episode_0110

Episode 110. Belladonna

****

“I’m sorry, sir. The prince is waiting for you over there. I think I should go and check on him for a moment.”

“Yes. Shall we go together?”

As Mint said, the prince stood in the corner of the banquet hall with his arms crossed. It seemed like he was waiting for me to send Mint away. The prince shook his head when our eyes met.

“I’ll be right back! It’ll be 5 minutes.”

Mint got up from her seat. The prince took Mint out of the banquet hall for a moment.

What do you do when you don’t have mint?

****

“Can I sit down for a moment?”

I was sitting alone, sipping a glass of wine that was like water, when I turned my head toward the voice. A noble lady was sitting in front of me.

“Why?”

The sound of a fan being opened with a snap.

I thought it was a bit childish though.

As I walked around the banquet hall, it seemed like there was a separate social circle for students and young people. This person was one of the key figures in that social circle.

“I am Elise Erhardt, the heir and princess of the Duchy of Caledona. It is a pleasure to meet you. What is your name…?

“Professor Asterix.”

This is Elise Erhard.

It was a name I had heard before.

She is a princess of the Duchy of Caledona, but her status is somewhat different from that of other princesses. She is not simply the daughter of a duke, but rather a minor duchess of the duchy.

So, that means he is a tall person.

Elise was wearing a rather gorgeous green dress. Her hair was also elaborately decorated. She had green eyes that seemed to pierce through others, giving off a strange sense of discomfort.

Mint was taken away by the prince for a moment on royal business. I looked around for a moment. When are you coming back, Mint? Honestly, this is uncomfortable.

“I got a chance to have an exclusive interview. I was really curious about who it was. Who came with the princess.”

“Hello.”

“Hmm… … . I guess you’re the professor that the rumors are about? The best doctor in the empire.”

“Yes.”

I didn’t necessarily deny it.

“Even if he is the best. I honestly wondered if he would be worthy of becoming the princess’ lover.”

Elise stared at me intently, as if she were interrogating me. I stepped back a little.

“I can tell by looking at your face. It’s understandable that the princess would choose you. Well, I’m not sure if that was the right choice.”

“Where is right and wrong, it’s up to the princess. I’ll do my best anyway.”

Elise nodded from behind the fan.

“I heard a lot of rumors about you, so I thought you might be a snobby genius. But more than that, you seem to be on good terms with the princess.”

“Yes, well. We’re close.”

It’s rudeer than I thought. Well, it was foolish to expect to meet only good people at the banquet. There must be all kinds of people.

What does it mean to be the center of social circles? It means being good at playing queen bee and gossiping about other people. It’s probably not something good people would be good at.

“Professor, you probably don’t know. No, you’re smart, so you probably know. Who your spouse or lover is is a very important issue. You know that Mint is giving up because of that, right?”

“Maybe so.”

“Don’t take power lightly. Even if you’ve caught the princess’s eye, you don’t become a noble just because you walk around the banquet hall with the princess’s arm around you. They said you came to receive investment money.”

Why is he so angry?

There are already rumors going around in social circles that he’s a fraud… … . I said it’s not a fraud. Even if it looks like that, I have nothing to say.

“I’m sorry you felt that way.”

“I can tell just by looking at it. Professor, you became a professor at a young age, and a royal healer. No one could argue with what you said, right? Wherever you go, you think you’re the smartest.”

How did you know?

Oh, wait a minute. You can tell just by looking at it?

Yeah, I should have known just by looking at Elise. It took me a while to remember, maybe because I was so out of it at the banquet hall.

Now, I think I know the cause of the strange sense of discomfort I’ve been feeling since earlier. I should have noticed this as soon as I encountered it.

I almost got into big trouble. It was my pupils that were the problem.

I took the luminescent stone penlight out of my pocket and shined it into the princess’s eyes. The princess blinked in annoyance. She frowned.

“What is it?”

What the heck? It’s a disease.

“Elise, your pupils are abnormally dilated. They don’t respond to light. Did you put in some weird eye drops?”

“Huh? How about that… … .”

“I just told you. The pupils were abnormal, so I shined light on them. Since the pupillary reflex to light is not normal, I thought about what kind of disease could cause such symptoms.”

Belladonna.

It is a type of plant in the Solanaceae family, and its direct translation is ‘beautiful woman’. It is dangerous because it contains the neurotoxin atropine, but…

If you put just one drop in your eye, it suppresses the constriction of the pupil, and has the effect of making the eye glow. It seems to be made from a similar plant.

This is a plant that even medical students cannot help but know. This is because it is an example that intuitively shows that atropine drugs block the parasympathetic nerves and cause the pupils to dilate.

By the way, I also saw a bottle on the dressing table of the Cerulean family. I threw it away then too.

“How much did you use? Did you have any other symptoms today? Did you feel hot or ticklish? Your face looks a little red.”

“Uh… … . I don’t know.”

The banquet wasn’t important right now. I got up from my seat and approached Elise.

“Ah… … ?”

“Excuse me. Can I examine you?”

Elise nodded.

First, let’s look at the eyes.

I lifted Elise’s eyelids. Her pupils were, as expected, abnormally dilated. Her eye movements were also slow.

“Follow my fingertips with your eyes.”

“Why?”

Why, who puts neurotoxin in their eyes?

Although the difference was slight, it was not normal eye movement. It is natural that the eye muscles would become abnormal when a neurotoxin is applied to the eye.

The changes caused by atropine are reversible, but there is no telling what will happen if repeated. Resistance to the drug may develop, or resistance may increase the dosage, or compensatory changes may occur.

Since we’ve already started the examination, let’s take a closer look. The pupils of the eyes are abnormal, and their movement is also abnormal.

There is no Russell sign on the back of the hand. If the powder was white, I would have been concerned about lead exposure, but since it is pink, that is not the case. There is no problem… … .

Green dress.

That was the cause of the remaining uneasiness.

Originally, in history, until around the 19th century, such rich greens were usually made from arsenic compounds, although their toxicity became widely known and they were replaced with other chemicals.

As a side note, the companies that made and sold arsenic compounds did not go out of business. The arsenic compounds that were made for dyeing fabrics were used as pesticides. Doctors also used them as medicine.

If you think about it, in the mid-19th century, arsenic was used as medicine, dye, and insecticide. There was no such thing as a romantic era.

I scratched my head.

“And, don’t wear green clothes. I think they use arsenic in their green dye. That’s really terribly bad for your health.”

“Ah. Green dye is bad for your body?”

Not good.

“Elise, do you usually wear that dress? Do you usually use eye drops? Please think carefully before you answer, because if several types of drugs are mixed and the exposure period is long, we don’t know what effect will occur.”

Elise’s expression became gloomy. Death is scary to everyone, and everyone can’t help but worry about their own health.

I’m glad you met me today.

“You don’t have to worry right now, but please come to the hospital soon. You might have problems later. You should come to me. Other doctors might not know.”

“Oh, is this a very dangerous disease?”

“Because you have been continuously exposed to various types of toxins, I think you should come to the hospital. I would have done the same if it were my family.”

“Haa… … .”

“You don’t have to worry too much. If you don’t have symptoms now, it means you can treat them before they appear. It’s good to see you today.”

Elise sighed again.

“Is it real?”

“Yes.”

Elise looked anxious. I thought about what to say. I didn’t mean to scare her. I was just worried about why Elise’s eyes were weird.

****

“Oh, Elise was here.”

Mint came back and sat down where she had been before, then grabbed my hand. Elise didn’t seem to have the presence of mind to look at Mint.

“What’s going on?”

“Ah. It’s nothing special.”

Only then did Elise bow her head to the princess and Mint accepted Elise’s greeting.

“Princess Elise, right?”

“Hello, Princess. I just heard that you might be seriously ill, so I was a little worried and was late in greeting you. I apologize.”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“You have a good person by your side.”

Elise greeted me as well and disappeared into the banquet hall. Come to think of it, I should have brought up the investment topic to Elise too. I missed the timing because of Belladonna.

Well, there’s nothing I can do.