Vergil's OneShots (DMC Fanfiction)

My King At Night (Part Three)

A/N: It's Golden Week in Japan, and while Mangakas are taking a break, I am doing the opposite! 

Also, in Part One of this tiny story, I mentioned that this would be a 3-part story. I made a mistake. It is supposed to be a 4-part (because the intended Part Three was too long).

 

[My King At Night (Part Three)]

"What do you mean the disease might be cured? Wasn't it supposed to be the Incurable Disease? How is it cured now?" Daehyun exclaimed with surprise. 5 months ago, the very same physician had given her an apologetic expression and confirmed with her that she had contracted the Incurable Disease, and did not have long left to live.

Now the same old man was telling her that the Incurable Disease was cured somehow?

"I also do not understand how it is so, Miss..." The old man apologized. "You were a physician's daughter yourself; you knew that you showed the symptoms of the Incurable Disease. I was not lying 5 months ago, but now you are not showing any symptoms. Instead, it seems like your internal energy has somehow strengthened."

"But how is that possible?" Daehyun asked, though she could not deny the facts that the man had pointed out. She really did feel stronger and healthier. She hadn't noticed it initially because she had been so busy trying to get used to life in the palace, but slowly the realisation that her nosebleed and coughing blood were less, and that she caught colds less easily, that she did not get shivers for no reason, that she didn't was not easily tired... All these symptoms somehow were on the decline ever since she moved into the palace.

"Could it be something that you are taking routinely? Diseases of the lungs can only be treated with constant medicine intake."

"I haven't taken any special medicine of any sort ever since I came to see you 5 months ago. I was prepared to die." Daehyun admitted, thinking furiously through her daily routine now. While the food that she enjoyed in the palace was of much higher quality than she had while she still lived in the capital town, they had been different every day; there could not be possibility of her taking some medicine by accident through her food every day.

"You must think hard, Miss. Whatever you take on a regular basis; they may possibly contain a cure for this disease. It could save many lives in the future." The old man seemed cautiously excited; the way only physicians could become at the prospect of being able to discover a new cure for a disease previously thought incurable.

"I don't think I have been taking anything regularly, except perhaps tea that I share with the Lieutenant General every few nights." Daehyun answered. "It tasted weird at first, but I after I got used to it, it got better. Lieutenant General added some chrysanthemum to make it more palatable, but it does not help with the lungs..."

"Did you ask him what kind of tea leaves he used?"

"Yes, but he said that it was some jasmine tea leaves that he picked up during his long voyages to the West. It does taste and smell a little bit like jasmine, but there is a faint sour and bitter taste to it like tasting metal. Jasmine does not cure a disease in the lungs, does it, physician?" Daehyun asked, afraid that her physician knowledge might be wrong from months of disuse. While she did still busy herself with herbs daily at the Barracks, the herbs used to make salve for wounds and ease sores were radically different from those that were used to cure internal sickness.

"I'm afraid you should ask him more about it. He might have a type of tea leaves that could possibly cure diseases like these in the future!"

"I will do just that." Daehyun promised, standing up to putting on her hat again to signal that she planned to leave soon. "Thank you for your help as always."