(From Rosanne)

Erzi approached us, followed by her husband.

—Rosanne, Maxwell, I recognize your souls. I would like to have heard what you have to say before making a statement to everyone else, but the information seemed to have already spread quite a lot. Could you please tell everyone about your findings?

—I am not a lecturer, but I’ll try to explain it as best as I can —Maxwell said, turning towards the crowd—, Good evening, I am Maxwell Conrad, I have been supervising the operations at the improvised hospital, dealing with those affected with the disease that suddenly spread through our country. The treatments we have been using have been effective so far, but only to slow down the progress of the symptoms. We don’t have a cure, and every day, we get more and more people afflicted by it. If the situation continues as it is, we’ll be overrun in less than two weeks.

When the doctor finished, nobody spoke. The tension could be felt in the air, and even the temperature seemed to have lowered considerably.

—There is one hope, though. We need to find a certain person, a young girl, who is the key to cure this sickness for good. All we know about her is that she is about 5 years old, with blond hair. Up until now, her whereabouts were completely unknown, but we have figured that she is living near one of the radio towers that are currently being built in the northern territories. We need to send a search party to each one of them.

One of the nobles, a minister I think, raised his hand.

—Your Highness, how sure can we be of this information?

Erzi took a look at me and smiled.

—I will bet my life on it. Consider what you just heard as my own words.

—In that case —a soldier spoke— I will assign my best men to this task. I am afraid I can’t take too many out of their current duties, as they are already helping care for the afflicted. How many towers do we need to check?

—There are nine being currently built, with three more that were recently finished. There is yet another, but this one was finished almost half a year ago, so I don’t think we need to consider that one as a priority target.

—To be able to find her fast, we would need to look at those twelve objectives at the same time. I think I will be able to spare three to four soldiers for each one.

—The adventure guild will support you, dear —a woman spoke with bravado—, we might only be able to find two or three adventurers capable enough for each group, though.

—Th-the merchant guild will provide transport and provisions —a short man said nervously.

In turn, the rest of the people gathered there also offered to help. I was very moved by seeing everyone pitching up to help without expecting anything in return. However, when it was the turn of the cardinal to speak, I felt a chill run through my spine.

—The kid is said to be the saintess, so she will have divine energy within her —they said, with a voice so gentle it didn’t sound human— We can sense this power, so we will accompany your groups and help you find it faster.

I didn’t feel any bad intention in their words, but I had a bad feeling about it. I tried to convince myself it was just my own bias, and didn’t say anything. Everyone else continued to discuss the details of this massive expedition, while I tried to blend with the wall. The northern territories were considerably far away, they would need to depart as soon as possible. Moreover, they were in high terrain, the rivers became too shallow and sparse to travel through them. At least part of the travel would have to be done in land carriages. After about half an hour, everyone but their Highnesses, Maxwell, and I, had left to fulfill their part of the preparations.

—Rosanne, before you leave —Erzi said—, would you like to get some tea? I… also have something I want to talk about with you.

—Uh, sure, just let me go get Violett —I said, but I found her already playing with Julius in the hallway.

—Ah, Auntie! —the kid said as he approached me. I petted his hair.

—You have grown so much since I last saw you —I told him.

—Yes, now I am taller than Violett!

—It is just one centimeter, it doesn’t count! —my daughter replied, jumping at the young prince in an attempt to body slam him, but he managed to catch and swing her up as if they were dancing.

Violett was too confused to react. I giggled a bit, but then I noticed he was carrying something on his back.

—Is… Is that?

—This? Mother said it would protect me from anything —Julius said, as he showed me the sword I have gifted him as a newborn.

I was a bit confused. Sure, I had given him that sword bathed in my own blood as an amulet of protection, but it couldn’t have any real power. It might indeed be more dangerous for him to be playing with it, but Erzi assured me that the sword was locked to the scabbard.

—He knows how to unlock it, but he knows it is not a toy —Erzi told me, and I couldn’t not believe her. Despite his young age, and at times too competitive nature, he seemed to be pretty responsible.

We moved even deeper into the palace, into the personal quarters of the royal family. The kids were playing in the room next to us, where Gaius had been reading books while listening to the radio since before we got there. Maxwel and the King were talking near the door, while I sat with Erzi in the living area.

—Rosanne, I am not going to sugarcoat this. Several of our personal attendants have been infected by the curse. We have a cure on the horizon, but we can’t get too confident. I am going to send my children to the second palace, it is so isolated that they’ll be safe there no matter what happens. I want you, Violett and Alyssa to go with them. Of course, your attendants can accompany you as well.

—I… I understand.

There was nothing more I could do now that we knew where the future saintess would be found. Instead, I needed to make sure the kids were safe, and maybe resting a bit after so many nights without sleeping. For the moment, I didn’t mention my horns to Erzi, but Maxwell told her he would need to visit me frequently to check my health.

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—You are probably the person who knows more about the curse, you can come and go from the second palace as long as you consider it safe —she said.

We spent a bit more time chatting about unimportant things, but the sunset was approaching, so we returned to our home to prepare to move out. Erzi would be sending her kids the very next day, and we weren’t supposed to get there long after that, so there was too much to prepare.

Three days after our meeting at the capital, we reached the second palace, which was hidden deep within some cedar forest. At the entrance of the property, next to the river we were traveling through, there was a giant statue of a muscular man with bull horns on his head.

—Quite a sigh, isn’t he? —the head butler of the mansion told me, when he noticed it had caught my attention —That statue has been there since before our kingdom was created. It is a mythical creature called Humbaba, and it is said that he was the guardian of this forest.

We settled down with no problems, Julius and Violett were pretty happy to be together all the time, though most of it they were play-fighting or competing, while Gaius was painting or playing the different instruments that had been brought there specifically to keep him busy. Alyssa kept doing her usual routine, waking up late, training until dusk, and staying up until almost dawn reading romantic novels. I tried to keep myself busy reading some of the books from that mansion’s immense library, as well as trying to create a new spell that I had come up with. I slept… better, hugging Violett allowed me to relax more, but I occasionally still had the nightmare where I was surrounded by an ocean of darkness. I could somehow deal with that, but I couldn’t ignore that my horns kept growing, hiding them was becoming a chore on its own.

On our sixth day there, Maxwell came to visit us. I was really happy to see him, but I could see he was very worried about something.

—What’s happening? —I asked, as I poured him a cup of wine.

He didn’t say anything for a moment, until I grabbed his face and made him look at my eyes.

—You can tell me.

He sighed.

—Alright. We got the first report from the groups sent to find the saintess. It is still very early, they have only checked up a quarter of the population around the towers, but they haven’t sensed even a trace of divine magic. According to Lucius, even if the saintess is very young and hasn’t awakened her powers, there would be some residual magic left in places she would frequent.

—She HAS to be there!

—I… I know. I trust you, but perhaps we are missing something.

—W-what about the other tower? The one that was finished some time ago?

—I have been thinking about that too, maybe I made a mistake by discarding it as a target so easily —he said, sounding remorseful.

—It is still not too late, we can still get Erzi to form another group to search that one too.

—That’s… the other thing that was worrying me.

—W-what? —I said. I had a bad feeling.

The doctor looked over both of his shoulders, as if looking for someone spying on us. Then he made me sit down, and hold my hands.

—Rosanne, two days ago, both the Queen and the King started to show signs of being infected by the curse.

—Wha-what?

—They are still in the early stages of it, but they aren’t responding to the treatment as well as the rest of the patients. Their lives aren’t at risk yet, but they aren’t in a state where they could present themselves to others, it will create a panic.

—I… I can’t believe it, Erzi… we need to —I was saying, when one of the attendants of the mansion entered the room very hurriedly.

—Doctor, thank the gods you are here! Please come see, Prince Gaius, he got sick out of nowhere!

Maxwell and I shared a quick glance, jumped out of our chairs and ran alongside the maid to where the boy was. He was sweating and breathing very hard, and the Doctor immediately started to treat him. The obsidian black color of his fingertips was already a sign of what was happening to him.

—He was just listening to the radio and playing along when he collapsed —the maid kept saying in a state of distress.

I tried to calm down Julius and Violett, who had been in the room when it happened, but I could barely concentrate. I was feeling as if my head was being split in half, and my vision was getting blurry.

—Mother? —was the last thing I heard before all I could see was white.

Slowly, things started to materialize, a desk, a lamp, papers, a bookshelf, a chair. I recognized that scenario pretty well, it was the office of the student’s council of the Academy. And sitting in the chair was the grown up Julius, as he appeared in the game. He even had his pet crow perched on his shoulder. But something in his face was different, he looked… more lively?

—Please step ahead. Thanks to your cooperation, we were able to stop the Curse of Calliope before it became uncontrollable.

—Hmmph! This much is hardly anything to praise us, don’t you think? —a beautiful young woman said, it took me a moment to realize she was Violett as a teenager.

—Don’t be shy, you want his majesty to praise you, don’t you? —another beauty appeared, this time a blonde.

—Shut up, I don’t recall giving you permission to talk to me so casually.

The prince smiled.

This… What was I seeing? This never happened in the game!

—Violett, it doesn’t matter if you accept it, you have my gratitude. When this curse hit us the first time, more than a decade ago, it took with it a lot of people, including my father and my brother. And my mother never recovered from it, I had to see her suffer for years until she couldn’t fight it any more.

—T-that… that can’t be! —I said, and everything stopped moving. I ran towards the prince and held his shoulders—, please, tell me how to stop it! Erzi, Augustus and Gaius… I can’t let that happen to them! I can’t let that happen to anyone!

I shocked him, but he was like a statue, until he started to crumble between my fingers. Soon, I was back in that empty white void. I fell to my knees, crying, hitting the ground in despair.

—If you want to stop it from happening —someone spoke from behind me, and when I turned around I found… myself? She was wearing my same clothes, had my same hair, color of skin, and my same horns. The only difference was that her expression was completely emotionless, yet terrifying.

—What?

—Then you should do something about it.

—What can I do? Please tell me, I’ll do anything!

Something that resembled a smile appeared on her face.

—Don’t you know the answer already? —she said, and I suddenly found myself back in the room where Gaius was being treated.

—What, what happened? —I asked, my head was still spinning around, but the tiny hands of my daughter held me and helped me stabilize.

—Momma, it is fine, I am here —she said, trying to calm me down, and I have to say, it helped me.

I hugged her, and after a moment, I took a look at the room. The chandeliers were swinging. All the paintings that had been hanging from the walls were now on the ground. It seemed as if there had been an earthquake. On the flip side, Gaius' condition seemed stable at the moment.

—Rosanne, are you alright? —Maxwell said, sounding awfully worried— It seemed like you were fainting, but I had to take care of the prince, and then everything started to shake.

—I am fine, what matters most is that you saved him.

—I… nevermind. I’m glad you are ok —he said with a tired smile.

He was walking away, but I grabbed his arm.

—Maxwell. I am going to look for the saintess myself.