26 The Grey-Robed Monk 13

Mr. Marino’s caravan rested in Lugu City for only a single day before setting off again.

According to Francisco, Rona City lay at the southern end of the Rona River, and they could take a boat all the way along the water route, which was faster and safer than traveling by land. In contrast, Phyllis and her group faced a more complicated journey to reach Lude City.

Lude City also had a river named “Polrua,” but it was not connected to the Rona River.

The quickest path was to travel north along the Rona River for a stretch, then switch to land travel to a city by the Polrua River, from where they would continue by boat to Lude.

After hearing the itinerary, Phyllis realized this truly was the best route to Lude, with numerous caravans traveling it each year, yet one thought lingered in her mind:

— If this route is so vital, why hasn’t anyone built a canal connecting the two rivers?

Her question sparked hearty laughter among the merchants sharing her cabin, leaving Phyllis bewildered.

“It’s just too troublesome!” a young man closest to her said, shrugging his shoulders. “Not to mention who would pay for it, but if such a canal crossed several territories, who would be responsible for its upkeep? Even if the lords agreed to maintain their own sections, if one party failed and caused a blockage, wouldn’t the others suffer losses?”

“And what about toll pricing and how many toll stations to set up!”

The others chuckled at the complexity of the matter and joked in Rolandese to their companions nearby, “I bet those lords would fight endlessly over this!”

“It mainly depends on who pays. Since this is the route to Lude, the surrounding area would benefit most. If anyone should foot the bill, it should be the royal family…”

“Come on… the royal family’s broke to the bone now. The king’s practically trying to take our underwear to fund the war! Where would the money for a canal come from? They’d probably force the merchant guild to pay, and then we’d just be paying tolls to line their pockets with another tax channel!”

“Speaking of which, did you know that starting this year, four new toll stations were added on the Lapidu River?”

At this, the previously relaxed idle men erupted in surprise.

“Didn’t they just add three last year? How come they added more in less than a year?!”

“Wait, count how many toll stations are on the Lapidu River now.”

“There are five up to Argenburg, six to Rolandfont… that’s nearly forty in total!”

“Are those Palu people crazy? No wonder Mr. Fuqiong hasn’t been heading that way much these past couple of years…”

Most of the caravan were Rolandese, and sometimes their conversations veered off-topic and even their language shifted mid-sentence. Phyllis was accustomed to this and had no trouble switching languages herself. Listening to these seasoned merchants was actually quite helpful for understanding the current world.

So absorbed was she that she didn’t notice the elderly man sitting beside her watching her intently.

“...Do you want to learn Rolandese?”

The unexpected question from her side startled Phyllis out of her gossip reverie.

Seeing her flustered expression, Brother Salvatore patted her shoulder gently. “Don’t worry, child. It was my oversight not to teach you some Rolandese earlier. You’re about to live in Roland, after all.”

“Oh yes! She still doesn’t speak any Rolandese! But this is a small matter, no need to trouble the brother...”

Hearing this, the young man near their bunks suddenly brightened and eagerly called to the others, “Hey! This girl doesn’t know Rolandese yet! Who wants to be her practice partner?”

Traveling by water was much more leisurely than by land; the cargo was locked in special compartments, needing only a few people to take turns watching. Most had plenty of free time.

So when someone spoke up, a crowd of idle men quickly gathered, eyeing Phyllis as though she were some rare curiosity.

“I’ll go first! I haven’t been a teacher before!”

A man sporting a full beard pushed his way to the front with strength and a booming voice, striking a pose. “Come on, child, repeat after me—‘Hello.’”

Someone nudged his shoulder immediately. “That’s too casual; you should teach her ‘Good day’!”

“Mind your own business. You can teach the ones behind you!”

The bearded man joked with his companion, then put on a serious face and continued teaching in his not-so-perfect Itenno language, “This is a greeting, ‘Hello.’ Do you understand? Say it with me, ‘He–llo.’”

Phyllis: …………

Glancing at Professor Pailuo Usso rolling with laughter overhead, Phyllis suppressed the embarrassment of being treated like a child and repeated the word as instructed.

“Hello.”

“...Ah!”

The man at the front was stunned for a moment, then slapped his thigh and exclaimed with delight, “Your pronunciation is very good! I can’t find a flaw!”

“What can one word show?” someone jeered, then joined the fun. “Come on, child, I’ll teach you a sentence. Repeat after me—‘Good day, sir, how have you been lately?’”

“Oh, come on, don’t be so harsh! She just learned one word, how can she remember so many?”

“Let her try. I think she’s smart…” The man smiled encouragingly at Phyllis, insisting, “Come on, I’ll repeat it. Say as much as you can remember—‘Good, day, sir, how, have…’”

“Good day, sir, how have you been lately?”

Phyllis repeated the entire sentence in one breath, then switched to a blank, innocent expression. “May I ask... what does this sentence mean?”

Her fluent pronunciation took everyone by surprise. After a brief silence came a chorus of exclamations and praise.

The group marveled that young learners picked up language so quickly and took turns speaking common phrases for her to repeat.

Phyllis: …………

She truly wanted to show some cleverness in learning the language, so she could later explain how she mastered another tongue so swiftly and wouldn’t have to pretend not to understand people every day... but surely these people were a bit overexcited? Her throat was nearly hoarse from all the talking—how tedious this was…

“Isn’t it because you started off too smoothly?” Professor Pailuo Usso finally said after laughing enough. “If I had a parrot that could learn to speak in one lesson, I’d spend three days straight just talking to it.”

Phyllis: …………

Eventually, with a tremendous coughing fit, Phyllis roused the bored youths’ consciences, and the first “Rolandese lesson” finally ended.

Coincidentally, it was also dinnertime. There was no dining room on the boat, so everyone took a piece of bread and sat on their bunks to eat.

Phyllis received the portions for herself and Brother Salvatore at the door and carefully made her way across the unsteady floor back to where they were resting.

“You learned very well, child. Better than I expected… cough cough…”

Brother Salvatore took the bread she handed him and coughed twice, tilting his head.

“May the Lord bless you…” Seeing his persistent coughing, Phyllis hurried to support his arm. “Are you alright? Would you like some water?”

“No, no need…”

After recovering, the old brother smiled and shook his head, patting her hand reassuringly. “Old age brings many ailments. It’s nothing to worry about…”

Phyllis listened to his noticeably hoarse voice but remained uneasy. “You’ve been coughing a lot lately. Are you sick?”

Her last few words were especially soft, but Brother Salvatore still heard clearly. He smiled and waved his hand. “You don’t understand yet. It’s normal for old people to cough a bit now and then.”

“Like iron plates rusting over time, our bodies do too… It’s perfectly normal, child—something everyone must go through. You don’t need to worry about me.” Seeing the girl’s anxious gaze, he softened his voice and gently stroked her hair. “Rest assured, since I promised Master Camilo and Master Giovanni, I will safely bring you to Codong.”

“I’m not—”

Phyllis’s trembling lips parted slightly but then pressed firmly together.

She understood better than most her age the changes brought by aging.

A few coughs might seem insignificant, or a slight stumble from losing balance—not much for the young, but ominous signs for the elderly.

Just like her grandmother… who always said old age and weak legs were normal, and she believed it… If only she had sensed something wrong and taken her promptly to the hospital, that loving woman might not have left so soon…

“…”

“I only hope you’ll take better care of yourself, Brother Salvatore.”

She looked down at his wrinkled hands and spoke softly, “You’re a good person. I hope you live well…”

“But I have lived well,” the old man said with a smile.

Still smiling, he broke the bread in two and placed half into Phyllis’s hand. “Thanks to the Lord’s grace, I have never lacked good teachers and friends. Wherever I’ve passed, I have met kind people, and I have lived decades without want. What more could I ask for?”

Phyllis’s fingers gripped the hard bread as her eyes swept over the patched clothes covering his upper body. She found herself at a loss for words.

Brother Salvatore was a man of vast experience—surely he understood the words she couldn’t bring herself to say?

If he were selfish, he wouldn’t dress so plainly, risk his life caring for priests with the plague, walk miles without pay to hear the confessions of a dying woman, or help a humble leper…

Phyllis knew it was because he truly did these things that she had begun to trust him.

Yet now, after benefiting from his selflessness, she wanted to urge him not to be so selfless… It sounded shameless, but she could not help it.

Like a lump stuck in her throat, neither spit out nor swallowed, she remained silent.

This conflicted feeling lingered even as the caravan switched back from water to land travel.

She could only be grateful that no one had fallen ill along the way and hoped the old man’s health would soon improve…

But before Brother Salvatore’s cough could heal, a dark cloud drifted over, and the caravan was once again forced by heavy rain to stay in a village.

Like many passing villages, this small town had been affected by the plague.

The streets were nearly deserted; occasionally corpses were seen lying by the roadside, or pallbearers with black sores on their faces haggled through doors with those inside.

Most households tightly shuttered their windows and doors, and even the innkeeper avoided contact with guests, disappearing completely after instructing where to leave the rent.

Fortunately, the rain lasted only two days and stopped by the afternoon of the third.

Mr. Fuqiong sighed with relief and arranged for departure early the next morning.

However, at dawn, a piercing scream woke everyone.

Phyllis sat up in bed, faintly hearing frantic curses and cries from upstairs. A terrible premonition rose from her heart.

She quickly put on her shoes and hurried to the staircase.

“Please, Mr. Fuqiong… let us out…”

“Only Galil has that swelling, only he has a fever! Open the door and feel my hand… I’m really fine…”

“Shut up, all of you!” Mr. Fuqiong’s gritted voice came from upstairs. “Block the door, don’t let anyone out… We’re packing now—”

“Fuqiong, you filthy pig! I warned you out of kindness, and you dare just leave like that?” another voice raged, cursing through the door. “If you have the guts, kill us all! Otherwise, when my father finds out you deliberately refuse to save us, he won’t spare you! I swear by the Father God, he’ll tear a hundred holes in you and feed your guts to the dogs!”

The pounding on the door grew more intense, but upstairs there was only cursing and pleading.

After a while, those in the corridor began whispering.

“Maybe we should let Gunther out… If his father finds out he’s dead, we’ll have big trouble…”

“That won’t do. He might already have the plague. Letting him out puts us all in danger…”

“Exactly… We don’t even know the situation in Lude now. Maybe his father too…”

“*Cough cough…*”

Phyllis whirled around at the coughing behind her, and in the next instant, her eyes met those ever-kind eyes.

“No…”

When she finally spoke, her voice trembled, “Please don’t…”

The old man’s bark-like, withered hand gently pushed away hers. He gave her a silent smile and continued up the stairs, steadying himself on the railing.

“For the Lord’s sake, Mr. Fuqiong, at least give me a few days—let me care for them…”