A caring old man

Before I could say anything, old Ranger lowered his head a little bit, held my right hand with both of his, and mumbled an apology.

"...What are you doing?"

To say that I wasn't taken aback would be a huge lie. I was so taken aback that I didn't know what I had to say.

"I'm sorry for what I did.", the old man looked up at me, his dark blue eyes were adorned with sorrow, and his wrinkles looked oddly deeper today. His lips curled up to a bitter smile and his brows frowned a little bit.

"I shouldn't have treated you that way. I'm sorry."

As I didn't understand a single word he was saying, I decided to listen to him talk without speaking anything.

"When that incident happened to young master Alaric... I shouldn't have blamed you. They took you away to prison, yet I did nothing. I didn't say a single word to support you, nor did I even visit you in the cell... I blamed you for hurting the young master and ignored you. I treated you harshly."

"...."

Ignoring my stupid found face, the old man raised one hand, pulled back my unkempt navy hair that was covering a part of my face, and stroked my cheek.

"I shouldn't have been so cruel to my child. I'm sorry, Ian."

"...."

Struck speechless, I couldn't even think of a proper way to express my surprise at the man's words. The things that the old man just said were... Something I expected the least to hear in this situation. Frozen in my spot, I stared at the dark-blue eyes old man, who kept stroking my hair with a fond smile.

He was apologizing for being mad at me... Was he too shocked after seeing me nearly die? That must be the case. He got scared that I might die... So he felt guilty about ignoring me and being mad. If not for that, I'd probably get a beating from him instead of an apology...

I don't know what kind of face I was making, but whatever it was, it made the old man chuckled and pat my head.

"Don't look at me like that! You are making me feel embarrassed!"

Did I look that surprised? Or was I making a funny face? I don't know... I don't know what I'm supposed to say to his answer, or how am I supposed to feel right now. Should I be happy? No. There was nothing to feel happy about someone getting scared of your death.

Yet, instead of happiness, there was a weak, tingling feeling inside my heart. A feeling I hadn't sensed in a while, maybe in a long time. A gentle warmth flickered inside of me, spreading around, making it a little bit hard to breathe, and causing my eyes to feel a little bit hot. The edges of my lips twitched on their own, raising a little bit and forming a faint smile.

"Thank you."

I locked eyes with the man that was like a father figure to me throughout my life. My many lives. He had always been one of the few people who were always warm to me, no matter what I did, no matter where I went. He was strict at times and scary some other times, but he was still kind, just like a caring grandfather.

When I was brought here as a slave, I was just a little kid. I was made a low-ranked servant and was forced to work here the whole day. The one who took care of me was this man here. He had done the same to the young master, raising him, caring for him, and tending to him like his own son. In his eyes, probably I and the young master didn't look too different than each other.

"Now, rest!"

Ranger pulled his hand back and stood up. He turned around to leave the room, before suddenly stopping and turning back to me.

"By the way, an invitation arrived at the mansion three days ago. It's the emperor's birthday in a few weeks. We have to take part as well. The count assigned the young master to go in his stead. We'll be departing in three days, so if you don't get better by then, you'll be left here alone."

The old man told me about the thing that I wanted the least to hear about. Of course, I knew about this invitation. It arrived when I was in the prison on the first day of my regressing. However, there was something strange about the things that Ranger said.

"Young master Alaric will take part in it? Although he has lost his memories?"

Ranger nodded his head with a sigh.

"The young master protested as well, saying that it might not be the best of the choices as he can't remember his past at all, but count Poqlen didn't change his mind. He insisted that the young master had to participate in the celebration as he was busy with the works of the county and couldn't leave them. He also said that he couldn't inform the other nobles about the young master's memory loss, so he had to act like before and participate in the celebration like he does every year."

A thought flashed in my mind. An idea on how to make the others think a little bit more about the poison that I too. I tilted my head to one side as if contemplating hard on something, before mumbling in a low voice.

"He could send the young lady though..."

Ranger's brows frowned upon hearing that and he hurriedly raised his hand up, pressing his finger on his lips.

"Shush! You can't talk about such things out loud!"

"But aren't I right? The count only wants to show the others that he will make young master Alaric the next count instead of the young lady, even if he has lost his memories and even if he is sick."

"Ian!"

The deep, dark blue eyes were warning me to stop talking about troublesome stuff, but I just shrugged in response.

"I'm telling the truth!"

"Yes but... Please don't talk about such things!"

"Alright... But..."

After seeing that I nodded my head, the old man was about to turn to the door and leave when he stopped once again after hearing my next words.

"But wouldn't he be forced to send the young lady to the ceremony if young master Alaric had drank that tea three days ago?"

"...."

The old man stopped in his tracks. With his head lowered and his eyes uneasily moving around, he bent his body and glanced at me.

"...What do you mean, Ian?"

I gave him another shrug.

"This isn't something new to us!"

He knew the meaning behind my words. Assaults and murder attempts on the young master weren't things that we hadn't seen and experienced before.

"...You can't be serious about it!"

"Do you really think that Dr. Reeve could make that many new pills in just a few hours, in between the time when the young master lost his memory and lunch?"

Ranger's eyes shook ever so slightly. He swallowed his saliva and took a deep breath.

"Let's not assume things on our own without proof-"

"Also, there is the problem with the diagnosis of the young master's problem."

The old man frowned a little bit and looked at me with a face that was urging me to continue.

"Do you really think that it's logical? A man losing his memories only because of getting a punch in the stomach? Dr. Reeve said that my punch was a trigger that caused something to happen in his mana flow and lead him to lose his memories, but... Do you believe that my punch could be a trigger? first of all, I'm but a mere servant who has never ever done anything near physical training in his life. I'm sure my punch wouldn't have enough strength to give the young master much pain, not even something near a trigger. Second, young master Alaric has seen worse than this, hasn't he? I'm sure the wound he got on his shoulder when he was attacked on his birthday two years ago or when he fell from the balcony of the second floor would be better triggers for this 'Memory loss' than my morning punch! Don't you think that the doctor diagnosed the problem just... too easily? With too few symptoms and a quick examination?"

Ranger closed his eyes. His hands were already clenched, slightly trembling.

Of course, there was no way that the young master's memory loss was a result of his sister's scheme. It happened just when I regressed, which meant there was no time for her to prepare such a plot, and there is also no way for the past to change. So, I was sure that the young lady wasn't involved in young master Alarict's memory loss.

Still, the fact that Dr. Reeve made that conclusion so fast meant that he was waiting for an opportunity to change the young master's pills somehow. And that meant they had planned to kill him with this method for a long time.

"Ian."

"Yes, old man?"

"Rest."

"..."

Ranger heaved a sigh, turned around, and walked to the door. Just before leaving my room, he raised his hand and pointed at me.

"And don't tell that stuff to anybody else."

Creack

He left the room and closed the door without waiting for me to respond to him.

"Haaaa!"

I heaved a sigh and leaned back on my bed. I had done what I wanted to do and had told what I wanted to say, so it was now the time to rest.

'I'll think about the trip to the empire after I get rid of this pain.'

Yeah. Let's do that.