The Apothecary’s Awakening

[I Fed Him the Medicine]

The first thing Shana saw when she opened her eyes in the bed was Lucian’s unfamiliar face.

His breath was close enough to touch her cheek, and he was panting with a flushed face, smiling.

A wave of heat, like a burning flame, radiated from his entire body.

What was strange was that she didn’t see his uniform, which he always wore.

No, she didn’t see any clothes at all.

Shana’s gaze drifted downwards.

Lucian’s neckline, the firm chest that followed, and the clear abs.

She froze after seeing it.

What’s going on?

Then, Shana’s body stiffened.

What are we doing right now?

She remembered Lucian carrying her to the bedroom yesterday, but she didn’t remember being in this position.

Moreover, she never expected Lucian to be on top of her like this.

Shana pulled the covers up to her chin and spoke.

“…Why are you naked?”

Lucian’s lips parted as he saw Shana’s shocked expression, a sound like wind escaping.

“Don’t joke around, Shasha.”

Lucian’s hand touched Shana’s cheek.

It was a soft, warm touch like a lover’s, but despite that, she could feel that he was excited.

His body heat was transmitted directly to her.

Even such a gesture was disconcerting, and Shana couldn’t speak for a while.

“…No, why are you here?”

And naked on someone else’s bed.

Shana swallowed the rest of the sentence.

“It’s too late to regret it. You seduced me first, Shasha, didn’t you?”

The whisper in her ear was low and wet.

Lucian moved as he said it.

Hips and hips began to touch.

“…Lucian, Lucian!”

Shana tried to stop Lucian.

In her confused state, her eyes darted down.

She was on the verge of seeing a part of his body she’d never seen in her life.

A sensation as if struck by lightning spread through her body.

“…Ugh!”

Shana gasped and opened her eyes.

Her chest was heaving.

Beneath her sleepwear gown, beads of cold sweat covered her body.

The heat of the dream had vanished, and she felt a chill.

Shana looked around.

‘This is my room.’

Moreover, she was alone in the bed. There was no trace of Lucian.

“…What, was it a dream?”

As if to prove it, there was a slight indentation on the pillow.

“…Wow.”

Shana opened her mouth.

What kind of dream did I just have?

I dreamt of doing something intimate with Lucian. It was unbelievable.

Shana looked at the clock beside her. It was half-past four in the morning.

“…I should get up.”

Although it was usually sleeping time, she couldn’t bring herself to sleep again after having such a dream.

She felt as though if she closed her eyes again, the vivid dream would continue.

Above all, she needed to start working.

Shana looked in the mirror, washed her face with cold water, and sat at her desk.

She organized the materials in front of her for making the medicine.

Was yesterday’s incident that shocking?

She never thought she’d have such a dream after that unavoidable contact.

‘Is it because I haven’t been in a relationship?’

Shana had no experience in a proper relationship.

In the past, of course, as with most nobles, she had a prearranged fiancé.

However, it ended when she graduated from the academy, and because it was a political relationship, it was hard to consider it a relationship.

She had no reason to date when she had a fiancé, and later, she didn’t have time because she was busy earning money.

Therefore, for Shana, physical contact or anything physical was something she’d never experienced before.

‘Even so, it’s not like I’m going through puberty or something….’

Shana shook her head.

Her cheeks felt hot, and she fanned herself.

The memory of her body, or rather, the center of her body, touching him in the midst of the confusion of yesterday was still vivid.

She couldn’t blame Lucian either.

She was the one who fell over on her own while looking for ointment.

‘If it hadn’t been so hard, I wouldn’t have known….’

No. She probably would have known. Lucian’s was that big.

She was regretful as to why it had to harden at that moment, but Shana knew very well that a man’s body could do that several times a day regardless of his will.

That was all in the pharmacology books she had studied.

Yes, it was just a purely scientific phenomenon.

‘So it’s no big deal.’

Shana rationalized it to herself and looked outside. The air in the morning, where the sun had yet to rise, was cold.

‘When will he come?’

Lucian had been there early in the morning last time.

Shana sighed at the fact that she would have to face Lucian and work together again soon.

Didn’t she hear something like this yesterday?

‘I want you to spend your time and think about me hard to get my money.’

She wondered what he meant at first, but later she was able to understand his intention.

‘In other words, you want me to work hard and make a mana rejection syndrome treatment. Don’t think about taking my money….’

In short, he told her to work hard for the empire.

“Ah! I want to earn money without working!”

Why did God give her the talent of a pharmacist but not money?

Shana eventually sat down and looked through the materials.

She needed to start working immediately if she wanted to make the medicine within a week.

Today, she planned to ask Lucian to get her all the materials needed to make the medicine.

The fact that she didn’t have to worry about the cost of the materials was a very good thing.

And for the first medicine, she had planned to make a stimulant that was not very harmful to the body.

“Stimulant….”

Shana flipped through the book, ‘There are no bad medicinal ingredients in this world.’

Scorpion venom, ladybug blood, rose thorns, and oak tree sap.

If Lucian knew, he would be horrified.

‘But I have to see his face while experimenting with it?’

No matter how much she tried to erase it, the face of Lucian in the dream remained vivid in her mind.

‘If I experiment, I’ll have to try the medicine several times….’

Let’s just cleanly erase it from my memory.

All the things that happened and all the things that will happen.

Shana made up her mind.

This was just a common experiment.

Observing the reactions of the test subject was a pharmacist’s duty.

Having made up her mind, Shana first drank a medicine full of caffeine.

It was the original liquid made from directly extracting and grinding coffee beans, and it tasted like she remembered the academy exam period.

“Ugh.”

It had a stuffy and bitter taste that reminded her of staying up all night during the exam period.

The written exams at the Ishtar Academy were famous for their difficulty.

But this time, it would be even harder than then. Because she had to solve it within six months.

‘Because of that money.’

The Crowell Barony had a huge debt due to the money spent on recovery after the monsters inflicted a great deal of damage on the territory.

She could have raised taxes and solved it with the people’s money, but Shana’s father, the Baron Crowell, didn’t allow it.

Shana wasn’t complaining about that decision.

She had to do it considering the privileges she had enjoyed.

But she had to resolve the result as well.

Wouldn’t it be the easiest solution to get money from someone of higher status?

‘I must make it.’

She couldn’t back down now, regardless of the awkwardness.

Shana started writing down ingredients.

***

“Hello, Lucian.”

Fortunately, her voice didn’t tremble. She successfully greeted him in a dry, normal manner, as if nothing had happened.

Lucian’s face this morning was far from the heat he had radiated in the dream.

No, he was more than that; he was dazzling.

Strangely, his eyes were full of life, and his face was even a little elated.

‘Did something good happen?’

His complexion was the opposite of hers, who was haggard from a restless dream all night.

He looked as though he alone absorbed all the light in the world, and his handsome face was so ridiculously handsome that Shana squinted to avoid his gaze.

“Shasha. You look tired, don’t you? Did you have a bad sleep last night?”

Lucian asked with a playful smile.

But Shana couldn’t help but flinch at the affectionate address, ‘Shasha.’

It was because the voice that tickled her ear in her dream overlapped.

“No, not at all? I slept very well. It must be my imagination.”

Shana lied without blinking.

Then, she cleared her throat and handed over a long roll of paper from her bosom.

“Um, I needed the materials to make the medicine, so I organized the list. Could you get these for me?”

Shana handed him a long list of paper.

In the past, during her academy days, Shana would sometimes treat Lucian as her subordinate, using the excuse that she had no mana.

As a habit, she was able to ask this time as well, as if he were her assistant.

“Oh, do you want me to prepare the materials?”

“No, just submit it to the Imperial Palace.”

‘Because it will ruin your appetite.’

Shana prepared unique ingredients in her own way.

She combined ingredients that had various stimulating effects to achieve her goal and reduce the embarrassment she would face during the experiments with Lucian.

When combined with several, the effect increased.

She didn’t just increase the intensity.

‘The stimulation is important, but so is the lingering effect.’

The medicine she was making now was for the princess.

The mana rejection syndrome had to improve to the point where it wouldn’t be too offensive, even after the delegation arrived and she got married.

Then, what would she do?

‘I will confuse the brain with other stimulation.’

The stimulation had to be strong and also had to last long. One hour, two hours, three hours…….

‘It has to work for at least six hours.’

If so, the strength of the long-lasting stimulant had to be strong and long.

As soon as you drink it, your eyes open wide, and you feel like you can stay up all night, enough to complete the exam period.

Shana got the inspiration from the medicine she had made for Grandpa Marcus a while ago.

It was an aphrodisiac. To be exact, it was the medicine that his wife, Grandma Sylvia, had requested.

She made the medicine after she was requested that she couldn’t have a satisfactory s*x life as she reached old age.

It was a medicine made by mixing all kinds of ingredients, but Grandpa Marcus had digested it well.

According to the aftermath, Grandma Sylvia was also satisfied.

‘The old man of that age stayed up for three days straight! The man who used to sleep at 9 o’clock every day and wake up at 5!’

That could be said to have sufficient vitality and stimulation.

Anyway, for that reason, Shana had written down a variety of ingredients.

“Then, I will have the Imperial Palace prepare it as it is.”

“Yes, Lucian. Don’t look at the list.”

‘Because you really won’t want to drink it.’

Shana spoke to Lucian, who was about to leave.

“Oh, by the way, what you said yesterday. You said that you wanted me to spend my time and think about you?”

“Yes.”

Lucian looked at Shana seriously, with a slightly hardened expression.

“I’m going to do that, you know.”

“What?”

Lucian looked at Shana with an unbelievable expression.

“Are you serious?”

“Yes, really.”

Lucian was strangely silent. Was he still doubting Shana’s patriotism?

It seemed as though there was a subtle heat in his eyes, so Shana quickly cut off his words.

“Actually, I—”

“I know that I haven’t been very loyal, but I’m going to experiment very hard from now on. For the empire.”