Tus sighed when he heard the small voice telling him, welcome back. He didn’t want to recall how his head was going to explode to see his master in such a state, thinking that Lucas had fainted somehow.

“See, Tus? I told you he was just sleeping! Trust the one who always wakes him up in the morning!”

Lucas looked to the side as he could hear a sharp active voice of Eura, with his mind glad at the fact that they were back safely.

“Are you ok, master?”

“I am fine, just put me down on bed.” Lucas felt all the ache over his own body, meaning that it was the aftereffect of running and riding horse for a long time which he had never done before.

Lucas sat up on his own bed, as Tus put him down and as he looked at the window, he noticed that the outside was dark already.

‘How much did I sleep? Around 1 hour?’ Noticing that he had not woken up for dinner yet, it meant that he had not slept for long.

“Why are you sleeping on the floor, Master? You might catch a cold.” Tus sighed. He had always known that healing magic users, in other words, healers always had a weak body and could not handle tough situations well but he was debating whether he should change his own opinion or not after seeing how Lucas stayed.

“I can always heal up on my own if that happens.”

‘Seriously, did he forget that I am a healer?’ Lucas smiled as he thought that as long as his mana flow was ok, he should be able to heal up to some serious injuries now.

“Thank me, Lucas! Tus was preparing to call a healer, thinking that you had fainted.”

“Wait, what!?” Lucas was dumbfounded. ‘Why would he want to call a healer!?’ He really couldn’t imagine what would happen to the mansion if Tus did call one.

“It is because master was not replying!”

“He murmured to let him sleep! He always does that when he doesn’t want to wake up in the morning!”

Lucas almost chuckled out when he heard those two’s voices again, as active and fresh as always. And it almost made him free from his half-awake stage. It was only one day that he had separated from these two but he missed their presence somehow.

And considering what kind of little adventure he had had, Lucas couldn’t wait to surprise them. Although it was not a good surprise, of course.

“Are you sure you are ok, Master? You looked really tired, though….”

“Yea, Lucas. You looked like you are half-dead.”

Eura did receive a sharp glare from Tus as she had expected but she didn’t care which was her usual behavior.

“I said I am fine. By the way, Eura… did you find the map?”

“Oh, yes. I found it. But I don’t know if it is what you are looking for cause it is just the map of our valley.”

Lucas waited as she drew out a small box from her bag, handing it to him. As he opened the box, he could see a small scroll which he found out that it was the map that he was looking for when he found the symbol in the corner.

“Why do you want to find it, Lucas? Does the map show some kind of treasure?”

“Ummm, kind of like that. Here, look at this.”

As Lucas had said, Tus and Eura gazed at the rugged map that Lucas was holding, being curious about what kind of usage such map had.

“You said it showed the valley, right? But it will change when you infuse your mana to it.”

Lucas imagined the item that he was looking for. In order to use the map, one had to know the description and usage of the item which helped Lucas in finding the Book Of Spirits that the veteran had, thanking his brain seriously that he remembered it well because the novel described it so much. He even wondered that such a description was made for the usage like that.

And as a second step, he infused his mana to the map, like he had always done to heal someone or himself. It was not that difficult to do but one had to give mana to it until the map changed it into the place showing what the user wanted.

As soon as Lucas filled up the map with his mana, the map started to glow faintly with the color of his healing magic, green, as the contents of the map started to change, making Lucas almost laugh a bit as it was definitely the map that he was looking for. After all, it was one of the rare good things that happened today.

‘Why it is not done, yet!? I didn’t expect it to take that much mana?’

Lucas could see that the map had been changed half way but it was only half! And it was when Lucas had trouble. He was already feeling that over half of his mana had been depleted.

“Master, stop it!”

“Lucas, stop!”

Both Tus and Eura urgently held Lucas’s hands respectively as they could see that Lucas was already pale and it seemed that the map was using too much of his mana like a beast devouring its prey after the hunger.

And they were afraid that something might happen if they forcefully interrupted which was why they could only warn him from the sideline. If the situation got more serious, they planned to interfere somehow.

‘Yes I plan to do so! Don’t worry!’

Lucas also stopped when he could feel that it was going to finish with one go. Maybe it might be a great idea to just faint from overusing mana and meet with Lucian to ask for information but he didn’t plan to faint now as he had more serious matters to attend to apart from powering uping himself. And the possibility of Lucian answering every of his questions was only 50% and he could not waste his time for that now.

When Lucas stopped, the map now looked like an unfinished map without any description letters. And as soon as Lucas had stopped, he noticed that that map in his hand was brought away.

“I don’t know what you are planning to achieve by doing it but don’t do it anymore! Look at yourself! Now, you look like you are worse than half-dead!” Eura's scolding voice came along as she pulled the map away from Lucas. And not too long after it, Tus followed, as expected.

“Master, this item hasn’t been used for a long time so it is definitely going to need a lot of mana for the start. I don’t know what you want with it but don’t do it. It is dangerous.”

‘I know that’

“Yep, I won’t.” Lucas was just trying to test the map and he didn’t need it for now. And he could just continue it later, so there was no rush.

“Master, will you still have dinner? Or should I just prepare a small meal so you can go straight to sleep?”

“No, I will just have dinner.” Lucas needed to fill up his tummy. He used way too much energy today. “By the way, we have a more severe case than this.”

Lucas had to tell them about this as he needed some help in case of transportation or some other things. And he highly doubted he would be able to sneak out when he had Eura who was sticking to him for most of the hours. He couldn’t fool these two like he did with others.

“Yea?” Eura didn’t like the sound of it. Tus was included as they both imagined what had Lucas gotten himself into this time.

“Ok, so have you ever heard of a demon’s curse?”

“No. Why?”

Eura didn’t know but Tus was another case. He had heard it for some time in some books and stories but he didn’t know why Lucas was asking that, though.

“I think I know. Like it is an incurable curse in some stories, right?”

“Wow, you know everything, Tus. So, what is that curse?”

“I don’t remember it quite well but it says once you get the curse, you die. Not even priests or healers can save you. And it passes down to its family members.”

As Tus explained, Eura listened in curiosity which made Lucas glad because he didn’t have to explain anymore.

“Great! That’s it. Now there is that curse in Sansa. The city in the southernmost part of our territory. So yea, we need to handle it, somehow.”

“Wait, Master…. The curse doesn’t exist in reality…”

“No, it is definitely the curse.”

‘There is no other disease like combining the symptoms of cough, nose bleeding and black spots.’

“ I think not many people would have known this by now and they just thought it was just a disease and will be gone once healers interfere but sadly it won’t.”

“How did you know it, Lucas? You couldn’t possibly go to Sansa, right?”

“Just heard it from Lucy.”

“You know, you smell like a sweat pool… like you always have after your training with Brook?” Eura raised an eyebrow.

“It is just that I was training all day. You can ask the people in the mansion.”

‘I wonder how many times I have to lie, today. I couldn’t just tell them that I go to Sansa on my own, right?’ He didn’t really want to imagine what kind of lectures he would get after they found out the truth.

“Anyway, we need to control it somehow.”

“And why would you need to do that?”

“Yea, Master. You can leave that job for expert healers and priests. They will find a way somehow.”

“They won’t be able to find it.” Lucas sighed. Even in the novel, they didn’t find out a complete cure, except that a priest found out the Alohara flower could help reduce its effect.

‘And in the novel, this even killed almost half of the kingdom which was like a step to its downfall.’

It was the main reason that Lucas was afraid of this curse. It was not the curse itself which was scary. It was the people. When the people knew that it was the curse, they started to kill each other, thinking that killing and burning all the people with the curse would destroy it. Just like the stories told.

And he was worried that it would turn out to be the same this time now. If they started killing each other, it would make the disease more infectious as blood and sweat would be all spilled over the place. And that was why they needed a strict quarantine for the people where they would not touch each other for around 8 days, better if it was over 10 days and separate those who had the disease.

“How do you know that they will not be able to do that?”

Eura stared at the blue eyes that she didn’t understand quite well. It was the same for Tus. They didn’t understand why a child would think so much without letting the adults handle it.

‘And how am I supposed to answer that?’ He had a headache.

“It is from the nature of the disease. I just have an intuition.”

‘How fu*king stupid I am….’

“And how the heck do you know that nature?”

“From a book.”

Lucas knew that Eura and Tus would be questioning his answer so he just made them leave, telling them that he was tired and wanted to take a nap before having dinner.

And they did so. Although Lucas did get some gazes and stares, they didn’t question anymore which was why Lucas felt easy to talk to them. Especially, about the cases that he could not explain quite well.

“Ah, do you still remember the healer named Walter? We met him in Ereck town, right?”

“Yes, master. He is the friend of Sir. Brook, right?” Tus and Eura stopped and looked at Lucas again. They vividly remember that day and that healer, of course.”

“Is his house in Ereck town?”

“Ah, yes, master. We went to his home and took him to you.”

“Great! You can leave now!”

And the door closed again as Eura and Tus excused themselves, leaving Lucas with his thoughts alone again.

In order to control the people’s fear, they need to know that the curse was just a disease and with certain cautions, they would be able to avoid being infected completely. And in order to make them believe this, they needed the help of a healer. A healer who would listen to Lucas’s advice seriously, even though he was a kid, and at the same time acted as a disguise for him.

Lucas considered that if it would be better telling straight to Maria about it but he wondered what would be his excuse. He didn’t know how his family would think of him and what kind of consequences would be coming to him after this. Would more restrictions come? Would they watch his every step from now on? He really didn’t know.

‘If it is a stranger, I can ask them to not tell others…’

And it was when Lucas thought of Walter. He felt like that man was skilled enough to gain the people’s trust and also a good man. Why? Because he was a friend of Brook. And Brook was a picky man and had quite high standards, especially when choosing his subordinates. So Lucas had quite a belief that he might be a good one to work with.

‘I think we have to go visit Ereck town tonight…’

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A/N: Hello! Can I ask you, readers, something that I am quite insecure with? Is the story pace so slow? Or is it ok? Do you have any problems you meet with the story while reading?

That's all! Thank you so much for reading dear readers! I really appreciate you all a lot!