The Villainous Young Lady Would Even Risk Her Life for Her Beloved ～ Her Fiancé, the Prince? By All Means, Please Be Happy with the Heroine! - Chapter 1.34

Fred’s primary symptom was simple—he became fatigued easily.

The cause was a depletion of magical energy. I had experienced it myself on several occasions, so I understood the feeling. Once it set in, there was no helping it. The body would feel as heavy as lead. Apparently, even without using magic, his body slowly leaked magical energy throughout the day. By evening, he suffered from extreme exhaustion almost every day.

(If he’s fine in the morning, that means the amount of magic recovered during sleep is sufficient… at least for the first half of the day.)

That said, as the future lord of the Lias territory, this situation was far from ideal.

“This is for a second opinion.”

“What?” The gentleman furrowed his brows, prompting me to elaborate.

“Let’s consult another healer. Or rather, let’s ask my uncle.”

“Would that be appropriate? Lord Luke is currently the commander of the medical division, isn’t he?”

“It’s not a problem. My uncle has a tendency to involve himself in matters like these.”

Fortunately, Uncle Luke was stationed not too far from Lias on knightly duties. The quickest course of action was to have him examine Fred. Of course, I had already attempted to assess his condition myself, but I couldn’t deduce anything beyond what the Lias family’s dedicated healer had already observed.

Both Fred and Lord Finley seemed concerned about inconveniencing my uncle, but truthfully, he had been eager to come. The sight of a wyvern arriving to fetch him would only excite him further.

“Lady Lydiana, not only did you save my life, but you continue to concern yourself with my well-being… I am truly grateful.”

“Please, we still don’t know how this will turn out. But of course, I’ll do everything I can!”

“Just knowing that is enough to bring me comfort.”

I had thought they didn’t look alike, but when Fred smiled gently like that, he bore a striking resemblance to Lord Finley.

As the morning light began to spread across the sky, I handed over the letter I had written. Then, with his escorts, my uncle mounted the wyvern and soared away.

“I have never heard of such extreme magical depletion as a lingering effect of Froststone Disease. My mother, for example, has been living without issue.”

If even Geoffrey had no information on the matter, then there must have been no other reports. That meant Fred’s condition was unique.

“Then… could it be unrelated to Froststone Disease?”

“Could it be another illness entirely?”

I really hoped this wasn’t another case of a curse.

“I have, however, heard of a condition where magical energy leaks from the body.”

“But that usually only affects the elderly, doesn’t it?”

I had heard of that symptom from my uncle before. It occasionally afflicted elderly high-ranking mages, and it was believed to be the result of reckless magic usage in their youth. Since no treatment had been passed down, I assumed there was none.

(Healing magic doesn’t work on aging to begin with, after all.)

“I heard about it from Master Alibara as well! He said if you keep expending magic carelessly without control, your reserves will become loose and undisciplined in old age!”

…Was he talking about magic or skincare? Should I be concerned?

“Then, is it a well-documented illness?”

“Not exactly. It is recorded because famous mages tend to develop it, but it’s not particularly common.”

“And is there a treatment?”

“None in particular… It’s not fatal, so…”

Indeed, while magical energy constantly leaked from the body, it never dropped to zero. It seemed that once a certain amount had been expended, the leakage would cease, allowing natural recovery to take place. And so, the cycle repeated itself every day. Those afflicted simply had to live with it.

But that would not be acceptable for a frontier margrave. At any moment, creatures from the Forest of Beasts could emerge. If word spread that the lord of the territory was bedridden with exhaustion every evening, there was no telling what kind of opportunists might arise.

“The trigger remains a mystery. There are many other people who have had Froststone Disease, after all.”

If this was truly a side effect, it concerned me as well, given that I was a former patient. Geoffrey, whose mother had also suffered from it, was likely just as worried.

“I would like to investigate other former Froststone patients and compare their conditions with Lord Fred’s. Would that be acceptable?”

“In that case, I’ll accompany you. There are a few within the castle.”

“…What about you, Lydie?”

Leonhart seemed somewhat hesitant as he asked about my own experience.

“We all caught a cold together back then, but the first to worsen was—”

“You, Lydie. Then Sofia, followed by Roddy and Shelley at about the same time.”

At first, we thought it was just a common cold, but the symptoms gradually worsened. No matter how many times my mother healed us, we kept relapsing into the same state. Eventually, I was too weak to even sit up in bed. From there, my condition rapidly declined.

“My mother was constantly using small amounts of healing magic on me, but one day, my condition took a sudden turn for the worse. In desperation, she poured so much magic into me that she nearly collapsed from the strain.”

“And that’s when the parasite inside you—”

“—Overloaded on magic and ruptured.”

“Ruptured?”

“In other words, it burst apart.”

That was an unfamiliar way of putting it. But rupture… I had assumed the magical leakage was like a faucet that wouldn’t close properly, but perhaps something had actually torn somewhere.

(A hole… somewhere?)

A feeling surged through me, as though I was on the verge of realizing something.

“So that’s how it happened.”

“Incredible! You discovered the treatment method through your own experience?”

Lord Finley and Geoffrey’s voices of admiration pulled me back to reality.

(That’s right… The details of how the cure was found were never made public.)

I couldn’t very well say I knew it from memories of my past life, so all that was known was that I had come up with the treatment.

“When a healer receives healing magic, can they tell exactly where the effect is strongest and sense its details more clearly?”

Geoffrey leaned in, clearly fascinated.

“Well… I suppose I kind of can… but I think it varies from person to person…”

That wasn’t true at all. Sorry, Geoffrey, I just made that up…

“How exactly is Fred’s magic leaking?”

Leonhart mused aloud, conjuring a small light at his fingertips.

(That’s a good question. All I could sense was that his internal magical energy was gradually decreasing…)

The previous healer had reported the same thing.

“Magic fills the body the same way bl00d does, right?”

“Exactly.”

That was something only healers could truly perceive, as it pertained to the inner workings of the body.

“I… never actually checked where it was leaking from.”

The word rupture had sparked a thought. I wasn’t even sure if it was possible to verify, but…

“Finley! Can we still catch up to them?”

Leonhart immediately picked up on my urgency and called out. But it had already been three hours since their departure—how far had they gotten?

“If we send one of the faster dragons now, they should be able to reach them before arrival!”

“I’m going!”

With that, Finley dashed out of the room. I hurriedly scribbled a letter to my uncle. If there was no known treatment, at the very least, I wanted him to check for the source of the leakage. If we could pinpoint it, there might still be a way to help.

“I hope we can find something…”

For now, all we could do was wait and hope.