“Hello, Lucy.” Kanna greeted.

Lucy Addis was in her bed with the sheets pulled over her head.

“Will you come out for a moment? There’s nothing to be scared of.”

“Uh... uh...” Lucy groaned faintly from beneath the sheets. The facial paralysis was likely making it difficult for her to speak.

Kanna spoke gently to console her, just as she had with her young patients in Korea. “It’s all right, Lucy. You won’t be sick for much longer. With the right medicine and some treatment, you’ll be right as rain in no time.”

“B-b-but...” the little girl whimpered, still hiding under her covers. “Th-the d-doddorsss-said th-they c-can’t h-helb m-m-me...”

“I’ve met many patients just like you, Lucy. I’ve even cured some myself, so I’m sure I can help you too.” Kanna spoke with confidence so her little patient would trust her.

It must’ve worked, because Lucy slowly lowered her blanket, revealing a heavily distorted face.

Kalen quietly watched from the back, clenching his fists helplessly. He was used to seeing doctors rear back or gasp at the sight of her face. How many times had he watched his young sister’s heart break before his eyes? He glared at Kanna’s back, ready to tear her apart if she hurt Lucy in any way. But...

“Now, can you try blinking for me? Just once. There we go. Now, let’s try the other side too.” Kanna was calmly stroking Lucy’s face in the course of her examination. She didn’t react at all. In fact, she looked like she’d seen this a million times.

On the contrary, it was Kalen who was left disconcerted in the wake of her incredible composure. How can she be so calm? How can she act so nonchalant before that twisted face everyone called a sign of devilry? Even Kalen had grimaced despite himself the first time he’d seen her affliction, and his mother and younger sister Isabelle had quaked with fear and pointed fingers at poor Lucy.

But Kanna just calmly and kindly asked her question after question. “How do you feel, Lucy? Is it hard to close your right eye?”

Lucy was surprised as well. Everyone had screamed when they saw her face, even her own family. They’d whispered behind her back that she must be possessed. But this lady treated her as if there was nothing wrong with her, as if her condition were nothing more than a passing sickness. Hope began to sprout in Lucy’s heart. She’s not like the others!

Meanwhile, Kanna was examining Lucy with some anxiety of her own. Let’s see... What could be the cause of this? It wasn’t Lucy’s face that made her nervous. She was used to treating patients with facial paralysis, after all. I need to figure out the cause first.

She’d declared to Kalen that she could heal Lucy without a doubt, but she wasn’t as confident as she’d let on. If the cause is a stroke or another neurological disorder, treatment could be difficult. The medical facilities here are so inadequate. A simple blood test or MRI would tell her everything she needed to know, but Kanna had no such tools at her disposal here. So, she had to do things the old-fashioned way, interrogating each and every symptom.

“Was Lucy always a sickly child, Kalen?”

“She’s been ill a few times, but never like this.”

“Was she perhaps suffering from a cough or fever before this happened?”

Kalen’s eyes widened. That was exactly what had happened. Lucy had fallen into a pond on a boating excursion and come down afterward with what the doctor had diagnosed as the flu.

“She did have the flu, but she made a quick recovery.”

“I doubt that.”

“What?”

Kanna looked back toward her patient. “Lucy, after you got better, did you ever feel a pain or ringing in your ears?”

“No, she’s never mentioned—”

Kanna lifted her hand to interrupt his words. “I wasn’t asking you, Kalen.”

He frowned. If I didn’t know, who would? There was no chance that Lucy wouldn’t have told him had she been...

“Y-yeth. I d-did.”

...in pain. There was no chance… but then why was Lucy nodding?

Lucy’s shy nods blindsided Kalen, but Kanna was wearing an expression of complete understanding. “I see. That’s what I thought.”

Fever, coughing, and throbbing pain in the ear were the typical early symptoms of facial paralysis caused by viral infection. It’s the most common cause as well. All of the cases I treated were of this kind.

Kanna sighed with relief. This was a great win both for her and for Lucy. This, I can cure.

* * *

A moment later, Kanna and Kalen moved over to his office.

“Can you cure her?”

“Yes, as long as I have the proper tools.”

“What do you need?”

“A guide to the herbs of the eastern continent.”

Just as she’d expected, Kalen frowned. “Are you serious?”

Discovered by the head of the DeBoer Trading Company, the eastern continent was a new and mysterious world the western continent had only begun trading with less than ten years ago. For this reason, eastern culture was considered exotic and exciting to the people of the west, and eastern goods were all the rage these days. The tea culture of the eastern continent in particular was now enjoyed by all of western nobility.

If Joohwa’s memories are to be believed, many eastern medicinal herbs are making their way to the western continent as well, due to the popularity of herbal teas. Since Joohwa’s mother was a doctor of traditional medicine, she’d taken an interest in this news.

But we still don’t have a lot of information about them, and especially not about eastern medical practices. They didn’t know much more than scraps of information, such as the fact that peony root made a tea that was good for anemia—nothing like the detailed knowledge in Joohwa’s world about the way to mix herbs to amplify their effects, or which herbs shouldn’t be used together. This was why the western continent could only make use of these herbs as health supplement teas. But that doesn’t matter. I have all the knowledge I need in my head.

Kalen stared at her with renewed suspicion. “Do you really think guides on eastern herbs will be of any use?”

“Yes, I do,” she replied. She wanted to check if all of the herbs she needed had already been recorded or not.

Kalen still seemed unconvinced but nodded regardless, as if he’d made up his mind to trust her. “All right.”

A moment later, the servants approached with arms full of books on eastern herbs.

Milkvetch, angelica, red peony, chuan xiong, peach seeds, and safflower. These were the herbs she needed to brew the medicine prescribed for facial paralysis. Kanna paged frantically through the books, her dark hair hanging eerily over her face.

Watching her in silence, Kalen suddenly felt empty and lost. What am I doing?

The sister who’d been all but driven out of the family had returned home and was now sitting on his couch, looking through some book on eastern plants. But...

She doesn’t seem like she’s speaking nonsense. She detected that Lucy suffered from fever and cough, and... she even deduced that Lucy had symptoms I didn’t know about.

A shadow drew over Kalen’s face. Lucy admitted that she’d experienced pain and ringing in her ears even after her fever had broken. Why wouldn’t she have told him? His chest felt tight with painful frustration. Unable to stand it any longer, Kalen opened his mouth. “Why did you speak the way you did?”

“I need to focus on finding something right now. Don’t talk to—”

“When Lucy confessed she’d had ear pain,” Kalen continued, ignoring Kanna’s words. “It was as if you understood why Lucy hid it from me. Am I wrong?”

“No, you’re not,” Kanna replied indifferently. “I thought she might not have been telling you everything.”

“Why is that?”

“Because I would have done the same.”

Kalen was left speechless. Kanna went on, her tone dispassionate. “You said the doctor even paid a house call? She probably didn’t feel safe to mention that she was still in pain, or maybe she didn’t want anyone to accuse her of playing sick.”

But you’ll probably never understand, Kalen Addis. Someone like you, pampered from birth, couldn’t possibly relate.

After a long pause, Kalen refuted weakly, “That... can’t be. I’ve been doing my best to make Lucy feel comfortable here.”

Kanna couldn’t help her contemptuous scoff. “Are you the only one who lives in this house?”

Kalen was dumbstruck.

“I hear Lucy’s the daughter of a maid? It doesn’t matter how well you treat her. I’m sure your brother Orsini isn’t doing the same, and I’ll bet the same of your mother and younger sister.”

It was likely that Lucy had only spoken of her pain in front of Kalen because he was the only one showing her anything like kindness. In any case, she had someone who would listen.

Come to think of it, why was Kalen good to Lucy?

Strange. After all, he never was to me.