The Quack Lady - Chapter 14

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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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Episode 14

‘Honestly, the caretaker tried their best too.’

Saving a life is difficult, but raising that life requires just as much tremendous effort and dedication.

However, that doesn’t justify verbal abuse and neglect toward the child.

“Please think a little about what the child feels. The child is guarding the house alone after the caretaker left. While thinking that the caretaker might never come back.”

I could understand because I had a similar experience.

Mother gave birth to me alone in the forest and raised me by herself.

* * *

“Mommy will go work and come back, so no matter who comes, absolutely don’t open the door for them, eat the food I prepared, and wait just a little bit. You understand, right?”

Knowing that crying would be useless, I nodded readily.

That suffocating feeling was impossible to express in words.

Mother said she loved me dozens of times and stroked my head hundreds more times.

But perhaps I felt it subconsciously.

That vague fear that Mother might not come back.

“Don’t try so hard to raise the child. If you want to raise them slowly without getting exhausted, you need to build many memories with the child. And that’s also the only way to cure the child’s illness.”

“…”

“Not having a mother can’t be helped, but that doesn’t mean the child should become unhappy.”

“…”

“The child wants the caretaker to be happy. And wants to be part of all those moments.”

I spoke the last words with a bit more emphasis.

It was then that I desperately hoped the caretaker would understand my words.

The caretaker let their arms drop limply and spoke flatly.

“…I understand. I’ll try that.”

“…!”

“But still, if the illness doesn’t heal and the child continues to be sick, what will you do then?”

“Pardon?”

“I’m asking if you can take responsibility. For what you said.”

“…”

I stood there blankly, unable to say anything.

However.

“It’s not my fault, right? I didn’t do anything wrong, right?”

The moment I recalled the question the child asked countless times, I felt certain.

“Yes, the child will definitely be cured.”

Crash-.

That’s when it happened.

Mr. Hanel, who was bringing the medicine I had requested, dropped the bottle he was holding.

Of course, along with a shocked expression as he looked at me.

* * *

I finished the treatment faster than expected, but I had to be called to Mr. Pairon’s office immediately.

“I knew this would happen. Do you even know what treatment is?”

“I know. I’m the one who did it.”

“No, you didn’t provide treatment, you told a lie.”

The men spoke firmly with cold tones.

‘Ah, so that’s why Mr. Hanel had that disgusted expression earlier.’

Having roughly grasped the situation, I recalled what happened earlier.

Mr. Hanel immediately stepped between me and the caretaker, and the conversation ended rather awkwardly, but…

“How could you say you can take responsibility! You told me it was coincidence! That it wasn’t skill!”

“That’s because Mr. Pairon still seems to think of me as a witch, even just a little.”

“…”

“Then, if I say I treated Mr. Pairon with skill. Would that make this situation better?”

“No… I mean, that’s…”

“Honestly, I don’t understand. If a healer trying to cure patients doesn’t have confidence in their treatment method, isn’t that more problematic?”

“This kid is going crazy.”

Mr. Hanel seemed to have given up on conversing with me.

He pointed at me with his index finger toward Mr. Pairon as if asking him to do something about it.

Unlike him, Mr. Pairon was quietly bowing his head with his clasped hands against his forehead.

Eventually, his head slowly lifted and his green eyes turned toward me.

“I don’t want you to become dangerous. So I’d appreciate it if you could refrain from such words and actions in the future.”

“But…!”

“Yes, this time Pairon is right. There’s no such thing as certainty in treatment. That’s something we who handle herbs know better than anyone.”

Mr. Hanel spoke to me with a thoroughly hardened expression.

‘Well, knowing how to handle herbs is basically like being a doctor in this world.’

It was a world where people except nobles couldn’t even receive proper medical care from doctors.

Even in treatment facilities, people who simply knew herbs well or were skilled in surgical techniques were called doctors.

Thinking about it that way, these two people would be better than most doctors in this world…

‘It’s not that I can’t understand this concern.’

I just clenched my fists tightly.

‘I can’t say I specialized in pediatrics, this is really driving me crazy.’

The child’s symptoms were relatively clear, enough for me to feel somewhat confident.

Unless there was a really special reason, it was a mental illness that could improve with just environmental changes.

But the problem was that there was no way to prove this.

Moreover, if things continue like this…

‘The future will be the problem.’

Anyway, I had agreed to work in exchange for saving Mr. Pairon’s life.

Things had gotten twisted from the very beginning.

‘What should I do?’

I thought for a moment.

Then I smiled faintly at a thought that suddenly occurred to me and spoke.

“Then, how about this method?”

I rolled up my right pant leg without hesitation.

There was a trace left on me from the day I lost Mother.

It was a burn scar that protruded like a tendon.

“Hey, what happened to your leg?”

Mr. Hanel immediately crouched down and examined my leg.

I calmly began explaining about the long scar on my shin.

About the memories of Mother that couldn’t be separated from the scar.

“Mother passed away when I was eight. In a burning house, unable to escape in time, while holding me in her arms. I briefly fainted from the terrible smoke, and when I woke up, Mother had already burned completely in the fire and I survived alone. All these scars are from that time.”

“What…?”

“Hey, what are you saying right now…”

Looking at the shocked faces of the men made me feel as if I had committed a crime.

But unfortunately, it was all true.

In those hot flames, Mother endlessly whispered in my ear that she would protect me, that she loved me, that she would love me forever.

“Mom, thank you for loving me.”

“What’s there to thank? I love you because you’re lovable.”

Mother was that kind of person.

Someone who might have held my hand as if being chased by something, but never made me anxious.

Someone who seemed like she would always stand there like a very old tree and protect me.

But someone who disappeared easily in the fire because she was too solid.

That was also the last image I had of Mother.

* * *

We were poor but happy.

Until I lost Mother in the fire.

The day when the entire world turned hazy and gray.

I lost Mother and learned about death.

“Mia, Mother will definitely go volunteer at the infirmary later. It’s wonderful work helping others.”

“But that doesn’t pay money.”

“Oh my, things that pay money aren’t the only valuable work. This is a secret, but there’s happiness at the infirmary. That feeling where your heart swells up and tears are about to flow.”

Mother said she used to work as an assistant helping out at the infirmary in her younger days.

She loved that work so much she once dreamed of becoming a doctor.

But everything changed when she met a certain man.

“Though he was selfish and stubborn, he was a man with a tender heart.”

Mother would reminisce about Father with these cryptic words. Looking back now, it felt like pity? Sympathy? Something like that.

“Either way, Father abandoned us.”

Any feelings toward the father I’d never once seen since birth had completely disappeared.

Even so, Mother said she was happy.

For the sole reason that she had met me.

“Meeting our Mia feels like the best thing Mother ever did in this world.”

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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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