Chương 123: Interlude: Duty and Decency (Sir Henry)

Henry knocked on the door, and a teenage boy opened it. His expression immediately fell when he recognized the knight.

"It's you again."

"I'm back," Henry said.

"And I think I brought someone who might be able to help."

"Please don't give Mum false hope again," said the boy.

"Don't worry." Aric stepped forward.

"It's going to be alright." The prince's impressive figure was slightly marred by the sauce-stained apron still hanging over his expensive clothes, but at least he had stopped eating and wiped his face clean. Henry still didn't understand why the usually immaculate prince had seemingly turned into a glutton on the way here, but he trusted there was something sensible behind it.

"Yes, sir," said the boy, intimidated by Aric.

"You say 'Your Highness' when talking to a prince," Deren pointed out. The boy's eyes widened before he immediately bowed.

"I'm sorry, Your Highness. I didn't know you."

"Deren…" sighed the prince before addressing the boy once more.

"Rise. We don't have time for formalities. Show me to the sick children."

"Yes, Your Highness." The boy opened the door wider.

"Please come in." He rushed inside, and the trio of nobles followed him. Henry found the boy whispering something into the ear of an elderly woman. She looked up sharply when she realized who had entered, her eyes moving from Henry to Deren and then to Aric. Henry could almost see the question forming in her expression. Why is a prince here in my home? Henry scanned the room by reflex. It was a single-room house, but there were obvious signs that multiple families were living there.

Only women and children of varying ages were currently inside, the boy that opened the door being the oldest kid. Along the western wall was a stack of futons and bedding, enough to cover most of the floor space once everyone went to sleep. Three families, perhaps seventeen people in total, if his estimate was correct. There were four adult males, he suspected from the indoor slippers waiting by the door. Probably three middle-aged and one elderly, the counterparts to the women currently present before them.

Half of these people must have arrived recently. The cramped arrangement was too uncomfortable to be the general state of affairs. Some of the daily comforts, like the dining table, seemed to have been pushed aside and were overrun by bags and luggage, making more space for people to walk around without stumbling into each other. Henry knew this sort of thing happened.

People abandoned their villages and came to the capital looking for work, hoping that Haltar might offer them something better than the life they had left behind. But in this case, he suspected there was another reason. A chance to find a cure for a loved one. His eyes headed to where he knew the children were, and his stomach tightened. The elderly woman bowed. Two of the three women were standing next to her, looking a mix of worried, hopeful, and exhausted.

"Welcome, my prince." She hesitated before adding, "Prince Aric, right?" The prince nodded.

"Please, ma'am, show me to the children."

"Over here, over here." Aric approached the children slowly. He lowered himself beside them and carefully removed the covers, his expression becoming solemn.

"This is definitely infantile paralysis." Deren placed the bag of meat on the floor.

"There are three of them," said the duelist.

"Are you sure you can handle it?"

"Two of them are small enough that it should be fine," said Aric. The girl and a boy must be at least four or five years old; the other boy was older, maybe nine. He looked at the woman.

"Are there more similarly sick children around, or is it just these three?"

"Not here, my lord," said the older woman, "but a lot more back in Cormenfield," she explained.

"My sons were able to bring their families and come here because I was already here, living with my youngest. But by the time they moved, the sickness had already taken hold."

"Cormenfield?" asked Deren.

"Isn't that Lord Teren's land?" Everyone grimaced, including Henry. He remembered what Pallan had said to him just two days ago. Henry couldn't deny it. It's true that nobles can afford to be incompetent, and it's these people who get to pay the price. Aric approached the little girl first.

"I will start with the smallest, then go from there," he said. She looked impossibly small beneath the blankets, her thin limbs barely visible beneath the fabric. Henry had seen her yesterday, but somehow seeing her again was worse now that he knew more about her sickness. Her cheeks were sunken, her arms little more than bone and skin, and she could barely lift her head. Aric placed a hand on her forehead. The girl stared at him with wide, uncertain eyes.

For a moment, Henry wondered if she understood who was standing in front of her. Then she smiled. It was a small, hesitant smile, but it was remarkably warm for someone in her condition. Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. The prince closed his eyes in concentration.

"Eldra. Yorad. Cipos. Kalaba. Velar. Moren. Kaldris." Henry wasn't magically gifted like some other nobles; he only knew a few cantrips and two tier-one spells, but even he could feel the rush of mana moving through the air toward the little girl. Then something happened that he could barely comprehend. The girl's body began to change. The muscles along her arms filled out first, followed by her legs. The hollows in her cheeks disappeared as flesh returned to her face.

Her ribs became less visible beneath her skin, and the frail body Henry had seen yesterday seemed to fill out before his eyes. The elderly woman gasped. Someone behind her whispered a prayer to the Goddess. The girl herself seemed confused by what was happening. She looked down at her hands, flexed her fingers, and then slowly pushed herself upright. A woman, probably her mother, made a strangled sound as the girl stood. For a heartbeat, nobody moved.

Then her mother lunged forward and caught her in her arms before she could fall.

"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" she cried, her voice breaking as she hugged her daughter. The elderly woman was staring at them with wide eyes. Henry could see tears gathering in the corners of them, but she didn't seem to notice. The third woman was shaking, and her gaze kept moving between the girl standing in front of her and the two boys still lying beneath the blankets.

She looked happy for her niece, grateful for the prince, and terrified that the miracle would stop before it was her boys' turn, all at the same time. Deren reached for the jug of juice and thrust it into Aric's hands.

"Drink!" Aric obeyed, draining half the jug in a few gulps. The duelist slowly guided his friend a few steps back toward a chair and had him sit. Henry stared at the prince. His face looked pale.

"What is this spell?" Henry finally asked.

"And is Aric going to be alright?"

"The spell uses the concept of the past to restore the body to a previous form," Deren explained.

"But the meat that goes into that girl has to come from somewhere." Henry looked back at the girl. She had gained at least two or three kilograms in the span of a few seconds. Deren pulled the roasted beef thigh and placed it into Aric's hand. The prince immediately started eating again, almost desperately, as though he had been starving for days. Henry realized that it must have felt like it.

"This can't be healthy for him," Henry said.

"And that's why everyone stopped sharing reports of dying children with Aric," Deren replied.

"Miloud was forbidden by the king and queen to even hint at it." Henry's stomach tightened. He had come here hoping to save the children. He might have succeeded. He looked at Aric again. The young prince was forcing himself to consume five kilos (eleven pounds) of beef despite his exhaustion. Henry's eyes returned to the little girl, who was jumping in place, still trapped in her mother's arms; the woman was crying now, holding her daughter so tightly that Henry feared she might never let go.

His eyes landed on the two remaining children, and he couldn't help but question whether he had done the right thing by bringing Aric here. Was saving those kids worth endangering the second prince's life? It took an hour of eating and resting before Deren would let Aric stand again. Henry, meanwhile, felt petrified, trapped between guilt and relief, duty and decency. For what decent man would let children die, and what dutiful knight would knowingly harm his liege lord?

Deren, on the other hand, seemed used to this sort of thing. He forced Aric to keep eating, joked with the family and children, and reassured them that nothing bad would ever happen to them now that Aric was here. When the overworked men finally came home, only to find three nobles sitting among their wives and children, Deren defused the situation.

He explained everything, let one of the fathers celebrate with his restored child, pushed the other one to comfort the waiting kids, and then handed money to the other man, sending him out for more food, this time enough for a feast to share with the entire family. Because while Henry had been having his own little pity party, Deren had noticed the children and teenagers were watching Aric eat with poorly concealed envy.

The Bodyguard shook his head and tried to return his attention to his duties, making sure Aric was all right. So when Aric finally finished the roast, Henry helped him wipe his hands and face before supporting him as he stood.

"We need to take the second child outside of the house," said Aric.

"Why is that?" asked Henry.

"The disturbance. Can't you feel it?" Henry shook his head.

"Try casting a spell."

"Pika. Maha. Syneth." Nothing happened. Henry blinked.

"This is what happens when casting higher tiers of magic," explained Aric.

"This room will remain a magic-null space for a few hours, maybe a day."

"This is why they only teach us tier-one spells in the academy," said Deren.

"The Mage Guild controls the higher tiers." One of the women picked up the other boy under Aric's instructions while Deren fetched a chair for the prince. They stepped outside, Henry going first. The moment he emerged, his hand went to his sword. A crowd had gathered outside, gossiping and whispering about the prince. Some had seen the nobles enter the house. Others had simply followed the growing commotion, eager to discover what had happened. Henry immediately moved between them and Aric.

The prince, however, paid them no heed. He simply continued walking as though nothing were amiss. Another magical incantation later, and the child was running again, but Aric looked even worse than before. A collective gasp escaped the crowd as they watched the miracle unfold. Henry could see the awe spreading through their faces as the boy stumbled, then stood, then ran into his mother and father's arms. But before Aric could even pretend he was fine, Deren stepped in.

He placed the prince in the chair, put a cup of juice in his hand, shoved a turkey leg into the other, and ordered him to eat. There was something absurd about watching the second prince of the kingdom being force-fed poultry in the middle of a slum while an entire crowd stared at him like some kind of saint. But Henry could not find the humor in it. Not when Aric's hands were trembling and his face had gone pale. Not when Henry knew that the prince was suffering because of the children he had brought him to save.

When Aric was finally done preparing himself for a third round, Deren insisted that the third child would have to wait until tomorrow. He was the oldest and healthiest of the three. He could survive another day. Aric argued, and Deren argued back. Henry found himself caught between them. Back and forth they went until, in the end, even the child's own mother begged the prince not to kill himself for their sake. That finally made Aric compromise.

"Fine," he said reluctantly.

"But we're not leaving him without doing anything." He ordered Henry and Deren to go around casting their weaker healing spells on the boy and all the surrounding children, for that matter, just in case. It was nowhere near as powerful as Aric's spell, but it was better than doing nothing. Henry obeyed. Of course he did. That was what knights were supposed to do. The three nobles eventually left, promising to return the next day after Aric had enough time to recover.

Henry looked back once before they disappeared around the corner. The family was still gathered around the two children. For a moment, Henry felt something warm settle in his chest. They were alive. One child who had been unable to walk was walking again. The other was already running. The third would be given the same chance tomorrow. He wanted to feel satisfied. He was just tired and confused... He was supposed to be investigating if the clever maid in the royal castle was secretly a spy. How did he end up here?