135: Did Not Have A Nightmare

Did Not Have A Nightmare

As per their agreement, Oriana attended to the prince's morning needs, only freeing herself from her job as his primary attendant after Arlan left the Palace of Thistle for work reasons.

"Mister Roman, can I go to the Palace of Oak now?" Oriana asked. 

Roman was already informed of Oriana's new work arrangement, where she was tasked to assist the guest physician in the Palace of Oak under the orders of the Crown Prince. 

He nodded and offered her one scroll. "The steward of the Palace of Oak should have already received the official letter from the royal pharmacy of your designation as a novice apothecary. When you go there, show this scroll to the royal guards. His Highness has written this for you so you will be able to enter without any trouble."

She accepted the scroll with a wax seal. "Thank you, Mister Roman."

"Remember to return before sunset."

"Yes, Mister Roman."

Oriana was neither a noble, a distinguished guest nor was she an official, thus, she could not ride a carriage and only walk towards her destination. She reached the Palace of Oak an hour before noon, where she showed the scroll to the gatekeepers, and she was led inside without any inquiries as she carried a letter from the Crown Prince himself. 

She was grinning on her way towards the guest residence.

'They didn't conduct an inspection on me. So does that mean I can bring black nightshade inside safely? This is good news!'

She reached Erich's residence but discovered the physician was not present at the moment, but she was allowed to wait in the drawing room. The servant from the previous day recognized her as one of the Crown Prince's people. 

"The Lord Physician has gone to His Majesty's residence. You can wait here till he returns."

"Thank you."

After half an hour, Erich returned to his residence along with a younger man. Oriana stood up to greet him and the old man walked towards her. 

"So finally you made it here."

"Yes, His Highness allowed me to assist you, Master."

"Very well," he said. "This is my apprentice, Adam. Adam, this is Orian. He will work with us from now on."

"Nice to meet you, Mister Adam," she greeted. "I heard of you from Mister Waye." 

The young man with curly brown hair, who appeared to be in his late twenties, greeted her with a smile. 

"You met Senior Brother?"

Before Oriana could reply, Erich frowned and irritably waved them off. 

"Talk later. Adam, start making the medicines I told you earlier. Go!" the old man barked. "And you, Orian, we need to talk."

"Yes, Master," both Adam and Orian said in unison.

The physician's apprentice went towards the workroom renovated for creating medicine. 

Once he left, Erich looked at Orian. "So, what do you want to talk with me about?"

Oriana pointedly glanced around, especially at the servants waiting on the side. She dared not mention the existence of a banned herb like this out in the open. 

Erich was quick to notice her hesitation. "Let's go to the study."

Oriana immediately nodded. Once they reached the study, Erich went towards the lounge area where there were chairs around the wooden tea table and signaled Oriana to sit on the chair in front of him. 

"No one's listening now."

She nodded. "Master, remember that ancient concoction recipe you gave me before you departed? The medication for my grandfather's dementia? I have been making the medicine without a single problem so far, until three weeks ago. When I tried to make it, I kept failing for reasons unknown."

For a moment, Erich silently looked at her. 

To think that an ordinary child had been able to successfully procure banned herbs for two years… was it luck or skill?

"Did you thoroughly check the ingredients?" he said after a while.

"Yes, Master. Be it the quality, the quantity or the age of the ingredients, I checked them all before starting." 

"Even the core ingredient?"

"Yes, especially the core ingredient, the black nightshade."

"Hmm," the old man sighed. "I won't ask where and how you got it, but if it is not a problem with the ingredients, then I need to know what happened while you prepared the medicine."

Oriana began to recount the procedure step by step, "...I followed everything you wrote in that paper, but somehow, whenever I added that herb at the last step, instead of turning green, the concoction turned black. I tried it twice for good measure, but the result was the same. Now, I am left with only three stalks and I don't wish to waste them."

"Turned black?" he asked. "How long did you boil it? Were the flames high?"

"After putting the nightshade, it ought to be five minutes. I put it on low heat, the fire almost extinguishing, Master."

"Hmm. This should not happen. As long as you follow instructions, it should never go wrong. This is a medicine concoction I improved from an ancient recipe, after all."

"Will the Master try to prepare it to check what went wrong?"

"You have that herb with you?"

"It is not with me right now, but I can bring it tomorrow."

Once again, Erich gave her a long stare. 

"Be careful when you bring it here."

"I will, Master."

"Since our talk is done, let us get back to work. Help me prepare medicine for the King."

"It's my pleasure, Master," she said with a bright smile. However, before she stood up, a question popped in her head. "Master, may I ask you why the palace people call you Physician Winfield? Are you not Apothecary Cenric?"

"Cenric is one of my made up names when traveling. Erich Winfield is my real name. Since you are now my apprentice, call me that from now on."

"I understand, Master Erich."

Oriana worked with the old physician as his third apprentice. She also learned new things under the patient explanation of her Second Senior Brother, Adam, and returned to the Palace of Thistle before sunset as she was told. 

Though tired, she followed the same schedule for the night, once again putting a grown prince to sleep and making sure to hold his hand the moment she caught him having a nightmare. 

As expected, when Oriana woke up the next morning, her entire body ached. Arlan was asleep while still holding her hand. However, remembering what awaited her that day, a bright smile hung on her face.

Oriana freed her hand from Arlan's grasp and flexed her fingers to get rid of the numbness. 

'He called out for his mother again. Every night, he has the same nightmare? His condition seems similar to mine. Why don't he get something that will stop his nightmares like the knife I have? He is a prince, and with a single word from him, there will be countless talismans prepared for him. Why does he suffer like this? 

'Does he not know the existence of talismans? Possible. Even I would not believe in them if I don't have magic. But talismans truly work, and that's why I no longer suffer from nightmares. Thankfully, Grandpa gave me that knife.' 

She unconsciously touched the side of her stomach where she kept her ivory knife, but to her surprise, it was empty.

'Huh? How come—wait! Due to the rules of the royal palace banning weapons, I stopped carrying that knife with me and only kept it under my pillow inside my room since that is where I sleep. But this is my third time sleeping inside the prince's bedchamber. How come I never had that nightmare again?' 

A cheerful smile appeared on her lips. 

'By any chance, does this mean I no longer need that knife to get a good night's sleep?'1

Oriana left the prince's chamber, not knowing the man was awake the entire time.

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