Suddenly, Baron Lirald was enveloped by a strange sensation.

At first, he felt an unpleasant sensation as if something cold and soft was wrapping around his ankle.

However, as soon as he realized this, the discomfort disappeared, and he felt a sense of lightness as if his feet were floating off the ground.

The moment the beautiful woman whose name he didn’t know, standing before him, slowly approached and kissed him on the cheek, an excited, trembling sigh escaped Baron Lirald’s lips.

As he moaned and shivered, Matiel, who had been watching this scene with folded arms from the darkness of the study, raised an eyebrow.

He couldn’t understand what on earth was happening.

Charlotte merely stood still, raising one hand towards the baron.

But suddenly the baron stopped in his tracks, and abruptly fell into ecstasy, panting and moaning on his own, groping at the air.

It was too absurd to even laugh at, but it was undoubtedly an amusing sight.

“What’s going on here?”

As Matiel spoke softly, Charlotte glanced at him with her palm still raised.

“It’s a kind of hypnotic state. You could say he’s dreaming while standing.”

“Hypnosis, then.”

Charlotte’s lips twitched mischievously.

“Don’t treat me like a circus clown, will you?”

“I’ve never seen a circus clown, so I’m not sure what you find so unpleasant. Is it offensive to call hypnosis hypnosis?”

“You’re a man who doesn’t understand. Nevermind, just open the door.”

“What are you planning to do? Make him walk down like that?”

“I could make him walk down, or do forward rolls. How about making him go down in a handstand? What’s your opinion?”

Finally breaking into a chuckle, Matiel shook his head. Then he found the door leading to the basement in the same way the baron had.

However, a moment later, he looked at Charlotte with furrowed brows.

“We need to know the number. There’s a lock.”

Matiel said again as he felt the combination lock with his fingertips.

“Six digits in total.”

Charlotte rolled her eyes like a disgruntled student and took a step towards the baron, who was still not in his right mind.

He was now making kissing gestures at thin air, mumbling his lips.

She raised her palm towards the baron’s face and blew a gentle breath as if extinguishing a candle.

At that, his ridiculously twitching lips stopped, and the baron’s focus became even more blurry.

As his eyes rolled back until the irises were barely visible, Charlotte whispered in a soft voice.

“Tell me the number to open the door.”

What Matiel had called hypnosis was Charlotte’s magic.

She had said it was a hypnotic state, but in fact, the baron was now closer to a half-dead state.

The dead must answer the medium’s questions. It was taking advantage of the weakness that they could neither lie nor hide.

The baron, who had been moving his lips, said:

“2, 3, 1, 1, 9, 8…”

Matiel immediately turned the lock.

As Charlotte flipped her hand and wiggled her fingers, the baron’s rolled-back eyes somewhat returned to their normal position, and he started making kissing gestures at the empty air again, flailing his arms.

There was a clicking sound.

As Matiel nodded, Charlotte blew on the baron’s face once more.

The baron’s arms, which had been holding onto something invisible tightly, fell limply to his sides.

“Open the door and go down. On all fours like a frog.”

“Hey, that’s unnecessary…”

Charlotte let out a “kik” sound as she laughed.

Before Matiel could say anything, the baron immediately opened the basement door, and suddenly crouched down on all fours in front of the stairs and started hopping down on four limbs.

“Aaah, what the!”

Lance’s scream was heard from below.

Matiel looked at Charlotte once, shook his head, and followed down the stairs.

Seeing him, Lance immediately threw away his tools and tried to run away, but it was futile.

As Matiel grabbed and twisted one of his shoulders tightly, Lance let out an ugly scream.

Charlotte, who had gracefully walked down the stairs, snapped her fingers in front of the baron, who was still pretending to hop on all fours.

“…Huk!”

The moment the snapping sound was heard, Baron Lirald felt as if a huge rock had struck his back and let out a scream mixed with gasps.

Of course he would. Charlotte watched the baron’s trembling reaction with an indifferent expression as she stood up.

Having forcibly pushed away his consciousness to drive him into a half-dead state, bringing it back all at once was bound to be shocking.

The baron crawled on the floor, dry heaving for a moment before raising his head.

“Th-this, hic! Huak!”

Matiel, who had been holding Lance’s shoulder, threw him to the floor as if discarding him.

Lance screamed as his ankle twisted, but that was none of Matiel’s concern.

Matiel said:

“Baron Lirald, are you prepared to pay the price for daring to steal a royal treasure?”

“Uh, huk, th-this… How did this…”

“How this happened is not important. What’s important is your predicament, which is about to become very difficult from now on.”

Matiel’s voice was chillingly low.

A look of interest briefly flashed across Charlotte’s face as she watched with folded arms, but it quickly disappeared.

Baron Lirald was dragged away like a beast by the royal soldiers Matiel had stationed in advance.

Since everyone at the party had witnessed the scene, the entire social circle would be in an uproar by tomorrow.

Charlotte returned to her pharmacy with a tired and exhausted expression.

Perhaps because the unpleasant and uneasy feeling hadn’t subsided, her whole body felt heavy like water-soaked cotton, even though she hadn’t done anything particularly strenuous.

〈It seems we still have some things to talk about.〉

The words Matiel had said when he blocked Charlotte as she was about to leave the Lirald mansion kept echoing in her mind.

〈No, our conversation is over. We’ve given one and received one, so let’s go back and live our own lives now. Do you understand, noble and mysterious Duke of Elinak?〉

In the end, Matiel had let her go, but even after returning home, Charlotte didn’t feel refreshed at all.

It still felt ominous and unsettled, as if dark clouds were hanging overhead, ready to pour down rain and strike with thunder at any moment.

Just as Charlotte arrived at the pharmacy and sighed, about to turn the lock:

“Hey, are you kidding me?”

Startled by the sudden male voice, Charlotte almost dropped her key.

A figure emerged from the darkness of the building.

Seeing the limping movement, Charlotte’s brow furrowed deeply.

“Sorry, Taemi. Something came up.”

Taemi looked Charlotte up and down with a mix of irritation and anger in his eyes.

At that moment, Charlotte pushed open the door of the pharmacy. The silver bell tinkled.

Taemi limped in after her.

Charlotte let out an irritated sigh before turning towards Taemi. Then, her eyes suddenly widened.

“Are you hurt?”

His face was pale enough to be clearly visible even in the darkness, and there was dried blood visible next to his ear.

As Charlotte moved to approach him, Taemi stepped back, dragging one foot.

“It’s fine, it’s nothing. Just take this.”

Taemi rummaged in his pocket and tossed a small glass vial to Charlotte.

As she quickly caught the object floating in the air, she felt a cool chill. Along with it, she could feel a sensation as if something was pricking her palm.

“Is this what was inside that girl’s stomach?”

“Yeah. Well, it was almost fully grown and about to burst out of the body, so it gave me a bit of trouble, but I caught it anyway. But it was just a small fry this time too.”

“…I suppose so.”

Even as she agreed, there was an undeniable disappointment in Charlotte’s voice.

She placed the vial containing the supernatural creature she had extracted from Baroness Lirald and the vial she received from Taemi on the glass counter, then went behind it to rummage through the shelves.

“Where are you hurt? Tell me.”

“I said I’m fine. More importantly, Lottie, you should stop…”

There was a sharp sound. The irritable friction cut off Taemi’s words like slicing a radish.

“Take this and drink one drop before going to sleep. It will help with recovery.”

Charlotte pushed a small tincture bottle she had placed on the counter.

Taemi stared blankly at the cork bottle cap, then let out a mocking chuckle and limped towards the door.

“Hey, Taemi!”

“I don’t have money to pay for medicine.”

“Who’s asking you to pay for it?”

“Next time we meet, buy me an extra donut or something. Well, I’m going. That frilly dress looks uncomfortable, so take it off quickly and get some sleep.”

The silver bell above the door jingled again.

Charlotte didn’t stop Taemi as she watched him disappear into the darkness.

She leaned on the counter with both hands and took a deep sigh like someone overcome with anger, glaring at the tincture bottle Taemi hadn’t taken.

〈You should stop now…〉

Blinking her eyes, she shook her head and put the tincture bottle back on the shelf.

Then she locked the door and entered the concave space inside the corridor to climb the stairs.

She was thinking of taking off these stuffy clothes and getting some sleep, just as Taemi had said.

As a faint light leaked from inside the second-floor window, Matiel, who had been standing in the shadow beside the building, raised his head.

He stared intently at where the limping man had disappeared, then looked up at the sign hanging above the pharmacy door.

“‘Charlotte Berrett’s Pharmacy’… Charlotte Berrett.”

As he mumbled, the light by the window went out as if in response.

Now the building was completely engulfed in darkness, and only the streetlights along the alley were shining dimly and intermittently like the worn-out stage lights of a dilapidated theater.

Matiel looked at the old sign once more before turning away. The sound of carriage wheels rolling broke the silence of the alley.