Chapter E5: The Purple Skin

(Effinshia's POV)

It's early morning. Very early in fact; the sun has yet to rise to the skies completely. In a desolate kitchen with nothing in it, I found myself grinding herbs in a grinding bowl. The herbs were collected from the nearby forest when Korva was asleep, herbs that I know could help with curing rashes. It has been several days since that event with the delicious birds. Every time Korva seemed to be recovering and gets better, he falls ill again, the fever striking him persistently over the course of the few days I have been with him. I never saw anything like it before. It was alarming to say the least. Something that I didn't know despite my experience, and what I do not know, I can not help.

During this period, I let Korva rest extensively and tried to keep him hydrated. I then continuously feed him herb mix that I know helps with fever. His complaints about how yucky the food I fed became more intense but it soon died down as he started to lose energy, to the point where he could barely eat. Now he's permanently bedridden, unable to move around at all.

My chest tightened. A sense of frustration developed within me.

*Grind *Grind

I continue to mix the herbs in the small bowl, slowly turning them into a paste. There was only one thing that I have noticed getting worse alongside Corn Boy. It's the purple rashes that appeared on his body. It has started to spread across his chest and small parts of his shoulders. Worst, I have absolutely no idea what kind of rash it is. It wasn't 'Chicken Pox' nor it was 'Measles' and the symptoms weren't even similar. Unlike the usual skin disease that I know, this one just spreads in hives across Korva's body, but it doesn't itch.

*Grind *Grind

It didn't matter what it is anyway, not at this point. I will just have to try out anything that I can and hope one of it sticks. It was the best I could do for him. I gritted my teeth in frustration as I ground away at the herbs.

I entered the room to see Korva lying in his bed weakly, reading a book. A boring look was plastered on his face. He was still ill, but not even the sickly can sleep non-stop, so he reads his book peacefully during the times he was awake. Even though he looked bored to death, Korva never once disobeyed my orders to rest. The child was as good as they get, the kind of child most parents would love to have.

"Take your clothes off." I bluntly told Corn Boy.

"Wh-what?!"

"You heard me, I need to put this stuff on you." I held out the herb paste in front of him. A fairly pungent smell emanating from it.

The boy squeezed his nose tight. "What!? No!" He yelled out with energy, despite being sick.

I ignored his protest and proceeded to forcefully take off his clothes, he tried to struggle but it was futile against me. The only thing I didn't take off was his pants because he seemed to be really embarrassed about it. Stop being so shy boy.

"Urghh" He let out a grunt as I slathered the paste over the purple rashes on his body.

"..."

"..."

It always ends up like this, doesn't it? Just me and him, with a spell of silence between us.

"What were you reading?" I struck a conversation to Korva, remembering that he was reading a book prior.

"It's a story about the Supremes." He replied, face twisting in disgust as he smelled the paste.

Supremes? I haven't heard that word in a while.

"Which one?" I asked him.

"It's about a Supreme who always wins. He wears a super strong armour that covers his whole body and can shrug off any attack."

Ahh, I know this one. It's Victory, his speciality is an impregnable offensive armour that does exactly what Korva says. It shrugs off virtually any attack; physical or magic wise. The perfect defence.

"Ohh? He sounds pretty strong." I said to Korva as I continue to put more of the paste on him. Feigning ignorance about the World Race of Victory.

"You bet he is! I've heard he never lost a single battle against anyone ever! Not even against the other Supremes! He's one of the strongest Supreme out there!"

"Heeeh, sounds like some sort of fairytale to me. Can someone even be that strong without losing once in his life?"

"It's the truth! He really does exist! Just the other day he entered a tournament where the strongest gathers and won it easily!"

Tournaments? They allow a member of the World Race to enter them now? But then again, if you are dealing with someone who is practically a god, you will bend the rules a little I guess.

"Hmm. Still, I can't really get behind a story about someone who wins all of his fights, sounds pretty boring to me." I slathered more of the paste on the rash on his arms.

"That's the best part! Who would want to read a story about a person who loses all the time?"

"Hmmm, you got a point I guess?"

"Hey Lady, you know right? The reason why most Supremes are girls? It's because there was once a Supreme that got rid of most of the male ones."

Yeah, I know of that one too. A World Race that wields an artefact that grants her almost unparalleled strength against members of the opposite gender. Stories say she's a deranged psychopath that murders men as if they were prey, feeling extreme pleasure hearing the screams of men. A true piece of shit. Her retribution came at the hands of the one thing that she kills for a living, having been stabbed by her own blade by the only man she never could kill.

"That Supreme against all odds fought the bad Supreme and won! Can you imagine that? Winning against the one thing that you are weak against? A true man! I want to be exactly like him, so strong that I can win against anything!"

... A true man?

A kid has to have someone to look up to, I guess.

"Well, if you plan to be anywhere as strong as that supreme you going to have to rest and get better first." I gave the standard 'get better' talk as I finished putting the paste over his body.

"I-I know that! You don't have to tell me!" Korva said before quickly putting on his clothes back and lying on the bed in a rush.

Heh, what a cute kid.

"I should visit the doctor," I suggested to myself as I'm sitting in the dining room of the house.

It's for the best. I didn't even know if the herbs I've gathered would help with the rash but I got no time to find out. Despite looking fine and dandy just a moment ago, I could tell Corn Boy was faking it. His condition was growing worse by the day and I have no idea what’s causing it. I usually don't do this as most doctors in the outskirts aren't that good at their jobs, but there could be a chance that they know something about this disease that I don't. They are the experts after all.

Having decided my next course of action, I stood up and walked past the front door before locking it behind me. As I turned around, I saw an old man standing in front of the house near the road that leads into the town. A fragile smoky-grey haired old man holding himself up with a cane.

Was this old man here before this?

"Oh? And who might you be?" He said to me in a feeble voice.

"I should ask that of you old man, who are you and what do you want from this house?" I asked him back in a demanding and defensive tone. For all I know this old man could be a thief waiting to rob this house dry from whatever it has left. Or someone who had come to 'procure' the house.

"Hoh hoh, feisty one aren't you." The old man gave out a laugh. "You see, I used to be friends with the parents of the pair of children that lives in that house. They passed away quite a while back. I'm quite worried about them so I come over once in a while to check on their condition."

A pair of children?

"Now then, I must ask. Who are you? Young lady."

The old man began his counter attack.

"I'm friends with a witch living in this house. I haven't heard any news from her for a while, so I came to visit. But when I arrived, she was nowhere to be found. So I am taking care of the kid in her place until she comes back." I said to the old man, lying to him about my circumstance with no hesitation in my words. It's not completely a lie though.

"Oh? I wasn't aware that Vidya has such a responsible friend."

Vidya? Is that the name of the witch-wizard hybrid that used to live in this house?

"If it's Vidya you are looking for then you won't be able to find her." The old man said.

"Hmm? Why is that?" I asked the old man with curiosity.

"Vidya is away on an errand to Luth El at the moment."

Luth El? The city up north?

"Wait, I don't get it. Why would Vidya be at Luth El and leave a sick boy at home all alone like that?" I asked.

"Vidya is looking for Kruu leaves for her younger brother Korva, you see."

'Younger Brother', so this Vidya person is Korva's older sister huh?

"Kruu leaves?" I asked the old man. Wondering what does finding Kruu leaves has anything to do with this.

"Surely you have seen Korva's condition right? The lad has been infected by the 'Purple Skin'."

The 'Purple Skin'. That must have been the name of the purple rash-like disease that is hurting Korva right now. What a creative name...

"You see, Kruu leaves is the only thing that can help cure the Purple Skin. Cezza usually gets most of its stock of Kruu herbs from A'bell, but there haven't been any peddlers from A'bell lately and the town has run out of stock you see. Any Kruu leaves that are left are being sold for extreme amounts by irresponsible traders so Vidya went up north to the city of Luth E’ll to obtain the herbs. It has been about two weeks since she went if I recall correctly."

Korva's sister travelled north to Luth E’ll? The distance from Cezza to Luth E’ll is about one week by carriage! That meant leaving Korva to fend for himself for weeks, not to mention she would be travelling there all alone and everything. That's just a plain stupid thing to do, even for someone desperate. There was also the fact that Korva himself never told me anything about this... About her sister. I had assumed he had been abandoned... but now it seems there is more than meets the eye.

But that could just be my fault. I never really asked.

More importantly, why Kruu leaves? As far as I know, Kruu is just a herb that acts as a natural painkiller and a side herb for asthma, but even then, the effect is really minor and doesn't really do anything other than make you think it works. Placebo to say the best.

"Why travel all the way to Luth El, isn't there any other way to get Kruu leaves around here? It's not really that hard of a herb to get."

"There is a place. A bunch of Kruu leaves in a mountain down south. I hear it only grows in this cave, but there is a terrifying monster that lives there. Those that have gone never came back."

"I see..." Great. Of course, there will be a monster.

"Now, well then. I'll be seeing you around." The old man waved at me before walking away slowly.

Hmm?

"Wait! Aren't you here to see Korva or something?"

"Hoh hoh, I can tell when I am unwanted, young lady! Chalk it up to experience. I'll come back another time when you aren't so defensive about it." He cheerfully said as he walked away.

...

He wasn't wrong. I didn't trust the old man at all. I turned around to check if the door was truly locked. After confirming that it is, I turned back to the old man. We were going the same way anyway, I might as well follow him to study him further or something.

Confusion hits me as I no longer see the old man anywhere in the short time I turned around to make sure the door was locked.

What the? He couldn't have gone that far in that short time! And yet when I look around, I see no trace of the feeble old man. An uncomfortable feeling crept up inside me, but I simply shrugged it off.

I don't have time for this. I need to quickly find a doctor for now. After that, maybe I'll travel down south to that cave after all to get those Kruu leaves. Just in case it really does help.

Curses.

I knew things wouldn't be easy. I stared at the line in front of the only clinic in town, the line now even longer than when I first arrived at the town. No, it's not even a line anymore, it's just a large crowd gathering in front of the building, the doors to the clinic closed shut. How could a town of this size only have one apothecary! At the rate this is going, I'll never get help for Korva in time.

A small feeling of irritation came to me. What do I do now? Do I just trust the words of the old man? To just grab Kruu leaves? The old man did mention something about a-

*cough *cough

The sound of a child coughing broke my concentration. I faced towards the direction of the cough and my eyes widen in surprise.

The scene of a father holding her daughter? in his hands. The daughter... with the same patch of purple as Korva spreading all over her neck. I took a glance at the other children in the area and saw that all of them had the same symptoms. Sickly, weak, lethargic, and with purple rashes on their bodies. Every child in this crowd, there was a patch somewhere on their bodies, and the larger the patch the iller the child appeared to be.

What is this? Whatever this 'Purple Skin' is, it seemed to only affect children. Could it be that the line for the clinic is not due to food poisoning but simply due to people wanting a cure for the Purple Skin? I've been here for almost a week at the very least, how could I have missed something so... alarming?

My body tensed up as I am approached by a woman, she then grabbed me by the legs and started to beg.

"P-please! Spare me some gold! My child! She's going to die if I don't get any Kruu leaves. Please oh dear adventurer, please help me!"

The woman begged me, not a single shred of pride in her. Her eyes have this maniacal look within them. I've seen it before, like those animals whose offspring is in danger, her instinct to protect taking over her ability to think rationally. I unintentionally backed away from the begging woman, but the woman followed after me.

"Please! I'll do anything, If she doesn't get treatment soon, the rash will develop too far! Then, then! Nothing will cure her anymore! Please, you have to help me!" Her begging grew more intense as she grabbed my legs harder.

"No, help me! I can sell you my house! Anything but my child! He's the only one I have left in this world!" A man came out of nowhere and started to beg to me as well.

...What is this?

"No help me!"

"Please help, my children are the only things I have left!"

"Please, I'll pay you back threefold! No Fourfolds!"

More and more people crept up to my location, all begging me for money. All of them have the same maniacal look. As if possessed. It wasn't long before I am surrounded and crowded over. Once there was no space left around me, they started to climb over each other; pushed each other out of the way and even started to fight each other. These people were desperate, so desperate they were willing to trample one another. It was revolting, to say the least.

A bunch of noises all jumbled up with each other. Only the main points of the begging could be heard at this point.

Please.

My child.

Money.

Kruu leaves.

Expensive.

Treatment.

What do these people expect out of me? Do I look like someone who has a lot of money? Or are they simply too desperate they are willing to cling on anything? Money won't solve their problems.

The crowd got bolder and I could feel hands touching my body, searching for something. People were trying to steal from me. I gripped Kirin and Justicar tightly with my hands as even they too start to get pulled by the crowd.

"Grrr!" "Shiii!"

The disembodied sound of the two shape-shifting objects could be heard. Their forms starting to waver. Changing slightly, in agitation.

"Calm down you two, these are just innocent people." I tried calming Torarias and Armageddon down. It helped for a while, but the people were relentless, they grew even more intense.

"GRRR!" "SHIII!"

And with them, these two also grew more agitated. Their growls grow stronger but the noise was blocked out by the increasing volume of people crowding over me.

Dammit... What is this situation?

I took a deep breath and got ready for the inevitable as the Shapeshifting Shield and the Shapeshifting Weapon lashed out to the crowd around me.

*Swoosh! *Swat!

Armageddon transformed from a black coat to a large black dome that covered me before expanding and pushing away the people near me. Torarias has tendrils forming out of its body that lashes out at the people that are holding me for dear life. In just a few seconds I am soon freed from the crowd as they started to disperse.

Screams of fear could be heard as they flee like rats in a sewer. I could only hang my head in shame as the event unfolds. I didn't stay around for long though. As soon as I got free, I immediately sprint away. I didn't want to attract any more attention to me than I already have.

...

I have to say, I was a bit angry at the two having lashed out like that. But deep inside, I knew they just want to protect me so I gave them my sincere thanks.

I never stop running. There was something that I needed to check, some uncomfortable feeling within my chest that I needed to get out. And so, I just kept running and running until I arrived at the house. The very same house that I've been living in this past week.

For the first time in a very long time. My heart was in turmoil. One phrase from a certain beggar kept repeating in my mind.

"...If she doesn't get treatment soon, the rash will develop too far! Then, then! Nothing will cure her anymore!"

...no. Could it be? Self-doubt crept up to me as I slammed pass the front door and ran up the stairs to Korva's bedroom.

And there he was. A cute innocent child with a big dream...just laying down in bed reading a book in boredom. He jolts himself upwards as he noticed me, the person who had forcefully pushed the door and entered his room.

I didn't even give him time to say anything. I just open my mouth and said- "Take your clothes off," in a cold almost apathetic voice.

"Wh-what? Again?! No way, I'm not going to -"

I didn't even let him finish his words, I just walked right up to him and started to forcefully take off everything he has on him.

He argued and complained, but I'm not having it. I needed to know.

"WAI-WAIT-WAIT! Not my pants!" Korva said to me in a panic as I tried taking off his pants. I had always thought he was simply too embarrassed about it, being a 'man' and all. I didn't want to trample over his pride, and I didn't want to come off as a paedophile.

But, I pushed on regardless. His words weren't going to stop me this time. Korva struggled the best he could to prevent me from taking off his pants, but it was futile. I am simply the stronger person here. His face distorted in fear as I finally pulled off his pants. The boy lying stark naked in front of me, desperately covering his private parts.

All sorts of emotions welled up inside me as my fears came true. I could only grit my teeth in frustration.

His entire lower body... Was full of purple skin rashes. Pus could be seen coming out of his legs and even a trickle of blood here and there. A black shroud was ravaging his legs like it's a slice of meat in a grinder.

I immediately grabbed the black shroud with my bare hand before proceeding to pump mana into my palm, extreme amounts of it. Blue light could be seen emanating from my palm. I then crushed the black shroud that was ravaging his legs with all my might.

*Crash!

It breaks, like a piece of glass breaking, pieces of magic shards flew in the air before dispersing into thin air. The spellbreaker skill 'Dist to Rapt'. I had hoped that was the end of it, but soon after the black shroud re-emerged and started to ravage Korva's legs again.

No, no, no... This purple skin is no disease... It's a curse! A ravaging curse.

This is... How...? How did I not notice this...?

I thought of all the time I've seen this boy, and all the time I could have just found the damn truth if I just look hard enough. And yet, I didn't do anything!

I gritted my teeth in frustration. Korva went from a fearful look to a sad shameful look. No, don't give me that look boy... You aren't at fault here...

Dammit! It's not time to be giving up hope yet. He still might have some time left before the purple skin ravaged him completely. I need to prepare for a purification spell... No, I don't have the time nor the tools and ingredients to do that. What about 'Dist to Rapt'? No... This is a continuous curse, it will just come back unless the condition to break the curse is met and I don’t know what that condition is. I also need to make sure he is immune to the curse less he gets cursed again.

Then after that, I need a way to cure this boy's legs, else he would be crippled for life, then, then. I need to-

"L-lady...?" The boy asked me in fear, disrupting my thoughts.

...

All I did... the only thing I could do was give him a reassuring smile. "Everything is going to alright Korva."

I then quickly left the boy's room and went outside of the house and straight into the forest down south.

I needed to find a bunch of Kruu leaves as soon as possible. The villagers seemed desperate enough to want it. It must be this curse's condition. I hastily moved my feet as I recalled the event that happened just earlier.

If what they say is true, then Korva doesn't have long before this curse is irreversible by normal methods.

It took me a while walking in the forest, but I managed to get my emotions back in check. I took a few deep breaths to cool off my head. Still, I couldn't shake off the feeling of guilt inside me.

I should have noticed the signs sooner. It was a blow to my pride. Not that I have any. But still, it was inexcusable for someone of my experience and age to be so... unaware of things like this.

My mind strayed to the thought of those maniacal people in front of the clinic earlier. I called them revolting and desperate but now when I think further, I'm just the same as them. My emotions running rampant and my sense to protect Korva clouded my judgement. Maybe it's the same as with Vidya, her desperation to save her brother led her all the way to Luth E’ll. I also realised that I could have just stolen from the guys who are selling the Kruu leaves at ridiculous prices. I would have done it too if I wasn't already halfway through the journey to the cave down south. But there was no guarantee that they even have Kruu leaves in the first place, it could just all be a scam.

Tsk.

Doesn't matter now. Finding those leaves would mean helping the other children in the town, so there is that. I could do nothing else for the boy other than to find those leaves. I don't even know if the Kruu leaves will help him, but if there is a slight chance that it might help then I'm going to take it.

I'm done making any more dumb mistakes like this.