Chapter 63

Translator – Liliphe

Fortunately, Annette’s tardiness did not seem to have any adverse effect on Eucaly’s desire to work. Eucaly nodded her head and began to tell about her work experience by taking out some documents from her arms.

“I have completed a nine-year medical academy course in the Kingdom of Provatte. Here, I have also brought a recommendation letter from my supervisor and also one from the former president of the Royal Hospital. I’ve specialized in the field of chronic diseases and diseases related to women….”

Unlike her appearance, Eucaly’s tone, which had a Provatte accent, was a little stiff. Perhaps that’s why her self-introduction made Annette feel as if a teacher was giving a lecture to the student. Annette, who already knew about all this, listened while pretending to be interested in Eucaly’s career. She didn’t want to make it obvious that she had gone back in time and knew everything here. Thanks to this, Eucaly finished her self-introduction without any problems.

“I heard it well. You’ve had an impressive career experience, Miss Kayun. I think you’re as competent as I’ve heard.”

Annette smiled as she presented the letter of introduction she received from her former practitioner. That gentleman was a timid person, who was particularly afraid of Raphael. So he introduced Eucaly instead and ran away so that he would never be called to the Carnesis Mansion again. “Madam you must hire Eucaly!” Annette smiled as she recalled the desperate appeal of the practitioner to hire Eucaly.

“Well, madam. Then, whether I’m hired or not….”

Seeing Annette become silent for a moment, Eucaly’s expression became a little darker. She was worried that she might have given Annette a bad impression. Annette liked Eucaly’s such clumsy appearance. She was older than herself, but somehow her naive and clumsy actions made Annette want to take care of her.

‘You took good care of me in my past life.’

Annette in her previous life was very sensitive because of her long illness. Having a weak body was scary. Even healthy people become crazy if they have to lie down on a hospital bed every day. Annette cried, vomited, and desperately clung to Eucaly whenever she was seriously ill. Now that she thought about it, she felt sorry towards her.

Annette was so lonely in her previous life. She was abandoned by her father and her brother, Arjen and her sister-in-law, Claire were in an empire too far away. On top of that, she also had a bad relationship with her husband, Raphael. So, the only person on whom she could rely was Eucaly. Perhaps it was quite a burdensome situation for Eucaly as her doctor.

Nevertheless, Eucaly patiently took good care of her. Because of that, Annette’s condition also somewhat stabilized. She was also able to reconcile with Raphael, who came to check on her condition.

‘That’s when he started nursing me.’

At first, Raphael went outside leaving her completely to Eucaly’s care. It was expected since their relationship was so bad.

But one day, when Annette was on the brink of death, Raphael, who had come to check Annette’s condition for the first time in a while, looked very shocked. He had thought she was doing fine as usual with her treatment, but Annette’s condition was far worse than he thought.

After that Raphael always stayed by her side. Later, he took care of Annette’s every need on behalf of Eucaly and managed her medication and treatment. Even though he always fought with her, he seemed to be bothered by her death. Thanks to him, she wasn’t able to bother Eucaly till the time of her death.

‘Raphael looks violent, but he’s actually sweet.’

Annette laughed as she recalled Raphael’s sleeping figure lying on her bed like a lazy lion. In order not to waste her second life as before, Annette’s priority now was to take care of her health. To do so, she was trying to sleep more than before and take as little stress as possible. This was why she had hired a doctor to carefully take care of her health.

Annette, who had made up her mind, smiled warmly at Eucaly.

“Welcome to the Carnesis family, Miss Kayun.”

At those words, Eucaly, who hadn’t met Annette’s eyes until now, raised her head for the first time. The dark expression on her face had now slightly brightened. As she stood stupefied in a place, Eucaly took a deep breath, and then bowed her head to Annette.

“Thank you, madam. Please call me Eucaly.”

“All right, Miss Eucaly. I look forward to your kind cooperation.”

Annette smiled at the look on Eucaly’s face, which looked much better than before. She was in desperate need of a job because she was far away from her hometown and didn’t have a place to stay. Now that she was hired as a physician of an aristocratic family, no wonder she was so relieved.

Annette was going to leave after clearing herself of her false charges. However, even after that, Eucaly would still be able to work here. Aristocratic families seldom kicked out a doctor who was hired by them once. In addition, because of Raphael’s personality and excellent health, he wouldn’t even remember that he had a doctor in his mansion. Annette was pleased to be able to help Eucaly like this. She owed a lot to her in her past life.

‘But in this life, I’ll try to be less indebted to Eucaly.’

Not only with Eucaly, but she also wanted to do the same with Raphael. There’s no way he would take care of her in this life, but again, she couldn’t say for sure. In her previous life, she was really amazed to see him nurse her from her illness even though he had a terrible temper.

Of course, Raphael’s care didn’t always go smoothly. There was too much of a rift between the couple to do that. While nursing, Raphael often got angry at Annette’s nervous responses and ran out of the room in a fit of rage. But he always returned to Annette within half a day.

Then he boiled the soup he had thrown away and scooped it to feed her. He also changed the sheets and helped Annette up, as her condition didn’t even allow her to get up. At the last moment of her death, he even….

‘Did he cry for me? I don’t remember very well.’

Annette remembered the moment when death loomed over her body. At first, her vision flashed and became dark and then her hearing ceased. She was very scared and started panicking. She tried to move her hands, but her arms and legs had already been paralyzed. And a cold numbness, that one felt when their skin was pressed against ice for a long time, slowly overtook her whole body. That was the feeling of death that Annette remembered.

Her sight was the first thing that disappeared, so Annette couldn’t see Raphael’s face at that time. However, she remembered seeing his contorting face in her blurred vision as if he was going to cry. She didn’t want to make Raphael look like that again. For that, it was evident what she had to do.

“Then Miss Eucaly, would you like to have a meal together to celebrate your appointment as our family doctor?”

Annette, who had woken up late, couldn’t eat anything. So she smiled while hiding her growling stomach. Her tone asking her employee was unbelievably sweet. Of course, Eucaly agreed.

* * *

The long-awaited day had finally come. The fall harvest festival hosted by the temple of Odessa Louis had begun. In words, it was just a ritual, but actually, it was celebrated like a festival in the temple. On this day, everyone, regardless of age or gender, visited the temple to relish the delicious sheep’s milk cheese, and wine.

Thanks to this, all of the nobles living near the capital of Deltium, the bourgeoisie, and the commoners, all headed for the Odessa Louis’ temple. Even Celestine Keers, who will soon become the Crown Princess, would also attend. Annette was also going to do the same, but her way of visiting the temple was a little different.

“Let’s see, the Western Tomb is probably around here…….”

Annette headed to the cemetery of the temple of Odessa Louis, referring to the map that Railin had sent in advance. She had to climb a mountain a bit to avoid other people’s eyes, but it was fine as she had safely reached without getting sick or sore anywhere. Thanks to this, she was able to enter the cemetery without being seen by anyone.

She was glad it was festival time now. Originally, no one paid attention to the cemetery on a festive day. People were instinctively reluctant to visit a cemetery on a joyous day, for fear of attracting bad luck. Thanks to this, Annette was able to look around the cemetery where even a single ant couldn’t be seen.

The place she had promised to meet with Railin was the western tomb, but it was not easy to find the way because the cemetery was very large. Annette, who was struggling to find the way, raised her ears. She could hear the loud voices coming from the distant temple. Everyone seemed drunk after drinking a lot of wine, that was made in the temple. No one would notice Annette in such a busy atmosphere.

‘As expected, Sir Railin is so amazing. I think we’ll successfully infiltrate the temple today.’

Annette was a little relieved. She was very nervous ahead of the big event. Since her return, Annette had continuously faced huge challenges that she could not even imagine before. Annette felt both unfamiliar and amazed at herself. She never thought people could change 180 degrees for their survival.

Fortunately, Annette was soon able to find the Western Tomb, the place of her appointment. At first, she thought things had gone wrong because she went to the wrong tomb in the east. She was scared when she saw no presence of either Railin or the new priest’s clothes that he was supposed to prepare. It was fortunate that the priests had kindly embossed “East” on the floor of the cemetery.

‘Those who are closest to God, how considerate of you.’

Annette was deeply impressed. Although she first attended this temple for Celestine, she wasn’t exactly a believer, but she decided to believe in the goddess Odessa. Anyway, after finding the right path, Annette looked around and entered the western part of the cemetery carefully.

“……Is this the right place?”

As she opened the heavy stone door and entered, she could see the “West” mark embossed on the floor.

‘I think I’ve come to the right place.’

A light breeze from the dusty cemetery brushed against the tip of her nose. Even in broad daylight, the room was quite dark with grey tones all over it, giving off a gloomy atmosphere. The only sound one could hear inside the building built for the dead was the sound of Annette’s footsteps.

Annette looked around, but couldn’t find Railin. Instead, the statue standing in the center of the tomb seemed to stare down at her. Maybe because it was dark and she couldn’t see its face well, the statue felt even more dismal.

Knowing that she was doing ‘bad things’, Annette trembled unknowingly. She closed her eyes and clasped her hands in a prayer before the statue.

‘I’m sorry, goddess Odessa. I’ll leave right away after meeting Celestine Keers.’

Just at that moment, the statue standing in front of Annette’s eyes suddenly reached out and grabbed her shoulder.