Beatrice - Chapter 10 – Serious Offense

Chapter 10 – Serious Offense

A week passed.

While most of the slaves ended up doing hard labor, Chloe had been given cleaning duties, and for this, she counted herself quite lucky. There wasn’t much work to do, either.

Her daily schedule was simple. She worked at the pharmacy of the infirmary belonging to the knight training facility near the palace. All the doctors were men, and most of the nurses were women.

Luckily, none of the nurses and the doctors asked Chloe her name. But she was not disappointed, and did her chores obediently—cleaning and organizing the mess she found her way. She was a good worker, getting things done without being told.

It seemed that her life as a slave of the Empire was going more smoothly than she had expected—she had prepared for the worst, and this wasn’t it.

The pharmacy, particularly, compared to the ward or the examination room, did not require much cleaning, as its only function was to dispense medications as prescribed by the doctors.

As she was holding a broom and pretending to clean for manners’ sake, she spotted a door labeled, “Medicine Storage.” The door looked bolted; hence it was not accessible to anyone, most of all, to a slave like her.

But curiosity started gnawing in, and she could not simply ignore it.

Shall I try opening it? I’ll just take a peek, she thought to herself. She furtively gave the doorknob a turn, and alas, the door yielded!

Wow.

The room was full of countless medicines and ingredients. She thougt that the pharmacy she worked under in Elpasa had the most extensive collection of medicine, but even it couldn’t compare to this.

This storage room was large and…

Dirty… Her nose scrunched up.

The whole place was in complete disarray. At this rate, this pharmacy couldn’t function at all, she thought. There were medications whose bottles had been left open, despite their sensitivity to oxidation. Why did they, with all those doctors and nurses around, neglect their inventory like this?

Chloe looked around the room, losing track of time. She inspected each medicine and placed it in its right place. The next thing she knew, she was organizing the entire stock.

It was almost time for the slaves to return to their quarters, but Chloe couldn’t stop. She felt eerie pleasure at the sight of the medicine bottles getting organized one by one. If she continued through tomorrow, the entire pharmacy could become pristine.

It’s all right; these doctors and nurses don’t even know my name.

A missing slave on janitorial duty was not going to attract attention. As long as she didn’t return to the slaves’ quarters too late, and explained that she was cleaning up the pharmacy, she wouldn’t be in much trouble.

***

A few days went by. Reorganizing the medicine storage was not easy. While she was familiar with most of the drugs, the inventory included some items that she had never seen before.

Good thing I studied herbal medicine back in the day.

Being a herbal pharmacist in her past life, her expertise came very handy in this world where herbal medicine, rather than western medicine, was used.

In case other slaves came looking for her, she went out once every few hours to show herself. After pretending to clean for a while, she would return to the storage and continue her work.

After a few days of this, the storage room became very clean and organized. Chloe was immensely proud of her work.

But suddenly, she heard an unexpected voice from behind, “What are you doing here?”

Chloe was startled—she had been too absorbed in her work to hear the sudden opening of the door and the footsteps that followed.

“The…the floor was too dirty, so I cleaned it.”

The voice belonged to Jorge Nanapa, the deputy head of the infirmary. Jorge glanced around the storage, completely ignoring Chloe’s explanation.

“How dare you handle the medicines…you’re not a doctor or a nurse… This is a serious offense.”

After a long while of inspecting various parts of the storage, he emitted a bewildered moan through his gaping mouth, “By the way, did you organize the inventory?”

Chloe heard of Jeorge Nanapa, given his prominence as the deputy head of the infirmary. He was an excellent doctor who, despite being in his prime age with a white beard, had sparkling, youthful eyes.

Trying out her luck, Chloe decided to take a risk. Her past few days spent organizing the medicine inventory had been the happiest since her arrival in Nosteros. If Jorge believed what she had to say, then she could be allowed to continue working in the storage, at least to clean it.

But what if Jorge simply thought that she was just an impertinent slave? Either way, he was sure to punish her in some way for handling the medicines without permission.

If it works, that’s good. Otherwise, oh well.

“I deeply apologize, sir. I used to work as a slave at a pharmacy before coming here, and I have always been so curious about the empire’s medicine that… Despite my limited knowledge, I could not simply ignore the disarray that the inventory was in.”

“So, you have categorized and organized all these items?”

Jorge was in awe. How could an illiterate slave do such a thing, even if she had worked at a pharmacy before? Some of these items were from overseas. He was certain that this was the most extensive drug inventory in the empire.

“I cannot believe that you know all these medicines’ names, purposes, and uses. How is it possible when you cannot read or write?”

In spite of her status as a slave, Chloe worked hard, first and foremost, to learn to read and write. The little money that she made, she spent it on books. Because most of the slaves and commoners working at the pharmacy in Elpasa had been illiterate, she had worked side by side with the doctors and pharmacists, assisting in bookkeeping and writing of prescriptions.

“I…can read, sir. But I am not familiar with all of these medications. I have set aside the ones that I wasn’t sure about.”

Jorge’s jaw dropped. She had not merely memorized the names of these items and their uses—she actually understood their usage and the characteristics of the ingredients themselves!

“Did you say that you could read?”

“Yes, sir.”

“And write?”

“Yes, I learned to write while studying herbal medicine.”

He could not conceal his astonishment. He had seen this in the case of those who had lost their social status and became slaves. They were literate. However, he had never seen anyone like Chloe, someone with a specialized education.

Jorge, barely keeping a straight face, said to Chloe, “Regardless of your training in herbal medicine, how dare you count on your shallow knowledge and do something like this? You will be sent to prison and await your punishment there.”

Chloe was not dismayed. She would have been punished even if she had not told him about her knowledge, since she had touched the medicines all the same. The punishment was, in fact, lighter than she had expected.

“What is your name?”

By the question, she paused. She had not thought about this before, as no one in the Empire had ever asked her name.

I don’t want to be called Beatrice anymore, she thought. ‘Beatrice’ was clearly a noblewoman’s name.

She replied after a moment of hesitation.

“My name is…Chloe.”