Alter-Drug

Chapter 2 - Melissa

Carl's eyes were ablaze with excitement as he stared straight at the armored knight.

He was very sure that the sword that the knight had brandished earlier carried supernatural power.

After he had transmigrated, he thought he had merely traveled to a parallel universe, whose Earth was still somewhere in the Middle Ages. To see there was more to this world was a pleasant surprise.

"You are an apothecary?" The knight looked doubtful.

The boy was covered in filth, looked like he was only 14 or 15 years old, and thin enough for a strong wind to break him in half. Could such a person be an apothecary?

"He's lying!" Bob became antsy and started shouting loudly, "My lord, he's just a pathetic lowlife, a swindler, a thief! I can't believe this fellow is actually trying to fool a respectable man like you! He deserves to die!"

Bob pounced toward Carl as though he were a huge grizzly bear. He had a nasty expression on his face and looked ready to kill the boy.

At the same time, Bob was not all that naïve. He knew that he had to think on his feet and be prepared for the unexpected.

One thing he was not prepared for was what Carl did next.

Carl took the little bottle out of his pocket and flung it at Bob's feet. The bottle smashed to pieces and the powder inside it flew into the air, covering Bob's face in seconds.

"AHH!" Bob felt as though his eyes were literally on fire. As he screamed in pain, he shut his eyes and his arms flailed about desperately. Just two seconds later, he felt his body weaken rapidly and he began to lose his balance.

A moment later, his legs could not hold his body up anymore. His world spun and he collapsed. His heavy body crashed noisily onto the ground.

Everyone stared with shock written on their faces. The knight, too, looked rather surprised.

Carl turned to the knight and said calmly, "I am an apothecary, and this should be enough proof."

"Come with me!" Immediately after that voice rang in his ears, Carl felt dizzy as his body was lifted into the air and thrown onto the back of the horse by the knight.

"Hold on tightly!"

Carl snapped out of his daze and soon felt as though he was flying.

The horse galloped as swiftly as the wind and left the town in the blink of an eye.

They were going so quickly that the trees on both sides of the road looked like brown lines that stretched backward.

What truly astonished Carl was the fact that despite traveling at lightning speed, the ride itself was very steady and not even the least bumpy. That definitely went against the laws of physics.

If he could see those sharp turns and acceleration, Newton would probably climb out of his grave to see this sight for himself.

As those random thoughts went through Carl's mind, the dense trees around him suddenly disappeared to reveal an empty field.

A group of people had set up camp along the clear, meandering river. Looking around, it was clear that a terrible battle of sorts must have taken place there not too long ago.

The rubble, broken pieces of wood and blood had not been taken care of and there were even corpses covered by white sheets. These were clearly traces of a violent fight.

When they heard the sound of a horse approaching the camp, the men standing at the entrance to the camp instantly took their weapons out and were on high alert. They only breathed a sigh of relief when they saw it was the armored knight.

"Mr. Ralph has returned!" someone shouted to alert the camp, then added, "And he's brought an apothecary with him!"

A soldier moved the barrier outside the entrance aside to let Ralph enter as quickly as possible.

Carl observed his surroundings carefully and discovered that there were very few people in the camp, perhaps twenty or so, thirty at best. All of them listened to orders and moved in a quiet and orderly manner, so it was clear that they were professionally trained and well-disciplined military men.

Ralph hopped off the horse, lifted Carl off as well, and brought him into a tent.

"Ralph, this… is the apothecary?" a very doubtful voice said.

The tent was well lit by fire torches. It was a sizable tent, but only a few people were in it.

"I went to many villages in the vicinity and this was the only one I found," explained Ralph in a low voice.

He agreed that Carl did not particularly inspire confidence, but someone's life was at stake here and he was getting very desperate, so he was willing to give Carl a shot.

Meanwhile, Carl could already smell the stench of blood. He looked further into the tent to see a man lying on the bed inside. Most of his clothing had been removed and his body was covered in frighteningly severe wounds. The flesh on his arms and chest had been cut open and he was still bleeding. He must have been injured by heavy artillery and was in critical condition.

Despite his severe injuries, Carl was surprised that the man was still alive. The patient was just lying with his eyes shut as his fever made beads of perspiration trickled down his forehead and caused him to mumble deliriously.

"What a powerful will to live," thought Carl in astonishment. He walked past the others in the tent even though he hadn't been given permission to do so, approaching the bed. He scanned the man in front of him and noticed that the wounds were blackish on the outside. He blinked in surprise and said, "He's been poisoned?"

Everyone who had taken a step forward to hold Carl back instinctively stopped in their tracks.

Ralph asked, "Yes… So can he still be saved?"

Carl did not reply and inspected the man once more, this time much more serious.

The more he checked, the more amazed he became. The poison on his wounds should have entered this man's bloodstream and affected the rest of the body. Logically speaking, this man should have died a long time ago.

Instead, Carl discovered that this man's heart was beating with energy at a steady pace, as if a mysterious force was protecting it from the effects of the poison.

Of course, if the poison was not removed at this stage and left inside the body for too long, this man was still going to die.

After he finished checking the man over, he furrowed his brows.

This is going to be tough. Back on Earth, he had the resources to inject serums or to even do dialysis. This world, however, was way too backward for him to do any of that.

Ralph's heart sank when he saw the expression on Carl's face. "Is there nothing we can do?"

"There is something," said Carl hesitantly after thinking about it for a while more. "I have a way, but the chance of it succeeding is only fifty percent. You can decide among yourselves if you want to give it a try."

Everyone else in the tent looked perplexed by these words. The man had a 50-50 chance, so either he lived or he died. Nobody dared to take this decision lightly.

As time slowly ticked by, the breathing of the man on the bed became weaker and weaker, as if his life was ebbing away with every passing second.

"I'll ask Her Ladyship." Ralph suddenly got up and walked out briskly. The rest had a flicker in their eyes and looked a little relieved by his actions. They patiently waited for Ralph to return with instructions.

Shortly after, the man returned and asked, "What do we have to do?"

Carl took the question as Ralph agreeing to proceed, so he boldly began to give specific instructions, "I need three medicinal plants. They are rare, but not difficult to find in the nearby mountains. I need Sunshine Flower, Moon Grass and Star Vine. If you don't know what they are, I can draw them out for you."

These ingredients came from a formula recorded in his father's tattered notebook for a drug that could expel poisons from the body. Carl remembered very clearly that he saw his father use this poison only once, and that one time ended up killing the patient.

Ralph gave orders and a number of men left the camp to gather the necessary herbs. The rest followed Carl's instructions to make a large brick stove, then suspended a tub meant for bathing over it, with a sheet of metal in between to conduct heat.

After the fire in the stove got going and the iron sheet turned hot, they poured water into the tub.

Just then, the men came back with the necessary herbs. Carl sorted the herbs out while saying, "Put him in."

"Put him where?"

"In the tub."

"What?" Ralph was on the verge of slicing Carl's head off on the spot.

He thought that Carl had set everything up to boil the herbs together. He did not expect Carl to be using this to boil a human instead.

In anger, he shouted, "That's as good as killing him!"

"Put him in," said Carl calmly. "If you don't want him to die, then listen to me."

Ralph's teeth chattered from sheer anger and he really wished he could smite the boy dead, but when he looked at his dying friend on the bed, he decided to take this gamble.

"Lift him up and put him in!" bellowed Ralph before shutting his eyes. He really could not bear to see this.

Everyone else exchanged nervous glances and were also uncertain about this whole situation, but they followed Ralph's instructions and lifted the unconscious man off the bed before carefully lowering him into the hot tub.

The water inside the tub was not really that hot, but the heat and the water caused the blood from the man's wounds to flow out.

The water turned a dark red and looked rather scary.

Carl's expression remained calm as he poured in the herbs he had prepared according to the notebook directly into the tub.

The fire was getting stronger and the iron sheet was red hot, giving off smoke as it burned. The water in the tub also began to bubble as it started to boil.

The man in the tub became paler and paler as the water rose in temperature. He seemed to have lost too much blood and looked like he might die any minute.

Everyone had uneasy and unsure expressions on their faces.

Pak, pak, pak… The firewood crackled as it burned, sounded a bit like firecrackers.

The snapping sound quickly became louder and louder, and soon started booming like thunder instead.

Something was not quite right. Carl realized after some time that the sound was not coming from the fire at all. It was coming from the person in the tub.

BOOM!

The wooden tub exploded and water flew everywhere.

Carl's eyes widened in disbelief as he quickly moved back but kept his gaze on the man in the tub.

The man remained seated on whatever was left of the tub and his eyes had opened. A glow moved around his bare upper body and the deep wounds he had were magically healing up to leave nothing but a faint scar.

He stood up and Carl could see a strange circular shape of light glowing faintly behind the man. It looked like a many-pointed star.

At first, there was only one star, then two…

The light behind the man continued to move, distort, then form the same shape.

It slowly faded only after a third star had been formed. The stars were giving off bright light, and they closely resembled what were best described as ratchet wheels. 

Everyone watching was filled with disbelief and joy.

They could not believe that the man had been healed. It was as though his condition earlier had merely been an illusion and he was now as healthy as a horse.

"Milton, you've made it to the next stage!"

"You're now a stage three Starlight Knight!"

"How lucky!"

Everyone crowded around the man to give him high-fives, pats on the back and warm embraces. But after they had all calmed down from their initial excitement, they all turned to look at Carl at the same time.

The look in their eyes was complex. There was a tinge of surprise, amazement, puzzlement as well as… passion, greed and ambition.

After all, Carl had practically revived Milton from the dead and healed him of such severe wounds, plus this treatment had even helped Milton make the breakthrough he had been struggling with for years. Milton was now a stage three Starlight Knight.

What incredible sort of apothecary was this boy?

They were very sure that even the apothecaries who worked for the palace would never be able to achieve such a thing. This was a miracle.

Meanwhile, Carl himself was still in a daze. He had taken the right gamble after all. He had chosen to assume that the formula in the notebook was correct, and that the reason his father's patient had died was because he had been told to drink the concoction. In other words, Carl correctly guessed that the formula was always meant to be applied externally, not consumed.

Carl began to realize that this notebook containing apothecary formulas might be something very extraordinary indeed. Thankfully, because he had been afraid that Parker would steal stuff from his house, he had been keeping this notebook on himself at all times. He had to find some time to study this notebook in great detail.

Everyone was still blown away by the miracle they had just witnessed, so the entire tent was oddly silent.

"Oh! You've really managed to treat Milton!" a gentle and sweet voice filled with surprise and astonishment echoed in the tent.

Everyone immediately bowed and greeted her, "Your Ladyship."

A woman walked out from the most luxurious tent in the center of the camp.

She was extremely beautiful. Her features were delicate and her figure was perfect.

Her smooth and shiny brown hair cascaded down to her slim waist. Her dress was cinched at the waist, which accentuated her full bust and hips.

The red moon in the east and the green moon in the west shone faintly on her, creating a mesmerizing aura around her.

She had an ample bosom, a snatched waist, and long legs. The skin under her lacy collar was smooth and as fair as snow. She looked captivating.

As she slowly made her way toward Carl, her naturally enchanting fragrance hit the noses of everyone she walked past, making them lose themselves in her presence.

Carl had lived through two lifetimes, but this was the first time he had seen such a gorgeous woman. His breathing quickened as he looked at her perfect countenance.

She broke into a smile that was as alluring as a poppy flower and said, "My name is Melissa and I want to thank you for saving my most loyal knight. What do you want in return? I will agree to anything."

Carl stared at her unblinkingly for a moment before he snapped out of his daze and thought about what he should ask for. "My one and only kin has just passed away and everyone in the town is scheming to seize my inheritance, so I don't want to go back there. Your Ladyship, can you take me along with you?"

"Sure." Melissa was very pleased by Carl's answer and smiled even more brightly than before. "From now on, you shall be my personal apothecary."