Translator: Nox

Chapter 17

I Will Save My Father

I Will Save My Father, Episode 18

Episode 18

8. Moonflower Inn

Upon hearing the name ‘Moonflower Inn,’ my other self remembered where she had seen the woman’s face before.

It happened when my other self was twenty years old.

• Sherry, did you see this newspaper article?

• You’re always the first to read the morning paper, My Lady. How would I know? What is it about?

• The owner of the Moonflower Inn was seriously injured while trying to save a child from a carriage accident. For a commoner to have their photo published in an article, the injury must be quite severe. Do we have any of this month’s allowance left?

• You’re asking so you can send another anonymous donation, aren’t you? Yes, there’s still some left. Our mistress of Pebble House is so selfless, after all.

I lightly tugged at Dad’s pants. Dad patted my head and then flicked his thumb against his ring finger. This was another one of our secret codes.

Flicking the middle finger was a reminder to keep his competence a secret. Flicking the ring finger meant—.

‘Time to play along?’

Dad spoke to the despondent innkeeper.

“Now that I think about it, we had a rather poor lunch. Berry, Theon. Are you two hungry?”

“I’m fi—”

“Yes! I’m hungry!”

I didn’t recall lunch being poor, but I raised my hand and agreed with Dad’s question anyway.

“There you have it. Is there a restaurant at the Moonflower Inn? We were looking for a place to eat.”

“Pardon…?”

“We might happen to run into a sick child while we’re dining.”

Since we couldn’t visit the inn specifically for Anne’s sick brother, he was saying we would visit under the pretext of having a meal.

The woman’s eyes welled with tears. It seemed she understood what Dad meant.

“Of course, of course…! Our place is a local favorite. Please, come in.”

---

On the first floor of the Moonflower Inn.

Raytan looked down at the young boy shivering on the bed. The child, younger than Berry, was small in stature.

After staring at the boy’s condition for a moment, Berry said she would wait outside.

Perhaps the sight brought back memories of when she was sick.

“…….”

Raytan spoke to the innkeeper standing nearby.

“You said the medicine prescribed by the doctor hasn’t worked?”

“He’s only gotten worse. They say the biggest problem is his low body temperature. Even now, if you touch him, his skin is as cold as a winter wind. Someone who lived nearby said the medicine he used to take worked, but…”

“I wonder if the prescription is still at Anne’s house.”

“Ah, it might be. I heard their belongings are still there.”

At Raytan’s words, the innkeeper’s face brightened.

Since the knights had thrown the children out with nothing but the clothes on their backs, there was a chance the prescription remained somewhere in the empty house.

“I’ll have someone look for it and bring it here. In the meantime, I’ll send another doctor to examine him. Use this to cover the costs.”

“This much?”

The innkeeper’s eyes widened at the seven gold coins Raytan handed over. A single gold coin was worth one million Kona.

“The medicine won’t even cost the price of one gold coin.”

“Then use the rest for lodging fees.”

Raytan turned his gaze back to the child as if he had nothing more to say about the money.

The sight of a young child moaning in pain on a bed was not a distant matter to Raytan.

The same was true for Theon, who stood beside him.

“…….”

Theon had been standing silently by Raytan’s side, staring at the bed.

“Mother!”

It had been under the midsummer sun. His mother had suddenly collapsed one day and remained bedridden for months.

Every time he saw his mother growing weaker and thinner, Theon feared she would leave him forever. But he never let it show.

He was eight years old. Theon practiced his swordsmanship alone, helped his grandparents with their work whenever he could, and spent every other moment guarding his mother’s side.

Then, one day.

“Oh, child. Just a little… Just hold on a little longer…”

“Honey! The doctor is here!”

It was during the brief moment his grandparents had stepped away to greet the doctor.

His mother, who had been groaning as if her breath might fail at any moment, tightly gripped his hand.

It was a strength so great he couldn’t believe it came from someone on the verge of death.

“Theon, I have something to tell you.”

Wheeze. Wheeze.

Every time his mother spoke, she suffered as if a blade were scraping the walls of her throat. The sound of her wheezing breath felt like it was scraping against Theon’s eardrums as well.

Theon begged her to stop talking, but she handed him a small pocket watch and continued.

“It’s your father’s possession, something I found a long time ago. Until you can stand before your father on your own, do not let anyone find it.”

His father. He had so many questions. But those were his mother’s final words.

“Heugh… huff…”

A ragged breath burst from the mouth of Anne’s suffering brother. It sounded just like his mother’s breath.

Noticing the subtle change in Theon, Raytan sent the boy outside.

“Go and stay with Berry.”

“…Yes, sir.”

Theon walked out of the room.

Sniffle.

Theon lightly touched the tip of his nose and pressed his palms against his eyelids. Good. The tears stayed back.

As he looked around for Berry, who was somewhere in the inn, one of the knights guarding the hallway spoke to him.

“Theon, are you looking for Lady Berry?”

“Yes. Where is she?”

“Behind the inn. She’s playing house back there with the others.”

Playing house? Theon tilted his head in confusion and walked in the direction the knight had indicated.

Berry was seven, but he didn’t think she was the type to play such games without a reason.

In Theon’s eyes, Berry was childlike yet mature, and at times she gave off the impression that she knew far more than he did.

The idea of such a girl playing house was hard to imagine.

“Berry.”

In the backyard, Berry was grinding something with a mortar and pestle. Berry, who had been chatting with the knights, looked up at Theon’s call and gave a bright smile.

There must be a reason for this.

Theon felt certain as he saw Berry’s characteristic bright and mischievous expression. It was a conviction based entirely on intuition without a clear reason, but Theon knew his intuition was usually quite good.

“The Master told me to stay with you.”

Theon quietly took a seat beside Berry. Being with Berry made him feel at ease.

He felt similarly when he was with Raytan, but since Raytan was his teacher and a legendary figure who had reached the heights of a Grand Master, it was impossible not to feel some tension.

To be honest, he still didn’t know why Raytan had accepted him as a disciple. He had asked the reason when they began training this morning, but the only answer he got was a cryptic one: “I saw the wind.”

“Really? Then do you want to grind this, Theon? I’m going to go pick some more grass!”

“Okay.”

Theon obediently took the mortar Berry handed him. The scent of fresh greens and a bitter aroma from the small wooden mortar—borrowed from the inn’s kitchen—prickled his nose. It came from the grass that had been ground until the juices ran.

Berry soon returned and stuffed more leaves into the mortar. The tips of the green leaves were tinged with red.

“Please do these too.”

“What are you making?”

At Theon’s question, Berry giggled.

“Medicine.”

“Medicine?”

“Yeah. Because Anne’s brother is really sick. I’m going to make him medicine!”

“My, my, Lady Berry has such a big heart.”

The surrounding knights praised Berry, finding her adorable. They simply thought the child’s concern for the patient was precious; no one actually believed that what she was making was medicine.

Theon nodded.

“I see.”

---

‘It’s the Twenty-Month Disease.’

I knew it the moment I saw Anne’s brother.

The symptoms the innkeeper described had made me suspicious, but seeing the triangular ears twitching between his red hair confirmed it.

It was a rare disease that affected the Wolf Clan. The symptoms included parched lips that were constantly cut and bleeding from brushing against fangs, a body temperature that dropped no matter how much the surroundings were warmed, and blue bruises that repeatedly appeared and disappeared for no reason.

It was called the Twenty-Month Disease because the patient died exactly twenty months after falling ill.

‘I didn’t know her younger brother was a half-blood Wolf Clan member. Since Anne is human, do they have different parents?’

I didn’t know the circumstances, but I could see why Anne had worked as a spy under her aunt. Since this was still a rare disease with no proper cure, the best one could do was use potent medicines for each individual symptom to alleviate the suffering.

That was why the medicine was so expensive, even though the actual cure was growing all over the place.

‘If you pick it yourself, it costs 0 Kona! If you buy it at the market, it’s about 500 Kona.’

The cure for the Twenty-Month Disease was so simple it made the patients’ pain and deaths feel hollow.

If you consume the juice from the leaves of a two-year-old moonflower for five days, the symptoms disappear, and if you eat it consistently every year, it never recurs.

‘Now the problem is how to get him to take it—.’

I glanced at the knights while grinding the leaves. They were playing along because I said I was making medicine, but if I actually tried to feed it to Anne’s brother, they would surely jump in and stop me.

To them, it would look like nothing more than a child trying to feed a patient sand-rice-balls made while playing house.

‘Hmm, I guess sneaking in is the best way!’

And then my plan failed.

Now was the perfect opportunity while Dad was still eating in the dining room, but Theon refused to leave my side.

I tried everything—saying I had to go to the bathroom, or that I’d left something in the carriage. Unlike the knights who fell for those tricks, Theon acted like my shadow with an expression that said he wouldn’t budge.

“Theon, I want to be alone for a bit…”

“The Master told me to keep a close eye on you.”

No luck. I paced around the bushes where I had hidden the mortar, trying to figure out how to get it into the room where Anne’s brother was.

Since it was on the first floor, I could go through the window… Ah, my head barely even reaches the windowsill.

“Are you going to leave the medicine behind?”

“Huh?”

I whipped my head around.

“You said you were making medicine for the maid’s brother earlier.”

“Uh…”

Is he joking? I looked closely at Theon’s face, but there was no sign of a joke on that handsome face.

“Theon, do you think the medicine I made will actually work…?”

“Isn’t it made from medicinal herbs? I thought the Master ordered you to do it. Just like when you said you were hungry earlier. Because it would be awkward for the Master to do it himself.”

“Oh. Right.”

The perfect excuse had just fallen into my lap.

I lunged for Theon’s words immediately.