When The Silver Bell Of Charlotte's Pharmacy Rings (Completed Main Story) - Chapter 15
Lichten politely took the newspaper.
A bold, prominently printed headline supporting the former revolutionary government was visible.
Matiel spoke.
“Please convey that it would be wise to think more carefully before writing articles.”
“Understood.”
Matiel immediately opened another newspaper. This time, the headline was slightly more intriguing.
Elique in Terror as Horrific Serial Murders Continue!
Beneath the headline and subheading were two photographs—somewhat smudged but still legible.
One showed the deputy chief of security for the Elique region inspecting the crime scene; the other depicted a victim collapsed on the ground, face obscured.
Judging by his attire and build, he appeared to be a man in his twenties, or at most early thirties.
He wore tattered corduroy overalls, a shirt missing a button, and leather work boots—likely a laborer from a construction site or dockyard.
“Hmm…”
Matiel frowned as he stared intently at the victim’s image in the photograph.
He gently traced with his finger the spot where two faint dots stood out unusually clearly, then stood up, still holding the neatly folded newspaper.
“Lichten, prepare the carriage.”
“Are you heading to the palace?”
“No, it’s a personal errand.”
“Understood.”
Once inside the carriage, Matiel stated his destination, crossed one leg over the other, and folded his arms.
Though his eyes were closed, he certainly wasn’t trying to drift off to sleep.
Far from relaxed, his nerves were sharper and more alert than ever.
The reason was unmistakably the newspaper still tucked under his arm.
[This is the timeline separator]“Apply this ointment only twice a day—once before getting out of bed in the morning and once right before going to sleep at night. Spread it slowly, focusing on the painful area. Your daughter is still at home, isn’t she?”
“Oh yes, she is. After getting divorced once, she swore off men entirely and refuses to go anywhere now.”
The elderly woman grumbled playfully, and Charlotte chuckled lightly in response.
Bent nearly double despite leaning on a cane, the old woman had recently visited Charlotte’s apothecary, unable to endure her persistent lower back pain any longer.
Charlotte had prepared a custom ointment for her on the spot and also handed her a small bottle of blue-tinted tincture.
“The ointment won’t work instantly—it’ll improve gradually. If the pain becomes too severe when you move, take just one drop of this tincture. It’s a painkiller, so don’t take too much, or you’ll pass out.”
“Oh my, how thoughtful of you! So considerate.”
The elderly woman seized Charlotte’s hand with her wrinkled one and patted the back of it affectionately.
Then, like many other elderly patrons of the shop, she said:
“If only I had a proper granddaughter-in-law, I’d make you my granddaughter-in-law in a heartbeat. It’s such a waste!”
“Oh, Grandmother. Even if you did have a real grandson, you’d want someone prettier and kinder than me.”
“Nonsense! Where else would you find a girl as gentle and kind as our apothecary?”
The old woman feigned sternness, but Charlotte simply smiled.
She’d heard this so often it no longer annoyed her.
Yet, knowing such conversations usually drifted into lamenting past regrets, she quickly slipped the ointment and tincture bottle into a crisp paper bag.
“By the way, Grandmother, these are herbal cookies I baked myself—they’re soft enough for you to eat easily. I’ll give you a few to share with your daughter…”
As she was placing the cookie bag inside, the door chimed open with a soft jingle.
“Welcome…”
Charlotte instinctively beamed as she lifted her head to greet the customer—then her eyes widened in shock.
The bag of cookies slipped from her hand and dropped into the paper bag with a soft thud.
The one small consolation—if it could even be called that—was that the other person seemed just as startled as she was.
She mechanically folded the top of the bag neatly while staring blankly at Matiel, who stood there with the newspaper tucked under his arm.
“How did you…?”
Charlotte’s voice trailed off. At that moment, the elderly woman waiting for her medicine flushed and addressed Matiel.
“Oh my goodness! In all my years, I’ve never seen such a tall, handsome young man. Have you come to see our apothecary? Could you be her sweetheart?”
Charlotte’s cheeks turned crimson. She hurriedly tied the bag shut and shook her head vigorously.
“Grandmother! Sweetheart? No, it’s nothing like that…”
“Not a sweetheart, no. Perhaps a candidate, though.”
Charlotte nearly dropped her jaw at Matiel’s words.
But the elderly woman seemed pleased with his answer and laughed heartily.
She then opened her satin purse, pulled out some banknotes, and placed them on the counter.
“Make it work, handsome young man. You know better than anyone how wonderful our apothecary is—don’t let her slip away, or you’ll regret it deeply.”
“I’ll keep that in mind, madam. Please take care on your way.”
Matiel tipped his silk hat slightly in a polite bow.
After the old woman left, beaming with delight, Charlotte swiftly stepped out from behind the counter, locked the door with a click, and pulled the curtain shut by yanking the circular ring.
The shop, once bright with sunlight, dimmed slightly.
Matiel looked down at Charlotte with an expression noticeably less gentle and more composed than before.
Charlotte, arms still folded, narrowed her eyes at him as if glaring.
“You found out where I live awfully well.”
“Well, it wasn’t particularly difficult.”
He lifted his cane lightly and removed his hat with his other hand.
But instead of accepting them like a proper hostess, Charlotte sighed with a frown.
“I told you yesterday—we have nothing more to do with each other. One favor given, one received. The promise was kept. So why are you here?”
“Hmm. Isn’t this an apothecary? Maybe I’m just a customer here to buy medicine. I should be asking why you’re so on edge.”
Though she kept her arms crossed, Charlotte’s brow furrowed slightly.
She eyed Matiel up and down, his air of ease obvious, and said,
“You look perfectly fine to me.”
“Are you truly an apothecary if you’re making judgments just by casually glancing?”
Charlotte let out a small, amused scoff. Still with her arms folded, she took a step toward him as if to approach.
“Excuse me, Your Grace. Do you even know what an apothecary does? If you want a diagnosis, go see a physician—not barge into an apothecary unannounced.”
Her tone was clearly sarcastic, but Matiel paid it no mind.
Instead, he found a wall hook himself and hung his expensive silk hat, leaned his cane against the wall, and even took off his jacket to hang on another hook.
“What are you doing?”
Matiel answered,
“It’s only natural you can’t tell what’s wrong with someone just by looking—you’re no physician. But on the other hand, you’re also a mage, aren’t you? That’s what you claimed yesterday. If everything you said last night is true, then you should be able to recognize what kind of mark this is.”
He placed the newspaper openly on the counter.
Charlotte’s eyes naturally fixed on the headline, then drifted to the provocative photograph beneath it—the victim’s corpse displayed plainly.
She’d already heard rumors of the strange serial murders centered in Elique, a western region of the Roanoke Kingdom.
Whispers about the corpses smiling—or rather, their faces contorted so horrifically they appeared to smile—spread through every alleyway daily, making it impossible not to know.
Charlotte said,
“This isn’t a mage’s concern. It’s a matter for the security force to handle.”
“I partly agree, but look closely here.”
Matiel tapped the victim’s photograph with a long finger.
Charlotte tilted her head slightly and stared at the photo, but all she could tell at once was that the print quality was poor.
“Just what am I supposed to see…?”
“Look at this man’s neck.”
Charlotte’s brow instantly knotted. This time, she turned fully toward the newspaper.
Leaning forward with both palms flat on the counter, she lowered her head—Matiel’s hand quietly slipped from her line of sight.
Yet she knew exactly where he’d pointed moments before.
Slanted across the man’s neck were two distinct black dots.
The print was so messy that they’d blended in with other smudges at first glance, making them easy to miss.
It can’t be, Charlotte thought. That’s impossible.
But the marks on the man’s neck in the photograph remained stubbornly clear, as if mocking her.
‘You don’t believe it? Do you really not believe it? You’re just scared. You know it’s not nothing, Charlotte.’
It was as if the ghost of the already-dead man in the photo was snickering mockingly in her ear.
Just to be sure, Charlotte rubbed the spot—precisely over the two dots—with her finger.
If it were a freshly printed morning paper—and given how poor the print quality was—the ink should have smeared.
Indeed, the tiny, grain-like smudges around where she touched blurred faintly from the warmth and oil of her skin.
But the two dots on the man’s neck didn’t vanish.
If anything, they became even clearer.
They looked exactly like marks left by something sharp piercing through his throat…
Male lead is a Divorced Husband
She said to him: “Tell me, what makes you like me? I’ll change it!”
Liu Changning transmigrated into a female cannon fodder character in a female-dominant novel.
After reading the first half of the novel’s plot, the first thing she did upon transmigration was to divorce the Pan Jinlian-style male protagonist she had just married.
She indulged herself, pretending to be ugly and poor.
But as time passed, the way that man looked at her became more and more unusual…
Liu Changning was dumbfounded: Tell me, what makes you like me? I’ll change!
――
This lifetime, Pei Yuanshao was rejected by the same woman twice!
The first time, she drove him away. Forced by the situation, he endured the waves of anger in his heart, yielding and humbling himself.
That person lay slanted on a rocking chair, her sallow face emotionless: “If you don’t want a divorce, go cook!”
Pei Yuanshao’s face was dark and gloomy: “You!”
The second time, after the crisis in Jinling City was resolved, the new emperor sent someone to pick him up. He turned around, stammering: “I… I have to go. If you keep me…”
That person lay on the kang bed, her back to him, as if she had long anticipated this day, crisp and clear: “Goodbye!”
Pei Yuanshao was so angry his fingers trembled: “You… you!”
The mission of family and country made him restrain himself, averting his eyes and turning to leave this broken household.
Two years later, they met again. Seeing her ethereal face, his body shook like a sieve.
“She was originally a ‘she’!”
At the Qionglin Banquet, the top scholar of the imperial examination, a talented person with exceptional speech and conduct, all the unmarried young gentlemen from aristocratic families looked at her with shy and timid eyes.
The peerless imperial official Pei Yuanshao felt the anger in his heart erupt. He pointed at the woman surrounded by the crowd at the Qionglin Banquet, his thin lips slightly curled: “Little sister, I wants that person to be the wife-master of my Mingde Prince Manor.”
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To be honest, Tae Mi is my favorite character in this novel.
Wow that’s grotesque. I didn’t think this novel was going to be so gorey