The dinner delivered to the guest room was not bad. Except for the excessive amount of meat on each plate, it was a diet that was no different from what was served at the Duke’s.
After finishing the meal quickly, I told Diel to rest first and briskly left the room. It’s a warm spring, but I didn’t forget to wear the shawl I brought.
I was walking along the trail that followed toward the back gate and as expected, I found Elder Felix walking slowly with a cane.
“You’re….”
“Elder.”
I smiled and approached Elder Felix.
“Is the Lord out for a walk?”
“······.”
“Let me assist you.”
Before Elder Felix could say anything, I ran and held onto his right arm.
I wrapped him with the shawl that I brought. Even in the middle of spring, it was good to keep the body warm in the evening.
“Let me know if you feel stuffy.”
Viscount Ferelmen and Dame Seirin were similar, but Elder Felix was also tall. I’m on the short side, so I practically had to link my arms with him to support him.
“…Did you wait for me on purpose?”
“Yes.”
I don’t want to lie about running into each other, so I answered without hesitation.
“The Viscount’s mansion is notably beautiful and gorgeous, the trail is also paved with marble. Above all that, it was also filled with unique ornamental plants.”
I continued, skillfully adjusting my steps to a slow stride. The only dirt road in this mansion was a short road leading to the rear gate.
“People with Enabe Arthritis should walk on dirt roads a lot.”
Elder Felix looked at me with a startled face.
“How can you….”
“I knew that the components of the tea that the maid served in the parlor earlier were leaves of lilac flowers. As expected, it was sensibly prescribed by Viscount Ferelmen.”
“You knew the ingredients just by drinking?”
“A good doctor should know that much.”
I spoke as if it were nothing.
As far as I asked Diel, Elder Felix was not a doctor.
However, I knew that he was dealing with medicinal herbs, so he would have a deep understanding of medicinal herbs and tea.
“And there’s a lot of meat on the dinner menu, which is also a typical diet for Enabe Arthritis patients.”
Enabe Arthritis is a fairly rare disease but it seemed that Viscount Ferelmen had diagnosed his father’s condition flawlessly.
“Besides… I noticed it when I saw Dame Seirin supporting you… But that method of supporting should be uncomfortable by now, why aren’t you saying anything?”
“How did you know that?”
Elder Felix frowned and asked.
“Even Seirin hasn’t noticed.”
“Because I’m a doctor. I can know with a glance while watching the Elder walking.”
“My doctor had no idea.”
I asked with a tilt of my head.
“If Viscount Ferelmen had seen it, he would have noticed it at once. He’s not stopping by his own house?”
“…Does he have any leeway to stop by here now?”
“But….”
“If he didn’t take it upon himself to look for his daughter personally, he would have gone crazy when Zion died.”
“He’s still not normal even now.”
“That’s why I’m more worried. It’s kind of quirky, but I think of it as one way of going crazy.”
“I see….”
My support was comfortable, and Elder Felix didn’t shake off my arm.
“That should be the reason why the prescription seems to be a little outdated now.”
The initial prescription for Enabe Arthritis was simple. Eat meat, don’t walk in the sun, and drink lilac flower leaves from time to time.
However, if older age and complications occur, the symptoms will stand out and worsen. His son must have told the Elder’s primary doctor, but he seemed to be unable to grasp it properly because it was a very difficult disease.
In addition, Elder Felix was not telling the people around him that the disease was getting worse.
I could tell by the way Dame Seirin helped to support him.
“Tell your doctor that before you go to bed, he should give you a 3:1 mix of Centenarians and Kaizepul roots.”
Seeing his stubborn mouth, I sighed and added.
“Or I’ll tell him in person tomorrow if you let me see your doctor.”
“…It’s ok, there’s no need.”
The dirt road leading to the back gate was not long. However, Enabe Arthritis prescription recommends walking on dirt roads for at least 30 minutes every day. So we had to go around the same road a few times.
“Elder, maybe… Is there a reason you don’t clean up all those marble roads?”
I asked with a tilt of my head.
“If not, there could be a lot of places you can walk to even without densely planted ornamental trees.”
The luxurious garden was naturally beautiful. However, it was the worst for a patient with Enabe Arthritis to take a walk on. A solid and slippery marble road was the opposite of a dirt road.
Felix answered my question curtly while still keeping a quiet tone.
“That ornamental tree was planted by Zion herself.”
If it was Zion, it was the wife of Viscount Ferelmen, who had returned as a corpse.
“When she first came to the mansion, she constantly missed her hometown, Laverie Island, so I brought saplings from there, and she was jolly excited for a few days.”
Elder Felix’s eyes filled with longing.
“It was so simple a thing to do, I thought it less than a chore, but she thanked me how many times a day.”
I suddenly noticed that he really cared about his daughter-in-law.
“How can I touch this garden when that child was always flapping over the tree here and the tree over that side… The whole day is still vivid in my mind.”
How desperate his voice was that even my heart was getting depressed.
“Arga and Zion got married as soon as they reached adulthood, and they didn’t have children for two years.”
On the road covered completely by darkness, only the round moon could be seen. The long shadows, which stuck to our feet, were following us around.
A slight spring breeze blew the petals in the night sky.
I quietly assisted Elder Felix and looked at the well-managed garden in the distance.
“There is a myth in this area about couples who don’t have children for a long time.”
“What is it?”
“Make it easy for a precious child to come, oh don’t get lost, lay the most expensive marble path.”
“Ah….”
“We’ve laid marble paths on all the trails except this one where the wagons have to come and go….”
There was a sigh in Felix’s calm tone.
“And like a lie, the child came.”
I felt strangely sad and couldn’t answer. At that time, I could tell just by hearing his voice how excited and happy the mansion must have been.
“Once the child begins to walk they could fall and get hurt so I was planning to get rid of all the marble roads at that time.”
I was well aware of what happened after that.
“Now she must be big enough to walk in it.”
Zion, who went to her parent’s house, returned dead after a premature childbirth, and her daughter was missing.
“How I want for that precious child to easily find her way back here again….”
Felix looked at the moon with a sigh.
“Do not get lost in the way and come back home, where we are waiting for her….”
“······.”
“That’s why we are not getting rid of this road.”
I noticed why he didn’t tell Dame Seirin why her support was not enough anymore.
It was because in case she noticed that his condition had deteriorated, she would remove the garden and marble paths to make the walkway for him.
The worse Enabe Arthritis gets, the more the patient has to walk on dirt roads in the evening.
That’s why he wasn’t telling his doctor about it getting worse.
“Arga doesn’t have to stop by, even if for a few years.”
I felt like I was being choked up for some reason. The desperation of waiting for his granddaughter, and even relying on superstition was strongly felt.
“If I could see my granddaughter just once, I could close my eyes comfortably.”
“······.”
“They said she has blonde hair, green eyes, and looks a lot like Zion… She’s probably very smart, so she’ll definitely come to find us. Because Zion was extremely confident and snappy.”
“Yes. I think so, too.”
I clasped his arms more tightly and nodded.
“I recently developed a simple way to do paternity tests.”
For some reason, I held back my tears and spoke bravely.
“I’m going to show it to Viscount Ferelmen when he comes back from the North.”
I wasn’t this kind of person by nature, but I felt like I had to do a bright and cheerful voice.
“It’s a way of using dragon claws… Which can dramatically reduce the testing period.”
“You’ve developed that?”
“Yes. Well, it’s for Viscount Ferelmen, but it’s also for me because I’m from an orphanage.”
Once again, we went around the same road and continued.
“I want to find my parents, too.”
“······.”
“Whether they have abandoned me or lost me, I’d like to meet them for now. I’m determined not to resent any circumstances.”
The night in the unfamiliar garden was quiet, so strangely, only each other’s voices seemed to ring in the air.
“Anyway, I want to thank them for giving birth to something so pretty and smart.”
Felix’s mouth finally smiled at my casual words.
“I’ve decided I won’t care whatever the situation was like, but….”
I blinked and murmured.
“The truth is, I want my parents to wait for me like this, laying out a marble path. If so, I think I would be thrilled beyond comparison.”
“…Is that so?”
“Yes. To be honest, I was going to talk to Dame Seirin or your doctor and advise them to change the garden but….”
Looking at Felix’s wrinkled eyes, I smiled slightly.
“I’m sure you’re going to find her and convey your belated feelings by showing all of this. So I’m going to keep your secret.”
“Hmm, hmm.”
“I won’t tell your doctor about the pills that I prescribed earlier, but I’ll make them in the Duchy and send it to you, so take it regularly.”
“…Won’t it be too much trouble.”
“Of course it’s troublesome. So you have to live long. Until you find your granddaughter.”
I took a walk with Elder Felix for quite a long time that night.
I’m a little busy at the moment, but I promised to come once in a while after the banquet was over.
Anyway, his son is my godfather and I’m sure I can take care of his father from time to time instead of my absent-minded godfather.
“Hmm, Hum.”
By the time it was time to get inside, Elder Felix looked away and said.
“Heat trackers are difficult to use. If you do something wrong, it can explode and you can get seriously hurt.”
“Don’t worry about that.”
“Well.”
When I answered confidently, he murmured.
“I’ve walked so long and I’m not tired at all. It’s probably because you’re a good helper.”
“Yes, that’s right. I’m very meticulous in many ways.”
“My son is so stubborn that I thought he wouldn’t have an assistant for a long time.”
“Of course. Everyone can’t even last 2 weeks, but I’m already over 5 years in the position.”
“But what do you want to use the heat tracker for? In fact, it has a very short usage time, and it’s a disposable item with a lot of limitations.”
Elder Felix’s brown eyes looked straight at me.
“Even so, there is a considerable potential for mishandling it.”
“I won’t do anything wrong. There’s only one person I need to track down in a complex place.”
I answered without avoiding his eyes.
“I swear on my pledge as a doctor to save lives. I can’t tell you in detail, but it’s to save a lot of people.”
“Huh.”
Elder Felix clicked his tongue and smiled.
I looked at him with anticipation but he didn’t say that he would give me the personal heat tracker in the end.
“You’re going to stay until breakfast tomorrow and leave for the Duchy, right?”