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If she opens the door even for a moment, she will realize that I am the Count, but once this happens, it will be impossible for her to see my face.
I don't want your money if you will help me with a certain thing."
No! You guys are going to sell me some weird medicine for a lot of money, right?"
Well, I'll try to persuade her in a different direction...
I try to persuade without intimidating her, explain to her that I need her cooperation, and so on, but none of it is effective.
Even when I introduced myself as Count Dicaman, the girl at the door, perhaps overcome with anger, simply told me to go home in a loud voice.
'Master Khalil, leave this to me.'
After several rounds of persuasion, Mina came forward.
'Can you do it?'
'The other party seems very agitated, so persuasion is impossible."
, "Hmm?
Well, go ahead."
"Yes, Master, open the door."
Mina entered the indoor room by the forceful method of magically opening the door. Even I was going to save this action for last...
"I'm coming in!"
"Don't come in!"
Feeling somewhat guilty as the girl desperately tries to stop Mina with tears in her eyes, I take my escort and go inside.
Inside the room was a small shelf, a chair, a desk, and a bed, and on the bed was a woman lying with her eyes closed and in pain.
The moment I see the woman, I understand.
She is suffering from red stone disease and is very sick, and she will not last more than a week.
"Huh... [Selling calms the mind]."
The girl who had been raging until a moment ago slumped down as if her strength had been drained.
''First of all, an apology, my maid was rude.''
""!"
Seeing me bowing to the girl, I could see that the guards and Mina were flustered and ordered me not to move with one hand.
''Let me say my name once again, my name is Khalil Dicaman.
I am the head of the Countess Dicaman family, and I am looking for a cure for a disease that is spreading in the dukedom."
"...You're going to cure my mother?"
"I intend to."
I was so calm that she seemed to realize who I was and looked up at me fearfully with eyes filled with hope and asked me.
"But I don't have any money..."
I don't need money, partly because I don't yet know if my treatment is effective.
You may be displeased that your mother is being treated as an experimental subject, but if she stays that way, she will be dead before a week is over."
[......]
The truth seemed to weigh heavily on the girl who thought she was going to make it, and the light faded from her eyes as she stared helplessly at the ground.
"Do it...
and there's a chance the disease will get worse!"
She screamed from the bottom of her heart.
"Even if you scream like that, I can't start the treatment unless you wish me to.
If you want to refuse, just tell me clearly that you won't accept the treatment."
"I don't know, I don't know!"
The girl was sobbing after hearing such a question that she almost had no right to refuse.
Seeing the girl in such a state, I felt a slight sense of guilt and a large amount of discomfort.
The calm side of me told myself that it was a terrible question to let a child choose, that it had to be this way.
But even as I keep telling myself that, the discomfort only grows.
"Screw you!"
I couldn't stand the many uncomfortable feelings that eventually pushed aside the small amount of guilt I felt.
Your parent is still alive, you know!
It's not that I don't know that they are ill, it's just that I want to help out somehow!"
My presence was so overwhelming that no one was able to move.
It's not like me, who was not contacted until after his death, and did not even get to see him at the end of his life!"
I realized the true nature of my discomfort as I spoke as I wished.
I was envious of the girl in front of me who was able to spend her final days with her parent...
I was annoyed that she didn't say she would get treatment right away, even though she wanted to spend more time with her and was asking for a cure.
I am frustrated that she didn't take the treatment right away, because if she really had doubts about the treatment, she could have just said no. She didn't want to give me the answer to my question.
If I let the answer to the question of whether or not she would accept the treatment be ambiguous, I would definitely regret it no matter what the outcome was.
Even if I were to force the treatment and she survived, the girl in front of me would not be able to be happy from the bottom of her heart.
If it is the path I chose, I can recover even if I regret it, but if it is the path that someone forced me to take, I will definitely regret it in the future.
I can say that with certainty.
"You can either take the treatment that has the slightest chance of saving her life, or you can choose not to take the treatment and spend your final days together peacefully.
Choose it! Choose it yourself!"
Having said what I wanted to say, I regulated my breathing, which had become rough.
It was a while before the girl turned her head down and said anything.
What more would be a waste of time?
There is nothing I can do as long as the girl doesn't act on her own.
I projected myself onto the girl and couldn't hold back my emotions, so I said whatever I wanted to the girl, but there is a reason why my emotions were moved this much.
Because this girl was a good girl.
The parent lying in bed is in such a dangerous state that even a novice would answer that she is at her limit.
If she had as much feelings for her parent as this girl did, she might have tried to help her by stealing recovery medicine, but when she magically read her thoughts, she gave up because of the money.
I was dazzled by goodness from my true heart, which was not an act.
Somehow, I wanted to help her.
But...,
"Mina, I'm going back."
Yes, yes!
Leaving the girl who showed no sign of speaking, Mina and the guards left the hut.
"Are you sure, Khalil-sama?"
I don't have a choice.
I'm going to look for the new patient".
bang!
About 10 steps away from the hut, they heard a door open behind us with a bang.
'Please help my mother..."
It was a girl.
She was bowing her head from a distance, desperately pleading with us to help her parent.
She had done well. She had given up on her own feelings.
Unlike me, who would have answered that I would spend my last days with my parent, the girl was strong.
Hearing her words, we all returned to the hut.