SWNOVELXO Chapter 420
The journey of Kurt and his companions, who had safely concluded the events in the Dragon Kingdom and were now only left with arriving at the Spine Empire, seemed to be progressing smoothly without any further obstacles.
However, in the remaining part of their journey, Kurt and his companions encountered another problem.
The problem was Liche.
During the journey, she suddenly fell ill.
Liche, who appeared to be just like a human, was actually a Wizard, a genetically enhanced human created by modifying humans during the era of the Ancient Empire.
Wizards, due to the side effects of genetic manipulation, are inherently weaker and more prone to illnesses compared to other races.
During the Ancient Empire, such genetic issues could easily be resolved with the medical magic of that time, posing no significant risk. However, with the fall of the Ancient Empire and the disappearance of its medical facilities and magic, the inherent physical problems of Wizards became a serious threat to their survival.
Kurt and his companions were aware of these facts, but since Liche had never shown any signs of illness after arriving at Astram, they had not paid much attention to it.
No, actually, it wasn’t that Liche had never been ill after arriving at Astram.
She had just been making excuses to stay in her room or pretending to be fine whenever she felt unwell, desperately hiding her weak state.
But during the long journey from Astram to the Holy Kingdom, and then from the Holy Kingdom to the Spine Empire, Liche’s body finally reached its limit and collapsed.
And that was precisely why the current problem was even more serious.
The fact that Liche, who had always acted healthy to avoid worrying her companions, was now unable to even try to hide her pain, indicated just how bad her condition was.
“Cough… cough… haa… haa…”
High fever, headache, and chills.
The symptoms themselves were no different from a common cold, but beyond a certain point, they could become life-threatening.
Her coughing was so weak that one had to strain to hear it.
Hearing her faint breaths, Arisa held her hand carefully, as if holding fragile porcelain, and said, “Li, Liche… are you okay? Don’t worry. We’ll arrive at the Spine Empire soon. Once we get there, we can get medicine. Don’t worry.”
“Haa… haa…”
If it were the usual Liche, she would have said something to reassure her companions, not wanting to worry them with her condition. But Liche, half-conscious, couldn’t even muster the strength to respond to Arisa’s words, only letting out faint breaths. Perhaps she didn’t even hear Arisa.
Arisa tried to cheer her up with hopeful words, but deep down, she knew.
It was true that they would arrive at the Spine Empire if they continued their journey, but it was still several days away.
Moreover, there was no guarantee that they could get medicine immediately upon entering the Spine Empire. Crossing the border didn’t mean they would immediately reach a major city.
With Liche’s fever worsening, Kurt and the others had stopped the carriage to search for herbs.
Arisa could only pace around anxiously.
“Hoo… how is Liche’s condition?”
At that moment, Kurt, who had gone out to find herbs, opened the carriage door and appeared.
“Kurt! Did you find any herbs?”
“Yes. I found a few herbs with fever-reducing and pain-relieving properties and gave them to Serena. She’ll make a simple fever reducer soon. How is Liche?”
Arisa’s expression brightened at Kurt’s words, but darkened again as she thought of Liche’s condition.
“…Not good. She could still talk this morning, but now she doesn’t respond at all.”
“…I see.”
Soon after, Serena completed the fever reducer and tried to give it to Liche, but Liche, who had completely lost consciousness, couldn’t even swallow half of it, spilling most of it.
“Liche… even after taking the medicine, her fever isn’t going down.”
“What do we do? If this continues…”
“We need to hurry and find a nearby village as soon as possible!”
“But we don’t even know where the nearest village is. And if we rush the carriage, Liche’s condition might get worse.”
“Then what should we do…”
Kurt and his companions gathered together.
They put their heads together to find a way out of this situation, but as non-experts in medicine, they couldn’t come up with a solution.
A dilemma where they couldn’t move forward or stay put.
Liche’s condition was worsening, and stopping wouldn’t help her either.
Even Kurt couldn’t do anything about this situation.
Were they just going to stand by and watch Liche’s condition deteriorate?
At that moment.
Clank.
Charl, who had been absent while everyone was busy trying to help Liche, appeared.
Charl’s body was completely dirty from soil and branches.
But Charl didn’t care about his dirty appearance and pointed somewhere.
It was a mountain not far from the forest path.
“Suddenly pointing at a mountain? Are you saying we should follow you there…?”
Nod.
“If we go there, can we find a way to heal Liche?”
Nod.
At Arisa’s question, Charl nodded repeatedly, as if confirming her words.
Seeing Charl, a golem, nod with such confidence, Kurt and his companions exchanged glances and decided to trust him. They carefully turned the carriage towards the mountain and began their ascent.
.
.
.
The mountain Charl led them to seemed like an ordinary, unremarkable mountain.
No precious herbs were in sight, nor any signs of human habitation.
Not even any strong monsters that could be used for medicine. The nearby forest where Kurt had found herbs seemed more promising.
Meanwhile, Liche’s condition hadn’t worsened, but that also meant it hadn’t improved.
Unable to hide her anxiety, Arisa asked Charl, “You said we could heal Liche if we came to this mountain. How exactly can we heal her?”
But Charl ignored her, stopping halfway up the mountain and scanning the ground or touching the rocks at the base of the cliff.
Just as Arisa couldn’t stand it anymore and was about to approach Charl, Charl, who had been touching the rocks, began emitting a strange wave.
Serena, who was second only to Liche in her knowledge of magic, realized that the mana wave was a kind of coded pattern.
And soon, as if responding to Charl’s actions, the rocks of the cliff, which had seemed ordinary, began to shift and change form.
No, more accurately, they revealed their true form.
It was clearly an artificial structure, contrasting sharply with the natural surroundings.
A structure of an unfamiliar style, yet somehow eerily familiar.
Kurt and his companions soon realized that the structure was of the same architectural style as the ones they had seen in Astram.
“Is this… another Ruins of the Ancient Empire…?”
“Who would have thought such ruins would be hidden in such an ordinary mountain. Does Charl have the ability to detect Ancient Empire structures?”
Daria muttered in disbelief at Charl, who had found the entrance to the ruins as if he had known its location all along.
But Charl ignored her muttering and opened the entrance to the ruins.
Creak…!
The long-sealed ruins of the Ancient Empire opened with a loud groan.
Charl looked at the group as if to say, “Follow me,” and Kurt and his companions, snapping out of their daze, carefully carried Liche and followed Charl into the ruins.