Chapter 1
The day Quentin Schneider came home in triumph, I showed up in my wedding dress to welcome him.
But instead, he brought back an extraordinary woman, scalpel in hand, able to open skulls and slice through bellies like it was nothing.
She could pull a medical kit out of thin air and heal anyone's pain.
The emperor himself gave her the title of Divine Miracle Doctor.
Everyone, from commoners to the high and mighty, adored her, and even my brother, Ridge Spence, was willing to serve at her feet.
All across the land, not a single soul dared to question her authority.
But me? I just had to be the one who didn't know my place. I actually saved someone she'd already announced incurable.
*****
When Ridge showed up with his men to arrest me, I had just finished getting his medicine ready.
"Ridge, if you take this, you'll be cured for good. You won't have to worry about your illness ever again!" I said.
I looked up at him, my heart brimming with anticipation.
Three days ago, he told me his old leg injury was acting up again and asked me to get him some medicine.
It was the first time he'd come to me since we fell out.
I'd never forget how, ten years ago, Ridge struggled up that mountain with his injured legs to bring me home.
If it hadn't been for him, I'd have been nothing but the "jinxed one" abandoned by the Spence family.
He was the only family I had.
And I could never turn my back on the bond we shared.
Even when every pharmacy in Capatio was shut down for inspections, and there was nowhere to buy medicine, I agreed without a second thought when he asked.
I went out into the mountains myself to pick herbs for him.
My hands were still bleeding from the thorns that had pierced them.
My legs were so badly hurt from the fall that I could barely stand, but I still forced a smile and brought him the medicine, standing as tall as I could.
But Ridge didn't even reach for it. He just looked at me with cold, indifferent eyes.
That look wasn't a brother looking at his sister. It was like a magistrate staring at a criminal.
It finally hit me, and I looked past Ridge to see what was happening behind him.
There were officials from the Ministry of Justice, and there was Tinsley, her smile blooming like a flower, strolling over with the Royal Dragon Guards flanking her.
A month ago, Tinsley, the Divine Miracle Doctor, petitioned the emperor to purge those unscrupulous doctors who used the guise of medicine to exploit and harm people.
The first to be arrested was a charlatan priest at Kinvedore Church in Novegin, who boasted a secret recipe for helping women conceive.
Every woman who went to him ended up with a child.
But the truth was, every single one of those kids was his own.
The second to be arrested was a clinic doctor from Sourovia.
His prescriptions were so expensive that people went broke just trying to afford them.
He couldn't even remember a single line from classic medical texts.
And lucky me, I was the third one to get caught up in all this.
"Sierra, you've been accused of faking medical skills, cheating people, and putting lives at risk!" one of the officials shouted.
The old lady who came with Tinsley fell to her knees, bowing her head to the ground.
"Dr. Warner, Lord Spence, it's her! She conned me out of ten taels of silver for one dose of medicine, and it ruined me!" the old lady wailed.
I frowned.
I recognized her. She was Paisley Wyatt, Wallace Wyatt's mother from Eastve.
A month ago, Wallace was covered head to toe in bloody scabs, and no doctor would touch his case.
When she begged me for help, she looked just as pitiful as she did for the moment.
I knitted my brows at Paisley, but she wouldn't meet my gaze. She just kept her head bowed.
To anyone watching, it must have looked like I was intimidating her.
"Don't be afraid. The Miracle Doctor's Hall will stand up for you," Tinsley said, reassuring her.
Tinsley gently patted Paisley's hand, reassuring her.
Ridge turned to look at me, his eyes full of anger and disappointment.
He took the medicine I'd made for him and handed it to Tinsley himself.
"Wallace's medicine is finished, but this is the one she made for my leg. If you want to know if she's really a doctor, test this," Ridge said coldly.
My heart dropped into a frozen pit. "So... you were never sick?"
Ridge didn't answer.
Just then, Quentin, the warlord and commander of the Royal Dragon Guards, strode in.
"Dr. Warner, could you please test this medicine for me, too?" Quentin said, his voice calm but commanding.
He pulled out a box, and inside lay a single black pill.
That was the antidote I'd made just for him. A few days ago, he told me his old poison was flaring up again and asked me for it.
"So, you weren't sick either?" I asked, the realization hitting me like a punch to the gut.
A hollow, hopeless laugh escaped me.
Even the ones closest to me ended up betraying me.
The test results came back quickly.
Tinsley said, her voice trembling with disbelief. "Both medicines, one for the leg and one for the poison, have the same ingredients and proportions.
"I may not be an expert in traditional medicine, but even I know that you're supposed to use different prescriptions for the same illness, so for different ones, it's even more impossible!
"You don't even understand basic medical knowledge, and you've been getting shills to vouch for you, hyping yourself up as some miracle doctor everywhere.
"Sierra, have you lost your mind? You're recklessly endangering people's lives!"
Right then, Tinsley was so furious that words couldn't do her rage justice.
"What's so shocking? Weren't you all already aware I was using the same ingredients and recipe?" I said, a bitter laugh escaping me.
I really felt like laughing.
Funny how the moment someone accused me, they just happened to have two batches of medicine they'd tricked out of me, all ready to use as evidence.
They'd made up their minds. This whole thing was for show to convince the crowd and make it look legit.