Chapter 39
It was such an easy thing to understand.
So simple that even Alice, who had just arrived, felt a surge of anger rising to the back of her throat as soon as she heard it.
In other words, ‘Entrust your life to my antidote and go to the sea, I’ll be waiting here’?
Arno’s neck, who had heard those words first, still had prominent veins.
“It’s easy for you to say. Does that medicine even work? The only herbs I’ve had were the ones that came out of my stomach, so I doubt you even had the chance to test it!”
“The active mechanisms of herbs that have sedative effects are well-documented. Especially when the only administration route is oral, which also makes it easy to counteract forced dosing.”
“So you haven’t actually tested it, is what you’re saying.”
“When you put sugar in food, it tastes sweet. That’s a fact anyone knows, no experiments needed.”
Nathan raised his chin with an expression that he liked the analogy he had thrown. It was a premature declaration of victory.
Arno shook his head and said.
“The rye bread you had for lunch, was it sweet and delicious?”
“Huh? Sweet? It was just plain.”
“Rye bread also contains sugar. It’s food for the yeast that makes it rise, but we don’t get to taste any of that sweetness. So maybe don’t use metaphors about things you don’t actually understand.”
Nathan’s face turned red. Instead of enjoying a childish sense of victory, Arno slammed his fist on the table.
“I was commissioned to save you, not to be your slave. How much longer do I have to just sit back and watch you call the shots?”
“W-Watch your mouth! And what did you even do while I was moving my jaw? You acted like you could charm the villagers, but instead of making allies, all you did was give us corpses to deal with!”
Ah, the word ‘us’ yanked Alice right into the mess.
Anyway, since she couldn’t just keep watching, Alice took a step forward. In a position that didn’t seem to be protecting Nathan.
“Wait a minute, please explain from the beginning. Professor, you made an antidote?”
“Yeah.”
As if the situation of being questioned itself was unpleasant, Nathan frowned slightly and answered.
“If you take about 30ml in advance, you can prevent the absorption of sedative active ingredients for about 3 to 4 hours. I’m sure of it, with my PhD on the line.”
“Yes, I know this is your area of expertise.”
“There were almost no side effects in the prototype. I ran out of ingredients, but luckily, Fiore just restocked them for me, so the final product should be ready soon.”
Alice’s heart thumped for a moment at the name that suddenly came out. As if hit by a rubber ball.
But she didn’t have time to dwell on the feeling.
Arno chuckled and growled at the same time.
“Almost none? Almooost? Ha, what is that! Are you going to use others as experimental tools?”
“Side effects are literally side effects. There is no medicine in the world without side effects. It’s just a matter of whether you can handle it or not.”
Damn it, who asked for another lecture!
Before Arno exploded, Alice blatantly intervened between the two. Facing her wronged eyes, Arno bit back the emotions that were boiling in his mouth.
That was at least something to be thankful for. If she took Nathan’s side here again, that spark would pour down on Alice.
“First… Professor, I’ll take the prototype myself a few more times. It’d be safer if multiple people tested it.”
“I can’t make that many. This is a rural shop; the ingredient purity is so poor that after refining, the yield is cut in half.”
“Okay. And let’s consider safety devices other than the antidote. Taking self-defense items, tying a string, or something…”
It was just a temporary fix, but it was better than nothing.
Arno scoffed in disbelief.
“Why don’t you bring yarn, too. Like that, what was it, the Minotaur maze.”
“I didn’t know you had a flair for mythology.”
“Do you think I grew up locked in a barn? Oh, speaking of which, that Arachne-like woman. I heard a little about the sea while chatting before.”
“…Arachne?”
“Yeah, of course, a guy like you wouldn’t bother knowing about the residents. There’s this woman who practically lives tangled up in her own web. I chatted with her before and asked if she avoided the sea because there was something dangerous, but she somehow gave off the impression that she just didn’t like it because it was dirty…”
His knack for striking up conversations hadn’t changed, but Arno’s overall demeanor was more guarded compared to when the journey began.
It must be the result of physical clashes with the villagers. Is that why? The information exchanged was somewhat superficial.
Alice sighed at the reality while assembling superficial information in one side of her brain.
When can we discuss the most important thing, ‘Who’s going down there?’
Should we use the age-old symbol of fairness, drawing lots, and can we include Nathan there…?
“…Then there’s only one resident who goes to and from the sea. Miss, didn’t you hear anything from Fiore?”
“Huh? What?”
“You were daydreaming?”
“No, I heard you were gathering information about the sea. You even talked about Charlotte and Doki. Um, I…”
Alice mulled over Fiore’s calm, or playful, very occasionally sharp voice that she had heard –
She belatedly realized something strange.
“Why did you ask me about Fiore?”
“Weren’t you two getting along? I figured that bastard only carried me out because of you.”
“That’s… I’ve been a little indebted to him, but…”
Are we close?
While she might know better than anyone here about his various expressions and the many voices he possessed beyond just mockery…
How could she define this distance between them?
The comb in her pocket suddenly came to mind, tangling her thoughts even further.
As Alice became more flustered, unable to define her own hesitation, Nathan spoke.
“I hear that fellow’s been avoiding Alice lately.”
“Hah! Wow, I didn’t expect that. Why on earth?”
“Guess he’s done with his petty dilemmas. Young men are all the same. When they see a woman, they gauge whether she’s prey they can devour in one bite, or someone not worth the neck strain to look at.”
“You seem to know an awful lot about that?”
Alice wanted to deny Nathan’s words. She couldn’t explain the details, but they had talked and cleared up any misunderstandings. That they would meet again and she could ask anything.
She didn’t want to hear Arno’s criticism about “playing around under the pretense of gathering information” again.
But unexpectedly, Arno looked at Alice and let out a sigh.
“He’s avoiding you first? That’s a relief.”
“A relief?”
“Honestly, when I heard he was hanging around you, I wondered what he was plotting. Besides, it’s strange how proper ladies like you always seem to lose their judgment around sketchy guys.”
“Stop making weird jokes!”
“I’m being completely serious. Let me be rude for a moment. When I heard he was helping someone as boring as you, I suspected… maybe it was groundwork to trap an unwanted visitor.”
“…This isn’t just momentary rudeness. You’ve always been rude, Arno.”
“So you admit everything else I said?”
Alice fell silent.
Alice Boucher. She was a boring person. People’s interest in her only came from her social position, gender, or physical appearance.
It had always been that way.
If anyone in this village showed interest in her, it might just be interest in potential prey.
Nathan pulled the topic back to its original course.
“Enough. Alice, haven’t you heard anything from others?”
“I’ll ask the children tomorrow.”
“Kids are loose-lipped. That’s risky… You sure you can handle them? Your pediatric medicine grades weren’t great, remember?”
At this extremely reductionist medical thinking, Arno suppressed a snort, making an odd “pfft” sound. Alice felt a bit embarrassed, but thought this feeling was at least better than the uncertainty facing the sea.
The meeting, which had been dancing around the question of ‘who would go to the sea,’ ended with the setting sun. Before it got darker, Arno left the clinic with a “see you tomorrow.”
Nathan grumbled.
“He keeps beating around the bush about who should go besides him.”
“…What if several of us went?”
“Two people going down there is already a big deal. If we all rush out at once, how do you think that’ll look? We need to minimize variables.”
Of course. The idea of “all three of us going” wasn’t even on the table. Leaving behind those words, Nathan climbed the stairs.
After the door closed and even the creaking of the bed had stopped,
Alice leaned against the window and took out the comb from her pocket.
The faint moonlight illuminated its lattice pattern. As she traced the pure white reflection with her finger, the rough texture confirmed that this first gift from a man wasn’t an illusion.
She stroked the comb’s teeth like an instrument. Though it couldn’t compare to music, it made a somewhat pleasant sound.
With that texture, that sound.
Alice tried to suppress the questions bubbling up in her mind.
Fiore. Why were you kind to me?
Let’s say it was out of pity at first. Then what about the sea-scented water you poured over me to wash away the blood? The hands that lightened my burden? Above all, this gift?
Her fingers tracing the raised pattern became rougher. The comb’s teeth began to bend at increasingly dangerous angles. The sound now resembled more the threatening twang of a bowstring than musical notes.
But that texture, that sound.
To suppress something rising from deep within her chest…
‘I…’
She wanted to ask trivial questions just to hear his voice. Any answer would do, no matter how worthless. The heavy footsteps walking beside her. The moment when his suddenly lowered eyes curved toward her when she looked up-
“Ah…”
A tooth of the comb broke.
Alice stared blankly at the broken tooth, then tried to reattach it. Of course, it was futile. A broken branch cannot reattach itself. Just as one who falls cannot defy gravity.
‘…A trap.’
She didn’t agree with Arno’s opinion. If Fiore had intended to destroy her, he wouldn’t have stolen her wallet.
However…
There are fools in this world who walk into traps of their own accord. Taking steps toward the cliff’s edge.
‘Beautiful world.’
Adelaide’s voice joined in, embracing Alice as if to weigh her down. The meaningful gazes that didn’t look at her strangely, meaningful precisely because of their absence, joined in.
She could hear children’s laughter. Here, no matter what body you had, what personality you possessed, what you ate, how you lived-
‘No! I am… a doctor who graduated from Canary Medical School! The first! Still alive! And I’ll continue living as a doctor!’
Alice took the broken comb tooth and jabbed it between her fingers. The sharp pain instantly brought her back to reality.
And Alice made her decision.
