“Put up a notice. We’re hiring a physician.”
“Yes, Your Grace.”
Puzzled as he was by the abrupt order, Conrad answered at once. His lord had always had a way of being difficult to read.
“And…”
Unusually for him, Cain paused as if weighing something. Then, at last:
“If a pink-haired woman comes to the residence, report it to me.”
“Yes, understood. Is there anything else to identify her by?”
“Let’s see. Her hair is fluffy…”
Fluffy? At the strangely cute ring of a word he’d never imagined coming out of Cain’s mouth, Conrad briefly doubted his own ears.
Cain, however, was in no state to care what irreverent thoughts his aide might be having.
Something was nagging at him. Whenever he pictured the woman’s face, it kept almost calling something to mind, then slipping away.
A gray squirrel? Close, but… no. Something smaller, fluffier, softer than that…
“A little squirrel?”
“Pardon?”
Hm. Cain made a satisfied sound. He’d finally put a name to the sense of familiarity that had been bothering him.
Her soft, faintly curly hair had looked just like the fur of a squirrel’s tail.
And her face, too…
He remembered how she’d scolded him with her eyes gone perfectly round, treating him like a small child without the faintest idea who he was.
Even thinking about it again, she was an absurd woman. The corner of his mouth tugged up on its own.
“She looks like a squirrel.”
One without an ounce of fear in her.
“Pardon?”
W-what? A squirrel? Conrad’s face filled with confusion.
He tried to picture a squirrel with pink fur, but that only left him more lost than before.
Cain, however, offered no further explanation and simply went on his way. As indifferent as befitted a Dragonblood.
The next day.
“Huh? He was telling the truth?”
I rubbed my eyes at the notice hanging on a wall thick with ivy.
[The Asheln ducal residence seeks a skilled physician.]
It definitely hadn’t been there yesterday. A new notice had gone up overnight, exactly as the man had said it would.
If I meet the requirements, there’s no reason not to apply, right?
I was reading the notice carefully when Catherine, standing beside me, gaped and started making a fuss.
“Huh? What? The ducal house is hiring? I’ve lived here ten years, and I’ve never seen a notice like this.”
Catherine was a friend I’d made while living in the village. Heiron was Catherine’s hometown, and visits home to see Catherine’s mother were frequent; being close in age, the two of us had gotten along from the start.
“Wow, you don’t even need a letter of recommendation? They must be in a real hurry.”
“Right? Maybe somebody quit all of a sudden?”
Even I thought it was odd. Closed-off noble houses put people through thorough background checks and personal introductions just to hire a maid.
And this wasn’t even a maid—it was a physician. Hiring one like this was downright unheard of.
With this, even I could apply…
The empire had something called the physician’s certification exam.
A test of basic healing techniques and the ability to compound medicine.
Once you passed it, you could choose to become a doctor who mainly treated patients, or, like me, a pharmacist who studied medicine more deeply.
Most people choose to be doctors, but either way, I’m a physician too.
I was lost in thought when Catherine clapped hard enough to make a smack, and looked at me with eyes full of expectation.
“Anyway, this is great! You’re applying, right? You said you came to find work.”
“I’m going to apply, but don’t get your hopes up. Honestly, I doubt I’ll get in.”
It was the resident physician post at a ducal residence, of all things. Being realistic, it would be a hard position for someone like me, without a long career behind her, to land.
But I didn’t feel discouraged in the slightest.
Because it doesn’t matter!
My real goal wasn’t the job in the first place; it was getting a chance to meet Cain. I had nothing to lose by applying and getting turned down.
But Catherine seemed to misread my reaction and gave my back a few hearty pats.
“Hey, with your skills, of course you’ll get in! Don’t you remember? How you completely cured my mom’s chronic illness last year?”
“I told you, that wasn’t a serious illness to begin with. Anyone could’ve done it, not just me.”
Catherine’s head shook back and forth in dismay.
“Haa… This is why geniuses are the worst. Too much modesty is a crime. A crime!”
Melody, who had been listening quietly, shook her head right along with Catherine for no reason at all.
“Melody, you think Auntie’s right too, don’t you? Your mom is amazing, isn’t she?”
“Uu-uu!”
Melody puffed out her chest triumphantly. She looked as proud as if she were the one being praised.
Pfft.
The two of them were perfectly in sync. When I burst out laughing without meaning to, Catherine put on a stern face and pushed me forward by the back.
“This is no time to laugh. I’ll look after Melody, so hurry up and go apply.”
“Hm? Right now?”
“Good jobs always draw a crowd, you know. Don’t underestimate how hard it is to find work in the city.”
“Uu-uu!”
As if a little kid who didn’t even know what “finding work” meant would understand. And yet Melody nodded along as though that was exactly right.
And so, a little while later.
I had grabbed only the papers I needed and was heading straight for the ducal residence.
But thinking about it again, the timing really is uncanny.
House Asheln had never had much need for pharmacists or personal doctors in the first place. As Dragonbloods, their powers of regeneration and healing were on another level from ordinary people’s.
That didn’t mean they were invincible, of course.
If anything, there are illnesses only they can catch.
But that sort of thing was hard to fully cure with medicine or pharmacy anyway.
Which was why I’d never imagined they would post a notice hiring a resident physician.
I got lucky in a lot of ways.
It was all thanks to that man telling me in advance. Somehow or other, I’d ended up receiving a lot of help from him.
If I ever ran into him again, I’d have to be sure to thank him.
…Come to think of it, who was he, anyway?
An ordinary monster hunter would have no way of knowing the inner affairs of the ducal residence.
Hmm. Then he’s a knight after all?
The house’s Silver Dragon Knights were famous for subjugating monsters, not only around Winterwald but all across the empire. If he was one of them, that would explain everything.
But the moment I tried to picture the man in my head—
“Huh?”
A strange sense of wrongness came over me. Why? I couldn’t remember his face at all. And I was sure he’d had a very striking appearance.
Features I must have looked right at were blurry, as though I were seeing them through fog. I couldn’t even remember his voice. As if I’d been put under some kind of spell.
“Is it because I’m nervous?”
No, that didn’t explain it; something was off. Could it be…
I was imagining other possibilities when I realized I had already reached my destination—I must have picked up my pace without noticing.
“Wow.”
The exclamation slipped out on its own. What towered before me was closer to a massive fortress than a mansion.
So this is why everyone goes on and on about Asheln.
I’d heard that if you bound together all the deeds to their property, you’d end up with not just an encyclopedia but an entire library.
The stately, magnificent exterior was beautiful, but at the same time it gave off a suffocating air of intimidation. The fearsome guards at the tall iron gate made my shoulders hunch without my meaning to.
But I can’t back down after coming all this way.
It’s not like I’ve done anything wrong. Just walk in with confidence!
I clenched both fists and approached the main gate.
But the moment I faced the guard standing crisply at his post, I lost every bit of the confidence I’d just had.
“H-hello…! Um, I’m here to apply for the physician position…!”
True to their role guarding the great House Asheln, the look in his eyes was fearsome.
I felt guilty even though I hadn’t done anything, and I glanced at him nervously.
His colleague beside him reacted much the same way. Soon the two of them were whispering to each other with grim faces.
“That’s her, isn’t it?”
“Definitely.”
W-what? Did I do something wrong?
I haven’t caused any trouble yet…! The grim atmosphere had me more on edge than ever when—
“Would you mind waiting here a moment? I’ll call someone to show you in.”
“Ah, yes! Thank you.”
Contrary to my worries, the response was polite. I nodded in relief, and the guard went in through the iron gate and soon caught hold of an attendant.
“Get word to Sir Conrad, quickly. That squirrel… Ah, right. Tell him Miss Squirrel is here.”
“Huh? A squirrel?”
“It’s a thing, so just go! It’s His Grace’s order!”
Beyond the bars, people were moving about busily and saying something, but they were too far away for me to hear.
Not that I could have taken any of it in, as nervous as I was.
Whoo. Haa. I took hurried deep breaths.
In the meantime, the guard returned with a neatly dressed servant in tow.
The servant led me inside at once.
After walking a long way down tall, lengthy corridors, we finally arrived at what looked like a drawing room.
“The interviewer will be here shortly, so please make yourself comfortable.”
“Yes, thank you.”
The inside of the drawing room was even more lavish than the outside, but none of it registered. My nerves were only getting worse.
From here on, I really have to do well… I wonder who’ll come.
If possible, I hoped it would be someone close to the Duke.
That way it would be a little easier to ask to see him.
Don’t stammer just because I’m nervous, greet them cheerfully no matter what, and what else do I need to watch out for…
I was busily running interview(?) simulations in my head, fidgeting with my fingers as I waited, when—
Click. At last, the door opened.
My breath stopped before I could help it.
Because the person who had arrived was someone I had never once imagined.
Hair that gleamed like silver thread, swept cleanly back to bare a cool forehead. And beneath it, eyes as red as blood.
The man’s face was beautiful, but so inhuman that it sent a chill down my spine.
With looks that distinctive, there was no mistaking him the moment I saw him.
It’s definitely him.
Cain Asheln.
The man who becomes Melody’s father in the original story.
For some reason, the original’s leading man himself had come in person.
