Chapter 244
“What I’m saying is that we should bring another physician from the capital, not just pray. There’s been no improvement, hasn’t there?”
“That is not for you to decide. Please remember that your duty is to guard the young lady,”
Only then did Giorno fall silent. Roseline felt uneasy, as if the commotion was her fault. Under the circumstances, anyone might have considered going another time, but a powerful intuition pushed her forward, insisting she had to go to the temple.
However, she found no answers at the temple. It might have been because, unlike in the Elgran chapel, she asked questions without offering information, but the priest here seemed to know nothing about regression from the start. When she asked, ‘What is regression?’ he just chuckled and gave a joking answer about accumulating virtue to clear one’s karma. Roseline herself was far from virtuous, and so was Valen. What on earth is it?
After leaving the confessional, Roseline offered a prayer with the knights clustered closely around her. While the knights, with their hands clasped, prayed fervently with their eyes tightly shut, Giorno sat on a bench opposite, clicking his tongue.
Edan looked like he wanted to say something, but Roseline stopped him. Thinking it better to just head back, they were leaving the temple when an old man passing by on the street grabbed Roseline’s attention.
The shabbily dressed old man was struggling to walk, carrying a large box and a basket full of medicinal herbs under his arm.
But perhaps because the world had become a harsh place, no one was helping him. Strictly speaking, Roseline wasn’t in a position to help anyone either. With an unconscious patient waiting for her, she lacked the capacity to help even if she wanted to. Surely someone will help him.
“Where are you headed, ugh…!”
That’s what she thought, but her meddlesome nature was the problem. Roseline strode over to the old man and took his load, but—good grief! It was so heavy her back automatically buckled. Did he put rocks in here?
“Please, I’ll carry th—!” Edan, who had followed, quickly took the box but seemed taken aback by its weight, trailing off mid-sentence. A vein bulged on his forehead.
“Oh, oh my. Why are such esteemed people doing this kind of work…?”
As the young lady, who looked like a noble, and the knights swarmed around him, the old man hunched his small shoulders. But he didn’t refuse. Instead, he muttered to himself, “It must be too heavy for you to carry alone…,” while glancing pointedly at Giorno.
“How heavy can it be? Are you a man or not, if you can’t even carry this? Carry it properly,” Giorno said, giving Edan a hard slap on the back. Edan staggered momentarily and turned a fierce glare towards Giorno.
“You try carrying it, Sir,”
Edan thrust the box toward Giorno. Giorno shook his head as if it was pathetic, tilted his chin up arrogantly, and reached out his hands. The moment the unnervingly heavy box, its contents unknown, was placed into Giorno’s hands—
“Ugh!”
A short cry burst from Giorno’s lips, just as it had from Roseline’s. His arms trembled violently, and his face grew increasingly red.
“Well, you’re a man too, Sir, so I’m sure you can carry it just fine. Please lead the way,”
Edan said, flashing a bright smile and brushing off his hands with a relieved air. The old man also bowed his head deeply and started walking ahead, saying his house was nearby. Roseline wanted to help, but Edan, who still seemed to hold a grudge against Giorno from earlier, politely blocked her way. Giorno’s ragged breaths and muttered curses followed them with every step.
Moreover, contrary to the old man’s claim that it was close, his house was quite far. They left the square lined with uniform buildings, reached the outskirts of the village, but that wasn’t the end. They passed grain warehouses and a mill, and only after entering the edge of the woods did a small hut finally appear.
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