Chapter 362. Aging
The sound of Charles' footsteps echoed rather loudly throughout the spacious corridors. It wasn't unusual for noise to bounce like this throughout the Governor's Mansion. After all, the Governor's Mansion was usually quiet.
The maids would come in and clean the rooms when necessary, but all of them dared not to linger for too long inside the mansion.
"Lily, are you there?" Charles asked as he pushed open the door to the kitchen. He failed to find the little rascal, whom he thought was trying to sneak some food outside to eat.
"Strange, where did she go?" Charles muttered. He had already searched the entire mansion but still failed to find his gunner. Charles had to admit that he hadn't really been able to pay attention to Lily, as things had been quite hectic in the past few days.
Now that he thought about it, Lily had seemed a bit off since his return, and there were a few times when she had disappeared for an entire day without leaving even a trace.
Charles walked up to the mouse hole by the door and lightly kicked the wall right next to it.
"Where did your boss go?" he asked but received no reply.
Is she going through puberty or something? Charles started pondering over the matter and realized that he had searched everywhere else aside from one place: his own bedroom.
Charles wasted no time and made a beeline for his bedroom. He lifted the bedsheet and found a familiar figure sitting in front of an open book beneath the bed; she seemed completely engrossed in the book, as she had failed to notice Charles' arrival.
Charles tapped the bed frame with his prosthetic knee and knelt. "Lily?"
The mouse turned slowly to face Charles before crawling out from under the bed on all fours.
"Mr. Charles..." she muttered.
Charles was surprised to see her sunny and energetic demeanor missing. He picked her up and stroked her furry head, saying, "What's going on? Are you still feeling down because of Doctor? There, there. Aging and dying of old age is inevitable—no one can escape them.
"And he actually lived a pretty long life; he lasted ninety-eight years in this crazy world, after all."
A tremor ran through Lily, and she kept on trying to push her tiny furry head into Charles' clasped hands. Charles thought that Lily was simply embarrassed, so he didn't mind her behavior and picked up the book that she had been reading beneath the bed—The Love Story of a Governor's Daughter and a Pirate Captain.
"The authors here really are fans of straightforward titles," Charles said, chuckling.
He then flipped it open casually, and as expected, the story was full of cliches. To make matters worse, bedroom scenes involving the Governor's daughter seemed to be a big chunk of the entire book.
"Why do you like reading this kind of stuff, Lily? They're not exactly suitable for someone of your age," Charles asked.
However, he couldn't have expected Lily's reaction. Tears streamed down Lily's tiny eyes as she cried indignantly, "Why are you and that monster sister allowed to do these things when you don't even let me read them?!
"Mom told me that girls shouldn't talk about this stuff, but I don't care! I want to talk about it! I want to read it! What use is embarrassment and decorum to me when I've become a mouse!"
Charles stared wide-eyed at Lily, stupefied by her outburst. Charles could swear that this was the first time Lily had thrown a tantrum at him. He reached out a hand to console her, but Lily jumped off his palm.
"I'm not your pet!" Lily shouted and clenched her tiny claws. "I'm human, too, and I want to live a normal life like the rest of you!"
Lily's petite figure trembling like an aspen tree and her quivering claws as she clenched them strongly told Charles that she was genuinely furious.
"Alright, Lily. What would you like me to do, then?" Charles asked softly.
"Don't speak to me with that tone of voice! I'm not a child anymore! I don't want to hear you talking to me as if you were soothing a child! Just talk to me like how you talk to that monster sister!"
Charles stared calmly at Lily and replied, "Of course, you're not a child. You're my gunner, after all."
"See?! You always tell me that I'm not a child, but you always sound like you're coaxing a child whenever you talk to me. I'm really not a child anymore!" Lily waved her claws frantically as tears rolled down her face. "I'm... I'm already dying of old age!"
Dying of old age...?
Dying of old age...?
Dying of old age...?
Lily's shrill cries echoed repeatedly in Charles' mind. He looked as if he had been struck by a bolt of lightning from out of the blue, and his heart started beating frantically against his chest.
He grabbed Lily and examined her, only to become horrified upon discovering that Lily was displaying the hallmarks of aging—missing fur, drooping whiskers, and sagging skin—Lily was becoming similar to Laesto at the end of his life.
"When did it start? No, Lily! Tell me exactly how long it has been since you became a mouse," Charles hurriedly asked.
However, Charles' frantic actions had only amplified the fear in Lily's heart. She pressed her head against Charles' palm and wailed, "Sob! I'm scared... I'm really scared, Mr. Charleees!"
Charles wasted no time and rushed out of the Governor's Mansion while carrying Lily in his hand. He stumbled upon three followers of the Light God outside the mansion gates, and one of them started speaking upon seeing Charles.
"Governor, His Holiness says that you can take your time, but you should at least give him a departure date—"
"Get lost!" Charles interrupted, "I have no time for that nonsense right now! Tell him that my next voyage is postponed indefinitely!"
Charles didn't bother waiting for their reply as he hopped onto a roof and made a beeline for Linda's apartment. It didn't take Charles long to find Linda lounging about on the top floor of a four-story building.
Upon hearing of Lily's status from Charles, Linda's face instantly grew serious. She rushed to fetch her medical kit and started examining Lily. Charles couldn't calm down at all as Linda examined Lily's teeth and listened to her breathing.
Soon, Linda was done examining Lily, and Charles hurriedly asked, "How is she?"
"She's certainly old in relation to other mice, but it doesn't necessarily mean that she's about to die. I'm not sure about Lily's species, so I can't tell you exactly how much time she has left.
"Based on her physical condition, she should last for another four months or so with proper care and support," Linda replied.
The first part of Linda's sentence made Charles feel relieved, but the latter part of the former's sentence was like a bucket of cold water being poured on Charles.
Lily wasn't dying at the moment, but she would still die of old age in four months. In other words, Charles had to find a way to save Lily before her time was up.
"Do you know any methods at all? Did Doctor teach you a trump card of some sort?" Charles asked urgently.
"You're asking for the impossible here, Captain. There's no cure for aging. If there were, Teacher wouldn't have..." Linda trailed off.
Charles then realized that he had just asked a doctor a dumb question. Regardless, he wasn't willing to give up just like that. He held Lily gently in his hand and rushed outside. His next destination was the Navy headquarters; he wanted to make use of the Navy's intelligence network to look for solutions.
"Mr. Charles, there's no use going there," Lily suddenly said, making Charles come to a screeching halt. "I had Big Guy look for solutions a long time ago, but he found nothing. While you were away, I also asked my mice friends to go to other islands to seek methods, but I still haven't received any news from them."
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