6

About half a day by carriage from the royal capital into Mount Abeeb, they entered the Abeeb Volcanic Belt, where the smell of sulfur immediately stung the nose.

Because of the harshness of this smell and the effects of the strong acid from the hot springs, the scenery also had many rocky areas.

Blue hot springs like the Southern Sea, said to work well on skin diseases, welled up here and there, and the sight of the white rock surfaces and blue hot springs was truly beautiful.

Noel and Beth were scheduled to stay for a while in this land, which had nothing in particular besides this hot spring.

The detached palace existed deep within this land.

Naranda had said that although calling it a detached palace sounded pleasant, it was, in a manner of speaking, an exile-like sanatorium built long ago for the purpose of removing royals recognized as needing recuperation due to illness or injury from the central government.

On the roads leading to the detached palace, there were several white sanatorium buildings.

In complete contrast to the cheerful atmosphere of the hot spring plaza in the royal capital, it was a truly quiet place.

At this recovery facility, patients with illnesses of the mind and body underwent hot spring therapy every day by bathing five times a day in hot spring water filling the baths in their own rooms. Apparently, the medicinal herbs floated in the bath were changed according to the symptoms.

Leaving Beth at a nearby inn, today Noel was scheduled to have an audience with the crown prince and perform a diagnosis.

“Noel-sama, it is terribly disrespectful of me to say such a thing, but Felix-sama is now extremely sensitive, and when something displeases him, various bits of his magic leak out and he lashes out at objects. Please be careful.”

The steward who welcomed Noel at the detached palace quietly whispered that on the way as he guided him to the crown prince’s room.

Even though it was called a detached palace, while the interior was solidly and luxuriously made, compared to the splendor and magnificence of the palace he had seen in the royal capital, it had no vitality or vigor at all, as if the flame had gone out.

It seemed that the servants had apparently been reduced to the minimum, and the prince was simply shutting himself away alone for recuperation.

“Thank you. I see, so that is the reason for those wounds. You have had no end of hardship either.”

Noel finally understood when he saw the steward, whose body had strangely many bruises.

This Steward Mason, who had apparently served the crown prince ever since Felix was born, seemed to be the greatest victim of the crown prince’s vented anger.

The steward, feeling Noel’s gaze, shook his head vigorously.

“Count Saratoga. Not at all. Until that pitiful illness appeared, he was not so violent. Until then, if I may speak frankly, Felix-sama did have a somewhat aristocratic temperament… but as the crown prince of a nation, no one possessed such kingly dignity as he did. I only pity the crown prince. Please, lend that person your strength.”

After sniffling sharply, he appealed to Noel as if in prayer.

Before long, they came before a large door. Even from in front of the door, magic large enough to make one feel an ominous whirlpool of magical power was writhing.

Mason knocked on the door.

“Crown Prince. Count Saratoga has arrived.”

After announcing that in one sentence, Noel was shown into Crown Prince Felix’s dark private room.

“I hope Your Royal Highness the Crown Prince is in good spirits.”

When he stepped into the dark room, Noel bent one knee and performed a formal greeting for royalty.

Mason had said that recently even strong sunlight irritated his skin, so during the day he shut himself away in a dim room.

Felix, who had been doing something at his desk, turned the chair that had been facing away from the door toward Noel, stood up, and walked in front of Noel.

“Ah. I am Crown Prince Felix. You are Count Saratoga, then. Your fame has reached even this countryside.”

It seemed that Noel’s fame for completing the elixir had roared even to this distant neighboring country. He was grateful that the rumor had even reached the ears of a shut-in crown prince.

The more someone was a person of power, the more vulnerable they were to honor. The fact that Noel was an honored magician who had completed the elixir meant that what Noel would now ask of Felix would not be taken as disrespectful.

“I am honored. Then, without delay, I would like to examine the skin beneath those bandages. Though my ability is meager, there may be something I can understand.”

Without flinching at Felix’s bandage-covered appearance, Noel said that.

“…Very well. You will see the sight of me, now turned into a monster. If you are going to cry and run away, now is the time.”

Felix spat that out, but as if steeling himself, he smoothly removed the bandages from his face.

(…I see.)

After checking several areas of Felix’s skin where symptoms had appeared, Noel next placed the magical tool he had brought against his throat, pressed the magic power Noel had refined against his abdomen, and spent a long time diagnosing areas other than the skin.

Felix’s skin was in a pitiful state.

His skin had peeled off in places and bodily fluids flowed out; the places where the fluids had run had become scabs and were yellow, red, ugly, and swollen.

In the luxurious, solidly built room of the crown prince, a powerful barrier of purification magic had been placed, and not a single speck of dust had fallen.

Everything disturbed the peace of this pitiful young man’s skin.

(So it was as I thought.)

After writing down the results of all his examinations, Noel sighed and closed his notebook.

“Did… you understand something?”

Mason asked Noel worriedly.

Noel faced Mason and Felix and informed them.

“The cause of this skin condition is a disorder in the magic-generating organ. Too much magic is being generated, and the body cannot endure it. I believe the cause of your body’s condition is that old magic that could not be released from your body has turned toxic, circulated through your body, and invaded the skin.”

“You bastard!!! Do you mean to mock me!!! What do you mean? Are you trying to say that I am defective?!”

Felix flew into a rage at Noel’s unexpected answer, stomped on the floor with a bang, and knocked over a nearby water pitcher.

Even so, it seemed his anger had not settled. His magic ran wild, and books from a nearby bookshelf flew into the air and flew around the room.

Felix had believed that the condition of his skin was due to a curse.

Otherwise, it would be impossible for him, the perfect crown prince, to be attacked by such an illness. He had thought that one of the women he had played with had resented him and placed a curse on him.

In general, the quality of magic was said to be the quality of that person’s heart, and even the quality of their character.

Felix, who had been told that his own magic was the source of the poison in the skin from which he suffered, lost his temper and shouted at Noel.

Felix, who had taken pride in being a flawless crown prince, flew into a fury.

“Or are you trying to say that I am a failure?! Every last one of you is making a fool of me!!!”

Books from the bookshelf flew through the air, and Mason trembled with a start.

Noel casually caught a book flying toward him, and without flinching, continued his explanation calmly.

“Felix-sama. No one is saying that your magic is bad. Nor am I saying that you are a failure. Because the amount of your own magic is excessive, your body’s excretion cannot keep up, and the old magic that could not be expelled is being regarded by your body as poison and is eating away at you. You need fundamental treatment at the same time as symptomatic treatment.”

Noel put the book in his hand back on the bookshelf and faced Felix, whose face had turned red with anger.

“Your Highness Felix. Let us speak of my mother and myself.”

Ignoring Felix, who was trembling with anger, Noel began to speak.

“My mother, who was a great saintess, regarded me as a fetus as a foreign object, as poison, because my magic while she was pregnant exceeded the holy power she possessed. The mother’s body functioned to expel me, but because my magic repelled it, my mother continued to attack her own body with the holy power that had been reflected back by me, and she passed away immediately after giving birth.”

At Noel’s confession, which had suddenly begun and carried considerable weight, Felix, who had been enraged, regained his composure.

“It is not the same as what is occurring in Your Highness’s body, but something close to what happened in my mother’s body when she became pregnant with me, one who possessed great magic, is happening. It is not something especially shameful.”

The books that had been flying through the air fell neatly to the floor.

It was a magical disorder from which the great saintess of the neighboring country had also suffered. And the fetus who had buried that great saintess with magic was Noel himself, who now stood before Felix’s eyes.

Noel told the crown prince, who had regained his composure.

“Your Highness the Crown Prince. Your magic-generating organ is larger than other people’s. And you still cannot fully control that enormous magic. The magic whose control has not kept pace settles in your body and grows old, and old magic circulates through your body without disappearing. Before the aged, toxic magic can be purified inside the body, new magic is generated again, and the body, unable to endure it, releases the old toxic magic from the skin, tormenting your skin.”