Rhodes Island does not exist.

It wasn't disdain, anger, disgust, or fear.

It's unbearable.

Moreover, that look of pity was directed at the doctor in front of him after he uttered those three words.

Chapter 138, Chapter 137: Deep Sea Tales, Chapter 71: Snow, Moon, and Flowers

The reeds are green and lush, the white dew has turned to frost. The one I long for is on the other side of the water. I trace my steps upstream to find her, but the path is long and arduous. I follow the current downstream to find her, and she seems to be in the middle of the water.

The reeds are lush and green, the white dew has not yet dried. The one I long for is on the water's edge. I trace my steps upstream to find her, but the path is difficult and steep. I follow the current downstream to find her, and she seems to be on a sandbar in the water.

-

That look in their eyes was one of unbearable pain.

The doctor was very familiar with that look.

It could even be said that this gaze was an inevitable part of his countless journeys through Terra.

"There's no need to save him anymore. What use is he even if he's a doctor? Stone disease is incurable. The two bottles of medicine you leave behind will only prolong his life by a few days or weeks. And if you leave behind more medicine, those who hear the news will definitely snatch it all away and beat him up. Listen to me, don't worry about it. This is not something a lowly traveling doctor like you can handle. Go, go."

That was in Sargon.

"Huh? Are you out of your mind? How can there still be such a good-natured person like you in this world? It's hilarious. Don't you know that doing good deeds like this will bring retribution? This is no longer an era where you can gain social prestige by doing good deeds and healing the sick... No, not now, it has never existed. What, you really still want to cure that promiscuous woman?... Tsk, to be honest, I know you're not doing this for lust. Someone like you would never do good deeds for such a purpose, but listen, others won't think that way. And let me reiterate, even if that woman is a promiscuous woman, she is still Boss Kong's ex-lover, even if he abandoned her because of Oripathy. So if you cure her, neither of you will be able to leave Knife Moon Town alive."

—That was in Yan Kingdom.

“I know, I know, of course I know those kids got Oripathy while trying to rescue people in the disaster zone. They're only sixteen, and to have a terminal illness at sixteen is heartbreaking for anyone! But what the hell can I do? I'm not the president of Colombia, nor the mayor of Greenville. I'm just a squad leader in the Holmgard security force. If I continue to protect those girls, I'll lose my job. I'll end up like those beggars you saw when you entered the city, working odd jobs during the day and sleeping on the streets at night, and then one day I'll be captured by some medical technology company and used as a guinea pig! Please, look at me! I have a wife and two kids! I have two parents still alive to support! I believe you're a good doctor, but you can cure patients, not Terra!”

That was in Colombia.

"Tomorrow? I won't be going down the mountain tomorrow. Please tell Grandpa and Dad in the town down the mountain for me. Also, don't bother with the medicine you prepared; it's useless, isn't it? I could tell from your expression that someone like me, whose joints are covered in stones, doesn't deserve to live anymore. The medicine you gave me these past two days only relieved the pain, but I can still feel those stone fragments growing into my bones… It's useless. Instead of wasting this good stuff on a terminally ill patient like me, you should save it for someone you meet who can cure me, haha… ha… ha… Waaaaah—but I… I really don't want to die… Why does it have to be me…"

—That was in Kazimir.

Those people all wore the same expression.

An expression called "unbearable."

The so-called "unbearable" feeling is knowing that an innocent person is about to freeze to death in the wind and snow before your eyes, but being unable to spare a bit of firewood to warm them up—because that firewood is your only lifeline.

They wanted to save him but couldn't, yet they didn't want to see him die, so they could only turn away and pretend that the world was at peace.

The doctor had seen far too many expressions and things like this.

Although the boundaries of language are the boundaries of thought, language is the framework and foundation of thought.

But there are always some things that are more accurate than words when expressing emotions.

"Excuse me...where are you from?" The middle-aged woman who had spoken earlier gradually suppressed her expression of pity and asked the doctor.

"I am a wandering doctor who has been studying in Terra for several years and no longer knows where my hometown is."

Although the doctor had a premonition when he saw the expressions on those people's faces, he still maintained his kind expression and replied.

"So, how did you come to know Levini?" the woman asked, looking at the doctor.

"I did it because..."

The doctor's vocal cords paused for a moment.

He suddenly didn't know how to answer the question.

Not long ago, he almost felt that Levini didn't exist at all, but was just a character in his dreams.

Judging from the reactions of these believers, Levini does indeed exist.

Even so, does this real Levini really know the Doctor?

You can't just take those scenes from your dream and use them as the reason and story of how they met.

"It seems we're forced to resort to lies here."

The doctor sighed softly to himself.

The doctor, who had always insisted that he never lied, was finally forced to fabricate memories and past events to gain trust.

So he picked up where he left off and slowly began to speak again.

"I met her parents during my travels."

"You mean Levini's parents? Ah... did you meet them when you were traveling in Syracuse?" the middle-aged woman asked, her expression slightly surprised.

In those memories, whether dream or illusion, Levi told the Doctor about her parents who died of Oripathy, and their mine was in Syracuse.

“Yes, I happened to be passing by the local mines at the time and saw many miners who had been abandoned by the foremen of those big families because of Oripathy. I couldn’t bear it, so I stayed to treat them,” the doctor said slowly. “Among those miners were Levini’s parents.”

“At that time, they were terminally ill and on the verge of death. The torment of their illness and their impoverished lives were afflicting them. Even my medicine could only provide temporary relief from their suffering, but it could not alleviate their symptoms.” The doctor shook his head. “At that time, their only concern was their daughter in a small town in Iberia. They called her name almost constantly, so I remembered it and came to find her.”

"Alas... this girl's family was also unfortunate. Her parents went to work in the black mines of Syracuse, but they both died there, and neither of them ever came back." The middle-aged woman lamented the girl's fate, her clasped hands constantly making a prayer, as if she were praying for their peace in the afterlife.

“It’s good that you know Levini’s parents. In that case, come with us.” Another middle-aged male believer standing next to the woman sighed and stepped forward to pat the doctor on the shoulder.

"Coming with you means...?" The doctor still had a sliver of hope left in his heart.

He hoped he wouldn't hear any words he absolutely didn't want to hear.

He hoped the man was referring to Levi's secluded cottage.

After all, she had told herself that since her parents died, she had been living alone in the small house they left behind, surviving entirely on the town's relief and the occasional theft.

He had even planned that if he were to see Levini again, he would not leave her alone somewhere, but would take her on a trip with him.

Even if it were a journey filled with lamentation and exhaustion, he could still embrace the suffering with a smile.

-

Even the Doctor, who had traveled to almost every part of Terra, had never experienced a journey that felt as long as the five minutes he had just walked.

It only takes three intersections and five alleys to walk from the town center to the outskirts, because Asturias is such a small place.

Even so, the doctor felt as if he had traversed half of the Great Yan Dynasty.

Looking back now, he realized that he and Levini had only spent less than two days together, but those two days meant a tremendous amount to him.

"...Though we cannot hold onto you, your grace guides us. Your soul will forever enter Paradise, drawing closer to the Lord. Glory to the heavens, dust to the earth, and your spirit to the God who gave you. At this moment, we bless you at your grave, wishing you ascension to Heaven, joy, and rest in the Lord's embrace... Amen."

Amen!

Led by the priest, the townspeople, heads bowed and hands clasped in prayer, offered their prayers toward a small hill in the yellow earth.

A cross is placed in the center of the hill, and a plaque is placed in front of the cross.

[Leviney Waterley, a tender, evergreen flower buried here.]

-

Thank you segment.

Thank you for the dog food (a form of online affection).

Chapter 139, Chapter 138: Deep Sea Tales - Seventy-Two Days of Daze

Levi died of illness.

This is the answer the doctor got from the townspeople.

Unlike the Levini he saw in his dream, the Levini in reality was not a child who complained about her fate, and she would never steal other people's property.

After her parents died, she relied almost entirely on her own efforts to support herself, without depending on the charity of others. The townspeople, who witnessed all this, would inadvertently offer her small acts of help or gifts.

But an untamed soul is always easily broken.

Four days after her thirteenth birthday, she collapsed while working at a grocery store and never got out of bed again.

The townspeople were deeply concerned for the girl, so they summoned a doctor to examine her, but to no avail. They then turned to their faith, asking a local priest to examine her. The priest, after examining her, declared her cursed and said she needed to travel to the cathedral in Iberia to seek a way to break the curse. However, before the priest could return from Iberia, Levini died, and the townspeople collectively funded her burial in the public cemetery on the outskirts of town.

In the end, no one even knew what disease Levini had.

"Thank you for bringing me here."

The doctor sincerely thanked the townspeople.

Now he was certain that everything he had experienced before might have been a dream.

But was it really just a simple dream?

The doctor was skeptical.

Of course, he didn't doubt that what had happened before was fabricated, but rather that this fabrication might be some kind of deliberate act.

It was like a carving knife constantly sculpting patterns in his mind, and the things carved were all people and things he had never experienced.

The fact that one can dream of things one has never experienced, and that those things are indeed verifiable in reality, is suspicious enough in itself.

Even so, even after understanding all this, the doctor still felt an overwhelming sadness slowly rising within him.

The woman he knew so well in his dream had actually died suddenly months earlier, and he didn't even know her in real life.

This relationship was ultimately just wishful thinking; after all, dreams cannot be shared with others.

"So, is this also part of the deep sea?" Sniffing the sea breeze blowing from the south, the doctor felt that his dream just now was inextricably linked to Agor.

If I were to choose to go to Iberia now, I might even run into Skadi.

But now he has no priest with him, so even if he wanted to go in, he probably wouldn't be able to.

"Terra has so many wonders. Although this was just a fleeting dream, it can still be recorded as an extraordinary experience in one's life." Standing in front of Levini's tombstone, the Doctor sighed inwardly.

"It's just a pity that maybe the you I know in my dreams and the you that exists in reality are not the same person at all."

His gaze fell on the line of names in front of the tombstone, and he smiled bitterly.

Our lover,

It's just borrowing a name randomly.

Soap bubbles blown by imagination!

Take the letter.

You can make a fake story real.

I was just casually expressing my love—

Now these wandering birds have a place to roost.

You can tell from the letter.

Take it!

Because it wasn't from the heart,

His words were spoken with exceptional beauty!

—Take it, that's what we'll do!

The real-life Levini was a fighter against fate.

The Levini who exists in the dream is a pitiful person trapped by fate.

But the Doctor never knew the real Levinie; he only knew the girl in his dream.

However, the real Levini has also passed away, and everything about her can no longer be understood through our own knowledge.

Therefore, regardless of whether the person buried under the tombstone is actually Levini, she is just a symbol.

A symbol representing Levienne.

“Well then, if there’s nothing else, we’ll head back now. We have our own things to do.” The male townspeople and the crowd stood on the side away from the tombstone, looking at the doctor with calm expressions.

"Please lead the way for me." The doctor thanked him sincerely, then slowly bowed, performing the etiquette of the Eastern Kingdom and the Yan Kingdom. "I will return to the town later."

"Okay, then we'll head back. If you need anything later—"

"jingle."

The crisp sound of metal hitting the ground interrupted the conversation of the male townsman.

At the same time, what caught the townspeople's eye was a string of things falling out of the doctor's coat pocket.

It seems the doctor bowed too deeply, causing something he was wearing underneath to fall out.

"Oh, you dropped something."

A townsman tried to kindly remind the doctor, but before he could even open his mouth, he noticed that the doctor's eyes were bulging like a sacred bell, fixed intently on the string of objects on the ground.

"How is this possible...?"