TSMFWL 13

Chapter 13

When Pesha let out the words like a sigh, Sally, who had been patting her on the back, tilted her head.

“Hm? What did you say?”

“Nothing. I’m going to step outside for a bit. My eyes are stinging from the smoke…”

“Of course. Ah, Doctor! I’ll help you!”

While Sally went off to help with the work, Pesha hurried out of the raccoon den.

She had only been inside for a short while, but the smoke smell was already clinging strongly to her neat clothes and beautifully braided silver hair.

Pesha felt bad about leaving without saying goodbye to Sally, but if she stayed any longer, she felt like she would suffocate and die. So she retraced the path she had taken to get there.

Once she climbed the hill and breathed in the scent of the trees, she finally felt like she could breathe again.

“No matter how little people know about the dangers of smoking in this era, they must realize that smoking that much can’t possibly be good for the body…”

Pesha stopped speaking.

Perhaps the doctor knew that too, but the patient’s condition must have been so bad that he had no choice but to prescribe it.

Feeling a little disheartened, Pesha walked down the mountain path with her head lowered.

But by the time she reached the bottom of the hill, her head had lifted proudly.

“That’s right! Why didn’t I think of that? I have to go before it’s too late!”

The moment the idea occurred to her, she ran all the way from the back gate to the castle gardens without stopping.

As she arrived, panting heavily, she saw exactly what she had feared.

The maids were digging up the blue flowers planted in the flower beds with hoes and shovels.

“M-My Lady?”

The maids were startled by their mistress suddenly rushing over in such a disheveled state.

Pesha was so out of breath that she could barely speak.

“Don’t… do that.”

“Pardon?”

“Huff… huff… Don’t throw those away.”

“W-What? These?”

One of the maids held up a flower she had just dug out with her hoe.

A flower dyed blue that looked exactly like a rose.

It was the fake rose that had led the butler to ruin.

Pesha swallowed nervously and nodded.

“That. It has a use. So don’t dig them up.”

It was early dawn, with the hazy sun barely peeking over the horizon.

Minnie, one of the maids, woke up hungry.

Too lazy to get out of bed, she tossed and turned for a while before finally throwing off her blanket and jumping to her feet.

“Should I have some bread…?”

It was still a little early, but there should be some bread baked at dawn for breakfast.

Rubbing her stomach, she went down to the kitchen.

A flickering light could be seen through the crack in the kitchen door.

“Huh? Did the head chef already wake up…?”

That man really was an early riser.

Minnie had become fairly close with the head chef during the short time since she had arrived in Swap, so she tiptoed toward the kitchen, intending to surprise him.

Then she flung the door open and called out,

“Uncle… Gasp!”

Minnie had been excitedly calling out to him, but she froze in confusion at the unexpected sight before her.

“M-Miss?”

It was none other than Pesha who stood in the kitchen, stirring a pot nearly half the size of her body.

“Oh, Minnie! Perfect timing. Can you help me?”

“Pardon?”

“Roast these tea leaves for me.”

“…What?”

“Fry them until all the moisture is completely dried out.”

Minnie had helped out a little with kitchen work at the Rydel Duke’s residence, but this was her first time roasting tea leaves.

She took hold of the pan with an uncertain expression.

“I’ve never done this before. Are you sure it’ll be okay…? I’m probably going to ruin the taste…”

The flavor of roasted tea leaves depended greatly on the temperature, humidity, time, and technique.

Minnie knew that, so she warned Pesha in advance that she would probably ruin them.

Pesha stirred the pot as she replied,

“It’s still better than alcohol, isn’t it? Better to have bad-tasting tea than soak them in alcohol.”

“Huh?”

“Start a fire in the stove first. We don’t have time.”

“Y-Yes.”

As Minnie lit the fire, she thought to herself,

‘Miss is doing something strange again… She really does come up with the most unexpected things sometimes.’

She might seem gentle and quiet, but once she made up her mind, she had always been the sort of person to take on something enormous.

A few years ago, when the precious potted tree that the Duke of Rydel had received from the Emperor began to wither and everyone had panicked, it was Miss who had saved it.

‘Although the Duke was absolutely horrified, saying she was showing off some useless little trick.’

And that wasn’t all.

Around last year, she had even run away from home because she wanted to get rid of a grass infestation that had turned all the grass in the duke’s garden yellow.

‘If she only woke up at dawn and raided the kitchen, perhaps that’s actually pretty mild.’

Minnie glanced at the bundles of flowers piled beside her.

Though calling them bouquets was a bit of a stretch. They were mostly just the flower heads.

“But, Miss. Aren’t these those roses? The fake roses…”

“That’s right.”

“You’re going to make tea out of them? Why?”

“Yes. I’m going to make a new painkiller.”

“A pain…killer?”

“Minnie.”

The warning tone clearly told her to stop asking questions and hurry up with her work.

Minnie quickly shoved more firewood into the stove and gripped the pan.

‘Let’s not dig too deeply. Even when she does strange things, she’s never the sort of person to cause trouble for no reason.’

There was always a reason behind Pesha’s actions.

Even the reason she had worked so hard to save the garden lawn was because a gardener who had been saving money for his daughter’s medical expenses was at risk of losing his job, and she wanted to help him.

After Minnie hurriedly roasted the tea leaves and let them cool slightly, Pesha steeped the flowers in hot water.

After repeating the process several times, blue tea was soon completed.

The blue dye that the butler had used to color the flowers was what gave it its color.

“We’re not going to die if we drink this, are we?”

Minnie asked suspiciously as she stared at the blue liquid.

Pesha shook her head.

“No. They probably used plant juice to dye them anyway, so there shouldn’t be any problem with consuming them.”

“What are you going to do with this?”

“Once it cools down a little, we’ll load it onto a wagon and transport it.”

“I thought you were going to drink it yourself, Miss?”

At those words, Pesha burst out laughing.

“Me? Hahaha. No. We’re going to distribute this to the patients.”

Just as she finished speaking, the head chef, who had arrived for work rubbing his sleepy eyes, spotted the two of them chatting together and looked shocked.

“My Lady! What are you doing here?”

“Head Chef! Perfect timing. Transfer the tea in this pot into an oak barrel. We have plenty of empty liquor barrels, don’t we?”

The head chef looked bewildered, but obediently did as he was told.

By the time the cooled tea was being poured into the oak barrel, the sun had fully risen and morning had arrived.

Before more people woke up and started drawing attention to what she was doing, Pesha instructed Minnie to prepare a wagon.

Then she had the coachman load the oak barrel onto it.

“Miss. Are you really taking this to the hospital?”

“Are you worried? You can come with me.”

“Of course I’m coming with you…!”

Since this was the first time Minnie had left the count’s castle since arriving in Swap, she looked rather nervous.

After checking that the wagon had been attached to the carriage, Pesha set off.

The carriage carrying Pesha wound through the new town, then entered a series of crooked alleys before finally stopping at the entrance to the old town.

“My Lady. Are you sure this is the right way?”

The coachman asked anxiously.

“Hmm…”

Pesha couldn’t answer with certainty either.

She only remembered the route she had taken through the hill.

“This area connects to the old town, so it could be dangerous if we’re not careful.”

“All right. Let’s make one more round. If we can’t find it, we’ll just go back.”

It was at that moment that Pesha spotted someone from behind.

“Sally!”

The girl wearing a white headscarf turned her head.

“Sally! It’s me!”

“Ah…!”

Pesha noticed that Sally looked happy to see her but seemed unable to figure out what title to call her.

That was when Pesha realized she had never actually told Sally her name.

“Pesha! I’m Pesha!”

“P-Pesha. What is all this? And what’s with the carriage…?”

Sally covered her open mouth, apparently startled by the procession.

“More importantly, can you tell me how to get to the hospital tent?”

“The hospital?”

Sally looked flustered, but she dutifully gave them directions.

Thanks to her, they were finally able to reach the hospital tent.

As usual, it was in the same smoke-filled state as the raccoon den.

As the carriage rolled closer on its large wheels, the doctor, who had been standing outside the tent taking a break, dropped the cigarette he was smoking.

“Doctor Sally! What have you brought with you?”

“Ahaha… Doctor, well…”

The doctor was limping.

Perhaps he had sprained his foot or even broken a bone, because it was wrapped heavily in a bandage reinforced with plaster.

‘So he was smoking that tobacco because his foot hurt.’

While Sally struggled to explain the unfamiliar carriage, Pesha stepped down from it.

The doctor looked at her and asked,

“And who is this woman?”

Pesha was just about to introduce herself when Minnie jumped in ahead of her and shouted,

“Hey! ‘This woman’?”

“Huh?”

The doctor looked back and forth between Pesha and Minnie in confusion.

Could she be a noble?

Judging by her clothes, the carriage, and the girl who appeared to be her maid, it certainly seemed so.

Just as the doctor hurriedly prepared to show proper respect, Pesha waved her hand.

“No need for formalities. More importantly, I have something to show you.”

Pesha gestured toward the coachman.

The coachman pulled the oak barrel down from the wagon.

Pointing at the barrel, Pesha said,

“I came because I thought this might help. Try using this as a painkiller for the patients.”