Chapter 65: Chapter 065 Inducing Vomiting Methods
[Friendly Reminder: This chapter has some distasteful content, so it’s best not to read while eating… otherwise, do as you please (I’m out)!]
In the tent, Bill Caesar, who had just managed to stand up after collapsing on the ground for quite some time, felt a shiver down his spine and a sense of foreboding when he heard Richard say “there’s still hope.”
Actually, Richard wasn’t planning on saving Earl Vick at all. He said what he did primarily because he suspected that Earl Vick hadn’t died at all.
Normally, swallowing any medicine requires it to pass through the throat, down the esophagus, into the stomach for digestion, then into the small and large intestines for absorption, entering the bloodstream via capillaries before any toxin can spread throughout the body and cause death. Even Potassium Cyanide, one of the most famous toxins on modern Earth, needs some time to react. Gevik Caesar had just swallowed the pill and died immediately—how could it be so fast?
Could it be that this medieval world had developed a suicide poison more advanced than those on modern Earth? Or had Vick employed a mysterious poison concocted by a wizard?
Of course, apart from these two almost zero probability possibilities, one explanation was that it was all an act!
Earl Vick indeed took the medicine, and maybe the drug indeed had some effect, such as numbing the body and weakening the breathing, but it wouldn’t be lethal.
According to some customs of the current world, or rather, noble etiquette, even with the most intense hatred, one would not desecrate a corpse. Since whipping a corpse was out of the question, feigning death was obviously an excellent method of escape.
Richard guessed that Vick was probably planning to escape by playing dead, being taken out of the tent, thrown out of the camp, then finding a way to flee. The reason he chose to lie on the ground was probably to avoid any slight rise and fall of his chest being noticed.
From this angle, it was possible that among the many nobles, there were accomplices aiding him in concealing his death. For instance, the noble who had just suggested a course of action could be a strong suspect, although it was also possible that he was just “kind-hearted,” or had been misled and used by others.
With these thoughts in mind, Richard squatted down beside Earl Vick, turned his body over forcefully, and laid his fingers on the artery in his neck.
Richard knew some drugs could slow the heart rate down to once a minute, but in actuality, the effect of the medicine Earl Vick had swallowed wasn’t exaggerated to this extent. After just a little over a second, Richard felt the artery expand once, followed by contraction—the drug’s effect was at most to cut the heart rate in half.
After probing, Richard stood up and looked at Gro.
Gro looked back intensely: “What’s the situation, Lord Richard, is he… dead?”
Gro’s eyes immediately lit up, with thoughts of various forms of revenge already dancing in his mind.
“However, the drug did have some effect,” Richard spoke softly, “I’m not sure of the specifics yet, but if you want to interrogate him, it would be best to induce vomiting to get him to expel the swallowed pill first.”
“Is that so…” Gro’s eyes flickered, “Then how do we induce vomiting?”
“You don’t have to ask me, do you? There are many ways to induce vomiting, like gagging the throat, pressing on the stomach, pouring in some nauseating medications, etc. It’s up to you to choose.”
“Um…” Gro nodded subconsciously.
At that moment, someone from among the nobles suddenly said: “I’ve heard that feeding someone horse dung can induce vomiting.”
Everyone was stunned, and another said: “Isn’t that wrong? I remember that pouring horse urine into the mouth has the best inducing effect.”
“No, no, the best for inducing vomiting is using blackened soil.”
“I’ve heard that…” The dark medieval medical practices began to display their full glory.
The crowd began to discuss passionately, arguing about whose method would be the best.
From the corner of the tent, Bill Caesar stood up and couldn’t help but say in a faint voice, “Why don’t we just combine them all and use every method?”
There was silence among the crowd, and the next moment they turned their heads to look at Gro.
Gro had a strange expression at this time, with a touch of hesitation mixed with a bit of excitement, but what he couldn’t hide was that anticipation of revenge.
“Uh, this… might be a bit too much…” Gro said with a bit of restraint, then, as if he was afraid someone might actually agree with him, quickly added, “But it’s fine to use it, let’s do as Bill Caesar suggested.”
“Uh, yes,” everyone responded and hurried off to prepare, looking very eager.
No wonder they were so determined—it wasn’t that the nobles really had a twisted sense of humor. Rather, they were infuriated that Earl Vick dared to fake his own death as a means of escape. It was not only deceitful to everyone but it also made them feel that he had insulted the nobles’ status, which was even worse than actually killing Gro, as it could tarnish the reputation of the entire kingdom’s nobility.
Who knew, maybe in a few hundred years, upon hearing the name of the Jade Kingdom, the first thought would be, “Oh, I know that one—it’s the kingdom where the nobles are especially good at playing dead.”
This called for punishment! No means were too extreme.
Many nobles, filled with a sense of righteousness and outrage, went off to prepare the emetic ingredients, while Richard noticed a twitch at the corner of the “dead” Earl Vick’s mouth.
Clearly, not only was Earl Vick’s death feigned, but his unconsciousness might also be an act. But Richard couldn’t be bothered to expose it and just stood calmly in the tent, watching for what kind of trick the nobles were about to play.
A moment later, the nobles returned to the tent, ready for action. Some lifted Earl Vick up, and others forcibly pried open his mouth.
Accompanied by a cry of “Here we go,” two young nobles came in, one of whom personally held a huge iron spoon, filled to the brim with a selection of substances to induce vomiting.
The black lump was horse manure, the swirling yellow was horse urine, and floating around those were the stinking heaps of soil. And then there was…
An indescribable odor spread throughout the tent. This was not just a simple stench—it was more akin to a rotten herring that had been left in a corner for three months, shoved into a sock unwashed for three years, thereafter steeped in a gutter for three decades before being brought directly under everyone’s noses.
The stench was so overpowering it gave everyone a headache. Even from several meters away, the crowd of nobles already felt the urge to vomit. Bill Caesar in the corner looked startled and Gro’s expression soured, but driven by a vengeful state of mind, he didn’t stop the proceedings but commanded, “Pour it down!”
The young noble responded, about to transfer the contents of the iron spoon into Earl Vick’s mouth.
At this moment, Earl Vick, who had been pretending to be dead and unconscious, couldn’t keep up the act any longer. His eyes shot open in alarm, staring straight at the iron spoon as he struggled frantically. At that moment, he truly would have preferred death over ingesting such substances.
He fought back with all his might.
But… clearly, he lacked the strength of the young nobles…
“Don’t… gulp… please… gulp gulp gulp!”