Chapter 152
Gerard lifted the sniffling child into his arms and comforted her by patting her. He had said he had a younger sibling with a fairly large age gap, and he was skilled at soothing her.
“Mother, sniffle, why is she sick? Is it because of me?”
“There’s no way. It’s not your fault. You see that priest over there, right? He came to heal her, so don’t worry, and let’s wait quietly.”
Gerard lifted the child in his arms high and gave us a look.
“I’ll take care of her.”
While Gerard volunteered to be the babysitter, Elonen and the rest of the party opened the door of the old house.
“The house is too narrow, isn’t it? We won’t all be able to fit.”
Kyle, who had been about to enter first, looked inside the room from the entrance and stepped back.
“I think I should wait outside. While I’m waiting, I’ll look for a way to repair that part of the ceiling where water is leaking.”
“Kakaros will help.”
Perhaps displeased by the stench coming from inside the house, Kakaros readily followed Kyle while wrinkling his nose.
“Then I’ll show you where the materials for repairing the roof are, so Lysian, you help Elonen.”
Even Sal followed Kyle. In the end, only Elonen and I were left.
“Lysian, you don’t have to stay either. You can go take care of your own business.”
Elonen lightly tapped his own chest as if telling me to leave it to him. But I didn’t have anything else to do, and Macy was on my mind, so I didn’t want to leave.
“I don’t know if I’ll be of any help, but I want to do something too.”
Perhaps he hadn’t expected me to say I would help, because his eyes widened. But he soon smiled faintly and nodded.
“Is that so? If you help, I’d be grateful. Then let’s go inside together.”
Elonen carefully approached the bed and examined Macy’s condition. I saw Macy, who had been sleeping, lift her heavy eyelids at the presence of a stranger.
“Who, ah, you’re the person from earlier…”
Macy flinched in surprise when she saw the unfamiliar Elonen, then looked relieved when she recognized me standing behind him.
“I brought a priest who will help with your treatment.”
“Goodness, how can I thank you? I’d like to get up and greet you…”
When Macy tried to raise herself with difficulty, Elonen was startled and gently pressed her shoulders down onto the bed without hurting her.
“It’s alright. I came because I thought there might be something I could do to help you.”
“Thank you so much. But my daughter… where is Bessie right now?”
Even while coughing repeatedly, Macy seemed worried about her daughter.
“Don’t worry about Bessie. My companion is taking care of her safely. For now, focus on your treatment.”
I copied what Sal had done earlier and placed the kettle over the fireplace. There wasn’t anything in particular I could do to help Elonen, so I was going to at least prepare some tea.
I wanted to give a cup to Elonen, who had hurried here from the monastery, and I thought warm tea would help the patient too.
“I heard you entered the Land of the Dead. How long did you stay there?”
Macy had been staring blankly at me as I took out an old teacup, but she flinched in surprise and looked up at Elonen.
“That… I wasn’t there for long…”
“If you want me to heal you, you must not lie. You need to tell me exactly what really happened.”
Elonen, who usually had a soft and gentle attitude, was firm and resolute when doing his work. I admired that inwardly because it was impressive.
“That… I didn’t keep track of the time, but I went in around noon and stayed until the sun set. Still, I didn’t go near the dangerous central area and only went around the outskirts.”
“You were exposed for longer than I expected. Then when did you go to the Land of the Dead, and when did the symptoms begin?”
“I went there two days ago, and the symptoms started yesterday evening. At first, I thought I was just a little tired, then I thought it might be a cold. But when I woke up this morning, the bed was covered in blood, and I couldn’t put any strength into my body.”
Macy was coughing so badly that even saying just a few sentences seemed difficult for her.
“Thank you for telling me honestly. I promise I’ll do whatever I can to help you.”
As Elonen spoke, I heard the kettle boiling vigorously. I quickly turned around, picked up the kettle hanging over the fireplace, and poured it into the teacup.
I took out the unidentified tea leaves on the table, put them into the teacup, and brought it to Elonen, only to see that Macy had already fallen asleep.
