episode_0090

Episode 90. The Golden Ring Surrounding the Eyes (2)

****

Kaiser-Fleischer ring.

A golden ring around the pupil. This is a symptom caused by abnormal copper metabolism in the human body, in which copper metal accumulates in the pupil.

It is the most representative symptom of Wilson’s disease.

“Patient must be admitted.”

“Yes.”

The Duke and Duchess said there was no family history of genetic disease. Wilson’s disease is a recessive genetic disorder, so it seems unlikely that the Duke and Duchess were unaware of it.

First of all, the odds that the Duke and Duchess both had the Wilson’s disease gene are astronomically low. It’s not that common.

Couples without Wilson’s disease are not very likely to have a child with Wilson’s disease.

Even if the Duke and Duchess, who do not have Wilson’s disease, happen to have the Wilson’s disease gene by some ridiculous coincidence, the probability of them being homozygous is only 25%.

The chances of Elizabeth being the daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Cerulean are slim.

For some reason I still don’t know, everyone in this mansion is lying to me. Everyone has tried to lie to me. Some have failed.

Anyway, I’m in a situation where I have to reexamine all the reasoning I’ve done so far. I was focusing on the hypothetical illness and its cause, but what if a real genetic disease comes out in the third case?

I sighed.

Elizabeth looked a little embarrassed.

“Did I do something wrong?”

“No.”

I shook my head.

“Aren’t you seeing a doctor?”

“You need to be hospitalized.”

Even though everything she had been thinking about was shattered, Elizabeth’s diagnosis was left without a doubt.

I turned my back to Elizabeth, who had a confused expression on her face, and turned my head to the butler.

“Mr. Anderson. I found out what the disease is, so please gather the whole family together around 7 o’clock.”

“Okay, I understand.”

Anderson nodded. I left the princess’s room, leaving the patient and the butler behind.

****

Elizabeth and Anderson scratched their heads. Why did they do that as soon as their eyes met?

“Butler. Did I do something wrong?”

The doctor who had just arrived crumpled his expression as soon as he saw Elizabeth’s eyes. He kept repeating that she needed to be hospitalized, and then he left Elizabeth’s room with a very grim expression.

“I don’t know? Doctor, I helped Emily with her silence earlier, and I helped Elisa with her seizure. Why are you so angry here…?”

Butler, Anderson thought about it, but he couldn’t come to a conclusion as to why he was angry.

“That’s what happens as soon as we make eye contact.”

“There must have been a reason for that. Let’s just wait a moment, I’ll tell you later.”

Elizabeth sighed.

“Maybe it’s because my illness is the most serious. As soon as I saw him, he started talking about hospitalization.”

“That’ll be okay. If it was really serious, Ms. Elizabeth would have just been diagnosed, not just talking about hospitalization.”

“Is that so… … .”

Was it because it was the most serious illness?

****

My patience is running out.

There are many diseases that are difficult to treat even if the patient cooperates fully and tries their best. What are you going to do if you actively fight with the doctor? You are going to conspire with several patients and their guardians.

First, and second, I thought the princess’s faking illness was like that. No, if there was a situation where a hereditary disease was suspected, you should have said something about it.

Anyway, I stood in the central living room of the mansion, waiting impatiently for these people.

Istina was sitting next to me.

The people of the mansion arrived one after another.

Our Butler Anderson arrived just in time. The third princess still had a worried expression on her face, as if she didn’t know what was going on.

The second princess, with a defeated expression on her face, seemed to have lost the will to pretend to have a seizure, and the first princess walked in with a somewhat gloomy expression.

Finally, the duke and duchess. The duke of Ceruleus laughed as he sat down at the head of the living room.

“As expected, the best doctor in the empire is different. He said that he found the disease that many doctors had been unable to treat, in just one day.”

“Yes.”

I nodded roughly.

“I think everyone here has all the clues we need to solve the problem. So, if we all get together and talk, I think everything will be solved.”

“Children. Is this a disease that can be cured?”

“Yes.”

The Duke laughed heartily again.

“I’m glad we have something to laugh about after a long time. So, what illness did the kids have?”

Originally, I was going to keep it a secret. Originally, I was going to not tell the story of the two princesses’ illnesses at all, but that situation has passed.

My patience ran out just now.

Now is the time for everyone to share the information they have been holding onto and solve the problem. I pointed to the three princesses sitting in a row.

“The first daughter is acting crazy.”

“The second daughter pretends to have a seizure.”

“The third daughter is an illegitimate child.”

The living room immediately fell into chaos.

****

The Duke put his hand on his forehead, and the three princesses were talking noisily, either to explain themselves or to express their anger… … .

In an instant, it was a mess.

“Father! That’s not it-”

“I wasn’t pretending to have a seizure, I really did see a ghost and I even got bruises-”

“What do you mean I’m an illegitimate child?”

The Duke muttered an answer, then sighed deeply when his voice was muffled.

“Shut up everyone!”

The Duke of Ceruleus, who had been speaking softly, shouted, and only then did the living room become quiet.

“I know what you’re talking about, so everyone, be quiet. Just speak slowly.”

A cough, and silence.

The Duke looked at Elizabeth again.

“First of all. There seems to be some misunderstanding. The third daughter is not an illegitimate child. She is not an illegitimate child. She was adopted when she was very young. She was a brilliant child from a fallen noble family.”

That would explain it. He must have been adopted from a family that had a long history of Wilson’s disease.

To be honest, it’s not easy to be homozygous for the Wilson’s disease gene. I think it’s because you were adopted from a family with some degree of incest.

That’s not important right now though.

“I see.”

Despite the Duke’s explanation, Elizabeth couldn’t keep her mouth shut. She looked quite shocked. It seemed like this was the first time she had heard it.

“Huh? What the hell are you talking about?”

The sound of arguing and explaining things to each other again.

Confused, confused.

The Duke raised both hands again.

“Doctor. We won’t say anything, so just summarize it.”

I nodded. It won’t be easy to summarize, there’s a lot of content.

****

Three princesses who fell ill.

First of all, from the beginning.

“As soon as I met the First Princess, I looked at her hands. There were teeth marks on the front of her hands and the backs of her fingers. It was evidence of her deliberately causing herself to vomit several times.”

My gaze was briefly drawn to Emily, who covered her left hand with her right.

“First of all, I’m going to guess. I had a past experience of hallucination due to ergotism, and I think it was caused by a stressful situation that caused me to have a past experience of being sick for no reason.”

The Duke sighed again.

“What is ergotism?”

“A type of fungal parasite that occasionally grows on grain heads. Quite rare.”

The first princess isn’t the only victim of ergot poisoning. I have to tell you about that too, by the way.

“I asked around and found out that several of the maids working at the mansion also experienced hallucinations. I think this is also ergotism.”

“What is the basis?”

“Ah. We found ergot in the rye sacks we had in the mansion. The evidence is solid. I don’t think we ate a lot of ergot though.”

Next is the second daughter.

“The second princess had a seizure as soon as she saw me. I figured out that it was a psychogenic seizure because she was conscious during the seizure and could talk during the seizure.”

Elisa was looking at the distant mountains, avoiding people’s gaze. Of course, it must be frustrating.

“Yes. I think the overall cause is similar to that of your first daughter. It’s probably due to past ergotism and stress. The symptom pattern was different, though.”

This time, the butler teacher, whose eyes had been wide open in surprise, opened his mouth.

“Is that a disease that can be cured?”

I said it was a faking illness, what did you hear?

“To conclude, the two people above just need to think about how to eliminate or manage the psychological factors that cause the symptoms. That’s something I can’t solve for you.”

Now is the last time.

“The third princess has a golden ring around her eye. It is a genetic disease that can only be contracted if both parents are sick or have a child, so I thought it wouldn’t be her child.”

“Oh my.”

The Duchess did a little dry washing. The situation is a little different. Third, Elizabeth didn’t seem to be faking it, but really looked unwell.

“In Ms. Elizabeth’s case, it was not a case of malingering at all. Wilson’s disease can also cause the symptoms mentioned above, right? Hallucinations, weakness, impaired judgment, etc. But it gets better with treatment.”

Elizabeth nodded.

“Personally… ….”

I’ve been thinking a lot about the word choice this time too. The one link that connects everything. That’s what’s central to this work.

feigned illness.

“I think the reason my first and second daughters pretended to be sick was because they had seen my third daughter sick before and were imitating her.”

This time, Istina tilted her head.

“What about ergot poisoning?”

“Ergotism is just a trigger.”

It was a very complicated and long process, but this is the course of events that I figured out. Now, they just have to figure it out among themselves.