The Military Doctor Excels at Being a Contracted Duchess - Chapter 63

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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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【Chapter 63】

The old woman she faced was truly thin and small.

But that didn’t mean she looked shabby.

Baba Elpa was like a giant tree.

Once, she must have proudly displayed her green foliage with leaves hanging from every branch.

Now she was withered with only fallen leaves remaining, but even so, glimpses of her once majestic days could be seen, naturally inspiring reverence.

“What you’re curious about… most of it is there, on the desk.”

After saying those words, Baba Elpa burst into a rough cough.

This time, even Ebel was powerless.

A doctor’s job is to save the living.

But there was nothing she could do for someone already facing death.

Especially when they had clearly accepted that death themselves.

She was a doctor, not a god.

“Someday… believing someone would come someday, when I had strength, little by little, I wrote it down.”

“Did you know I would come? How…?”

She had only recently heard about Baba Elpa’s existence.

Seeing her confusion, the old woman smiled faintly.

“You are of our bloodline. As the last shaman, I can sense the affairs of our blood.”

“We’re connected by bloodline?”

One of Baba Elpa’s eyes was already blind, covered with a whitish haze. But her remaining eye was the same golden color as Ebel’s.

Golden eyes that would be hard to find even among a hundred people.

‘Could it be…?’

In fact, Ebel’s eyes didn’t resemble anyone in her family. Neither Abel, nor her father, nor her mother had golden eyes.

It wasn’t as if there were any legends about golden eyes passed down in the family either.

What would a family that had already fallen apart have like that?

“I’ve never heard any stories about gypsy origins in our family bloodline. Both sides are from nobility.”

“Ho ho, that would be so. The children would have intentionally erased it.”

Baba Elpa laughed with a sound like cracking tree bark, then coughed and weakly gestured to pull at a cloth.

Swoosh.

As the cloth covering the wall fell down, revealing a family tree, Ebel covered her mouth.

“There were ambitious children. They completely hid their origins and married nobles…”

Perhaps they weren’t ordinary gypsies.

She had never heard of gypsies making family trees.

As Ebel scanned the branches that filled one wall, she slid her gaze to where Victor was silently pointing.

Claren.

There was Claren.

And next to it… her mother’s maiden name was written.

“Caterina Colonna.”

“This power is passed down through the maternal line. From daughter to daughter, manifesting in only a very few of those daughters. About one every four generations.”

Strangely, Baba Elpa seemed to be gaining strength as they conversed.

Perhaps it was the last candle flaring up.

“Those who possess this power must live altruistically. Because they must.”

“…Are you saying I’m the golden-eyed owner of the next generation?”

Baba Elpa’s name was high up on that family tree.

Had she really been born after generations had passed?

“Even if you’re born with golden eyes, the conditions are strict. You must be a twin. You must be a girl… and you must have saved someone’s life.”

Coincidentally, all conditions applied.

The probability was impossible.

“Does our mother know about this?”

“Who knows.”

Ebel briefly searched her childhood memories. Wondering if there had ever been any similar mentions.

‘Nothing. Definitely nothing. Well, mother never once read me a bedtime story.’

Then what about grandmother?

As far as she knew, her grandmother was still alive.

The problem was that she had cut ties with mother.

“The true nature of this power is separating and rewinding timelines. But it only activates for the sake of others.”

“Ah…”

“For myself, no matter how much I try to turn it back, time won’t reverse.”

Wrinkled hands firmly grasped Ebel’s hands. They were so warm.

“But major world events are destined to happen. Twisted in some form or another.”

“!”

“Never try to directly change major events. That is the fate of one who crosses time…”

Cough! Cough cough cough!!!

With those words, Baba Elpa burst into lung-tearing coughs.

As Ebel quickly rubbed her back, she realized.

Ah, the end has come.

She had seen countless deaths.

Whether she wanted to or not, she had come to know when someone’s story ended here.

“Still, I’m glad you met a good companion. Having crossed time together, it’s a bond that will never come again.”

Baba Elpa seemed to be reaching not for reality but for the other side of the afterlife.

Her gaze looking at her and Victor held affection.

“Conveying these words to you is my mission as the previous generation… Would you pity this old woman and grant me one request?”

“If it’s something I can do, yes.”

The one leaving this world now wasn’t her, but Baba Elpa.

But Baba Elpa showed not the slightest fear.

Rather, she patted Ebel’s hand comfortingly and whispered.

“Please hold a funeral for me. So I can go to my ancestors’ embrace… please, with the beads too…”

“I will. I’ll ask about gypsy funeral customs and make sure you can go to your ancestors.”

This much she could promise.

She had finally found clues about regression that she couldn’t hear anywhere else.

What couldn’t she do for her?

“Ahh… now I can finally close my eyes…”

The last breath gently escaped from her pale, dried lips.

She couldn’t hold onto it.

All Ebel could do was pray that if souls truly existed… she would go to a really good place.

Victor closed Baba Elpa’s eyes.

“I’ll call my subordinates to ensure a proper funeral.”

“…Thank you, Victor.”

Though she wasn’t someone she knew, hearing they shared the same bloodline felt strange.

Most of all, that she had waited all this time to meet her, and after delivering her message, left without any lingering attachment as if she had no regrets…

With indescribable feelings, Ebel pressed her forehead to their clasped hands.

I see.

This is when people offer prayers.

Thinking that.

* * *

It was a truly subtle feeling.

The people Victor called prepared a coffin and even a graveyard in just three hours, and Baba Elpa was sent to a skilled undertaker.

Gypsies are commonly known as beings who sing and dance.

Such was Baba Elpa’s graveyard – it wasn’t too lonely.

Because the sound of excited people singing could be heard faintly in the distance.

Moreover, since it was an area with such a large floating population, the surrounding graveyard was so full of flowers that it looked like a ballroom.

“All the materials from Baba Elpa’s House have been collected and sent to the Main Residence. Matthias and Guevre are probably deciphering them first.”

“…Thank you.”

“It’s only natural, Ebel. We’re husband and wife.”

Victor rejected her quietly uttered words of gratitude.

They weren’t in a relationship where such formalities were necessary.

Hadn’t Baba Elpa said the same thing earlier? That they had an unparalleled bond.

“Thanks to this, we’ve learned a lot. I’ll assign graveyard caretakers periodically, so please don’t worry too much.”

“Indeed. A power that flows through bloodlines…”

She had a feeling that she would eventually have to face her family at least once.

Though she really didn’t want to, if she wanted to learn more about this ability, she would have to visit her grandmother as well.

“Actually, I haven’t seen my maternal grandmother since I was around four years old. I don’t know what kind of person she is or where she might be.”

“Judging by her name, she seems to be from Talia, so I’ll look into it.”

“Thank you. You came on a trip and now have even more work to do.”

The biggest problem was the warning ‘do not try to change major events.’

Of course, it seemed to be limited to her and unrelated to Victor, but… was it a warning that even if they prevented the war, something bigger would erupt?

Watching soil cover the coffin filled with marbles, Ebel clasped her hands together in prayer.

If all of this was God’s arrangement, she asked where exactly He was trying to guide her.

Though it was a prayer filled with questioning, as expected, no answer came back this time either.

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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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