“I got stung by a bee.”

Charlotte replied.

She belatedly realized that Matiel had come trudging through the mud in his expensive suit and gasped, but Matiel didn’t seem to care that his shoes and trouser hems were completely filthy.

“A bee?”

Matiel grabbed her arm and found a bee that couldn’t fly away, its stinger stuck in her thin leather glove.

It wasn’t very big, and as far as Matiel knew, it wasn’t a particularly venomous species.

Matiel roughly removed the bee from Charlotte’s arm and tossed it onto the mud, stepping on it.

Charlotte carefully removed the glove from her arm, which was already starting to throb.

The sting site could be seen swelling and turning red.

“Go back.”

Matiel said gruffly.

Charlotte hesitated for a moment, but after eyeing the beetle in the glass jar, she nodded.

“Yes, that would be better. I won’t be able to use the tongs properly with one arm anyway.”

She turned around.

Matiel moved with a nervous, irritable expression mixed with anxiety and unease, as if Charlotte might suddenly collapse.

“What about your shoes and clothes? Jumping in here wearing such expensive things, are you in your right mind?”

At Charlotte’s words, Matiel finally looked down.

Not only his shoes, but up to his ankles were a mess covered in dirty mud.

Some had even splattered up to his knees, already starting to dry and leave unsightly stains.

Charlotte, who was looking at it with an exasperated expression, said as she moved again:

“You shouldn’t be so careless with them. The mud here stinks terribly even after washing. You’ll have a hard time getting it out.”

“It’s fine, this much is nothing.”

Charlotte, who had left the damp area and climbed onto the grass, rolled her feet to shake off the mud from her boots and chuckled.

“Calling ‘Penerstallit’ shoes ‘nothing’, as expected of the Duke.”

Matiel, who was clumsily rubbing mud on the grass blades, glanced over at Charlotte.

‘Penerstallit’ was the most famous custom shoe store even in the bustling capital, where it was difficult to buy even a shoelace without considerable wealth.

Moreover, the shoes Matiel was wearing, needless to say? The most skilled craftsman had put in all his effort to match his picky tastes.

It was a pair of shoes with a price unthinkable by normal standards.

“You know well. You weren’t just staring at the shoes, how did you know which store they were from?”

“Sherry likes that kind of gossip.”

Charlotte said jokingly, shrugging her shoulders.

After roughly shaking off the mud, the two returned to the carriage.

As Charlotte had said, the wetland mud had a strong stench, so they had to open the carriage windows wide.

Even so, an unpleasant odor lingered faintly, but it was bearable.

Matiel was quiet for a while, looking out the window lost in thought.

Charlotte turned the jar upside down and then right side up again to keep the beetles from thrashing about.

This made them calm down for a while, like people suffering from dizziness.

“Have you been doing that for long?”

Matiel, who had been sitting with his arms folded for a while, suddenly asked.

Charlotte asked back with a puzzled expression.

“Doing what?”

“The ‘Sherry’ you mentioned. How long have you been… infiltrating among the nobles by hiding your identity like that?”

“Well, about 6 years? Maybe a little less. Before that, I was just an apothecary owner.”

“Do you do that to hunt magical beasts, like you did at Baron Lirald’s house last time?”

Charlotte turned the jar upside down with a thoughtful expression. Endless questions ran through her mind.

From the reason why the Duke of Elinak was curious about this fact, to how honest she should be, whether she needed to be honest in the first place, and so on…

“Answer me.”

When Matiel urged, Charlotte looked at him with a rather displeased gaze and replied.

“That’s right. That’s the purpose. Magical beasts don’t choose their hosts by discriminating between nobles and commoners. In the case of commoners, the job is actually easier. Sometimes I use the alias ‘Sherry’ and sometimes I don’t. But to blend in among the nobles, I need a swapped identity as you said. As you know.”

“Why did you start doing this? What do you do with the magical beasts you catch?”

Charlotte, who was gently massaging her swollen forearm, chuckled.

“Why do I feel like I’m being interrogated?”

“Consider it payment for the shoes.”

“What are you saying when you’re the one who came in?”

Charlotte, who retorted as if dumbfounded, let out a short sigh.

This much seemed okay… Up to this point.

“Well… It’s not for any grand reason.”

A memory from the past suddenly crashed into her mind with a bang!

It was as fast as an eagle diving vertically from the sky.

The loud sound of hail falling on the roof and windows, the sound of thunder, and even the flashing light of lightning vividly came back to life.

She also recalled feeling fear at the presence of a stranger entering through a door she was sure she had locked.

〈So you’re Berrett’s daughter.〉

The incomprehensible intruder said in a strange voice, looking at Charlotte who was barely covered with a shawl over her nightgown.

At that time, she thought she was having a nightmare because of that voice.

She only realized later that the voice had been mechanically modulated.

〈I have something to discuss regarding your father’s contract. Would you spare some time?〉

At that moment, Charlotte was convinced that what was falling from the sky was not raindrops but stones.

Because she heard the sound of something completely breaking on the roof.

But the voice of that intruder, no, visitor, was not drowned out by the loud noise of nature.

A bizarre and eerie sound, like paper tearing, echoed in the quiet and dark pharmacy.

“That person was… like my father’s employer. I checked the contract. I read it carefully and found no problems with it. It had my father’s signature… and the contract period was stated as ‘until the request is completed’.”

Charlotte’s lips twitched slightly as she continued speaking in a calm voice.

Matiel noticed that she had swallowed something she was about to say.

Charlotte continued:

“They said I could renew the contract in my name if I wanted.”

“Did you have the right to refuse?”

“At the time, I thought I did. But as time passed, I became certain that I didn’t.”

An employer and client of unknown identity.

That person, whose identity, let alone gender or age, was unknown, would have surely made Charlotte take over her father’s contract by any means necessary.

Meeting him was always done secretly, and there was only ever one person assisting him, but Charlotte could feel it.

That there was a need to fear him.

Matiel, who had been pondering her words, asked:

“Do you know who this employer… client is?”

“I don’t.”

“You don’t? At all?”

“That’s right. He always covers his face, and as I said, he uses a voice modulator so I don’t know his voice either. I call him ‘My Lord’, but that wasn’t my choice either. He said my father called him that. So I do the same.”

‘My Lord’, huh. Matiel thought he might be one of the high-ranking nobles.

It wasn’t just because of the use of such a title.

Voice modulators are expensive devices.

If it was as sophisticated as Charlotte said, able to completely disguise the original voice, it would be even more so.

Charlotte added:

“And to be honest, I don’t want to find out who he is. The contract itself is what’s important.”

With those words, she closed her mouth.

Matiel saw a flash of fear cross Charlotte’s face, which was usually always resolute and confident.

Thinking about that, he forgot to ask what kind of ‘request’ she was handling for the mysterious employer.

* * *

Upon arriving at the pharmacy, Charlotte first treated her arm that had been stung by the bee.

As she ground herbs that aid in detoxification, mixed them with ointment and applied it, then covered it with a cold compress to reduce swelling, she could feel the pain gradually subsiding.

With the bandage wrapped to keep the compress from falling off, she poured ethyl alcohol used as an anesthetic into the jar containing the beetles.

After confirming that even the last one had stopped wriggling, Charlotte put on gloves and thoroughly washed the insects.

Then she put them all into a large pot and turned on the fire.

There was a popping sound and a smell similar to roasting chestnuts.

It had a slightly more pungent feel to it… but in any case, it wasn’t an unbearable smell.

Charlotte, who was watching the pot with her swollen arm resting on the counter, suddenly turned her head at the sound of footsteps coming down the stairs.

It was Matiel.

He had finally given in to Charlotte’s nagging and had taken off his dirty clothes and washed up.

Charlotte had found some of her father’s clothes for him to wear, and although her father had not been small in stature either, the shirt barely fit and the trouser legs were a bit short.

He came down wearing slippers that had been hastily provided, revealing his round ankles, and was frowning to hide his embarrassment.

“It suits you well.”

Charlotte said teasingly, bursting into laughter.

Matiel glanced at her while drying his wet hair with a red towel.

His gaze didn’t look particularly pleased, but it wasn’t notably disgruntled either.