The garden pavilion was a quiet corner of the estate that Fainyx had walked past many times without particularly stopping at, a small open structure with a low arched roof and a round table underneath it surrounded by enough seating for a small group, the kind of place that existed specifically for the purpose of sitting in pleasant weather and doing very little productively.
It turned out to be entirely adequate for an introductory afternoon.
Estrella had arranged tea with the efficiency she brought to everything and the four of them had settled around the table with the particular atmosphere of people who were still in the process of figuring out the shape of each other. The garden was warm and quiet around them, sunlight moving through the leaves overhead, the flower beds along the nearby path adding their usual gentle color to everything.
Ambrosia sat with her back straight and her hands folded around her cup, her yellow eyes moving over the garden with the calm assessment of someone who was always taking in her surroundings whether she meant to or not. She had removed the formal edge from her posture slightly now that the Duke was no longer present but the composed quality remained, comfortable in its own way, like a sword still in its sheath.
Yong sat across from Fainyx with his tea and the expression of someone perfectly at ease with the situation, which he was, for reasons nobody else at the table was aware of.
Fainyx sat with his notebook and his own cup and the expression of someone who was also perfectly at ease, which he was not, entirely.
He opened his notebook to a small corner of the page, wrote in letters considerably smaller than his usual size, and angled it slightly toward Yong while appearing to simply be looking down at the table.
[ Is Ruth busy? ]
Yong glanced at it with the peripheral attention of someone who had noticed something mildly interesting on the table and took a calm sip of his tea.
"Ruth went to the world tree this morning, He'll be occupied for a while." he whispered where only Fainyx can hear him.
Fainyx nodded and then closed that section of the notebook.
Yong looked at the garden.
His lips were completely still but something around his eyes suggested he was enjoying himself in a way that Fainyx found mildly unreasonable given the circumstances.
Ambrosia set her cup down and looked at Fainyx with the direct attentiveness she seemed to bring to most things.
"Have you been exercising regularly?" she asked. Her tone was formal but not unkind, the tone of someone conducting an assessment rather than a conversation.
Fainyx nodded.
"And eating properly?"
He nodded again.
Ambrosia looked at him for a moment with those sharp yellow eyes and the particular expression of someone whose answer didn't quite match the data in front of them.
"Do you feel fatigue whenever you exercise in just a bit? Do you feel shortness of breath just by walking? " she asked clearly she was a bit anxious.
The table was quiet for a beat.
Fainyx looked at her and said nothing, which was simply how he responded to most things, but he nodded as that is how he always experience.
Ambrosia studied him for another moment and then set her cup down with a soft decisive sound and stood from her chair. She crossed the short distance between them and stopped beside him and Estrella immediately straightened with the particular alertness of someone whose charge had just been approached without warning.
"Excuse me," Estrella said, her voice carrying its polite firmness, "it is somewhat sudden to approach the young master without---"
Ambrosia had already placed her hand against Fainyx's chest.
Not rough nor aggressive. Her palm flat with the quiet certainty of someone who had done this before and knew exactly what they were doing.
Fainyx went still.
Warm mana moved through him, different from Ruth's ancient heaviness and different from Yong's precise controlled flow, this was something weak but steadier and more practiced, the mana of someone who had spent years learning to read bodies rather than break them.
Across the table Yong had set his cup down and his expression had sharpened in a way that had nothing casual about it, his hand moving slightly toward Fainyx with the reflexive readiness of someone about to do something about a situation.
Fainyx reached out without looking and closed his fingers lightly around Yong's wrist.
He didn't write anything. He just looked at Yong briefly with the expression of someone communicating something they didn't need words for.
'She's examining my body.'
Yong looked at him for a fraction of a second and then the readiness left his posture and he just stand up clearly annoyed at how she is doing to his disciple.
Ambrosia was not paying attention to any of this.
Her focus had gone entirely inward, her eyes slightly unfocused, her hand still against Fainyx's chest with that steady warmth moving through him in slow careful passes. Estrella hovered nearby with visible uncertainty, clearly wanting to object further and equally clearly unsure whether the objection was warranted given that nothing visibly alarming was happening.
Estrella lingered nearby, her unease obvious. She looked like she wanted to speak, to stop this, but nothing about Fainyx's condition outwardly justified interrupting.
A minute passed.
Then another.
Then Ambrosia's expression changed.
It was subtle but it was there, something moving behind her yellow eyes that was quieter and more personal than the professional focus that had been there a moment before. She held the position for another few seconds and then drew her hand back slowly and straightened.
Her face had settled into something serious and still.
She looked at Estrella. "Does he get checked by a physician?"
Estrella blinked, clearly not having expected that question. "Ah... yes he did get check out by a physician. Is something the matter?"
Ambrosia held her gaze for a moment and whispered. "It seems that they doesn't know about it yet..." Then she acted nothing happened. "It's nothing ."
Estrella's expression moved toward concern immediately and she began asking a follow up question but Ambrosia had already turned slightly away with the air of someone who had said what needed to be said for now and would say the rest to the appropriate person.
In the small gap that opened while Estrella was processing this and trying to formulate a response Yong leaned toward Fainyx with the casual ease of someone adjusting his position and spoke quietly enough that it carried no further than it needed to.
"What did she do?"
Fainyx opened his notebook and wrote, keeping the notebook angled low and the letters small.
[ She was examining my body. It seem she realized there's something wrong with my condition. ]
Yong read it and exhaled through his nose in a way that wasn't quite a sigh and wasn't quite a laugh.
"Figures... It seems she also know what that illness was" he murmured.
He was quiet for a moment, his gaze drifting toward Ambrosia who had returned to her seat and was sitting with her cup and her composed expression and whatever she was thinking kept entirely behind her yellow eyes.
"I heard to my drinking buddy of mine in the past that her husband..." Yong said, his voice low and even. "died of something similar. A long time ago." A pause. "She probably recognized it the moment she saw your condition."
Fainyx looked at Ambrosia.
She was watching the garden with an expression that was doing a great deal of work to stay neutral.
He looked back down at his notebook.
Yong leaned slightly closer. "Well... you can't hid the fact about you having an terminal illness. Your father needs to know about it." he said quietly. "When the medicine is ready and you start showing the aftereffects he is going to notice and since it's a terminal illness with no cure it's better for them to know about it and also... you won't have an explanation ready right?" He glanced at Fainyx. "It's better if he hears it properly before that happens. "
Fainyx considered this.
He already knew Yong was right. He had been turning the problem over since Ruth mentioned the aftereffects and the conclusion had always been the same, the Duke would find out eventually and finding out through Ambrosia or through Fainyx unexpectedly throwing up blood in front of him were both considerably worse options than finding out through a proper conversation.
Fainyx then wrote
[I want to ask something. You said that the cure is still haven't found by others right?]
Yong read it and smiled gleefully "For others it is considered no cure but for us we have a cure though it has a side effects. Do you want me to talk to your father about the cure?"
Fainyx shook his head and wrote,
[It's better not to say about the cure yet.]
Yong flinches "Why? Don't you want reassure you're family?"
Fainyx then thought about it.
He really didn't want them to know about his illness but someone found out about it, and for some unknown coincidence if Yong told them that they already have a cure that makes it suspicious in some way. So the best way he had to do is not tell them about the cure yet.
He wrote slowly.
[I just don't want to give you suspicion. And it's still early for them to know about the cure. And also I don't like that kind of attention...]
'I think it'll be better if they hide or throw me out if they don't want me to be a burden'
Before he was reincarnated as fainyx, he has no parents to love as he is an orphan. He dropped out of school as he never has the support and love of a parent. Whenever the Duke or his siblings give him their attention that they are worried for him, he can't help but be uncomfortable as he never really experience having this kind of condition.
'I am not used to it...'
Yong looked at it and nodded once without pushing further, which Fainyx appreciated.
Estrella had finished her exchange with Ambrosia and was returning to her position behind Fainyx's chair with the careful expression of someone who had more questions than she currently had answers for and was deciding which ones to ask first.
The garden was warm and quiet around them.
Ambrosia picked up her cup again.
Yong leaned back in his chair and the easy composure settled back over him like something he wore without thinking about it.
Fainyx looked at his own tea and thought about his father's office at the end of the corridor and the particular quality of silence that existed in that room and the conversation that was apparently going to need to happen in it sooner rather than later.