Albedo's thumb hovered for a moment over the glowing screen before he pressed the call button, raising the device to his ear as he waited for a response.
The line buzzed once, twice, and then finally,
"...Albedo?" Elara's voice came through clearly, faintly hushed but steady.
He exhaled quietly, some tension in his shoulders loosening as he realized she was okay, "Yeah. Sorry to call out of the blue. I heard more students have been falling sick around the Academy and thought about you. Just wanted to check in, how are you holding up?"
A pause followed. In the silence, Albedo could hear the faint rustle of papers, then the distant scrape of wood, maybe Elara was leaning back in a chair after a long study session.
"I feel much better now," she said finally, her voice lighter than he expected, "Honestly, compared to a few days ago, it's like night and day. I think… well, I think it's thanks to that technique you gave me."
Albedo leaned against the office wall and responded, "The Nature Blossom?"
"Mhm." He could practically hear her smile and giddiness through the line as she continued, eager to talk about the gift he gave her, "The technique was strange at first as the way it moves mana is different from any other I've experienced."
She said, taking a breath before continuing, "However, the more I practiced it, the better I felt. My mana flow, regeneration, quality and quantity all increased. My body feels healthier and stronger, plus I have access to a-lot of different skills. I can't thank you enough. Pretty much as soon as I started practicing it, I felt a whole lot better,"
Albedo led out a smile at her words and then asked, "Do you remember any specific symptoms of the sickness?"
There was a small shift, her tone turning thoughtful as she ran the previous week+ back in her head, "Hmm if I were to describe it, I would say it occasionally felt like my body was going to explode from the inside out,"
She hesitated, then added quietly, "I would feel like that for a bit, and then suddenly, my body would cool down. Like plunging into freezing cold water after standing in a volcano. It happened multiple times a day, each time worse than the last but nothing ever came of it,"
Albedo's fingers drummed against the wall. The description wasn't like any ordinary illness. Heat, then sudden cooling. Almost like… mana destabilization? Or worse, something foreign entering her system.
"You never told the professors?" he asked.
"I was going to, some of my friends who got sick did, " Elara admitted, "But after you gave me the technique, the episodes just… stopped. Completely. It felt like my body finally found a rhythm. Honestly, Albedo… thank you. Again, you keep helping me,"
Her sincerity was so disarming that Albedo found himself pausing. He wasn't good at taking gratitude, especially when, in his eyes, it was just the bare minimum, "You don't need to thank me," he said quietly. "Just make sure you stay careful. If it happens again, call me immediately. No matter the time."
A small laugh rang through the line, "Alright, Mister Overprotective. I'll keep that in mind."
He rolled his eyes lightly, but there was a ghost of a smile tugging at his lips, "Good. Then once this mess settles down, let's grab a meal together. You, me… maybe somewhere outside the Academy walls. Away from all this noise."
There was silence for a heartbeat. Then her voice came softer, "I'd like that. Just don't forget, you promised."
The line clicked as the call ended, but her words lingered in his ear.
Albedo lowered the phone, his reflection staring back at him from the darkened screen. For a moment, he simply stood there, the faint murmur of mana-lines running through the Spire thrumming in the silence.
Luna's voice cut smoothly through the quiet, her emerald hair catching faint strands of light as she closed a tome on her desk and prepared to head to the Medical Wing like she was called.
Albedo glanced at Luna, "Elara was sick. Same kind of thing that's spreading around the Academy."
Luna arched a brow, "Describe it."
He relayed Elara's words without embellishment. The symptoms, the sudden flare and drop, the daily episodes. By the time he finished, Luna's usual calm expression had shifted to something graver, her lips tightening in thought.
"That "matches what I've seen in the students confined to the Medical Wing. Mana surging beyond tolerance, bodies overheating, then collapsing into weakness. The healers thought it might be a fever brought on by backlash, but what you've just told me…"
She rose from her chair, robes whispering against the polished floor, "We need to check it out more thoroughly,"
Albedo nodded once, his decision already made as the duo quickly headed off towards the Medical Wing, a long stretch of white-halls where light from mana crystals cast an eerie glow.
As Albedo and Luna entered, the air carried the faint bitterness of disinfecting herbs, undercut by the heavier stench of sweat and fever.
Rows of beds filled the ward, students sprawled across them. Some lay unconscious, skin clammy and pale, while others writhed weakly beneath sheets, muttering incoherently.
The mana density here felt… wrong. Too volatile, as though the air itself had absorbed their instability.
"See for yourself," Luna said quietly, gesturing toward one of the beds.
A girl lay there, no older than Elara, her hair plastered to her forehead. Her chest rose and fell in shallow gasps, but Albedo could see it—the faint flicker of mana leaking from her veins, breaking apart before sinking back in, over and over.
He leaned closer, Havoc resting heavy at his side. His pupils narrowed as his gaze sharpened. This isn't natural. Something foreign is lodged in their flow.
The girl suddenly twitched, her body seizing. A flare of heat rippled off her skin, followed by a shiver so violent the bedframe rattled.
"This pattern, it's the same as Elara described. These students are stuck in this cycle. Some of them feel better and have gotten discharged, but they come back a bit later just as sick as before,"
Luna's emerald eyes narrowed, a spark of realization glinting. "If that's true… then this 'illness' is no illness. It's an imprint. Someone, or something, has tampered with their flows. And unless it's undone…"
"They'll burn out," Albedo finished grimly.
"Then the question remains, who seeded the poison?" Nymarielle said, hidden within Luna's spacial space but using her abilities to speak directly to both Albedo and Luna's mind.
Albedo's gaze lingered on the girl's trembling frame a moment longer before he straightened. His voice was calm, but the edge beneath it was sharp enough to cut steel.
"Have you noticed a pattern? Anything connecting the victims, class, dorm, schedules?"
Luna pressed her lips together, her mind already sifting through details, "Nothing, I didn't really check as I've been focused on the individual cases and nothing more. From all I know, it isn't targeting specific departments or year groups."
"Then let's stop guessing."
He moved toward the healer's desk at the far end of the ward, his boots clicking against polished stone.
A neat stack of parchment files rested there, each sealed with the Academy's crest. Luna joined him, her hand brushing over the folders before she began sorting through them with quick, deft precision.
One by one, they flipped open the records. Albedo's eyes darted over names, gender, classes, family details and more, inspecting every single word for any connection, and over time, he found one connection that was meaningful.
No noble sigils. No prestigious surnames and absolutely no Royalty.
"These…" He set a hand down firmly atop the growing stack, "All of them. Not a single noble or even Noble adjacent person.
Luna's emerald eyes narrowed as she checked again, cross-referencing without speaking. The truth was laid bare, written in ink and blood across the files.
"Every student brought in so far," she murmured, "is a commoner."
Silence stretched. The faint sound of students groaning in fever filled the air, punctuated by the crackle of mana sparks as another patient flared and subsided.
Nymarielle's voice thrummed into both their minds, low and resonant as the shifting tides.
"Then this is no random affliction. It is a message. Someone is targeting the powerless."
Albedo's hands clenched into fists at his sides, the light from the mana crystals casting shadows over his sharp features.
"Targeting them now," he muttered, voice dark, "to break them before they can even rise."
Luna's expression turned cold, regal authority radiating from her frame as she shut the last file.
"Which means this is not a disease we're curing." Her gaze locked with Albedo's. "It's an attack we must uncover."
The tension in the ward seemed to thrum louder, like the world itself bracing for a storm.
Albedo had a-lot on his mind, another original incident that didn't happen in the Novel, and another incident he needed to solve.