Saved Him, Now I'm Obsessed - Chapter 52

“Hello, Cass. I’m Claire. I came to see you on behalf of Pharmacist Jane.”

“Hello.”

“May I examine you?”

“Yes.”

I asked Cass about various symptoms. It was to check if there had been any changes in her recent condition.

“Isn’t it difficult when you sleep these days?”

“When I lie down, it’s hard to breathe, so I sleep sitting up like this.”

Cass showed me how she usually sleeps, hugging a cushion made of bunched-up rough fabrics.

“That must have been tough. Grandmother, how have you been managing the medicine?”

“After Pharmacist Jane passed away, we’ve been getting medicine from Pharmacist Jefferson’s place at the west gate, but because it’s expensive, we haven’t been able to take it consistently.”

Tears quickly welled up in her eyes.

“When we take Pharmacist Jefferson’s medicine, it helps for a while, but without it, the child can’t even sleep properly like this…”

I knew Pharmacist Jefferson well too. He was a skilled pharmacist who had run a pharmacy for a long time.

He tended to focus on the patient’s condition rather than considering their economic situation as a secondary issue. He thought that money could be earned once one’s health improved. But it wasn’t that he deliberately charged high prices for medicine.

“Pharmacist Jefferson is indeed skilled. However, Cass’s illness is long-standing and can’t be cured at once. That’s why Pharmacist Jane prescribed medications that, while not as strong, were affordable for consistent intake. Pharmacist Jefferson likely recommended more potent, albeit expensive, ingredients.”

If they could continue taking Pharmacist Jefferson’s prescription, it would be good for Cass, but given their circumstances, that would be difficult.

That’s why her condition worsened instead of improving. I wrote down the ingredients for the medicine that Cass’s grandmother could get prescribed next time.

“You know how to brew the medicinal herbs, right? Next time, ask Pharmacist Jefferson for these. They may be less potent than what he gave you, but they’re cheaper, so you’ll be able to take them consistently.”

“Um…”

She hesitated before speaking to me.

“Would it be alright if I gathered the medicinal herbs myself?”

“That’s dangerous. Even for pharmacists and healers, distinguishing herbs by appearance alone is difficult. Although herbs may look similar, they can have completely different properties. Sometimes they can be confused with poisonous plants, and depending on how they’re handled, herbs can become either medicinal or toxic. While a healthy person might be able to withstand a small amount of toxin, Cass has no strength to endure that.”

At my words, she wore a disappointed expression.

“I’ll have someone send the medicines Cass needs right away. Fortunately, I brought cough medicine, so please give it to her whenever she coughs for the next week.”

“Thank you.”

“And Cass, even if you don’t have an appetite, you need to eat well. Strength is the most important thing to overcome illness.”

“Yes.”

Cass nodded weakly. Seeing the pale complexion of the child, I felt a pang of sympathy.

Tears welled up in grandmother’s eyes again. She blamed herself, saying it was her fault that Cass was sick because she couldn’t feed her properly.

I gently patted the grandmother’s back, offering words of comfort.

When sending medicine through someone, I thought I should include a few chickens as well. Looking around the household, it seemed the grandmother was struggling just to pay for Cass’s medicine.

“Cass will be fine. Don’t worry too much.”

The grandmother opened a small pouch she had been clutching tightly and held out some copper coins.

“This is all the money I have for medicine… I’ll try to prepare the rest soon.”

Her dilapidated house was on the verge of collapse, and the interior had no warmth left. It seemed difficult for them to buy firewood on time. Whenever I saw scenes like this, it made me think deeply.

It was a thought I always had when meeting poor patients. If possible, I wanted to provide the necessary medicine for free until they fully recovered.

But I couldn’t just give out free medicine indiscriminately to everyone in need. This issue caused me a lot of worry even when I was running the pharmacy. Many people missed their treatment timings because they couldn’t afford the expensive medicine.

Some might say, ‘Why not just not charge the poor for medicine?’

Then how do we define who is poor? Should we not charge those who eat one meal a day because they’re poorer than those who eat two meals?

If we provide free medicine to those who eat one piece of bread a day, wouldn’t those who divide one piece of bread into two meals feel unfair? Or can we say those who eat one meal of white bread are poorer than those who eat two meals of whole wheat bread?

Because circumstances vary so much from household to household, it’s not easy to set a consistent standard. The relationship with other pharmacies was also important. The pharmacists’ guild has its own rules.

If a particular store tries to sell medicine at a low price, other pharmacies would have to lower their prices to compete.

It might seem good for customers who pay for medicine in the short term, but in the long run, pharmacies that can’t make a profit would close down, and as the number of pharmacies decreases, medicine prices would naturally rise.

For this reason, there was a standard price range suggested by the pharmacists’ guild.

For poor patients, I tried to research how to achieve great efficacy with the cheapest possible ingredients, and I also introduced a credit system, but even that was a burden for those in poor circumstances.

‘Today, I don’t need to charge for the medicine!’

It would be stranger to charge her for the medicine when she didn’t come to me, but I barged in saying I would examine her. I declined her attempt to pay for the medicine and said,

“No, you don’t have to pay for the medicine. I came here uninvited, right? If I take payment for the medicine too, it would seem like I’m forcing a sale.”

“No, but you came all the way here to see Cass… If I don’t give you this, I’d feel too shameless.”

“No, it’s alright. I should be the one apologizing. I must have surprised you by coming without any prior notice.”

She smiled awkwardly and said,

“To me, noble lords are difficult people. I forget that there are such kind people too. I’m sorry for treating those who came with good intentions so coldly.”

I stepped out the door with her seeing me off. In front of the door, Ian was waiting for me with his arms crossed, his face full of discontent.

Seeing him waiting quietly for me was both cute and admirable, and I thought about patting his head. But due to the noticeably different eye level compared to the past, I awkwardly lowered my hand.

‘At times like this, I really feel how much smaller I’ve become.’

When I was Jane, there wasn’t much height difference with Ian, but since using Claire’s body, I didn’t dare to reach up to his head. I felt like I might end up dangling from him if I tried.

“You listened well and waited for me? That’s good.”

“Thanks to you, I’ve become a spectacle.”

“A spectacle?”

At his words, I looked around and burst into laughter. It was because of the small groups of people looking at him curiously.

Ian didn’t fit in this neighborhood. In this place where commoners lived day to day, barely making a living by selling their labor, he stood out with his noble aura that was apparent even if you saw him riding a horse from afar.

Those who feared getting on the bad side of a noble didn’t stare at him openly, but some were peeking through door cracks warily, and others were loitering in the same spot, observing him.

Unlike the scared adults, the neighborhood kids who didn’t yet know how scary the world could be were sitting down to watch him.

“Doesn’t that look really smooth? I want to touch it.”

“Isn’t that cloak the one? The hero’s cloak that the mister talked about!”

“Yeah. He said heroes always wear cloaks. Look at that! It’s fluttering so much in the wind!”

The children were busy evaluating his appearance, not even noticing Ian’s furrowing brow.

“His face is white and smooth like an egg too. And his hair is shiny as if it’s oiled! It’s exactly like what the mister said. He must be a cool knight for sure.”

“Stupid. He doesn’t have a sword. A sword! He’s more likely to be a prince than a knight.”

Surprisingly, the gaze of these clueless little ones was quite sharp. Not a prince, but the Crown Prince, actually.

“You’ve been patient without getting angry. That’s good.”

“What’s the point of getting angry at clueless little kids? More importantly, did you completely cure that kid with the cough?”

“The lung disease Cass is suffering from is difficult to cure completely. She was born weak… Even a little cold wind can cause it to flare up again. So we need to manage it consistently so it doesn’t worsen while boosting her strength.”

“That’s unfortunate. It won’t be easy living in a place like this.”

“That’s true. But it’s fortunate that her grandmother is taking care to protect Cass.”

His expression wasn’t good when I said it would be difficult to cure completely. He too had suffered from an incurable disease that relied on medicine for a long time. It’s natural for him to feel a sense of kinship with Cass.