I thought, like Nisa’s room, her mother’s room would also be on the second floor. It wasn’t. It was in the basement.

Our steps reverberated as the duke led us down. We had some guards with us but it was mostly for show. Once at the very bottom, my nose let out a cry.

It smelled horrendous here, worse than Nisa’s room. The floor seemed clean enough. So, what?

“Wear these,” a maid handed me gloves and a mask.

“Her disease isn’t contagious, at least so far, but it never hurts to be careful,” the duke said.

For a basement, it was surprisingly bright in here. There were some guards and some maids on standby. The ceiling was about Den’s height. I thought we’d have cells in here, but nope, just typical rooms, albeit small ones. Our room was at the very end of the large ballroom like basement. Did something die in here?

With a knock the duke went in. He then proceeded to invite us in as well. Inside we had a lady who, for better or worse looked like a skeleton. Probably for the worse. Her feet were rotting and that’s where the damn smell was coming from. She was staring at us, yet she wasn’t at the same time. Glassy eyes, disheveled hair lacking luster. Nisa got her looks from this woman but… I couldn’t really call her beautiful right now. She’s barely alive.

It was almost as though she was but a husk. The maid brought some cookies and tea. “Her favorite,” the duke said. “Now she barely eats anything.” He sighed, taking an elixir and helping her take it. She seemed to respond to the duke’s touch.

They love each other, huh?

It wasn’t uncommon for nobles to have multiple wives and mistresses. This guy, Duke Alzania didn’t. He only had one wife and no mistress. I wasn’t sure if that was because his wife was the sovereign or because they really loved each other. That of course didn’t matter.

She drank the potion and although her wounds didn’t close, they at least didn’t appear as shit as they were a minute ago. But it was probably going to be terrible sooner or later anyway.

“She’d been writhing in pain for a while now. I couldn’t bear her groans, so I keep her here. But I suppose we can finally move her back up. We can finally….”

She seemed fairly stable now though. I guess that was because of the elixir. And this guy knew the elixir would help. So that’s why he was so damn excited yesterday.

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“How did this happen?”

“It started with her feeling tired. Then she started losing weight fast. I think she was having stomach issues. We had her examined and the physician gave her medications and even an elixir but they only mitigated some of her symptoms. She never really got better.”

Well, this world excelled in wound healing and other stuff but not diseases. Most people didn’t get sick and if they did, they could just let it run its course. But this one probably didn’t have one. The only way out was death.

“Come,” The duke said. “Let us not dwell in here-”

Still what kind of illness rots your fee- My eyes landed on the cookies. Those damn sweet as fuck biscuits. “Say,” I spoke. “How many did she use to eat those in a day?”

“About two trays?” The duke paused. “No maybe four. She used to have a lot of tea.”

“You mentioned bathroom breaks. Did she use to… I mean, urinate a lot?”

He let out a sigh of disapproval but- “Probably. One day I saw her go about twenty times.”

“What about exercise?”

“Why would she need that?” He snorted.

“Would you believe me if I said there might be a cure?”

“Truly!” He grabbed my shoulder and glared down.

“Emphasis on the might though,” I said. “I’m not sure if it’s really that.”

“If it’s worth a shot, let’s-”

“Make her walk around.”

“Huh? Are you crazy! With those wounds, she’ll bleed and~!”

“Wrap bandages and herbs over them. Make sure the wounds don’t get more infected than they already are. Use all my damn elixirs to soothe her pain and help her. As long as we can make her walk and move little by little, her condition will improve. But that’s not all, we need to manage her diet and-”

“The state doctor couldn’t cure her. What makes you think you can,” the duke said, calmly. “I know you’re a genius for your age, however what if it kills her?”

I glared at him. I glared with confidence. “What’s better? Rotting here with no hope for a future or taking a gamble at her life and trying one last time, while watching the world with her eyes? Do you Want her to suffer like this without getting better?”

He ground his teeth, veins bulging. Yeah, I’d pissed him off.

“Mmh…” A bit of noise came. It came from the woman. She was staring at us, at the duke with her hands reaching out.

The duke went to her. He wrapped his hands around her and picked her up. She really was all bones. I bet she wouldn’t weigh more than thirty kilograms.

“I will be taking your bet,” he said. “But know this, I will not forgive you if-”

“How ungrateful,” Shia said. She’d been staying quiet. “He offered you a solution. When you didn’t have any hope or way out at all. He offered you a solution. Instead of thanking him, you’re actively,” She grumbled exaggeratedly.

The duke clicked his tongue but without a word just left.

Meanwhile Shia and I stood there, kind of dazed, kind of without anything to do.

“How sure are you that it might work?” Shia said.

“It was just a hunch. But the symptoms all match up with something I’d seen before. And the cure for that disease was only exercise. The cause for it was a lack of exercise and eating lots of sugary food like this. And maybe luck too.”

How I knew it? I had it of course. I had fucking diabetes and became fucking thin because of it. Fuck Diabetes. Fuck that shit!

“Bad luck, huh…” She shrugged. “Alright, let’s go to the beach.”