Baby Pharmacist Princess

This Amon hunt is the first since the new Pope ascended, so all royals are obligated to participate according to the agreement.

But to be honest, the agreement and obligation were just formalities. The real reason was to ensure that the eight-year-old Pope didn’t die by having the royals protect him.

Just the thought of this was infuriating enough, but when Alexandra heard that she couldn’t bring anyone to attend to her, she lost her temper.

The reason given was that they didn’t want any servants to die unnecessarily, but Alexandra couldn’t understand that at all.

After all, aren’t they just expendables?

To her, only nobles were considered people; those below were no different from livestock.

If they died, they died.

She couldn’t understand why she had to be without a maid for even a single hour.

Sure, the ladies-in-waiting were of noble birth, but not the maids.

Even the demon Pabel was impressed by her audacity.

After arriving at the hunting grounds, Alexandra continued to complain—about the tent not being to her liking, about why Cherishe got to ride an airship alone, and so on—constantly pestering Pabel.

Pabel, who had been tolerating her hysteria, eventually had to step out of the tent, fearing he might kill Alexandra too soon.

He slipped out quietly and watched the humans bustling about.

“The Vatican has arrived!”

“All the mercenaries have arrived!”

“But… there are more of them than expected!”

So, the Vatican finally made its sluggish move.

Pabel, eavesdropping on the reports from all directions, wore a bored expression.

Was it that they shouldn’t fight or that they shouldn’t kill?

Either way, due to the fake god Haphneous’s doctrine, the Vatican didn’t have a knight order.

Instead, they always hired mercenaries when something like this happened, and it seemed they had brought quite a few this time.

‘Well, that makes sense.’

At the celebration for the new Pope’s ascension, the Prince had announced the establishment of the Empire’s Ministry of Health.

Since then, the Vatican had officially protested and demanded the dissolution of the Ministry, but the Emperor had ignored them.

As a result, relations between the Imperial City and the Vatican had been deteriorating day by day.

“This is quite amusing, though it could be more exciting.”

For example, what if a Vatican mercenary, acting on someone’s orders, kidnapped the precious Cherishe Wynn Castalia?

‘And what if I get caught along with her? Oh, that would be so much fun.’

It was a sudden thought, but a brilliant one.

‘We could end up alone together, and I could pretend to be helpless, gaining her attention. Oh, I’d love to do that.’

But to make this plan work, he’d have to be extremely careful.

As someone following Alexandra, Pabel naturally found himself in the camp of the Jen faction.

Though he wanted to cross over to the Wynn faction’s camp, bump into Cherishe by chance, and play some tricks, it was too risky for now.

Her father and brothers were all watching with sharp eyes.

Especially her father—Pabel had some history with him.

They had a good time together about eighteen years ago.

After the explosion incident not too long ago, the man had been scouring the Imperial City, exuding a murderous aura, forcing Pabel to lay low for a while.

‘Hmm, I need some time to plan this out.’

Being near the gate to the demon world, Pabel’s aura was stronger than usual, so he needed to be cautious.

Still, he couldn’t resist revealing himself to her for a moment.

When he saw her round, innocent eyes looking his way, Pabel nearly laughed.

She doesn’t even know who the real danger is and looks at me so naively.

She’s afraid of the Amons, but not of me—Pabel found that highly amusing.

He wondered what color her face would turn if he revealed his true nature as a demon.

‘Would she turn pale like Jessica Fever, making meaningless crosses and annoying me?’

Maybe she’d tremble in fear, killing his interest entirely.

But Pabel hadn’t yet fully explored the depth of her soul.

She seemed infinitely young on the outside, but her soul was quite mature and pure.

That also piqued his curiosity.

Living beings are inherently selfish.

Altruism is an emotion that only arises when one is in a position of superiority.

When faced with a life-threatening situation, anyone would instinctively try to survive, even at the cost of others’ lives.

It’s not shameful; it’s natural.

And as they do, their souls gradually darken.

To be as pure as she is, one must either be a newborn or have lived a life of complete altruism.

So Pabel wanted to know.

Is her altruism born from a privileged and comfortable upbringing, or is it her true nature?

‘If it’s the former, I’ll be so disappointed that I’ll release all sorts of monsters into the town.’

It wouldn’t take much to widen the demon gate.

The only reason the village had survived so far was that no demon had bothered to take an interest in it.

Wild Amons are easy to deal with since they lack a leader.

But if Pabel became the Amon king and led them, the village would face an unprecedented crisis.

‘But if it’s the latter… and if you manage to make me truly interested….’

I might just fall for you and wait eagerly for you to grow up.

Pabel sighed deeply as he pondered how to orchestrate the situation he desired.

Since Cherishe couldn’t ignore someone in need, if he appeared before her gravely injured, she would surely take the bait.

‘Should I cut off an arm?’

Which arm would be better?

Pabel looked down at his arms, seriously considering which one to sacrifice.

Which one would make Cherishe look at him with more pity?

The right one, perhaps?

‘Then, I’ll gradually take control of a mercenary’s mind and have him kidnap both of us.’

This would set the stage for the crisis.

And the most delicious climax would be this:

‘Create a scenario where only one of us can survive.’

One must live while the other dies.

And he would be injured too, potentially on the brink of death.

Logically and rationally, Cherishe should abandon him to save herself.

After all, the weak should perish, and the strong should survive—that’s the natural law…

“Pabel!”

Uh-oh.

“Pabel! Where are you?!”

It’s Alexandra.

Why couldn’t she stay put in the tent instead of coming out and interrupting my thoughts?

Pabel clicked his tongue, barely hiding his irritation.

Their eyes had already met.

Alexandra was approaching with a scowl.

“Alexandra. I’ll be going down to the village in about a week.”

The key to this plan was that no one should know he was behind it.

If they found out, it would become a nuisance.

So it was easier to make up an excuse about where he was going to Alexandra.

“Who says you can? I’m suffering here, and you’re planning to enjoy the hot springs?”

“Well, I didn’t get permission.”

Pabel’s nonchalant reply, accompanied by a grin, only made Alexandra’s almond-shaped eyes narrow further.

As if dealing with the stench of Amon’s blood wasn’t annoying enough, Pabel was only adding to her irritation.

“You know I’m sensitive to smells, right?”

“Of course. You’ve got an exceptionally developed sense of smell.”

“If the maids couldn’t come, then you should be the one attending to me!”

Slap.

Alexandra slapped him.

Pabel could have easily avoided it, but he took the hit on purpose.

Once she struck him, he could use it as an excuse to leave her side.

“Don’t be angry, Alexandra. I’ll make sure you can smell something pleasant.”

Alexandra was strong.

Not an ordinary child at all.

She was strong enough to fight Amons.

Of course, Pabel was strong too, so even after being slapped by Alexandra, his jaw wasn’t broken.

But then, it happened.

“Did… did you just hit him…?”

A voice that shouldn’t have been audible here sweetly tickled Pabel’s ears.

He turned his head and, as expected, there she was… Cherishe, with a shocked expression.

In an instant, Pabel assessed the situation and pretended to be weak, collapsing to the ground while clutching his cheek.

* * *

As night fell, a curtain of fire surrounded the camp.

Amons don’t just disappear because it’s dark, so extreme caution was necessary.

Since Amons dislike fire, a massive magical barrier of flames was created to prevent them from descending into the village.

Before long, steamed king crab was delivered from the village.

The knights cheered as they distributed the food to each camp, and I welcomed it with open arms.

Hot, steaming crab! Yes!

This is the kind of food you’d only find at an expensive buffet.

‘Ah, I should mix some rice in the shell and eat it.’

Of course, people here wouldn’t know to eat it that way. That was a bit disappointing.

The real highlight of steamed crab is the rice mixed in the shell, not the leg meat.

After filling my stomach, I had another task to do.

I had to finish the bandage distribution quest.

“Ki Orabeoni, how many knights are in the White Night Knights?”

“Uh? Oh… let’s see. Including me, there are thirty of us here.”

That’s way too few.

The quest was to distribute the bandages to 500 knights. Any fewer, and it wouldn’t work.

“I want to distribute the bandages I made.”

“If you give three or four to each member of the White Night Knights, that should be enough.”

“No! I’m going to distribute them fairly to the knights in other camps too.”

A doctor should never discriminate among patients. Similarly, a pharmacist should never discriminate either.

I don’t know who said that on the battlefield, there are no allies or enemies, only patients, but I deeply agree with it.

“How many do you have?”

“1,000.”

The bandages had been well-prepared before departure.

Each pack contained one large and one small bandage, designed to fit in the knights’ armor pockets.

“You sure brought a lot. Even if you count all the knights here, there are about 800.”

There are 800 knights, and the quest is to distribute them to 500.

Even if some refuse to take them, the quest should be successful with this margin.

“Should I gather them all together?”