Chapter 20: I’ll start the treatment now.

I’ll start the treatment now.

“Good morning, Father.”

As the Saint, and as the Princess, I came before my own father, the King.
I already know what the matter is. It is about curing the Queen, my mother, who has contracted a mysterious disease.

“Good morning, Luna. Needless to say, I called you hear today to talk about my wife. I want to ask you to heal her as the Saint, is that alright?”
“…..I don’t know if I can cure her but I will try.”

Father nods at my agreement and with the words “then I’ll leave it to you”, he returns to work.

“Mother, I’m coming in now.”

I called out from outside the room, but there was no reply so I just went in.
Mother was asleep on the bed but she didn’t appear to be sleeping very peacefully.

I remove her clothes and look for symptoms of the disease.
There were several dark patches on her back and there were several of the same dark patches on her arm as well. It looks like those are the symptoms of this disease.

“Well then, Mother, I’ll start the treatment now.”

In terms of recovery magic, the most well-known spell was [Heal], but that wasn’t all recovery magic entailed.
Firstly, if this disease contained some sort of poison, I would need to use [Poison Heal] instead of [Heal].
And there would be times when I would need to cast [Refresh] for when the illness caused fatigue.
However, I cast [Poison Heal] and [Refresh] on Mother many, many times but the patches on her arm and back showed no sign of disappearing at all.

When I let the king know the treatment failed, he completely stopped work for the day to grieve and moan.

“…..I’m sorry, Father. My power just wasn’t enough.”

I couldn’t live up to my mother and father because of my own powerlessness….

When I woke up in my room the next day, my whole body felt sluggish.
……Perhaps I overexerted my magic during yesterday’s treatment.
While thinking that, I started changing into my habit in front of my mirror, because I couldn’t neglect my work as the Saint.
Suddenly, I noticed something black on my arm.
It can’t be…. I look at my arm and saw small black patches just like the Queen had.
From then on, I understood that this disease was contagious.
Certainly, it would have been better if I had considered that yesterday but because it was my own mother, I had deemed it a serious matter and forgot all about that.
I immediately head to the king’s room. Fortunately it was early in the morning and there were no guards in front of the king’s room.

“Father, I’m sorry for coming so early but are you awake?”
“…..Yeah, I’m awake.”

Still affected by yesterday’s matter, Father’s voice didn’t have his usual sense of aspiration.

“Please, just let me talk here.”

I cannot afford to infect my father, the king, so I ask for permission to speak through the door.

“Actually, it’s about Mother’s disease that I tried to treat yesterday. It appears to be a contagious type and I’ve now been infected as well…..”
“What!?”
“Please don’t open the door!!”

Surprised, Father tried to open the door and I had to coerce him into stopping.

“I apologise but this disease doesn’t seem like something I can cure. And it appears that this disease is contagious so Mother and I will migrate to a room at one end of the castle. And after we separate, please immediately order a quarantine.”
“….U-understood. I’ll do as you say….”

Hearing that, I returned to my room, prepared a minimal amount of necessities and head towards the assigned room.
I had Mother moved under strict management.

A few days passed after that. Meals were delivered before the room three times a day but now I had difficulty even going to pick it up. Not getting enough food, my face also seemed to become thinner.
…..Although I went to the trouble of learning recovery magic, I wonder if I will end up dying without even saving my mother…..
Unable to stop the falling tears, I wept into my pillow for a long time.

…..Incidentally, there seemed to be some kind of disturbance outside the room when I woke up.
It wasn’t the usual sound of our meals being delivered and when I strained my ears to listen to the faint voices of the guards, I discovered that a rebel had infiltrated the castle.
…..From the sound I heard outside the room just now, it’s likely that the rebel is on the other side of the door.
Dragging my heavy body forward, I pick up the sword that was left in the room for some reason.

…..The door opened――

I raise the sword in my hand towards the arm poking out from the opening of the door and swing it down vigorously.