Chapter 61: Poison (William’s Point of View)
I didn’t know what happened.
I stood there helplessly until Leah’s body lost its strength and leaned against me, collapsing and falling to the ground.
“Leah…?”
Even when I called her name, she lay motionless on the ground.
Looking at his stomach with a stopped head, I finally realized after a few seconds that it was not a shaft growing from his stomach, but an arrow that had pierced her abdomen.
I kneeled next to him like a fool and reached out my hand to her abdomen.
Wishing that this scene was just a dream.
But contrary to my wish, the hard, cold sensation of the arrow touched my palm.
When I moved my hand to the side, I felt as if I had touched something moist with a gurgling sound.
When I looked, my palm was dyed red.
An iron smell spread through my nasal cavity.
“Ah…”
I couldn’t help but let out a voice.
“Ah, ah…”
His pale face, closed eyelids, slumped hands and feet, and abdomen pierced by an arrow.
Although my senses tell me that everything is undeniable reality, my brain rejects understanding it.
Then, someone’s hand touched my shoulder.
“Sir Duke.”
The hand shakes my shoulder strongly.
“Sir Duke, calm down. If you don’t, Captain Flores will die.”
At that voice, I regained myself with a start.
My nonfunctional hearing began to pick up sounds around me.
Next to me, a knight with brown hair appeared out of nowhere, holding my shoulder.
The brown-haired knight, Daniel Johnson, looked at me with serious eyes.
“I understand that you are upset. But we can’t do anything unless Sir Duke, the highest responsible person, gives us instructions. If things continue like this, not only will those who can be saved be saved, but those who can’t be saved will not be saved. Sir Duke, for the sake of saving Captain Flores, calm down.”
The words make me look around.
The knights of the Duke Moore family were looking at me and waiting for my instructions.
I closed my eyes, took a deep breath.
(Calm down, keep your calm. Think about what is necessary to save Leah)
I grabbed my palm covered in Leah’s blood.
(Remember what happened when Leah collapsed.)
I opened my eyes and opened my mouth.
“There is a high possibility that poison was applied to the arrow that Leah was shot with. After removing the arrow, prioritize getting the poison out of his body rather than stopping the bleeding. After that, check the belongings of the collapsed archer and see if there is any poison left.”
I picked Leah up by the shoulder.
His unconscious arm hung down weakly.
“Once the treatment is finished, we will return to the Duke Moore mansion. We don’t know when the bandits will attack again. Don’t let your guard down.”
The knights begin to move in response to my instructions.
Until the treatment of the arrow was finished, I continued to hold Leah’s shoulder.
***
“Hello, I am Turner, affiliated with the National Hospital. Who is the patient?”
The short, plump, and unhealthy-looking doctor spoke as soon as we arrived at the gate of the Duke Moore mansion.
“Hello, Doctor Turner. The patient is over here.”
I showed the minimum amount of politeness and immediately led him to where Leah was.
There is no poison specialist at the Duke Moore mansion.
That’s why I carried Leah to the Duke Moore mansion and sent a fast horse to the capital.
I walked quickly down the hallway with Turner, the doctor from the capital.
I opened the door to the room where Leah was sleeping and ran to him lying on the bed.
“His condition.”
The servant standing next to Leah silently shakes her head. I look at Leah and pick up his hand.
“Leah, a poison specialist has arrived.”
Although I know he is unconscious, I hold Leah’s hand tightly and speak to him.
Then, still holding his hand, I turned to Doctor Turner.
“Doctor Turner, he is the patient…”
I started to speak, but stopped mid-sentence.
“Doctor Turner…?”
There was the figure of the doctor covering his face.
“I see… the captain of the knight brigade of the Duke Moore mansion… I never thought it was that knight…”
Doctor Turner muttered and sighed deeply.
“This is not good…”
I had a bad feeling from his uneasy appearance and asked him.
“What happened? What do you mean by ‘this is not good’?”
Doctor Turner remained silent for a while, but then opened his mouth and asked me something strange.
“Duke Moore, earlier you referred to this knight as ‘he’, is that correct?”
“Y-Yes. What about it.”
When I affirmed this, Doctor Turner twisted his face even more.
“It’s a bother… This has become a very troublesome matter.”
Again, the doctor muttered something and I became increasingly uneasy.
(Could the poison Leah received be such a serious poison?)
Feeling that it would not be moved to treatment soon as a sign, I couldn’t help but speak to the doctor.
“Doctor Turner, I sent the poison in advance by fast horse, but is this poison so difficult to treat?”
When I said those words, Dr. Turner fell silent. After a moment, he opened his mouth heavily.
“Yes, yes. Of course, I analyzed the original solution I received. That poison is a poison that slowly and steadily circulates the body and kills the target. And here is the antitoxin.
Dr. Turner takes out a bottle with a pale liquid.
“If you drink this antitoxin, the poison will be neutralized. It will recover without any sequelae. Normally.”
“Normally…?”
As I make a puzzled face, Dr. Turner continues in a low voice.
“What I did was, I heard that the patient was a knight and let my guard down. I completely forgot the possibility, even though I had met him before.”
“…?… Dr. Turner, I don’t understand what you’ve been talking about all this time. Isn’t it okay to give Leah the antitoxin?”
As I ask him in a whisper, Dr. Turner shakes his head.
“This detoxifying agent is effective for men without any excess or deficiency. However, it does not work for women. This is because the unique body secretions of women hinder the absorption of this detoxifying agent. If you want to detoxify the poison for women this time, you must also take the valuable herbs that only grow in the neighboring country at the same time.”
“W-What are you… saying…?”
The doctor falls silent as my voice trembles.
Dr. Turner looks up at the ceiling, distorting his face.
“I can’t say it in terms of the patient’s privacy… No, but the patient’s life is at stake.”
The doctor turns his face towards us again.
“This antitoxin does not work for the patient. That’s because…”
Dr. Turner glances at Leah.
“The knight there is a woman.”
