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“Dada!”
“Giggle!”
Winley only got up when it was already late evening. Looking at her with concern, Davey asked, “Are you feeling better?”
“Of course, Big brother. Your younger sister is quite healthy.”
“Nonsense.”
“Me! Red Ribbon slept, too!”
“Bl… Blue Ribbon, too!”
It was still shocking to hear that swords could sleep.
Davey didn’t know what the children were laughing about, but the children ran around the room, giggling joyfully.
“It’s fascinating. I don’t know if it’s because of those children, but… I feel a lot better than usual.”
Aside from feeling well rested, Winley’s amount of mana had probably increased too. She was also a mage, so she would’ve absorbed some of the power the two children, who were balls of energy, had released.
“That’s a relief. Hey kids, do you want to go play outside for a bit?”
“Okay!”
After the children answered simultaneously and scuttled out of the room, Davey turned to look back at Winley. “Are you okay now?”
“Yes, thank you for your concern.”
“How long did it take you to travel here? I would’ve gone instead, if you had contacted me.”
“H—How could I? You’re busy, too…” Looking like she was going to cry, Winley lowered her head.
“Okay. Explain it to me.”
Winley nodded with tears in her eyes, and she finally revealed the severity of the situation. “We first brought priests, but they said that it was an illness incurable with holy power… So, we called the doctor, and they said that they couldn’t cure it either…”
“They couldn’t cure it?”
Comforted by Davey’s presence, Winley began sharing her concerns. She revealed that Portna, her bodyguard and close friend, had been shot with a poison arrow by the thieves instead of herself. Because Winley had fallen into a trap after chasing the thieves too far, she would’ve been severely injured or maybe dead if Portna hadn’t taken the shot for her.
“What about an antidote?”
“The priest did remove the poison with an antidote spell, but blue-black spots began showing up after that… And she keeps coughing up blood… Sob… Weep…”
The real problem only showed up after Portna had returned to the camp after being detoxified. She began suffering from a high fever, and blue-black spots started showing up on her body. From then on, she began coughing up blood and gradually losing a lot of weight.
It seemed that the priest who was treating Portna had mentioned that an extremely high-ranking priest with a stigmata might be able to fix her while they were trying to find a way to deal with this disease, which wasn’t treatable with the power of a regular priest or the art of medicine. That was probably what had brought Winley here to the Heins Territory in a hurry.
“…”
-Davey?
Perserque called out in puzzlement, since Davey was just quietly listening to Winley.
-Why do you look like that?
‘Nothing. It’s just that the symptoms are familiar.’
When Davey couldn’t think of any words to comfort Winley, who began crying from emotional distress again, all he could do was just silently stroke her vibrant green hair. He murmured, “It must’ve been hard for you. No one’s perfect from the beginning. Take this mistake to heart and make sure that it doesn’t happen again.”
“Sob… Weep… Big brother, what do… What should I do? Because of me, Portna… Weep… Sob!”
Davey patted Winley on the back as she sobbed in his arms.
The symptoms manifested about two weeks ago. This unknown poison, which first made Portna lethargic, began to continuously harm her even after it had completely left the body after detoxification. It was a disease. Blue-black spots began showing up on her body, she was coughing up blood, and she constantly felt languid. Winley had heard from the priest that this disease couldn’t be treated with holy power, so she had turned to the art of medicine. Unfortunately, even the doctors hadn’t been able to find out just what the disease was.
Feeling sorry for Winley as she was falling apart, one of the priests had said that maybe the power of the stigmata could cure Portna. Of course, Davey was the only person with a stigmata that Winley could ask for help from. Like she was grasping at straws, she had come to the Heins Territory straight away without rest, since the only person who had a stigmata she could possibly ask was Davey.
“Don’t worry. I’ll take a look at her,” Davey said.
“R—Really?!” Winley did want to hear that Davey was going to treat Portna. It probably pained her so much that the person she was fond of was dying because of her mistake.
Davey had no choice but to comfort Winley until she calmed down. Then, he called out, “Royal Attendant Bernile.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
In the quiet office, Davey, who was organizing documents that had records of the various matters of the territory, spoke quietly. “There should be an intelligence guild in the territory. Find the most trustworthy and informative one, and get me the branch leader.”
“Your…wish is my command.” Although Bernile could’ve found Davey’s orders to be ridiculous, Bernile just bowed his head silently to carry out his orders.
* * *
‘There’s this thing called intuition. In life, there are times when people suddenly feel a premonition even without any clues or evidence.’ This thought popped into Davey’s head, because he did get that feeling from the moment he heard Winley’s story.
“Ah… I keep feeling like something big is going to happen.”
-Don’t you always manage to turn it into a huge gain?
“That is true, but…” Davey answered bitterly and sighed. He calmly rose from his seat. “The increase in the number of patients isn’t something to be appreciated… There’s one illness that I know fits the symptoms.”
-There’s really…an illness like that?
“The problem is that there’s no way that specific disease would be on this continent.”
-Hmm? What does that have to do with getting the intelligence guild?
Confused by Davey’s words, Perserque tilted her head.
“There’s something called causality; there’s no such thing as a result without a cause. Portna was shot with a poisonous arrow, and she received an antidote spell, but she became sick the next day. She seems to be suffering from an unknown illness, one that not even the priests and doctors know of… It makes no sense.”
There was no way that the barbarians, who had to live off of thieving and attacking the outskirts of the kingdom because they didn’t have their own territory, could get their hands on that kind of poison. And it couldn’t be just any ordinary poison if the priests and doctors had given up.
-Then, in that case…
“Someone gave the barbarians a poison with a special kind of virus…” Davey, who trailed off, sighed and then continued, “Or there’s a possible cause of the illness that Winley didn’t mention.”
‘Although, I feel that it’s the first one.’
Whatever the illness was, Davey needed to know the cause to discover an appropriate treatment. This was one of the first things he had learned when he had been taught the art of medicine: understanding the overall situation.
“Come in if you’re here.” Davey threw the documents that he was reading while standing onto his desk. “And don’t try to discern me.”
If someone else saw Davey, they wouldn’t know who he was talking to. As he mumbled into the emptiness, a man wearing a black mask soon appeared in front of him with a faint presence. Looking over, Davey thought to himself, ‘He seems quite skilled.’
“…” The man who silently bowed to Davey was wearing a black uniform and mask. The only body parts that Davey could see were the man’s strong, large hands and sharp eyes.
Regular people would probably instinctively freeze up at the man’s hidden killing aura, but Davey wasn’t really tense at all. After all, he wasn’t particularly impressed by the man’s concealment skills.
“I heard that there’s something you need,” the man said after a short silence.
“Yes, I apologize for making you come and go when you’re busy.”
“…It’s an honor that you have asked for me.”
“Sit.” Davey offered the man the seat that was in front of him. He sat down, but the man chose to remain standing.
The man’s gaze seemed to suggest…nervousness. It was probably inevitable that he felt that way, since Davey had found him right away despite his usage of concealment skills to hide his presence. By nature, assassins were extremely wary of people who could find their location.
“I’ll be straightforward with you. I want to buy some information. How much can you offer?” Davey asked.
“Everything…” The man answered without an ounce of hesitation. “Has a price.”
Theft is never good, try looking at bit.ly/3iBfjkV.
‘Of course. Nothing is free.’
“Then, you can get me anything if I pay the right price?”
“If you pay appropriately, we can get you information about the underwear color of the kingdom’s princesses. If you want, we can also get you the underwear itself…”
“Tsk, what would I do with such a dirty thing?” Davey chuckled hollowly at the man’s calm but confident voice. The man did promote his guild’s information gathering ability and drive, but…
‘What a weird way to express it.’
As Davey looked at the man in shock, Perserque crossed her arms and pouted as if displeased. A short silence surrounded the office.
A lot of intelligence guilds in the Rowane Kingdom were exceptional, but they were still just minor intelligence guilds of a small kingdom. However, Davey could strongly feel that this man’s guild was a part of something bigger; it seemed like they worked continent-wide.
Of course, Davey wasn’t surprised since his territory was getting the spotlight and becoming a site of exchange as several merchant companies, wizard towers, and schools of alchemy were gathering. However, it was inevitable that the shadows grew alongside the light; intelligence guilds were known to sniff out money better than merchants.
It was safe to say that Davey’s territory had new information to be discovered every single day, so it wasn’t weird that an intelligence guild that worked on a continental scale had an eye on this place. That pretty much meant that they probably had the ability to get Davey what he wanted fast.
Davey could see the man's serious gaze when they made eye contact. The man would’ve heard about him if he wasn’t an idiot, and so, the man probably knew that he wasn’t going to say anything lighthearted. Furthermore, Davey wasn’t a well-known person, but had seen through his concealment skills.
Davey kind of felt bad. He could see how tense the man had become, but he still had to ask for what he wanted.