The King's study was more elegant than one might imagine. Heavy walnut bookshelves lined the walls, filled with ancient books with gold-embossed covers. In the center stood a wide desk draped in dark brown velvet, and in the corner, a bronze heater glowed with a faint flame, making the room warm and cozy. The gilded candelabras cast a soft light on the pages of the books, and the air was filled with the scent of ink and a hint of cedar. It lacked the majesty of the main hall, feeling more like a warm, domestic space.
When Riyao followed Arcadios into the study, King Thomas E. Fiore was sitting in an armchair behind the desk. He had removed his crown and heavy royal robes, wearing only a loose, cream-colored casual outfit. His sleeves were rolled up casually, and his graying hair at the temples was slightly disheveled. His brow was etched with an unmistakable weariness, yet he lacked any of the usual monarchical airs. He held a small portrait of ten-year-old Leo, his fingertips gently stroking the paper with a melancholy expression.
"Little brother Riyao of Fairy Tail, I've finally been looking forward to your arrival!" Upon seeing him, Thomas immediately stood and took two steps forward to greet him. His tone was warm and earnest, completely devoid of any royal aloofness. "It must have been a long and tiring journey. Please, sit, sit!"
"Your Majesty is too kind!" Riyao scratched his head, the bag of dried strawberries in his arms crumpled from his grip. However, his eyes couldn't help but stray toward a jewel-encrusted paperweight on the bookshelf. He thought to himself: That thing looks even more exquisite than the sapphire on the crown. I wonder how many limited-edition cakes I could trade that for?
Arcadios coughed lightly from the side, signaling him with his eyes to mind his manners. Riyao stuck out his tongue, quickly withdrew his gaze, pulled over a chair to sit down, and put on an expression of serious listening.
Thomas sighed and gently placed the portrait on the desk, his voice filled with tenderness and anxiety. "I have asked you here for the sake of my nephew, Leo. The boy has just turned ten and is my brother's only child. He fell ill suddenly half a month ago. At first, he was just lethargic and had no appetite, but who could have known it would become this serious? His entire body is covered in black-green patterns, and he has wasted away to skin and bones." He rubbed his hands together, his tone slightly helpless. "The court Mages and physicians have all seen him. Light Magic, antidotes, priestly blessings—we've tried everything we could, but nothing worked. Instead, he's only getting worse."
"I heard that Fairy Tail has a young but talented Healing Mage," Thomas said, looking at Riyao with eyes full of hope, his tone as earnest as an ordinary elder asking for a favor. "Young man, I know this is a difficult matter, but Leo is such a good, well-behaved child. Please, I beg you to help him. No matter the cost, we are willing to pay!"
"Don't worry, Your Majesty. Let me take a look at Leo first!" Riyao patted his chest. His curiosity had already outweighed his nervousness; the more bizarre the illness, the more it suited his taste.
Thomas's eyes immediately lit up, and he quickly gestured to the attendant beside him. "Quick, take little brother Riyao to the inner chamber!"
The back of the study led to a warm and elegant inner chamber with soft carpets and light gauze curtains hanging over the bed. The room was filled with a faint scent of medicine mixed with a trace of an eerie aura. A pale young boy lay on the bed—it was Leo. His eyes were tightly shut, his cheeks sunken, and his arms were indeed covered in dense, black-green patterns that wound around him like vines, looking quite shocking.
Riyao set aside all his playful thoughts and walked quickly to the bedside. A faint green light emanated from his fingertips—this was the Healing Magic bestowed by the Goddess, which could sense the aura and abnormalities of living beings. He gently placed his finger on Leo's wrist, and the green light seeped into the boy's body.
A second later, Riyao's expression darkened instantly.
"How is it, little brother Riyao?" Thomas and Arcadios, who had followed him in, asked urgently. The King even leaned forward a few steps, his voice full of desperation.
Riyao didn't answer immediately. Instead, he frowned and investigated carefully, the light at his fingertips flickering. After a moment, he withdrew his hand and looked at the King with a solemn expression. "Your Majesty, this isn't a normal illness. It's a curse, and one mixed with a rare chronic toxin."
"A curse?!" Thomas and Arcadios exclaimed simultaneously. Thomas's face turned several shades paler, and he instinctively gripped the bed rail for support. "How could it be a curse... Leo has never offended anyone! He's just an ordinary child. Normally, he does nothing but read or play in the courtyard; he's hardly ever even left the palace!"
"Exactly." Riyao nodded, the cold aura he had just sensed still lingering on his fingertips. "This curse has a very strong dark attribute. It's like a net wrapped around Leo's soul, while the toxin is eroding his physical body. The two are intertwined. Ordinary Healing Magic simply cannot break it, and Light Magic can only suppress it temporarily, which actually causes the curse to rebound even more violently."
He paused and then added, "What's more troublesome is that both this curse and the toxin are contagious."
"Contagious?!" Arcadios's expression sharpened, and he instinctively took half a step back, his hand resting on the hilt of the sword at his waist.
"Don't be nervous, it's not airborne," Riyao said, waving his hand. "It's transmitted through contact. When I was investigating just now, I found that the aura of the curse attaches itself to anyone who has touched Leo. Currently, the dosage is still shallow, so symptoms haven't appeared yet, but over time, those black-green patterns will appear on them too, just at a slower rate than Leo's."
As he spoke, he looked at the maids and attendants standing by the bed and pointed to one of them. "For example, this sister here—you must take care of Leo every day, right? Look at the inside of your wrist. There are already faint black-green marks. They aren't obvious, so you probably haven't noticed them yourself."
The maid quickly lifted her wrist upon hearing this and indeed saw a very faint trace of black-green patterns. She turned deathly pale, her legs going weak as she nearly collapsed.
Thomas looked at the faint patterns, his lips trembling slightly. His eyes were full of pain and confusion as his fingers gripped the window frame so hard his knuckles turned white. "Who... who would be so cruel to an innocent child? They wouldn't even spare those taking care of him..." He wasn't furious, only deeply powerless and heartbroken, his voice slightly choked. "Young man, please, you must think of a way. No matter what medicinal ingredients or manpower are needed, we will fully cooperate! As long as Leo can be cured, and these people who have been dragged into this can be healed, I am willing to give anything!"
Riyao rubbed his chin, a sharp look of contemplation flashing in his eyes as he unconsciously tapped his palm with his finger. "The aura of this curse is very strange; it's not something an ordinary Mage could cast. This combination of 'curse + chronic toxin' bears strong traces of forbidden experimentation. It's more like... the methods of a Dark Guild, or perhaps the work of remnants from the Magic Development Bureau."
He remembered Makarov mentioning that when the Council wiped out the Magic Development Bureau a year ago, they discovered experiments involving forbidden curses and toxins.