episode_0086

Episode 86. The Curse of the Cerulean Family (3)

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The Duke of Ceruleus was a stern-looking, slightly prickly middle-aged man, unlike the Duchess, who was a typical noblewoman.

“Hello, Your Majesty the Duke.”

“Ah. Feel free to talk.”

“Yes.”

“I heard you’re a hard person to meet. Thank you so much for coming to my mansion. Hey, please take a good look at the kids. Where’s the pain?”

“Thank you. Just one thing, do you remember when your children started getting sick?”

“Well, I’ve always been unwell.”

“Yes.”

“It’s been a week since all three of them fell ill. The mansion family is worried, wondering if there’s some kind of divine punishment or curse on the family.”

“It’s not anyone’s fault. Oh, if you don’t have anything else to say, I’ll go see a doctor.”

“Are you coming with me?”

“No. Please focus on your treatment. We will take care of the children later.”

I nodded.

There was no time to delay any longer. After paying our respects to the Duke of Ceruleus, we took the butler and headed straight for the examination.

I thought they would naturally come to the clinic. If not, do you think it would be more helpful if they didn’t come? If so, why?

My thought process was a bit different from that of ordinary people. Ordinary people don’t leave a sick child to receive treatment alone.

Especially if it’s a disease that can cloud the patient’s judgment, like this case. There were several possibilities that I thought of.

The stage where they are unconsciously denying the fact that their children are sick. The Duke and Duchess do not think that their illness is that serious.

The more I look, the more mysteries I find myself struggling with.

I really need to go see the patient quickly.

****

We stopped in front of a closed door. There was a sign on the door that said Emily. This must be Miss Emily’s room.

“Is this the eldest daughter’s room?”

“Oh, yes. What are you doing?”

The butler I saw earlier frowned with a troubled expression. Well, I said the symptoms were madness. There might be trouble.

“We are healers. We see a lot of things on the job, so you won’t be surprised by anything you see.”

“It’s nothing special. When I told him the doctor was coming, he started screaming and vomiting and making a fuss. He hasn’t said anything since.”

I nodded.

It’s difficult if the patient is uncooperative.

“Let’s start with the examination. It doesn’t seem like you’re screaming right now. I’ll be careful.”

“I will wait outside the door. If anything happens inside, please call me right away.”

The butler said he would wait outside the room. I went into the room of the eldest daughter of the duke’s family with Istina.

There must be a clue to the disease. Since talking to the patient may not be easy, the process of finding the clue is especially important.

I looked around the patient’s room. Let’s see. At the head of the bed was a glass of water that had been drunk a few minutes ago.

There weren’t as many signs of illness as I thought. Looking at it this way, it didn’t look like a room for a mentally ill patient. Of course, the patient’s own condition didn’t look that normal.

The patient was sitting still in bed muttering something. The room was better organized than expected. There was something under the bed.

Is that a book? Why is the book there?

There was a dressing table on one side of the room. She might have used cosmetics containing lead. I looked closely at the patient’s dressing table.

“Istina. Do you want some cosmetics?”

“I don’t know.”

I don’t know because the ingredients aren’t written on the cosmetics. I’m sure there are a few white cosmetics, but do they contain lead?

It is true that lead can cause neurological symptoms, but the symptoms of lead poisoning do not seem to fit with your condition.

The most common symptoms of lead poisoning in adults are dizziness and headaches. Sitting still and mumbling, as if hallucinating, is not a symptom of lead poisoning.

Let’s just check it for now.

I turned my gaze back to the patient.

“Patient. Can I speak to you briefly? We are here to help you with healing.”

There was no answer. The patient’s muttering became slightly more intense. The patient’s gaze moved unsteadily.

“Istina. Hold the patient’s hand just once.”

“Now?”

“Yeah.”

“What if I ask?”

Okay, what should I do?

“Just try it. I’ll help you if the patient attacks you. It seems calm now.”

“Uh… … . Excuse me.”

Istina approached the patient cautiously. The patient did not even glance at Istina. Istina took the patient’s hand.

I looked at the back of the patient’s hand.

“Okay. Come back.”

“Phew, that was scary.”

“What are the special features?”

“There was a strange wound on the back of my hand.”

That’s right. I asked Istina to hold the patient’s hand to confirm that. There were some rather peculiar scars on the back of the patient’s fingers and the front of the back of the hand. And only on the left hand.

“Istina. You know that wound on the back of the patient’s hand? Do you know how it got there?”

“Where did you fall?”

No. Why would you fall and get a cut on the back of your hand? It’s not easy for a person to fall on their hand. The angle is not right.

“You’re wrong. I’ll explain it to you later.”

“Yes… … .”

In medical terms, it is called Russell’s sign.

This is a wound commonly seen in patients with anorexia, and is a mark left on the back of the hand by the teeth when the patient puts their finger in their mouth to induce vomiting.

I guess she used her left hand because she didn’t want her right hand to get soaked. But Emily didn’t look like she had anorexia.

This patient is not anorexic, but rather seems to have induced vomiting to pretend to be sick, which resulted in these marks on his hands.

It’s not necessarily what you see that’s important.

After seeing Emily, this is my conclusion.

Vomiting is not really something you do because you are sick or in pain. It seems like you force yourself to vomit quite often to pretend to be sick.

why?

I don’t know either.

But deliberately vomiting to look sicker or to lose weight is not something a person without common sense would do.

I’m not a psychiatrist, but it seems likely that this was a deliberate and planned act.

Didn’t you mean you were trying to act even crazier by vomiting when you heard the doctor was coming here today?

But there were still a few ways to check. I looked at the half-full glass of water for a moment, the lip print still fresh.

It might be surprisingly easy to check. I thought about it for a moment and then slowly opened my mouth.

“Thank goodness, Istina.”

“Yes?”

Istina looked at me.

“I put a sleeping pill in the water glass. If the patient has mania, the cold air of the sleeping pill will suppress the mania and the patient will fall asleep soon. Then I can make a more detailed examination.”

Actually, there is no such thing. There are no sleeping pills, and the cold feeling of sleeping pills is a lie. Istina looked very confused.

Well, that’s nonsense.

But the patient has no way of knowing whether what he just said is true or false. After a moment of trying to ignore the other person, the patient lay down on his side.

I got caught, after all.

“Istina. Please give me your notebook.”

“Oh, yes.”

I took the notebook and took out a ballpoint pen. Then, I wrote two words on a blank page of the notebook and presented it in front of Emily, who was lying down.

– That’s blind water.

Emily’s eyes flashed open.

Look, you were listening to everything we said from the beginning. Even the muttering and not listening was all just Miss Emily’s acting.

I know it’s a faking illness, but of course, a healthy person wouldn’t have such a serious faking illness. Istina tilted her head for a moment.

“That, there really wasn’t any sleeping pills, right?”

“Yeah.”

Emily has something very serious, either mentally or physically, that’s why she did this. We need to find out what it is.

“Let me tell you something, Miss Emily. I’ll keep it a secret from everyone around me as much as possible.”

“Really… … ?”

That’s the rule. Even if the patient’s guardian asks, it’s right not to reveal information that the patient asked to be kept confidential.

It was a pity to think that the Duke and Duchess would suffer because of the lie. I nodded. Emily sighed.

After a while, the butler poked his head in with a worried expression. It seemed like he had heard the commotion when Miss Emily got up earlier.

“Hey, Miss, when did you come to your senses?”

I couldn’t help but laugh at the irony of the situation. The butler opened his eyes wide as if he didn’t understand English, as expected.

“You seem to have come to your senses for a moment.”

“Oh, yes. I’m coming to my senses.”

Emily scratched her head awkwardly. The butler didn’t notice anything and just exclaimed a few times as if he was relieved.

“As expected, the saying that he is the best doctor in the empire is true! Just by the presence of the teacher, I think the young lady has already improved a little.”

Now let’s see what the real problem is.

Malingering. To put it more euphemistically, it is also an important virtue for a doctor to be able to recognize patients whose symptoms are different from the illness they have.