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ONLY three days after his first visit, Ernest once again found himself at the witch’s door.
The jangling of the bell over the door gave him away. Imagining the look on the witch’s face when she saw him back so soon excited him. But Yuuri was nowhere to be found.
“How can she be so careless…?”
Last time she was sleeping, now she was missing. As both a shopkeeper and a woman living alone, she was frighteningly negligent.
A rattling sound shook Ernest from his thoughts. It was coming from an interior door that had been left ajar. The area seemed to be part of her private living quarters. Undeterred, Ernest headed toward the sound.
Peering inside, he spotted her right away. She was perched atop a ladder, her back to him, reading a book. She wore a jacket with a different pattern from the other day and her hair was as shiny as ever.
She evidently wasn’t expecting any customers. The books that once lined an entire section of shelving were now in piles on the floor. Ernest couldn’t be sure whether she was looking for one in particular or just going through them all, but either way, she was so immersed in reading that she hadn’t even heard the bell.
“Hey, Miss Witch! How’s it going?”
“Eek!”
He hadn’t meant to scare her, but he thought it would be creepy of him to just stand there silently watching her. Still, the sound of his voice caught Yuuri off guard and she lost her balance. Both she and the book she was holding came toppling off the ladder.
Ernest charged in and caught her. Even as the ladder and book came tumbling after her, he still managed to catch the petite witch with surprising ease. She refused to look at him after he set her down.
“That was close. Are you all right?”
Even with her back turned, he could see her ears glowing bright red. If he said something about it, he knew she would only grow cross with him. He decided to let it go for the time being.
“I’m terribly sorry. Are you hurt?” Yuuri finally turned in his direction. Her eyes were still downcast as she looked him over to make sure he hadn’t been injured.
“I’m fine. And I should be the one to apologize. I hadn’t meant to frighten you. Why were you reading back here with the door unlocked?”
“I wasn’t originally. When you came to borrow those books, it made me realize I should organize my collection…so…”
“Haha! So, you started going through them and got caught up reading!”
So she was reading instead of minding her shop. His laughter finally got her to look directly at him. And, as he feared, she was mad.
“ANYWAY, why have you come to see me today?”
“…Well, it may take a while to explain, do you have the time?”
Yuuri led Ernest to a couch like the one he had sat on last time and pulled a chair over for herself that looked like it came from her dining table. She prepared a different kind of tea for him this time as well.
“It’s about the books you lent me. A colleague of mine who’s proficient in Xingkaese was supposed to translate them for me, but says he can’t understand them.”
“What?”
He had borrowed these books, knowing they were written in Xingkaese. How foolish he sounded now, complaining he couldn’t understand them.
“I was baffled at first, but I suppose it does make sense. He works as a civil servant, so I expect it was a bit much for him to understand the text of a specialized medical book, even in his own language.”
“So, even though he can speak enough to manage diplomatic exchanges, he doesn’t know enough to read medical texts?”
With her dainty hands clasped around the teacup, Yuuri took a sip. Ernest mimicked her elegant, practiced movements. Finished with his tea, he decided to move on to the main topic at hand.
“You don’t talk much, do you?”
“…I guess not. I don’t go out very often.”
“That’s the impression I’ve gotten. You’re a sharp girl, so you must understand that I haven’t been forthcoming for a reason. We’re willing to reward you handsomely if you’ll assist us.”
“To be completely honest, I do not wish to involve myself in anything troublesome. But, seeing as the head of Watoh Company himself has commanded me to help you, I suppose I cannot refuse.”
“I’m sorry to get you caught up in all of this, Miss Yuuri. But I must ask that you keep this matter between us.”
With that out of the way, Ernest began to divulge the matter he was investigating:
It all started a month prior when the Queen fell ill at a welcome reception for a dignitary from Xingka. Her breathing remained ragged and her eyes bloodshot for hours after the ceremony.
“The Queen has always had a delicate constitution that waxed and waned with the seasons, so we believed there was no immediate cause for concern. And yet…”
A week ago, the Queen once again collapsed. The only known similarities between the two incidents were the Xingkaese tea the Queen drank and the maid who had prepared it for her. But a lot of people drank the tea brought by the ambassador and they were fine. This particular maid had been taught how to prepare the tea by the ambassador and his wife, so she was the one asked to do so this time as well.
The maid was quickly taken into custody and put through an intense investigation, but her story remained the same. She maintained complete innocence.
“The Queen has complete faith in this particular maid. She has ordered that this matter not be made public, convinced that there must be some misunderstanding.”
“So the Queen’s maid and the tea from Xingka are the two common threads.”
“Yes. Many of the maids also drank the tea, including the one in question. The only person who collapsed was the Queen. So it’s not unreasonable to believe her responsible, yes?”
Assuming that no poison had been detected in either the tea or the cup it had been served in.
“Have you considered the possibility that a poison unknown to the doctors of your country could have been used?”
“We have. We searched the maid’s belongings and tested the cup for anything that could be a poison, but we found nothing. Since makeup from the East, particularly from Xingka, has become popular here, we’ve also been evaluating the possibility that a poison could have been smuggled in under the guise of being makeup as well.”
The investigation hadn’t firmly settled on Eastern poisons being the definitive cause. They were merely assessing each possibility,
“I understand. So you would like me to summarize all of the Eastern poisons that could impact the respiratory system. Could you give me ten days?”
“Yes, thank you, we would be incredibly grateful.” Ernest’s generous grin made Yuuri blush. She told him she rarely ventured outside and hardly interacted with anyone beyond her family, so it made sense that she would be unaccustomed to interacting with others.
“By the way, do you have special powers or something?” he asked.
“What do you mean?”
“Like the power to rid yourself of wicked men?”
Everyone called her either the “Witch Who Preyed Upon Misfortunes” or the “Misfortune Devouring Witch,” but in person, she wasn’t the least bit imposing. Her lack of vigilance began to worry him.
“People call me a witch because I brew potions and treat their maladies. I’m more akin to a doctor. I have no mystical powers.” Her answer was matter-of-fact, and yet, she looked as if she would burst into tears.
“Shouldn’t you be a little more careful then? I mean, if I just grabbed your hair right now, you wouldn’t be able to get away.” Ernest would only have to take a step from the couch and the girl would be his. But the girl didn’t seem to be afraid.
As soon as Ernest touched her hair, Yuuri balled her hands into fists and glared at him. “Let go of my hair. If you do anything untoward, I won’t help you.”
Her anger was no more frightening than a kitten’s yowl to Ernest. It actually made him want to see more of her reaction. But he felt he owed her a word of warning for her lack of vigilance.
“If I genuinely wished to harm you, I would have done it long before now. You really should be more careful about keeping your shop locked.”
“No one ever comes to my shop. They’re so afraid of me, they do not dare…so there is no danger. Your concern is unnecessary; please let it go.”
“But, what about me? I’m here.”
“Your work brought you here.”
“Really? Still, I urge you to use caution while bad men such as myself lurk about, dear lady witch.”
Ernest left the shop and the witch with her cheeks red and her head hanging low.