I woke in the middle of the night. My back was slick with cold sweat, and it was a thoroughly unpleasant way to regain consciousness. I must have been dreaming about something, but I couldn't recall what. As I scowled in frustration at memories that hovered on the edge of connecting but never quite did,
"
According to Leonore, the guard knights had gone out of their way after dinner to empty the divine tools of their Magic Power. I was touched by that thoughtfulness, so I had them bring one to me.
...I was hungry, my post-sleep condition was terrible, and my body felt heavy...
I sat on the edge of the bed, cradling my aching head, and began channeling Magic Power into the divine tool Leonore had brought. Gretia burst in in a hurry, her hair only loosely tied back. She must have been roused by Leonore. Because Gretia had sworn her name to me, she was the only one who could touch me while the silver cloth was removed, which meant the burden on Gretia was always considerable.
Gretia noticed how badly I had been sweating in my sleep and immediately began preparing a change of clothes.
"You don't need to prepare a bath, Gretia. Waschen will do just fine. Please use the magic stones over there."
I had an abundance of magic stones I had already infused with Magic Power. While granting Gretia permission to use them, I continued flowing Magic Power into the divine tool Leonore held out.
After a refreshing Waschen from Gretia, I changed into a fresh nightgown, and Leonore presented
"What's wrong, Rozemyne?"
"Down below... I sense a presence somewhere in the direction of the dining hall or the living room. It's similar to the feeling I had when
As I spoke, searching toward the source of the presence, Leonore nodded as though something clicked into place. She glanced upward thoughtfully for a moment, then let out a soft, amused smile.
"This is within the range of one of your retainers' beasts, most likely, Rozemyne. Any unauthorized intruder would have difficulty entering. It's most likely
Leonore turned to Gretia as she spoke.
"Gretia, I'm sorry, but could you help Rozemyne change? Something loose-fitting that she can lie down in would be best. After we return, Rozemyne should go straight to rest, so you're free to retire to your room."
"Of course."
I was changed into a nightgown — not tight-fitting, but with my hair gathered up neatly. A silver mantle was draped over my shoulders, and when I left the room with Leonore,
"Rozemyne, please wait until I get you to your room. I've been ordered to make you walk as little as possible."
I smiled faintly at Angelica's stern reminder and meekly let her carry me.
Light spilled from the living room on the first floor. As I drew closer,
"Go on in, Ferdinand says."
"He knew I was coming?"
"Given how much divine power you're radiating, it would be hard not to notice someone moving about."
...Divine power is like a cat bell?
When I entered the living room, the space that was normally used for post-dinner tea had been completely transformed into something resembling an office. Ferdinand apparently had so little room in his own quarters — barely enough for a bed and his luggage brought from the castle — that he was doing all his castle work here in the living room.
"What's the matter? Can't sleep?"
"I don't really remember, but I think I had a bad dream and woke up. When I was channeling Magic Power into the divine tools, I sensed a presence..."
I explained that I had felt a presence without seeing anyone — similar to when Gervasio emerged from behind the altar.
"I thought it might be something else entirely, but it seems this time it was you, Ferdinand."
"Oh?"
Ferdinand gestured to the empty part of the sofa, indicating I should sit beside him. Angelica set me down where directed. I couldn't explain it, but Ferdinand was giving off a strange feeling I hadn't noticed before, and it made me a little uneasy.
"Ferdinand, what happened with Gervasio?"
"
Relieved to hear he had been captured, I let out a breath of relief.
"I was worried he might have escaped, so it's a huge comfort to know he's been properly apprehended."
"Eglantine and Prince
"Half? What do you mean by that?"
I blinked in surprise, but Ferdinand showed no interest and began pulling sheets of paper from the towering stack of documents.
"That's a problem for the new Zent and the husband who supports her to overcome. You don't need to concern yourself with it. Rather, I'd like to talk about the urgent matter of
The moment I realized the papers spread before me were the blueprints for the new Alexandria, Gervasio was wiped clean from my mind.
"I tried to incorporate as much of the ideal city you described as possible, but having the library at the center is just too much."
"What would you have at the center if not the library?" I protested. "How can the city I'm building not have a library at its heart?" My complaints earned me a scowl from Ferdinand.
"The center of the Noble District being the castle, the library, and the research facility seems fine to me. It's a library you'd frequent and even intend to secure private quarters in. Placing it far from the castle would invite unnecessary risk. You seem to plan on connecting your room in the castle to your room in the library with a teleportation circle, but if your guard knights can't use the teleportation circle, having the library too far away becomes a problem for them too."
Apparently, security concerns meant they couldn't allow an unrestricted flow of many people in and out. However, unlike Ehrenfest, where status varied sharply between north and south, they had devised a system for Alexandria in which the closer you got to the city center, the higher the status — thereby keeping distances between individual households and the library as short as possible. They also planned to build the castle's library separately from the city library, making it easier for apprentices and children who had completed their
"But I want a library that anyone can use," I insisted. "...It's my territory, you know. In Alexandria, it's important that anyone can read books."
"The future direction of the city isn't wrong, but considering the literacy rate of the Commoners, I have to say the timing is premature. The Nobility's opposition would be considerable too."
It felt like we were straying from the ideal city. When I appealed again, Ferdinand waved me off, saying "Listen to what I have to say to the end."
"Since Alexandria is the new territory of the Goddess's avatar, when considering the entire city including Commoners, I believe the
Since we were building from scratch, he said, we should take the best aspects of Ehrenfest's Temple. The plan was to place a Temple — complete with workshops, the orphanage, living quarters for the Blue Priests, and a worship room for praying to the gods and conducting ceremonies — between the lower town and the Noble District.
"And then, if we were to hold the temple classes we once discussed targeting the wealthy, Commoners gradually coming and going would become a matter of course. Initially it would only be the class attendees, but it should be possible to install a library that Commoners too are permitted to enter. There's no need to rush. The important thing is how to get people to accept the first step."
Ferdinand said that, much like the
"I think temple classes for the wealthy and opening a Temple library are excellent ideas."
If wealthy children established connections with Nobility and learned proper behavior by attending temple classes held for that purpose, attending those classes would become second nature to them. Merchants trying to climb the social ladder and craftsmen seeking Nobility patrons would likely try to get in as well. That much was obvious just by looking at what
"Furthermore, the zoning concept you proposed is truly interesting, but when you organize things, the city's functions skew too heavily toward the library and printing industry. A more realistic arrangement is needed. First, we should build the buildings that are central to Commoners — the port damaged by Lanzenave, the Noble District, the Temple, the commercial guilds, and various associations — and then carry out zoning while listening to Commoners' opinions. What do you think?"
Ferdinand smiled, saying it would be the perfect opportunity to train the civil officials who had only ever issued orders.
"Since a large-scale Entwicken across the entire city would burden the Commoners, I think it would be best to create venues for talking with them and proceed by rebuilding in stages. Let's use
"What about the Brantant Guild and the Gilberta Guild? I was planning to adopt the floor plans they submitted during Grisela's Entwicken."
"Send them this style of floor plan and leave the decision to them."
Climate should be taken into account, but preferences for layouts varied from person to person. I thought they should be free to choose what they prioritized.
"I plan to have the shops and workshops of Gutenberg and the others rebuilt through Entwicken in the center of the lower town, alongside the commercial guilds and other buildings, since there's no way to relocate them without homes and storefronts in place."
"With all the meticulous attention you're putting into this, I'm sure it'll be fine, but have you secured housing for the craftsmen's families?"
"...Ah, of course."
Ferdinand averted his eyes slightly, then swiftly began tidying away the papers he had spread out.
"It's terrible of you to stop just when I wanted to see more, Ferdinand. Please spread them out again."
"You're getting too excited and it's going to become a problem. Let's call it a day. ...The first bell should ring soon. You should get some sleep. You're feeling somewhat better, aren't you? Think you can sleep?"
When Ferdinand asked, I shook my head.
"...If I sleep, my Magic Power increases, so I'd rather not right now. I'll sleep when I absolutely have to."
"How about your hunger? For someone who complained about it, you didn't eat much at dinner. Is the hunger still there? Or has it gotten worse?"
At Ferdinand's question, I nodded. The hunger had persisted after dinner, and it was even worse now.
"...You're exactly right. Do you have any idea what's causing it?"
Ferdinand said "It's not entirely without possibility," then looked around the room. After an expression that suggested he was searching for something, he performed Waschen on his own hand.
"Ferdinand?"
Ferdinand squeezed a small amount of reddish medicine onto his fingertip and pressed it against my lips. He withdrew immediately, and I watched him wipe his finger with a handkerchief as he asked, "Does it taste bitter?"
I licked my lips tentatively, expecting a bitter and stinging taste. Compared to what I had anticipated, the bitterness was almost nonexistent. My tongue still tingled, though.
"No... not really."
"Good. Then the hunger you're feeling is most likely due to your Magic Power having dropped too low. Your body is sounding an alarm because your Magic Power has been depleted. You could say you are definitively approaching Magic Power exhaustion."
Normally, recovery potions would be used the moment Magic Power decreased. Since it was virtually unheard of for someone to experience prolonged Magic Power depletion — sleeping to recover only to immediately spend Magic Power without restoring it again — he said this particular sensation was something people simply didn't encounter.
"I experienced the feeling of hunger during Ahrensbach's supply period. It seems to occur when Magic Power is being whittled away little by little rather than spent in one burst. ...But waiting too long from here on becomes extremely painful. After this, I'd prefer to drain everything at once."
"It gets... more painful than this?"
The thought of enduring more made me instinctively lean away from Ferdinand.
"I want to push directly toward exhaustion. Since it confirmed that reducing the divine power would make the re-dyeing less painful, I want to proceed."
"...I see."
Ferdinand was clearly motivated, but the thought that this pain would continue made me hesitant no matter what.
"You asked me to draw multiple healing magic circles, didn't you? What if we used that Copy-Paste thing to do several at once?"
Copy-Paste doesn't require reciting the names of the gods, Ferdinand pointed out. I thought for a moment and tilted my head.
"It's true that the gods' names aren't needed, and since Copy-Paste is just copying a healing magic circle, there's less risk of a catastrophic failure on the scale of a tsunami — unlike Waschen, where you can't control the intensity. But I don't have magic paper that large. Copy-Paste only works where there's already Magic Power."
"If it can be pasted onto a place filled with Magic Power, couldn't you treat the ground as a substitute for magic paper, even if the Magic Power in the soil is relatively sparse?"
As Ferdinand pointed out, the ground did contain Magic Power. After all, magic circles were embedded in the ground at the Royal Academy's gathering fields. It shouldn't be impossible.
"I've never tested it outdoors, but I don't think it's impossible. However, even if Copy-Paste worked on the ground, I have no idea how much the magic circle could be expanded. I haven't had time to research expansion or contraction."
And Ferdinand himself was the one who had told me to put expansion and contraction experiments on the back burner due to lack of time. He seemed to recall this, as he furrowed his brow slightly.
"I see... I was thinking we could cover all of Alexandria with a healing magic circle as enormous as the one that covered the entire Royal Academy, but even your extraordinary Copy-Paste won't do it."
"Before you call my Copy-Paste extraordinary, please recognize how extraordinary your own idea is. That was a large-scale magical working from ancient times, when the gods were much more present, created through the cooperation of
I didn't want to be called extraordinary by Ferdinand, who was the one attempting to replicate it. The ancient Zent had obtained the gods' cooperation through Erwaermen and used Erwaermen's magic stone as the focal point, layering multiple magic circles together to form the Royal Academy's system.
"Something of that scale is impossible in the modern era..."
I stopped mid-sentence. Something had just flashed through my mind.
"It might be possible."
"Wait! Absolutely not — we are not going to seek the cooperation of Erwaermen and the gods. Let's think of another approach. Wouldn't it be far more reliable to have you expand this beast's magic stone as much as possible, paste a healing magic circle onto it, and then use
For someone who had brought it up himself, Ferdinand immediately rejected the idea. I pondered for a moment, then took out
"No... We don't need to go ask Erwaermen and the gods for their cooperation. You already have a fragment of Erwaermen, and the divine power is right here."
I held up my hands, wiggling my fingers, and Ferdinand raised one eyebrow.
"After all the pain I'm going through, don't you think it's perfectly acceptable to use some of the divine power for my own benefit? Besides, you'd be interested in restoring an ancient large-scale magical working, wouldn't you, Ferdinand?"
When I smiled, Ferdinand made a sour face, saying "We don't have the luxury of leisurely research." But he was muttering to himself as he pulled out fresh paper, so clearly his interest was piqued.
"If we're only expanding the healing magic circle outward, rather than layering multiple magic circles with different attributes and effects like the Royal Academy's magic circle, I don't think it would be that difficult. Here, look at this, Ferdinand."
I showed Ferdinand my Mestionora's Book, open to the passage about ancient large-scale magical workings. There was no way Ferdinand could produce his own Mestionora's Book here in front of the retainers.
Ferdinand leaned in slightly, studying the magic circle with a penetrating gaze.
"Hmm. If this defines the range, then placing focal points at the Stabilizer and setting all the border gates as terminal points should allow a magic circle that covers all of Alexandria. For the Erwaermen magic stone to be placed at the focal point, an Ah stone would serve as a substitute..."
"The longevity and durability would suffer, but if we petrified it using divine power, the effect should be sufficient."
"No — if we only need it to work once, rather than pouring in other divine power, using the existing one as-is should align better with the method described here. Without time or materials to repeat experiments, we should reproduce it as faithfully to the original magic circle as possible. Failure is not an option."
As Ferdinand spoke, he began writing furiously on the paper before him. Words lined up in rapid succession — it looked more like a memorandum than anything. Without pausing his writing, Ferdinand moved his lips.
"Rozemyne, after breakfast, put away your beast and return to the castle. I want you to perform Copy-Paste of the magic circle onto the Erwaermen fragment we'll use as the focal point in the castle's hidden room. The rest of the time is for conserving your stamina. I'll have my civil officials send notices to all the Giebes. Then have
"Understood."
"Leonore, Eckhart. The guard knights will need to send lookouts to each border gate. Determine the assignments and work out the schedule. Then ask the retainers to prepare for the return to the castle after breakfast and inform everyone."
"Yes, sir!"
Ferdinand's voice, issuing one instruction after another, suddenly sounded far away. Feeling a spreading wave of heat, I quickly closed Mestionora's Book. I must have been using it for too long.
Ferdinand peered worriedly at my face, touching my forehead and wrist before grimacing.
"I intend to handle the actual installation of the magic circles at the border gates myself, but without you — who carries the divine power and can use Copy-Paste to save time — preparing the magic circles would take an enormous amount of time. Even working as fast as possible, activating the magic circles will have to wait until nightfall. ...Can you endure one more day?"
"It's a huge relief compared to when I didn't know how long it would last."
When I gave a lopsided grin, Ferdinand scowled deeply. "Stop making such strained jokes." But I really did think I could manage one more day.
"At the very least, rest in your room to prepare for the morning travel and potion mixing. I'd like to rest a little too."
Ferdinand swiftly began tidying away the documents. Eckhart moved to help him. I hadn't paid much attention since I had slept after dinner and wasn't very drowsy, but Ferdinand had essentially been up all night. And now he intended to be up and moving again after breakfast?
...He'd said "even working as fast as possible, it'll be night," so he probably had no intention of resting at all, but I was worried.
After breakfast, we returned to the castle. Everyone moved according to their instructions. I was in Ferdinand's hidden room. Ferdinand had shaved down the white branch of Erwaermen with the Lanzenave knife, flattening it, and I was inscribing the healing magic circle onto it using Copy-Paste.
"I'll need to shrink it quite a bit for the magic circle to fit on the branch, so I'll have to start by researching contraction first."
"Are you an idiot? There's no time for that. Give up and just draw the original magic circle smaller."
When I tried to conduct expansion and contraction experiments on magic paper, Ferdinand glared at me coldly. Meanwhile, Ferdinand was pouring large quantities of magic stones, gold dust, and precious materials into something he was constructing. The atmosphere made it impossible to say "I'm not good at fine detail, so you draw it." Just then, a sheet of magic paper flew toward me.
"Try Copy-Pasting this magic circle."
I copied the magic circle Ferdinand had drawn using Copy-Paste. The healing magic circle, the magic circle for making the branch the focal point — I prepared everything as instructed. In my current state, I barely used any Magic Power, so the Copy-Paste was finished quickly.
"It's done, Ferdinand."
"Then prepare the magic stones infused with divine power."
I gathered magic stones of all attributes, rolled them together, and stuck them into a cylindrical shape, then drove the Erwaermen branch into it with a firm push. Normally, magic stones would be placed on top, but since it was a branch, I had experimented with different ways to stabilize it and ended up stabbing it in. It was surprisingly stable. This magic stone would serve as the receptacle for the divine power.
The smaller one would mark the terminal point at the border gate. The rainbow-colored magic stone that had once been Lesser had already been crushed and reshaped into something like a large shallow basin, with the Erwaermen branch driven through it.
Once I inscribed a magic circle on the bottom, it would be complete.
"It's finished. I stuck the branch into the magic stone with divine power and secured it like this — what do you think?"
"You're showing a casualness that's completely at odds with attempting to recreate an ancient large-scale magical working, and it's a quintessentially extraordinary method of yours. I could never have thought of it myself."
"I'm honored by the compliment."
I'd take it as a compliment. It was better for my mental health that way.
"If you're done preparing, get some rest. Whether you're aware of it or not, you don't look well. Ideally I'd like to send you back to your private quarters and have you rest on the bed, but your retainers are probably spread thin?"
By locking myself in Ferdinand's hidden room to work, I was giving my retainers a brief break. With the two of us together in the hidden room, only the minimum number of guards were needed at the door, letting everyone else rest.
"You're the one who needs rest, Ferdinand."
"Considering I have to prepare everything for after your Magic Power is depleted, I can't rest now. If preparations proceed smoothly from here, I'll have time for one bell's worth of rest before activating the magic circle, so it won't be a problem."
...I'm pretty sure it's very much a problem.
"Ferdinand, why are you going to such lengths for me?"
Staring at Ferdinand, the question slipped out before I could stop it.
"...What do you mean by 'why'?"
"Because unlike Hartmut and the others, you're not devoted to me as your Lord, and unlike
Ferdinand pondered for a moment. "The meaning, you say..."
"If you ask me for meaning, I'm at a loss. I'm practically your family, so isn't it only natural? Does there need to be a reason beyond that?"
"Eh? But I think even real family wouldn't go this far. Father, as the Knight Commander, might do anything for his adoptive father, and Eckhart would do the same for you, Ferdinand, but they wouldn't run themselves ragged like this for me.
That was just how Noble families were. They wouldn't swear their names because they couldn't touch divine power, nor would they pick a fight with the gods. Ferdinand was my guardian, so even if he was practically family, I considered him quite far from actual family. When I tilted my head in puzzlement, Ferdinand's face contorted with bitter emotion.
"Rozemyne, your family..."
"What about them?"
"...Never mind. It's nothing for now."
Ferdinand seemed about to say something, then swallowed his words and shook his head. His profile looked terribly wounded.
"Ferdinand?"
"I've been monitoring your Magic Power consumption and recovery over the past few days, and activating a magic circle covering all of Alexandria will definitely push you to exhaustion. There's no need to be afraid of sleeping. Go rest in your room."
Ferdinand contacted his guard knights using a Magical Tool and had them bring Angelica. Then he ordered her to take me back to my room. I didn't understand why Ferdinand looked so hurt. I wanted to reach out to him as he turned to go back to the hidden room, but I didn't know what I had done wrong, and unable to extend my hand, I closed my eyes.
I dreaded the prospect of waking to pain. Enduring the divine power swelling inside my body, I had Gretia help me change. After dinner, I was to perform a large-scale healing magic working.
I was now before Alexandria's Stabilizer. I had arrived through a small room that connected to the Aub's chambers, accessed with the key only the Aub possessed. Ferdinand had carried me here.
"Technically, no one but the Aub is supposed to enter, right?"
"...Well, yes, but I can't leave you alone when it's certain your Magic Power will be depleted. And I was the one who took this key from
"Won't you consider becoming Aub Alexandria yourself, Ferdinand? ...You could build as many research facilities as you wanted."
Kneeling before the white branch already installed, I spoke those words, and Ferdinand sat down right beside me, snorting derisively while preparing medicines.
"I don't need to become Aub. You'll build them for me, won't you?"
"You really have no ambitions, Ferdinand. If we're talking purely about greed, I'm far more like a Demon King."
"Is that so? I actually think my ambitions have grown considerably lately."
He was grinning in a way that he probably thought was demonic, but it didn't look the part at all.
"You're going to build a library city where every book that gets printed ends up in your personal collection, and eventually you'll copy the holdings of every territory's library and print them all as books for me, 'ho ho ho ho.' Surely that's not a meager ambition?"
"Only someone like you would harbor such an ambition."
...Conquering all libraries is humanity's dream, you know.
I had no intention of giving up on my own ambitions. As a first step, I planned to ask Eglantine to have the books being transferred from the royal palace library to the Royal Academy's library copied for me.
"To realize our ambitions, we need to clear away that divine power. Let's begin."
"Yes."
I placed my hands on the basin-shaped magic stone glowing with rainbow colors. As I channeled Magic Power into it, water gradually pooled inside the basin until it resembled a water mirror. The water stopped just before overflowing, and this time, the Erwaermen branch, which had been pure white, began to take on rainbow colors.
Beams of light in all attributes shot straight upward from the Erwaermen branch. From inside the Stabilizer chamber, I couldn't see what was happening outside. But the moment the light of all attributes pierced through the building and emerged, the scene outside began to appear on the water mirror.
"Ferdinand, this..."
"Keep pouring Magic Power. The magic circle isn't complete yet."
"Yes."
The scene in the water mirror began with a large number of Nobles waving their Staves that glowed with light, then moved through the well-lit Noble District to the Commoners' lower town, and finally showed the pitch-black sea. Though it was pitch-black, I could see the water's surface shimmering under the rainbow-colored light. Then the image shifted to the border gate before the country gate, where Storl and other knights were standing guard. They were looking up at the sky with expressions of surprise.
"They're watching the magic circle being drawn across the night sky. They look rather dumbfounded."
"If I were there, I think my face would look even more ridiculous."
"I'm sure it would."
...I wish you'd denied that.
The scene in the water mirror shifted from the knights' stunned faces to the Erwaermen branch at a border gate, then soared upward again.
Magic Power was being siphoned into the magic circle at an accelerating rate. I felt the heat ebbing slightly.
"Which one is it now?"
"It must be the border gate with
At Dunkelfelger's border gate, Eckhart and several other knights were looking up at the sky. The Blue Cloak Dunkelfelger knights stationed at the gate were, for some reason, joining in the excitement, staring upward and making a commotion. I could see Eckhart desperately trying to keep the Dunkelfelger knights from touching the Erwaermen branch.
...This post is probably going to be the toughest to manage.
While I chuckled softly, the scene moved on to the next border gate.
Magic Power was being drained rapidly, and my hunger was escalating into starvation. My head was starting to feel faint.
At the next border gate were Lorenz and a few knights — the border gate with old Berkeshstock. It seemed Ferdinand had sealed it when he went to place the Erwaermen branch, and after the Lord's Conference, once Traokvar arrived as Aub, both Aubs' power would be needed to open it.
I was wondering whether the heat was subsiding or whether my body was cooling down because it could no longer generate warmth within, when we arrived at the border gate with
Matthias and the knights were here. Frenbeltag's knights were present too, but unlike Dunkelfelger's festive atmosphere, they simply stared upward with expressions of sheer awe.
The border gates of Frenbeltag and Ehrenfest were quite close. In the blink of an eye, the scene shifted to Ehrenfest's border gate. Cornelius should have been there.
"...Grandfather?"
For some reason, Grandfather was at the border gate, and I could see him harrying Cornelius.
"After contacting
At Ferdinand's exasperated voice, I let out a small laugh. My dizziness was growing, and my breathing had become so shallow that I had to consciously slow it down.
"Just a little longer, Rozemyne."
Ferdinand's voice, though he should have been right beside me, sounded faintly distant. I had to endure until the scenery in the water mirror returned to this castle across the dark sea. I answered "I'm all right" several times, but my voice had no strength, and my grip on the basin-shaped magic stone was loosening.
"Rozemyne, you can relax your body and lean on me, but don't let go of my hand."
Ferdinand, who had been sitting beside me, placed his hand over mine and cradled my weakening body. His hand, which normally felt cold, was burning hot.
"Oh Water Goddess who brings healing and transformation, Flutrene! Twelve goddesses who serve at her side, hear my prayer and bestow your sacred power..."
Ferdinand began reciting the prayer in rapid succession. The magic circle had apparently been completed successfully. Even hearing Ferdinand's prayer, the divine power did not move. My Magic Power must have been nearly depleted. My body was cold and immobile, yet inside me, a sense of relief spread — it was finally over.
...Ferdinand, I'm leaving the rest to you.
Listening to the prayer, I slowly closed my eyes.
I went back and forth about whether to write the second half from another character's perspective, but I decided to continue in the protagonist's POV to the end.
By casting the healing magic working over the entire territory, I finally reached Magic Power exhaustion.
From here, Ferdinand will work hard to get me to drink medicine.
How exactly he manages that, I'll leave to your imagination.
Next time: Memories.