Chapter 50.2

Chapter 50.2

The weather was cloudy and the winds chilly these past few days. The baroness had caught a cold. The old woman coughed and covered her mouth with a handkerchief. Finally, she became bedridden the next day. The entire mansion was on alert because of that.

“What should we do!?”

“If Lady Gabrielle catches a serious illness we’ll all be in trouble.”

The seasonal cold was common, but pneumonia was a different thing, as she was old. The servants, maids, and other subordinates all got up and shut the windows where cold air blew inside, lit all fireplaces to warm the mansion. They also didn’t forget to clean every nook and cranny so the air wouldn’t become stuffy. The warm fire blasted away the moisture that had accumulated everywhere and heated the entire house.

However, Baroness Berne’s condition didn’t improve; her health deteriorated with each day. Her coughing worsened, along with it came headaches and a slight fever. Despite having visited a famous doctor in Wert City several times, she had barely improved.

“Grandmother…”

“Evelyn…”

The bedridden Baroness Gabrielle smiled helplessly at her tearful granddaughter.

“You must get better, grandma,” Evelyn uttered.

“Alright,” Gabrielle said. “I will.”

Contrary to her reply, Gabrielle continued her days in the hospital bed. Evelyn constantly cried because of that; Baron Berne’s expression became grimmer day after day. Even Emma had started to worry about her health. As silence and a somber mood settled inside the house, the once gentle baron soon turned cold. The old woman’s condition was becoming quite alarming.

Soon, one week had passed since Gabrielle was bedridden. Evelyn came to the guest room one day, and reading the mood, she carefully brought something up.

“I’m thinking about heading to the mall today. I’ll drop by the pharmacist, too. By chance would you like to join me?” she asked.

If it were a different outing, Emma would have tried to refuse kindly, but she nodded, intrigued by the word ‘pharmacy’.

“Okay,” she replied.

Come to think of it, it was also something Emma hadn’t thought of before Evelyn had brought it up. As Wert City was a bustling city, there would be a pharmacy, but she’d completely forgotten about it. She would be able to create a simple remedy if she bought equipment and ingredients from the pharmacy and prepared a tonic. Emma boarded the carriage with Evelyn heading for the mall.

‘Pharmacy…’ Emma mused. Thinking about her cherished Herman’s Pharmacy made her heart flutter, as if she were heading home.

Soon after, the baron’s four-horse carriage running on the paved road stopped in the middle of downtown in front of a fairly large three-story building. The entire building was a pharmacy. Unlike Herman’s, which specialized in medicinal products and related products, the Wert City pharmacy looked like a grocery store.

Looking at the items in store, they seemed to be selling everything that could make them profit. Various herbs, drugs, chemicals, agents, preparation and alchemy supplies, medical supplies, sanitary products, minerals, books, perfumes, and even tea and alcohol were available for purchase.  A customer could even pay to order items that were not readily available inside the pharmacy. They also did simple service work.

“I’ll look around to see if I need anything,” Evelyn turned and said to Emma. “Take your time.”

Emma nodded. “Yes,” she replied.

While Evelyn looked around the first floor, Emma picked some herbs, utensils and supplies on the second floor, then medicine bottles and samples on the third floor. The carriage’s luggage space was full of boxes, indicating that Evelyn had done some shopping, too. Emma, who was looking at the purchases that were piled up, headed to the clerk’s desk, remembering something.

“There is something I want to order,” she said.

“What is it, ma’am?” the clerk amicably replied. Less than two or three hours after arriving, she made sales equivalent to the price of a carriage, so there was no shortage of spots for special customers.

“Get me all the recent newsletters, bulletins, or quarterly magazines of the Royal Alchemy Society and Herbal Medicine Society,” Emma said. Then added, “Thesis are fine, too.”

“Which timeframe do you mean by recent?”

At the manager’s question, Emma stared into thin air. Emma’s knowledge was not up to date, as she didn’t work inside the industry. There had been no complaints so far, but since the last time she’d looked around the alchemy lab at Van Wert Castle, she had been curious about something. She wanted to confirm her suspicions.

‘Bucktree wood was cut into tiny pieces and piled up in a heap.’

Emma faintly remembered there was a time in the Herman’s where a pile of those wood were stocked inside the warehouse. Emma’s father had briefly mentioned something, ‘Has a new ingredient been found in bucktree?’ Unfortunately, however, she had been preparing to leave, so she had not heard the details. Now she regretted that dearly.

“Just within three years,” she said.

The clerk nodded. “Understood.”

“And I need the herbs written here.” Emma handed the pharmacist a list of herbs she’d written down.

“Oh? Luphenyl is included, I see.”