“Boy, are you alright?”

The shopkeeper thought it was normal to be stunned after hearing such news as she, personally, had experienced this even though it was still hard to believe what was happening in Sansa.

Lucas nodded at her question while his mind being quite blank. Actually he did not know what to do. It wasn’t what he intended to do, not right now at least.

‘Why is this world having so much difference with the novel!?’

At first, Lucas had thought that it was because he was going around the places, so he met with things that were not included in the novel. He thought it was because of him that that had some small alternation.

‘I didn’t do anything!’ Lucas didn’t remember interfering with the novel for this. He would never do that. Who would make your own territory to get a disease.

And he didn’t remember Lucian foreshadowing such things to him. No matter how Lucas tried, he only recalled the words warning him about the devil commander in the 5 years of time and it was what he focused on this whole time which he found that it was quite easy, except from getting some stress.

‘Should I try to be in a dying situation?’

Lucas wanted to meet with Lucian and wanted to ask why this was happening. But he instantly removed this plan from his head because it was either Lucian had no knowledge about this happenings or he didn’t want to tell Lucas about this, which meant that it would definitely be in vain even if he went and met with him for answers.

And it was not time to ask for the answers. Reasoning could come later and finding the solution for this problem came first which was already a difficult thing to do so.

“Are there more infected people?”

“We have some suspects, though…. Of course, it is from the family of people who died from the curse. It is so scary how true it is that once a curse is caught, it passes down the family.”

The woman sighed, thinking it would be so terrifying if herself or someone from her family got such curse.

“Do you know where they are, aunty? Are they staying at their homes?”

“No, at the local church. Why?”

“It’s nothing, aunty. I am just curious!”

Lucas smiled a bit and waited for a while before answering the questions as a buyer came by to buy some fruits. And he noticed that the man was wearing a knight uniform of the Evandall family, meaning that his family had sent someone to oversee the situation here.

He stepped to the side a bit, holding his hood down a bit more quickly. Not everyone in the knight faction would recognize him but it would be pretty troublesome if one really did remember with a slim chance.

And with all these things happening, Lucas didn’t trust his luck anymore.

‘Don’t look at me. Don’t talk to me. Don’t look at me. Don’t talk to me……’ Lucas inwardly prayed and prayed, not looking at the knight. Not even one glance.

The knight bought a bag of some fruits, which was for lunch. After he got the change from the shopkeeper, he decided to head back to his group but accidentally, he caught a glimpse of a small figure standing at the side of the shop, which made him pretty surprised that the hooded figure didn’t look like the kids from Sansa area and seemed like a child who was travelling around.

“Are you alone, kid? Did you get separated from your parents?” The young knight was worried as it was rare to see young children travelling around, thinking he should help him out if it was the case that he thought.

‘Ah, sh*t…. Here we go…’ Lucas wondered if there was god handling his luck. If killing gods was possible, he would kill that god first.

“I am not, Sir. I am just travelling here and there alone.” Lucas tried his best not to look straight at the knight’s eyes. He wondered why this world didn’t have contact lenses. He would feel much more secure if he covered his sparkling blue eyes, though. Now he didn’t even dare to look at the knight’s face.

“Ok, then. Find me in the local church if you need some help.” The knight thought that he would be a boy who didn’t like to interact with strangers that much so he decided to let it be. He wondered how a boy who was shy like this was travelling alone, though.

“Thank you, Sir.”

Lucas could only sigh when the knight left them as he unconsciously put his hand on his chest while he breathed out.

“They are the knights from the main city. Quite handsome and kind, right?”

‘I guess, aunties can also get excited by this.’ Lucas nervously thought and just replied with a small yes, in order to go along with her flow again.

“Has the duke already sent someone here to look at the situation?”

Lucas believed it was the case, seeing the knight from the main mansion got sent here. The knight must be an escort so the one sent here would also be someone pretty trusted and good ranked, too. And seeing that the knight had gone back to the church, the one who was sent would be at the church to look at the patients and situations.

‘How should I join hands with him to handle this?’ Lucas doubted he could just participate in this, telling like ‘Hey, I know about this curse a bit. Let’s find a solution together.’ Many questions would follow behind it like ‘How do you know about this!?’ and such.

Lucas was willing to choose this way, if there was no other solution, though.

“Of course he did. It is the Evandall family, after all. Anyway, the lady is here to oversee the situation, so I think-”

“Wait!? Which lady!?”

‘WHAT!? Not Maria, right!?’ Of course, Lucas felt stupid for this one second thought because there would be no other people who the people here would call ‘lady’ from Evandall family.

Lucas decided to keep calm as he realized that the woman flinched from surprise a bit as he unconsciously raised his voice.

As Lucas had expected the shopkeeper wasn’t hoping that this little boy would scream all of a sudden.

“Lady Maria, of course. Umm,.... perhaps you won’t know this if you are not familiar with this place but she is the daughter of the Duke. And she is quite talented, too.” She was proud to brag about the Evandall family as she continued to talk about her.

‘Why the heck that man had to send one of his children here!?’ Lucas couldn’t listen to what the woman was saying as he was busy questioning his father’s actions of putting Maria to such a deadly place.

‘Maybe he doesn’t know…’ Lucas made a deep sigh while trying to calm his fuming anger. ‘Yes, he doesn’t know it is that serious…. That should be the only reason for his decision!’

‘And what is big sis doing here!?’ Lucas frowned. He definitely heard that both Maria and Edwin would be going to Ereck forest to check the situation. He couldn’t even remember having the word ‘Sansa’ or ‘disease’ in their conversation.

‘Are they trying to hide this matter from me again…’ Lucas remembered how Edwin was in silent mode which was pretty unusual. At first, he had thought that it was all about the pressure from the ministers from factions but now he had known that it might not be the only reason. And they might have just hidden it from him.

Considering his family’s personality, it was really possible. They always thought he was too young and refrained themselves from telling some worrisome matters in front of Lucas which Lucas found really troubling.

‘If the words reach to father that it is really the demon’s curse, someone representing the Evandall family will come, of course….’ Lucas eyebrows twitched a bit as he thought.

‘I don’t like her being here….’

Lucas’s heart beat faster than normal as his anxiety rises. It would be better if any of his siblings or his father was not here in the first place, but he was more worried about Maria because she was someone who was destined to die in the earlier times.

‘I have to warn her!’ Lucas didn’t have time to listen to the talking of the woman as he prepared to rush out.

“Well, since they are reliable, they will probably be able to han-”

“Aunty, where is the way to church?”

“Eh?...Ah, you can follow the main road straight and you will see the church eventually.”

“Thank you for telling me so much information! Ah, if you don’t want to get cursed, don’t touch the patients! And better if you stay away from them. Told others that!” As a token of gratitude he warned the shopkeeper and left a coin on the fruit basket before he left.

‘Where is that knight!?’

Lucas looked for the knight that he met in the shop as he ran along the main road. Fortunately, since not much time had passed that the man left and as Lucas used all his strength to catch up with him, he finally found the young knight.

“Sir!”

The knight looked back, finding that it was the young boy whom he met at the shop. He didn’t imagine that this boy would come running to him this soon, though as he halted his steps and waited for him to catch up with him.

“The curse…..” Lucas tried to catch his breath a bit and continued.

“It is not a curse but a disease. You can get infected if you touch the body fluids of the infected person. Blood, sweat, saliva, every fluid from the body is included. Make sure that they stay quarantined and find out the person who got the first infection. Symptoms started to appear after around 8 days of getting infected!” Lucas continued non-stop.

“Don’t use healing magic on them. It will give them a quicker path to death. Instead, make them drink the Alohara plant’s liquid. A spoon in the morning and in the night will be enough to stretch their lifespan for a while.”

Lucas made sure that the young knight heard him loud and clear, so that he didn’t have to repeat twice. And then he looked at the young knight, to see if he got it all correctly or not.

“Get it!?” Lucas considered if he could repeat. And he sighed a bit when the young knight nodded when being a bit stunned.

“Good! Now go tell this to your lady, as quickly as you can so that she doesn’t get infected!”

Lucas doubted if people around Maria would let her go near the patients but knowing the compassionate Maria, Lucas thought of a chance where she might touch the patients and get the sweat or some blood from them.

And he left and ran away from the knight immediately after he had seen him nodded slowly. Lucas couldn’t afford to be halted here and bombarded with questions. It would be quite problematic if his sister caught him.

The knight was stunned for a second after hearing such information but when he realized that he should stop the boy and ask him more, he noticed that the boy who told him the facts had already run off far from him.

The young knight didn’t really see the features of the boy as the head of him was covered with a hood and half of his face was also covered with the robe, too. It was as if the boy didn’t want him to know him. All the young knight could notice was a glimmer of two blue eyes from the said boy.

At first, he intended to follow the boy and catch him but at the same time, analyzing the information that he had just heard, he should inform the lady immediately. He had heard that the lady would be inspecting the patients and it would be quite problematic if she got infected.

With this, he just ran straight to the church, in order that he could inform Lady Maria.

***

Maria was a bit impatient as she was being kept away from the patients by her guards, telling her non-stop that she should refrain from looking at the patients in person which was why she was only able to take a glimpse from outside while getting a headache on how she should handle this.

But now she didn’t know whether she should be thankful to her guards after hearing such information from the young knight who came running to her and shouting non-stop that she should not visit the patient room and about how one could get infected.

“You didn’t know the person who told you this information?”

Maria was pretty grateful to that person as she could get some tips for handling the situation. But at the same time she wondered about that person’s identity and why he knew such information which was impossible for her to get. It was suspicious but she had to meet with that person so that she could get more answers but it seemed that the person also didn’t want to get known.

“Yes, my lady. I was also quite surprised because he is just a child.”

“What?”

“It is surprising, right? I was, too. From my perspective, he shouldn’t be older than 11 years old, at maximum. I mean how does he know all of that?”

“Do you also know any other features?” Maria was curious to know and she somehow felt a bit strange as if she was missing something when the knight told that to her.

“No, my lady. That boy wrapped the whole body with his robe. Ah, but I saw his eyes! Yes, he has blue eyes, my lady.” He felt sorry that he wasn’t able to give more information to her.

“Did you just say blue eyes?” Maria twitched her eyebrows as she looked at the knight.

“Ah, yes.”

Maria was quiet for a while. There would be a lot of children with blue eyes but the description by the knight somehow gave her a familiar feeling. She didn’t know why she instantly thought of someone after such description of a smart boy with blue eyes who had the figure of 11 years old.

“Oscar…”

Upon Maria’s call, the man named Maria who was a close assistance stepped forward and made a slight bow as he heeded her command.

“Send someone to Evandall mansion.”

Maria continued.

“And make him check whether Lucas is home or not.”

‘Seriously, why am I getting such feeling?’ Maria didn’t really know why she was getting such a hunch.

---

A/N: Sorry for the late update! My schedule is really tight this month. It was already 11pm when I started this chapter and now it is 2:40 am as I finish it. Hahahahaha. This author is being a night owl, now.

Anyway, thank you for reading!! Love you all for being so patient!