Three Days Until The Decisive Battle

“The day we set out to subjugate the ‘Guardian Deity of the Central Sea’ has been decided—three days from now.”

With those words, Carlo flashed a fearless grin.

“Three days from now, huh…”

“Yeah. So at the latest, five days from now I’ll let Jonah pay his respects to the guardian deity’s corpse. Look forward to it.”

“Wah!?”

Carlo roughly ruffled his hair, and Jonah involuntarily squeezed his eyes shut.

Of course he couldn’t help but feel happy.

Nevertheless.

‘Three days from now…’

Jonah repeated it in his mind and steeled his resolve for the coming battle.

Carlo had already refused to let him come along simply because he was “just a child.” Now that Carlo knew about his physical condition as well, no amount of pleading would change his mind—Jonah would definitely be left behind.

As planned from the beginning, the only option was to use ancient magic to teleport aboard Carlo’s warship, Il Vento D’oro.

“Well, I’m off. Aurora, Priscilla—take care of him.”

“Understood.”
“Understood.”

Waving lightly as the two maids saw him off, Carlo left the room.

“…Young Master Jonah, that will absolutely not happen.”

“Exactly. On the day of the expedition, Big Sister and I, Priscilla, will stay by your side the entire time.”

“Ah, ahaha…”

It seemed they had seen right through Jonah’s thoughts; Aurora and Priscilla frowned as they declared this.

Jonah gave a strained smile and was frantically trying to figure out what to do about this unexpected surveillance when—

“Young Master Jonah, the doctor has arrived.”

The visitors were Federico, the head steward, and another man.

It was the royal physician of the Benedia Kingdom who had examined Jonah the previous night.

“How is your body feeling?”

“Ah… Th-thanks to you, I’m already fine.”

Jonah answered with a smile, but even while taking the medicine Günter had prescribed, the pain never ceased.

He had simply grown accustomed to that pain.

“Then please allow me to perform an examination and a few tests.”

At the doctor’s instruction, Aurora and Priscilla stripped the embarrassed Jonah in the blink of an eye.

Was it just his imagination that the two of them seemed somehow excited during the process?

The doctor then took various instruments from the bag he had brought and began examining Jonah.

Jonah recognized the tools and, oddly impressed, thought that doctors everywhere did the same sorts of things.

And then.

“…With a body like this, you’ve endured remarkably well.”

“…………………………”

The doctor spoke with a complicated expression on his face.

Unlike yesterday, these words came from the results of today’s instrument-based tests and thorough examination.

“Doctor, so…”

“What exactly is Young Master Jonah’s illness…?”

Aurora and Priscilla, waiting nearby, anxiously asked the doctor.

“I must first take today’s test results back and analyze them in greater detail before I can give an answer. Also… Sir Jonah, I have a request.”

“A request…?”

“I would like you to provide me with the medicine you are currently taking so I can analyze it.”

More than a month and a half had passed since leaving the imperial capital, and Jonah’s personal supply of medicine was nearly gone.

Still, he could simply move up the day he visited Günter by one, so Jonah took out the two types of medicine from his leather bag and handed them to the doctor.

“Thank you. And… who prescribed this medicine?”

“…………………………”

At this question from the doctor, Jonah fell silent.

He was afraid that if he gave Günter’s name, the doctor might discover his true identity.

Duke Langheim was already Carlo’s business partner, and Jonah wanted to limit the number of people who knew his background to just Carlo, the two maids, and the engineer Galileo.

“…Very well. Once I analyze the ingredients of the medicine, I should at least be able to understand the symptoms and treatment methods.”

Seeing that Jonah said nothing, the doctor sighed and slowly stood up.

“Thank you very much, Doctor.”
“Thank you very much, Doctor.”

“No…”

The doctor left the room escorted by Aurora and Priscilla, but—

“Impossible…”

Just before leaving, the doctor muttered those words.

According to today’s test results, it should have been absolutely impossible for Jonah to move his body with such a calm expression.

Yet throughout the entire examination, Jonah had acted as though nothing was wrong.

The only explanation was that the medicine was somehow alleviating the symptoms or the pain…

“…There is nothing in current medical science that can cure his illness or suppress his suffering.”

It was sad, but that was the reality.

The doctor himself wanted to cure Jonah, but there was no way.

…No—there was one person the doctor knew who might be able to do it.

A genius physician who had studied medicine under the man once called the greatest doctor in the Estraia Empire—and had even surpassed his own master.

“Now that I think of it, he’s currently running a clinic in the imperial capital, wasn’t he…”

The doctor hurriedly left the royal palace and headed home.

To write a letter to the physician who had once studied medicine alongside him under the same master—Günter Schultz.