"Ha, kid, what medical bills are you even worrying about?!"

Flaring up, Bale did not notice he had raised his voice.

Basto immediately shot him a fierce look, and Bale, barely restraining himself, took a deep breath and lowered his tone.

"When the old man said he would buy a house, who was happiest? You were. Things are not like before anymore. We have plenty of money now, understand?"

But Tie’s face remained downcast.

"...But you all worked hard to earn it."

"What did we earn? All of it is the cores you obtained when storming Magic Stones, and the jewels your skeletons dug out of the ground...!"

"You can endure a cold and it will pass!"

Tie let go of the bear and, her nose reddening, sniffled stubbornly.

"A cold does not need injections, does not need hospital. If Tie just endure, it will go away by itself!"

It was long ago, yet in Tie’s memory that day still faintly remained.

Her throat had hurt so much, she had coughed—and she and Papa went to a local clinic.

That day Papa spent all the money he had earned over several weeks just for her injection and emergency treatment.

Tie had hung on his back the whole time, watching him count the money.

It had been so painful that she even regretted ever learning how to count money from the lady in apartment 203.

But that was not the end.

"Wait, sir. The child currently has a high fever and severe cough. This could be bronchiolitis. And the fact that she keeps touching her ears raises suspicion of acute otitis..."

"What does that mean?"

"Simply put, the small bronchi leading to the lungs are swollen due to inflammation, making it hard for her to breathe."

"Ah..."

"And at the same time there may be inflammation in the ears. When a cold is severe, such complications are not uncommon. The child is still young, and since she is having difficulty breathing, she needs observation... it will be difficult at home."

The doctor’s face had been very, very awkward.

"If necessary, oxygen therapy may be required. And it would be best to hospitalize her for four to five days so medication can be administered immediately. If respiratory failure occurs, it is dangerous."

"......"

"But please do not worry too much. At this age, bronchiolitis and otitis are very common. With proper treatment she will recover quickly. It is just... you said you are foreigners, so the cost of treatment may be burdensome... But the hospital does not share treatment records with immigration services, so you need not worry about that..."

The amount the young doctor, after so long choosing his words, finally named was truly enormous.

With that sum one could buy five hundred, no, even more than six hundred Taniping sticker books.

But Papa calmly paid the hospital.

And afterward he kept telling the anxious Tie that she had misheard, that it was not that expensive.

Even though Tie had heard everything.

Still, one could say it was fortunate?

After that, she never fell seriously ill again.

At most, a mild cold.

But the memory of those hospitalization days had already imprinted clearly in her mind.

"If endure, it will pass."

"......"

"If endure very very much, it really will not hurt..."

Lucarion sighed and firmly took Tie’s hand, from which bitter tears were dripping.

And gently said,

"All right. We will not go to the hospital."

Tie wiped her eyes and looked at him.

"Really?"

"Yes. We will not go. First sleep a little more."

Only then did she stop crying.

And weakly burrowed deeper under the blanket.

Just recently she had been hot, and now her body trembled with cold.

Raul and Enzo quietly patted her back.

Fortunately, soon Tie sank into a deep sleep again.

Fortunately, the rain stopped quickly.

When the bright sun rose and the road dried, Enzo took up the reins once more.

Tie was still asleep.

She looked pitiful—and Bale, as usual, ground his teeth.

"I always hated healers who quote insane prices to patients."

Basto, looking out the window, nodded.

"Yes. I once saw a healer who simply wrapped a bandage—and demanded ten gold."

Lucarion mentally converted Tallocium currency into won.

"One gold is roughly ten thousand won."

Then ten gold was one hundred thousand for a simple bandage.

"All healers are trash. In my hometown there was one like that. My fifth younger brother got sick, we went to the hospital—he handed over some useless bottle of medicine and demanded thirty gold..."

Bale muttered a curse and added,

"The doctor the kid mentioned must have been the same. A charlatan. How much did he rip off?"

Lucarion looked at him indifferently.

"That doctor was not a charlatan."

Bale frowned.

"What?"

"In that world, the system is complicated. Therefore treatment is expensive. In the end Astie received treatment and fully recovered."

"What nonsense are you talking about? How complicated can a system be?"

Lucarion was about to explain about Korea’s medical insurance, about Tie’s illegal residency status, about why she could not access public medical support...

But—

"There are such things."

He simply fell silent.

The members of Agavert would not understand anyway.

Bale clenched his fists and sighed.

"Damn, now I want to go there myself."

"Where?"

"To that cursed country where you and the kid lived. I want to see what kind of place it is."

Lucarion quietly laughed.

Unless dimensions overturned and timelines twisted—that would not happen.

"But if it did—it would be amusing."

To imagine Astie’s squad members getting lost in the civilization of another world.

Lucarion looked at Tie again.

The child’s condition was gradually improving.

The cough had almost disappeared, the fever completely gone.

It seemed that waking her and feeding her thin porridge had helped.

Suddenly Lucarion was seized by a strange feeling.

Once, he had disliked that Astie longed for that man.

"After all, it was only four years."

Even if he had been her father, they had lived together only four years.

His memory of it was incomplete, but Lucarion knew—he had existed for a very long time.

Compared to his lifespan, four years were merely a moment.

So he had thought that once Astie grew a little older, she would forget the time spent with that man.

Four years was only a short fragment.

But today.

Lucarion suddenly realized he could somewhat understand Astie, who could not let that man go.

Last night, the child burning with fever had not been saved by Lucarion.

All Lucarion had done was merely repeat how that man had once desperately cared for Tie.

As his thoughts grew tangled and he quietly sank into contemplation—

Knock, knock.

There was a knock at the front window.

Basto opened it, and Enzo from the driver’s seat pointed ahead.

"Look. Seems we found a place to stay."

Lucarion indifferently raised his eyes.

Among the enormous trees around them.

Right in the middle of the road, suspended in the air and tied with ropes, a huge banner fluttered.

"Welcome to Kaldenbain Ridge!

← Road to # Nоvеlight # the inn, shop, and pub."