that the brief silence was an OK sign.
“Let’s go now.”
Saying he would also take some bribes, Arno pulled out various items from his bag and stuffed them into his pockets: caramel, illustration cards from a third-rate magazine supplement, a pack of cigarettes…
When Alice frowned at the vulgar illustration on one of the cards, Nathan shouted,
“Smoking is prohibited in town! Just when Alice barely managed to fix the accident, now it’s your turn?”
“The more prohibited an item is, the more valuable it becomes, right? Don’t worry; I’ll handle it discreetly.”
“…Just don’t cause any accidents.”
“Don’t you have any more advice? Like what Fiore dislikes?”
“I don’t know.”
“Yes, understood. It might take a little longer if I meet the errand boy too.”
As if he hadn’t expected that, Arno waved his hand and stepped over the threshold of the front door.
After the door closed, Nathan clicked his tongue.
“People who think they’re competent always make ridiculous mistakes.”
“We have to trust them. Nothing has happened so far.”
“It must be an errand boy personally chosen by Count Serda, so he should have some ability…”
Perhaps deciding to spend this morning grumbling, Nathan slouched comfortably in his chair and began sipping water. Watching him like this made Alice realize anew,
“It’s been a long time since we sat across from each other like this.”
Though it wasn’t exactly a pleasant memory, recalling the lab scenes where half of her twenties had melted away made Alice stand up.
“Would you like some tea? I’ll boil some water.”
“…Alice.”
“Yes?”
“You met my fiancée, didn’t you?”
“Yes.”
“What do you think?”
“She’s beautiful and kind.”
Although her actions and words twisted Alice’s insides further, there was a merit to calling her kind for drinking terrible coffee without complaint and leaving behind a hand cream container.
Alice added a meaningless compliment.
“Professor, on your wedding day, you’ll be a groom more enviable than the king himself.”
“I suppose so. She may be a little naïve, but in a way, she’s just the right match for me… no. She’s truly a wonderful fiancée.”
Nathan spoke somewhat hesitantly.
“So… Alice. I’m grateful that you came all this way risking danger, but I don’t think there’s any reason for us to drink tea together.”
“Yes?”
“Don’t boil the water.”
“Wait, Professor. What are you saying—”
“No, never mind.”
Nathan awkwardly smiled.
“Right. You probably didn’t have such feelings after all. Let’s just say I jumped to conclusions too quickly.”
“…”
“Doesn’t this tea leaf seem over-roasted? Thanks for preparing it, but where on earth did you get it from? This is why country shops are unreliable.”
The topic awkwardly returned to normal. Even if Nathan tried to pull up the previous topic now, he would likely act awkwardly as if saying ‘yeah, it must be my misunderstanding.’
Years had already passed; why did that damn topic still linger…?
“Alice, do you, uh, like the taste of this tea?”
“No.”
This time Alice stood up from her seat.
Since she had no room to retreat to on the second floor, she headed toward the front door.
“I’ll take a walk and come back.”
***
After finishing Madam Adelaide’s delivery errand, Fiore chewed on the candy he had bought from the grocery store. The crunching sound of the candy masked the whispers behind him.
“Look, a Reki guy—” crunch, “He’s going to make eye contact—” crunch, “Let’s take a side road, for no reason—” crunch…
The humans fled like a school of sardines, or rather, with movements a level below that of sardines. It was both amusing and entertaining. In reality, it was more of a game where Fiore was avoiding the residents rather than them avoiding him.
“It seems no fools are planning to go to Reki today… Should I head back?”
As Fiore was about to leave the town, a member of the town watch waved at him with a smile. Knowing that it was more an act of defiance than a friendly gesture—an indication that he wasn’t scared—Fiore bared his teeth in a grin in return.
The sight of the guy flinching yet refusing to lower his head was another small joy to be found in town.
“How amusing.”
Now, the candy had been chewed for so long that it tasted like leather, devoid of any juice or texture. Still, it was better than experiencing no stimulation at all.
Walking down the same tiresome road and passing through the tiresome gates of ‘Reki’ into my tiresome village—
“…Hmm?”
At that moment, though not particularly tiresome, an annoying human caught Fiore’s eye.
