Chapter 17: The Living and the Lost

Liana’s room was on the ground floor too, though not in the convent or the church. It was in a small storeroom near the convent.

After the earthquake, everything inside had been taken out for use. Shovels, axes, basically anything useful had been carried off, so the place was naturally empty.

Liana hadn’t dared to see people for a long time, especially those who had escaped the ruins with her. So she volunteered to clean the storeroom and moved in.

That was why she had appeared outside Landon’s window last night. The storeroom was fairly close.

Liana’s nose was bleeding heavily, and she didn’t have the energy to say more. Landon walked her back. She said she just needed some rest, so Landon left the storeroom and headed to the convent.

[Thank you, but don’t let them know]

Those few words stung Landon a little.

Landon had originally planned to go to the convent to find the nun who had been taking care of Liana, the one pushing the wheelchair when they first met.

He wanted to ask her to come back and care for Liana, but Liana refused, saying the nun was needed at the convent to care for other patients.

Landon knew the real reason wasn’t just that. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have looked so troubled.

Landon guessed that Liana was in a state where she absolutely did not want to meet anyone from Whisper Town.

Why exactly? He would probably have to dig into what happened to her before and after the earthquake to find out.

If he asked, she would answer. But then what?

And how was Landon supposed to handle the relationship between her and everyone in Whisper Town?

Landon, still without a clue, walked along the small path toward the church that had been turned into a temporary resting place.

He passed his room and glanced inside. Helentine wasn’t there. He didn’t know where she had gone.

When he crossed the courtyard and reached the church, he found the pews had been thrown outside. Only some remained inside for the able-bodied to rest on. Some had been dismantled and used as bed boards.

Probably because some patients couldn’t touch the cold ground.

He pushed open the half-closed door and cautiously poked his head in.

The hinges groaned with rust as the door opened.

Landon jumped, and the person near the door jumped too. They looked at each other. Landon couldn’t find any familiar memory in his startled expression or his scarred body.

‘I don’t know him. Did I forget, or…?’

He couldn’t say for sure. He just smiled and nodded, then stepped inside.

Light slanted in through the stained glass of the dome, stretching the goddess statue’s shadow long.

There was a clear musty smell in the air, and a deeper sourness seeping from people’s bodies.

With so little water to spare, such smells were common.

The pews in front of the altar had been pushed against the wall and covered with straw mats and old newspapers.

A woman lay on her side, an empty milk bottle in her arms. Her thin fingers patted it gently, and she hummed an indistinct lullaby.

Beside her, an old man curled up. Every few minutes he coughed violently, his chest heaving like a leaking bellows.

In a corner, several children huddled under a faded velvet curtain.

The oldest one had his eyes open, staring at the winged goddess statue above the altar with its arms spread wide, as if deep in thought.

Landon noticed it was easier to walk that way, avoiding the people lying every which way on the ground, “trying to sleep.” So he went over.

They weren’t actually sleepy. How could anyone sleep peacefully in this sweltering heat?

It was simply a way to avoid using too much energy, adapting to a diet of one meal a day.

Landon kept searching the familiar faces, but he couldn’t find any members of the guard squad from before he left home.

He could even say that none of the capable peers from the orphanage were here either.

A child was right beside Landon, his eyelids blinking slowly like a pendulum about to stop.

Landon carefully kicked some of the thatch near his feet over to catch the child’s falling body before he hit the ground.

But after kicking the thatch aside, he discovered a tiny child curled into a ball, fingers in mouth. Not sucking, just mechanically biting the edge of a nail until blood seeped out.

On the choir steps, a man lay face up, his chest barely moving.

When someone passed by, they would reach out to check his breath.

In the distance, someone was boiling picked wild vegetable leaves in half a pot of water. The tin can made a monotonous sizzling sound over the fire.

Suddenly, a short cry came from a corner. It was a baby, but it stopped quickly. Maybe its mouth had been covered, or maybe it had run out of strength.

The church fell silent again. Only the old man’s coughing came and went, like the building itself was gasping for breath.

A woman in a headscarf slowly rose from the crowd. Her movements were sluggish, and it took all her strength just to stand. Her hands folded over her stomach, and she bowed slightly to Landon as he approached.

“Mr. Landon.”

The nun he had met yesterday bowed slightly. Her thin face carried a hint of exhaustion. She looked like a candle flickering in the wind, lips cracked, eye sockets sunken, dark circles stark on her face.

She didn’t just take care of Liana.

Landon only understood this now, and felt a little guilty.

“Hello, may I ask your name?”

There were many wounded here, and the town doctor was missing. So the work of caring for people fell to these nuns who had only received basic training.

But few among the nuns truly understood medical knowledge.

“My name is Aisha. I married into Whisper Town after you left. I used to be a nurse at the clinic.”

Aisha couldn’t manage a proper smile. Maybe her cheeks were numb, or maybe she was too tired to make the appropriate polite gestures.

“Thank you for the food you brought yesterday. Everyone has seemed a little happier these past two days. Shall we talk outside?”

She bowed again, thanking Landon for the food he had given them yesterday. It wasn’t much, but at least there was meat.

Landon had also brought back a fresh wolf carcass. Though it was troublesome to deal with, everyone had enjoyed the meat soup last night.

Noticing there were still people resting nearby, Aisha took the lead and guided Landon out through the church’s side door to the corridor leading to the convent.

The two sat on a low bench that was both a fence and a resting spot, one on the left, one on the right, the corridor between them.

“Those things were what I should do. To be brief, I came today to ask about the current supplies and personnel. Can you tell me?”

Landon had a plan. Since the reconstruction team still hadn’t reached Whisper Town, they would have to save themselves.

He had just looked around. Those left were mostly the elderly, children, and women. There were hardly any men, and the ones there were just boys. No wonder they couldn’t hunt. They could only set simple traps near the church, but no animal had fallen for them.

That made sense. There were too many people here.

“Of course…”

Aisha began to briefly explain how she, as a caretaker, had been caught in the earthquake, how she had barely survived, and how she had finally followed Old Hunter to rescue people and bring them here.

She had originally been a nurse at the small clinic in town. Whisper Town wasn’t big, so it had only one clinic, requested by the mayor from the West Ring City-State. It was staffed with two doctors and six nurses.

But now she was the only one left.

The rest was more or less what Landon already knew.

“May I ask, if it’s not too bold, what your plan is?”

After Aisha finished, she looked at the water pouch Landon handed her. She held it gently with both hands and asked cautiously.

“Of course. I want to repair the road, and then organize a team to go back to town to gather supplies.”

“Hmm?”

She still held the water pouch. Even though it was heavy, she didn’t dare open it.

The water was fresh. It was better to leave it for the wounded.

As for Landon’s “repairing the road” and “gathering supplies,” Old Hunter had organized such efforts too. But he had died at the hands of jackals and heretics, and in the end no one else could go.

The current food was gathered and dug up from the mountains by the few men left. Sometimes they were lucky enough to catch rabbits and fish. But most of the time, it was supplied by that field that was already producing less than it consumed.

But Aisha didn’t rush to deny or argue. She had heard of Landon’s deeds and had seen him walk up from the foot of the mountain.

The only road to the West Ring City-State had long collapsed. Anyone who could come from that direction was no ordinary person.

So she chose to believe him first.

“Sigh… if only Griergo and the others were still here… they would have followed me without hesitation.”

Landon didn’t like Griergo at all. But at least he was a man. Whenever there was patrol or hunting, he always stuck by Landon’s side, determined to compete.

“Yes, if only my husband were still here…”

‘Hmm?’

Landon was stunned for a moment.

“Ah, didn’t the acting director tell you? I am Griergo’s wife.”

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