Weren’t You the One Who Was Dying? – Chapter 35

Author: Asternkm

It’s bothering you.

Ariel nodded, putting on a deliberately understanding expression.

“What do you want to do when we get back?”

“There’s too much I have to do to think about what I want to do.”

“Come to think of it, there’s a performance at the Ellot Theater the day after tomorrow. It’s a pretty famous play—people say it’s really good. It just came to mind.”

After saying that while looking out at the distant sea, Ariel turned back inside.

Before Ehit could even ask why she suddenly brought up a performance, she had already slipped back into the crowd of subordinates. Inside, he could see Dellers saying something to Ariel as she returned.

A performance?

Ehit had never gone out of his way to see a show on his own. Unless it was a gathering done in the name of so-called “socializing,” for the sake of shallow refinement.

Reaching for the glass of water Ariel had handed him, Ehit instead twisted his wrist and picked up a wine glass. It was strong liquor, but he drained it in one go.

Leaning against the railing, the wind brushed through the gap in his collar.

There had been several updates about the estate sent by telegram—what kind of trouble his younger sibling had caused, how many new servants had been hired.

Ah, there was also a message from the duke. His mother was returning from a long trip to the south and wanted him to come up for a meal.

Ehit shook off his thoughts.

There was no point worrying yet. Until the morning they arrived in Bellachen, none of it was within his immediate control anyway.

Maybe he should just try to sleep. Lie down on the cabin sofa and——.

‘Did you maybe want to kiss me?’

Ehit, who had been closing his eyes, snapped them open.

Why did that suddenly come to mind?

The moment he thought about lying down, the scenes from that day came back as if struck by lightning.

Dapflen’s expression as she slightly narrowed her eyes while saying those words, the color of her lips his gaze had been drawn to at that moment—everything.

Ehit turned away from the deck. After setting the glass down on the table, he quickened his steps toward the cabin.

“Colonel! Are you going to sleep?”

Mendel and Belize called out from afar. He answered with a brief wave of his hand and, the moment he entered the dark cabin, closed his eyes again.

“This is insane.”

The fatigue that had built up over several days had clearly messed with his head. He needed to sleep before things got any worse.

****

“Thank you so much, Healer!”

“No, I should be the one thanking you!”

Arkan, an island about five hours west of Bellachen.

A village surrounded by mountains at the back and facing the sea at the front—a perfect example of a place backed by mountains and facing water.

However, because it was far from major cities and only accessible by boat, medical staff were not well supplied.

‘Whew, for one day of work, this was actually pretty good. If only the travel time were shorter, I’d come a few more times.’

After counting the wages I’d earned for the day, I tightened the bag holding the money and boarded the ship.

Boooo— With the sound of the ship’s horn, the vessel departed Arkan.

I was on my way back after finishing a traveling medical visit. What I needed most right now, no matter how I thought about it, was money. In the end, it always came down to money.

At first, I thought things might turn out fine if I just kept my brothers in line. I wondered if I really needed to go so far as to push for a broken engagement—maybe it would be okay if I just stopped them.

But after going through a series of chaotic events, I came to a conclusion.

I couldn’t entrust my lifeline to such hopeful expectations.

‘In other words, I can’t put my life in the hands of brothers who’ve already stabbed me in the back more than once.’

To do that, I needed money first.

It might be a rule the temple made to make money, but breaking off a temple-recognized engagement required paying a huge penalty.

‘Even if I add together all the money I saved, the loan I took by scraping together my soul, and several months’ worth of future salary, it’s still not enough.’

The conclusion was simple: I needed a second job.

Since Ehit had gone on an expedition and the person who’d been bothering me nonstop for days was gone, I immediately spread out the newspapers.

I was now going around checking every single high-paying day-job posting, even if they were hard to get to.

Today was the day I finished my third traveling clinic in a different city.

Doing my regular hospital work and then taking on side jobs after hours or on days off was exhausting.

But what choice did I have? Feeling like I was dying was still better than actually dying.

‘Why does my skin look so bad?’

After sailing for about three hours, the ship arrived at Aisha, a transfer point. After waiting another full thirty minutes there, I boarded a large train.

The night train, called “Betty,” had a wide range of cars, from first class to standing room.

Even though it was a night train, rooms where you could lie down properly were far too expensive, so I’d booked a seat instead.

‘I’m exhausted.’

My face reflected in the black night outside the window. I tilted my head this way and that, even glanced at the back of my head once, then leaned against the seat.

Instead of telling Ehit to sleep, I should be sleeping myself.

‘I’ve got another traveling clinic starting tomorrow morning, so I can’t sleep long—but even an hour would be good. I’m so sleepy I can’t take it anym—’

Bang!

At that moment, a loud crash rang out and the train shook violently.

My forehead slammed straight into the wall in front of me.

‘Ugh, what was that?’

Before I could even adjust to the pain, the train tilted sharply.

Before my thoughts could catch up to what was happening, the train slammed into the ground, rolled several times, and only came to a stop after a series of loud crashes.

It had derailed.

Pssss— The train stood still in the middle of a silent field, with absolutely nothing around. Not even a clock tower from a building was in sight.

“…….”

As I staggered to my feet, I heard railway staff moving through the slightly tilted cars, reassuring passengers.

After blankly looking around for a moment, I sat down heavily in my seat, pressing my palm to my bleeding forehead.

‘What did I ever do to deserve this?’

Was this the so-called “price of altering the original story” I’d only seen in novels?

If someone asked me whether this world was kind to me, I’d swear at them with every curse word I knew. Just trying to survive meant paying such a heavy price for changing the story.

This world was, without a doubt, brutally harsh.

****

“I’m very sorry. It will take about… a day to repair the train.”

At the engineer’s words, complaints rose from all around.

He explained that only two trains ran on this line, and the other one was currently coming from the far end of the empire—so even waiting for it would take a full day.

A day? I let out a stunned sigh without meaning to.

Thankfully, I wasn’t scheduled to work at the hospital tomorrow, but I’d already lined up several side jobs for that day.

‘And all I can do is sigh.’

It was beyond frustrating.

For the next few hours, time actually passed fairly quickly. Walking around the train all day helping people who needed treatment made three or four hours fly by.

Only after dawn broke did I finally sit down in the field to rest for a bit.

Between the long folds of my skirt, I could see my legs, swollen from walking around all day.

‘I don’t have time to be sitting like this.’

I muttered while watching a bird peck at feed in front of me.

“Seriously, how can someone be this unlucky?”

The bird just chirped and tilted its head to the side.

After moving nonstop all day, sitting still made all kinds of thoughts rise and fade in my mind.

When would I get a reply to the thirty-third telegram I’d sent to Enric? When would my third brother, Adlen—currently on a business trip to the eastern empire—come back? Had he already caused some kind of trouble?

Beyond the field, I could see the sea. I stared blankly at the low-rising sun scattering light across the water.

Thinking about it, over the past few days, I’d found myself looking toward the sea quite often.

Partly because I lived in a coastal city where the sea was always in view—but there was another reason too.

‘When is Ehit coming back?’

It was only natural to be curious. Ehit was basically the starting point and root cause of everything, and once he returned, more annoying things were bound to happen.

‘Dellers said it would take a full ten days. I wonder if his injury’s gotten better. What if it got worse?’

Come to think of it, it had almost been ten days already. Had he already returned to Bellachen?

He’d said he wouldn’t monitor me anymore, but after days of him following me around, I’d somehow gotten used to it.

Strangely enough, when I imagined being in Bellachen, it felt like he’d pop up out of nowhere and interfere with me.

‘Walk this way. Not like that.’

Grabbing my arm and pulling me along as he said it.

‘A traveling clinic? I’ll go with you. I want to see how capable you are.’

Walking beside me on the way to the train, saying things like that.

And then——.

‘Did you want to kiss me?’

My face suddenly burned.

That definitely wasn’t the kind of situation it had been! He’d just been acting irritating—clearly.