As he left, Ian tilted his head and asked me.

“Could she be pretending to sleep? For some reason, she might be continuing to act out of dissatisfaction with her father. The gravedigger isn’t always at home either.”

While listening to his words, I lifted her eyelids to check her pupil response. I also raised her arm in the air and dropped it to check her motor response, and she was clearly in a deep sleep.

“That could be the case. But right now, she’s really asleep. Her pupil response is the same as when in deep sleep.”

“Is that so? Then she’s asleep now, but could she be waking up and moving around when the gravedigger isn’t here?”

Crash.

Ian, who was examining the room, picked up a vase on the table and dropped it on the floor. As the vase shattered, it made an intense crashing sound. Startled, I covered both my ears and scolded Ian in an irritated voice.

“Are you crazy?”

“I’m not crazy… I was just trying to test if she would react to this sound. She really didn’t move at all.”

“There are other ways, you know. Don’t cause unnecessary disturbances and just stay still.”

“I was trying to help. I wanted to check if she might be feigning illness like I said.”

“And from her current physical state, I can see she hasn’t had proper hydration and nutrients for a long time. I told you she’s not pretending to sleep on purpose.”

I turned back to the bed to examine her.

“No special rashes, and her breathing is even…”

“Is she really breathing? Just looking at her lip color, I’d believe it if you said she was a corpse.”

“I said don’t interfere…”

As I was about to get angry at Ian, his words bothered me.

Indeed, she looked like she was quietly asleep, but her lip color was no different from a corpse. While her skin tone had a rosy hue and seemed like that of a living person, her lips were pale blue like a corpse, appearing almost purple at a glance.

I opened her mouth and examined inside. The inside of her mouth had turned black, and her tongue was covered with white coating.

“This is serious…”

I brought my nose close to her mouth and sniffed, smelling it. It was natural for her breath to be unpleasant after sleeping with her mouth closed for so long, but mixed with the stale breath was a strange floral scent.

“What’s this smell… It’s like flowers…”

“Flower scent? Is it the same as the flowers filling the room?”

Ian handed me a single flower with pure white petals from among the shattered vase on the floor. Although it was wet from the water in the vase when it hit the ground, the flower was in quite good condition.

It was a white flower that looked like the end of a jar split into several branches. What was fascinating was that it wasn’t just white, but emitted a faint fluorescent light. Indeed, a scent similar to the floral scent coming from the gravedigger’s daughter’s mouth could be detected from that flower.

“What kind of flower is this?”

Although I prided myself on knowing more about plants than others due to handling many herbs, that doesn’t mean I knew every plant in the world.

“I feel like I’ve seen it somewhere…”

I forcibly rummaged through the spaces of my memory. Just as I was about to pound my chest in frustration because it was on the tip of my tongue but wouldn’t come to mind, the door opened and the gravedigger entered.

He frowned as soon as he came in and saw the broken vase on the floor. But he didn’t say anything. While Ian, who actually broke the vase, didn’t care, I felt guilty and apologized to him.

“I’m sorry.”

“Well, it’s a small space, so these things happen. You’re not hurt anywhere, are you?”

He seemed to think the vase was broken by accident.

“You decorated it so carefully, and we’ve ruined it like this.”

“The vase is just an ordinary water jar, and that flower grows commonly in this graveyard, so don’t worry about it. There’s more than just that one flower in this room.”

He brought a broom and swept the floor. He seemed used to cleaning the house. The floor was quickly tidied up.

“Do you happen to know the name of this flower? You said it’s common here, but it’s unfamiliar to me…”

“It’s natural for young lady not to know, as it’s not commonly encountered by ordinary people. That’s a gravedigger’s flower. It doesn’t bloom well elsewhere, but it’s common in graveyards.”

“Ah! So this is a gravedigger’s flower. It’s really a precious flower.”

Only after hearing the name could I remember what kind of flower it was. In fact, this was my first time seeing this flower in person. The gravedigger’s flower primarily grows in places where corpses are buried.

Because it only grows in such unique places, it has several nicknames. Some called it the reaper’s flower, and it was also known as the finger of the soul.

Especially at night, it emits a pure white light, and its appearance sprouting above graves made it look like the finger of a soul breaking through the grave, hence the nickname.

‘Come to think of it, grandfather said the gravedigger’s flower is a special and dangerous poisonous plant.’

The gravedigger’s flower has a truly unique characteristic as an herb, which is its ability to act as a vessel for medicinal properties.

This flower, capable of containing the components of substances that touch its roots, often changes its composition depending on its growth environment. The problem is that it doesn’t just contain medicinal properties.

Especially since it mainly grows in graveyards, it sometimes contains harmful substances like poison, and if its roots reach the corpse buried under the grave, it can even contain the diseases that the deceased suffered from while alive.

Due to this unique nature, it’s not commonly used as an herb, but because of its ability to contain toxins, it’s a favored ingredient among witches and black magicians who operate in the shadows.

‘If, as grandfather said, the gravedigger’s flower really contains the diseases of the person buried in that grave, and if that disease is one that keeps someone from waking up, like this child…’

Although it was a story I heard vaguely when I was very young, there was a time when a disease that prevented people from waking up swept through the capital.

‘I don’t clearly remember what kind of disease it was… But was it contagious just by contact with the flower?’

Since it’s not a commonly used herb, I couldn’t recall the uses or side effects of the gravedigger’s flower.

Even with my good memory, it’s impossible to memorize the effects of all medicines, so I usually remember the effects of commonly used herbs and rely on records for the rest.

If it were grandfather, who carefully keeps even small records, I could get hints by looking at his notes, but since they were all burned in the fire, I need to find another way.

“About that flower. Did you also place it by her bedside before she fell asleep?”

“It was a flower the child liked, so I’ve been replacing it with fresh ones each time. The job of burying the dead and guarding graves isn’t exactly welcomed by others… But my daughter loved this flower, saying it made the graveyard beautiful. So I always decorated the room with this flower. Recently, while working for a noble family, she even started brewing tea, imitating the young lady of that house.”

At the mention of direct consumption, I asked, “Tea?”

“You might find it unpleasant to brew tea with flowers from a graveyard, but after all, it grows above the ground. The roots aren’t deep enough to reach the coffins. Anyway, the child loved the flowers, so she decorated the room and even brewed tea with them.”

As his explanation continued, my inference gained strength. The gravedigger was confident that the roots of the gravedigger’s flower didn’t reach the corpses, but that’s because he didn’t know the characteristics of that flower.

The gravedigger’s flower extends its roots as deeply as possible until it absorbs components from other substances. Moreover, the strength and toughness of its roots make it not surprising if it pierced through the coffin while growing over a long period.

Of course, it’s not a common occurrence. Usually, it tends to borrow components from other plants growing nearby.

Considering that the gravedigger’s daughter brewed tea with that flower, it was necessary to know the state of the gravedigger’s flower she consumed. To do that, I needed to figure out what disease the corpse, whose roots the gravedigger’s flower had reached, had suffered from while alive.

It may seem strange for a doctor to have to figure out the diseases of the dead, but all sorts of things happen in medical practice.

Anyway, I had to hurry. I was worried about her body, sleeping without eating or drinking.

Although metabolism isn’t active during sleep, breathing requires energy, and energy needs to be replenished with nutrients.

If she continues just sleeping like this, she will eventually starve to death. It’s only because the gravedigger forcibly poured water mixed with sugar and salt into her mouth that she has managed to hold on until now.

“The gravedigger’s flower she drank as tea. Do you know where the flowers were usually picked from?”

“Is it important where the flowers came from?”

“Yes, it’s very important. I think the clue lies in this flower.”

“Well, there’s no reason I can’t tell you. Then follow me.”

Ian and I followed the gravedigger outside.