<Chapter 137>
#16. Hidden Purpose (1)
Melty slowly blinked as ingredients and preparation methods flashed through his mind. He had thought that perhaps he could discover a cure with this gift, but he hadn’t been certain. However, what had flashed through his mind was unmistakably medicinal herbs.
Having naturally studied herbs while organizing documents beside Calix, Melty’s knowledge of medicinal plants had grown. Especially the few herbs he had just seen were ones he clearly recognized, impossible to forget.
Melty’s tear-filled eyes fell on Malek. His hand holding Malek’s tightened instinctively. Somehow, it felt like Malek might open his eyes at any moment.
– What can’t my little brother do!
The voice of Malek echoed in his ears, always defending him proudly while tucking him under his arm whenever he became dejected. His hyung was right. It felt as though Malek would wake up any moment, pat his head, and praise him for doing well.
“Ah! I-I can’t forget this.”
Wiping away the moisture gathering in his eyes with his hand, Melty frantically looked around. He was certain he had brought a memo pad, but no matter how much he searched his pockets, he couldn’t find it. Wrinkling his nose, Melty looked around for an alternative. Under the pile of letters he had sent, he spotted a notebook.
Grabbing the notebook, Melty hurriedly wrote down what had come to mind. Fearing he might make a mistake, his hand pressed harder as he wrote each character. After checking several times to ensure he hadn’t missed anything, Melty tore out the paper and placed it in his pocket.
“Hyung. I’ll make you better soon! So until then, you have to be okay! Got it?!”
Hooking his pinky finger with Malek’s unresponsive one to make a one-sided promise, Melty smiled brightly. Then, with his eyes closed, he didn’t forget to offer a prayer to the Beast God for his brother’s health. Though he would have to leave the gathering of ingredients and the manufacturing process to Calix, he had faith that Calix would solve it quickly.
Of course, he was somewhat prepared to be scolded for doing something dangerous. He had wrestled with many concerns until setting foot here, but now face-to-face with Malek, Melty didn’t regret his decision one bit.
Since his hyung had always protected him, it was now his turn to help his brother.
A slight flutter of excitement and pride in his accomplishment filled Melty completely. The expectation that he would soon see his brother open his eyes also thinly coated his inner thoughts. He hurried out of the room to deliver the note to Calix. At that moment, someone roughly grabbed Melty’s wrist as he was just about to step out.
Startled by the sudden unfamiliar touch, Melty inhaled sharply. Faster than Melty, who had frozen stiff, was Naru, who had been coiled silently around his wrist.
Hiss!!
With a thin, sharp, aggressive sound, Naru opened its mouth wide. Simultaneously, the strength drained from the body of the person who had grabbed Melty’s wrist. Before he could even process the faint groan he thought he heard, the person’s body fell backward.
The eyes of the person wearing a black mask that made their face unrecognizable showed only whites. Naru, flicking its tongue and smacking its lips, rested its jaw on Melty’s wrist as if it hadn’t done anything.
Unable to properly grasp the situation that had unfolded so suddenly, Melty tried to calm his startled heart as he cautiously moved his body backward.
“Stupid fool.”
“Tch.”
Hearing these brief voices, Melty looked around. Though the interior of the mansion was dark and hard to see clearly, there were more individuals nearby dressed exactly like the one who had just collapsed. Melty darted his eyes around, tensely alert.
“W-who are you?”
Melty asked with a trembling voice. Before his question was even finished, Naru’s warning “Hisss!” rang out. Despite his fearful and cautious question, Melty realized that the people before him were targeting him. And he easily deduced that it wasn’t for any good reason.
They laughed quietly as they watched Melty instinctively searching for an escape route, rolling his eyes back and forth. The unpleasant laughter made Melty feel his hair standing on end. His gaze automatically turned toward the door. It was strange that there was no movement from the guards who should have been waiting outside, despite this small disturbance.
“Oh? Haha! Waiting for the guy outside? Well, this is awkward. We already killed him.”
Melty’s face turned pale at the voice filled with mockery and sarcasm. Regardless of Melty’s change in expression, the man snickered and kicked the large corpse lying on the floor.
“Why did this bastard die so quickly?”
“Must be because of the Ollua.”
“Ah~ Really? Ollua? Why is such an expensive snake here? That’s messed up.”
Naru pressed itself close to Melty while remaining wary of them as they spewed curses with laughter-laced voices. Glancing at Naru, which had wrapped around his wrist while emitting sharp warning sounds, Melty gulped dryly.
‘One, two, three, four… Too many.’
Gently stroking Naru’s body with his hand, Melty took a deep breath. Slowly lowering his posture, Melty attempted to headbutt the person standing directly in front of him with all his might. Leaving behind the person who lost balance and staggered from the sudden attack, Melty ran forward.
Though his body was a bit heavy, he was confident that his speed wasn’t slow even considering that. Panting as he ran down to the lower floor, Melty instinctively pressed his stomach. Just as he was about to turn toward the main entrance while biting his lower lip hard, it happened.
Bang!
Melty flinched in surprise at the noise that rang in his ears. At the same time, a large object falling toward him filled his vision. Realizing he couldn’t avoid it, he instinctively raised his arms to cover his face and tightly closed his eyes.
Hisss!
The first to move was Naru, who had sharpened its nerves to protect Melty. Just as it opened its mouth wide and bit the object, there was a ‘pop!’ sound and the balloon burst.
Melty lowered his arms in surprise and looked up blankly, only to see white powder floating in the dark space before his eyes.
‘Huh…?’
At the top of the stairs, surrounding the railing, stood those men. And then Melty felt his vision tilting. Simultaneously, darkness engulfed his sight.
***
Calix let out a deep sigh and covered his eyelids with his hand. In his mind, Melty’s wounded face sobbing floated around. He, too, wanted to resolve this matter as soon as possible. But it wasn’t something that could be solved as easily as he thought.
“Master Calix.”
Pushing the complicated thoughts in his head to a corner, Calix turned his gaze to Angel, who stood holding a folder of documents.
“What?”
“How long do you plan to keep those people outside waiting?”
Angel’s question caused Calix’s brow to furrow deeply. The “people” he mentioned were those who had taken up much of Calix’s already scarce time over the past few days. Among them were participants of the exchange meeting who hadn’t been summoned to Durasen’s mansion.
These sudden visitors to Calix’s territory had insistently demanded that he take responsibility for the current situation. Many had become refugees due to the drought caused by the plant called Avartia, and regions other than Calix’s had willingly accepted these refugees. The problem was that they were all potentially carriers of the epidemic.
By the time Calix discovered this fact and moved to solve it, people in other regions had also started showing symptoms. As the number of infected people increased, it was a natural progression that they targeted Calix, who had been proposing alternative solutions for Avartia.
Their argument was simple. The Padrian family had identified Avartia as the cause, proposed solutions, and made profits from it. Looking at that, they claimed this whole affair was a scheme by the Padrian family to gain high profits and establish dominance among the families. They even extended their absurd claims to suggest that Calix had deliberately spread the current epidemic.
‘Where do they get the nerve to spout such nonsense, not even worth a fruit fly.’
The Padrian family had always been distinguished. They had enough capital that they didn’t need to do such troublesome things just to make the profits these people were talking about. Moreover, the current head of the family, Braiante, and his proxy, Calix, weren’t particularly interested in material wealth. If they set their minds to earning, they could easily make that much in no time.
“They’re just a bunch of fools who blame others when they were too stupid to know what was happening in their own family territories. They should have outgrown whining and throwing tantrums as minors.”
Angel smiled awkwardly at Calix’s contemptuous muttering. He somewhat agreed with Calix’s sentiment. In any case, accepting refugees had been their choice, and those who came to blame others rather than take responsibility for the people who had entered their managed areas didn’t seem mature at all.
“So will you leave them as they are?”
“Even the time spent dealing with those fools is too precious to waste.”
Calix frowned deeply and muttered as he roughly ran his hand through his hair. Somehow, Melty’s note was now in his hand. A faint smile spread across Calix’s lips as he slowly traced the few characters with his finger.
“Rather than worrying about them, it’s better to focus on developing a cure. That’s the most urgent matter anyway.”
After finishing his words, Calix got up with a deep sigh. Angel’s face showed a question as he followed Calix’s steps with his eyes.
“Where are you going? The herb storage is in the opposite direction…”
“You guys whined that you couldn’t handle them, so they came all the way here, right? I should at least say a few words before I go.”
The irritation that had been visibly building had already disappeared. Feeling somewhat relieved by Calix’s return to his characteristic composure, Angel followed closely behind him as usual.
“I’ve requested the main house to gather and send related medicinal ingredients. Once they arrive, you’ll likely find a solution quickly.”
“…Until then, our hyung-nim needs to hold on.”
“Master Malek Crosel is no ordinary person.”
Calix chuckled at Angel’s nonchalant response as he shrugged his shoulders. That was also what he earnestly hoped for.
“But what will you say to them?”
“I’ll tell them if they’re going to act like this, they might as well just submit to Padrian rule.”
“……”
Casting aside any treatment due to elders or respect for those leading other families, Calix smiled brightly.
“Master Calix!!”
Recognizing the person who burst in with an urgent cry, Calix stopped in his tracks. He wondered why the guard he had sent to watch over the patients at the outer mansion had returned here. Before Calix could ask the reason with a furrowed brow, the guard spoke first.
“Something terrible has happened! Master Melty has disappeared!”
