The situation was dire. A day passed that the person, addressed by the Earl in his letter, had no response yet. That’s to be expected, given that the Duke’s place was far away from him. However, the Earl couldn’t wait for another day.

Even if Kael did slow down the growth of mana crystals, the crystals were still growing, slowly conquering Kael’s entirety. The Earl was awake the whole time, unable to sleep soundly while he sees Kael suffering.

Seqina did many things that she thought could at least ease Kael’s pain, but none of her potions worked. Cadell was out for a time, telling the Earl that he will get something that could help. Elalios was the one appointed to lead the guards for the time being, as his distraught master was not in a proper state of mind to lead.

The Earl was by the door, waiting for a letter to float to him. Seqina looked at him with pity. There’s no letter to be expected even for tomorrow.

The Earl couldn’t wait. The passing of time agonized him, as he saw Kael suffering from the pain. He wanted to do something. He tried coming up of things to do. He wanted to ease Kael’s suffering. He knew no magic that could help the ill child.

He was frustrated with his helplessness. His mind wanders to the future that Kael is no longer. He couldn’t accept it, and so, he wanted to weep.

However, before a single tear tarnish the Earl, Cadell returned to them with a basket full of something glowing.

“My lord, this will help Kael”, Cadell said. “Take it”

The Earl recognized the fruits that Cadell brought. He encountered it just once or twice but he knew where the fruits came from. The fruits were from the alfris trees that lined the path between the town and the village of Lucien faithfuls.

“How?”, the Earl asked.

The fruits of alfris glowed, as it absorbed mana from the surroundings. Cadell explained to the Earl that he remembered such crucial information, when he was trying to look for things that can absorb mana out of Kael.

Hearing Cadell’s explanation, Earl Gideon’s hope came back to him. The fruits could be used to buy more time, so that they can travel to the Duke without worry. The fruits could even be a way to heal Kael entirely from the crystallization. But, there’s a problem. They didn’t know how to make the fruits absorb Kael’s mana crystals.

Earl Gideon and Cadell came up of things to do. They could put the fruits directly to Kael, hoping that the absorption will take place like that. And so they waited until the glow of the fruits faded.

Cadell picked two of the yellow fruits. He put one directly at a mana crystal, and he put the other one to Kael’s unaffected skin. He wanted to see if the different ways will produce different results. The methods didn’t have any difference. Both fruits didn’t absorb any mana.

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Seqina, who was standing by Cadell, took one of the fruits and crushed it. Cadell was shocked, but the Earl allowed Seqina to do her thing.

Seqina put some of the crushed fruit on a mana crystal growing on Kael’s left arm. She waited if what she did had any effect. Unfortunately, like Cadell, nothing good happened.

The servants apologized to the Earl, but their apologies will not do anything to help Kael. Earl Gideon commanded them to think of other ways, while he thought of other things that might help.

The servants ran out of ideas. Seqina cleaned Kael, and went to get more fruits. Cadell was ashamed to look at the Earl. But Earl Gideon didn’t pay much attention to them. He was deep in thought about other things.

As the Earl was seeing what the servants tried, he began to think that the fruits might not do anything to Kael. However, it was still true that the fruits glow because of absorbed mana. He thought deep, and came up of an idea.

“The fruits will not help”, the Earl said.

“I apologize, my lord”

The Earl looked at Kael. He decided to lift the child up, which confused Cadell.

“My lord..”

“It’s the trees”, the Earl stated.

Cadell was skeptical, but the Earl didn’t give him time to come up with a different conclusion.

----------------------------------------

Near the town of Edrei, in a grand double walled castle, Duke Decynus, the Duke of Levaldis resides. In the middle of the night, he was alone in his room, reading a letter. The letter was to be kept secret from anyone, as the contents of the said letter was dangerous not only for the person that sent it, but also to himself. It was from his friend, Earl Gideon of Cleron.

As he was reading the letter, Duke Decynus couldn’t believe the sentences that he was reading from the letter. “Help me”, written by his strong friend was already an unbelievable thing to see. But what’s more inconceivable was what the sender claimed that he needs help with. Earl Gideon claimed that he had a child that was being burdened by mana crystallization.

Children were not expected to suffer from the debilitating illness. After all, children didn’t have the capacity to absorb the mana surrounding them.

What’s more absurd was the claim of body crystallization. Even an adult with a crystallized finger was rare enough, but by the Earl’s letter, Duke Decynus was being convinced that there’s a child with a ridiculous level of mana affinity. The Duke should not believe it.

But, as it was common sense to assume that the story was absurd, it was coming from his friend. He knew that, that friend of his will never lie to him. It had been a month since he received the letter. He tried wrapping his head around the bewildering claim, but he was unable to decide on what to do next.

“What are you still doing, Decynus?”

Duke Decynus heard a woman’s voice. He hurried and put the letter in his pocket, and face the person who was asking.

“Nothing, I’m just getting ready for tomorrow”

“You should be”, the woman said.