Chapter 159: The real Problem
They walked without speaking for the first few minutes. The small settlement grew smaller behind them with every step they took. The dirt road stretched ahead toward the village walls. Morning air moved around them, carrying the faint smell of dry grass and woodsmoke.
Sara spoke first, her voice steady as she kept her eyes on the road.
"Even if you feel this deeply about what happened to Tresta, the truth is, there are thousands of people living exactly like her just around this village alone. Tens of thousands across the whole country, I believe. You can feel bad for every single one of them if you want, but feeling it doesn’t change anything for them, you know."
She kept walking at the same slow pace as Lys, her shoulder brushing close to his good arm.
"The real problem isn’t one woman’s poverty or one girl’s sickness. It’s the curse. The curse that killed most of the men and made the rest unable to have children. Until that curse breaks, everything else is just trying to manage the damage. This whole society won’t recover, no matter how many small things you fix."
Lys listened while his ribs ached with each breath. The road back felt longer than the walk out. He thought about her words carefully. He did not disagree with the size of the problem she spoke of. The goddess also had told him the same thing at the beginning: to repopulate the world. But hearing it from Sara out here on the empty road after all that happened to him made it feel heavier.
After a while, he answered in a low voice.
"Even if that’s true, even if I can’t fix the big problem right now, if I can change even one person’s situation along the way, I’m not going to stop myself from doing it. I’m sure you know me by now. That’s just how I am. Trying to change that part of me would be like trying to stop breathing."
Sara glanced sideways at him. Her steps stayed even with his.
"So what exactly are you planning to do about it?"
Lys kept his gaze on the road ahead. "I’m going back tomorrow. I’m going to ask Tresta to come live in my house."
Sara stopped walking for half a second. But then, thinking for a second, she continued walking as if nothing had happened. She did not tell him he was wrong. She didn’t tell him he was right either.
She just stayed quiet for a moment, the kind of quiet that came from someone who had already watched this exact pattern before, first with Mitsu, then with others slowly filling the house, and had already accepted that this was simply who Lys was. Bringing others into his house if he can fix someone’s fate. This has become a pattern by this point. She recognized it right away.
"Your house already has more people in it than most houses twice its size," she said.
Lys shrugged with his good shoulder. "The fifth room is still empty, isn’t it. I’m sleeping in Selene’s room now anyway. So, that room can be taken by her."
Sara flinched at the mention of sleeping with Selene. Her shoulders tensed for a moment before she forced them to relax again. Lys noticed it clearly but kept his mouth shut.
She then let out a long sigh.
"Fine," she said. "You can do that tomorrow. At least rest for one full day first. Don’t do anything today. You can barely walk straight right now. You’re not going to convince anyone of anything when you look like you just lost a fight with a monster in your first battle, no less."
Lys gave a weak grin, the first one since yesterday. "Hey, I actually won that fight. Haven’t you heard? I cut that huge hobgoblin’s head off in one swing."
Sara turned her head and looked straight at his face, at the missing teeth, the swollen jaw, the bruises, and the bandages wrapped around his chest. She raised one eyebrow.
"Yeah, sure you did," she said, her voice dry with slight mockery. "Looks like the hobgoblin won pretty hard if you ask me."
Lys almost smiled again with frustration. The small movement pulled at his swollen jaw and hurt, but it still felt good to him to know that he could still laugh after all that.
When they finally reached the village gate, the guard gave them a quick nod and let them through without question. They walked partway down the main road together before Sara slowed down near the corner that led to her shop.
She stopped and turned toward him.
"I’ll check on you tonight," she said without looking directly at his eyes. "And if I find out you already went back to that settlement before tomorrow, I’m going to be seriously annoyed, you know."
Lys nodded. "Okay. I’ll wait for you tomorrow before I go see her again."
Sara gave one last look at his bandaged body, then turned and walked toward her shop without another word.
Lys stood there for a moment and watched her go. When she disappeared around the corner, he turned toward home.
He had barely taken ten more steps when a loud voice called out from ahead.
"Lysander Veyne!"
Lys looked up. Priest John stood in the middle of the street, with two temple guards behind him.
Lys understood almost instantly that he had been caught in Priest John’s orbit, exactly as Selene had warned him before. She was also standing nearby.
Her face was a mask of pale terror, silently urging him with a sharp, desperate look to turn back before it was too late. But with the guards in front of him, he was already stuck.
