Raising the Princess to Overcome Death-Chapter 8: Beggar Siblings - Water
8. Beggar Siblings - Water
"Lena!"
Leo rushed to Lena's side and turned her over. She let out a faint groan and barely opened her eyes.
"Lena, are you okay?"
"Brother... I feel dizzy..."
He quickly placed his hand on her forehead, and it felt like he had put his hand into a furnace. Her skin was burning hot, red and swollen from her neck down to her chest.
"Hold on. I'll treat you. Don't worry."
Leo gently propped her up against the wall.
His mind was blank.
‘Hospital! No, there’s no hospital here. Pharmacy? Clinic?’
Leo hurried out of the alley and grabbed the first passerby he saw.
"Excuse me! I'm sorry! Do you know where I can find a doctor? Or a pharmacy?"
The man, startled by the sudden appearance of a beggar, replied, "I’m new here, so I don't know."
Leo didn’t wait to hear more and ran to the next person, and then the next, desperately asking the same question. Finally, an elderly woman dressed in fine clothes told him where the pharmacy was.
"Thank you! Thank you so much!"
He rushed back to the alley, picked up his unconscious sister, and ran as fast as he could.
He didn’t get far before his breath turned ragged, and his arms felt like they were about to snap. Though Lena was light from malnutrition, Leo had no muscles to support the effort.
Struggling to hold Lena, he propped her up on his thigh and kept moving, but his arms grew weaker and weaker. Lena's limp legs slid down his thigh.
"Please, someone help... us," he panted, looking around desperately, but the passersby avoided the beggar siblings.
At that moment, Lena’s eyes fluttered open faintly through the sweat and grime.
Her brother was carrying her.
His face came into view as the world spun around her.
"Brother... I had a dream..."
Lena's dry lips moved, but Leo couldn’t hear her words. He focused on dragging her along, repeating the process of picking her up and setting her down.
It felt like an eternity before they finally reached the pharmacy.
Leo was drenched in sweat, his limbs trembling uncontrollably, but the young man guarding the entrance coldly blocked his way.
"Excuse me, I'm sorry. My sister, Lena..."
Unconscious, Lena’s head lolled back and forth.
The young man sneered and shoved Leo aside.
"Go away. If you don't have money, you can't come in."
"I don't have money, but I really need—"
"No money, no service. Get lost."
The young man shoved him again, this time with enough force to send Leo and Lena sprawling backwards.
Leo set Lena down and begged.
"Please, it’s not about me. My sister needs help. I’m fine, but please, just help Lena..."
The young man’s hand struck Leo’s face with a sharp slap.
"No money, no service."
"Wait, I have this! Just a moment!"
He hastily removed the necklace from his neck and offered it to the young man. The man took it, looked at it, and then threw it back at Leo.
"Quit messing around. Get lost."
Leo looked around helplessly. The crowd around them just stared, whispering words of disdain or pity.
The young man folded his fingers menacingly.
"If you’re not gone by the count of three, I’ll beat you. One."
Leo was too exhausted to speak.
He just stared at the young man’s fingers.
"Two."
"Excuse me."
A woman in a deep purple skirt pushed through the crowd. She pointed at the beggar siblings.
"I’ll pay for their treatment. Let them in."
"...Alright."
The young man looked her up and down before picking up Lena and carrying her inside. The woman approached Leo.
"Are you okay?"
"Thank you... Thank you..."
Leo gasped, finally able to breathe. The young man returned, lifted Leo, and carried him inside.
As the tension left his body, Leo lost consciousness.
*
Leo woke up in a shoemaker’s shop.
He looked around in confusion.
The small shop was cramped. He was lying on a small cot.
Shoes were piled up on the floor, and various sizes of leather and tools hung on the walls. Everything except the cot was covered in a thick layer of dust.
Still disoriented, Leo sat up, then suddenly remembered Lena and leapt to his feet, shouting.
"Lena! Lena!"
"You’re awake? Come here."
A low voice came from behind a door at the back of the shop.
"Lena!"
He burst through the door and found himself in a low-ceilinged room.
In the room, a small bed took up half the space, and Lena lay on it, clean and motionless.
A woman sat beside the bed.
Leo rushed to Lena and touched her forehead. She was still burning up.
"She’s been treated."
The woman’s voice was flat and unemotional. She wore a purple skirt—the same one from outside the pharmacy. Leo remembered she was the one who had saved them but asked about Lena’s condition first.
"What happened? Is Lena alright?"
"The doctors don’t know muChapter They’re just quacks, overshadowed by the priests' healing."
"What do you mean?"
"I got some medicine and gave it to her. The doctor said her weak body couldn’t handle whatever she ate."
The woman snorted.
"I could have told you that."
Her words felt off-track. Her tone was laced with a sense of futility and cynicism.
"So what do we do now?"
"We wait. There’s nothing else we can do."
"Maybe we could see a priest..."
"Superficial wounds are one thing, but treating an illness like this is extremely expensive. I'm sorry, but I can't afford it. Even if I sold this store, it wouldn't be enough. And I really don't want to do that—this place is precious to me."
"No, it's okay. Thank you so much for your help."
The young woman was attractive and seemed perfectly fine on the surface, but something about her was odd.
Even as she spoke to him, her eyes never really focused on Leo or the sick Lena lying nearby.
Yet, she was the only one who had cut through the indifferent crowd to help the siblings.
"It's nothing. I did it because I wanted to. Anyway, you can stay here until she recovers. There aren’t any customers anyway."
She casually waved her hand and started to leave, but Leo stopped her.
"Excuse me, just a moment. Thank you so muChapter I won't forget this kindness. How should I address you?"
"What?"
"Your name, I mean."
"Call me Cassia. That’s my name."
For the first time, her weary eyes met Leo’s. Cassia glanced at him briefly before heading out.
Leo saw her off briefly and realized the sun had already set. He must have collapsed and slept since passing out in front of the pharmacy.
He took a moment to look around the shop's front and then returned to the room.
Lena lay motionless, too weak to even moan.
Leo held his sister’s frail hand and let his thoughts race. With trembling hands, he prayed to every deity he could think of, something he had never done before. He wiped Lena’s sweat and changed the cloths frequently.
She had sweated so much that he wanted to give her water, but he didn’t know how to do it properly, so he fidgeted in anxiety.
Late at night, as Lena’s breathing calmed, he felt a slight relief and a question arose.
‘Why is she sick? It can't be the chicken. Lena ate the same things I did.’
In fact, he had given her cleaner food. They had eaten almost identical things, so there was no reason one of them should be fine while the other was sick.
Leo wasn’t particularly healthier than Lena. He was only a few years older, but if she was seriously ill, he should have shown symptoms too.
But he was fine.
His arms and back ached from carrying Lena, but that was it.
‘Was it predetermined that Lena would get sick at the start of the scenario? Was her illness an {event}?’
That didn’t make sense.
This was severe enough that she could die. If Lena getting sick and getting help from Cassia was part of an {event}, it was too urgent to be a typical {event}.
No matter how difficult the initial scenario was, starting with a severe illness made it impossible to clear.
But as he thought back, he realized something crucial.
He had been with Lena constantly for the past two days.
Except for one brief moment.
Right after the scenario began, when he went to get the chicken offal, he had left Lena in the alley.
Right after the scenario began, Lena had said she was thirsty. Despite eating chicken with him, she hadn’t drunk much of the water from the wall. Even today, she had only taken a few sips of water and tried to give the rest to him.
And it had rained yesterday.
‘Oh no! I shouldn’t have left her alone!’
Lena must have drunk the stagnant water from the ground while he was gone!
The city streets were filthy. In this era, sewer systems weren’t well developed, and people often dumped waste on the streets.
The rain would have washed garbage and filth from the trash bins onto the ground.
Drinking such water would make anyone sick.
‘Please, save Lena. This is my fault.’
Leo prayed fervently all night, feeling helpless.
As dawn approached, he heard Lena’s voice.
"Brother, I had a dream."
"Lena? Are you okay?"
He touched her forehead.
Still burning hot.
"L-Lena, drink some water. There’s water here."
"Why are you crying, brother? In my dream, you were spinning me around, laughing..."
"Lena! Don’t talk nonsense and just drink the water and sleep! Please!"
"......?"
Startled by Lena’s calm voice, Leo yelled without realizing it.
She blinked at him for a moment as if confused, then obediently lifted her head and drank the water before falling back to sleep.
But Lena didn’t wake up again. Before sunrise, her burning heat faded away completely.
[Lena has died.]
[Thank you for playing ‘Raising Lena.’]
[Lena de Yeriel]
[Final Occupation: Unemployed]
[Marital Status: Single]
[Leo de Yeriel]
[Final Occupation: Shoemaker]
[Spouse: Xenia]
[Ending: The Beautiful One Died Young]
- Lena, born in Rutina Castle, had an unfortunate childhood. Taken by people to a vast field and hidden with Leo, she woke up to find the field filled with corpses. She followed Leo, but eventually died young from illness. -
- Leo, born in Rutina Castle, had an unfortunate childhood. Taken by people and hidden with Lena, he lived with Cassia after Lena’s death, eventually opening his own shoe shop. He married a woman he met by chance and lived with her for the rest of his life, though they had no children. -
Lena couldn’t overcome the illness. The girl, weakened by prolonged hunger, couldn’t withstand the disease.
Leo felt his heart tearing apart as he stared at his sister’s lifeless face.
As everything seemed to crumble around him, Leo’s consciousness shattered, revealing Minseo.
‘You idiot. Useless idiot. You’re worthless!’
Minseo raged in despair.
He felt the pain of losing a sibling, unable to read even a single word of the story unfolding before him.
His negligence had caused his sister to fall ill and die. The guilt tore him apart.
In his agony, Minseo chose to escape. He tried to forget the fading breath of his sister.
‘This kind of thing isn’t for someone like me...’
Minseo buried the last two days deep in his heart.
As if they had never happened.
He forgot everything.
[You failed to clear ‘Raising Lena.’]
[Leo, you couldn’t protect your beloved sister due to poverty. As consolation, you receive {Starting Funds}.]
[A new start begins.]
Chapter 8: Beggar Siblings - Water
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