Interlude: Jilgista Kingdom 2
Four months since Layla quit the laboratory.
Watching Layla leave the evening banquet, Carter
had thought she would come back the next day with her head bowed, apologizing.
He assumed she was just being stubborn. There was no way a plain, inconspicuous
woman whose only redeeming quality was studying could survive living alone in a
foreign country. Even if her engagement was annulled and he got engaged to her
younger sister instead, he had severely underestimated her, taking it for
granted that this was the only place she belonged.
However, her resignation letter was submitted. And from Ashren's
hands to the Second Prince, at that.
Carter's
high pride was more than a little wounded that the matter was concluded in a
place he knew nothing about. However, it was already a done deal. He had no
choice but to reply, "Understood," with a look that said good
riddance. Since they were also arranging a new assistant for him, he thought he
wouldn't be particularly inconvenienced. Moreover, the assistant was a man. He
would surely be much more useful than a woman like Layla. In that case,
he could reduce his work hours and make more time to see Aisha—he had
even drawn up such a convenient blueprint for himself.
However, things did not go so smoothly.
The assigned assistant had almost no knowledge of medicinal
herbs. That was to be expected; the Second Prince had sent an assistant
as "Layla's replacement." Indeed, he was better at his job
than a person who was "inefficient, a burden, and overly
assertive"—which was how Carter had officially evaluated her.
If told to compile documents, he obediently complied.
However, despite supposedly being efficient, it took him several times longer
than Layla. If told to prepare a specific medicinal herb, he would do so
with a book in one hand. However, unlike Layla, his prep work was not
completely flawless.
He handled chores decently, but that was all he could do.
Carter
cursed, wondering why they had sent such a useless human being, and took his
anger out on the assistant.
On Carter's desk, documents were piled so high that
he couldn't see the other side. He handed some of them over to Aisha.
After the handed-over documents sat on her desk for a few days, they cleanly
vanished, so he assumed Aisha had finished the paperwork and submitted
them to the appropriate departments. If he had thought about it for a second,
he should have realized that he had never once seen Aisha actually
reading a document, but unfortunately, Carter did not have the leeway to
notice.
Furthermore, it was annoying that someone from the Pharmaceutical
Department came every morning to ask for the drying times of the medicinal
herbs. Layla used to handle it, but he thought drying them was just a
matter of hanging them out haphazardly to begin with.
He had completely failed to understand the calculation
formula Layla created to derive the drying times, and it had vanished
from his mind just like that. He had already forgotten that such a thing even
existed.
Anyway, since it was a job Layla had done, he decided
to leave the interactions with the Pharmaceutical Department to Aisha.
He did so with the expectation that the quick-witted and cute Aisha
would handle it much better. However.
「Carter-sama, regarding the drying time for the medicinal herbs, is
this really correct?」
The head of the Pharmaceutical Department, with veins
popping on his forehead, pressed Carter while tightly gripping a
crumpled memo Aisha had handed him.
「Of course. There is no mistake.」
Thinking there was no problem since he had left it to Aisha,
and that drying times weren't a big deal to begin with, Carter didn't
even try to look at the crumpled memo thrust before him.
Raising his eyebrows even higher at that response, the
department head lined up several memos on the desk.
「These are the memos for the past
week. Do you not find anything strange upon looking at them?」
Told to look, Carter annoyedly dropped his gaze to
the memos. Naturally, there were no calculation formulas written on them. They
just stated the drying times, with nothing out of the ordinary. That was
exactly why he didn't understand the point of being told to look at them.
「What about these?」
「...Just to confirm, you were the one
who came up with the drying times, right, Carter-sama?」
Carter
almost blurted out that it was Aisha, but clamped his mouth shut. Then,
he calmly looked up at the department head.
「Of course I did.」
「Then please explain.」
Even being told that, Carter didn't know what he was
supposed to explain. After all, the memos only said how many hours and minutes.
Perhaps running out of patience with the silent Carter, the department
head's tone grew even stronger.
「Please tell me the reason why there
is such a difference in drying times over a single week. By the way, the
temperature hasn't changed significantly this past week, nor has it rained.」
Told this, Carter finally realized the intent of the
question and looked at the memos again. Indeed, the times were completely all
over the place. The longest was ten hours, the shortest three hours. A
difference of seven hours despite it being the exact same medicinal herb.
Even Carter thought this was strange. Even though he
thought they could just be dried haphazardly, a seven-hour difference was way
too much.
「When Lady Layla was here,
things like this never happened. What is the meaning of this?」
Carter
thought about how Layla used to calculate the drying times, and only
then did he finally remember the existence of the calculation formula. Of
course, he didn't remember the formula itself. But he felt like she had used it
to derive the drying times.
「Th-That is, well. ...We used to
derive the drying times using a calculation formula before too, but I changed
the formula to a new one. To something more precise.」
「This is the first I've heard about
the existence of a calculation formula.」
「Is that so? But that's how it is. So
there are no mistakes with this.」
Gathering the crumpled memos into a ball, Carter
tossed them into a nearby trash can. The department head still looked like he
wanted to say something, but he left reluctantly. In the Jilgista Kingdom,
Carter's track record was guaranteed. Therefore, he couldn't argue back.
Confirming that the door closed with a slam and the
footsteps faded away, Carter rushed over to Aisha.
「Aisha! How are you calculating the drying times for the medicinal
herbs!?」
At that rough voice, Aisha furrowed her brows but
pointed to Layla's desk.
「I looked at the memos left on Oneesama's
desk, copied the numbers, and handed them over, you know?」
「Copied them? You didn't calculate
them?」
「Calculate?」
Tilting her head slightly, Aisha floated a bewildered
smile. Aisha knew very well that if she smiled looking anxious, she
wouldn't be questioned any further or gotten angry at. If she teared up a
little, it was perfect.
But this time, for once, Carter held his head. To
randomly copy and hand over numbers written on a memo without even knowing what
the memo was for—he wondered for the first time just what was going on inside
this woman's head.
Meanwhile, there was a knock on the door again. When the
assistant answered, a rough, angry yell could be heard from beyond the door. As
soon as Aisha heard that voice, she quietly disappeared, as if escaping
to the next room.
A well-built man forcefully pushed open the half-open door
and entered the Medicinal Herb Laboratory. It might be better to call it an
intrusion.
「This is a letter of complaint from
the Knight Order.」
The man slammed it onto the desk. With such force that one
might think the desk would split in two.
「A letter of complaint...?」
「The recent medicines are clearly
strange. People are breaking out in rashes, the itchiness is terrible, they get
diarrhea when they take them, their nausea won't stop—it's just awful.」
「That would be the responsibility of
the Pharmaceutical Department.」
「I just went there, naturally.
However, those guys said the drop in the medicine's quality is the Medicinal
Herb Laboratory's fault.」
Carter
raised his eyebrows, thinking it was a complete false accusation getting
dragged into this mess. However, he didn't have the guts to complain to the
giant knight.
The knight spat out, 「Our bodies are our capital. Don't think there will be a next time,」 and left, shutting the door with such force it felt like it might break.
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