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Chapter 27
“Ah, hang in there. He’s a patient… a 1,000,000-gold patient.”
“You just woke up, so you must be out of it. Drink this and rest a bit.”
Sam took the bottle Nana handed him and drank it absentmindedly. His drowsy mind hadn’t registered the color of the potion properly.
But the moment the potion touched his lips, his foggy senses snapped awake.
“Ugh! Cough, cough!”
“Hey! That’s expensive, and you’re spitting it out!”
“Did you give this to a person to drink? Even trash food would taste better than this!”
“This potion is what got you conscious and improved your condition, and you’re saying that?!”
“Wh-what? You’ve been making me drink this all this time? This tastes worse than dog food….”
“Then would you rather eat actual dog food? Drink it nicely when I ask, before I shove a funnel down your throat and pour it forcibly.”
“Wow, Ash doesn’t know you’re like this? By the way, where’s Uncle Brody? Leaving a lunatic like you to take care of me.”
Sam grumbled innocently, probably unaware of the full situation. But his words hit Nana like a dagger. She stood silent for a moment before speaking softly.
“…He’s dead.”
“What?”
“He’s dead. From that incident until I found you, I was the only survivor in the village.”
“…There’s a time for jokes and a time not to joke, Adrien Rozitten.”
“Do you think I’m joking right now?”
Nana glared at Sam with tear-filled eyes. Her lips were pressed so tightly that her face went pale. Sam was dumbfounded and speechless.
After a long silence, Nana was the first to leave. She turned sharply and disappeared from the room.
“That can’t be… then Mr. Lindberg…”
Sam muttered to himself, still dazed.
“You may not know the full story of her past…”
At that moment, Ishanka, who had been leaning against the wall silently during their argument, finally spoke.
“At the very least, show gratitude to the one who cared for you and apologize for your rudeness. If it weren’t for her, you would have really died.”
Sam could only stare blankly at Ishanka’s retreating figure, following Nana out.
After that, things were a bit awkward between Nana and Sam, but after 2–3 days, they returned to their usual selves.
Sam hesitated, trying to find the right moment to express his thanks and apology, but Nana acted as if the incident had been erased from her mind, treating him normally.
And her nursing continued as always.
“Medicine that’s good for you is usually bitter. Drink up.”
“Have you tasted this? It really tastes like garbage.”
Still, Sam gulped down the liquid in the bottle Nana gave him. The taste was terrible, but the more he drank, the lighter his body felt.
Meanwhile, Nana carefully monitored Sam’s gauge.
<Current Life Gauge of Sam: ■■■■■■■■■□>
‘Just a little more and it’ll be full. Then the quest will be complete, and I’ll get 1,000,000 gold. I’ve worked hard dealing with this 1,000,000-gold brat.’
But Nana had another concern: what to do about Sam’s living arrangements.
Although most of the land in Sweet Little Village had been declared farmland by Nana and purified, it was still a dead village with no living people.
‘At least the land’s purified and the house is repaired. I could return him to his original shop or choose another livable house.’
The possibility of Sam staying at the farm wasn’t considered at all. From Nana’s perspective, it made sense.
“By the way, why were you in the library basement? You didn’t like going near the library because of the ghost stories, right?”
“‘You too’? That’s country logic. I didn’t want to go because the library here is smaller and shabbier than the one in the capital. It’s not because I’m scared like you.”
His words had a knack for irritating the person he was speaking to with just a few sentences.
Even before things got messy, Sam and Nana had little contact except when meeting Ash. They weren’t close.
Would anyone want someone they didn’t get along with in their personal space? Nana’s answer was ‘no.’
“But what is this food? Did you really bring it for humans?”
“It’s a special dish I made so it wouldn’t be too heavy. Just eat it, okay?”
“Ugh. If this were the capital, it would’ve been tastier. I should’ve gone up sooner.”
Sam grumbled as he scooped the watery porridge into his mouth, complaining nonstop even while eating.
“I ate it all out of courtesy, but it was bland. Next time, add more sugar.”
Despite just sitting and eating, he even gave a taste review. Nana’s instinct screamed to punch his pretty face, but her rational side reminded her he was still a patient.
“Are you sure you haven’t seen Uncle Brody?”
“No. As I said before, when I came out, no one alive was in the village. I thought I was the only survivor. Then how did you survive?”
“…I fell off a cliff while running, and when I came to, I was in that basement. The only exit was a locked wooden door.”
“Then a lot of time passed after that incident. How are you still alive?”
“There was emergency food in the basement. I rationed it while waiting for Uncle Brody to come.”
Nana wanted to probe more about Sam’s inconsistent story, but he lay down on the bed, signaling he had nothing more to say.
Even though Sam acted immaturely and irrationally, Nana chose not to press further. Everyone has secrets they don’t want to share.
If just one more segment of Sam’s life gauge filled, the quest would be complete. Nana hummed a tune, imagining what she would do with the 1,000,000 gold reward.
But what she thought would be a quick quest suddenly ran into an unexpected problem.
“I’m not drinking.”
The patient refused the medicine.
“You’ve been drinking faithfully until now, why all of a sudden?”
“I think if I drink any more, my sense of taste will die.”
What kind of nonsense is this?
“My taste is delicate and sensitive, unlike yours. If I keep drinking your weird potions, it’ll kill my taste buds and nerves.”
After being trapped in the basement for so long, did he also lose his mind?
Nana felt the urge to shove a funnel down his throat and pour the potion forcibly, but they would soon part ways. She decided to end things peacefully, for old times’ sake.
She resolved to treat Sam a little more kindly in her heart.
“Alright. Sometimes you don’t feel like taking medicine. I’ll leave it here, so drink it before lunch.”
He wasn’t a child; his stubbornness would fade quickly.
So Nana dismissed the issue as trivial.
When Nana went to Sweet Little Village to find a place for Sam to live, this happened:
<Sam’s Life Gauge has decreased.
Current Life Gauge of Sam: ■■■■■■■■□□>
What?! System! Yesterday it was fine—why did it drop?!
Even after rubbing her eyes, Nana saw that the gauge really had dropped. Only by one, but still.
<Even if the patient’s condition improves, neglecting care will lower the life gauge over time.>
Nana felt wronged. She had been carefully nursing Sam all along, enduring his obnoxious grumbling!
<Sam’s current condition is very good, so even if the gauge drops by half, he won’t lose consciousness. But if it falls below 3, he could be in danger.>
She needed to find out what happened. Nana turned back from the village and headed to the farm.
Bang!
“Sam! What’s going on…?”
Nana rushed to open the door, but she couldn’t finish her sentence. She saw Sam frozen outside the window, watching her throw away the potion she had prepared.
Sam hadn’t expected Nana to return, so he remained frozen in the same posture.
“…What are you doing?”
Sam’s response was absurd.
“I was watering the flowers.”
“Bullshit. You’re crazy.”
