The Strongest Man’s Fake Wife Wants to Live Chapter 21

“I’ve seen more people contaminated by aura than anyone. For a critical patient like that, there’s nothing any purification mage could do.”

“Why are you suddenly saying that……?”

He glanced at the empty glass bottle Pesha was holding before continuing.

“If I had used my method, that man would have died with nothing but pain in his memories. But thanks to you stepping in, at least he’ll be able to meet his final moments with his family without pain.”

Pesha lowered her head deeply and bit her lip.

She hadn’t helped him out of some noble intention.

There was no way to save him, so she had at least given him a painkiller.

And it was difficult to say that she hadn’t, at the very least, wanted Owen to refrain from getting his own hands dirty by putting someone who was already standing at death’s door out of his misery.

As though he had seen straight through the confusion settling in her heart, a mixture of lingering attachment and regret, Owen offered a brief word of comfort.

“Just as I’m not a god, neither are you.”

“…….”

“As a human being, you did the best you could.”

At that moment, as she stared at the ground, Pesha felt as though someone had lightly taken hold of and fiddled with the hair that had fallen over her shoulder like a curtain.

When she raised her head in puzzlement, Owen wasn’t touching anything.

Had she imagined it?

“You must have been quite shocked. It would be best for you to rest.”

He advised Pesha to get some rest, yet he himself disappeared in the direction of his office to get back to work.

After that incident, Owen prohibited anyone from going to the borderlands of the Abyss for some time and ordered the knights to hunt down the monsters.

But, naturally, it wasn’t a perfect solution.

As long as minerals were the territory’s main source of income, the miners would have to go to the borderlands sooner or later, and there were far too few forces under the Count’s castle for the knights to launch a full-scale monster extermination.

Owen sought measures to somehow reduce the damage with the manpower currently available.

In the meantime, Pesha was busy from day to day, assigning positions to the newly hired servants and giving them basic training.

She felt that if she wasn’t keeping herself busy, she would sink into useless thoughts of frustration and self-reproach.

Even if she couldn’t help with the problems facing the territory, she wanted to do the best she could from her own position.

In the morning, she stopped by the medical tent to check whether they were short on supplies or whether the facilities were outdated.

And in the afternoon, she planned to have the newly hired workers organize the food storage.

She was on her way to the freight wagon to check the condition of the food supplies that had recently arrived.

At the stables, the stableman was feeding hay to the horses.

As soon as the stableman saw Pesha, he put down the bundle of hay he was holding and greeted her.

“My lady. Good afternoon.”

Rather than the stableman greeting her, Pesha was more interested in the horse chewing its hay noisily.

“Yeah, but isn’t this horse Wolfram?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

Wolfram was a horse Owen often took with him, and it usually accompanied him on his various outings.

“I heard the lord went to inspect the borderlands. I guess he’s already back?”

“Ah, he rode a different horse today. Perhaps because of that, this one seems rather dejected. He’s barely touching his feed, too.”

Pesha didn’t know whether the stableman’s guess was correct, but the horse did seem to be eating its hay halfheartedly.

Pesha looked into the feed trough in front of the horse.

“You mixed timothy and tall fescue.”

The two plants were species commonly used as hay for herbivores.

They weren’t particularly unpalatable, but Wolfram’s reaction was less than enthusiastic.

Seeing that reminded her of the wheat mixed with triticale that the adjutant had bought.

“I gave the kitchen something to use as horse feed.”

“Do you mean the sack we received a few days ago?”

“Feed it to him.”

The stableman brought over a sack containing roasted wheat and sprinkled it into the feed trough.

At first, Wolfram merely sniffed it indifferently, but soon his ears perked up and he began gobbling down the feed.

The book’s record that roasted triticale gave off a nutty aroma and was highly palatable to livestock really was true.

Pesha was just as amazed as the relieved stableman.

Back when she had lived trapped in the narrow well that was House Rydell, unable to see the wider world, books had been her only window to the outside.

Since any plant that didn’t grow in the estate’s garden had to be understood through illustrations and descriptions alone, Pesha, too, felt a sense of novelty whenever she was able to actually apply what she had learned like this.

“At first, when I saw what it looked like, I just assumed it was wheat……. This should come in handy for the ones that get picky about their food.”

Pesha fell into thought for a moment at the stableman’s words.

Although triticale couldn’t become a perfect substitute for wheat, there were still places where it could serve its purpose like this.

She wanted to find her own direction that way, too, and try something new.

Pesha finally put an end to the concern she had kept only in her heart.

“All right.”

“Pardon?”

The stableman, who had been stroking Wolfram’s mane, looked over at her with a bewildered expression.

‘I’m going to make an antidote myself.’

After the miner died, Pesha had searched through the library of the Count’s castle and the illustrated reference books in its collection, trying to find medicinal herbs that could treat aura poisoning.

As a result, she had discovered several herbs that showed effects in purifying aura. Once she excluded the troublesome species that required specific climates, soil, or other particular growing conditions, there was exactly one medicinal herb that could be cultivated in Swapro.

Now, the question was how to turn it into medicine and distribute it.

To help people injured by monsters, purification power alone was not enough.

If their wounds weren’t treated, the aura would quickly seep back in.

‘The important thing is whether I can treat and purify at the same time.’

If she couldn’t accomplish that, the people of Swapro would continue to suffer such tragic deaths.

She couldn’t just stand by and watch it happen.

Having made up her mind, Pesha changed her destination and turned back the way she had come.

Brie, the maid who had just seen Pesha off, tilted her head when she saw her return.

“My lady. Did you leave something behind?”

“Brie, bring Jane Penrose to my laboratory right now.”

“The adjutant? Understood.”

After ordering Brie to bring Jane to her, Pesha headed for the laboratory.

The laboratory she had recently prepared had been a vacant room renovated into a study, office, and research space all in one.

As soon as she entered, she opened the desk drawer.

Inside was the ledger concerning the household operating expenses that she had prepared some time ago.

She took them out one by one and piled them on the desk, when, just then, there was a knock on the laboratory door.

It was Jane Penrose.

“Come in.”

Since they had never gotten along particularly well, Jane had a somewhat sour expression.

“I heard you summoned me.”

Pesha got straight to the point without beating around the bush.

“It’s nothing important. I’m going to allocate the budget assigned to me, including my allowance for maintaining my social standing, to research expenses, so keep that in mind.”

“What?”

Because Pesha spoke as though it were truly nothing significant, Jane was momentarily left speechless.

“So, you mean you’re going to use the entire budget allocated to you, my lady…… for research……?”

“That’s right.”

A territory belonging to a noble around the rank of count generally had an administrator.

The administrator assisted the lord with finances, military affairs, and diplomacy, and took his place whenever the lord was absent.

What was unusual about the Count Namoi’s castle was that there was no separate administrator, and the lord’s three adjutants each took charge of a different field.

Of them, finances were Jane Penrose’s responsibility, so Pesha needed to at least give him advance notice.

“I’ll run the household only with the servants we’ve hired now, so don’t hire anyone else, and don’t call in a tailor or merchant for me, either.”

“No…… why……?”

“I’m going to make a medicine that can both treat wounds and purify aura. The growth potion for the plants I need for that is rather expensive, so I’m going to redirect my share to research expenses.”

Jane let out a deep sigh.

What on earth was she talking about, as though it were some dream?

“What exactly are you planning to do? Everyone is already busy enough with the borderland problem…….”

Pesha frowned and cut him off bluntly.

“Didn’t you understand? That’s exactly what I’m trying to solve right now.”