Chapter 94

The Culinary Chronicles of the Court Physician: The Disgraced Princess Consumes Poison to Create Medicine

“Fei Ling… Fei  Ling-sama…? W-where are you?”

“Lanshin! I’m here!”

Following the voice, Lanshin found a low window, half-buried under withered grass. Peering inside, she checked to confirm.

“…Y-you’re not a ghost, right?”

“I have a pulse, and I’m breathing.”

“Ah, thank goodness! Thank goodness!”

Relieved, Lanshin collapsed in tears.

The window was barred with rusted iron grates, but they looked breakable. Fortunately, Fei Ling was slender—if the bars were broken and a rope was lowered, she could climb out. Picking up a stone, Lanshin began striking the window.

Then, a swarm of centipedes crawled out.

Lanshin could faint from just the sight of a cicada shell. Her throat nearly tore as she screamed.

“W-what happened, Lanshin?!”

“Gyaaaaaahhh! Aaaaaahhh! C-centipedes…! CENTIPEDES!”

“Insects…”

Fei Ling’s voice grew tense.

“Lanshin, those are venomous. Get away from there and request reinforcements from the palace. Do you understand?”

“B-but…”

Lanshin hesitated, a terrible foreboding rising in her chest.

“If I leave now, I feel like I’ll never see you again, Fei Ling-sama… Like I’ll regret it for the rest of my life.”

She had already lost enough precious people.

Shaking, Lanshin swung the stone down, crushing the centipedes clinging to the window. The rusted bars crumbled in places. With a good pull, they would break.

“Ugh… If it gets bad after being bitten, please prepare an antidote!”

Bracing herself, Lanshin plunged her arm into the writhing swarm. The centipedes latched onto her, sinking their venomous fangs into her flesh. A searing pain exploded through her body, followed by an unbearable sensation—her blood vessels felt as though they were expanding and contracting at the same time.

“Lanshin! Stop this! The venom could be fatal!”

“It’s fine! I swore my life to you a long time ago, Fei Ling-sama!”

Summoning all her strength, Lanshin wrenched at the iron bars. Centipedes crawled up her arms and shoulders, but she was beyond fear.

“A woman’s sheer willpower—OOOHHH!”

With a fierce pull, the iron bars gave way.

“I did it! Now…”

Dizzy from the neurotoxin, Lanshin fumbled for the wisteria vines growing nearby and tossed them down. Using them, Fei Ling climbed out safely.

“Thank goodness, Fei Ling-sama…”

Her strength spent, Lanshin crumpled to the ground.

The venom spread, warping her vision. Fei Ling desperately brushed the centipedes away. Lanshin worried Fei Ling might get bitten too, but she couldn’t even move.

“I will administer the antidote immediately. Just hold on until we reach Risha.”

Hoisting Lanshin onto her back, Fei Ling set off through the snow-laden forest.

It had been a long time since anyone had carried Lanshin. She thought back to her childhood, to when her father had given her a shoulder ride. Was it during a festival night?

That happiness now felt so distant.

Lanshin had never met the late emperor.

From what her father had told her, he had been a strong and wise ruler. Yet that very emperor had discarded Lanshin’s father—who had sworn loyalty to him—like mere trash, executing him without hesitation.

“Fei Ling-sama… You once said you wished you were emperor. I still think so… Because you…”

With trembling lips, she murmured:

Not because Fei Ling was wise.

Not because she was strong.

None of that mattered to Lanshin.

A true emperor needed only one thing—kindness, the ability to care for others equally.

“An emperor should be… medicine for the people…”

Lanshin forced the words out, her throat numb from the poison.

“That’s right. And that’s why I will never let you die. Lanshin, please… keep fighting the poison a little longer. I’ll fight with you.”

Ah, that voice.

Lanshin remembered the time she had been poisoned by verdigris. How she had resigned herself to death.

But Fei Ling—her doctor—had pleaded, her voice filled with desperation:

“Please, say you want to live.”

Those words had been the greatest medicine of all.

And that was why Lanshin had knelt before the forsaken princess, offering up even her life.