Chapter 90

90. The Golden Ring Around the Iris (2)

Kaiser-Fleischer ring.

The golden ring around the iris. It’s caused by abnormal copper metabolism in the body, where copper metal accumulates in the iris.

It’s the most representative sign of Wilson’s Disease.

“The patient must be admitted.”

“Yes.”

The duke and duchess said there was no family history of hereditary diseases. Since Wilson’s is a recessive genetic disorder, it seems unlikely they were unaware.

First off, the probability of both the duke and duchess carrying the Wilson’s gene is astronomically low. It’s not that common a disease.

Even if, by some miracle, both parents carried the gene, the chance of producing an affected child is only 25%.

The likelihood that Erzabet is the biological child of the Serulius couple is practically zero.

For some reason I don’t yet understand, everyone in this mansion has been lying to me. Some more successfully than others.

Anyway, I need to re-examine all my deductions so far. How am I supposed to deal with a real genetic disease showing up at this stage when I was investigating feigned illnesses?

I sighed.

Erzabet looked somewhat flustered.

“Did I do something wrong?”

“No.”

I shook my head.

“Um…aren’t you going to examine me?”

“I already said you need to be admitted.”

All my theories might have fallen apart, but the diagnosis for Erzabet is certain beyond doubt.

With a confused expression on her face, Erzabet turned away from me as I addressed the butler.

“Mr. Anderson, since we’ve identified the illness, please gather the entire family at 7 PM.”

“Ah, understood.”

Anderson nodded. I left the perplexed patient and butler behind as I exited the third daughter’s room.

***

Erzabet and Anderson scratched their heads. Why did he react like that just making eye contact?

“Butler, did I do something wrong?”

The royal physician who had just visited scrunched up his face upon seeing Erzabet’s eyes, repeatedly insisted on hospitalization, then left her room looking extremely upset.

“I don’t know…Doctor cured Miss Emilie’s silence and Miss Erisa’s seizures earlier, so why is he angry now…?”

The butler pondered but couldn’t figure out why the doctor was mad.

“It must have been about the eye contact.”

“There must be a reason. Let’s wait and see, he’ll explain later.”

Erzabet sighed.

“Maybe my condition is really serious. He mentioned hospitalization right after looking at my eyes.”

“Don’t worry. If it were truly severe, you would have been examined on the spot instead of just being told about admission.”

“Is that so…”

Could it be because my case is the most critical?

***

My patience has reached its limit.

There are many difficult-to-treat diseases where patients fully cooperate and make maximum effort. So why are they actively fighting against me? Multiple patients, even including caregivers, working together against me.

I tolerated the first two princesses’ feigned illnesses, but if there was suspicion of a genetic condition, they should have mentioned it.

Anyway, standing in the central living room of the mansion, I waited anxiously for everyone to arrive.

Istina sat beside me.

The mansion’s inhabitants arrived one by one.

Our punctual butler Anderson. The third princess still wearing an expression of confusion and great concern.

The second princess, who seemed to have given up on pretending to have seizures. The first princess walked in with a somewhat depressed look.

Finally, the duke and duchess arrived. The duke chuckled as he took his seat at the head of the living room.

“Indeed, the empire’s greatest doctor is different. While other doctors couldn’t diagnose what was wrong after examining my daughters, you found the cause in just one day.”

“Yes.”

I gave a slight nod.

“All the clues necessary to solve this problem seem to be with the people present here. If we all talk together, I believe we can resolve everything.”

“Children, is this an illness that can be cured?”

“Yes.”

The uncle laughed heartily again.

“It’s fortunate we finally have something to smile about after so long. So, what illness do my children have?”

Originally, I intended to keep secrets and not mention the two princesses’ feigned illnesses, but that situation has passed.

My patience ran out earlier.

Now is the time for everyone to share the information they’ve been holding onto to solve the problem. I pointed at the three princesses lined up.

“The eldest daughter pretended to be insane.”

“The second daughter faked seizures.”

“The third daughter is illegitimate.”

The living room immediately descended into chaos.

***

The uncle covered his forehead with his hand while the three princesses loudly argued – whether in defense or anger, it was unclear…

Complete pandemonium.

“Father! That’s not what happened-”

“I wasn’t faking seizures! Seeing ghosts and getting bruises were all real!”

“How could you say I’m illegitimate?”

The uncle tried to respond but his voice was drowned out, so he let out a deep sigh.

“Everyone shut up!”

The usually calm duke shouted, finally restoring silence to the living room.

“Now that I understand what you’re trying to say, please quiet down everyone. We can take our time explaining things.”

A small cough, then silence.

The duke looked at Erzabet again.

“First of all, there seems to be some misunderstanding. The third daughter is not illegitimate. She’s not biologically ours but was adopted when she was very young from a fallen noble family.”

That explanation makes sense. She must have been adopted from a family with a history of Wilson’s disease.

To be honest, Wilson’s disease isn’t easy to inherit homozygously. There probably was some degree of consanguineous marriage in her birth family.

Though that’s not important right now.

“I see.”

Despite the duke’s explanation, Erzabet couldn’t close her mouth, clearly shocked. It seems she’s hearing this for the first time.

“What? What nonsense is this?”

Again, arguments and defenses broke out.

It’s confusing, so confusing.

The uncle raised both hands again.

“Doctor, since we’ll remain silent, could you please summarize everything?”

I nodded. Summarizing won’t be easy with so much content.

***

The three ill princesses.

Let’s start from the beginning.

“When I first met the eldest princess, I examined her hands first. The front of the knuckles and back of the fingers showed tooth scrape marks from inducing vomiting multiple times intentionally.”

Emilie briefly caught everyone’s attention before covering her left hand with her right.

“Based on my speculation, she experienced hallucinations from ergot poisoning in the past and triggered those same symptoms without any current cause due to stress.”

The uncle sighed again.

“What is this ergot poisoning?”

“It’s a type of parasitic fungus that occasionally grows on grain spikes. Quite rare.”

Ergot victims aren’t limited to the first princess. I need to mention this too, though inconvenient.

“While investigating, I learned several maidservants in the mansion also experienced hallucinations. This appears to be ergot poisoning as well.”

“Do you have proof?”

“Ah, we found ergot in a rye sack in the mansion. The evidence is solid. Though it doesn’t seem like large quantities were consumed.”

Next is the second daughter.

“The second princess had a seizure upon seeing me. However, due to reasons like maintaining consciousness during the seizure or being able to converse mid-seizure, I determined it was psychogenic seizures.”

Erisa avoided people’s gazes by looking at distant mountains. Understandable, it must be frustrating.

“Yes. For this case too, I believe the general cause is similar to the first princess: past ergot poisoning and stress. Though the manifestation of symptoms differed.”

At this point, the butler, who had been startled with wide eyes, spoke up.

“Uh…is this curable?”

Feigned illness, what exactly did he hear?

“To cut to the conclusion, the first two cases just need to consider ways to eliminate or manage the psychological factors causing these symptoms. That’s beyond what I can handle.”

Now for the last one.

“The third princess has a golden ring around her iris. Since it’s a hereditary disease requiring both parents to be carriers or patients, I concluded she couldn’t be the biological child of the two of you.”

“Oh dear.”

The duchess wiped some dry tears. The situation is different now. The third daughter, Erzabet, genuinely appeared unwell, not faking it.

“In Erzabet’s case, it wasn’t feigned at all. Wilson’s disease can indeed cause the aforementioned symptoms: hallucinations, weakness, impaired judgment, etc. But it can improve with treatment.”

Erzabet nodded.

“Personally…”

I carefully chose my words again. The one key connecting everything. Ultimately, the core of this matter comes down to this.

Feigned illness.

“I suspect the reason the first and second daughters decided to pretend to be sick was to mimic the third daughter’s genuine illness they had observed previously.”

This time Istina tilted her head in confusion.

“What about the ergot poisoning?”

“The ergot poisoning was merely the trigger.”

It was a very complex and lengthy process, but this is how I deduced the circumstances of the case. The rest is up to them to resolve among themselves.

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