Room to Breathe (3)

“Ugh...!”

Agony flooded through every inch of my body.

My nerves burned in their own way, my muscles seized in theirs.

The pain struck without warning, and for a moment it felt as if even my ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠brain had briefly stopped thinking.

I crashed to the floor, sprawling.

The status abnormalities had appeared so suddenly that I couldn't even keep myself upright. Then a wave of chills came crashing over my entire body.

“What the hell is going on...!”

Amid the surging pain, I couldn't even begin to judge what was happening to me.

And then a status window unfolded before my eyes.

Yeah, I already know all that!

Harnie had already explained everything to me — did the system really need to pile on more explanations?

That should have been the end of it.

So why was I being put through this agony all over again?

As I silently demanded answers, the system threw up yet another window.

Death...? It can actually kill me?

My blood ran cold.

When Dipeshan Syndrome had first been explained to me, none of this had come up. I'd simply written it off as a debuff that dropped your stats — an annoying ailment that had to be cured, nothing more.

And now, out of nowhere, I was being told there was a secondary onset I'd needed to prepare for?

“Damn it all!”

I had never seen anything like this in the game.

Once you cleared a simple debuff, no further text ever appeared; nobody bothered to worry about it afterward. But I wasn't in any position to insist such a thing couldn't exist now.

Right now, I was on the verge of dying — devoured by a hidden piece of game lore I never even knew existed, this so-called secondary Dipeshan Syndrome.

But what was I supposed to do about it?

I knew absolutely nothing about this illness. If I blindly fumbled at my body in this state, I'd only make things worse — that's how these things worked. So ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠I had no idea what measures to take.

Worse, my voice wouldn't come out. Even if I tried to drag myself somewhere to call for help, my vision was so blurred that I couldn't tell which way was which.

If only Harnie were here... but of all times...!

That had been just yesterday.

Harnie, who had stayed by my side for days — offering this advice and that, keeping watch over my sleep — was away attending to her schedule at the moment.

Of all times, the one person who understood Dipeshan Syndrome best wasn't here.

There was nothing for it.

I could barely sit upright — I was inches from collapsing flat onto the floor, and crawling was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the best I could manage. With only my hand capable of the slightest movement, there was exactly one thing I could do.

“Khh...!”

My HP had dropped — but there was a silver lining.

Someone had heard the crash and was running this way.

Which meant I had a job to do, too.

Like I cared about a little blood.

Left as I was, death was a certainty. This wretched game was never going to let Karsein off easy, so I had to write it out in blood if I had to.

Secondary Dipeshan Syndrome.

After scrawling those words, even my ears went muffled, and a ringing began to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠fill them.

Through the gaps in that ringing, someone's voice reached me.

“Hey, ───! ── for ───!”

I couldn't make out the words, so I didn't know who it was — but thankfully, there was no one in Rusmayer who bore me ill will. If I could just let them know what was happening to me, they'd help me right away.

That was the last window I saw before darkness swallowed me once more.

“...Haah.”

Without warning, Claire let out a deep sigh inside the carriage.

She had heard the news only yesterday.

Arina had been shouting in the hall after receiving a stack of documents from Heron the butler — so naturally, the news had reached Claire's ears whether she wanted it or not.

Karsein's overnight absence had been an expected move. Now that food containing the Kelvia fruit had made an appearance and it had come to light that he'd been pointedly excluded from the tea party, it would have been stranger if he hadn't been upset.

And yet, that absence had stretched on far too long.

You idiot. So that's why you never came back to the duchy?!

Hearing Arina's outburst, Claire had stormed out with her hand pressed to her forehead.

“Big sister. I'll go bring him back myself.”

“Claire, why you?”

“...Let's just say I have my reasons.”

Fobbing her off with that, Claire had climbed into the carriage meant to fetch Karsein in her sister's stead — but the truth gnawed at her.

“If it was going to turn out like this... maybe I shouldn't have kept it a secret from Arina either.”

It had been Claire herself who proposed indulging Karsein's overnight absence to a degree. It was she who had argued that, given the sight of food laced with Kelvia fruit and the insult of being turned into an uninvited guest, his hurt feelings deserved some understanding.

That was why news of the villa tea party had never properly reached Arina — and why this whole mess had blown up as a result.

The affair had escalated, so there was nothing to be done about it now.

If Karsein ended up dragged back in Arina's grip, then Claire's own fault for concealing the truth would only grow worse.

“Which means I have to fix this with my own hands. What else can I do?”

A sharp scolding was probably in order. Only then could she smooth things over without Arina turning on her.

With that resolve, Claire boarded the carriage and rode straight for Rusmayer.

Before long, the coachman called to her — sooner than she had expected. She was puzzled to hear they'd already arrived, but sure enough, they were well inside the Rusmayer territory.

Still, fast or slow, that hardly mattered.

Her first order of business was finding Karsein and giving him an earful — so she set off on foot at once. She stopped a local resident, asked for directions, and made her way toward his house.

Then—

The sudden sound of shattering glass rang out.

What? Why would I be hearing that?

Claire's pace quickened and quickened.

Throwing the door open took only an instant.

And the moment she did, Claire's vision went white.

“Karsein...?”

Her eyes weren't deceiving her.

Karsein lay collapsed on the floor.

“Hey! Karsein! What happened?! Don't just lie there — get up!”

Rushing to his side, she gripped him with both hands and shook him every which way, but there was no response at all.

“Damn it. What the hell happened here?! Did something go wrong—?!”

Cursing spilled out of her before she knew it as she examined his body. The broken glass scattered here and there, the cuts across his palm — those didn't seem to be the real problem.

Then her fingers brushed against his skin.

“...Why is he this cold? Don't tell me...”

A vague dread began to form around the reason Karsein had collapsed.

The instant she drew out a wisp of mana and brought it near him, a violent rejection flared up.

Claire spat out a curse and shot to her feet, then hurried straight to the fireplace and heaped in a full armload of firewood.

“Damn it. Seriously!”

She ran an entire boutique of her own, so she had heard of this condition before.

Dipeshan Syndrome.

And among its strains, she'd been told, was the secondary form that struck when the process of awakening one's mana was involved.

...He dies.

That was what she'd been told.

There had been a time when she couldn't have cared less about Dipeshan Syndrome — but now that she was recalling everything she'd once heard about it from someone else, Claire felt her heart plummet straight into her stomach. The curses came pouring out of her on their own.

“Damn it! Burn, will you — burn!! Why won't you catch already!!”

After stuffing in the armload of firewood, she conjured flames with magic to light it.

The wood crackled to life, but that alone didn't seem like it could warm the icy skin she'd just touched. So she poured in whatever magic she had — flooding more and more into the hearth until the fire roared.

Only when the flames blazed high and steady did Karsein's body begin, at last, to soak up a measure of warmth — as if to say he was drifting back from the far country of a cold corpse.

The deathly pallor of his skin had made Claire's hands tremble so violently that she could hardly bring herself to reach out again. But when she indirectly confirmed that his body temperature was returning to normal, she finally managed to let out a breath of relief.

A single bead of sweat, gathered on Karsein's forehead.

That alone was what allowed Claire to breathe again.

Late — far too late — her eyes also fell on the marks he had left on the floor.

“...Damn it. I should've looked at that first.”

But her heart was still hammering wildly, refusing to settle.

Her hands were no better.

Claire could only cup her own quivering fingers in her palms and stare at Karsein's body, still unable to bring herself to touch it.

And then, without realizing it—

Claire was covering her eyes with those two trembling hands.