I’m Not Doing This With A Friend Chapter 140

Arcandus’ day started early in the morning with a trip to town to buy a newspaper.

On a normal day, he would have gone home to read it.

 

But not today, because Leen’s name was on the front page.

 

Arcandus read the entire article on the spot. His eyes narrowed.

 

“Leen, you look just like your mother.”

 

It was about how her mosquito repellent and mana relaxant had drastically reduced the spread of the plague.

 

It would be a matter of time, he thought, before anyone realized that Monstera was a mosquito-borne disease.

 

But I didn’t expect it to happen so soon. And I didn’t expect it to be so calming.

 

Unlike expensive demon repellents, mosquito repellents are cheap and easy to make.

 

And to think that a mana relaxant could kill a demonic mosquito.

 

“…Clever.”

 

There were quite a few things that didn’t go my way while spreading the disease.

 

For example, Professor George got bitten by a mosquito instead of targeting Walter.

 

Before I started spreading the disease in earnest, I experimented on Abascanthus.

 

“And then I released a mosquito in his lab to kill Walter.”

 

But Walter, who was supposed to be bitten, was unharmed, while Professor George was bitten by a mosquito and fell ill.

 

He had created the demonic mosquito, but he couldn’t control it.

 

That’s why he told Leen to stay away from Professor Walter. He didn’t want Leen to get sick from being around him.

 

Walter was the first person he wanted to kill.

 

He wanted to make Walter’s father watch him die with his own two eyes, just as he had watched his parents die at his hands.

 

Of course, with the spread of Monstera, Leen would probably fall ill at some point.

 

So as a graduation gift, I gave her a cure.

 

A cure she had developed herself in the past.

 

Arcandus realized it years ago, when he met the grown Leen again.

 

He could kill everyone in the world, but he couldn’t kill Leen.

 

“It’s too late, but I’ve accepted that Leen is my family.”

 

When I advised her to trust no one, I was actually referring to me.

 

“Leen will hate and resent me if she finds out I killed her parents.”

 

There was a good chance she would find out the day she opened her graduation present.

 

The cure had the exact same ingredients as Leen’s own, and her parents had taken it and died.

 

It doesn’t make sense, she’d think.

 

Suspicions would be raised about me.

 

I didn’t want to be hated, but I didn’t want Leen to get sick and die.

 

“…If I didn’t want to be hated in the first place, I shouldn’t have killed her parents.”

 

Leen had ruined the revenge he’d been preparing for so long, but he wasn’t angry.

 

Even if I had been, I wouldn’t have vowed revenge on her.

 

She was too precious. Arcandus smiled faintly and spoke as if addressing someone.

 

“I will not interfere with your heroic deeds. If my vengeance is thwarted by you, it will be fated in its own way.”

 

Arcandus grabbed the newspaper and tore it in a straight line.

 

After repeating the act several times, he tossed the shredded paper to the ground.

 

“Then, I will neatly give up everything and be at rest.”

 

My death may be my atonement for you.

 

🍃

 

“Ugh, I was stupid, I was stupid.”

 

I held my head in my hands and thumped my forehead on the desk.

 

Then Professor George looked at me, smirking.

 

“My pupil is a saint, and I’m sure this nasty disease will be cured sooner or later.”

 

“…Professor!”

 

“My ears are not so deaf that you need to yell.”

 

Indeed. The reason I’m hitting my head against the table at the moment — I’m revered in the Empire as something akin to a saint.

 

“Leen, it’s not like you’ve gotten a bad reputation, so just enjoy it. No secret lasts forever.”

 

“You can be so nonchalant about this because it’s not your problem, Professor George.”

 

Painkillers, mana relaxants, and other medicines had been sold under a pseudonym at Hans’s Top.

 

So, this time, the mosquito repellent was also sold under a pseudonym.

 

What I forgot to mention is that everyone at the academy knew that I was the one who made the mosquito repellent.

 

It’s hard for them to forget that, especially the MoTo-Club kids.

 

It didn’t take long for the word to spread that I was the master of the pseudonym.

 

All sorts of nice things began to be said about the rumor, especially by the members of the Leli-Club, the masters of the Eight Immortals who had graduated and scattered across the Empire.

 

Hopefully not just among the Leli-Club’s, but also among Lysianthus and my aunt, Countess Armeria.

 

Even the Duchy of Begonia, of which Roel was now Lord, lavished praise on my accomplishments here and there.

 

In the end, their praise was enough to earn me the title of saint.

 

“Aaahhh!”

 

I thumped my forehead on the desk again.

 

“I haven’t even created the most important cure, and I’m dying of embarrassment and shame that I’m being treated like that.”

 

How long had I been doing that?

 

Suddenly, my forehead felt soft and warm instead of hard and cold. It was Professor George’s non-rotted right hand.

 

“It would be strange if the cure was made right away, but you’ve done a good enough job so far, so don’t worry.”

 

“But…”

 

“You can make a cure, too. That’s why we’re working on it now.”

 

Professor George’s comforting words lifted my burdened heart.

 

“It’s a miracle we were able to prevent the bites with the mosquito repellent so quickly, and then control them with the mana relaxant.”

 

The cure. I’ve done everything I could, now I just need to work with Professor George to create a cure.

 

The problem was…

 

My gaze fixated on Professor George’s left arm.

 

The disease, which had only progressed to his wrist when we first met, was festering right up to his shoulder.

 

His condition deteriorated so quickly after discontinuing eating the ground cherries. To the point where I wondered whether he should have stopped taking them.

 

With any other disease, we would have had surgery to amputate the affected area to prevent it from spreading to other parts of the body.

 

But with this one, it was a handshake, because it had rotted back to where it was severed.

 

As if sensing my stare, Professor George smiled wryly.

 

“You don’t have to look at me like that. I’ve lived long enough to know that many lives are more important than my own.”

 

Professor George had been working on a cure for Monstera, not his illness, for some time now.

 

In a gravelly voice, I told him.

 

“The value of a life is not something you can put a number on, Professor.”

 

I valued the life of one of my own more than the lives of many others. I had no choice but to make this decision, given the magnitude of this case.

 

Not only that, but I could only hope that Professor George’s illness and Monstera’s were the same disease.

 

As the mood darkened, I forced myself to raise my voice and ask what I had been wondering.

 

“By the way, Professor, how did you end up eating the fruit?”

 

The professor looked at me like he didn’t understand why I was asking.

 

“You know its benefits,” he said.

 

“But it is rumored to bring bad luck.”

 

“Are you an Abascanthus, that you would believe such a foolish myth?”

 

Quince only grows in certain parts of Abascanthus, and the people there don’t eat it very often.

 

The seeds inside the red, ripe fruit are removed and placed on the lips and blown into the wind to make a sound, which was believed to bring bad luck.

 

Of course, this folklore was only true in Abascanthus, and was not recognized in Lagras. So they imported it from Abascanthus.

 

I shrugged my shoulders lightly.

 

“That’s just what they say.”

 

Still, Professor George, who was an expert on herbs, would have taken it.

 

There were plenty of herbs that would have been more effective if they were just fever reducers, but quince had the added benefit of reducing swelling.

 

In addition to the initial, cold-like symptoms, the mosquito bites were swollen.

 

“I don’t know what part of the ingredients in the drug is wrong and causing the side effects…”

 

“If we knew, we’d have a cure by now.”

 

“Actually, I hope I’m mistaken, because there is indeed something therapeutic about the fruit, and my parents died of something else.”

 

Professor George clicks his tongue.

 

“You’d better do some research if you have time for such dreamy talk,”

 

I smirk and sit back in my chair.

 

“This is why you can’t tell jokes to professors.”

 

🍃

 

Professor George excused himself from the lab to change the bandage on his left arm.

 

I was finally able to get the herbs out of my eyes and take a break.

 

Then it dawned on me.

 

“Oh, right. My gums were bleeding while I was brushing my teeth, and when I checked earlier, they had melted a little.”

 

I quickly rummaged through my drawers and found the ingredients I needed.

 

What I needed to make now was an alchemy, not an ordinary herb.

 

I realized that I had used up all the ingredients I had bought during my research.

 

“The ingredients are too indistinguishable to send people on errands…”

 

If I wasn’t in a hurry, I wouldn’t have minded accidentally buying another one.

 

But since it was somewhat melted, it was hard to trust that it would be replaced within the next day or so.

 

“I can’t do that.”

 

Eventually, I got up to go get the ingredients myself.

 

I consider calling Carson to come with me, but he’s in the middle of an outbreak, hunting mosquitoes.

 

“I guess I’ll just have to take Dobby with me.”

 

Dobby, who had been curled up in the corner, heard my voice and came running toward me.

I scratched him gently under the chin.

 

“Let’s go on our first date in a while, Dobby.”

 

It was nice to get Dobby out of the castle.

 

The problem was that Dobby was too big to fit in the carriage.

 

So we decided to take a walk instead. The good news was that the ingredients store was less than a thirty-minute walk away.

 

Dobby flew back and forth, his tail wagging wildly, as if he was especially excited to be out without Carson. Not that he was flying, but he was really just excited about a change.

 

I grunted, holding onto the leash tightly.

 

“It’s a good thing we’re in Lysianthus territory, or you’d have been taken.”

 

I wonder how long we’ve been walking.

 

We’d just entered a quiet residential neighborhood.

 

“Grrr…”

 

Dobby suddenly bared his teeth and became wary of his surroundings. I quickly looked around, wondering if something was amiss.

 

Then a strange odor came from somewhere and tickled the tip of my nose.

 

“What is that smell…?”

 

As I tilted my head in wonder, my head spun and an intense dizziness hit me.

 

My body tilted with weakness.

 

Feeling my vision flip, I instinctively opened my mouth to call out for someone.

 

“Ca…”

 

But the words were unfinished, the last thing I saw in my blurring vision was Dobby falling from the sky.