Gabriel's face brightened at Cravat's words.
"Really?!"
"Yes. Looking at this child's condition, I understand why you sought me out. Certainly, in this state, ordinary recovery would be impossible to even dream of."
Cravat immediately saw through Rene's condition.
If it had been someone else, they wouldn't have even known why she was asleep, but Cravat was different.
"In the first place, is this child really a mage?"
"What do you mean by that?"
Rudger questioned in response to Cravat's inquiry.
He had sensed something strange in the question.
"The power raging inside the body seems a bit strange. Right now, it appears an external force has temporarily put out the urgent fire, but that's just a stopgap measure. This power boiling inside will eventually break its owner.""That's why we called you to solve it."
"I see. From the point where you sought me, who deals with ancient curses, instead of a famous priest or recovery potion, it seems you already guessed what state this child is in."
Only Gabriel couldn't understand the conversation between Rudger and Cravat.
Gabriel urged Cravat to answer, asking what he meant.
"What's going on? Why are you asking if Rene is really a mage?"
"Because the power raging inside this child's body is holy power."
"...What?"
For a moment, Gabriel thought he must have misheard.
The claim that the source of power destroying Rene's body was holy power seemed almost like fiction.
"Holy power? But I don't feel such energy from Rene at all."
"Of course not. This isn't the power typically used by paladins or priests. It's much purer and clearer. So much so that ordinary mages can't distinguish it from mana."
"If, if it's that level of power, is this related to some high priest or saint?"
"That much I don't know. I haven't seen or heard what kind of past this child had. However, I think even the powers of those you just mentioned would be insufficient."
Cravat stroked his chin with his finger.
After hearing the explanation, Gabriel still seemed not to understand.
"Isn't holy power good? Why does Rene having holy power damage her body?"
"Just because something is good doesn't mean it's good for the body. Having a lot of nutrients needed for the body doesn't make a person healthy. Too much eventually becomes poison."
"How can that be......"
"Power, you see, the purer it is, the more blurry the boundary between good and bad becomes."
Cravat's gaze turned to Rene's peacefully sleeping face.
Looking at her physical condition, it wouldn't be strange if she was feeling her entire body being torn into several pieces in real-time due to the pain.
To be in this situation at such a young age was enough to make one think she had been abandoned by fate.
"Strong power is so pure that it has no distinction between good and evil. It's primal. Poison can also be applied as medicine, and conversely, good medicine can also act as a deadly poison."
"Then Rene's current state......"
"The powerful holy power is colliding with her mana and continuously eating away at it."
The inside of Rene's body was similar to a situation where water and oil were entangled and fighting each other.
No, could this be called water and oil?
The two just try not to mix, but they don't eat away at each other and make a mess of the surroundings.
But this power in Rene's body condition...
"Moreover, this child's mana seems quite special. If I'm not mistaken, it's something of a nature I've never seen before."
"You can tell that too?"
Rudger questioned, to which Cravat frowned as if offended.
"What do you take me for? Despite appearances, I hold professional medical knowledge and qualifications as a magic researcher."
"Quite unusual for a dark mage."
"Ha. What do you think a curse is? To curse someone, it's basic to make appropriate preparations. You need to consider everything from what kind of person they are, their physical constitution, to the attributes of their mana to use the optimal curse."
"To, to that extent?"
Cravat gave Gabriel, who was asking again in disbelief, a cold glare.
"Are curses a joke? Huh? Are they a joke! Typical mages never understand the profundity and complexity of curses."
"Well, I'm completely useless at other magic anyway."
The one who answered instead was Rudger.
"What?"
"The magic that person learned is that kind of magic."
Despite looking and acting young, Cravat immediately caught the meaning behind those words.
"I thought there was something strange about the peculiar magic used, could it be that all magical talent and knowledge were consumed for just one type of magic? Then that shallow knowledge makes sense."
"I'm grateful for your understanding, but still, calling it shallow knowledge..."
"Hmph. More importantly, what a curious combination. One is a special category magic user whose identity is unknown, and the other is a great mage I've never seen on the island."
"You don't know me?"
Rudger asked Cravat with puzzlement.
He thought his name and face would have been known to some extent, but from Cravat's words, it seemed he didn't know at all.
"I don't know! Why would I need to know? I'm just holed up on this island researching curses."
"Well, it's not a problem if you don't know. So, looking at Rene's condition now, what do you think? Can you definitely cure her?"
"Anyway, to continue the earlier conversation, the fact that this girl's mana power is special can also be seen as part of the problem."
Although the examination of Rene had taken only a very short time, Cravat had analyzed that her mana was also not ordinary.
"Normal mana would have been suppressed by such powerful holy power and perished. But this mana is rather resisting this primal and destructive force."
"Resisting, you say?"
"One side tries to suppress, and the other continues to resist violently. With two forces raging inside like that, how could a fragile human body endure?"
"The, the holy power! If one could handle the holy power, wouldn't that work?"
"How? Ask someone who fainted because they couldn't control the energy to handle the power? Can they suddenly do it now with a power they didn't even know about before?"
"That, that's..."
"Besides, this holy power is not this girl's own. I told you, right? This is a powerful blessing. So powerful that it can now be called a curse. As if she's been directly branded by a god."
At those words, Rudger's body twitched but neither Gabriel nor Cravat noticed such a subtle reaction from Rudger.
"If it were when she was young, before her mana fully bloomed, she might have had no problems with it being suppressed by the holy power. But as she grew up, and as she learned magic, her mana grew together, and things came to this state."
"That can't be."
Gabriel's expression became complicated.
As Rene's teacher, whose memories had been sealed, he had taught her magic and fully supported her when she wanted to go to Theon Academy.
Those actions would have been out of affection and favor for the daughter of someone he had liked, but the result was not like that at all.
"If I hadn't taught Rene magic, it wouldn't have become this bad."
Gabriel looked at the sleeping Rene and recalled when he first met her.
-Who are you, grandfather?
When Rene, whose memories had been sealed, opened her eyes, she saw Gabriel disguised as an old man.
Deliberately hiding his identity, he had attached a beard and even used an artifact to disguise himself. Thanks to that, Rene firmly believed Gabriel was an old man.
-I am your teacher.
And so, Gabriel became Rene's guardian and teacher, teaching and raising her.
Gabriel had lost all his talent for other magic while learning time magic but the theoretical part of magic still remained in his head.
Gabriel fully utilized that knowledge to teach Rene.
In fact, there was no need to teach Rene magic.
Teaching magic was closer to Gabriel's stubbornness.
This world is harsh, and Rene had lost her mother, her only family.
For a commoner like her to survive in this cruel world, she needed at least minimal power to protect herself.
Gabriel judged that to be magic.
After all, a commoner who had learned magic would be respected wherever they went.
If she had no talent, it couldn't be helped, but if she had talent, it was natural to teach her.
Fortunately or unfortunately, Rene had talent for magic.
There was the drawback that she couldn't properly handle her own mana, but beyond that, her understanding of magic and insight into theoretical knowledge was of a kind difficult to see even in peers.
Seeing Rene, who understood two or three things when taught one, Gabriel felt pride as a teacher.
Even when Rene became independent and went to boarding school, and then when she said she wanted to go to Theon.
Gabriel, though worried, supported her.
But,
The truth that all those actions were the cause of accelerating Rene's condition struck Gabriel's lungs like a dagger.
‘Have I once again failed to protect someone dear to me?’
"All because of me..."
This way, he had no face to show Rene's deceased mother.
As Gabriel was sinking into self-reproach, Rudger's sharp voice coldly awakened his sinking mind.
"What are you whining about by yourself?"
"...You cold-hearted man. Even in this situation, you only say what you want to say? Don't you have any consideration!"
"That's what I should be saying. Is it your responsibility that Rene became like that? What nonsense."
Rudger twisted the corner of his mouth and sneered at Gabriel.
"I am the teacher who taught Rene magic, made her summon a magical beast, and taught her all those processes. It's not the fault of someone like you that she became like that."
It's all my responsibility.
Despite not directly saying it, Gabriel felt that Rudger had put those words in his mouth.
"Seems like there's a complicated relationship."
Cravat clicked his tongue at the sight of the two.
One claimed to be a teacher, and the other claimed to be a mentor.
'Having such unusual mages as teachers. What kind of life has this child lived?'
Cravat's admiring gaze turned to Rene.
Just looking at her peacefully sleeping, she was a frail and beautiful girl who could be mistaken for a princess from somewhere.
Her power was special, and the situation she was going through was not something commonly seen.
She was like a product made by the world's favoritism gathering and coming together.
Perhaps meeting those two people and being brought here was also guided by some flow, he thought.
Well, that's not what's important.
Since he had agreed to do it, he planned to do his best to eliminate the holy power that was eating away at Rene's body.
"There's only one way to remove the raging holy power from this girl's body."
The problem was that this wasn't just any holy power.
"Such pure holy power. My goodness, I haven't lived that long, but this is the first time I've seen something like this. How pure must the power be to feel almost indistinguishable from mana?"
If Rene's non-attribute mana and holy power hadn't been clashing inside her body, Cravat would still not have known.
"To suppress holy power of this level, a special grade curse is needed."
"Special grade?"
"It's a curse that can't be reached with modern curses. The primal curse. A curse that makes the conceptual part rot and be cut out, beyond simply the material. Such a curse is needed to heal this."
"Do you know how to use it?"
"Would I have mentioned a curse I don't know how to use? However, even I can't be completely certain. Even if I say I'll do it, the probability can't be 100%."
"What are the chances of success?"
"Exactly fifty-fifty. And that's assuming the medium and materials needed for the curse are sufficient and my condition is at its best."
"W-wait a minute. The probability of the curse is only half? What kind of special grade curse is that?"
"The curse itself is 100% if you just use it. The probability drops to half because the force embedded in that girl's body is holy power."
Holy power and curses are extremely opposite energies.
Just as a curse can damage holy power, holy power can damage a curse.
If Cravat uses a curse, the holy power will immediately move to erase that curse.
"From now on, it's completely a race against time. All materials must be brought."
"Since they are materials needed for a special grade curse, they must not be ordinary."
"Yes. There are many, not just one or two, and they're also very rare."
Gabriel asked with a serious face.
"Where can we find such precious materials in a short time?"
The one who smiled at those words was Cravat.
"Why? They're in a very close place."
"Close place?"
Cravat raised his finger and pointed out the window.
Beyond the street filled with white steam outside the glass window, the figure of a towering, huge tower could be seen.
"Most of the necessary materials will all be there."
"A-ah, so you're saying..."
Gabriel asked as if trying to deny the thought he had.
"...we should rob the Magic Tower?"