Chapter 1 – Healing Magic
I didn’t sleep a wink in the end. Her Highness’s condition sat on me all night. What if the light goes out of her while I’m lying here like this? That was the whole of the night, and there was no sleep anywhere in it. On the other hand, lying flat with my eyes shut has brought a good deal of my mana back. On schedule, then. It should be perfect by this afternoon, and I can go to her.
“Master Leon. It is time to rise.”
“Got it. I’m up.”
Roger had come to call me, so I hauled myself out of bed. Then he looked at my face, and something concerned came into his own.
“…You appear tired. Shall I have breakfast changed to something easier to eat?”
Now that he mentions it, I don’t have much appetite. If meat turns up I might not manage it.
“Yeah. I’m not that hungry, so I’d be grateful if you would.”
“Certainly.”
He is hard to read, but that was worry. Roger already knows I can cure illness with healing magic, and I told him yesterday that I was going to heal Her Highness; Lord Richard said I could tell Roger essentially anything. Which makes him a deeply trusted and very capable servant, doesn’t it. I’m lucky they put someone like that with me.
At first I had him down as expressionless and unfriendly and decided we were never going to get along, and I was completely wrong. He is just bad at showing what he feels, I think. We haven’t known each other long, but I can tell that Roger is looking after me properly.
“I shall go and tell the head cook about the change, so please use these.”
He set a pail of hot water and a cloth on the side table by the bed. I washed my face with it, changed, and got myself ready; the clothes are on loan from the ducal house. Washing with warm water did settle me a little.
“Master Leon, breakfast will be ready in about ten minutes, so please wait a little longer.”
Roger came back with that just as I finished dressing.
“Okay. Thanks.”
“Then may I go over today’s schedule while we wait?”
“Sure. Is something on?”
“The tailor is due to call this morning. If Master Leon would rather decline, I shall arrange it… how would you like to proceed?”
Right, yesterday they did tell me a tailor was coming and I should have some clothes made. So much has happened that I forgot it completely. What to do… I could put it off, except then I would have nothing at all to do this morning and I would spend the whole of it worrying about Her Highness. Better to be busy with something. My mana isn’t going to be back until the afternoon anyway.
“I’ve got nothing else on this morning, so let’s do the clothes. It’ll take my mind off things.”
“Certainly. Then we shall keep to the schedule.”
While we were going through the day there was a knock, and another servant wheeled breakfast in on a trolley. Roger took it from him and laid it out on the table. Not a wasted movement anywhere; it is lovely to watch.
“Master Leon, breakfast is ready.”
“Thanks. I’ll eat.”
Breakfast was a warm bread porridge in a salted broth, with a small omelet beside it. The quantity was exactly right and it was very good, and I got all of it down without forcing anything.
“That was really good. Thank you.”
“I am glad you were able to finish. Then please rest until the tailor arrives. Shall I pour you some tea?”
“Please.”
“Certainly.”
I sat for half an hour or so after that, drinking tea and doing nothing much, and then the tailor arrived. He took proper measurements, and I ordered three outfits at about the level a lower noble would wear, so they would do for the Royal Academy as well; then two sets of nightclothes; then one set of good clothes fit for going to the royal palace. Once they are finished he will deliver them to the ducal house.
While I was thinking about clothes I managed not to think too hard about Her Highness, so I am glad I didn’t send the tailor away. It was a change of air and it steadied me a little.
“Roger, is Lord Richard back yet?”
“Yes. Word came a short while ago that he has returned. He asks that you come to the master’s room once you have finished with the tailor.”
“Right. Let’s go now, then.”
“Certainly. I shall send word, so please wait a moment.”
My mana is very nearly all back, so there should be no problem using healing magic. The rest is just me doing my best, and hoping there’s enough of it.
I waited, not very calmly, for Roger to send word, and then went to Lord Richard’s room. Inside, the room had already been cleared: nobody there but Lord Richard and one valet.
“Leon. Has your mana come back?”
I came in and sat down on the sofa, and that was the first thing he asked. Lord Richard is a little rushed himself. Which tells me how little time Her Highness has…
“Yes. My mana is almost entirely recovered, so I can begin Her Highness’s treatment whenever you wish.”
“That is good to hear. Then, to business. Let me explain how this will go. If you simply come up to the palace in the ordinary way and cure Her Highness, you will certainly be suspected of holding the power to cure illness. That would put you in danger, and I want to avoid it. So His Majesty and I have worked out a way to keep you out of it.”
What he explained came to this: the royal house has chosen someone trustworthy who will come up to the palace as an apothecary from a distant country, and I am to go along as the assistant. A veil over the face, as that country’s custom, so that nobody can tell. And honestly, with all that in place, I can’t see who would connect me to anything.
“So I go out past the central district after this, meet the person playing the apothecary there, and we come up to the palace by carriage. Is that right?”
“Yes. Do it that way, if you please. There are about two hours until the appointed time. Have lunch and take it easy until then.”
“Certainly. I shall do that.”
So Lord Richard and I talked the plan through, and I went back to my room.
“Master Leon, what would you like for lunch? Something light again, as this morning?”
“No, an ordinary lunch is fine.”
Getting measured and moving about had made me hungry. If I let myself get run down I can’t cure anything, and if I can eat properly then I should.
“Certainly. I shall have lunch prepared, so please wait a little.”
What arrived a while later was beef stewed until it fell apart. The sauce was superb, and I dipped bread in it and finished the lot. I even had a second piece of bread. Stomach full, mana full. Not perfect condition, but the best condition available today. If I can cure Her Highness on top of it, that will make it perfect. I am going to cure her. I settled that with myself.
After lunch I rested on the sofa until it was time, and to get the mana efficiency of my healing magic as high as I could, I dragged up whatever medical knowledge I had ever seen or heard in Japan. All I have is manga and TV dramas, but it beats not remembering. I was sitting with my eyes shut, pulling things up, when there was a knock at the door.
“Master Leon. It is Alban.”
Alban! I healed him yesterday and then heard nothing more, so I had been a bit worried.
“Roger, let him in.”
“Certainly.”
“Master Leon, thank you for giving me your time.”
Alban came into the room and bowed low straight away. Good. Set beside the man lying in that bed yesterday, he’s beyond comparison. The weight hasn’t come back yet, but he moves briskly, the way he did when I first met him, and his color is good, and some of the worn-out look has gone out of his face. I’m really glad.
“No, please don’t think of it. Has there been anything strange in how you feel?”
“Nothing of the kind. I feel exceptionally well. I came today because I wished to thank Master Leon again.”
If nothing is off, that’s a relief. He was the worst case I had ever treated and I had been a little worried. And if Alban is fine, then as long as I can cure Her Highness she will be fine too.
“Thank you, truly, for curing my illness yesterday. I could not thank you enough in a lifetime. In truth I had thought I was finished. That I should be this well and able to work again is like a dream. My thanks come from the heart.”
Alban bowed low again. There were tears standing in his eyes. Mine nearly came up to meet them, and I hurried to get him upright.
“I’m glad I could cure you. If anything at all feels wrong, please say so and don’t hold back.”
“Yes. Thank you, truly. I shall be of use to Master Leon without fail from now on, so if there is ever anything, call on me.”
“I will. Thank you.”
And Alban went out, bowing over and over and thanking me deeply the whole way. Getting a power that earns thanks like that: I’m glad of it.
Alban went out just as it came time to leave the house, and Roger and I set off from the ducal house in the carriage they keep for going about unnoticed. It took me as far as the edge of the central district and I walked from there to the meeting point, which was another precaution, so that nobody can tie me to a foreign apothecary.
At the meeting point stood a single carriage, solidly built but dingy and old. As I came up, a man got out of it. Forties, I would guess, with a kind face. Hair color, eye color, height and build all match what Lord Richard described, so this is him.
“You’d be Leon?”
I nodded firmly, and he waved me straight into the carriage. Then we sat facing each other inside.
“Has the Chancellor told you what the plan is?”
“The Chancellor… who would that be?”
“Ah. Lord Richard, the previous Duke of Townsend.”
Lord Richard is the Chancellor? I had absolutely no idea. Though it does add up, when the man can get in to see His Majesty at once and knows the state of Her Highness’s illness. You would have to be very close indeed to the throne for that.
“I had no idea Lord Richard was the Chancellor. He did explain the plan to me.”
“Good. Then let us get started. First, change into these, and put this veil on your head.”
What he handed me was a pair of very wide trousers, gathered tight at the ankle, and a coat that came down to the ankle as well. The coat was a little like a Japanese yukata in shape: you lap the front over and tie it closed with a cord.
“Are these clothes from another country?”
“They are. Worn by people of fairly high standing in a certain small kingdom, apparently. It has almost no dealings with this country, but we import a little of its spices and medicinal herbs.”
“You know a lot about it.”
“His Majesty taught me a great deal, so that I would have answers if anybody asked.”
They have thought even that far. This is a properly built operation.
“How do I put the veil on?”
“Hand it here. I’ll do it.”
“Thank you.”
So I changed, chatting with him as we went, and picked up a bag full of assorted herbs and mixing tools, and that was that. I look like nothing on earth but an apothecary from another country.
“That reminds me, names. Mine is Sunhwan. Yours is Namhee.”
“What? My name’s Leon…”
“False names, obviously. It would be strange for someone from another country to have a name from this one.”
“…That’s fair. So I’m Namhee and you’re Sunhwan. What should I call you? Lord Sunhwan?”
“You’re my apprentice in the story, so ‘Master’ would fit, wouldn’t it.”
“Then, Master Sunhwan, I’ll be in your hands.”
“Right. Same to you. Off we go.”
With even our names for each other settled and the story boiled down, the carriage started and we made for the royal palace. Half an hour or so and we reached the palace entrance.
“Halt. Do you have a crest or an invitation?”
An old carriage with no noble crest on it got stopped by a knight, warily. Naturally enough.
“I am Sunhwan. I have been summoned by the king of this country, an apothecary, come from abroad. This is the invitation, from the king of this country.”
The man’s whole atmosphere had changed. Somewhat difficult, but able: that was the apothecary he was giving off now. He had even made his speech a little halting. In another life this man could have been an actor.
“I shall confirm it. Please wait a moment.”
The atmosphere and the invitation between them changed the knight’s manner, and about ten minutes later he came back, having got his confirmation.
“Thank you for waiting. It is confirmed, so please go in.”
“Thank you.”
The knight saw us off respectfully and we went in through the palace grounds, and after a while more the carriage slowed and stopped. Then somebody knocked at the door.
“Lord Sunhwan. Welcome to the Kingdom of Lathlasia. May I open the door?”
“You may.”
The man playing the apothecary answered, and after a beat the door was opened from outside. A palace servant was standing there.
“Again, our thanks for coming the whole long way to the Kingdom of Lathlasia. I shall take you to His Majesty at once. Is this gentleman your pupil? Will he be coming with you?”
“This is Namhee, my assistant. I want him with me.”
“Certainly. Please come together, then.”
“Thank you.”
So the palace servant led us, and we arrived in front of a magnificent door.
“This is His Majesty’s study. Ordinarily we would show you to the drawing room and His Majesty would receive you in the audience chamber, but the instruction for Lord Sunhwan was the study, so I have brought you here.”
“Understood. Thank you.”
“Then I shall announce you to His Majesty.”
The servant knocked at the study door and called through it, “Lord Sunhwan and his assistant Namhee have arrived.” The door was opened at once from the inside.
“Please go in. I shall take my leave here.”
He stepped back, and we walked into the study. Inside were Lord Richard, somebody in magnificent clothes who was presumably this country’s king, valets to the two of them, and several guards.
“You are Sunhwan?”
“Yes. Thank you for calling upon me on this occasion.”
“I hear you are very skilled. My thanks for coming so far. There is somebody I very much want saved.”
“Yes. I shall give it… everything I have.”
“Thank you. Then to the point: would you mind if we moved? The illness is quite grave and I want her seen as soon as it can be done.”
“I have brought all the herbs and instruments I need, so there is no difficulty. The treatment also requires my assistant, Namhee. Would the two of us be acceptable?”
“Of course. Let us go at once.”
There are still a lot of people about, so the apothecary story has to hold.
We left the study and walked through the palace behind His Majesty. He had told the guards earlier that we were going to the North Palace, so perhaps that is where the royal family live. Is the palace divided up into parts? I am a bit curious, but the mood isn’t one where I can ask.
We walked in silence a while and came to a door. Two knights stood in front of it, and they snapped up a salute as His Majesty approached: the salute I know, right hand flat at the upper right of the face. Bowing, saluting. This world has a great deal in common with Japan, and it makes me wonder whether there is something deliberate in it.
“Open the door.”
At his word the knights opened it immediately. Nobody asked anything about me or about the man playing the apothecary, so presumably whoever His Majesty brings gets through. I had assumed there would be a room on the other side, but it turned out to be a long covered walkway. And there were two more knights on the far side of that same door. This is very heavy security. Perhaps the North Palace is through here.
At the end of the walkway there was another door, and knights opened it for us the same way, and we went through and walked a while and arrived at a very grand door. Two knights stood in front of this room, both of them women, which said it was Her Highness’s.
“Your Majesty! Is something the matter?”
“A celebrated apothecary has come from a distant country to treat Martine. Open the door.”
“At once, Your Majesty!”
The two of them opened it immediately. They gave us a slightly wary look, but nobody stops a person His Majesty has brought. Inside the room were three of Her Highness’s maids and two guard knights, all of them drawn back to the walls with their heads bowed.
“All of you. A celebrated apothecary has come to us from another country. Would you step out a while? You as well.”
His Majesty’s own guards withdrew into the corridor at once, but Her Highness’s looked unhappy about it.
“But to leave Her Highness’s side while a stranger is present…”
“The treatment includes methods held in confidence, so the number of people must be cut to the minimum. Richard and I have been given leave to stay, and there is no danger in this room. It is all right.”
“…Certainly. Then, Her Highness is in your care.”
Her Highness’s guard knight could hardly argue further with His Majesty, and nodded reluctantly and withdrew. Once everyone had gone the door was closed, and that left His Majesty and Lord Richard, me and the man playing the apothecary, and Her Highness lying in the bed. With only the five of us in the room, Lord Richard spoke to me straight away.
“Leon, thank you for coming all this way. Was there any trouble?”
“No. This gentleman did all of the answering, so all I had to do was follow him.”
I said it with a hand toward the man playing the apothecary.
“That is good to hear. And thank you as well.”
“Not at all. Then I shall wait at the edge of the room until the treatment is finished.”
The man shifted his manner again, bowed to His Majesty and Lord Richard, and withdrew to the corner of the room. His whole part really was just getting me here.
“Then, Leon, let me introduce you. This is the king of this country, His Majesty Alexis Lathlasia. He knows everything about you, so you may be easy.”
His Majesty knows everything too. If Lord Richard told him, then he’ll be on my side, and I couldn’t ask for a better person to have there.
“Your Majesty. My name is Leon. I am honored to meet you.”
I made a proper greeting and bowed low, and was told at once to raise my head.
“Richard’s told me about you. And Martine told me she went to Leon’s house to play and enjoyed it enormously… Leon. Please. Please cure Martine. I’m counting on you.”
Perhaps he was remembering Her Highness as she had been; there were tears in His Majesty’s eyes as he bowed his head to me, deeply. Being bowed to by His Majesty is more than I can sit still under, and I got him to lift his head at once.
“Th-that is, please raise your head. I want to see Her Highness smiling again as well. I shall give it everything I have.”
“…Yes. Yes, that is so. I want to see it again as well. I am counting on you.”
Uh-oh. I’ve gone very tense all of a sudden. If it turns out I can’t cure her after this… no. I’m not thinking about that. I’m going to cure her.
“Then I should like to use healing magic straight away.”
“Understood. This way.”
At his prompting I went to the bed where Her Highness was lying. She had been so full of life, and that smile of hers had been so sweet, and now she has grown terribly thin and her face is drawn with the pain of it. Her breathing is very rough as well. His Majesty sat down on the chair at the bedside and took her hand.
“Martine. Are you all right?”
“Fa… ther…?”
At his voice Her Highness opened her eyes a little and got a cracked whisper out. Moving her body even slightly, making even a little sound, is clearly agony. Illness really is a vile thing. It comes down on a child this small with no warning at all. What is this one… can I cure it? Covering her whole body in healing magic and having a look might tell me.
“Leon. My daughter. Martine. I put her in your hands.”
Lord Alexis got up from the chair and asked it of me again, in a voice thick with tears.
“Certainly. I shall give it everything I have.”
I answered with my fist closed tight, and took the chair he had been sitting in.
“Your Highness. It has been a while. It is Leon.”
I looked into her face and gave the greeting slowly, and Her Highness opened her eyes a little more and looked at me. And when our eyes met, the faintest smile came.
“Le… on. You came? I was… hoping… to see you… again.”
Her words and that smile of hers nearly had me in tears. It was a frail thing, a smile that looked as though it might go out at any moment.
“Your Highness, it must be hard for you, so there is no need to force yourself to talk. I am going to cure your illness, so let the strength go out of your body and rest easy.”
When she heard that, Her Highness shut her eyes and tried to let the strength go out of her. The labored breathing did not change. I wanted her out of it as fast as I could, so I covered her whole body in healing magic at once.
And there is a great deal of something bad in there. The response is different from Alban’s, so I don’t think it is a virus. Bad cells, is it? And… they are moving?
The bad cells are moving in a way that looks as though they travel with the flow of the blood. Or is it that the bad cells lie along the blood vessels? I can’t tell exactly, but this is probably a disease of the blood. I have no medical knowledge, so that is as far as I can get. If I had gone to medical school I could have made far better use of this ability.
…But I don’t need to diagnose it. I only need to cure it. All I have to do is put every one of these bad cells back to normal. So I held the image of all of it returning to normal, and used healing magic.
Ngh… this costs a serious amount of mana… The image is too vague, as I thought. But there is no studying medicine at this point, so nothing for it: I’ll settle this with sheer volume. It is probably going to be touch and go whether the mana is enough, though her body is small, so I might just manage… After that I held onto a consciousness that kept trying to slip away, and poured mana in.
I don’t know how long it took. It felt like hours to me, and it may in fact have been only a few minutes. That was how long it took, and then the treatment was done at last. And the instant I registered that it was done, everything in front of me went dark and I lost consciousness.
Wait… where is this? I woke with a ridiculously grand ceiling in front of me. Was I staying at the ducal house? …No! I treated Her Highness and lost consciousness on the spot. What happened? Did it work? I wanted the result badly enough to sit bolt upright, and I was still in Her Highness’s room. I had been laid on a sofa, and on the sofa opposite sat His Majesty and Lord Richard.
“Leon. You are awake?”
“You lost consciousness so suddenly you gave us a fright. We took it for mana exhaustion and let you sleep. Are you all right?”
“Yes, my mana seems to have come back a little, so I think I am all right now. But more to the point, how is Her Highness? I believe I cured her completely…”
“Martine is still asleep. After you lost consciousness we talked a little and she dropped off almost at once. She said her body had become enormously easier, though, so I think she’s probably cured.”
So I did it. Thank goodness… It felt as though the tension had finally been let out of me.
“Leon. Thank you, truly. I couldn’t thank you enough.”
His Majesty bowed his head to me again. How many times has he bowed his head to me today? He isn’t in a position where he ought to be bowing to anybody that often.
“Your Majesty, please do not bow to me like that. I am only a commoner… I am glad I could help.”
“I don’t think of Leon as only a commoner. Every attribute, and healing magic that cures illness on top of it… It’s a truly wonderful power. By rights it’s something to be proclaimed and taken pride in, but the power is simply too strong, and at your present standing, making it public would bring danger on you and on your family. We have you keep it secret because there’s no help for it, not because it’s anything less than a power to be proud of.”
“To have you say so much means a great deal… thank you.”
“It’s fact. Ah, and there’s the other thing, which has been on my mind a while. You need not call me Your Majesty. Alexis will do. You don’t call Richard ‘Chancellor,’ so use my name for me as well.”
“But to call Your Majesty by name…”
“From Leon it’s quite all right. Use my name anywhere that isn’t a public occasion. You saved my daughter’s life.”
Put like that, it is difficult to refuse. Well, it isn’t as though I am going to be seeing him often. All right.
“Then I shall call you Lord Alexis.”
“Yes. Do that.”
Lord Alexis has a slightly childish streak in him, doesn’t he. He is easy to be around, though, and I think I rather like him.
“So, Leon. Is there anything you want? I want to give you something for curing Martine. If it’s in my power I’ll grant whatever I can.”
“…Is that all right?”
“Of course.”
What to do… There are all sorts of things I want, a house full of magic tools and so on, but when the king of this country is offering to grant a wish, it’d be a waste to ask for something I could get for myself. Which makes this quite hard, in fact.
In the end, for protecting myself and my family: standing and power. There’s a limit to how far I can get either of those on my own.
“If it is possible, I would like standing and power, so that I can protect myself and my family. It seems my abilities would be quite dangerous if they became publicly known.”
Lord Alexis heard that and a look of real surprise came over his face. Did I ask for too much? Maybe money on an appropriate scale would have been the thing after all. I noticed it, and I was opening my mouth in a bit of a hurry to change the request when a wry smile came onto his face.
“It was so thoroughly unlike anything a child would say that it startled me a little, that’s all. There’s no need to be so flustered.”
Oh. Is that all. That’s a relief.
“I shall grant what Leon wishes as far as I can. A noble’s standing, however, can’t be given until you have graduated from the Royal Academy, so that will have to come after. As for power, I shall put shadows on Leon and your family as guards, so you need not worry.”
Shadows as guards are very welcome. That does let me relax a bit. I can manage on my own, but I’d been thinking how bad it would be if my family were taken as hostages.
“Thank you very much.”
Just as we got that far there was a sound from the direction of the bed, and Lord Alexis ran straight to Her Highness.
“Martine. Are you awake?”
“Fa… ther…”
Her voice was too cracked to come out properly. Lord Alexis poured water from the jug into a cup and gave it to her slowly. She can drink water, at least.
“…Father. My body, that was hurting so much, so much, does not hurt. And to drink water without feeling sick…”
She got that far and then wept, quietly. Lord Alexis was holding her tight and it looked as though he was crying too. They’re going to set me off as well…
“Martine. Thank goodness. Thank goodness, truly…”
For a while the two of them shared the joy of the illness being gone, father and daughter.
“Father, is Leon here? It was Leon who cured me, was it not?”
“It was. Leon, come here.”
“Yes.”
Lord Alexis called me over, and when I came to the bedside Her Highness was sitting up with a cushion propped behind her back.
“Your Highness, how are you feeling? Is anything hurting?”
“No. There is no pain, as though everything until now had been a lie.”
“I am glad to hear it. Then may I use healing magic once more, to check?”
I had enough mana back to scan her whole body, so I asked, and Her Highness nodded with a smile.
“Of course. Please do.”
“Thank you. Excuse me, then.”
Oh, excellent. Everything bad, and there had been so much of it, is gone. Good. She’s going to be all right now.
“You appear to be completely cured.”
“…Leon. Thank you. Thank you, truly.”
And now Her Highness smiled, prettily, the way a flower opens. …That’s it. That’s the smile I wanted to see again. I’m so glad I could save her, and that this smile is still in the world.
“I am truly glad I could cure you. A smile does suit Your Highness, after all.”
“Now I can come and play at Leon’s house again, and see Marie. I’d thought I might never…”
“If you eat properly from here on and move about a little at a time, you should get back to what you were. Come and visit whenever you like once you are well again. It may be difficult, but I could come here as well.”
“Leon… thank you. I shall work hard at getting well.”
We talked like that, and then the two of us were laughing together. Every time I see Her Highness smile I feel my chest go warm.
“Martine, it’s not good to overdo it yet. Are you sure you don’t want to lie down?”
Lord Alexis asked it anxiously. His child nearly died of an illness, so of course he’s going to be overprotective.
“Yes. Sitting like this does not hurt.”
“Ah. That’s good, then.”
“That reminds me, it was Leon who cured me with healing magic, was it not? I have never heard of magic so extraordinary…”
Her Highness tilted her head, puzzled. Well, she would wonder. But I don’t know how much I am allowed to say, so I decided to leave the judgment to Lord Alexis.
“Lord Alexis, how much may I tell her?”
“Let me see… There’s nothing that needs hiding from Martine. She’ll feel the extraordinariness of Leon’s magic more than anybody, and hiding it clumsily would be the unnatural thing. Martine has been educated as a member of the royal family, so she can keep what must be kept.”
So that’s how it is. Royalty indeed. I hadn’t wanted to keep things from her, so that is welcome.
“Certainly. …Your Highness, the truth is that I am better at magic than most people, or to put it plainly, I can use the magic of every attribute. And with healing magic I can also cure illness.”
“E-every attribute… then, Leon, are you the Apostle?”
Astonishment came over her face. So it really is that startling a fact. And that’s the Apostle question again; I’ve lost count.
“No, I am not the Apostle. But I can use the magic of every attribute. I do not really understand the reason for it myself…”
“That such a thing should be possible… Then why is it that healing magic can cure illness?”
“That is the power of the image, and the fact that I have a great deal of mana. First, for reasons I do not understand, my mana capacity increases the more I use it. It is already several times what any of you have; no, several dozen times. If I bring that much mana to bear, illness can be cured too. And making the image clearer raises the efficiency with which the mana is spent, so the two of them together let me cure Your Highness.”
Once I had explained that much, it wasn’t only Her Highness: Lord Alexis and Lord Richard had astonishment on their faces too.
“Leon’s mana capacity was outside the standard as well…”
Ah. I was so taken up with every attribute that I never mentioned the mana capacity. And I hadn’t noticed it was increasing, to begin with.
“It seems so. The reason for that is as much a mystery to me as the attributes…”
“Leon, what do you mean by the image? For instance, what sort of image do you hold while using magic, to raise the efficiency with which the mana is spent?”
“That… would be difficult to explain here and now. Without the knowledge it rests on, it cannot really be pictured…”
Being told out of nowhere about cells and viruses would be no use to anybody. I don’t understand it well myself…
“Is that so? Then why does Leon have that knowl… no. Please forget what I just said.”
Her Highness glanced past me, then broke off oddly and closed the conversation. But I knew what she had wanted to ask: where I got the knowledge. And it is true that a plain commoner like me having knowledge a princess does not have makes no sense on the face of it.
I had never got as far as that point. Once I told Lord Richard and Lord Alexis about every attribute I thought I had nothing left to hide, and there was still one secret, the biggest one. That I was reincarnated. That is the one thing I don’t want found out… there is no guarantee somebody wouldn’t call it demon possession.
For now she has withdrawn the question, so I’ll ride along with that. And I want to keep the source of the knowledge good and vague. ‘I thought of it myself’ is too much of a stretch, so somebody I met on the road taught me, perhaps? I had better work that excuse out in advance.
“Leon, to change the subject: would you teach me healing magic?”
I was turning all of that over in my head when Her Highness changed the subject for me. And landed something extraordinary again… teaching Her Highness healing magic is far too important a part for me to carry.
“No, I am not in a position to be teaching anybody…”
“That is not so. The achievement of having cured my illness is ability enough by itself.”
“But…”
“Actually, that might be a fine idea. Martine’s mana capacity is five, and she has the healing attribute.”
“Father, you agree as well! I want to be able to cure the sick myself.”
Lord Alexis agrees?! Sure, I saved her life, but is it all right to put a commoner boy that close to a princess?
“Leon. Would you teach Martine magic?”
Asked like that, I can’t refuse… and it isn’t that I don’t want to, only that it is a weight.
“…Then I shall teach you. But please understand that it may not be possible. If anything, I think that is the likelier outcome.”
“That would be the question of mana capacity, I suppose?”
“It is.”
“But if you teach me the image you spoke of, there is at least some chance, is there not?”
“There is certainly a chance that is not zero…”
“Then I should like to ask it of you. Leon, may I?”
“If you understand that it may not be possible, then I have no objection.”
“Leon, thank you! I am very glad.”
Her Highness said it and smiled, delighted. Ugh… I’ve got no defense against that smile. Turn it on me and I want to do anything at all for her.
“Your Majesty, if Leon is to teach magic, where and how are the lessons to be held?”
Lord Richard put the question, and it is a large one.
“What about at House Townsend? There’s no difficulty in Leon going to House Townsend, is there. So we send Martine to the ducal house as well.”
Come on, a princess can’t go out that often.
“Without some reason, Her Highness visiting our house frequently would look odd…”
Just as I thought. Every time I have met Her Highness it has been incognito. Her position must make an official visit anywhere difficult.
“Then how about the pretext of having Catherine teach her magic?”
“Catherine’s healing magic is certainly excellent, but ordinarily it is Catherine who would go to the palace.”
“Hm. Quite so… Then bring Leon along as Catherine’s attendant. There will be male attendants among those who do not wait on her person, will there not?”
“Certainly there will. In that case there should be no difficulty.”
So somehow, without my quite following it, I am to be a regular visitor at the royal palace. Playing Lady Catherine’s attendant this time. Well, I don’t mind what part I play as long as nothing goes wrong.
“Then, Leon. Will you come as Catherine’s attendant and teach Martine magic?”
“Certainly.”
“Leon, I shall be in your hands from now on as well.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
“Once Martine’s health is back, Leon is to come to the palace. Richard, speak to Catherine about it as well.”
“Certainly. Catherine will be delighted at the chance to see Her Highness.”
That was the end of the talk about my magic. Next came what happens now.
“Then, the order of things from here. We tell Martine’s servants and guards that Martine has recovered thanks to Sunhwan and Namhee. We show everyone how well Martine is, and Sunhwan and Namhee go straight home. I shall have one of my guards see you out of the palace, and from there take the carriage back to the far side of the central district.”
“Certainly.”
“Martine, you are to say that you drank a medicinal decoction Sunhwan brewed and your body became clean and light. Leon is Sunhwan’s assistant, Namhee.”
“So that is the story under which Leon came here. I understand. Sunhwan is the gentleman standing over there?”
“He is.”
“Understood. I shall keep to the story.”
“I am counting on you.”
So we all went over what was to happen, and Lord Richard opened the door of Her Highness’s room and called the guards and servants back in.
“All of you. Thanks to Sunhwan’s treatment, Martine is entirely well.”
“Is, is that true?! Your Highness, you can sit up without any distress?!”
The first to run to her was one of the maids. She looked at Her Highness sitting up and the tears came pouring out of her. Her Highness is loved by the servants too.
“All of you, I am entirely well. That I was in such pain seems like a lie now. It is all thanks to Sunhwan, who is standing there, and to his assistant Namhee. Thank you, truly.”
“Your Highness is too kind.”
“Thank you for saving Her Highness. We are grateful to you.”
Her Highness’s maids and guards bowed low to me and to the man playing the apothecary.
“No, I took a commission and did a job; that is all. Your Majesty, may we take our leave before long? There is another patient we must go to.”
“Yes. With skill like that you will be in demand everywhere. Thank you for your trouble in coming so far on a busy day. Payment has been prepared, so take it with you.”
At Lord Alexis’s word one of his valets brought a magnificent box with the payment in it and handed it to the man playing the apothecary, and then a guard offered to see us to the exit. We followed him out of Her Highness’s room.
“We shall take our leave of you all.”
Then we walked and walked through the palace again and got back to the carriage we had come in.
“We go back the way we came, to where you got in. Change your clothes there and we are done.”
“Understood.”
Talking like that, the carriage rolled out past the central district, and at the place where I first got in I changed and got down. A short walk and Roger was waiting with the ducal house’s unmarked carriage, and I climbed in.
Phew. Now I can relax. I had been tense the whole time, keeping the cover up.
“Welcome back, Master Leon. We return to the ducal house today, if that suits?”
“Yeah. That’s fine.”
“Certainly.”
And so I went back to the ducal house. I was thoroughly tired, but I had cured Her Highness, and my mood was several times brighter than it had been on the way out. I’m so glad I could cure her.
⁂
My body was heavy and hot, and my breath would not come, and I was cold and sick, and I thought that I might be finished. That I might be about to die. All I wanted was to be let out of the pain, and it was while I was wanting only that, that Leon’s face appeared in front of me.
Until then all I ever saw was Mother and Father and my brother, and the apothecary and the maids and the guards, so I wondered why Leon should be here. But the reason did not matter at all. I was simply happy to have seen him one more time. I shall never forget the day I became Leon’s friend, a little by force on my part, and imposed myself on his family’s home. It was a treasure of a time to me. It was the first time I was ever able to enjoy myself with no reserve in front of anyone outside my family, the one stretch of time in which I could forget being a princess.
I had thought that to see Leon’s face at the very end, even if it were only a vision, was enough. And then the Leon I was looking at spoke to me. I was astonished. It had not been a vision after all. And then, immediately, Leon cured this illness of mine.
Being wrapped in something warm, and the pain going out of me and going further out, was a moment I have no words for: happiness and release, and above all the relief of knowing that now I would be saved, that I would not have to hurt any more. And then I slept a little, and when I woke my body was better than I could believe, and it was then that I understood at last that it had not been a dream. And that Leon had saved my life.
If ever Leon is in pain, this time I want to be the one who helps. No. I shall help him, without fail. I settled that inside myself and smiled at Leon, wishing as I smiled that Leon might smile always as well.