“This is really disgusting. Wait, what’s in it?”
“Why? Do you know anything?”
“I think I’ve seen this somewhere.”
Illuor had a good memory.
When he heard that cosmetics were made from human corpses, he recalled an old story his godmother used to tell him when he was little and said it was a scary story.
“There’s a story my godmother told me when I was young. Long ago in the desert, people didn’t even throw away human corpses, but used them as medicine.”
“Oh, I remember that too. My godmother told me that it was a story she heard from her grandfather.”
Beichi nodded vigorously as if he remembered. Illuor searched for memories from his childhood.
“Once upon a time, long before there were empires, there lived a madman in the desert.”
The madman thought that in the desert where supplies were scarce, even dead bodies should not be carelessly discarded.
So he secretly took the body and studied various ways to use it. When the people who knew about it did not know, they banished the madman to the middle of the desert.
However, his research records remained and were often recalled, because word of mouth said that if you make medicine according to his records, it will be very effective.
“They say that if you apply it to a torn area, new flesh will grow, and if you apply it to a broken area, the bone will heal.”
But how absurd is this story? His research records were secretly passed down until the Shartins came over to the Empire, but they were completely lost afterward.
“But brother, isn’t this just a tale?”
“Yes, but isn’t that kind of oral tradition happening again right now? We have to keep an open mind about the possibility.”
Now was the time to grab onto even the tiniest clue.
“Beichi, can’t you find a clue to the antidote in this tale? Remember how this story ends.”
“The end of this story?”
When Beichi shook his head, saying he didn't remember well, Illuor continued to explain.
“It is said that before the madman was banished to the desert, he wrote these words on the last page of his records. When the flesh rots with the spirit of the dead, cover it with the spirit of life.”
“The spirit of life?”
The ambiguous words made Beichi look even more confused.
“The spirit of life.”
Judith, who was listening from the side, also began to worry.
“If it is the breath of life, is it the blood of a living person?”
"Well..."
For a while, only sighs of distress could be heard in Beichi's room.
“The madman was a man who lived in the desert. What could be the breath of life in the desert?”
Illuor muttered as if talking to himself.
“If there’s a breath of life in the desert, isn’t it water, brother?”
“Then it must not be plain water, but water from an oasis. Because it is a desert.”
Erin, who had been listening from the side, also participated in the mystery.
“Rather than water, isn’t it supposed to mean something that symbolizes life in the desert?”
Judith clenched and unclenched her fists repeatedly. Something symbolizing life? Her mind was tickling as if something was coming to mind.
What would have seemed to symbolize vitality to people living in the desert?
To survive tenaciously, to not lose green even in dry air and sandstorms, and to grow to the end even on land without a single drop of water.
"...Cactus!"
Judith hummed softly and looked at Beichi.
“It’s not a cactus, Mr. Beichi?”
Although the cactus available in the empire were limited, Beichi and Judith still managed to obtain every type of cactus they could.
While Beichi went straight into his studies, Judith and Erne entered the room where Henry was staying.
“Sir Henry.”
He, who was always cheerful, lay face down on the bed and didn't move at all.
"Henry."
Erne stood beside his bed, looking at the only person he could call a friend who was in the depths of despair.
“I found the guys who scammed you.”
“...”
Henry's shoulders flinched at the sound.
“I also found a recipe for cosmetics. The pharmacist is using it to make a cure.”
This time, Henry turned his head slightly. His face was more serious than before Judith and Erne left for the north.
“The cure... will be here soon.”
Consolation.
Erne had never done it before, so the words kept rolling around in his mouth.
Still, Erne tried to spit it out as much as he could. Even though he couldn't say the awkward words, "Cheer up," in the end, still.
“Sir Henry, you can’t give up. Mr. Beichi said you don’t even eat properly.”
Henry was so frustrated that he refused to eat. He was taking the medicine that Beichi gave him, and he was mixing some nutritional supplements into it.
“Don’t do that, your physical condition is important for treatment. Make sure you eat something, okay?”
Judith carefully stroked Henry's forearm. Henry lightly tapped Judith's fingertips with the back of his hand, which was cracked and crusted with pus and blood.
Judith understood that this was the case and stood up. Their day was not over yet. Judith sent a messenger to inform Smith of the progress of the investigation and went with Erne to meet Marquis Mosley.
The Marquis of Mosley was on emergency duty with the security forces, not the Marquis' residence.
“Please hold on tight, Marquis. My granddaughter, my granddaughter will die like this.”
“Yes, Ma’am, I will do my best.”
An elderly lady came out, supported by Cain, on the verge of fainting from crying.
Cain looked up at the sky blankly, with empty pupils, as he sent his lady off in the carriage waiting in front of the police station.
“I’m so tired I could die.”
“...Erne?”
Cain's tired voice was dripping with fatigue.
“This kind of thing happens twelve times a day. I don’t have time to investigate because I’m busy dealing with complaints.”
He washed his face dry and greeted Judith. He didn't seem to have the energy to be polite as usual.
“I found them.”
"What?"
Cain's bloodshot eyes widened.
“But they have an accomplice. They bought the cosmetics manufacturing method with money.”
“Where are you, you bastards? I’ll catch you all and throw you in prison right now. I’ll make you rot in there for a long time.”
I'm sure it's not my imagination, Marquis, but it seems more evil than when you're capturing Followers.
Judith calmed down Cain, who seemed ready to go out at any moment.
“Calm down, Marquis. I haven’t been able to confirm who sold the recipe. I’ve found the contact point, but it’s not like they’re exchanging money between people.”
“They buried it in the ground and broke off a tree branch and left it there.”
Cain frowned as he listened to the explanation.
“Isn’t that the same as the Followers’ method? It’s the method Ceres uses when making contact with the medium of red wine.”
“Ah, I think I’ve seen it somewhere.”
Judith and Erne, who had been completely absorbed in the recipe, only now remembered it.
“But those scammers didn’t seem like Followers. I’m not sure, but I feel like they were.”
“I think the same.”
They don't know all the Followers, but the Followers and scammers they've seen so far have a different vibe.
“Could it be that the one who taught the recipe was a Follower?”
Cain looked at Judith and continued.
“Ceres is not a Follower, but didn’t they do what they were told to do? There is no way they wouldn’t do the same. If you listen to Roam’s testimony, it seems like the group is struggling financially, so they did this to make money.”
His guess was also reasonable.
“First, send the soldiers secretly.”
Although they set off a beat later than Erne, there was no need to worry about missing them. The con artists planned to hide in the forest, make cosmetics, and then travel to the northern territory to commit fraud. So it was clear that they would not move until the cosmetics were all made.
“I’ll wait for the contact to be made and then catch the person who gave them the recipe all at once.”
Cain expressed his determination to strike out at anything.
“Surely I can’t catch something as delicate as that? Don’t worry, you two can get some rest.”
I and Erne returned to the Rhineland mansion first. As soon as we returned, I took a bath.
Very thoroughly, in every nook and cranny. As soon as I got out of the tent, I wiped my face and hands with Erne's handkerchief and shook off the dirt. I also took a bath at the inn I stopped by on my way from the north.
But the thought of crawling out on a dirty dirt floor dripping with blood made me feel so uncomfortable that a quick bath wasn't enough.
I washed and washed my body. I washed my face three times and my hair twice.
What kind of suffering is this because of those crazy guys? Even now, when I close my eyes, I see a corpse covered in rubble.
“It’s late, but I offer my condolences to the deceased.”
I prayed facing north, trying to erase the scene from my mind. Coming out of the bathroom, puffy from having washed for almost an hour, I met Erne in the hallway, wearing a bathrobe.
“I thought you were drowning, Miss Harrington. Why did you take so long to wash?”
When I came out of the shower, Erne, who had been waiting to shower himself, waited and waited, and eventually went to another bathroom to shower and came out.
“It’s creepy. It’s because Erne can’t see inside the tent.”
“Are you proud of going in there now?”
“Who’s bragging? It’s just like that.”
“Now that I look at it, there’s no sign of reflection.”
Erne and I began to fight again.
"Excuse me..."
Tan, who had come to see me because he had something to say, was about to call me, but Erne cut him off.
“If it’s not urgent, then later. Right now, I think Miss Judith Harrington needs to be scolded.”
“Do you think I have enough soul?”
Then, the two of them entered Erne's room together. Tan muttered faintly as he watched them.
“Oh, I think you can sleep separately now...”
It doesn't seem like you have any such intentions.
“Why? Do you know anything?”
“I think I’ve seen this somewhere.”
Illuor had a good memory.
When he heard that cosmetics were made from human corpses, he recalled an old story his godmother used to tell him when he was little and said it was a scary story.
“There’s a story my godmother told me when I was young. Long ago in the desert, people didn’t even throw away human corpses, but used them as medicine.”
“Oh, I remember that too. My godmother told me that it was a story she heard from her grandfather.”
Beichi nodded vigorously as if he remembered. Illuor searched for memories from his childhood.
“Once upon a time, long before there were empires, there lived a madman in the desert.”
The madman thought that in the desert where supplies were scarce, even dead bodies should not be carelessly discarded.
So he secretly took the body and studied various ways to use it. When the people who knew about it did not know, they banished the madman to the middle of the desert.
However, his research records remained and were often recalled, because word of mouth said that if you make medicine according to his records, it will be very effective.
“They say that if you apply it to a torn area, new flesh will grow, and if you apply it to a broken area, the bone will heal.”
But how absurd is this story? His research records were secretly passed down until the Shartins came over to the Empire, but they were completely lost afterward.
“But brother, isn’t this just a tale?”
“Yes, but isn’t that kind of oral tradition happening again right now? We have to keep an open mind about the possibility.”
Now was the time to grab onto even the tiniest clue.
“Beichi, can’t you find a clue to the antidote in this tale? Remember how this story ends.”
“The end of this story?”
When Beichi shook his head, saying he didn't remember well, Illuor continued to explain.
“It is said that before the madman was banished to the desert, he wrote these words on the last page of his records. When the flesh rots with the spirit of the dead, cover it with the spirit of life.”
“The spirit of life?”
The ambiguous words made Beichi look even more confused.
“The spirit of life.”
Judith, who was listening from the side, also began to worry.
“If it is the breath of life, is it the blood of a living person?”
"Well..."
For a while, only sighs of distress could be heard in Beichi's room.
“The madman was a man who lived in the desert. What could be the breath of life in the desert?”
Illuor muttered as if talking to himself.
“If there’s a breath of life in the desert, isn’t it water, brother?”
“Then it must not be plain water, but water from an oasis. Because it is a desert.”
Erin, who had been listening from the side, also participated in the mystery.
“Rather than water, isn’t it supposed to mean something that symbolizes life in the desert?”
Judith clenched and unclenched her fists repeatedly. Something symbolizing life? Her mind was tickling as if something was coming to mind.
What would have seemed to symbolize vitality to people living in the desert?
To survive tenaciously, to not lose green even in dry air and sandstorms, and to grow to the end even on land without a single drop of water.
"...Cactus!"
Judith hummed softly and looked at Beichi.
“It’s not a cactus, Mr. Beichi?”
***
Although the cactus available in the empire were limited, Beichi and Judith still managed to obtain every type of cactus they could.
While Beichi went straight into his studies, Judith and Erne entered the room where Henry was staying.
“Sir Henry.”
He, who was always cheerful, lay face down on the bed and didn't move at all.
"Henry."
Erne stood beside his bed, looking at the only person he could call a friend who was in the depths of despair.
“I found the guys who scammed you.”
“...”
Henry's shoulders flinched at the sound.
“I also found a recipe for cosmetics. The pharmacist is using it to make a cure.”
This time, Henry turned his head slightly. His face was more serious than before Judith and Erne left for the north.
“The cure... will be here soon.”
Consolation.
Erne had never done it before, so the words kept rolling around in his mouth.
Still, Erne tried to spit it out as much as he could. Even though he couldn't say the awkward words, "Cheer up," in the end, still.
“Sir Henry, you can’t give up. Mr. Beichi said you don’t even eat properly.”
Henry was so frustrated that he refused to eat. He was taking the medicine that Beichi gave him, and he was mixing some nutritional supplements into it.
“Don’t do that, your physical condition is important for treatment. Make sure you eat something, okay?”
Judith carefully stroked Henry's forearm. Henry lightly tapped Judith's fingertips with the back of his hand, which was cracked and crusted with pus and blood.
Judith understood that this was the case and stood up. Their day was not over yet. Judith sent a messenger to inform Smith of the progress of the investigation and went with Erne to meet Marquis Mosley.
***
The Marquis of Mosley was on emergency duty with the security forces, not the Marquis' residence.
“Please hold on tight, Marquis. My granddaughter, my granddaughter will die like this.”
“Yes, Ma’am, I will do my best.”
An elderly lady came out, supported by Cain, on the verge of fainting from crying.
Cain looked up at the sky blankly, with empty pupils, as he sent his lady off in the carriage waiting in front of the police station.
“I’m so tired I could die.”
“...Erne?”
Cain's tired voice was dripping with fatigue.
“This kind of thing happens twelve times a day. I don’t have time to investigate because I’m busy dealing with complaints.”
He washed his face dry and greeted Judith. He didn't seem to have the energy to be polite as usual.
“I found them.”
"What?"
Cain's bloodshot eyes widened.
“But they have an accomplice. They bought the cosmetics manufacturing method with money.”
“Where are you, you bastards? I’ll catch you all and throw you in prison right now. I’ll make you rot in there for a long time.”
I'm sure it's not my imagination, Marquis, but it seems more evil than when you're capturing Followers.
Judith calmed down Cain, who seemed ready to go out at any moment.
“Calm down, Marquis. I haven’t been able to confirm who sold the recipe. I’ve found the contact point, but it’s not like they’re exchanging money between people.”
“They buried it in the ground and broke off a tree branch and left it there.”
Cain frowned as he listened to the explanation.
“Isn’t that the same as the Followers’ method? It’s the method Ceres uses when making contact with the medium of red wine.”
“Ah, I think I’ve seen it somewhere.”
Judith and Erne, who had been completely absorbed in the recipe, only now remembered it.
“But those scammers didn’t seem like Followers. I’m not sure, but I feel like they were.”
“I think the same.”
They don't know all the Followers, but the Followers and scammers they've seen so far have a different vibe.
“Could it be that the one who taught the recipe was a Follower?”
Cain looked at Judith and continued.
“Ceres is not a Follower, but didn’t they do what they were told to do? There is no way they wouldn’t do the same. If you listen to Roam’s testimony, it seems like the group is struggling financially, so they did this to make money.”
His guess was also reasonable.
“First, send the soldiers secretly.”
Although they set off a beat later than Erne, there was no need to worry about missing them. The con artists planned to hide in the forest, make cosmetics, and then travel to the northern territory to commit fraud. So it was clear that they would not move until the cosmetics were all made.
“I’ll wait for the contact to be made and then catch the person who gave them the recipe all at once.”
Cain expressed his determination to strike out at anything.
“Surely I can’t catch something as delicate as that? Don’t worry, you two can get some rest.”
***
I and Erne returned to the Rhineland mansion first. As soon as we returned, I took a bath.
Very thoroughly, in every nook and cranny. As soon as I got out of the tent, I wiped my face and hands with Erne's handkerchief and shook off the dirt. I also took a bath at the inn I stopped by on my way from the north.
But the thought of crawling out on a dirty dirt floor dripping with blood made me feel so uncomfortable that a quick bath wasn't enough.
I washed and washed my body. I washed my face three times and my hair twice.
What kind of suffering is this because of those crazy guys? Even now, when I close my eyes, I see a corpse covered in rubble.
“It’s late, but I offer my condolences to the deceased.”
I prayed facing north, trying to erase the scene from my mind. Coming out of the bathroom, puffy from having washed for almost an hour, I met Erne in the hallway, wearing a bathrobe.
“I thought you were drowning, Miss Harrington. Why did you take so long to wash?”
When I came out of the shower, Erne, who had been waiting to shower himself, waited and waited, and eventually went to another bathroom to shower and came out.
“It’s creepy. It’s because Erne can’t see inside the tent.”
“Are you proud of going in there now?”
“Who’s bragging? It’s just like that.”
“Now that I look at it, there’s no sign of reflection.”
Erne and I began to fight again.
"Excuse me..."
Tan, who had come to see me because he had something to say, was about to call me, but Erne cut him off.
“If it’s not urgent, then later. Right now, I think Miss Judith Harrington needs to be scolded.”
“Do you think I have enough soul?”
Then, the two of them entered Erne's room together. Tan muttered faintly as he watched them.
“Oh, I think you can sleep separately now...”
It doesn't seem like you have any such intentions.
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