The Advent of a Holy Maiden [Part 2]
Jacob’s POV
The slum children had never touched our meals. I could not even see a shadow of the slum children who would punch, trick, or worse, kill, for a piece of bread in them.
I could only see holy children who sought and followed after the Holy Maiden’s instructions.
Just what on earth have they beheld?
Just how many miracles have they come to witness?
After only a few days, I had shown signs of gradually recovering from that terrible disease.
The Holy Maiden had only given me a clean bed and meals. Neither the medicine that I wanted so badly, nor a doctor was here.
At that time, I thought. ‘This must be a miracle that can cure incurable diseases.’
“Jacob-san, your wounds have also started to close. I’m sure you’ll get better and better.” The Holy Maiden smiled brightly.
I had always hated nobles. Nobles who looked down on us as if they were looking at filth.
And it wasn’t just me, all the sailors hated nobles too.
When they brought me to the Nobles’ District, I was already prepared to die. I thought I had been chosen as a plaything for some crazy noble.
“Jacob-san. I’ll come again later, okay? Ah, you must finish the orange! It’s a promise, got it?”
But right now, in this place, no one would say that they hated nobles. Because that beautiful little Holy Maiden was the daughter of a count.
The Holy Maiden touched me, not with a look of disdain, but with a gentle expression that let me feel her overflowing compassion. Not even once had she looked disgusted when changing the dressing for my wound. When we talked, she always looked me straight in the eye, held my hand, and even gave me a farewell hug before leaving. She had helped me remember my dignity as a person that I had lost since I contracted this disease.
The Holy Maiden’s smile could also cure my illness.
I didn’t need any doctor or medicine, because that smile heals.
It was such a miraculous smile. The Holy Maiden’s smile had given strength to my limp and heavy arms.
Ahh, a real Holy Maiden had appeared in the Kingdom.
I ate the orange the Holy Maiden gave me while cherishing every bite.
I couldn’t eat fresh fruits anymore if I had to go on a long sail again in the future. Because I was sure that I would definitely recover from this disease.
While slowly savoring the taste, I engraved that smile in my heart.
End of Jacob’s POV
♠♠♠
“Nee-sama— Have you heard from the academy that school will start the day after the break?”
William spoke to Emma, who had finished serving out oranges as dessert.
“…Nee-sama, you are grinning too much, you know that?”
When Emma turned around, William could see the corner of her mouth kept rising, and thus warned her with a fed-up face.
“But William… everyone, everyone… is so cool…”
The too-big of an annex within the Stuarts’ grounds, which the family had never used before, was opened to the public as a treatment center for scurvy patients. However, in it, what awaited Emma turned out to be a beautiful miscalculation.
Most of the sailors who were forced to go on long, harsh voyages and ended up with scurvy were men who were a little over the age of active duty.
Young sailors could land themselves a job on a ship with better conditions precisely because they were still young. They could find other work just fine without having to go out of their way to work on a ship that could make them sick.
Naturally, the patients were the poor yet able-bodied 50 to 60-year-old sailors who went out on long and harsh voyages.
