The Lady Only Deals With the Real Ones - Chapter 178

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Beside me were Chloe and the Royal Knights of the Duchy.

The employees flinched at the knights’ intimidating presence, but I felt nothing.

The motion sickness that had worsened again from traveling through the magic circle was the same.

My stomach was churning incomparably worse than mere motion sickness could cause…

“I’m truly sorry, but visitation will be difficult.”

“What? Why? Where is there a law that prevents a guardian from meeting a patient they want to see…!”

When Chloe stepped forward, the employee looked troubled.

“Well, that’s…”

“No, look here. What are you going to do if you refuse visitation without a proper reason?”

It was when even the knights stepped forward.

I stepped ahead and bowed my head deeply.

“Please, I’m begging you.”

“…”

“It has to be today. …That’s why. Please, just once, I’m begging you, let me visit.”

The person who seemed to have the highest position among the troubled employees nodded.

“Let her in.”

“What? But!”

“This guardian just went back last time too. Let’s send her up.”

As I went up, thanking them, I could hear the employees’ voices behind me.

“But wasn’t it the VVIP patient who refused visitation? Won’t there be problems?”

“Sigh, did you see the guardian’s complexion? In principle, we should follow the patient’s wishes, but when there are serious circumstances, we can use our discretion…”

Reflecting on their words, I looked down at my bag.

Because I wanted to see Grandfather’s face.

Or rather, I came here impulsively because I felt I had to see him, but that didn’t mean I came without any plan.

The bag containing the holy power blocking magical tool, Root of Blindness extract, and mana stones was heavy. Like my heart.

Would it be effective? It had to be. If not, then I…

“We’ll guard the floor entrance in case of emergency.”

I came to my senses at the knights’ voices.

After taking a deep breath, I pushed open the door to the hospital room on the top floor.

There was.

“…Who are you.”

Grandfather was there.

I heard Chloe gasp and inhale sharply.

Grandfather spoke again.

“I asked who you are.”

I looked at Grandfather silently.

His intense and solid impression, too strong to be softened even by the wrinkles left by life’s hardships, remained the same.

The sharpness in his eyes, his tiger-like voice that echoed through the room, and his expression of slightly frowning when something displeased him were all still there.

It was the face of the Grandfather I knew.

…Except that he wouldn’t call my name.

I let out a long sigh and lifted the corners of my mouth.

“Hello. I came to do conversation volunteer work. My name is Elisha.”

Chloe looked at me in surprise, but I answered steadfastly.

“This is my friend Chloe. May we sit down?”

Grandfather’s brow furrowed smoothly.

“Does this hospital have such a program? I don’t remember requesting it.”

“I heard you have memory problems.”

“…Directly discussing a patient’s condition is taboo, but you don’t seem to know that.”

“Ah, this is my first time doing this kind of work, so I was clumsy. You seem to know well, patient. Could you teach me so I don’t make mistakes elsewhere?”

“I’ll count this as having received whatever conversation volunteer work, so go back.”

“I may look like this, but I’m someone with a thorough sense of responsibility. I’m not good at forging things, lying, and such.”

“…”

“Then excuse me.”

Sitting in the chair, I looked around.

The hospital room was empty. Where had all the photos, books, letters, and flowers I had sent gone?

Looking at the console with only a few newspapers stacked upside down, I opened my mouth.

“Have you eaten?”

“Would I have starved otherwise.”

“What did you have?”

“…Was it oatmeal.”

Grandfather liked bland oatmeal.

His eating habits were still the same.

“You seem to like it. I don’t really like oatmeal. It has no taste at all.”

“You seem picky about food. That’s why you’re so skinny.”

“Instead, I eat a lot of snacks. There’s a really nice cake shop and donut shop where I work.”

“That stuff is bad for your body. You look like you’d eat at most one or two pieces and then throw down your fork.”

“That’s unfair, it’s not to the extent of throwing it down, I just gently put it down.”

The habit of being disgusted by sweet snacks like cookies and cakes as if they were junk food was also the same.

“You don’t seem to have many visitors?”

“You said conversation volunteer or whatever, but are you trying to provoke me now?”

“It’s the result of deduction, but if you’re provoked, does that mean it’s true? Haha, it’s nothing else, but the guest slippers are stiff. Like no one has used them.”

“Good grief.”

“But you seem to prefer it that way? You dislike noisy things, right?”

“Is that also the result of deduction?”

“It’s obvious when I see there are no decorations, no books, not even a flower vase.”

The fact that the few furnishings were spotlessly clean without a speck of dust was also the same.

“…But sometimes bustling things would be nice too. I have many friends.”

“This time you’re definitely trying to provoke me.”

“Actually, I don’t know by society’s standards, but by my standards, it was many. There are friends who come with me to this kind of volunteer work… too.”

“…”

“Actually, I’m an only child, so I was used to being alone. I lived well until now, I don’t need friends or anything! Well, that’s what I used to think.”

“…But?”

“But… when my family was away for a while, that silence was really overwhelming. That’s when I realized. The reason I was okay being alone was because my family was there for me.”

Acting uninterested in people while listening attentively to others’ stories was also the same.

“Did my family feel that way too. …Because of that feeling, because they hated being alone, did they abandon everything and leave their hometown with that young person?”

“…That wouldn’t be it.”

“Why not?”

“Not because they hated being alone, but because they liked that young person. They didn’t abandon and leave, but tried to establish a new foundation. That’s why it would have been.”

“…Is that so. You’re surprisingly kind?”

“It seems all the kind people froze to death during winter.”

The cynical jokes were also the same.

“You seem to read newspapers often.”

“I read them every day. In this place, there’s no way to get outside news except for these newspapers.”

“Looking at how they’re folded, you flip through them like counting money, right? Others would be scared, saying you look like a loan shark.”

“Is this a day or two thing.”

“I saw this too. Here, it’s upside down but this is yesterday’s newspaper, isn’t it. A gambling den in the capital, what is this country coming to, really.”

“It was a rarely readable editorial recently.”

“Aren’t all Presrife Prism articles decent? They’re neutral and include a lot of foreign news. …They even published my interview.”

“…”

“The one you hid at the bottom is the issue with my interview. …You saw it, didn’t you, my article that was on the front page after the Founding Festival. The full-page advertisement that was prominently featured too.”

…Even his terrible acting skills.

Everything was still the same.

“That’s why I never wanted to play dolls with Grandfather, even though we did everything else together. The knight was supposed to save the king, but instead he’d suddenly start criticizing the absurdities of current society.”

“….”

“How long did I take care of Grandfather? …How long did I watch over him? And I, I didn’t even notice that.”

Grandfather deliberately refused my visits.

He deliberately pretended not to know me.

“Because it hurt more when I was there, because he was afraid I’d notice… To keep me from seeing him like that, to send me away before then. I know it all….”

Yet he was curious about how his granddaughter was doing.

Because he was so, so happy to see his granddaughter after such a long time.

“Then you shouldn’t have responded to my stories like that. When I was talking about Chloe, you shouldn’t have glanced over curiously wondering what kind of friend she was.”

“…Elisha.”

“You shouldn’t have let me catch you with my letter that you hastily hid behind your pillow, all worn and smudged from reading it over and over again, Grandfather….”

I forced myself to smile.

My heart was churning and my eyes stung, but I tried to smile somehow.

Because I knew why Grandfather, who was terrible at acting, had kept up that long, long lie.

Because he was someone who worried about me crying, about me being upset, more than his own physical condition….

“…I’m sorry.”

But the moment Grandfather’s expression crumbled.

I really felt like I was going to cry.

I said urgently.

“What are you sorry for? Grandfather, you have nothing to be sorry about to me. If anything, I should be sorry, since you’re sick because of me.”

“You have nothing to be sorry about to me either. That was my choice, and the responsibility for that choice is also mine. It’s just that I made you carry such a burden….”

That’s when it happened.

Grandfather let out a groan and pressed his forehead.

“Urgh…!”

“Grand, Grandfather?”

I was rushing toward Grandfather when I stopped at the sound of something breaking.

Oh, no way.

Looking down, I saw that the magic tools and mana stones in my bag were shattered.

Because of my holy power.

…Because of me.

I withdrew my outstretched hand.

I must not touch Grandfather….

However.

Firmly.

Grandfather grabbed my hand with his remaining good hand.

“No matter what, anyone says.”

Even in pain, Grandfather’s bright eyes were filled with me.

“You are, my beloved granddaughter, don’t forget… urgh.”

“Grandfather!”

Looking at me, pale as a sheet, Grandfather whispered with all his strength, word by word.

“Don’t forget. The path is within you.”

Those cryptic words were his last.

Grandfather, who had been gazing at me as if trying to engrave me in his heart until the end, collapsed and the alarm sounded.

The medical staff came running.

Even as they performed examinations and consultations, the medical staff didn’t seem particularly confident.

It was probably because they hadn’t found a proper solution despite this happening countless times.

I leaned against Chloe, half-collapsed, watching the scene.

And when Grandfather opened his eyes.

“…Why am I here? Who are all of you, and where is my little granddaughter….”

As always, he had forgotten me, who was right before his eyes.

I completed the discharge procedures while Grandfather was asleep again.

With the knights’ help, I moved Grandfather to the Duke’s Residence through a magic circle and received his chart from the nursing home medical staff.

I also heard stories from Stefan, who kept apologizing, and the mage who was scratching his head.

But all of those processes felt unreal.

It was the moment I saw Grandfather being laid down in the hospital room prepared near the Magic Tower.

“Elisha!”

As I staggered, I fainted right there in someone’s arms.

*

How much time had passed?

When I opened my eyes again, I was in a dark room.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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