Chapter 19
The young lady’s condition was getting worse by the day.
I entered the room. Normally, the young lady would have been sitting in front of the table, but I couldn’t see her.
Instead, I approached the bed, which was surrounded by layer upon layer of curtains. A faint, labored breathing sound came from inside. I lowered my voice and spoke.
“Young lady, are you awake?”
“…….”
“Are you feeling a little better? Do you think you can move?”
“…….”
“You need to take your medicine… If it’s difficult for you to move, should I come inside? I can feed it to you little by little….”
“…Give it.”
Along with a rustling sound, a small hand reached out from beyond the curtains. It was a white, emaciated hand.
Swallowing a sigh, I carefully placed the bowl of medicine into the young lady’s hand.
A short while later, the young lady held the bowl out again. It was completely empty.
“Now go.”
“Young lady, since you’re already awake, how about having some rice gruel? You need to eat well at times like this. You hardly eat anything at all…”
“Go…”
Her voice, which would normally have been cold, was strangely weak. I was about to urge her again, but eventually stopped and spoke dejectedly.
“Yes, then I’ll go out. Just in case, I’ll leave the rice gruel here on the table. If you need me to do anything else, call me anytime. I’ll be right outside the door…”
“…….”
“…Get plenty of rest, young lady.”
Click.
I closed the door and came outside. A sigh escaped me naturally.
It was hard to believe that the young lady, who had been rampaging around not long ago, could now barely even support her own body.
If there was one thing that had improved, it was that she was now taking her medicine regularly. It wasn’t because of my efforts… Rather, the medicine that hadn’t worked until now had finally begun to take effect after the medicinal ingredients were changed.
Was this proof that the knowledge from the original really was knowledge?
However, that too was only temporary. Perhaps because the medicine really was merely a “temporary measure,” its effects were extremely weak.
The pain only subsided for a brief moment after she drank the medicine. But perhaps even that was precious to her, because the young lady didn’t hesitate to take her medicine. Sometimes, she even asked for it first.
“Ah, ahk… Medicine… Quickly, quickly…”
“Yes, yes! Young lady, please wait a little! I’ll hurry and go get…”
I couldn’t tell whether it had been right or wrong for me to pass on the knowledge from the original.
The physician was puzzled as well.
“It’s definitely true that the medicine is having an effect, but something is strange.”
“What, what’s strange?”
“The energy should gradually disperse once the medicine takes effect, but there’s no sign of it dispersing. No, if anything, it seems to fill back up as soon as it looks like it has dispersed. Like a spring.”
“…….”
“I don’t know how this could be happening…”
Hearing that made me anxious.
‘What if I gave him the wrong information?’
Thinking about it, I didn’t remember everything about <The Lord of Heavenly Pillars> in detail. Naturally, my memories concerning Xiao Yanli were fragmentary as well.
What if I had remembered something incorrectly? What if I had left out something even more important…?
‘Don’t think like that.’
I vigorously shook my head, casting off the gloomy feeling that was beginning to settle over me again.
It was too early to despair. Nothing had happened yet, and perhaps the situation might improve as if by a miracle.
The Xiao Family Estate became even busier. Various goods began arriving, while unfamiliar people frequently came and went. Among the more unusual visitors was a certain monk. He looked like an ordinary monk, but apparently he was a renowned master of the martial world.
When the monk saw me, he gave me a gentle smile and pressed his palms together.
“Young benefactor, you have my admiration for all your hard work. This old monk may occasionally visit Miss Xiao’s residence, so I ask for your understanding.”
“Not at all. Please feel free to visit, Monk.”
As it turned out, the monk was someone who had been acquainted with the young lady since she was little. Since this was my first time seeing a martial arts master, I couldn’t hide my fascination.
That day was slowly approaching.
As if her seizure were truly drawing near, there were more and more days when the young lady writhed in agony, and the head of the estate frequently rushed to see her. Sometimes, he even brought the monk with him.
Then, several days later.
“Tie her up.”
The head of the estate ordered me.
“Pardon?”
I wondered if I had heard correctly. But the head of the estate merely repeated himself with a solemn expression.
“You’ve heard about Ari’s symptoms as well. Once the seizure begins, Ari’s struggling becomes violent. In severe cases, she may injure the people around her or even… tear at her own body.”
“…….”
“Bind her hands and feet firmly to the bedposts. Her movements must be restrained as much as possible.”
The young lady I saw for the first time in a while looked familiar yet unfamiliar. At last, I got to see her without her veil, wearing only a light cotton gauze over her face. But she looked even worse than I had imagined, and my chest grew heavy.
Her body was smaller and thinner than I had expected. Seeing her unconscious and sprawled across the bed, I spoke without realizing it.
“D-do we really have to go that far? She doesn’t look like she has any strength left as it is…”
“…….”
“This… tying her up like this… It’s too much like treating her as an animal. She must be suffering too, so to force her to be tied up like this….”
“Child.”
The head of the estate spoke in a low voice.
“It’s for Ari’s sake.”
“…….”
“Quickly.”
In the end, I had no choice but to tie the young lady’s wrists.
My heart was pounding.
Seeing the young lady lying there without moving, as though she were dead, made it even worse. Just like when my mother collapsed, I felt as though she might never get back up again.
When I came to my senses, I was drenched in cold sweat. My hands were trembling so badly that I couldn’t even remember how I had made it out of the room.
And that very night.
“Aaaah!”
The young lady’s seizure began.
***
“Let go of me! Let me gooo!”
“Ari, come to your senses. Pull yourself together!”
Sharp screams leaked from inside the room.
I anxiously paced around the courtyard of Sonangwon, staring at the door. The steward beside me looked anxious as well.
“Will she be all right? The young lady…”
“She’ll be all right. She’s overcome it every time.”
Only two people had entered the room at present: the head of the estate and the monk.
They said it was because having people around her could be dangerous. I understood why I couldn’t go in, but I hadn’t expected even the steward to be excluded, so I had been puzzled at first.
But that didn’t last long. As time passed, the screams coming from inside the room grew more and more desperate.
“Ahhh…… Aaaaah……!”
It sounded like sobbing, like the cry of an injured animal dying.
The more I heard it, the more agonized I became, and eventually I couldn’t stand it anymore and turned toward the steward.
“Medicine… Can’t we give her more medicine? Or maybe the Paralysis Powder you used on me last time…?”
“We’ve already tried everything. Not only the Paralysis Powder, but she even took medicine right before the seizure began, and it had no effect. This is something the young lady must endure herself.”
“What if… she can’t endure it?”
The steward looked at me with sad eyes. I could read the answer in his gaze.
The young lady would die.
Xiao Yanli would die.
My heart began pounding like crazy even though I kept telling myself it couldn’t be true.
It couldn’t happen. Hadn’t the young lady still not met the protagonist? I couldn’t remember how old she was when she met the protagonist, but she would have to be at least older than she was now.
She wouldn’t die. Nothing would happen….
Would it really?
‘I possessed this body and started interfering with the original story. I even told them the medicinal method that the protagonist was supposed to reveal several years earlier… What if the future has been brought forward?’
Then, in the end, once again….
“Gasp.”
My vision blurred.
My body staggered.
That was when it happened.
A fragmentary scene flashed before my eyes.
[“Ohh, to think I would actually see a Nine-Leaved Purple Lingzhi Herb with my own eyes in my lifetime…!”]
Inside a shabby hut sat an old man with a long white beard. He was carefully examining an herb with nine leaves.
The person sitting opposite him asked,
[“Is this really that precious?”]
[“Of course it is! To a martial artist, it may not seem particularly precious. Unlike other spiritual medicines, this herb doesn’t greatly increase one’s internal energy. But do you know why the Nine-Leaved Purple Lingzhi Herb is called a spiritual medicine?”]
[“I cannot even begin to guess. Physician Immortal, please enlighten me.”]
[“Because it helps bring harmony to the body. If there is an imbalanced energy within the body, it disperses and combines it, helping yin and yang reach equilibrium. If someone who is innately predisposed toward excessive yin or yang consumes it, they can restore their shattered balance in an instant.”]
[“…….”]
[“It also restores a body weakened by disrupted qi, so for someone with such a constitution, it is no different from a medicine of a thousand ages. So if this herb isn’t a spiritual medicine, then what is?”]
Suddenly, the old man’s voice grew faint, and I heard him ask in puzzlement.
[“So where did you get this?”]
“Why are you doing this? You’re suddenly staggering…”
“I have to go.”
“Where are you going…… Child, child!”
I began to run.
I felt as though I knew where I had to go.
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