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After returning to Cortina’s house, I wiped my sweat with a towel and went to check how the adults were doing. Seeing the pile of corpses, it didn’t seem like any of them noticed my slip out, so that brought me some peace of mind.

But then, I suddenly heard anguished voices.

“What’s going on?”

Following them to the source, I found that it came from Lyell and Maria. Their faces were strangely red, and had anguished expressions as if they were having a nightmare. Putting my hand on their foreheads told me that their temperatures were far higher than it should’ve been.

“H-Hey, Ly—I mean, Daddy!”

Panicking, I tried to wake the two up by shaking. Maria was the go-to person when it came to illnesses, but she herself seemed to be down with fever now. This was probably too much for me to handle alone, so I first went to wake up the second reliable person.

“Cortina, Cortina!”

“Nnngh… Wuh happen?”

She answered like a fish out of the water while sprawled on the floor in quite an unladylike manner, redirecting my attention. She then heaved a mix of erotic and slovenly sigh and finally opened her eyes. Looks like she wasn’t suffering from the fever.

“Daddy is having nightmares. Mommy too.”

“Lyell and Maria?”

Hearing my report she immediately jumped to her feet. She probably remembered that she was the one that had them drink that suspicious drug at dinnertime. After quickly checking their conditions, she rushed to wake Maxwell up.

“Maxwell, wake up! Maria and Lyell are acting strange.”

“Nggh? They are?”

Maxwell stood up from the sofa he had been sleeping on with a drool ticking down his beard and approached the two with tottering steps, then brushed his mustache in understanding.

“This is unavoidable. Their bodies are in the middle of reconstruction necessary for prolonging their lifespans.”

“Is that so?”

Cortina asked worriedly, tilting her head. That gesture was extremely adorable, but I had more important things to worry about now. Honestly speaking, their current body temperatures were no joke.

“Normally, it would be a matter of life or death, but these two should be alright. If you are that worried, you can cast Cure on them.”

“Would that really be enough?”

“Nope, it’s pointless. At most, it’ll give them temporary relief.”

“Then what’s the point!”

Cortina started strangling him for that irresponsible statement. But he didn’t care and just continued his speech.

“I’m saying that it’ll give them relief for around an hour. Repeat that till morning, and their bodies should have gotten accustomed by then.”

“Is that really enough…?”

“That was the result that my Medic magic gave me.”

Following his words, Cortina cast Cure on the two. This magic was used during illnesses and detoxification and it belonged to the relatively simpler magics, so Cortina could use it. Naturally, Maxwell doing it would have been more effective, but he didn’t seem to be all that motivated now.

As such, Cortina and I got stuck with their nursing all the way until morning.

The next morning…

Frankly speaking, it was not necessary for me to nurse them, but when you’re worried you are worried and that’s that. As a result, I was busy until morning along with Cortina, bringing her water as she continued casting Cure, wiping Maria’s sweat, and so on until it finally dawned.

I found myself collapsed on top of Maria, seemingly from having fallen asleep without realizing. Looking at Cortina, it looked like she was in a similar state. Maxwell and Gadius also had yet to wake up.

However, Lyell was nowhere to be found. Based on his condition yesterday, I didn’t think he’d be in any shape to move… But where had he gone to?

I stood up and started searching for him. Finia slept in her room, so she shouldn’t have been aware of what happened at night. We didn’t require her assistance, so we didn’t even let her know.

He wouldn’t have disappeared if something bad happened, so I came to the conclusion that he did in fact recover.

I headed to the bathroom to wash my face, but I heard a sudden whoosh of wind. It was a heavy and sharp sound, as if it wasn’t the wind but the very space itself getting split apart.

I peeked outside from the backdoor situated next to the bathroom, and there stood Lyell, swinging his sword while half-naked.

He was already way past 40, but his forged body showed no signs of weakening. No, that wasn’t entirely accurate, but only if you compared him to when he was young. Even so, his body was refined to the point he was worthy to be a sculpture reference.

His body throbbed as he swung his sword up and down. Each time he did it, he audibly planted his foot into the ground and his swung sword raised a cloud of dust.

Looking at that I felt something was out of place. I was convinced that Lyell of yesterday would not be able to emit such sword force. Far from weakening, he seemed even stronger than ever before.

What caused it… Was needless to even ask. It was certainly due to that drug. The vigor of his young days and his skill that had accumulated for many years had merged harmoniously and arrived at that result.

Looking at his sword dance, I thought to myself.

That is the pinnacle of swordsmanship. The pinnacle that I was never able to reach.

While I found that fact frustrating, at the same time I couldn’t help but admire it. I stood there, fascinated by his sword dance, which could even be called beautiful. I kept staring at him dumbfounded, with a toothbrush stuck in my mouth.

“…So cool.”

“Mm, so that’s what you think? You are a daddy’s girl after all, huh?”

“Pffft!?”

Cortina had snuck behind me without me realizing it. I felt frustrated about failing to notice her presence while I was lost in admiration. Her smug expression was really… Detestable.

“Well, Lyell doesn’t look so bad when he swings his sword like that.”

“Yeaaa…”

Wait, weren’t you in love with me? I almost retorted by instinct, but I managed to hold back.

“Ah, my number one is someone else, though. Look, he’s the husband of my best friend, so I can’t go speaking bad things about him, right?”

“That so?”

I answered with half-opened eyes as she tried to correct her previous statement. Either way, I decided to return to brushing my teeth to dodge the topic of getting fascinated earlier.

“Oh, Nicole, did you finally decide to do some sword training?”

“That’s not it.”

“You can celebrate. She just called you ‘cool’ earlier.”

“She did what?!”

Noticing our presence, Lyell lowered his sword and called out to us. It felt frustrating that his face turned all smug when he realized I was observing him. My refusal made him look downhearted, but Cortina’s double-crossing changed his expression into one full of smiles.

I tried to answer indifferently.

“Well, I guess you were pretty average? I think Cortina is cooler.”
“Ugh! You are as indifferent as always, Nicole…”

My unfriendly attitude had him sink to his knees in dejection. Still, the skin tone of his naked upper half was incomparable to its worn-out condition from before. It appeared that the drug did indeed have an effect.

“It’s belated, but good morning. How are you feeling?”

“Yeah, I’m feeling extremely well. Too well, in fact.”

Lyell said that and swung his arms around, stressing his point. Even those movements were extremely agile.

It seemed that I really had to show my thanks to that White Goddess.