When a person thinks too much, they usually end up not doing anything. That's what Henry's father taught him.
"Enjoy life and stop thinking too much, when life tells you to go, you go. However, if life gives you nothing, that's probably when you should start to think too much."
Henry never understood those words, he thought it was just his father's drunk words. But he understood it when he entered his studies of medicine.
When he saw the corpses of patients he couldn't save or when he saw the corpses of people he didn't managed to save. That's when he started to rethink his father's words. "Don't think too much, it's life." And he started to look down on the value of life.
"Patient 12 have passed away."
"Patient 2 didn't manage to survive."
"Patient 20 passed away during the operation."
'Yes, this is the way of life. People pass away in a blink of eyes.'
That's until he went as a 'volunteer' as a medic in the war. He saw the duke fighting for his life even when he barely have a breath, when the duke held onto his unnamed soldier hand's during his last breaths.
Henry started to gain back his life's understanding, he started to feel desperate to save all of his patients. Seeing those soldiers fought with their lives to defend people like him made him felt ashamed.
"I wouldn't have survived without you, thank you very much." Francisco thanked him when the war ended. That was the last straw for him. He called the departing duke and asked the duke to accept him as his servant. However the duke rejected him, "Your skills are necessary for the world, it'll be a shame for you to serve someone like me." Even though his face and voice cold, the duke's words made him have a new resolution.
He started traveling to help the poor and the old. He was happy for a long time and until he met the love of his life, Orsella. Orsella was a daughter of a prostitute, she had lived in the red-light district along with her mom for a long time, naturally her studies and personality was affected. She was a timid and foolish girl, thankfully her mother always hid her during her 'sessions'.
And that's all Henry knew about her past, Orsella was always reluctant to talk about her past. They met when Henry was traveling to a place far from capital, she was chased by some rogue back then and Henry came like a prince and swept her away.
It was love at first sight.
They then travelled together for more than six months, helping anyone sick they passed through. During that time, Orsella learned to read, write and she even knew basic medicine.
Another six months later, they called each other "husband" and "wife" and they settled down in the land of Ashdown.
Two month after they got married, they were blessed with a baby.
One day, he heard news that a village nearby had contacted with some kind of virus so he went and helped the villagers. What he didn't know was that his wife back at home was killed by a group of thieves. She passed away along with her baby.
Henry had always imagine what their baby would look like, would he get his mother's beautiful olive skin? Or would he get his fair white skin? He hoped his baby would get his mother's, he would looked so beautiful just like his mother. But that dream was shattered in a second when he saw his wife laying by the door with a sword on her stomach, she was long lifeless due to blood-loss.
Henry laid in their house for a week after he finished sending his world away, he felt like there was no more meanings in life and wished he had never gone to save those villagers. What did those villagers have to do with them? What did the world have to do with his family?
"I want to avenge her."
Right at his darkest times, Francisco came to the village as the reports were growing frantic and kept on asking him to go and take a look.
"Dr. Henry?" He saw the young doctor in a house nearby the village. The doctor stood outside his house with a distraught look, he was so different from the last time he saw him. 'There's something wrong with him'. Francisco knew from a look and he knew he shouldn't left the doctor alone.
Henry laughed to himself at those memories, if it wasn't for the duke, he wouldn't have been here right now.
He remembered the first time he saw Ambrose who was sleeping and breathing hard. To say he was shocked was an understatement, Ambrose looked so much like his wife. But he knew that was just a fleeting fantasy of his, his child died two months after they found out about it's existence. He buried them himself, there's no way for them to be alive.
But he was drawn to the young boy, so he asked the duke to let him stay in the capital with the boy and asked to be his teacher. Maybe this will a new start for him and for the boy.
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