Published: July 3, 2025
Chapter Text:
The detached quarters of the Royal Castle.
After the audience, Ryo was summoned by Queen Rhea.
“Ryo, what I’m about to tell you must not be spoken of.”
Rhea declared, and Ryo nodded silently in response.
Then, they moved to the adjacent room.
There was a large bed...
“Abel...”
King Abel the First lay there.
Ryo felt his strength suddenly seep away.
His chest was rising and falling slightly... he was alive.
Yes, he was alive, but... his face...
Even Ryo, lacking specialized medical knowledge, could recognize it as the face of a seriously ill person.
His cheeks were sunken, his skin was lacking elasticity, and his lips were cracked... he was severely weakened... it felt like death was near.
“Abel...”
The second call was truly feeble.
At that moment, Abel opened his eyes.
“Ryo... you suit... it well...”
Abel praised Ryo, who was dressed in the formal attire of a duke, in a broken voice.
That voice was truly painful to hear.
“Abel...”
Ryo’s third call was very small, weak, and... sorrowful...
“I’m sorry... it seems... I can’t... go on... please... take care of Noah... and the kingdom...”
He had summoned Ryo to entrust him with the prince and the kingdom.
The first prince, Noah, was still young.
Queen Rhea would likely assist as regent, but with Ryo, the first duke and foremost nobleman, supporting him, their position would become even stronger.
To entrust that responsibility, Abel had called Ryo...
“It’s been six months since we last met, and yet this...”
Ryo’s voice remained weak.
Naturally.
In such a situation, it would be impossible to sound strong.
“However... that was quick... I only requested your presence yesterday...”
“I happened to be in the Forest of Rondo. I arrived quickly.”
“...”
Abel vaguely understood how far the Forest of Rondo was.
He had walked back to the kingdom with Ryo before.
To think he could arrive so quickly from such a far place?
“Well... that’s good.”
Of course, Ryo hadn’t mentioned anything about Gae to Abel.
He had intended to tell him eventually, but... in this situation, that “eventually” might never come...
However, a nagging thought crossed his mind.
In this world of Fai, there exists a thing called magic.
If it were light attribute magic, a significant recovery could be expected.
For injuries, there’s [Heal].
For poison or illness, there’s [Cure].
Ryo glanced back at Rhea.
Rhea must have understood why Ryo was looking at her.
She shook her head slightly.
The [Cure] of Rhea, who was even called a “saint,” doesn’t work...?
In the three years since, Ryo's alchemy had progressed significantly.
Studying alchemy also meant studying magic itself.
This is because alchemy can be seen as a method to manifest magical phenomena using alchemy tools.
For that, deep knowledge of magic is required.
Among them, healing-type magic like [Heal] and [Cure] had been extensively researched.
Ryo thought it would be handy to create alchemy tools capable of performing these recovery spells.
However, through his research, he also realized that replicating light attribute magic through alchemy was quite difficult.
Well, that's a topic for another time...
Through that research, he understood that [Cure] promotes recovery from poison and disease by enhancing the human immune system.
The enhancement from light attribute magic is incredibly violent... Ryo still finds it hard to accept why something like the near-instant recovery from [Heal] and [Cure] is possible...
That said, [Cure] significantly strengthens the function of white blood cells and their subtypes, lymphocytes.
Specifically, those called natural killer cells and T-cells.
In other words, if [Cure] doesn’t work, it means the body doesn’t recognize what is causing the disease as something to attack and eliminate.
Ryo turned back once more to ask.
“Rhea, what’s the diagnosis of Abel’s illness?”
“I don’t know. I had people who are well-versed in [Cure] at the Central Sanctuary take a look, but... they say it’s an incurable disease from ancient times.”