Midnight and Martial Yellow Sister had not returned yet.

Most likely she is staying over at North Cloud City, to make her research easier than travelling back and forth between cities.

It was for the better. Or else the moment she walked into the recovery room, she would have screamed.

Martial Kim’s hand were swollen. It was only a moment ago the skin on his fingers were a feverish red. It didn’t take long before they started to inflate like a ghastly balloons. His fingers went from brush thick, to sausage thick, to the girth of a goose neck. He can’t even bend his digits for the life of him.

And it happened all so fast! Near blink of an eye!

Inspector Lee struggled to help. There was no way in hell he had any medical experience, not at Martial Kim’s level. Fortunately, the young master of Moon Tavern was very organized. He had various antidotes and ointments prepared for most situations and he had labelled each vial and jar with the names he called out.

In the end, Martial Kim had Inspector Lee pour and mix the cocktail of medical ingredients within a wash basin, so the former could soak his goose-neck thick fingers and hands inside. As if he was touching boiling water, he let out a hiss of pain before enduring the sensation only he could flinch from.

Inspector Lee gulped when the hands started to fizz upon submersion, like something was melting off his skin, “M-martial Kim. Wh-what the hell!? W-was it something you ate back in the restaurant we had dinner at? Oh gods, are my hands next!?” He quickly held up his hands and-- “Wait hold on. Mine are perfectly normal.”

“N-no fair.” Martial Kim hissed. The medicine was kinda of working, it took the edge off of the pressure and pain. However instincts told him, even his cocktail of medication wasn’t the answer, “What is happening indeed. I wonder, if it’s something I touched on Fae Fae, and it became contagious. Her hands swelled up like mine some time ago.”

“Yeah, I remember!” Inspector Lee couldn’t bare to look at the red hands anymore. “Her hands got red and puffy a couple of days after we found her, back in Green Lion Valley!”

Martial Kim nodded, then suddenly an idea crossed his mind, “Actually, Inspector. Would you so kindly poke my hand?”

“...With all due respect Martial Kim, can I not? I mean I don’t want my hands swollen like a pig punched in the face!”

“A-a chopstick would do, if it helps. Just a small poke on the pu-puffiest part of my hand. Aaaah.”

Inspector Lee grabbed a chopstick and did what he was told. He gave the puffy hands several poke, and one long poke.

Martial Kim examined the reaction of his skin, how it behaved on contact, “It’s not edema. If it was fluid building up in my hands, the pokes would leave a bit of a white dent in my skin. A tell tale sign. Now that I think about it, my hands feel oddly hot. Like on fire.”

Inspector Lee thought about it. Suddenly, he touched Martial Kim’s forehead, then his own, as if comparing. “You’re pretty warm, but not feverishly so. Swelling hands, redness, heat?....AH!...I-I’ve seen this before! I can’t remember what was it called!”

“C-Can you explain?”

“I-it’s the thing when I saw my friend’s eyes got all big and swollen when his lady friend threw flower at his face! O-or or when another buddy of mine dropped and seized up from a bee sting! Hives all over, barely breathed!”

“...Allergies?”

“YES!” Inspector Lee smacked the table in agreement, making the wash basin jump. He then hushed when he remembered Fae Fae was sleeping close by. “That’s it! Allergies! Ghastly thing! I nearly had a Constable died from peanuts! Can you believe it!? Simple harmless peanuts!”

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

“Food allergies is one thing, but last time I had a health check up I don’t have much allergies.”

“Th-then what caused this!? Was it something you ate? Touched?”

Martial Kim was in so much pain and discomfort he gave up thinking and shrugged, “I-if allergies is the case then it should be easy to remedy for Fae Fae and I...Question is, what type of allergy? It’s not like, aaaah, the Jade Empire had invented a single anti-allergen antidote that cures all reactions, not yet any how. I-I have to know the source to counter it. Could be from shellfish, egg whites, pollen, bee poison...Actually.”

The young master of Moon Tavern dared to haul his hands out of the medicinal water. The pain flashed back and he endured, he examined his hands, and his wrist, his arms, “It’s...localized to my hands. Exactly like Fae Fae. Otherwise her entire body would be as puffy... This is strange.”

“Well at least we know they don’t jump like fleas! You know, like from dog to dog!” Inspector Lee sighed, wiping the sweat off as he dodged that bullet! “But what did you exactly touch?”

“I touched a lot of things in the past few days. Most of them normal objects, the hairpin, Fae Fae’s hands, a lot.”

When the pain grew to the point of bursting, he showed his hands back into the wash basin and clenched his teeth. He did what he could to use every ounce of brain power to think back hard in the past few days. There was a process of elimination of likely things he touched that could have caused this.

“All I know I spent most of my time tending to Fae Fae,” he uttered in pain, “Maybe check on the Lady Constables I had assisting me. See if she is alright. At least, it would help to narrow our possibilities.”

Inspector Lee nodded and rushed out to look for that Constable. “You stay right there, don’t touch anything else!”

Martial Kim nodded in agony as Inspector Lee bolted out. Despite the young master’s honest answer in not wanting to touch anything, he was restless from waiting. Rather, he went up to the investigation board to trace the timeline.

The Imperial Constabulary found Fae Fae’s body roughly three days ago, before bringing her back for surgery. Before then, she was missing for another three days. Six days have passed, yet why did Fae Fae show signs of swelling at a different time than Martial Kim?

Come to think of it, he started to remember clearly.

The very moment where they found Fae Fae’s body, he checked the hands for any self defense wounds or even layer of skin under the nails. He was sure he checked her hand and they looked normal, slender and elegant. Albeit a bit red... Then the redness started to show shortly after her surgery.

His instincts tell him, it was not the surgeries fault. If she had contracted an infection at all, she would be having a fever and breaking into more than just sweat. Clearly she is just lying in her bed as peaceful as ever, no fever, no perspiration.

“Celestial Dream brothel...Temples...Green Lion Valley... Imperial Station...Celestial Dreams brothel...temples, Green Lion Valley...Imperial Station.”

Martial Kim kept reciting the list of known places Fae Fae had visited prior her being found near dead. He went as far as simulating any and all possibility of whatever Fae Fae had come into contact that would cause such specific damage to her hands.

In the process he eliminated any common allergens such as peanuts, pollen, shellfish, seeds or nuts, be it food or a specific plant. He also shifted out any allergic symptoms that affected the whole body like runny nose, skin rash, or even stiffness in muscles.

Just hands. Just hands. Just...

“Hairpin.”

Martial Kim blurted the answer out. In fact, it came out so fast he wasn’t sure if it was the right one. He turned to the murder weapon that was sitting on the table, kept stored in a box. He fumbled to open the lid and peel back the cloth to get a better look.

The hairpin was 30 cm long. Made of mixed gold and metal. It had a body of a twisted column, some decorative engravings if not the company logo smeared near the end, and it was uneven. The ‘blade’ part of the hairpin was caked in blood, some flies licking at the red every now and then. The ‘handle’ had no blood smear nor finger prints. Only some black specks that...

Hold on.

Martial Kim wasn’t exactly someone who had photographic memory, but he clearly remembered the black spots on the hairpin were in a completely different position than he last checked. And it was only yesterday he drew a diagram to give a paper copy to Martial yellow Sister to take to North cloud City with her.

Could it be, the hairpin is the culprit of the swelling...but how?

To test his theory, Martial Kim boldly poked at the black spots...

And regretted it.