CH 66

“Nee-san! Yuren-dono! Ash-dono has returned!”

“My brother has!”

I was a bit slow to react while facing the Transmutation Circle.

After hearing the report from Fusaki-kun who rushed into the room, Yuren-kun stopped working and told me:

“Aria, let’s go see my brother. We need to talk about that issue.”

“…Yeah.”

“I know you’re not excited about it, but…”

“It’s okay. I haven’t given up yet.”

Out of the thirteen patterns I have worked on, unfortunately, none of them have produced significant results.

While there was temporary relief of symptoms, it was far from a full recovery.

If I had to point out a result, it would be that the duration of symptom relief has increased.

As someone who was entrusted with watching over His Highness Ash’s absence, I wanted to help as many people as possible. But reality is that people are dying right in front of me.

But I can’t let myself get depressed.

Fighting against this disease is something only I can do.

“Let’s go. Yuren-kun, Fusaki-kun.”

“Okay.”

“Understood.”

◇◇◇

It seems that His Highness Ash, who had returned, was in the medical room.

We hurried to his side.

Yuren-kun opened the door boldly without even knocking.

“Brother!”

“Hmm? Oh, Yuren, Aria and Fusaki are here too.”

If he was in the medical room, it must mean he was injured.

So we rushed over, but he seemed to be in good health.

He was sitting in a chair, getting his wounds wrapped up by the doctor.

From what I could see, he had cuts and bruises all over his body, but there didn’t seem to be any major injuries.

“Brother, are you okay?”

“As you can see, it’s just a minor injury. Don’t worry, it’s not the kind of injury where I’m going to die.”

“I see.”

Yuren-kun breathed a sigh of relief and patted his chest.

I was also worried, but it seemed that he, as his brother, was the one who worried the most.

“But it’s rare. Brother getting injured and coming back like this.”

“Well, this time, it was quite violent. It was a tougher fight than I thought.”

While talking, His Highness Ash pats his own head and laughs lightly.

Even though I don’t know how terrifying monsters can be, I can’t imagine laughing like that.

It reaffirms how strong he really is.

“Excuse me, Your Highness Ash.”

“Hm? What is it?”

“If it’s okay with you, please take this. It’s a potion that can heal wounds.”

“Oh! Can I have it?”

I nod, as I had brought it with that intention.

“Thank you, that will be helpful.”

“Not at all.”

I hand him the potion and he drinks it all at once.

Immediately, the effects take place and his wounds and bruises start to heal.

“Wow, that’s amazing. Normally, medicine doesn’t work on me, but this one works instantly. Is this a special potion?”

“No, it’s just a regular potion…”

The effects are being applied as usual.

As he said, there are many people who are not responsive to medicine, and the effects of potions differ from person to person.

Generally, people who are not responsive to medicine also have a weak response to potions.

But he doesn’t seem to be like that.

“Is that so? Well, never mind. Thank you, anyway.”

“You’re welcome.”

His Highness Ash, who had recovered, rotated both arms to check for any discomfort and expressed relief upon confirming that there was none.

“By the way, how did things go on your end?”

“Well, about that…”

Yuren-kun gave me a signal with his eyes.

I nodded and spoke up, “I will explain it.”

“Go ahead.”

Afterwards, I told His Highness Ash about the information I had discovered in his absence and what had happened, specifically about the number of casualties, the difficulty developing new potions, and…

“…a monster, you say.”

“Yes. It was mentioned by one of the deceased.”

“I see.”

His Highness Ash lowered his head and began to think.

It was not the most reliable information as it was said while the person was unconscious, but since the word “monster” was mentioned, it was not an impossible story.

What would His Highness Ash think after hearing this story?

Yuren-kun asked on behalf of everyone, “What do you think, Brother?”

“…Well. If monsters are involved, then there must be something going on. As I mentioned before, lately there have been more reports of monsters becoming more violent. If it’s not unrelated then…”

His Highness trailed off mid-sentence.

Perhaps his thoughts weren’t quite organized yet?

We waited for his response.

“…Actually, there’s a unit that went missing during this exploration.”

“Missing? What happened?”

“We split up the unit for reconnaissance purposes. They were all elite knights, so we assumed they would be able to escape even if they encountered monsters. But the unit that went in a certain direction has not returned.”

According to His Highness Ash’s account, there were eight members in the unit.

All of them were veteran knights with the strength to work together even against monsters.

That’s why they were trusted to handle the reconnaissance.

In the end, another unit found one of the monsters, and His Highness went to deal with it.

However, the other unit did not return.

“That’s also why I didn’t have time to prepare any monster corpses.”

“No, it can’t be helped.”

It seemed like they couldn’t afford to do something like that.

I’m more worried about the people who have disappeared than my own request.

“I wanted to go search for them too, but I got injured and was too pathetic to do so. My subordinates stopped me.”

“I see. Well, your subordinates made the right call.”

“I know, Yuren. But I can’t let it go. I’m planning to go confirm, and if the monsters are related to this disease…”

At this point, I could sense what His Highness was thinking.

He was strong.

Strong enough to not lose to monsters.

But being strong alone couldn’t win against the disease.

The only ones who could fight against the disease… were those with that power.

“Aria, can you come with me?”

“——Yes.”

It was just me.

So there was no other answer to the question but “yes.”

From the beginning, I didn’t even have the choice to refuse.