Chapter 1640: The Old Man’s Penance
[Quest: Relay the dead’s words
Rava has always blamed himself for his inability to save his wife’s life when it really mattered. So, he has thrown himself into his work, making more medicines every day as a penance for letting his wife die. His wife does not like seeing this and would like you to tell him the truth.
Reward: 2 Points
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Ning read through the description of the question and slowly nodded to himself.
“I will do what I can miss,” he told the woman through his Spectral Communication ability and turned back to look at the old man who had been staring at him expectantly.
“I believe I might need to speak to you in private if you don’t mind,” Ning told the old man.
The old man nodded and walked out of the room. The young guard followed, showing them to another room where they could talk on their own.
“Alright, tell me. What did she say? Is she really my wife?” the old man asked. He was sure the Spirit surrounding him was his wife, but he did not want to believe it. Although, it made sense to him that she was the one haunting him, given that he had failed to save her life.
The old man stayed in the room, waiting for Ning to tell him how much of a failure his wife thought he was and how much she still hated him for what he had failed to do. He understood. He hated himself too.
“May I ask how your wife died?” Ning asked. “She said something about being sick and you failing to make the medicine for her.”
“Yes,” the old man said. “She was sick from a disease that caught our entire village. I was the only healer in that village so I tried my best to heal everyone. I did what I could, and that helped with the rest of the village, but no matter what I made, I could not make a medicine that could heal her.”
“I healed everyone but her, my wife. I… I was so useless,” the old man said. His words held no haste. His words held no pain. Perhaps, they held so much pain that he had gotten used to it already.
Judging by the woman’s age and the old man’s age, Ning could garner a guess that the death must have happened at least 2 decades ago if not more.
“Do you think she hates you?” Ning asked the man.
“Of course she does,” the man said. “I would too. Imagine watching your husband healing everyone but failing to heal you. So you have to sit there while your useless husband simply fails to heal you.”
“She doesn’t hate you though,” Ning said.
“Of course she does,” the old man said with a scoff. “Why wouldn’t she? I see no reason why else she would haunt me even after her death.”
“That’s because she loves you,” Ning said. “She doesn’t hate you. She knows how hard you tried to save her. The only thing she hates is how much you blame yourself for something that was not in your hand.”
“Your wife died, and she has come to terms with her own demise. The only thing still keeping her tied to this world is the fact that she cannot leave until she has seen you forgive yourself.”
“But… but…” the old man didn’t understand. This was completely different from what he had believed these past 2 decades.
“Your wife is sad because she’s watching you every day doing something you don’t find joy in. You don’t like making medicines, do you?”
The old man shuddered a little. He couldn’t get himself to shake his head no matter how much he wanted to. Ever since his wife had died, he saw himself as a failure in medicine and did not want to make any more of it.
The only reason he did it was because he had failed once, and he wanted to continue doing it until he made a medicine that could heal anyone. Maybe, if he did that, his wife would be happy.
He could not believe that his wife had been watching this entire time, sad that he was putting himself through so much.
“Can she hear me?” the old man asked.
Ning quickly spoke to the woman, asking him if she could hear the old man.
“I can hear him,” the woman said. “I’ve been with him this entire time. I have heard everything he has ever said.”
Ning relayed the information to the old man.
Hearing so, the old man broke into tears. “I’m sorry, Bella. I… I could not save you. I miss you so much.”
The old woman smiled sadly and looked at Ning.
“Thank you,” she said. “Thank you for delivering my message.”
Ning was surprised.
“Please, tell him I said goodbye.”
“Your wife,” Ning said. “She said goodbye.”
The illusory white Spirit around the old man slowly vanished until nothing remained. She was gone from this world, the energy around her leaving and flowing into Ning.
Ning felt the strong flow of energy that finally came into him. This was the first time he had felt this from a departing soul. This was what he was supposed to feel from Shara’s grandma, but that girl was something special and instead stole the energy that was supposed to go to him.
The old man crouched on the ground and began openly crying. There was sadness in those cries, but also a sigh of relief. Finally, after so many years, the thing that had been bothering him this entire time had been lifted.
He felt free and light as a feather.
He stopped blaming himself.
Ning watched the blue hologram that appeared before his eyes and the 2 more points that added to his points. Together, he now had about 8 points in total.
That was enough.
He left the old man in the room, explained to the young guard what had happened, and walked away.
Ning walked with the captain, taking him back home. Shara walked behind the two, through the evening time where the light in the city came from bright lanterns that were hung around the road.
Ning arrived at the Captain’s house where a group of workers from his ship had been waiting for him.
They ran up to meet the captain and find out what had happened. When they learned that the woman who took care of the house had been imprisoned on charges of murdering the captain’s daughter, they were horrified.
They quickly took the captain in and asked Ning and Shara to come in as well.
Ning retrieved his spear that he had thrown into the bushes and walked in.
Ning peered the inside of the house. It was so very similar to the house he had seen in that memory. Similar, but not the same.
In the last 3 years, enough had changed in terms of furniture and decorations that it did not feel the same.
Ning saw the stairs that led to the 2nd floor, the same stairs where Tima’s grandfather had a heart attack and had fallen. He couldn’t help but feel sad because of it.
The crewmates seemed to know much about the captain’s house and showed Ning and Shara around. They asked the two to stay with them given how late it had been, and made some food for them.
It had indeed been quite late at night, and that had been after such a long day too. Ning couldn’t wait to go to sleep whenever he could.
He freshened up and went to the dining room where he and Shara ate along with a few crewmates. It seemed the captain would not be joining them on account of everything that happened today.
Ning could understand. The man needed some time to process everything that had happened that day.
After dinner, Ning and Shara were given a room where they could stay. Shara slept on the bed, and Ning slept on the floor.
Shara talked for a while, asking Ning about what they were going to do next. They hadn’t made much plan after all.
Ning didn’t know either. All he knew was that they were going to have to leave from where they were.
“Tomorrow morning, we will take a carriage and make our way out of here,” he said.
“And go where?” she asked.
Ning thought for a moment. He didn’t know the answer. “I think… we will need to make our way toward the Empire.”
Shara was surprised. “The empire?” she asked. “But isn’t that where we shouldn’t be going?”
“We need to figure out what is going on with you,” Ning said. “Especially your family connection. What does it mean that your father had the same power as you did, and what that has to do with the empire.”
“Will we find information there?” she asked.
“I’m not sure,” Ning said. “But that is the only thing we can do right now. I will search for information along the main cities too. See if I find anything.”
Shara said nothing for a while. Then, she asked something that had been bothering her for a long time. “Why are you helping me, Ning?”
“Because I want to,” Ning said.
“But you are putting yourself in trouble for my sake,” she said. “Why?”
Ning couldn’t help but smile. “As I said, because I want to. There’s nothing more to it than that, and nothing less. I just do what I want,” he said. “Now go to sleep. We’ll need to leave early tomorrow.”
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