I invite Suzaku in and hear what she has to say. Apparently there’s an illness spreading through the beast people.
On this island, the most powerful races like the divine beast people rarely get ill, but the same doesn’t go for regular beast people.
Even if they’re still a lot stronger than people outside this island, they get sick like everyone else.
“Usually they would just rest until they got better, but…”
Says Suzaku with a worried expression. It seems the beast people’s condition is a lot different from normal.
The symptoms are pretty bad, and some people can’t even move.
“We don’t get sick in the first place, so we don’t know what to do at times like these.”
“I see.”
Suffice to say, I’m not an expert on the subject either.
The only things that come to mind are proper nutrition and rest…
“Can you do something, Reina?”
“I can’t say anything without seeing the symptoms. But I haven’t studied medicine either, so I don’t know how much I can help…”
“I see.”
The feeling I get from Reina is that she knows everything, but it looks like she can’t help either.
“I guess someone who would know about this sort of thing… Maybe Wil?”
“…That one?”
Suzaku doesn’t look too happy about that.
Apparently they know each other, but something happened in the past.
“Do you have a bad relationship?”
“No, we used to kill each other all the time in the past.”
…I’m pretty sure that counts.
Suzaku smiles awkwardly and responds, seemingly understanding what I’m thinking from my expression.
“We’re by far the hardest to kill on this island. We could hit each other without holding back and kill each other, so we actually got along.”
“I see.”
A true ancestral vampire and a phoenix.
These two immortal beings clashed with all their power, and apparently caused a lot of damage.
“Wait, if you two get along, why not have her take a look?”
“That’s no good. From her point of view, we’re like traitors?”
“Traitors…”
Wil doesn’t seem like the type of person to think about that sort of thing…
“She’s alone, but we’re different.”
“Alone?”
“Yes. Back then, when we still exerted our power, it was awful…”
Suzaku looks like she’s facing far away, and continues.
“Everyone was stupidly strong, so they killed each other to decide who was strongest… And as the years passed and we gained more things to protect, the fighting naturally stopped.”
“…”
“Some people died because their time was up, others simply because they lost… But in any case, as time passed, we all settled down. Except for Wilhelmina.”
Suzaku and the divine beasts have divine beast people and beast people, ancient dragons and demon gods have their friends, and great spirits have elves and alfar.
Everyone found people they wanted to protect, and things to do other than exercise their power. And so, the fighting ceased.
But one, a true ancestral vampire, was left in solitude.
“In the end, only Wilhelmina wanted to continue killing… But no one would face her.”
Says Suzaku, with a lonely sigh.
“Well, as someone who did the same thing, I understand how she feels, and I thought it couldn’t be helped that she saw us as traitors.”
“Doesn’t Wil have underlings?”
“I heard a long time ago that she had one before coming to this island… But she hasn’t made any since coming here.”
“…I see.”
“Yes. But anyway, that’s why she’s not going to do anything like help us.”
But she did lend a hand in Elga’s love life, and I feel like she got pretty involved in looking after Luna…
I guess there might be a line drawn somewhere that only they understand.
“But if you don’t know what to do either, I guess we’re outta luck.”
“Aren’t there races that know a lot about illnesses?”
“Don’t underestimate the monsters that inhabit this island. They don’t get sick easily.”
In the first place, medicine develops when people get sick or hurt.
For people of this island, that don’t get sick or hurt, that sort of thing is probably far from their thoughts.
“…Merlin might know.”
“Ah…”
Reina whispers the name of someone who is one of the seven great mages, like her. The woman whose nickname is Holy Water.
“Merlin doesn’t specialize in medicine or anything… But water magic tends to work in that field a lot too. And if she can use water magic at that level, she probably knows at least something about it.”
“I see. Then let’s go ask.”
I get up, followed by Suzaku.
“I’ll go get her. You can stay here.”
“No, I’m the one asking for something. It only makes sense that I’m the one going.”
“…I guess so.”
She’s very powerful, and the most important person in the divine beast people’s village, so I can respect how diligent she is about this sort of thing.
“Daddy, are you going somewhere?”
Snow is exploring the house, but she comes to me when she notices I’m going somewhere.
“I need to go to a friend’s place to ask something. Wait here with mommy, okay?”
“…Yes.”
I’m crouching to be able to look her in the eye, and as I pat her head, I notice Suzaku is standing next to me with a puzzled expression.
“I’ve been curious about this for a bit, but that’s a great spirit, right?”
“Ah, so you really can tell?”
“She has to be, with that magic energy she has. But… Eh…”
Suzaku looks at me and Reina, looking amused, and a kind of bad smile forms on her face.
“Daddy and mommy uh…”
“Wait, we don’t have time for that now.”
“Well, I guess. Once this is settled, you’re gonna to tell me all about this.”
She talks about getting nice booze as she walks out, and I follow her.
Merlin’s place is close. The white walls fit her pretty well, and there’s a kind of fancy feeling to it.
“Oh? Is she out?”
“Apparently. No one’s inside.”
I ring the bell in the entrance, but it doesn’t feel like anyone’s coming to the door.
And if Suzaku can’t feel her presence, we can only assume she went out somewhere.
“Hey Arata, you’re back. What’s up?”
“Ah, Xellos. We actually need to talk to Merlin.”
“Merlin? Tiltue came here early in the morning, and they went somewhere together…”
Xellos’ eyes are locked on Suzaku.
I guess he’s scared, but I figured he’d be over that by now.
They’ve been hunting together with Tiltue and Elga lately, so I thought they were used to them.
“…Hey Arata, she…”
“I guess we’ve never talked before! I’m Suzaku! The chief of the divine beast people!”
They’ve been to the divine beast people’s village separately, but I guess they’ve never gotten to talk to Suzaku.
I knew that they’ve been building their own personal relationships, but I don’t know the finer details.
“…My name is Xellos.”
“Ou, so you’re the fire user? You actually specifically picked fire? I like you!”
“Yes…”
It’s kind of surreal to see the burly Xellos look so pressured by the smaller Suzaku.
“You look like a mafia girl and her bodyguard.”
Or a leader of a group of delinquents and an underling.
Suffice to say, Suzaku, who is laughing while smacking Xellos’ back is the leader, as he scrunches down that big body of his a little.
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