Xhemin was busy in the backyard under the morning sun. She was clearing some weeds and tilting the land, preparing it for her plans of planting the strawberries that Bitbit gave her. For the past several days, this had been her morning routine apart from preparing their breakfast."I hope you"ll grow smoothly in this land," Xhemin said while looking at the strawberries seedlings she had in her hand as if she was talking to them.
"Don"t worry child, those berries will grow here" Professor Owens suddenly interjected to Xhemin"s surprise. For the past few days the doctor had done nothing but stay with Princess Song and only takes a break when its meal time. This was the first time she had seen him went out early.
"Professor!" Xhemin exclaimed "How was the princess?"
The professor went to join Xhemin at the backyard and sat on a big pile of stone near Xhemin.
"She"s fine, don"t worry" He answered and by the way his face brightened, Xhemin knew that he was genuinely true with his words. However, it was also obvious in his expression that something wasn"t going well.
"Will she be okay?" She did a follow up hoping the brightness in the Professor"s face will not falter.
"She will be…" He replied "I had done everything I needed to do. The princess will be fine in no time. Her health is up to her now"
"What do you mean?" Xhemin"s brow arched.
"Well sometimes, our healing comes from our will to be better" He explained to the girl who was fervently antic.i.p.ating his words "Princess Song"s body is already clean from any poison but she"s still weak. I realized her weakness wasn"t a physical defect but a physiological one"
"A physiological one?" Xhemin wondered. "You mean Princess Song sickness wasn"t only because of the poison but also because of her loneliness?"
"That is what I guess," The Professor confirmed. He had indeed totally cleared off the little princess body from poison but her health wasn"t improving according to his expectations. When he woke up one night hearing her nightmare and dreams, it was then that he understood that the princess was a very lonely child, and it was her loneliness that was drying out her will to overcome her sickness, not the poison alone. She must have felt so left out when her father got sick and when the chieftain"s heir went away——now dead—and thought that no one in the main household cared for her anymore.
"She must have been so lonely being sent here without any family to look after her" Xhemin replied, her ink eyes were lonely as she tried to fit herself to Princess Song"s shoes. She pitied the princess so much and hoped that she can overcome whatever she was struggling before her health deteriorate more.
"Well human life isn"t perfect. Even blue bloods like Princess Song cannot escape such circ.u.mstance" The professor p.r.o.nounced "The chieftain himself was no exemption"
"The chieftain?" Xhemin"s let out another question of shock.
"Yes the chieftain. You must have heard that he was sick" The professor nod at Xhemin"s query "The royal physicians had cured his physical illness but his health wasn"t getting better. Like princess Song, he was drowned on his own longing and loneliness"
Xhemin couldn"t believe the professor"s revelation "Professor is that even true? You mean the chieftain"s sickness was caused by his loneliness too?"
"The royal household of course wouldn"t agree to me if I say yes." The professor told the girl whose interest was definitely at its peak "But even though we had talked only a few times, I know he was carrying a burden in his heart all these years. Perhaps his aging body wasn"t able to take it anymore that"s why he fell terribly ill"
"But what could have made the chieftain lonely all these years?" Xhemin wondered "I thought that perhaps because he was the chieftain, he can have everything he wanted"
"Not everything" The professor replied and shrugged. "Sometimes the things that we wanted the most were the things that we cannot have"
The professor"s words made a thug in Xhemin"s heart. Indeed, his words were true, didn"t she wanted to be with the Lagdameo heir and yet here she was, alone and striving in this island away from home and the family she grew up into.
"What was the thing that made the chieftain sick professor?" Xhemin inquired. Handmaid Lin had told her that just like how the Chieftain admired the healer, he was also very fond of the professor and he used to spend much time with him before he got sick. They were too close that the chieftain had allowed the professor to go with the Baruk every voyage and that he always considered the professor"s advices. With this, Xhemin knew the professor might know something about the chieftain"s condition.
"Something in the past" The professor told Xhemin "He was longing for his first love and the child he had with her"
"His first love?"
"Yes, his first wife" He narrated further "The first Chieftana before the one we have now. Stories had it that the chieftain loved her so dearly that during her time, the chieftain didn"t have any other wife or concubine apart from her. She was the only one"
"What happened to her then?" She asked as she sat beside the professor to listen further "And to her child with the chieftain?"
"Gone…" The professor answered abruptly "They"re both gone. They said he both lost them on one single occasion"
"Oh!" Xhemin exclaimed "What a terrible fate!"
"Terrible indeed" He agreed "The chieftain was longing for them. He blamed himself for what happened to them"
"I couldn"t imagine how painful could that be for him" Xhemin uttered. Even though she hasn"t met the chieftain personally, she pitied the man. He must have felt very bad on what happened to his daughter and wife that even until now, when so many years had pa.s.sed already, the pain still lingered and made haunted him.
While Xhemin and professor Owens were still having a thorough conversation about the chieftain"s burdens, a call caught their attention.
"Healer!" It was handmaid Lin, shouting from somewhere inside the house. "Please come at the front gate!"
Since the professor and Xhemin were at the back side of the property, they couldn"t really tell what the commotion was about. They both run toward the front gate but on their way, handmaid Lin emerged from somewhere and caught the professor"s hand.
"Aki, please hide!" Handmaid Lin blurted with haste.