'What do you think that you are doing!?' King Ophire's eyes were narrowed dangerously as he glared at the man seated to his right.

Duke Brodie realized his folly when he felt the King's frightening aura surrounding his body in the next instant.

​​

"Forgive me, Your Majesty! I was too excited earlier." He apologized with a bow for he was the one who had startled the older man which could have led to disastrous outcomes.

The vial of foggy lavender liquid which was foaming a little was the cure to the plague tormenting their Kingdom.

If something were to happen to it then the King would not spare him just as he would not be able to forgive himself.

Therefore, Duke Brodie was earnest in his apology as he admitted his wrongdoing straightaway.

King Ophire retracted his aura after noticing his genuine expression of guilt before waving his hand, permitting him to sit upright once again.

Maldock Brodie thanked the King before letting out a sigh in relief that he had not caused a loss for their Kingdom.

The old man who was seated on the left side of the table chuckled after witnessing this sight.

Their attention fell on him and saw him shake his head as he placed that vial containing the cure onto the table between them.

"My King, do not fret for this is just one of the many samples created." Sir Barton Merde assured the King as he revealed that this wasn't the only vial of the cure.

This brought relief to both King Ophire and Duke Brodie who nodded their heads.

The King then commanded Sir Merde to speak regarding the purpose of his visit today and the old man obeyed soon after.

He picked up the vial and pulled off the wooden part used as the stopper which held the contents inside without spillage.

The moment this wooden cork was lifted, the entire room was engulfed with a sweet scent emanating from the lavender liquid inside the glass vial.

Hints of a fruity scent peeked through the strong smell of rather sweet-smelling medicinal herbs.

"Your Majesty, our men at the Royal Medical Association created this cure ten days ago." He confesses while closing the vial once again.

As the sweet scent began to fade, the King narrowed his eyes at the old man who had disclosed shocking information.

This cure was found over ten days ago but it had only been three days since he was made aware of its existence.

Noticing the displeasure of his King, Sir Merde did not hesitate and explained why this was so.

"This was not the first cure we found, Your Majesty." He revealed with a weary sigh.

In fact, there had been fourteen cures they had created before this one, thinking that it was the right cure but they had been wrong.

The ones preceding it were also created with the intention of curing the plague but they soon proved themselves to be useless.

They did nothing to cure the disease but thankfully, did not worsen the illness any further.

The King was not informed about these failures as it would be a shameful deed to boast about finding a cure only for it to turn out to be worthless.

Therefore, even this time, Sir Merde had commanded his men to conceal all information until they were sure that they had succeeded in creating the right cure.

Their struggles for many months had come to fruition ten days ago when this liquid, the one he had brought today, had been created by his talented physicians and researchers.

One of their colleagues had contracted the plague while working with the victims.

This man in his thirties volunteered to be their test subject to assess its efficacy and check whether they had created a cure or just another failure.

On the first day of administering the cure to him, his condition had turned for the worse by the same night.

His fever was higher than ever and his body broke out in blisters oozing pus which was worse than what was seen on his body before taking the trial cure.

This scared the others but they had no other medicine to feed him in order to cure him.

He could not even take medicines to dull his pain as they did not know how it would react with the 'cure' they had given to him.

Thus, he spent that entire night groaning in pain caused by the fifteenth 'cure' they had created.

It was only the next morning when he had passed out from the pain that he gained a little rest.

By the time he woke up, he realized that he no longer felt any pain but also noticed that his clothes had been changed.

The physicians watching over his progress the entire time had to change his clothes as a mysterious black liquid oozed out of those blisters that had formed the previous day.

He was not aware of this and only after his colleagues had revealed this to him did he figure out the reason why they had changed his clothes while he was still in his sleep.

The next three days, his fever continued but he did not experience the same pain which he felt on the first day.

This was a step in the right direction and the people in the Royal Medical Association began praying for his recovery as he was the only test subject of the fifteenth cure they had prepared until now.

Their prayers were heard as on the fifth morning, scabs began to form over the blister wounds all over his body, proving that they no longer oozed and they were healing slowly but surely.

"He has been kept under observation for ten days now and shows a positive response." Sir Merde finished reporting the events that took place up to this day.

It had been five days since his blisters began to heal and now those scabs were beginning to fall off as well.

His fever was gone and he was also regaining his lost vitality with nutritious food and proper care given by his colleagues.

Hearing this progress, the King's anger from earlier faded away and he was glad that the cure administered to that patient had worked just fine.

Now that the cure was created, all that was needed was for them to mass-produce and distribute it among those infected by the same disease.

"What do you suggest we do next?" He sought counsel from the man who knew more about this matter than he did.

Sir Merde got straight to the point as everything needed to be done quickly to be able to stop this plague from affecting more people.

"My King, allow us to test the efficacy of this cure on a group of fifteen patients from different age groups." He proposed the idea that his men had come up with.

They only knew about how it affected the physician working with them and had no clue how it would work on the rest of the population.

Therefore, the Royal Medical Association wished to test it out first and only then distribute it to the others.

From children to the aged and old, the effects could differ and they needed to study this before taking any other steps.

King Ophire mulled over his suggestion and found it practical so he accepted it.

"How long will your observation take?" He inquired as they could not wait for too long now that the other nobles had already heard about the cure being found.

"Just two weeks, Your Majesty." Sir Merde revealed and promised that two weeks would be enough to test it out.

The King rubbed his chin in contemplation before nodding his head as this much was doable.

Even the nobles would not complain as finding out if the cure was harmful or not was a must and they would not make a fuss about it.

Duke Brodie felt that this was possible so he too agreed with the King's decision.

The two men smiled with excitement as now their Kingdom could be free from the clutches of this plague.

However, in their enthusiasm, they failed to notice the frown which began to form on the old man's face.

"But we have a problem, My King." Sir Merde's words dragged them out of their silent celebration as they turned in his direction the very next second with questioning eyes.

The old man held the vial up and fixed his eyes on the liquid, an action that the other two imitated soon after.

"This…" He muttered while swirling the lavender liquid present inside the vial.