Reasons to Protect the Witch's Son

***

“There is no antidote?”
Elaine’s voice cracked as she asked. The doctor slowly shook his head with a dark look on his face.

“The deadly venom of Laikios cannot be treated with ordinary antidotes. The antidote to the poison is so rare that it would take at least ten days to obtain.”

“We don’t have ten days! You mean we should just let him die! No matter how strong someone is, they can’t hold on for that long! Is there no other way?”

Sophia who had been listening to the doctor’s story, rose her voice in anxiety. The other knights in the room also nervously waited for the doctor’s answer.

“Well, there is one way…”

“What is it?”

“We could make the antidote ourselves. I know the recipe, and I have most of the ingredients needed…”

“Then what’s the problem? Can’t we just make the antidote right away?”

“There are two ingredients missing. One is the root of a freshly dug up licorice and the other is…”

The doctor paused for a moment, in hesitation, then continued.

“It is the heart of Laikios.”

***

After the doctor left, the knights stayed in the bedroom to discuss the matter.

“We have to go now!”

The owner of the voice was Sophia. She seemed ready to run out of the room and catch the monster at any moment.

“Unlike before, we now know the location of the core, so it will be much easier to defeat the monster. All you have to do is air for the center. Destroy the core and get the heart.”

“No matter what, our current strength is not enough. Everyone is seriously injured and their mana is low. If we continue on like this, everyone could die, then it would be impossible to save him.”

Cezanne said this while shaking his head. He had a head injury and was wearing a bandage. The veteran knight agreed with him.

“He’s right. We need to treat all of our injuries first and then we can all go after him.”

“But before that happens, His Grace…!”

“There is still one day. Didn’t the doctor say that he would be able to hold out until then? Its best to recover as quickly as possible and then go catch him.”

“I’ll go and gather the licorice root.”

Elaine who had been listening silently until then, suddenly spoke up. The senior knight looked at her in surprise.

“Dame Elaine?”

Ever since the doctor had left, she had been frighteningly silent. Like a ticking time bomb that could explode at any moment. But, for some reason, the eyes that met his now were calm. As if she had come to some sort of understanding with herself.

“I know what the licorice root looks like. It will be faster to search the mountain myself than to leave it to some random herbalist. I will look for it while you are all recovering.”

Licorice root was not a very rare herb. The problem was, that to be of use, it had to be freshly dug up. There was truth to what she had said.

“You must be exhausted, are you alright with this?”

“I’m fine.”

Actually, she wasn’t fine at all. Her body may be alright, but her mind was ready to break at any moment. The senior knight who was unaware of this nodded his head.

“Okay, then I’ll ask you for a favor this time. Now that we’ve all decided on what we are going to do, let’s head out. Dame Sophia, please follow me.”

The senior knight spoke to the knights as if he had made the final decision. All of the others followed him out, leaving only Elaine left in the room.

“…”

Ash, whose complexion was even paler than before, still seemed like he wouldn’t be waking up anytime soon. Her expression slowly fell as she looked at him.

She didn’t want to leave him, not even for a moment. It was a poison so deadly that an ordinary person would have been killed instantly. The doctor said it was a miracle that he was sill alive.

She had told the others that she would go out to get the licorice root and then come back to catch the monster together, but she did not have the time to wait for them to recover. She intended to go after Laikios alone.

Even if they still had another day, the poison was continuously ravaging his body, damaging his internal organs and causing immense pain.

She didn’t want him to suffer any longer.

Elaine straightened up and when she was about to turn her back, her collar was caught by a weak force.

“…Don’t go.”

She stopped breathing and hurriedly turned her head to meet his blurry purple gaze.

Ash’s eyelashes slowly fluttered and his lips slightly moved.

“Stay… here. Don’t…”

His uneven breathing continued. She wanted to hold onto his fading consciousness, hoping he would speak a bit more. In desperation, she grabbed his hand, which was still holding her clothes.

However, when she saw the faint purple color slowly disappearing behind his eyelids again, she left the room without another delay.

She was helpless the night she had lost Bella, but it was different now. She would no longer lose anything that was precious to her. She gritted her teeth as she ran toward the forest.