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T/N: Today I want to give a big thank you to my repeat Cookie Donor Rich! Thanks again for the sweets!! ❤
Once night falls, I grab the bag filled with supplies and head towards Grandpa Will’s house.
When I get there, even before I head inside I hear the boy’s painful moans. It seems like he’s doing much worse today than he had been yesterday.
As I walk in, I see that Grandpa Will is doing his utmost to wipe the boy’s sweat and do anything that he can to sooth his suffering.I quickly approach the bed and take the bottle from my bag, passing it over to him.
“And what’s this?”
“Clean water.”
“Thank you,” he murmurs.
“Take this, too,” I say, handing him the Josiah.
Accepting the grass, Grandpa Will runs his fingers lightly over the blades.
“Ahh, Josiah is it…..?”No way. He can tell what type of plant it is through touch alone?
Amazing can’t even come close to describing Grandpa Will. His actions always far exceed all my expectations.
Grandpa Will drops the Josiah into the bottle, letting the leaves dissolve into the liquid until the water has become a light green color.
He then huddles over the thrashing boy and opens his mouth. Carefully, he pours few drops of the mixture onto his tongue.
The boy closes his mouth and not long after, his thrashing abates slightly as he starts to calm down.
It seems that once Josiah enters someone’s mouth, it doesn’t take even a minute before the effects start to show.
I unwind the dirtied strips of my dress that I had wrapped around the boy’s head yesterday and apply some of the salve that I’d brought in my bag to his now festering wounds. Once I finish, I make sure to wrap up the injury again, this time using actual cloth bandages.
I suppose this sort of terrible wound is probably commonplace here.
“Alicia, thank you,” Grandpa Will says once again.
“I’m….. only doing this because it happens to benefit me, so your thanks are unnecessary.”
That’s right. I’m someone who makes personal gain her priority in life.
Saving this boy is merely on a whim because I wanted to try having a conversation with a young, clever child.
Grandpa Will’s shoulders stiffen at my words. I don’t want to make him see me contemptuously, but I also don’t want to lie to him.
“Regardless of your motives, thank you,” Grandpa Will says to me, warmly, relaxing again.
“What’s his name?”
“It’s Gilles.”
“Gilles…. Age?”
“Six.”
“And where are his parents…..?”
“They were killed by some other villagers here.”
Killed?
They didn’t die of some disease but instead were killed?
“Alicia, that’s the type of place this is,” Grandpa Will states matter-of-factly, but his voice gives away a hint of ambition.
“Their crime?”
“There was none.”
So then, what. At 6 years old, Gilles has become an orphan for no reason at all? Is that also considered normal here?
“That’s just not right.”
“Yes. I think so as well. But no matter how unfair it is, there’s nothing that can be done about it from in here.”
What is the heroine even doing? She needs to hurry up and do something about these inhumane conditions!
……Wow. Am I actually relying on the heroine now?
But what can I do? There’s absolutely no merit for me in improving the conditions of this village!
Agh, forget it! I’m a cold-hearted villainess. This sort of thing shouldn’t bother me!
I’m determined to become the best villainess that this world has ever seen!
…….But if that’s the case, then why does my heart feel like this? Where is this stuffy discomfort stemming from?
“Thank you very much for today,” Grandpa Will says, patting my head.
“This…. Please share it with him,” I say by means of reply, passing Grandpa Will the bag filled with the multi-colored macarons.
Perhaps sensing that my tone had lost some of its previously ambitious bravado, Grandpa Will pats my head one more time and whispers to me that it’ll be okay.
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T/N: Gil…. I’m not familiar with this name, but it seems to be a real name according to the website, Behind The Name. I’m really curious to see if HaruParty uses the same one in the manga version haha. If they don’t, I might change it later! What do you guys think? At least it’s better than Prince Duke, right? XD
P.S. Thanks to Max Koot in the comment section, I’ve decided to change Gil to Gilles. Thank you for your input!!
