TPGV Ch# 7

The servant who had been sent to call Elice returned instead with a woman he didn’t recognize.

The woman had an innocent face framed by neatly braided brown hair. The moment she laid eyes on Lexius, she startled and bowed deeply from the waist.

“G-Greetings, Your Grace the Duke.”

“And who might you be?”

“I am Lady Elice’s maid, Cecile.”

“I distinctly asked for the princess. Why are you here instead?”

Lexius’s sharp gaze swept over the woman, making Cecile tremble in fear.

“M-My lady cannot come right now. She is very ill and has lost consciousness.”

“Ha. Unconscious? That same woman who was screaming her lungs out just before dawn?”

Lexius scoffed in disbelief. If she didn’t want to meet him, she should’ve just said so—not send a maid to lie in her place. The audacity was infuriating.

“I-It’s true! Why would I lie? Her body is burning up—she’s like a fireball. Her fever is so high she can’t even open her eyes… I’m truly worried…”

Cecile’s voice trembled as if she were on the verge of tears.

“Lead the way. I’ll see for myself.”

Lexius immediately rose from his seat. He wouldn’t believe it without seeing it with his own eyes. Besides, he needed to look into the antidote for Chorfen anyway.

Calix shrugged and followed him.

Elice lay in bed as if dead. Not even a finger twitched; her eyes were tightly shut. She truly did look ill.

When Lexius placed his hand on her forehead to check, he was inwardly startled. She was burning up—hot enough that it seemed inhuman.

Her pulse was faint. Her face was as white as a sheet of paper, lips devoid of color, and cold sweat poured from her brow.

“Why didn’t you call a physician when it got this bad?”

Lexius frowned as he asked. Cecile, nervously gauging his reaction, answered timidly.

“Even if we did, it wouldn’t help. The palace physicians said it’s an illness they cannot treat. They claimed it stems from the foreign blood within her… that no physician can cure it.”

“A disease that can’t be treated? Then they sent me a sick woman from the start?!”

Lexius snapped. This revealed yet another reason why the emperor had forced this marriage on him.

A runaway lover, a mysterious pregnancy (or miscarriage), and now an incurable illness. This princess was defective from the start.

Cecile quickly shook her head in panic.

“N-No, she’s usually healthy! She only falls ill when she suffers great emotional distress. Even when she’s this sick, she recovers in a few days if she drinks her herbal tea.”

“Herbal tea?”

“Yes. It’s made from herbs grown in her greenhouse. I learned the recipe from her. She always drinks it when she’s unwell…”

Lexius narrowed his eyes, unconvinced.

“You’re saying a tea can treat something that even palace physicians can’t?”

“It’s not just any tea—it’s brewed with exotic herbs. They come from the homeland of her mother, the Third Empress. Since her illness comes from foreign blood, those foreign herbs seem to help.”

Foreign blood… Now that he thought of it, he remembered. Elice’s mother, the Third Empress, was a foreign woman the emperor had brought back in his youth.

It was said he had wandered various lands in his pursuit of dark magic before returning suddenly with her.

She was his beloved concubine—so much so that he gave her a separate estate outside the capital and kept her hidden from the public.

The Third Empress passed away shortly after the emperor seized the throne, before she could even move into the palace.

She had never appeared at any public event, so very few people even knew her face.

But what kind of foreign blood could cause such an illness?

Foreigners weren’t that rare in the Empire. But he’d never heard of foreign blood causing an incurable disease in a descendant.

“What kingdom was the Third Empress from?”

“I—I don’t really know. Maybe the southern continent, or possibly the western… My lady doesn’t know either. Her mother passed away when she was very young, and His Majesty grows furious whenever she even mentions the Empress…”

“Hmph. Something’s not right here.”

It was then that Calix suddenly spoke up. He had been inspecting Elice’s arm and now wore a curious expression.

His gray eyes shimmered blue, as if he had discovered something.

“What do you mean, not right?”

“I mean the princess. Her condition is a disaster. It’s a wonder she’s even alive, walking around like this.”

“It’s that serious?”

“No, the real issue is dark magic. It’s spread through her like poison, eating away at her body. Her blood vessels are completely twisted from how deep it runs.”

“What? Dark magic?”

Lexius looked genuinely shocked. It didn’t make sense. The emperor, master of dark magic, would never let his daughter be cursed by it.

More than that—there was no way the emperor wouldn’t have noticed.

Even after the wedding, the princess had met the emperor regularly. If Calix could detect it this quickly, the emperor definitely would have known.

Which meant… he had known, and let it happen?

“Yeah. And here’s the kicker—her blood. Probably due to the dark magic, the blood circulating in her body is less than half of what a normal person would have.”

“W-What are you saying?! Less than half?! And dark magic?!”

Cecile, who had been listening, looked horrified and stared at Calix in disbelief.

Her mouth hung open in shock. Her large, timid eyes began to well with tears.

Calix turned to her and asked seriously, “Has the princess been sick like this often?”

“She… she falls ill several times a year. Always after meeting the emperor. I thought it was emotional distress—but I never imagined it was because of blood loss. And dark magic, too… sob.”

Cecile finally burst into tears, looking as though her world had collapsed.

“Then each time, she recovered with just that tea?”

Calix asked, clearly skeptical.

“Y-Yes. hic My lady’s tea is very effective… hic”

“What herbs go into the tea?”

“…Kamalanthis flower, Purity Grass, Harabor fruit, Sentima root, Obogel, Saurka… hic There are two more, but I can’t recall their names. I’d know them right away if I saw them in the greenhouse…”

Calix’s eyes widened as he listened. He looked unsure whether to believe her.

“You’re saying there’s Kamalanthis in her greenhouse? And Purity Grass too?”

“Yes. And all the others as well… hic”

Cecile began crying again, frightened by the interrogation.

“What’s wrong? Are those herbs rare or something?”

Lexius raised an eyebrow. Calix rubbed his face in disbelief.

“Rare? Kamalanthis is a sacred flower that blooms only in the temples of the Holy Kingdom of Cersha. It’s said to work miracles—can even make a cripple walk.”

“What?”

“Purity Grass only grows in the deserts of the southern continent. It’s so rare that even expert herb hunters might only find it once in a lifetime. Its detoxifying properties are unrivaled—it sells for dozens of times more than gold.”

Hiccup.

Cecile hiccupped, forgetting her tears. She clearly hadn’t known their value—only the names.

“Saurka is said to revive the heart. It can make a heart on the brink of death beat again. I’ve only heard of it—never seen it. And I don’t even recognize the rest of the herbs you mentioned. But you say they’re all in her greenhouse?”

“Y-Yes. I tend them with my lady every day.”

Cecile wiped her tears, now with a determined expression—like she wouldn’t let anyone doubt her mistress.

“We’ll see soon enough. If she really has herbs like that, I can understand how she’s still alive despite her condition.”

“You believe me? But… who are you, to know all this incredible stuff…?”

“Calix Fortensia. A mage.”

Calix shrugged. Cecile immediately reacted the way most people did upon hearing his name.

“You’re that Calix?! The Archmage, second only to the emperor?! Is it really you?!”

Her eyes widened in awe. Calix smirked and ran a hand through his hair, smug.

“Hmph. I far surpass that wretch. Don’t even compare us.”

“T-Then… can you lift the dark magic from my lady?”

Cecile looked at him with desperate hope, clearly believing he could fix everything.

“Well, if I remove it recklessly, her body might not survive. The dark magic has been entwined with her for too long—breaking it suddenly could kill her from the shock.”

“Then what… You’re saying nothing can be done?!”

“I’m saying it needs to be undone slowly. We need time to gradually weaken its hold. But… if the caster embedded another hidden spell or seal, one I can’t see, then not even I can break it.”

“Please, anything—just help her. With your power, surely you can at least wake her up?”

Cecile pleaded, but Calix replied coldly.

“There’s no such thing as a free favor. Depends on what your mistress can offer me in return.”

“S-She doesn’t have much money… She sold everything valuable to build that greenhouse…”

“I never said it had to be money. There are plenty of things more valuable.”

As Calix hinted, Cecile seemed to remember something and clapped her hands.

“Oh! We can offer herbs. The greenhouse has many rare ones. I’ll ask my lady once she wakes!”

“That would be fine. But your lady is carrying something very dangerous.”

“What?”

Calix’s eyes gleamed as he looked at Elice’s arm.

He snapped his fingers, summoning a blue flame, and sent it toward her wrist.

The flame wrapped around the jeweled bracelet on her wrist like a mist.