"Yeah, but that's not what I'm here for. First thing you're gonna do is cure me, and then you're going to let me kill you."
"Is this some kind of joke? I mean, all you had to do was ask. To cure you, I mean," she laughed.
"There's no point in hiding it. I know you're the cause."
"How the hell did he...!?" she thought, stunned.
Regaining her composure, she asked, "...I'm afraid I don't know what you mean?"
Alwyn slapped her across the face, sending the blacked-out glasses flying across the room and revealing her milky white eyes. Anyone would've seen that and thought she was blind, but of course, she wasn't.
"And I bet you have one of those disgusting, growing growths inside of you, too," he grinned, weakly pointing at her chest.
"Holy crap! Her eyes are all gray and creepy! Is that what Alwyn meant by 'cause'? No way... she was the first one to be infected!?" Linnie thought. "I should probably stay quiet for now, shouldn't I...?"
"You... asshole." She gritted her teeth. "Get out of my store. Go and die, as if I care."
"No, you're going to treat me. Whether you want to or not."
"Yeah? And what makes you say that?" she narrowed her eyes.
"Because you know I'm the only one who could possibly have a chance at curing you. You're not afflicted with the same thing as everyone else, right? No, yours is much worse. That's why, even though you can cure others, you can't cure yourself."
"You just said you'd kill me, though?" she said, biting her nail.
"That was an outburst. I'm—ha, I'm sorry."
"...You know, I'm starting to think it wouldn't be so bad to let both of us die. It's not like I have much left to live for; not after what you did. In fact, I think I'd die happy if I knew I was the one who got you killed!" She let out a dry laugh.
"Stop being dramatic," Alwyn coughed. "Sure, that might sound plausible. Except, you're sure of it, aren't you?"
"Pfft, of what?"
"That you can restore your mana core. Regardless of what I think, you're sure. So you haven't given up all hope just yet. You wouldn't want to die here. I know it."
"I'm so lost... shattering? Restoring? I'm—" Linnie thought, scratchinghis stomach. "I could really go for some sleep right now, this is too much to think about."
"...Fine, I'll cure you. But, I already told you how I've been treating these people. There's no way—never, you'd never do it."
See, the method Aliza had been using to treat the city was obvious, and far too familiar to her. A simple shattering and or extraction of the mana core would render the disease completely harmless.
The root cause was mana, after all, and without a mana core, it would simply exit the same way it came in: through the mouth.
Alwyn would never settle for such a method. That's why Aliza, who had already let him in on the 'cure,' was confused. Or rather, she was surprised.
"Oh please, that's not the only way to cure this thing. It can't be."
She was surprised that he would come to such a conclusion so shortly after learning about the disease. Sure, there was a small, wavering uncertainty in his voice.
But that was the type of man Alwyn was. He never acted with 100% certainty. No, that would be far too boring!
"Of course it isn't. But the other way—it's impossible. If it wasn't, I would've never shattered all their cores in the first place. You know that," she said.
"Just tell me already, damn."
"Ugh, fine. But for any of this to make sense, you have to know about the disease itself. Even I don't fully understand, so—"
"Just get to it," Alwyn cut her off.
"Interrupt me again, I swear—"
"Tick-tock, bitch."
"You...!"
The disease wasn't a natural illness, like that of the cold or flu. That much was obvious at first glance. Well, for wizards, anyway.
No worldly pathogen can target the mana. This fact had been proven time and time again with the various, less lethal, mana diseases that had come before this one. Almost always, they all came from one thing: meddling.
To tell the truth, meddling was the cause for over half of the problems wizards ever faced. It's said that if knights are the legendary personification of courage and willpower, wizards are the infamous personification of curiosity and meddling.
It was because of this, then, that Alwyn's natural hypothesis was that Aliza had been meddling, and thanks to this meddling, had infected herself, and then the whole town, with the deadly mana disease.
His hypothesis wasn't far from the truth. Actually, it was spot on.
"I knew it, classic," he coughed.
Aliza, whose core had been shattered, retreated to that small country city to meddle. She had been attempting something that no one had ever accomplished before: the restoration of a mana core.
It's a task considered foolish even by the egotistical wizards like Alwyn, who believe magic is capable of accomplishing anything. Not only is it dangerous, but theoretical exercises had concluded that the result would, at most, ever only come out to a small and unreasonable result.
"But I was so close... I was right there. My research was almost complete, but that fucking thing—!"
One night, Aliza was researching. It was the same as she'd been doing for nearly three years. Something was different, though. Aliza was going to proceed with her first real attempt.
It wasn't supposed to be an attempt. To be fair, her research seemed flawless. She was sure it was going to work, that she was going to make history. There was no reason she wouldn't be. Well, besides the dozens of great wizards before her who tried the very same thing and failed.
But what great wizard isn't a little tiny teensy-weensy bit egotistical?