The girl clutched her wounded body and looked up at me. Her face was also smeared with blood.
“I wasn’t bitten by the monsters,” she blurted out as soon as she saw Ethan draw his sword.
But Ethan didn’t lower his weapon. Instead, he kept his eyes on her, his stance tense.
“Who are you?”
“An herbalist.”
An herbalist? I looked at her with suspicion.
Her jet-black hair, which hung just above her shoulders, was cut as straight as if sliced with a knife. Her sharp, cat-like eyes and pale skin made the freckles on her cheeks stand out even more.
She had a strikingly unique charm.
“Though, to be honest, I make a living more as a pickpocket than an herbalist.”
The girl, her face full of cuts and bruises, grinned and raised the hand she’d been hiding behind her back. In it was a small, square box.
It was an Elphinus herb case.
Surprised, I instinctively glanced down at my belt pouch. It was open.
The girl must have taken the box from my pouch without me noticing. When the hell did she manage that?
She was incredibly skilled. Of course, that didn’t mean I could condone her sticky fingers.
“It’s this thing, not me,” she said, holding out a handful of dirt-covered herbs. The blue-green plants looked almost like worms.
They were similar to the Elphinus herbs.
Looking closer, I realized the same plant was drawn on the box the girl had taken from me.
“I saw them on my way up here. Those freaks were all over it, sniffing like crazy. It was lying right outside the gate.”
Her words reminded me of something Nox had mentioned earlier.
“There were Elphinus herbs at 61 Notium Street, too. Both mansions are connected to monsters, so we can’t ignore the possibility that Elphinus herbs are related to them.”
I felt a sudden chill.
There was more to these herbs than I had realized.
Boiling Elphinus herbs into a tea could act as a temporary vaccine, though it wasn’t perfect.
But if the herbs themselves attracted monsters, it meant they might have a more direct connection to the creatures.
“I must have dropped it when I brought Nox back.”
Now I understood why the monsters hadn’t left the gate.
There were fewer monsters around the mansion lately, but the ones near the stone gate had refused to leave. This explained it.
“This precious herb...”
I noticed that the box in the girl’s hand was half-empty, and the seeds inside were also missing.
“In this situation, who cares about a stupid herb? Those freaks seem to love it—why don’t we just toss it—”
“No! Absolutely not!”
I yelled, cutting her off as she made a motion to throw the box away. Both Ethan and the girl turned to stare at me in shock.
Seeing my panicked reaction, the girl hesitated and then carefully held the box close to her chest.
“Sorry. Is this something important to you? I promise I won’t throw it away—just please don’t kick me out.”
I had no idea when she decided to start calling me “sister,” but her big, round eyes—like a cat begging for food—were practically pleading with me.
“Don’t let her act fool you. We should question her first and double-check that she hasn’t been bitten.”
Ethan crossed his arms and looked her up and down without the slightest hesitation. Ever the cop.
“Is the pretty lady here the owner of this mansion?”
The girl pointed at me.
“You’ve got sharp eyes,” Ethan said dryly before glancing back at me, his expression a mix of disbelief and exasperation.
Seeing an opportunity, the girl turned to Ethan with a smirk.
“Hey, sexy officer? You’re totally my type, but unfortunately, I have a deadly allergy to cops. So could you step aside?”
“I pegged you as trouble the moment you proudly admitted to being a pickpocket. You cocky little brat.”
“Oh, I also have an allergy to old geezers.”
The two locked eyes in a silent but deadly stare-down.
“I don’t know what this situation even is,” I interrupted, “but first, we need to get her cleaned up and patched up.”
I examined the girl’s injuries. Her clothes were filthy, covered in green monster blood and dirt.
“What’s your name?”
“Amy. Amy Wharton. Just call me Amy.”
“All right, Amy. I’m going to have to restrain you for now. If you don’t show any signs of turning after a while, I’ll let you go. I hope you understand.”
I gestured to Ethan, who immediately grabbed Amy’s arm and snapped a pair of handcuffs onto her wrists.
Amy scowled as she looked down at the cuffs binding her hands.
“Hey! Just because you look sexy in a uniform doesn’t mean you can manhandle me. Be gentle, will you?”
“Do I look like I’m joking?”
Ethan’s cold tone shut her up, though she kept shooting nervous glances our way.
She looked like a teenager stuck in the rebellious phase, but now I noticed the slight tremble in her arms.
Maybe this was her way of coping with fear.
Still, I didn’t stop Ethan. It was only natural to be wary of someone whose identity wasn’t fully verified.
After making sure Amy was secured, I spoke to her.
“Our doctor will take a proper look at your injuries if he’s feeling up to it. Until then, I’ll handle first aid.”
“So Dr. Ludfisher’s safe too? I hadn’t seen him, so I was worried.”
“You know Ludfisher?”
“Everyone in the village was talking about the famous doctor from the capital. Wow, a cop and a doctor? I knew risking my life to come here was the right call.”
Risking her life to get here?
It sounded like Amy already knew Nox was here. She must have seen Ethan and me taking him out of the village about a week ago.
“But my favorite is Sugar Star.”
Amy flashed me a mischievous grin. She had clearly decided I was the one she needed to win over.
“Sugar Star?”
“That’s what the villagers call you—the Lady of the Abandoned House, or Sugar Star.”
Oh, come on. I couldn’t even answer. I just stood there with my mouth hanging open. Even here, they were calling me Sugar Star. Sugar Star?! Were they trying to humiliate me?
Pfft.
I heard Ethan stifle a laugh beside me.
When I turned to glare at him, he cleared his throat and put on a straight face.
“Ahem. Shouldn’t we deal with the Elphinus herbs outside the gate first?”
He gestured toward the firmly shut gate. The sound of monsters still echoed from the other side.
Amy chimed in.
“They’re stuck in the crack of the gate, so the smell’s just lingering there. The monsters can’t eat them, so they’re just piling up outside.”
If that was true, leaving them there wasn’t an option.
We already knew there were more monsters gathering near the stone gate than anywhere else.
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If we let this go on, even more might show up.
“But the moment we open the gate, this mansion’s safety is done for,” I said.
Ethan and Amy both nodded grimly.
“What if we tie the herbs to something and launch them far enough to distract the monsters?” Ethan suggested, tugging lightly at Amy’s sleeve.
We couldn’t use the catapult for this—it might send the herbs too far, and the monsters wouldn’t be able to track the scent.
We needed to drop them somewhere nearby, like the woods, and the easiest way to do that was with a bow.
That’s when I remembered the weapons I’d bought from Brunel’s weapon shop before everything fell apart.
“Oh. What about tying them to an arrow and shooting them with a crossbow?”
Ethan immediately nodded as if that was the perfect plan.
“If we can reduce the number of monsters clustered at the gate, we’ll stand a chance.”
“But we can’t waste all the herbs.”
It would be a huge problem if we did. Throwing away those herbs was practically the same as tossing out our vaccine supply!
Amy, who had been watching us closely, suddenly spoke up, trying to reassure me.
“I don’t know why you’re so attached to these herbs, but you can save a few. The seeds are still intact, so you can grow more. Elphinus herbs are tricky to care for, but they grow fast.”
“You know a lot about these herbs?” I asked, narrowing my eyes at her.