2.3

When Helena left the garden and entered the treatment room, she was greeted by a tearful Johann, who noticed Isaac following behind her.  

“Dr. Helena! Why are you so late…!”  

The treatment room, which had only one bed, somehow ended up with three patients crammed inside. Fortunately, none of them seemed to be in critical condition, but it was clear they were unwell. As soon as Helena entered, the patients eagerly began explaining their ailments.

“Ahh, my joints ache terribly. Dr. Helena, please take a look at my knees.”  

“I was here first! I think I ate something bad this morning; my stomach feels unsettled.”  

“Helena, my fever won’t go down. I feel chills all over…”  

As each patient listed their complaints, Helena tended to them one by one, feeling the passage of time acutely. The elderly man complaining about his knees had been a hunter twenty years ago, often gifting her meat from the forest. The middle-aged woman with stomach troubles had been her peer back then, teaching her how to sew. The child with the fever was the offspring of a young girl who had once given Helena flowers. Time had passed, and the girl had grown into a mother. Feeling a strange sense of nostalgia, Helena stroked the child’s head.

“Alright, young lady. Promise me you’ll take the medicine Priest Johann gave you twice a day for three days.”  

“Promise…!”  

“You, ma’am, ate too quickly again. I told you to eat slowly. You were here last time for the same problem.”  

As Helena kindly addressed each patient, Isaac, standing nearby, found himself growing more and more unsettled.  

‘To think I treated someone so kind and gentle so shamefully in my dreams…’  

He traced the wings of the Goddess—a symbol of the holy cross—on his palm, repenting for his sin. Even though there was no trace of last night’s incident left on the bed, Isaac couldn’t shake an unsettling feeling in his heart. However, Helena’s warm gaze reassured him that it had all been just a dream. Though a strange sense of regret lingered, he knew it was something he should not dwell on.  

“Grandfather, your knees ache because you overused them in your youth. I’ll give you some ointment, so make sure to apply it regularly.”  

“Hoho. Ippolita used to say the same thing, telling me I was too rough on my body. At first, I thought you looked just like her, but now I see your eye color is different. Yours are lighter than hers.”  

“…You remember all of that?”  

“How could I forget? Every time I tried to tease her by showing her a bleeding animal I’d caught, instead of being scared, her beautiful eyes would gleam like those of a predator. There’s no way I could forget those eyes.”  

At the old man’s mischievous words, Isaac looked closely at Helena’s eyes. The color, which he had thought was the same as Ippolita’s, was actually a lighter shade of green, similar to his own. The eyes of the woman he had called Helena in his dream were not this bright.  

‘Were Dr. Helena’s eyes always this light in color?’  

Isaac felt deeply confused, wondering if the woman he had called Helena last night might actually have been Ippolita. Unaware of the expression on Isaac’s face as he stood behind her, Helena continued her conversation with the old man.  

“Everyone seems to bring her up when they see me. What kind of person was she?”  

“She was an excellent doctor. Even when the village was plagued by an epidemic, she stayed until the end to help. For a whole year, she cared for the sick. Oh, and young Priest Isaac here was her diligent assistant. Even when other kids offered to help, he insisted on staying by her side, saying he could handle it alone.”  

“So that’s how it was. It’s surprising to think that Isaac, such an upright priest, had a time like that in his life.”  

“Isn’t it? But Dr. Helena, are you really unrelated to Ippolita? You look so much like her…”  

Feeling uneasy that someone might start doubting her, Helena hastily made up a reply.  

“Actually… Ippolita is my mother. She told me I absolutely had to visit this place.”  

“I knew it! So, what did Ippolita say? Did she say she liked this place? I hope she did.”  

While the old man chuckled contentedly, pressing Helena with questions that weren’t quite questions, Isaac’s expression was crumbling. Not only had he declared in front of Helena that her mother was his first love, but now he had become a scoundrel who harbored feelings for both mother and daughter.  

To make matters worse, he was now confused as to whether the woman in his dream had been Helena or Ippolita. He had been so certain it was Helena, but the woman’s eyes had been Ippolita’s. Even if the Goddess hadn’t witnessed what happened last night, Isaac felt that unless he confessed immediately, he would never escape the swamp of sin.  

“Isaac, why do you look like that? Ah, is it because you told me Ippolita was your first love last time?”  

“Hoho, is that so? Priest Isaac’s first love was Ippolita? No wonder he clung to her side and wouldn’t let anyone else come near!”  

“Priest, Dr. Helena, please stop teasing me…”  

Normally, Isaac’s face would have turned red at such teasing, but today, he seemed strangely somber. Noticing that her usual playful jabs weren’t eliciting the reaction she expected, Helena finally took a closer look at Isaac. He was staring intently at her eyes before abruptly turning his head away.  

‘Could it be… he noticed the change in my eye color?’  

Helena’s heart began to pound with anxiety.  

“…It’s because of that woman….”  

Meanwhile, Fred, who had been standing at the treatment room’s door observing the scene, muttered to himself, his expression darkening. The young priest still found Helena suspicious and was worried about the way Isaac seemed to have changed because of her.  

‘Priest Isaac is wavering because of that woman. This can’t go on.’  

Fred clenched his fists tightly. He couldn’t stand by and watch a respected priest be tarnished.  

* * *  

“Fred, why are you suddenly asking about something from 20 years ago?”  

“Everyone’s been talking about her lately, so I got curious.”  

“Ippolita?”  

The old man, hearing the nostalgic name after a long time, fondly stroked his cane as he searched his memories. Meanwhile, Fred began asking the village elders about the woman who supposedly resembled that wicked Ippolita. His initial suspicion—that Helena might be a vampire—only grew stronger.  

Having been deeply devout since childhood, Fred harbored a strong hatred for vampires, the Holy Order’s sworn enemies. Even though he had never encountered one himself, he firmly believed, as the scriptures said, that those who betrayed the Goddess should not exist.  

However, the story that came out of the old man’s mouth was the complete opposite of what Fred had hoped for.  

“There hasn’t been anyone as good as her. She was incredibly beautiful, too.”  

“Did anyone ever die in the village, or were there any animal carcasses found while Ippolita was here?”  

“On the contrary, many people were saved because of her. Surely, Fred, my boy, what are you thinking right now?”  

“Everyone says she and Helena are exactly the same. Just by looking at her—evil—”  

Fred thought there was enough circumstantial evidence to be suspicious, but the old man, instead, struck his back with a cane and scolded him.  

“You insolent boy! How dare you accuse Ippolita and Dr. Helena of such wickedness! Do you know how close your mother was with Ippolita?”  

“Argh! Why are you bringing my mother into this?”  

Even after being scolded and insulted, Fred didn’t give up and moved on to the next house.  

Helena, watching him from afar, smirked crookedly. For the past few days, a little rat had been scurrying around her, and now it was even digging into the past, which was starting to irritate her.  

“He probably thinks he’s being sneaky about it….”  

Helena, who had begun to think of this place as her hometown, didn’t want to stir up trouble here. She pondered how best to deal with the little rat. Since discovering that Fred was Mila’s son, she couldn’t brainwash him as she had initially considered. Mila, after all, was someone Helena had fond memories of.  

“Dr. Helena, what are you doing here, just standing around?”  

Isaac greeted her warmly as he spotted her standing idly at the foot of the hill. Helena withdrew her gaze from Fred and turned to Isaac with a lovely smile.  

“Oh, Isaac. It seems there’s a rat scurrying around.”  

“A rat? In broad daylight?”  

“Exactly. Where are you coming from, Isaac?”  

Isaac, his arms full of rye bread, cheese, a basket of fruit, and other food, looked like an animal preparing for hibernation. Helena, who imagined a large squirrel rather than a bear, chuckled softly. Not knowing why she was laughing, Isaac tilted his head in confusion.  

“Oh, I’m coming back from the Village Chief’s house.”  

“And all of that?”  

When Helena pointed to the food Isaac was holding, he shook his head vigorously in denial. Watching him act like a child despite being over thirty, she almost habitually reached out to tousle his brown hair but stopped herself. Isaac pulled a loaf of rye bread from the basket and held it out to her.  

“These are gifts from the village ladies. Dr. Helena, would you like one?”