Chapter 164: A Patroclus Morning
“We’re exhausted today, so get some rest. We have to go back to the hospital.”
Elizabeth, after opening the door for them, left for the hospital.
One bed, one desk, one table. The room was tidy. The wooden floorboards creaked occasionally, but it was bearable.
Sue couldn’t complain, thinking about how her aunt and her family must have cleaned the entire house all night after receiving the letter about her and Acrea’s arrival.
Sue spent her time in the room, sketching formulas, and then had the stew Elizabeth had made with Lapis and Razli as the sun began to set. She had knocked on Acrea’s door, inviting him to join them, but there was no answer, he must have been asleep.
The Perlman couple returned shortly after she finished washing the dishes.
That was how her first day went.
Sue, who had thought she would fall asleep from exhaustion, woke up before sunrise. Even though she was a Byron, she was used to sleeping in the finest beds in the capital, and her back ached from the stiff wooden bed.
She tried to go back to sleep, but she couldn’t, so she went outside in her pajamas. The dawn air in Patroclus was thick with fog. But the feeling of the cool morning air slowly warming up was the same everywhere.
“Sue?”
Elizabeth, also awake early, opened the door and saw Sue sitting on a log bench outside, taking in the unfamiliar scenery.
Elizabeth wasn’t dressed for a casual stroll, she was wearing a robe over her clothes. Sue asked why, and Elizabeth explained that there was a bakery that only sold bread at this hour.
“I’ll skip the bread today, since I ran into you.”
Elizabeth sat down next to Sue, her face bright with excitement, like a young girl. Sue, seeing her face up close, was impressed.
Elizabeth’s serene eyes suited this city.
“Aunt, how did you end up living in a place like this?”
Sue blurted out the question that had come to mind. Even though the Byron family was looked down upon and mistreated in the capital, they could still afford to help her escape from this dangerous city. And Eren had actually given his siblings plenty of financial support.
“Hehe, I was frail when I was young.”
Elizabeth’s answer was unexpected.
“You were frail, Aunt?”
“Yes.”
She had never heard that before. Or maybe “Sue” or Sue had just ignored all the conversations at the dinner parties and didn’t remember.
“Maybe that’s why… I wanted to help people who were dying. And I wanted to live my own life.”
“Your own life?”
“My own life, freely.”
Her serene smile, for some reason, made her words sound melancholic. She looked up at the clear dawn sky and continued,
“But it’s dangerous here, so I want to send Lapis and Razli to the capital. He’s against it, saying it’s bad for their education.”
It was the first time Sue had heard about Elizabeth’s outlook on life. She had never known what her aunt was thinking, but she felt like she was starting to understand her today.
“How did you meet Uncle?”
“Hmm, let’s see, how did we meet…?”
Elizabeth blushed and awkwardly changed the subject, as if she was embarrassed to talk about her love story. Sue chuckled.
“I envy you, Aunt.”
“Huh? You envy me?”
Sue nodded.
“I also have a dream of living my own life, freely. But now, I’m here, the opposite of you.”
She had said it lightly, but Elizabeth didn’t seem to take it that way. She hugged Sue’s head, her eyes welling up with tears.
“My proud niece, a child of the Byron family. But before that, you’re Sue. So you deserve to live.”
***
Day 2, morning.
“Sister! Wake up!”
Sue woke up to the sound of Razli’s footsteps thundering up the stairs.
She must have fallen asleep after talking to Elizabeth.
Sue washed up with Razli and changed into the everyday clothes Elizabeth had prepared for her. She put on some light makeup and smoothed out the wrinkles on her skirt.
She had to do everything herself now, without Ten and Nine.
Sue stopped braiding her hair in front of the mirror.
‘I don’t need to… do that here.’
She untied her hair and put it up in a bun. She tied it tightly with a white ribbon and smiled, satisfied.
She took three sips of the medicine Jean had given her, and she was ready for her morning in Patroclus.
Acrea was already helping Elizabeth prepare breakfast when she went downstairs. He had also changed into comfortable clothes.
“Lady Sue, did you sleep well?”
Perlman greeted her, setting the table.
“Yes, oh, right, please speak informally to me, Uncle.”
Perlman had always used formal speech with Sue because of Eren’s pressure. But he couldn’t keep doing that now that he was using informal speech with Acrea.
“Byron, good morning.”
Sue’s shoulders flinched at his gentle voice. She touched her neck and smiled awkwardly.
“Good morning, Master Acrea. Was everything alright?”
“Yes.”
“I see, that’s good.”
Sue, after greeting Acrea, who had messy bed hair, was reminded that she would be spending a month with this handsome man.
They had spent three days together on the train, but it hadn’t felt like living together, it had been more like living in separate spheres, not encroaching on each other’s territory.
‘From morning to night… Will it be okay?’
Now that they were here, Acrea was no longer on Sue’s watch list. No, he wasn’t even on her watch list anymore. Enzhe, Vercia, Melaine, Fritz, it was all pointless to worry about them now.
Breakfast was toast, soup, and milk. The freshly baked bread was fluffy and went well with the milk.
The Perlman family and the two volunteers.
After their first meal together, Sue and Acrea followed the Perlman couple to the hospital.
The hospital was a ten-minute walk from Perlman’s house. It was much smaller compared to the large hospitals in the capital, but it was too big to be called a small clinic in a rural village.
“We’ll be taking care of the most critical patients.”
Elizabeth explained as they entered the hospital.
“Oh my, you’re Liza’s niece! You’re so cute!”
There were about five people who seemed to be Perlman’s colleagues or assistants. They had heard about Sue and Acrea’s arrival, so they treated them casually, despite the difference in status.
“Sue, follow Liza. Woo, come with me.”
Sue obediently followed Elizabeth, as Perlman had instructed. She mainly treated patients with colds or headaches.
“You treated patients at the hospital too, Aunt?”
“Huh? You didn’t know?”
She didn’t.
Sue was quite surprised to see Elizabeth handling patients like a professional, as she had assumed that Perlman was the only one in charge of the hospital.
“There are a lot of patients when it’s monster season. Many people in Patroclus don’t know much about monsters, they set off to become hunters and end up on the verge of death. We need a lot of hands during those times.”
Most of the patients who came to Perlman’s hospital were injured while fighting monsters. As Elizabeth had said, some of them were soldiers, but there were also many who called themselves monster hunters and ran their own businesses.
It was her first day volunteering at the hospital, but Sue was busy from morning till night.
Elizabeth gave her simple errands, like fetching herbs and tools. She wasn’t very good at identifying medical tools, so she made a lot of mistakes, but luckily, she had some knowledge of herbology, so it wasn’t too difficult.
“I studied it in case I got sick.”
“Oh my…”
Sue had made up an excuse, but Elizabeth immediately understood what she meant.
“Is your… body still hurting?”
“No, it’s much better now. I haven’t had any pain since I came to Patroclus.”
“Hehe, that’s good to hear.”
The herbology she had studied so hard had been useless in healing her body, but she was glad it was useful now.
“Perlman! Perlman!”
A stranger’s voice suddenly boomed from outside Elizabeth’s examination room. The man called out Perlman’s name again, his rough voice barely suppressing a sob.
“Perlman! It’s urgent! We have a critical patient!”
Sue and Elizabeth went out to the lobby, and Perlman was already standing by the bedside, his face grim.
A man with a gaping wound across his abdomen was lying on the bed, gasping for breath. It was hard to tell, but he was wearing a soldier’s armor.
“He came into the barrier alone. It seems like he was abandoned by his comrades.”
The man who had brought the soldier explained the situation with a sorrowful look. His clothes were covered in blood.
Perlman quickly started administering first aid. He used his meager magic power to stop the bleeding and prepared herbs to minimize organ damage.
“Ugh… Ugh…”
The soldier, who had been gasping for breath, was now crying. He was on the verge of death, feeling the despair of being abandoned by his comrades and the terror of being torn apart by a monster.
“It’s okay, it’s okay.”
Perlman soothed him calmly. The soldier, receiving his meager comfort, reached out with his trembling hand.
“Doctor, I don’t want to die…”
“Don’t worry, you’ll live.”
“Ah… Thank… you…”
The soldier closed his eyes peacefully, his voice a whisper. He had been given a sleeping potion.
Elizabeth, instead of returning to her examination room, stayed by Perlman’s side, wiping the soldier’s face. Sue helped her. After the situation was stabilized, Sue was given a short break, thanks to Perlman’s consideration.