There Is No Place For Fakes [EN]: Chapter 111

* * *

West Palace, the Princess’s private reception room.

Ellensia sharply questioned the man sitting across from her.

“Is it true? Is the Hounds Merchant Guild buying up Sansalcho [a medicinal herb] ahead of us?”

Earl Escal’s younger brother and the owner of the Escal Merchant Guild, Tibolt Escal, sweated as he replied.

“That is correct, Your Highness. It seems the information has been leaked…….”

Ellensia bit her nails. No one was unaware of who the real owner of Hounds was.

“Philomell!”

She must have been eavesdropping on my movements and belatedly figured out how to use Sansalcho.

If Philomell had played the game or read , she would also know the herb’s efficacy.

Ellensia pondered who Philomell’s spy in the West Palace could be.

It could be someone from the Escal side, but she couldn’t rule out the possibility of information leaking from her own circle.

‘I should have purged them sooner!’

She had felt something was off since the disappearance of the Potion of Wisdom, but she ignored it, and the unease stuck to her like gum on a shoe.

In fact, there was a significant reason why she couldn’t carry out the purge.

‘……I should have pretended to be less kind.’

Replacing palace staff for no reason was something the ‘kind Princess Ellensia’ would never do.

Trying to show a difference from Philomell, she foolishly acted kind, which backfired.

At that moment, Tibolt, watching the Princess’s expression, asked.

“……What should we do? Should we at least secure the amount we can obtain?”

“No! We must secure a monopoly in the market, no matter what!”

“……However, since the Hounds Merchant Guild has been trading with various suppliers for a long time, they prioritize Hounds over us.”

Ellensia glared at the man with an indecisive look. Tibolt was someone who would never have succeeded without his brother’s immense support.

‘To think that this is the only kind of person I can mobilize right now…….’

It was frustrating, but she had no choice. To make Killian truly her own, she had to strengthen her relationship with the Escal family even further.

After a moment of contemplation, Ellensia chuckled.

“If the opponent is spying on us, we can use a method they can’t follow even if they know our information.”

“Yes?”

“Tell Escal to pay more than double the price Hounds is offering.”

“Do, double? That’s over budget.”

“It doesn’t matter. If we achieve our desired goal, we’ll earn dozens of times the money we invest.”

“But since this is a sudden undertaking, our budget isn’t that generous either…….”

“You have the funds I gave you, don’t you?”

“It’s not enough!”

Ellensia slammed the table with her fist.

“Borrow from Earl Escal if you’re short!”

“I don’t know if my brother will lend it to me…….”

It was truly infuriating.

“Tell the Earl that I will soon ask His Majesty to approve my engagement to Killian.”

The Princess’s fiancé, that is, the future Emperor’s consort. The Earl would surely want to make his son that.

Only now did Tibolt seem to understand the value of that position, and he nodded without further argument.

Ellensia added, “Ah, right,” with a sly smile.

“Even if it costs more than double, make sure to buy up the Sansalcho that the Hounds Merchant Guild has secured.”

“They won’t want to sell it……?”

“Of course, you’ll have to bribe someone to secretly steal it.”

She had no intention of giving Philomell even a single stalk of Sansalcho.

After Tibolt left, Ellensia, alone in the reception room, shouted into the air.

“Go ahead, Philomell! Let’s see how much money your meager merchant guild can spend!”

And time passed.

Tibolt informed her that he had successfully secured the targeted amount through his contacts.

Of course, the Sansalcho secured by the Hounds Merchant Guild was also in her hands. He had apparently coaxed an employee of the Hounds Merchant Guild who had a grudge against the temporary guild leader.

Ellensia, unable to contain her joy, ordered.

“Bring that child here.”

Soon, a maid was led in by another maid.

“Ugh…….”

The face of the moaning maid was pale.

The other maids were all heavily armed with masks and gloves, and Ellensia received them and put them on as well.

It was a measure to prevent any possible infection.

“Let’s go.”

Ellensia left the West Palace with the maids.

Arriving at the Imperial Palace Medical Center, her destination, she immediately headed to the head court physician’s office.

He wasn’t someone she particularly liked, but there was no one better at making medicine.

The head court physician recognized Ellensia and paid his respects.

“Greetings, Your Highness. What brings you here…….”

“One of my maids has contracted an unknown disease.”

The head court physician’s gaze turned to the person behind the Princess.

As soon as he saw the patient, the court physician laid the maid on the bed and began to examine her.

Ellensia stood beside him and explained how the maid had contracted the disease.

“This child went to the Sandella region at my request a few days ago, and she’s been like this since yesterday.”

“Her skin is generally blue and she has a fever. And if it’s the Sandella region…….”

“She also has hallucinations. She said she saw several people with similar symptoms when she was there, so could it be contagious?”

“……I need to observe her more closely to know for sure, but in my opinion, it seems to be Martian disease.”

The head court physician explained carefully.

Since a few months ago, Martian disease patients had been appearing in the neighboring country of Elita, and the disease had spread to the Empire’s southern regions bordering Elita, including Sandella.

The corners of Ellensia’s lips slightly lifted without anyone noticing, but her voice was filled with sorrow.

“It’s my fault. It’s because I sent her on an errand to such a place……. Ellie, I’m sorry.”

Called by name, the sick maid shook her head, saying she was okay, but her name wasn’t actually Ellie.

At Ellensia’s request, Tibolt had found a Martian disease patient, who was simply wearing a maid’s uniform and borrowing the maid’s name for a while.

The fake maid was merely an excuse for Ellensia to get involved in the development of a Martian disease treatment.

Martian disease, a vicious epidemic that appears in both the original game and .

Currently, the mortality and infectivity rates are relatively low, but Martian disease mutates as it spreads to more people.

About a year from now, Elita’s national system will be on the verge of collapse, and the disease will rage throughout the Empire.

It is then that the princess who has only recently appeared, Ellensia, saves the country from crisis.

Ellensia’s hometown was also located in the south, so the first patient appeared relatively early.

A general store owner who imported goods from abroad began to show symptoms of Martian disease one day.

However, fortunately, the man, who was usually a heavy drinker, lived with Sansalcho in his mouth to relieve his hangovers.

The man’s condition soon improved, and while he thought his symptoms were a bit different from a common cold, he didn’t take it seriously.

Ellensia gains a hint about the cure for Martian disease through this memory. It was thanks to paying attention to the owner’s symptoms as a regular at the general store.

At the princess’s insistence, the Imperial Palace medical staff researches Sansalcho and develops a cure.

‘I couldn’t remember this simple content.’

That night when she had briefly received from Philomell, she finally remembered.

She remembered the content that a scary disease was prevalent. She also remembered that the protagonist discovers an herb that becomes the main ingredient of the cure.

“But I don’t know exactly what that herb was……!”

When she decided to use Martian disease and rummaged through her memories, Ellensia screamed.

Even if she had remembered the circumstances that led Ellensia to pay attention to Sansalcho, that too was vague.

She couldn’t possibly remember such details accurately now, let alone when she had just written .

Anyway, it was fortunate that she found out even now.

Ellensia took out Sansalcho from her bosom.

‘Originally, I wasn’t planning to reveal Sansalcho yet, but…….’

Now was an emergency. To counter Philomell, she had to raise her favorability, and to do that, she needed a high reputation first.

In the game, even if you chose the same options, you would accumulate more favorability if you had a higher reputation.

‘Dad and Nasar will see me in a new light with this.’

Ellensia showed Sansalcho to the head court physician and began to speak.

“Could this herb be helpful for the disease? When I lived in my village before…….”

The general store owner getting sick was later, but she decided to say it now. After all, no one would investigate in detail.

However.

The head court physician, upon seeing Sansalcho, replied cheerfully.

“That’s right. Sansalcho is used as a treatment for Martian disease.”

“Yes?”

“Its efficacy has already been verified in Elita, and the Empire is also accelerating the production of the treatment. However, there is still not enough quantity to distribute the treatment to all affected areas. Especially in Sandella, where there are the most patients…….”

“……Wa, wait a minute. This is the first time I’m hearing about this.”

“To prevent public unrest, matters related to infectious diseases are being handled secretly through close cooperation between the two countries.”

So said the head court physician, taking out a medicine bottle from the medicine cabinet and feeding it to the maid.

“……But it’s strange. Recently, one merchant guild has been buying up a huge amount of Sansalcho.”

Ellensia’s body trembled slightly.

“They must have wanted to hoard Sansalcho, but they’re a little late. We’ve already secured the necessary amount.”

……What?

She momentarily doubted her hearing.

“I hid the information about the treatment from most of the nobles in case something like this happened…….”

The words that followed were inaudible. Ellensia was stunned.

‘A cure has already been made?’

Normally, that would be impossible. It wasn’t easy to associate a foul-smelling herb used to relieve hangovers with a scary epidemic.

Except for Ellensia herself and one other person.