I stood over the pale body of Antoninus’s mother – I’ve just realized I don’t know her name.

You should tell Antoninus, Joey. His mother is dying. And she’s dying quite soon, considering how much Rottenbone has spread.

I take a deep breath.

[Single-Minded Focus]

Every time I enter this state, everything doesn’t just go silent. That was [Deep Focus] for you. No, when I use [Single-Minded Focus], my brain retrieves information faster. In a way, it enhances my memory. But now, I need the knowledge I’m not sure I’ve ever had. Rottenbone is definitely similar to something I’ve studied in passing. The fact that I never went to college – med school, to be precise, doesn’t mean I have never snooped around the topic.

“Juler, I need you to teach me every bit of knowledge about Healing Magic. In the meanwhile, we need to stop the symptoms. Rottenbone is similar to cancer. To be more precise, bone metastases. Cancer is degenerate cells that grow uncontrollably. It can affect every single tissue, organ, or cell. Bone cancer shouldn’t be uncommon. I know absolutely nothing about how it’s treated, but we can brute-force a cure. We might kill her while trying – but I don’t see any other solution. I’m not sure we have the necessary magic, mathematical knowledge, or resources, but I need to try. I’ll need to do extensive experiments. It’s going to take a month, at the very least.”

You are supposed to go to the academy to fight duels against the most talented [Mages] of this continent in five weeks’ time.

“As they say in Oxford, I don’t give a flying fuck, Lord Juler. I have a chance at curing this woman. And, incidentally, it will also require us to work on the gamma knife. And if they are anything like Lucinda, I can slap those idiots senseless without even trying.”

…

I open the door after almost an hour of magical work, most of which was performed by Lord Juler. In front of me, I find Antoninus and his sister. Princess Laura is with them, holding the hand of the stocky female Elf.

“Let’s sit for a second,” I tell them with a somber expression.

I gesture at the closest table I spot, and they all look at me, holding their breath.

“Your mother is not in critical danger anymore. For now, at least. However,” I hold up a hand as I see they are about to speak, “let me finish, please. Your mother is not suffering from two simple curses. Your mother has been infected with [Rottenbone].”

“Ah!” Antoninus’s sister moans in pain and quickly pulls her hand away from Princess Laura.

“What—” Antoninus looks at the royalty in his living room with a confused stare.

“She has Rottenbone?” Princess Laura hisses.

“Princess, please.”

“As I was saying,” I go on, “she has Rottenbone. That is a very powerful curse that Mauser himself engineered. It infects and replaces normal bones and puts all sorts of sub-curses under itself. As far as I know, there are no documented cases of anyone surviving a serious case here on Epretos. That’s how serious this disease is. The best solution, given that they realize they were infected, is to amputate a limb. Your mother’s disease has spread to her entire body, though.”

I let the words linger for a second in a very heavy silence.

“But she’s improved, you said?” Antoninus is silent. That was her sister speaking.

“She did. She will wake up soon, and she will not be in pain. Rottenbone is a simple curse. It’s extremely powerful and insidious, but its symptoms can be tamed. It will still kill in time if not treated. But at the very least, I can provide a modicum of comfort to your mother.”

“I don’t understand,” Antoninus says in a deep voice.

For once, I’m not amused by him. I’m just terribly sorry.

“Your mother’s disease is almost incurable. At least here. Where I come from, there are techniques to face such a thing. But even then, it doesn’t always work. My magic can mimic one of those cures. The solution is almost as straightforward as the disease, Antoninus. Rottenbone has to be purged from her system. It’s going to be excruciatingly slow. Even if I succeeded in recreating the necessary procedure, your mother’s body would have to withstand an insane amount of pain and damage while I heal her.”

“Joey, can you… I don’t understand. Can you explain it better?” the big man has tears in his eyes.

“It’s fine. I haven’t explained what I can do yet. My magic, the [Light] thing, can be turned into a knife, sort of. Imagine a hot knife burning the surface of a wood log, ok? That’s the same thing I can do. I can turn my magic into a destructive force that can scrape away the Rottenbone from your mother’s body while leaving everything else intact. But your mother’s disease is so extensive that her body will go through incredible traumatic stress. So, I’ll need to administer the treatment in batches. That means I’ll need to come here and do it once every few days. But I still need to create the necessary magic to do it.”

“Are you sure, Joey?” I turn to Princess Laura.

Her eyes are wary. She knows how serious Rottenbone is, apparently. And I don’t blame her reaction. And if she knows how dangerous the disease is, she probably thinks that I’m making this stuff up. And that I shouldn’t give Antoninus false hopes.

Man, I really hope I’m not giving him false hopes. I’m not sure how doable all this is. But I have a [Supreme Archmagus] on my side. And I’m pretty sure Stanimal has a few tricks up his sleeve as well.

“So, Antoninus, Milady. What I’m trying to say here is that I’ll need a couple of weeks to develop the right magic. I’ll visit you again to renew the magic I placed on your mother. Until then, she should only eat meat. No bread. No sugar. Nothing that contains flour. Just meat. No vegetables. I have no idea whether it will help slow the disease, but we might as well try everything.”

Cancer mainly feeds on glucose. There have been some studies about ‘starving’ cancer of glucose through a ‘keto’ diet. It’s new, and there is no conclusive evidence. But here, it’s better to do something than nothing.

At this moment, for the first time in my entire life, I wish I had gone to med school.