The Grim Future

"Yes, Father?"

Mr. Rochester weaved a heavy sigh. "Eyrie, what's wrong with you these days?"

"You start having meals with us but are always spaced out in your own world." He looked at his eldest daughter with worried eyes.

Eyrie had never dined with her family previously. She had wallowed herself so deeply in despair and had not wanted her father to see her like that. Despite his excessive strictness, Eyrie found him to be a good father who truly cared for his children.

In addition, knowing the bleak future, she never wanted to confront him previously. Her father, with his pride for the Rochester family name, would be devastated if he knew what would happen.

It was only when she saw the lantern of hope amidst the darkness that Eyrie finally found the courage to sit with her family and try to become a 'proper' daughter and sister to them.

Though she didn't know if she had the valor to grab ahold of that lantern.

"I'm fine~ Father. Don't worry about me." Eyrie used a knife to carefully cut through her tender steak. "Instead, I'm worried about your health. You seemed to overwork yourself over the past few days."

Mr. Rochester chuckled. "Ha! I am as healthy as ever."

Nodding gently, Eyrie stabbed the piece of meat with a fork and placed it into her mouth. Then, while chewing, she used her lavishly embroidered napkin to tenderly wipe the corners of her lips.

Suddenly, her movements lagged for a moment, before returning to normal, as if nothing had happened.

But inside her mind, Eyrie was in extreme panic.

The irony of it all! She silently cursed the heavens.

The words that she had spoken about her father's health had been a random, fleeting thought, but when she thought about it more carefully… didn't Father become afflicted with a serious bacterial illness right about now?!

Eyrie bit her lip.

In her past life, doctors discovered a harmless unknown bacterium that settled into Father's body. However, as the years went by, the bacteria began to multiply at an alarming speed and damaging the surrounding cells.

Cells from the Immune system in particular seemed to be averse to the production of this bacterium.

Eventually, the bacterium became an existence that doctors could no longer ignore. However, as this bacterium was unknown, no one knew how to get rid of it.

Normal medicine did not work.

And even when Father hired the most notable doctors and researchers from Country B, the country with the best medical advancements in the world…

… nothing could get rid of the strange bacteria.

Nothing.

A few years after contracting it, Father began contracting various sicknesses such as fevers or chills. The number of diseases he carried gradually increased in number as the years went on.

Although they were not serious and would always be successfully treated using medicine, Father's health nonetheless was slowly worn down, either by the sicknesses or by the frequent use of medication.

Despite this, he was still insistent on working overtime, often traveling to conferences far from home.

Every time he came back, his frame became more shriveled and his eye circles darker.

Father began to visibly weaken.

To the point that he no longer had a trace of his former self.

His eyes lost their shine, and he had aged considerably.

Eyrie didn't quite understand. What would be more important than one's health? Her father certainly valued his life; she knew that from his perseverance living in the slums.

Then why?

She struggled to gulp down her food. "Father, just be careful. Please. Don't brush off any potential dangers to your body."

"Yes, yes, my daughter."

"…"

"By the way, Carol, did you like the gift I bought you? It's an antique; you can't casually get it from just anywhere. Hehe." Eyrie glanced at her sister.

She wanted to change the topic, not wanting to dwell too much on the subject of her father's health.

Eyrie knew he would never believe her if she told him that there was something wrong with his body. He would also never do something so 'wussy' as to get more than one complete health checkup per year — he already had professionals check his food for poison every meal.

Eh… Carol, who was silently eating, raised her eyebrows. She was surprised to be pulled into the conversation. Carol still felt a little wary of her elder sister, who changed way too much over the course of the past few weeks.

She recalled the gift that Eyrie was talking about. It was an ancient computer that was created back when the boom of technology had just started. Carol already had some newer models of such devices, and they were still relatively old, but the age of the one that her sister gave far surpassed any of the ones that she bought herself.

"It was a very good gift, thank you, sister. Though I do not know what I had done to warrant such a gift." Carol looked down at her emptied glass and signaled the butler to get a new drink.

The man stepped forward with as little presence as he could muster to not distract the conversation.

Eyrie chortled softly. "Well, you are my beloved younger sister, why can't I, as an elder sister, care for you?"

Mr. Rochester sighed a bit. Although he was glad that his daughter cared about him, he felt suspicious. Eyrie had never once actively tried to initiate contact with her family before. She just made achievement after achievement by herself. She never cared about anything.

Although it would be cruel to say it, Mr. Rochester preferred it that way. At least then, Eyrie would be 'normal.' The way that she is acting right now—caring about her father's health more than he did himself and giving her siblings all kinds of presents—is abnormal.

Her behavior is too different, and it feels ominous.

In truth, Eyrie had merely wanted to make up for the lost years of affection. In both of her lives, she hadn't been very close to any of her family members except for one person.