Chapter 158: Blame
Lys and Sara stood a few steps away from the small hut. The morning light fell sideways across the settlement, making the dust in the air glow softly. Tresta remained in the doorway, her hand still resting on the edge of the door. She did not step back or open the door wider to let them inside.
Lys understood why without anyone saying it. The single room behind her looked bare. He could see the edge of a simple bed, a small table, and almost nothing else. She had almost nothing to offer, and she knew it. She would rather stand here than show the inside of her home to strangers.
Realising this, Lys stayed where he was. He did not try to move closer.
"I am really sorry about your daughter. I know my apology doesn’t change anything, but I still needed to tell you that I tried. Even though I failed."
He stopped speaking. His voice had stayed low the whole time. The splint on his left hand felt heavier than before.
Tresta listened without interrupting. She kept her red-rimmed eyes on his face. When he finished, she stayed quiet for a long moment. The only sound between them was the faint rustling of clothes because of the wind on the washing line somewhere behind them.
Then she spoke. Her voice was quiet but steady.
"I do not hold any anger toward you."
The words hit Lys harder than any shout could have. He had prepared himself for anger. He had expected her to blame him. He would have known how to stand there and take it. But this simple statement of hers that she doesn’t hold any anger toward him left him without anything to say. He stood still, his bandaged chest rose and fell slowly.
Tresta continued, her gaze never leaving him.
"When I placed that quest at the guild, I did not actually believe anyone would take it. I am not a proper citizen here like everyone around me. I have no papers. People like me live outside the walls without any support from the villages. We exist, but we are not really counted among the other citizens. I’m sure you all know about this. I put up the quest the same way someone throws a coin into a river. Not expecting anyone to catch it."
She paused for a breath, and her expression changed a little.
"But then I saw you standing there at the gate, holding my quest paper. That was the first time in a long time someone from inside the walls looked at me like I was a real person. Like, my problem was worth taking seriously. To be honest, I felt hope after a long time at that time."
Lys felt his throat tighten. This was worse than anger. It made the failure feel heavier, not lighter as he wanted. He shifted his weight on his feet but stayed silent, looking straight at her.
Tresta looked at his bandages again.
"I know you were badly hurt," she said again. "The herbs that arrived at my door this morning were proof of what you went through. I am not a foolish woman. I know how dangerous the Gaiya forest is lately. I know what it means when someone comes back looking the way you look now. And I am really glad you are alive. I mean that."
Sara stood quietly beside Lys the whole time. She watched Tresta carefully; her expression was calm, but Lys could tell she was taking in every word.
Lys finally found his voice again.
"Is there anything I can do for you now?"
"About any debt you might have from the quest money. Or... about your daughter’s body, funeral or something?"
Tresta shook her head slowly.
"The guild returned the quest payment this morning. They marked it as incomplete under emergency circumstances. A woman from the guild came here herself to give me the message. So I am not in any debt right now."
Lys nodded, thinking whether she was talking about Vessa or not. He hesitated to ask something, but then asked it anyway, even though he knew it might sound rude.
"And...umm... about your daughter’s body?"
Sara answered before Tresta could speak. Her voice was clear and matter-of-fact.
"What are you talking about? Shouldn’t you know something like that by now? In this kingdom, all the deceased are handled by the church. It does not matter if someone has citizenship papers or not. It is mandatory law everywhere, even outside the walls. They do it to prevent any undead from rising. The church must have come this morning and taken care of everything."
Lys blinked. This was new to him. The original Lys’s memories did not have this information either. He stayed quiet, taking this new info in.
Tresta looked at her own doorway for a moment. The single room was visible through the gap.
"I would have invited you inside," she said softly. "But..."
She did not finish the sentence. And she didn’t need to.
Lys shook his head gently before she could finish the words. "It is all right. Really. We’re good."
Something in the air between them felt a little lighter after he said that. Tresta’s shoulders relaxed just a fraction.
But Lys still could not make himself leave. He had come all this way, and the reason he came for did not feel resolved yet. He shifted his splinted hand carefully.
"Is there anything at all I can do for you?" he asked again. "Anything you need?"
Tresta’s face changed hearing that. It was not anger, but something with more dignity than anger. She stood a little straighter in the doorway.
"I am glad you feel bad," she said. "I would think less of you if you did not. But I would like you not to confuse feeling bad with pity. I may be poor and living out here, but I still have my self-respect, you know. And I would appreciate it if you treated me like a person as you did before, not like a problem you are trying to fix so that you could feel less guilty."
The words landed on Lys fully. He felt how accurate they were. He had been speaking to her like she was something that needed solving, not someone who deserved simple respect.
"Oh, I’m so sorry," he said quickly, this time more carefully. "I shouldn’t have said it like that. I’m really sorry for the way I just spoke to you. Like you were something to be fixed instead of someone to talk to. That was wrong of me."
Tresta nodded once. She accepted the apology without any extra words or ceremony.
Lys took a small breath.
"But still, if you ever need anything," he said, "you can reach Sara or me here. I don’t know exactly what I can do yet, but I mean it. You can find me through the guild or at my house inside the village."
Tresta nodded again. There was no big promise in her eyes, but she did not refuse the offer either.
They stood there for another moment. The silence felt different now, not uncomfortable, just quiet and a little awkward.
"Thank you for coming," Tresta said finally. Her voice stayed small. "And thank you for trying to do my quest, umm..?"
Lys gave a small nod. "Oh, so sorry. I haven’t even introduced myself yet. I’m Lys, and she is Sara."
Sara spoke for the first time since they arrived. Her voice was polite and steady.
"Umm, thank you for speaking with us, Miss Tresta," she said, giving her a simple courtesy, not a noble greeting type, just a simple one.
Then Lys said, "Then, Miss Tresta, we’ll be on our way. Take care of yourself."
Tresta gave a tiny nod in return.
Lys and Sara turned and started walking back toward the dirt road. Lys’s steps were still slow because of his injuries. Sara stayed close on his right side again, ready to help if he needed it. Neither of them spoke for the first few minutes.
Lys kept thinking about Tresta’s words. The way she had looked at him when she said he was the first person from inside the walls to treat her like a real person. The way she had refused his pity with quiet dignity. It sat heavy in his chest, heavier than the bandages or the bruises.
He had gone there to apologize and make himself feel better about his failure. But instead, he had learned something new about this world. About the people who lived outside the walls. About how some failures could not be fixed with words or actions, no matter how much he wanted to fix them.
Today was a day to be remembered for him. He learned too many things in this single day.
Sara glanced at him as they walked.
"You okay?" she asked quietly.
Lys thought about the question for a moment.
"I don’t know," he answered honestly. "But I’m glad I went to meet her at least."
Sara did not push for more. She simply walked beside him, matching his slow pace as they headed back toward the village gate.
The sun continued to rise higher over the fields. The settlement behind them grew smaller with every step. Lys carried the conversation with Tresta with him, along with the pain in his ribs and the new weight in his heart.
He finally understood that this was what came with adventuring, too. Not just the fights and the leveling up like those isekai anime he used to watch back on Earth. But moments like this one, too.
