Yeah, it couldn't not work.
Scurvy.
Vitamin C deficiency, to be exact.
Because that's what the great sea sailor disease was.
***
To his surprise, it worked immediately!
The sailors who had been complaining of lethargy recovered immediately.
The more severe cases of bleeding were not cured at once, but their condition improved significantly.
[Achievement, 'Devise a method of eradicating sailors' disease on the high seas'.]
[A special bonus to the big achievement!]
[Gain 300 additional skill points!]
[The sailors of the sea will long praise your achievement!]
A whopping 300 points!
Curing scurvy was simple, but revolutionary.
"W-What is this?"
Prince Rashid stuttered in disbelief.
"Great Sea Sailor's Disease is caused by a lack of a necessary element in the body due to not eating properly for a long period of time, so we can cure it by replenishing the missing element."
"Then why only ordinary sailors get it?"
"Well, because the higher-ups have been eating fresh food from the land, so they haven't gotten sick."
Scurvy begins to develop when a person is deprived of vitamin C for more than three months.
Although they received supplies from the land, all the fresh food was reserved for their superiors.
The rank-and-file soldiers could only consume dried food, which is why they got sick.
Then, a double-A healer asked in disbelief.
"H-How the hell did you do it?"
Raymond and Rashid had kept the scurvy cure a secret for the time being to protect confidentiality.
Raymond smirked and spoke in a gravelly voice.
"This is the power of medicine you've been ignoring. You can come learn it if you want, I'll even take you on as a special 'apprentice'."
"This...!"
"Of course, you'll have to pay me 100,000 pena first, and if you don't have the money now, you can wire it to me through an international bank. And the others, too."
Raymond grinned.
The thought of getting half a million pena off his back in one sitting was too good to be true!
The pleasure of watching their cocky complexions turn ashen was a bonus.
***
As the soldiers regained their strength, the fleet was soon on the move.
Most of the ships moved to the rear, carrying Houstonian troops and refugees from Droton, while one ship headed south.
It was the speedboat that would take Raymond and his men to the vicinity of the Winter Palace, but there was an unexpected guest aboard.
Prince Rashid!
"Why is Your Highness with us?"
Raymond asked in a puzzled voice.
Prince Rashid looked at Raymond with meaningful eyes.
"It is because of you, Baron Penin, and I wish to be with you a little longer."
"What?"
"I see that your reputation as a light in the Houstonian army is not entirely unwarranted. I would like to spend a little more time with you, to fellowship with you."
Raymond scratched his head.
The Light of the Houston Kingdom.
Whoever came up with that nickname, it's so....
'It's so... it's a wonderful, wonderful nickname.'
Raymond smiled inwardly.
It was indeed a nickname he liked.
For the record, Raymond didn't hate the strange nickname.
He's all about image-making!
The cooler the nickname, the better his image will be.
In his mind, there was something off about Prince Rashid.
He didn't speak, just stared at Raymond. His emerald eyes, to be precise.
"What's wrong?"
"...You look so much alike."
"What?"
"Your eyes, I mean. They look exactly like the ones in my royal family's cursed castle."
Prince Rashid looked deeply into Raymond's eyes.
For a long time, intently.
Raymond spoke nonchalantly.
"Yes, it's strange how much we look alike."
"Your mother, by any chance?"
"She wasn't related to the royal family at all. She was a commoner from the slums, and worst of all, she didn't have emerald eyes."
"Is that so?"
"Yes."
A glimmer of disappointment flickered in Prince Rashid's eyes.
'The eye is the symbol of the Lystein clan, so it's impossible to artificially hide it with any kind of magic.'
However, it's a shame that he was so capable.
Rashid shook his head in disappointment.
'Even if he's not a member of the Lystein family, it's still good to have a connection to someone of this caliber.'
Rashid held out his hand to Raymond.
"That's a shame, because it would be nice to have someone like you as a blood relative of mine. Let's stay close in the future."
Raymond thought the other man was a good jokester.
"Thank you for saying that. I am honored."
Their hands touched.
At that moment.
Prince Rashid's eyes narrowed.
"Your Highness?"
"Oh... No, never mind."
Prince Rashid shook his head, somehow urgently.
Then he smiled.
"Soon we will be at the Winter Palace, and I wish you well."
***
Prince Rashid dropped Raymond's party near the Winter Palace, and turned the boat.
"What are you thinking about, Your Highness?"
"I was thinking about Baron Penin."
"Did you feel a 'connection'?"
The lieutenant's eyes widened.
Peninsula royalty could sense if someone was one of their own by physical contact, thanks to a special ability that ran in their blood.
But Prince Rashid shook his head.
"Not at all. He's not Peninsula royalty, that's for sure."
"But why?"
Rashid closed his mouth and remembered how he felt when he shook Raymond's hand.
'Then...'
It certainly wasn't a 'kinship' feeling, but there was an unidentifiable sense of otherness.
It was a sensation he'd never felt before, no matter how much physical contact he'd had with his kin.
'I'm pretty sure he's not Peninsula royalty, but what was that feeling?'
He thought about it for a while, but he couldn't figure it out.
'Was it an illusion?'
That was the most likely explanation, but there was something uncomfortable about it.
The sensations he felt when he tried to make contact were 'numbness' in the case of strangers and 'homogeneity' in the case of blood relatives.
But 'otherness'?
He'd never heard of anyone else feeling this way.
Eventually, Rashid realized.
'When I return to the palace after the war, I'll go straight to the Lystein Library and see if there are any cases of people feeling something similar to what I'm feeling now during contact.'
The Lystein Library.
It was the library for the Peninsula's royalty, filled with books that chronicled the lives and histories of their kin.
Perhaps there would be clues to a case similar to this one.
***
"This is the Winter Palace?"
It was a remote mansion in the desert adjacent to the sea.
The atmosphere was so desolate that the word 'winter' was synonymous with loneliness.
'It's in the desert, perfect for a dumping ground, but we need to start treating him soon.'
Many things had delayed us.
They were worried about the young king's body.
'He can't be dead already, can he?'
For a moment, Raymond's heart sank; if his suspicions were correct, it was possible that he hadn't made it this far and had died.
'I have the cure, but it will only work if he's alive.'
The good news was that Raymond had the medicine to cure the young king. The variable was the child's condition.
'Let's hurry!'
But there was a catch.
Berard's soldiers guarding the Winter Palace!
"...The number of soldiers on guard has increased. Perhaps the king's condition has worsened, and they've sent troops to prevent any unexpected disturbances."
Roughly looking, there were three knights, two wizards, and about 50 soldiers.
The group's faces grew heavy.
This was no small force.
"I'll take care of it."
"I'll go, too."
"I'll go too."
Elmud, Rao, and Christine stepped forward at the same time.
Sir Ingel and several of the knights who had followed also drew their swords, and they looked at Raymond.
"Stay here, my lord, for you must not be harmed. I know you always want to take the lead, but today, please trust me."
"That's right, Master. If you tell me you're going to lead the way again today, I'll be furious, Master."
"That's right, Master."
Everyone seemed to be under the mistaken impression that Raymond was going to lead the way for others again.
'...I don't want to step forward, I'm afraid of fighting.'
Raymond hesitated, then crossed his arms.
'I think it's best to avoid a fight anyway.'
He was not going to lose.
There are about ten of them now.
Except for the healers, Raymond, Hanson, and Lyndon, they were all elite knights. They were here in case there's a fight.
If they fought, they should win, but the problem lay elsewhere.
"Please wait a moment. I think it would be best to avoid conflict for now."
"Why?"
'If we fight them, news will surely reach Berard through the communications crystal, which will bring in follow-on troops, and our plan to heal His Majesty King Droton will fail.
Everyone was dumbfounded.
That's right.
Subduing them wasn't the problem.
The moment there was a collision, they'd make an emergency call to the crystal ball, and they'd be doomed.
"But isn't there any way to subdue them other than physically?"
Lord Ingel asked. Raymond pondered.
'What can we do? A way to subdue them once and for all without a fight?'
Raymond shook his head.
It was impossible.
Unless the soldiers fell asleep as a group.
At that thought, Raymond was stunned.
'Wait, sleep?'
A plan came to mind!
Put them all to sleep with sleeping pills!
'We've got plenty of powerful sleep inducers, so we can do that! The problem is how to distribute them.'
Raymond turned to the mage who had hurriedly followed them.
"Do you happen to have the ability to use wind magic?"
"I should be able to."
"Can't you just blow a breeze through this entire estate?"
The wizard waved his hand.
"That's not possible. I'm a Wizard whose specialty is fire, and you'd have to be a wizard whose specialty is wind magic to blow that much wind."
Wizard.
A high-level mage, equivalent to a Sword Expert in the eyes of a knight.
But wizards had different specialties.
The mage who accompanied him was a fire mage, whose main specialty was powerful offensive magic.
'What should we do? If we use wind magic to blow the sleep-inducing powder, we should be able to take them out in one fell swoop. Is there any way?'
He was pondering.
A way popped up in his head!
'Magic. I can use it! Market browsing!'
Chwareureuk.
A list of skills popped up.