episode_0020

A normal day, a few days later.

Arthur was attending Professor Serena’s morning class as usual.

After class, Fabian, who was next to me, spoke to me.

“Arthur, I have something to show you. Follow me?”

“Okay? Got it.”

Arthur, who had roughly packed his bags, started following Fabian.

“What can I show you..?”

“It’d be boring if I told you in advance. But don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll like it.”

Arthur’s expectations began to rise at Fabian’s boast.

‘I’m really curious about it. Is it perhaps a magic book or a special magic tool that I don’t know about?’

Arthur, who was following along with sparkling eyes, saw the dormitory building.

“Is this a dormitory?”

“It’s an important item, so I’m keeping it in my room.”

“I see.”

So Arthur entered the dormitory building and was able to enter Fabian’s room.

As I sat waiting on a chair in the room, I saw Fabian take out a black box about the size of a jewelry box from the closet.

“Open it once.”

Arthur opened the box at Fabian’s words, and inside he saw a transparent glass bead resting on a red cushion.

“Oh..? It’s pretty, but I don’t know what it is..”

“This is a magic tool.”

“Magic tool..? Isn’t it incredibly precious?”

“You know my family, right? This is nothing, so don’t worry about it.”

“Okay Fabian! I’ll use it well~”

“But… Do you happen to know what this is used for?”

Fabian answered Arthur’s question with a confident look on his face.

“A crystal ball that absorbs magic power and emits light.”

But Arthur was rather taken aback by Fabian’s words.

“… Really? But I can’t handle mana, so I don’t think I can use it…”

At Arthur’s words, Fabian continued his explanation.

“The ones sold on the market require you to pour in mana, right? But this one automatically draws out mana when you touch it.”

Arthur’s eyes began to open wide at Fabian’s explanation.

“And since the built-in magic is light magic, the mana consumption is also very low.”

“So if you keep using mana with this, you can increase your maximum mana.”

“Really?”

“Thank you so much.. but I don’t think I can use it.. because I’m weak and I was told that it would be really dangerous if I fell into mana exhaustion..”

Arthur was just trying to accept Fabian’s gift, but Fabian showed him one thing.

“I guess I wasn’t even prepared for that?”

Arthur’s eyes caught sight of the bottle Fabian was holding in his right hand. It was a glass bottle containing blue liquid.

“It’s a mana potion, and it’s intermediate!”

“You can eat this as soon as Manataljin arrives.”

Arthur, moved by Fabian’s sincerity, hugged Fabian.

“Thank you.. I’ll definitely repay you later!”

“No, of course friends can do this much.”

“Then shall we try it now? I’ll watch from the side.”

At Fabian’s words, Arthur took a deep breath and placed his hand on the crystal ball.

“Oh…! I feel like something is slipping out.”

Arthur’s eyes turned to the crystal ball he was holding, and he saw it glowing softly.

At that moment, Arthur felt his vision blur and a headache arose.

“Ugh… I’m so dizzy..”

In response to Arthur, Fabian held out a mana potion.

“Here, drink quickly.”

Arthur took his hand off the crystal ball and grabbed the mana potion Fabian gave him, and started drinking it.

-Gulp, gulp.

“How is it? Are you okay now?”

But Arthur’s condition did not improve, even though he drank half of the mana potion.

“Pa..Bian.. My head hurts so bad..”

Eventually, Arthur, feeling increasingly dizzy and with a headache that kept getting worse, collapsed in Fabian’s room.

“Huh..? What, what is it Arthur!!”

Fabian laid the fallen Arthur on the bed and poured all the remaining mana potion into Arthur’s mouth. However, Arthur’s face, which was turning pale, did not improve.

“Oh… This is serious. Yeah! Yeah, we have to take him to the emergency room!”

Fabian, making a quick decision, picked up Arthur and quickly ran to the Academy’s emergency room.

… … …

Fabian arrived at the infirmary, opened the door roughly and went in.

“Ugh…gasp..”

“Please…please see the patient quickly!”

The nurse was the first to respond to Fabian’s urgent voice.

“Please put me on the bed here!”

Fabian puts Arthur on the bed at the nurse’s instructions.

When I looked to the side, the nurse had disappeared, probably going to call a doctor, and after a few seconds, I saw the doctor running over.

The doctor who arrived began checking Arthur’s condition.

“Typical symptoms of mana exhaustion. Bring a spare mana potion.”

In the doctor’s words to the nurse, Fabian told what had happened.

“I’ve already consumed all the intermediate mana potions, but my condition hasn’t improved.”

“Intermediate? Is the patient’s mana level above A-grade?”

“No.. It’s probably F-class. It’s almost non-existent..”

The doctor began to panic at Fabian’s words.

“No way… It’s not common to have an F-rank mana amount, and it doesn’t get better even after eating intermediate-rank?”

Then I saw a nurse bringing a mana potion.

“I’ll have to check it out first.”

As the doctor spoke, he began pouring mana potions into Arthur’s mouth. However, even though he had consumed an entire bottle of mana potions, Arthur’s face was still pale.

“Quick! Bring everything you have!!”

At the doctor’s words, the nurse quickly ran over and brought a box of mana potions, and again, the mana potions began to flow into Arthur’s mouth.

“… ”

“Even though it’s a low-grade potion, I put in 3 bottles and it’s not that effective. If I put in more than this, it’ll come up out of my esophagus.”

Fabian, who was reproaching himself, asked in a crawling voice.

“Is there any other way? I’ll pay all the money…”

“There really isn’t any other way as of now..”

Fabian began to lose his senses at the doctor’s words.

“What the… You’re a doctor! If you’re an academy doctor, shouldn’t you find another way?”

“…”

The doctor had no answer, but Fabian also knew that it was all his fault and that he was just taking his anger out on the innocent doctor.

Fabian, who had regained his senses, took out the communication tool from his pocket.

‘It’s my fault, so I have to solve it. Even if it means borrowing the power of my family.’

Fabian, who was holding the magic tool, started to contact someone.

… … …

Alice was running to the infirmary.

As usual, I was waiting to have lunch with Arthur, but no matter how long I waited, he didn’t come, so I went to the Faculty of Magic to look for him, and heard that he was lying in the hospital room, unconscious from mana loss.

-Bam!

“Arthur!!”

Arthur, lying on the bed, with a pale face, appeared before Aris’ eyes. And Fabian was standing beside him, soundly.

Aris, furious to the core, cornered Fabian.

“Is that you? You made Arthur like this?”

“… ”

Fabian said nothing.

“Ha! You were the kid next to me at the entrance ceremony. Fabian Schneider.”

“What, if you’re from a duke’s family, is it okay to make one person like this?”

“Stop it. And this incident happened on my own, it has nothing to do with our family.”

Alice almost lost her mind at Fabian’s words, but barely managed to keep her wits about her.

“After… Explain in detail what happened.”

At Alice’s words, Fabian began to explain what had happened with Arthur.

“… ”

“You did something crazy like that? Arthur is so weak, if he falls into mana exhaustion, it’s really dangerous!!”

Fabian bowed his head at Alice’s words.

“I thought it would be okay if it was a mana potion..”

“Mana potion? Arthur is the type that can barely receive the effects of potions!!!”

“That..that, but Arthur didn’t say much..”

“…”

At Fabian’s words, Aris also remained silent. She herself had not told Arthur about the ‘curse’. In other words, Arthur would not have known that he was barely able to see the effects of the potion.

‘It’s my fault…’

If I had told Arthur earlier, this wouldn’t have happened, but I couldn’t tell Arthur, “You’re cursed so you can barely get the effects of potions. You can’t get hurt or use mana.”. If Arthur were to hear that and be sad, his heart would be torn apart as well.

But Alice’s choice led to the worst outcome.

Eventually, Alice sat next to Arthur and observed his condition until evening.

Just then I heard someone open the door and come in.

When I looked back, there was Fabian standing next to him, and a woman I had never seen before.

“Who..?”

Alice asked, but Fabian, who was next to her, answered instead.

“He’s from our family. He decided to check on Arthur’s condition.”

The woman opened her mouth at Fabian’s words.

“Our family member? Fabian, aren’t you drawing the line too much with your sister?”

“… ”

“Sigh~ Okay, I get it.. I’ll check on your friend’s condition.”

So Fabian’s older sister approached Arthur.

“Oh? Little brother, do you make friends by looking at their faces? You’re so cute and handsome…”

At that moment, Alice, who was listening to the story, began to shed tears of anger.

“No, I’m kidding! Seriously… what kind of prank can’t I play?”

At those words, Alice’s murderous spirit disappeared like a ghost. And then, Fabian’s older sister appeared, looking at Arthur’s condition with a serious expression on her face.

“Hmm… This is the first time I’ve seen something like this.”

“Usually, if you fall into mana exhaustion, you can get better after taking a nap…but this is too bad.”

Aris asked cautiously at the woman’s words.

“Is there no way..? Please save Arthur..”

The woman was taken aback when Alice suddenly became so humble, unlike before.

“Don’t worry, I have a solution in mind.”

When she finished speaking, the woman placed her index finger near Arthur’s heart.

“I think he’s completely out of his mind, so he’s not making mana well. So if you send some mana to his heart, he’ll be able to regain consciousness once some of the mana circulates through his body.”

“Of course, this method is inefficient, but if you wake up like this, your body will quickly create mana on its own. The mind is more important than you think.”

Blue mana flowed out from the woman’s index finger and began to slowly enter Arthur’s heart.

After a moment, Arthur’s fingers were seen moving.

“After a while… Fortunately, I had only a small amount of mana, so I was able to recover it all with my mana.”

Alice expressed her gratitude to the woman’s words.

“Thank you.. I’m sorry about earlier..”

“No, it’s okay, I was the one who started the joke.”

The woman who answered began to look at Fabian.

“Then Fabian? You have to keep your promise.”

“Okay.”

The woman smiled broadly, satisfied with Fabian’s answer, and was about to leave the sickroom, having done all she had to do.

“Okay, wait a minute!”

At Alice’s blow, the woman turned around again.

“That… I want to learn the method too, because something like this might happen again.”

“I’ll teach you. But it might be a little difficult.”

But, despite the words “difficult,” Alice followed along well.

“… Are you good at it? This is enough. Next time, you can do it.”

“I have a question. What happens if I don’t have enough mana to fully replenish Arthur’s mana?”

The woman hesitated for a moment in response to Alice’s question, then answered.

“There may be some side effects, but it won’t be life-threatening.”

“What are the side effects?”

“I don’t know either.”

“Yes?”

“This is my first time experiencing something like this, so I don’t know about the side effects. If you’re curious, try it yourself. Of course, I don’t think you’re the type to do that.”

“Anyway! I’m busy too, so I have to go now. And Fabian, you know?”

“…”

Fabian didn’t answer, but the woman took one look at his face and left the room.

Aris and Fabian, who were left like that, waited by Arthur’s side until he woke up.