The Unlucky Villainess Small Fief

Chapter 23

".....is she still in the wine cellar?" Rudevich asked one of the servants who were busy cleaning the windows.

"Yes, and she has not stepped outside either." The maid said. After the short meeting with Jeremy, Rudevich went back to his room to get changed. He then went to the castle to check the status and seeing that more and more patients were being added in the wards, he clicked his tongue because how fast the disease spread. He helped around and once he thought that the situation had slightly improved, he went back to his mansion by evening. He was so tired that ht did not even eat, just went straight to sleep. 

Morning came. He woke up feeling at least rejuvenated and immediately washed off his face. He then changed his clothes and took his breakfast. He asked the whereabouts of ortezca but the servants told him that she locked herself in the wine cellar. He wanted to go check on her but a messenger came and told him that he was badly needed in the castle so he sped off. He just came back in the evening, and the lady is still in the wine cellar.

"...really, who does she think she is?? Maybe she is currently savoring the best wine inside!" One of the servants exclaimed.

"Sush! Dont speak so loud, or the duke might hear you!" One maid reprimanded her. Too late, he heard them. Which brings back to the present.

"....stand back." Rudevich was at the end of his rope but he remembered not to jump to conclusion. He knocked on the wooden door. After a couple of minutes, the door opened slowly, showing a haggard, beet red look of ortezca. There were also smell of wine wafting from inside, making the servant's suspicions correct.furthermore, She looked like as if she was drunk. The servants close by murmured, clicking their tongue in hate and disapproval. The duke dismissed them, and went inside the wine cellar.

He gasped upon seeing the place- papers everywhere, there were wine bottles littered around, and some bottles were seemed to be used for experiments. He then turned to ortezca who was busy writing.

"....what happened here, exactly?"

"...oh....i just drank some of the wine which are not that good to taste...and used them to make medicine." Ortezca said and went to one of the bottles and open it to take a sample and put it on a glass. She then used a little box to take a look. Rudevich approached her. 

"What? You mean to say, that you drank the wine here?the wines in this wine cellar are only used for special occasions. How dare you to just leisurely drink them?" Rudevich is angry right now. At first, his impression of her was so bad and he was trying to change his perspective towards her, only to see her in this state. His impression of her went back to 0 again.

"...i dont care. Oh by the way, please do me a favor. Get me a sample of saliva from one of the patients. Here is a cotton swab. I need that as much as possible, maybe, tomorrow morning..?" Ortezca handed him a small stick with a cotton at the end.

"....you did know that it is night time right now, right..?"

"....oh...i am so sorry....i must have been so out of it that i did not notice the day passing. If you excuse me." Ortezca pushed him out of the wine cellar and shut the door in front of him.

Ortezca really was not drunk. Yes, she did drank the wine but she selected those which had corks that are broken, making the wine bad. She needs the bottles for her experiment to create a medicine effective for the disease. She drank 10 of them. After a few minutes, she puked her guts out. She asked a newbie maid to fetch her arm water, bucket of cool water, a cauldron, a piece of cloth and wood.

She then cleaned up the mess she made but the smell of the wine remained. Her stomach was in turmoil even during when the duke visited her. She chose the wine cellar for  it has the best temperature to start culturing bacterias and other microorganisms. She could not believe that she found a cure in almost one day, given the limited supply of her equipment. She laughed at her situation. 

'Nagi would definitely get a noble prize for this.' Ortezca thought. She then took a small box with a mirror attached to it- a simple device which was an alternative to microscope.

"....almost there....i only need a sample from one of the patients to see if this invention of mine is  a success." Ortezca smiled and slept on the cold stone floor.

The next day came. Ortezca used the remaining warm water that now turned cold to wash her face. She could tell that her health is slowly deteriorating. 

Well. No use in moping around. She waited on the sample while cleaning around the wine cellar. Her stomach is still protesting from the activity that she did last night. She might have cured herself from the poisonous arrow, but a new poison had started accumulating inside her. It is food poisoning. 

"Geez, if melody gets to know this, she will reprimand me for sure..." ortezca smiled and continued to scrub the floor while holding her aching stomach when a knock from the door interrupted her. She slowly stood up, hiding the cleaning paraphernalia away, smoothened her facial expression and opened the door. It was the butler. Apparently, the duke was busy, so he tasked the butler to give the sample to ortezca.

"....thank you." Ortezca said and took the sample from the butler. The butler then went away. She proceeded to her final experiment. It was a success.