Dying Well Is Living Well

After leaving Ailie in the annex, the Duke and I sat down in the garden house. I launched straight into my explanation.

"William is suffering from cirrhosis of the liver. Simply put, his liver has hardened to the point where it can no longer function properly. Substances that should be processed by the liver are escaping into his abdomen instead, and that's what's causing the fluid buildup."

"So, knowing all that, why do you insist you can't treat him?"

"Because I know it all too well."

Cirrhosis had a high mortality rate even in twenty-first-century South Korea.

So here, in this medical wasteland? I wasn't even a surgeon—what exactly was I supposed to do to save him?

"You haven't forgotten your promise to offer your life if you fail to cure him?"

"Of course not. But please, give me just a few days. If you grant me that time, then I will help William die."

This time, the Duke's eyes widened slightly. I pressed on.

"Death comes for everyone, eventually. Which means, in the end, dying well is no different from living well. I want to help William pass on with as little pain as possible. And."

"And?"

"Ailie needs to be prepared to say goodbye to her father, too."

Though, of course, if the Duke pulled out a sword right that instant and told me not to try anything clever, I would simply have to die.

Somehow, though, I had a feeling the man I'd tangled with wasn't going to kill me today.

Blasion, who had been sitting in silence, finally spoke.

"Until William dies, then."

"Yes!! That's plenty!"

Knowing the patient could slip into a coma from hepatic encephalopathy at any moment, I felt the time pressure keenly. I rose from my seat at once.

"I'll prepare the procedure today, this very moment."

Thanks to the ducal family's wealth and power, everything I needed was gathered in no time.

With all the supplies loaded onto a trolley, Lionel called for Ailie. The girl came over with Blasion, beaming without a care in the world.

"Ailie. In a moment, I'm going to do a procedure that will make your father a little more comfortable. But before that, there's something I need to tell you. That's why I called you here."

Sensing the gravity in the air, Ailie looked up at Lionel, tensing.

"Your father is going to pass away soon."

Lionel delivered the news flatly, but in a voice that left no room for doubt.

In an instant, tears welled up in the girl's big round eyes.

"Is my daddy really going to die? When?"

"I honestly can't say. It could be today, it could be tomorrow. Either way, it will be soon."

Lionel wiped the girl's face with her sleeve, then whispered in the gentlest voice she could muster.

"Ailie. Everyone dies, someday. And when you go, you can't take anything with you—except for one single thing."

"……What's that?"

"The memories you made with the people you loved."

Lionel stroked Ailie's red hair. The Duke watched the scene with his arms crossed. When he'd reached for his sword, he'd been a runaway locomotive with no brakes—but in this moment, his hands were immeasurably gentle.

"I'll do everything I can to make your father as comfortable as possible. So, Ailie……"

Lionel paused, held her breath for a beat, then confessed with a faint smile.

"……Don't have regrets, like I did. Spend this last stretch of time making good memories with your dad. Can you help me from now on?"

"……Yes."

"That's my girl. Thank you. Let's go in together."

Ailie wiped her nose and tears with the back of her hand and followed Lionel into the cottage.

Standing before William, Lionel announced the start of the procedure.

"Then, beginning now, I will perform an abdominal paracentesis to drain the fluid from your belly."

Over the course of three hours, four one-liter bottles' worth of ascites flowed out of William's abdomen. Ailie faithfully swapped out each bottle as it filled.

With his belly slightly sunken, William looked dramatically better. He got into a wheelchair and rolled out into the garden with Ailie at his side.

Thrilled, the girl chattered away without pause.

"Daddy, what's this flower called?"

"That's a crocus. And that yellow one blooming next to it is a daffodil."

"You know everything, Daddy! You're sooo smart!"

The murmured back-and-forth between father and daughter was warm and full of affection. Watching the two of them from a short distance away, a small smile crept onto Lionel's lips.

Blasion, who had been watching them as well, asked out of nowhere.

"What was it you regretted?"

"……I'm sorry?"

"You told Ailie. That you had regrets."

"Ah……. That. Well, I had a sickly mother, you see. We lived together before I came to the Frencia Barony."

Lionel thought of her mother—the only family she'd ever had.

Across both her present life and her past one, her mother was the only person she had ever acknowledged as family, the one who had given her love in full measure.

It wasn't exactly a cheerful subject, so Lionel tried to wrap the topic up quickly.

"At some point she got too weak to get up, so she was always in bed. Then one day she begged me for hotcakes. She begged and begged, so I finally made them for her, and not long after that, she passed away. So I…… regret it a little. That's all it is."

"You feel the effort of making them wore her out?"

"Yes."

Blasion fell silent for a moment.

Great, what am I supposed to do with this atmosphere? Lionel laughed loudly on purpose, trying to sweep away the awkwardness.

"Ahaha! It's nothing, really! Who in this harsh world has no sob story? Everyone's got a family member or two who……"

"Everyone has their burdens. But that has nothing to do with it—this doesn't strike me as something you should be carrying."

Oh. Lionel blinked at the interjection. Blasion went on with a perfectly neutral expression.

"If making a few hotcakes was all it took to hasten her death, then her body was already failing that badly. You had no part in it. It's not something you should have been holding onto all this time."

Blunt as a hammer—yet the message inside was achingly tender.

Lionel, unsure how to answer, turned her gaze elsewhere.

Why was it that a man who'd staged such a bloodbath in the original story was so quietly kind? Was this world truly the world of The Unfading Flower?

Just as that small doubt began to smolder in her mind, Ailie's laughter rang out again.

Both of their gazes drifted naturally toward father and daughter. At some point, William had woven a flower ring and was slipping it onto Ailie's finger.

"Wow. Must be nice."

The words escaped Lionel before she could stop them, and she regretted it instantly. Blasion was staring straight through her.

"No, it's just……. I can't make things like that. Flower rings. I just thought it must be nice, because they're pretty."

After all, in the original novel, there's a scene where the heroine makes a flower ring and gives it to you. And then you, ever the romance-fantasy male lead, hand her back a diamond ring of the exact same shape.

She was still mentally replaying the novel's contents when Blasion rose from his seat.

"A flower ring is hardly difficult to make."

"Sorry— you know how?"

Blasion didn't answer. He simply snapped off a clover growing at his feet. With practiced fingers he wove the loops together, and in no time at all, an adorable little ring took shape.

Then, ring held aloft as if on display, a flicker of awkwardness crossed his violet eyes.

He seemed to be pondering what exactly he was supposed to do with it now. After a pause, he held it out and said:

"……Found it."

"You found it?"

"Just picked it up."

"Right. Of course. We'll go with that."

I must have transmigrated into some other novel entirely. She was thinking just that as she tucked the flower ring into her pocket—

"Daddy!!"

Ailie's piercing scream split the air. Without a word of who-goes-first, both of them bolted forward.

"William!!"

William, slumped against his wheelchair, coughed in agony. With every heave of his chest, black blood spattered from his mouth.

So it's finally here.

There was truly no time left. Lionel spoke with grim resolve.

"Duke. Please carry William to his room. And Ailie—it's time to prepare your heart. Your father is passing away today."

"What? You're not going to do anything? Why not? Can't you stop the bleeding, Doctor?"

"I'm sorry, Ailie. Your father's body can't endure any more treatment."

Lionel explained as calmly as she could.

"Your father is going to keep coughing up blood until he passes. If watching that is too much for you, it's all right to step away for a while."

"No!! I'm staying by his side until the very end!"

Ailie swiped her tears away with the back of her hand. Then, terrified that Lionel might tell her no, she shouted even more bravely.

"I'm going to stay with Daddy until the end, so he won't be lonely……. So please let me be there, Doctor!"

The final courage and resolve of a ten-year-old child was, if anything, awe-inspiring.

Lionel had no choice but to nod.

"Everything is ready. The whole household has been informed as well."

Blasion returned after seeing William moved. Lionel took Ailie's hand in a firm grip.

"Let's go, Ailie."

Just as the original story had described, William was, in the end, a good and gentle man.

Even through the torment—retching, vomiting, retching again—he received his visitors with quiet composure.

He said his tearful goodbyes to the servants who had served beside him for ten years.

And in the final moment, as his consciousness dimmed and flickered, William took his daughter's hand.

"Ailie, I love you……. I'm sorry……. In the next life too, please…… be born as my daughter again……."

Whatever Ailie answered was swallowed whole by her sobbing, and Lionel couldn't make it out.

But Lionel was certain that William himself had heard it.

William did not last the night. He drew his last breath with his daughter, his physician, and his employer keeping watch at his side.

Lionel wiped the blood from around his mouth with a gauze pad. Then, wringing out every last ounce of strength she had, she opened her mouth.

"The time is now 3:31 in the morning. William Lexter has passed away."