TRVLT 26

Flash!

The boy, Rasian Federka, shot awake, gasping for breath.

“Wh… what was that?”

A future he had glimpsed in his dream struck his entire body like a violent shockwave.

Rasian grabbed a scrap of paper lying nearby and hastily scribbled down the scenes he had seen in his dream. Even as his pen moved frantically, he felt dazed.

“What is this… this premonition?”

What on earth was going to happen in the territory of Hezeit?

The fragmented pieces of the dream slowly began sinking into the swamp of oblivion.

Sometimes, the futures he saw through dreams would fade from his memory. It was because the destined future had gone awry and turned into something that would “never happen.”

Rasian had experienced several instances where the future itself vanished like this.

‘Because someone turned back time and made that future as if it had never existed….’

The only one capable of such a thing was a time mage. And Rasian knew only one.

“…Arileti Cadis.”

He had clearly heard someone cry out the name ‘Arileti.’

Crunch.
The paper filled with his clumsy handwriting crumpled in the boy’s hand.

Right now, that woman was in the territory of Hezeit.

Arileti circled the date on her newly turned calendar.

March 1.

She set down her pen and threw both hands into the air.

‘Hooray!’

It was March!

“Good morning, Aril!”

It had already been two months since Arileti had ended up living here in the territory more or less by chance.

Now it had become a natural part of her morning routine to plant a kiss on Tanesa’s cheek when she came to wake her up.

“The sun’s out quite nicely today. How do you feel?”

“Good.”

“Nothing hurt during the night?”

“Nooo.”

Not that she’d believe her anyway.

“Tsk, what did I say about lying? Is it allowed, or not allowed?”

“Not allowed….”

She had tossed and turned a bit because her fever rose at dawn.

If she had told the truth, Tanesa and the knight uncles would surely take turns standing guard by her bed like they had a few days ago, so she had kept quiet—but she was found out immediately.

Tanesa pressed a hand to Arileti’s forehead to check her temperature and sighed.

“It’s a problem how often you get sick. Everyone’s waiting in the banquet hall, so wash up and let’s head down quickly.”

“Okaaay.”

With a towel tied around her neck, she was scrubbed clean in Tanesa’s hands, then had her hair brushed and was dressed in thick padded clothes.

Usually that was enough, but today fluffy fur earmuffs, a scarf, and gloves were added. Once she hugged her pink bunny doll, preparations were complete.

Today’s mode of transportation was already waiting outside the door.

“Sleep well, little teacher?”

“Mm-hm.”

Arileti was handed over from Tanesa to Glen, swinging lightly as she went. From here, they would head down to the banquet hall, where she would receive her morning checkup from Doctor Sergio before eating breakfast.

“You’re warm again today. I really can’t figure out why your fever won’t go down.”

“’Cause there’s lots of anger inside.”

“Oh dear, then I should ask for a stronger prescription.”

“Eeeh….”

Chatting idly, Glen and Arileti disappeared down the corridor.

Tanesa smiled fondly as she tidied the child’s bedding.

‘Looking at them like that, they really seem like family.’

Whether it was a young uncle caring for his little niece, or an older brother looking after his baby sister.

Then her gaze drifted to the calendar.

The very last square of March, year 1347, was colored in black. Exactly one month away.

Had Arileti marked it?

Tanesa tilted her head.

“Is something happening on the last day of March?”

“Say ah—let’s see, Aril?”

“Aaah—.”

Doctor Sergio placed a glass rod into Arileti’s mouth and examined the back of her throat.

Not only did the doctor look as though he intended to eradicate illness with his glare, but the men gathered closely around Arileti also wore equally fierce expressions.

“How is she, Doctor?”

“Her tonsils are still quite swollen.”

The sturdy men’s faces simultaneously darkened.

“I’ve mostly untangled the twisted mana and aura channels. But strangely, the low-grade fever won’t subside. Let’s continue with antipyretics and anti-inflammatories for now and observe her progress until next week. She’s still just a baby, so it’s difficult to use stronger medicine.”

Ugh, I hate fever reducers.

Arileti pouted faintly.

She had once secretly held ice in her mouth to lower her temperature and ended up producing the astonishing result of five degrees on the thermometer—so tricks no longer worked.

“There is, in fact, a medicine effective for these symptoms.”

“What is it, Doctor?”

“A potion that provides both detoxification and relaxation. It can calm the aura rampaging inside and defend against mana colliding from outside the body. However, the ingredients are extremely expensive and rare….”

“Could we find them nearby?”

“There’s nothing on the mountain slopes suitable as potion ingredients. You’d have to visit a large apothecary inland. Hmm… even a single strand of mandrake root hair would help.”

No. If we manage to get even a strand of mandrake root hair, it should be saved for the Third Prince later, not used on me.

This was all because she had coughed up blood in front of everyone last week. Ever since then, the people of the castle had become overly protective.

Glen asked sharply, “I thought she had been recovering well so far. What is the fundamental cause, Doctor?”

Arileti stiffened.

“Well. She’s not casting magic, nor manifesting aura, so I cannot determine the cause…. When symptoms appear without a clear reason, there is only one possibility.”

“And what is that?”

“A curse.”

“Our little one has been cursed by someone, Doctor?!”

Dunken slammed his hand down on the table and shot to his feet.

Arileti glanced down at the bunny in her arms.

‘Is that it, Needle?’

—“…Authority is the product of the contract the first sages made with the White Forest.”

Needle muttered the reply and soon fell silent.

Since the day Arileti had collapsed with illness, Needle had grown noticeably quieter. It seemed that after overexerting itself recently, it was once again conserving its strength.

‘If you break the contract, you pay the price… You wouldn’t be wrong to call it a type of curse.’

The reason the sages of the White Forest were granted special authority in the first place was to maintain and protect the forest.

If that power was used for personal reasons unrelated to that purpose, it seemed they would suffer backlash in the form of a curse. She still didn’t know what counted as “personal,” though.

‘I’ll ask again once Needle recovers a bit.’

“A curse…,” Glen murmured, turning the word over in his mind. Arileti quietly avoided his gaze.

Doctor Sergio gently stroked Arileti’s cheek.

“They say that children who are sickly when young grow up healthy later, but still—you shouldn’t be in pain, Arileti.”

Even when she grew up, she had never known a life far from illness…

In truth, it was already a miracle that she could move around like this.

‘Maybe I shouldn’t say that.’

The gazes directed at her somehow looked sorrowful.

Whenever she became aware of feelings conveyed so transparently, Arileti was overcome with a strange sensation.

It was like being repeatedly struck in the heart with soft marshmallows. It didn’t hurt, but the gentle thudding echo rose up to her throat, blocking her words again and again.