The wooden mansion that I lived in was built using the most popular mansion scroll that I had bought. It had cost me tons of gold.

Using these mansion scrolls was very simple.

All I had to do was prepare a wide empty space and then burn the scroll in the exact place where I wanted to bring forth the mansion.

So, that was how this ridiculously huge wooden mansion got to be in the middle of the Forest of Death.

Originally, I was going to use all ten rooms to dry, ferment, research, and store my herbs. However, I realized after the fact that I had been overly ambitious.

There was just no way I could maintain all these rooms on my own. The best I could do was to maintain four of them.

Coincidentally, it just so happened that the mansion had exactly five empty rooms available.

The entire first floor and the basement were designated for my herbs.

So, the archmage, Snoa Calisis, and the assassin, Adar Aroa, took the second floor.

On the third floor, the sword master, Chellus Miladas, took the room to the right of mine. The king of mercenaries, Halik Galopsa, took the one to the left, and the dragon anthropomorph, Almoer Daor, took the one next to that.

The next morning, I woke up as soon as the sunlight poured over my eyes.

There was an endless list of things to do.

Yesterday, I had given them each an antidote to treat the poison caused by the herbs in the garden. However, there were much bigger things to take care of.

Today, I had planned to use a needle to prick and extract their blood. This way, I could analyze exactly what poison they were inflicted with.

After analyzing the poison, I would have to make antidotes for each of them every day, as well as carefully treat them using acupuncture.

Unlike the regular pressure points for the flow of blood, mana points were all located in different places and were thus more complicated to find.

Even worse, they would shift around freely, making the task even more difficult.

However, that didn’t faze me.

I am a healer.

For a long time, I had been living with guilt from avoiding people and living a solitary life.

This was an opportunity for redemption, and there was no reason not to take it.

After a quick shower, I opened my closet.

I was greeted by a warm, wooden scent as I looked over the clothes I had hanging there.

Half of these clothes were loose robes that I wore because they were comfortable to work in.

I picked out a white dress, which was made up of pieces from a blanket that I had cut out. It hung below my knees when I wore it.

Then, I picked a tightly knitted, warm wool sweater to wear over it.

I stood in front of the mirror to check out my outfit. I sprayed my messy hair with some cleansing water to get rid of all the dust and smell.

Finally, I rubbed some scented oil onto my curved horns.

‘Perfect!’

I nodded confidently and opened the door.

It wasn’t even six in the morning yet.

Naturally, I assumed that no one else would be awake.

“Ahh!”

“Kakana, you’re already awake?”

Halik asked just as he stepped out of his room while stretching his arms.

That's what I was going to say.

He let out a big yawn, completely oblivious to the surprise on my face. Tears lightly glistened in his orange eyes.

“Halik, since you’re awake, could you go outside and chop some wood for the fire?”

“Sure—”

Halik answered half-heartedly and went downstairs. Below, I heard Snoa’s voice.

Feeling dumbfounded, I stared at his back with bewildered eyes.

My senses came back to me just as Halik reached the second-floor landing.

Remembering something important, I hurried down the stairs after him.

I started imagining the worst: if Halik stepped outside unarmed, he’d return as a corpse. Images of his possible fate flashed before my eyes.

Gritting my teeth, I ran downstairs, going down two steps at a time.

The stairs at my house were quite wide, making it hard for me to control my speed.

I ended up colliding against Halik's back, where I finally came to a stop. His back was broad and hard like a stone wall.

‘What kind of human body is this...?!’

Letting out a silent yelp, I checked the tip of my nose with my fingertips.

I thought I’d get a nosebleed—I was wearing white! But it was fine.

“Huh? Kakana?”

“You’re going to chop firewood dressed like that? Are you trying to get yourself killed? Huh?!”

I threw a tantrum and pulled at his hand.

Halik looked confused.

Feeling upset, I squeezed his hand as hard as I could, intending to crush his thick rope-like fingers.

Embarrassingly, though, such an effort was quickly put down with a strong wave of his hand.

I felt a little defeated.

‘Life is unfair after all.’

Feeling defeated, I continued down to the living room on the first floor.

There was a whiff of something delicious.

It smelled like homemade bread and fresh vegetable salad flavored with strong lemon zest.

My stomach had long given up growling for food to its unresponsive owner. And yet, it seemed to cautiously show an appetite this time.

I skipped meals regularly, but this smelled so good that it made my mouth water.

Adar, who was cooking some eggs, looked back at me with a puzzled expression.

‘Adar is the one cooking?’

Isn’t he some type of assassin? Do assassins cook, too?

The stereotypes I had were being broken. I frowned.

Despite the dark aura he carried around him, he seemed to be adept at cooking. The act of him performing such a domestic skill was in sharp contrast to the rest of him.

‘He looks like a mix of angels and demons.’

Lost in my thoughts, I scanned the living room.

Almoer was half lying on the sofa with his eyes closed.

Snoa and Chellus were discussing something and nodding their heads in a serious manner.

It felt strange to see the room crowded.

‘It had always been so quiet here all the way up until yesterday.’

“Everyone, please gather around,” I said.

From the living room shelf, I took out a pencil and paper with which I used to sketch herbs.

Then, I placed the paper on a low-standing table and started drawing.

The heroes gathered around me and watched me draw with curious eyes.

“This is an herb I planted. It’s called Saphegia, which usually doesn’t grow well alongside poisonous vegetation, but I made some modifications.”

I pointed to the leaf with my pencil and continued.

“The Saphegias that I planted have big and broad heart-shaped leaves. The smaller ones are not the ones I modified, so please be careful not to confuse the two. Obviously, I do not recommend you going into the woods by yourselves. But if you must, please follow the big Saphegias from now on.”

“Why should we bother?”

Adar asked.

I smiled sweetly and answered.

“If you don’t mind being immediately poisoned to death, then you can do whatever you want.”

Lost for words, Adar turned to look at Halik.

“Halik, did you catch all that? You're the one going out to chop wood, you know.”

Halik forced a smile and nodded.

“Anyone who goes outside must see me before you go to bed. This is just in case you get infected with any poison. I'd need to heal you. Now, I need a sample of everyone's blood.”

I said while taking out the bag that I had placed underneath the stool last night.

Inside the hard wooden case, there were five long flasks containing transparent liquid and a long needle.

Ignoring the puzzled eyes waiting for further explanation, I approached Chellus. He was the easiest to deal with.

Chellus, the sword master, obediently offered me his hand like a loyal dog following his master's command.

A speck of red blood gushed out as I lightly pricked his index finger.

With the flask positioned underneath, I squeezed his finger until a drop of blood rolled down.

I repeated the same process with everyone.

Once I finished, I sanitized the tip of the long needle with disinfectant. Then I stored it in a designated needle case, grabbed the flask holster, and got up.

“What about breakfast?”

Adar asked.

“Later.”

I didn’t want to waste my time eating.

Shaking my head, I promptly walked out of the living room and went into the room located in the deepest corner on the first floor.

It was my research lab.

Inside, it smelled of old paper and pungent herbs.

On the wall to the right were shelves of herbs arranged neatly side by side. My most frequently used herbs were stored there.

On the left was a wide worktable, big enough to fit dozens of flasks and herb bowls with room to spare.

There was a special display cabinet by the table that stored things like glass plates, ointment cases, and dispensing tools to make powdered herbs. Cast with a magic spell to keep it sterile, it was very useful.

I especially enjoyed using it when crafting drugs that required strict enforcement of the herb magnification ratio.

Beside the cabinet was a bookshelf with deep, wide shelves.

The bookshelf contained yellowed archive logs that documented various research processes that I had thought of or had worked on in the past.

This research lab was the heart and soul of my mansion.

I spent most of my time every day in here.

I sat down on a chair made of teak wood and gazed at the five flasks.

From left to right, they contained the blood of Chellus, Snoa, Halik, Adar, and Almoer.

Finding out what kind of poison they were inflicted with required numerous ingredients and much patience.

However, I had many tricks up my sleeve to narrow down my search by looking at how the blood reacted.

My first plan was to observe what aspects of the poison made it life-threatening.

“It’s not gonna be easy for complex beings like you. Once you've taken hold, it’s hard to draw you out.”

I mumbled. I stared at the flasks with a piercing gaze.

It was my way of communicating with the poison that resided in their bodies.

When working with poisons, I greeted them just as a human would greet another when they met.

This was essential since they maintained their lives by leeching off the body of other creatures.

Hehehe. I chuckled with excitement and leaned towards the flasks containing the heroes’ blood.

“I’ll lure you guys out gently.”

My voice was dripping with madness as I ended the greeting.

I rubbed my hands as though I was performing some kind of secret ritual before officially beginning my work.

***

When I looked up, it was 11 p.m.

“Huh.”

‘Since when did the time pass by so fast?’

I shrugged my shoulders and collected up my notes containing a list of poisonous herbs. I carefully held onto them with a firm grip and got up.

I heard my knees crack.

“Ow, ouch.”

My back, shoulders, and neck screamed in pain. I had been sitting with my head crouched down all day.

Massaging the areas where I felt cramped, I stretched my neck from side to side.

My bones crackled almost as though they were breaking.

‘I used to be fine even if I did research all day. I guess my body isn’t how it used to be.’

Thinking like an old lady, I did some light stretching.

There was intense pain from where my muscles had gone stiff, but my head was in the clouds. I happily wondered what antidote to make.

Though my body hurt, joyous laughter escaped my lips.

Humming a tune, I opened the door.

I ran into Adar standing right in front of me.

I tilted my head in confusion.

“Huh?”