A Story of a Noble Lady Who Was Ravaged by an Incurable Disease and Covered in Bandages All Over Her Broken Body; After Healing Her, She Turned Into a Stunning Beauty and Started Desperately Courting Me - Chapter 12

Chapter 12: Running Into a Familiar Adventurer in the City

A few days later. After finishing Alicia’s rehab session past noon.

―― Buzz buzz, chatter chatter!

“Hmm, the royal capital really is packed with people, isn’t it?”

After wrapping up Alicia’s rehab and having nothing else planned for the day, I decided to take the chance to sightsee around the royal capital’s streets.

I had reached the heart of the capital, and no matter where I looked, crowds of people filled every spot. It really felt like a proper big city.

“…Hm? Oh, isn’t that Setsuna! Yo!”

“…Huh? Wait—ah! Skuld-san! Long time no see!”

Right then, someone suddenly called out to me in the middle of the capital’s streets, so I turned toward the voice. Standing there was a huge, burly man.

The man looked to be in his mid-thirties. He had short black hair cropped close, tanned dark skin, and a powerfully muscled, rugged body that screamed strength. Well, not just strong-looking—he really was strong.

“Hey, long time no see! How’s it going? You managing to do decent work as an adventurer lately?”

“Yeah, more or less. Thanks to the lessons you gave me, Skuld-san, I’ve somehow kept going as an adventurer this past year. Thanks again for teaching me so much back then.”

“Haha, is that so, is that so? Good to hear! Nothing better than seeing you still going strong as an adventurer!”

The tough guy in front of me grinned wide and spoke to me cheerfully. Even though we hadn’t met in over half a year, he was still the same bold, kind old man as always.

So, the muscular man standing here was Skuld—a super veteran adventurer who traveled all over the country. His personality matched his appearance: bold and rough around the edges, but surprisingly gentle. Whenever he saw someone in trouble, he would listen carefully and help out.

He was an S-rank adventurer, strong enough to take down even the highest-tier wyvern species by himself. A truly skilled veteran who roamed the nation, constantly fighting powerful monsters.

I first met Skuld more than half a year ago when he passed through the rural town where I lived during one of his travels. We got to know each other at the adventurers’ guild there.

When I learned he was an S-rank powerhouse, I, still a total beginner adventurer, asked him on a whim if he could teach me a few things. To my surprise, Skuld agreed right away without hesitation.

Because of that connection, for about two weeks before I left that rural town, he acted as my adventurer mentor and taught me all kinds of things. Going into dungeons together with Skuld was a very fond memory.

“Still, running into you here in the capital is some crazy coincidence. So what brings you to the capital today? Did you take on a request that brought you all the way here?”

“Yeah, that’s right. I came here because of a request. What about you, Skuld-san? You always said you travel the country’s hidden places and dungeons to fight strong monsters. There aren’t any hidden spots or dungeons in the capital, right?”

“Ah, right now I’m actually taking a break from monster fighting. The white dragon subjugation request I took a little while back was pretty rough and left me wiped out. But I managed to kill it safely and made a ton of money, so I figured I’d skip taking requests for a while and just relax in the capital for the first time in ages.”

“Whoa, a white dragon—that’s one of the top-tier monsters! Taking down something that powerful all by yourself… you really are an amazing adventurer, Skuld-san!”

“Haha. Well, that’s just how it goes when you’re S-rank. So? What kind of request did you take to come here? Something monster-related? If you need an extra hand, I can help out, you know?”

“No, no way. A subjugation or expedition request is still way too much for a newbie like me. The one I took this time is a healing request.”

I gave Skuld a quick summary of the request. He nodded right away with an understanding look.

“Ah, got it. A healing request, huh. Come to think of it, you were ridiculously good with recovery magic, Setsuna. So you came all the way to the capital on a long-distance job to treat someone who lives here.”

“Exactly, that’s it. I managed to completely heal them with recovery magic, but their muscle strength and stuff had dropped a lot, so right now I’m helping with their rehab.”

“Hmm? Helping with rehab means… sounds like the client was suffering from something pretty serious before. But if it was that bad, how come they never got checked by a healer until now and just left it untreated?”

“No, that’s not it. They’ve seen lots of healers many times before, but no one could cure it. It was diagnosed as a mysterious illness with no known cause, and recovery magic never worked at all no matter how many times they tried.”

“A mysterious illness with no known cause? That sounds pretty ominous. What exactly were the symptoms of this weird disease?”

“Hmm, to put it simply… their whole body looked like it had suffered massive burns, and they were in constant excruciating pain all over, so bad they couldn’t move at all. They’d been stuck with that strange illness the whole time, and no healer had ever been able to fix it. The poor patient really seemed to be suffering terribly…”

“…Huh?”

As I explained Alicia’s condition to Skuld, for some reason his face suddenly went blank.

“? What’s wrong, Skuld-san?”

“No… uh… whole body looking like it suffered massive burns? Constant intense pain everywhere that stops them from moving? And every healer who examined the patient said it was an unknown cause? Is that really true?”

“Yeah, that’s right… but why? Did I say something weird?”

“…Yeah. Setsuna, that… probably isn’t a disease.”

“Huh? Not a disease? What do you mean? Do you know something about these symptoms, Skuld-san?”

“Yeah, probably. I know something that can cause symptoms like that. It’s probably not a ‘disease’… it’s most likely ‘cursing magic.’ Setsuna.”

“…Huh!? C-cursing magic?”

Skuld’s expression turned completely serious as he told me that. So the horrible injuries Alicia had been suffering all this time weren’t caused by a sickness… but by cursing magic?