Chapter LV: The Cure (Natus)

"Countless bodies found torn in half with their organs scattered in place have been found in the shore."

Erwin reported as they sat in a circle while Dal could be seen covering Lillibet's ears as she peeled the sweet potato from her hands.

"The witnesses state that it was an enormous one with steel covering its body."

He paused.

"It was strange that they only saw it around Pesadilla, never leaving that place."

As Erwin tells the story, the air had gotten cold and eerie, and the hair stood up on their bodies. Dal who was trembling from his seat stood up.

"Stop it! I don't want to hear it anymore. That's enough! Enough!" 

Dal shouted before they were all left frozen on their feet after hearing a loud crashing sound inside the wagon behind them.

"Di...did you hear that?"

Dal asks as Erwin makes a face.

"You're the one who should shut up; you're scaring the kid."

He irritatedly spoke, but it didn't stop Dal from acting like a petrified kid when the mysterious scratching and munching sound could be heard continuously.

"Open it!"

"You open it!"

Erwin shouted back as Reinhardt audaciously decided to take a step forward and open the door of the wagon. With its axe slowly appearing in his hand, the door slammed open, witnessing a skeletal little boy munching the fruits inside.

"Wha...what is it?! Is it a monster?!"

Dal asks, hiding on Erwins back.

"Sort of..."

Reinhardt teased before Dal took a peak and sighed.

"Oh?! It was just a kid!"

Seeing them and the luminous light strike his face made the kid anxious; slowly tried to hide himself inside as he shivered from their sight.

"Don't worry! I don't eat kids!"

He then pointed towards Erwin from behind.

"Maybe he does."

Dal suddenly started running from his life when Erwin without a second thought had showered him with a sword in every direction.

But the relief they had felt earlier turned into panic when Lily pointed out Khalid.

"Does anyone see brother?"

They all become stiff like statues leaving the kid confused seeing Khalid banished within their sight.

Meanwhile, Khalid finds himself wandering in the thicket after hearing a familiar soothing voice calling out for him, luring him deep in the mountain.

"Khalid...."

It continuously called until he found himself standing in nowhere.

It made Khalid frown, raising his brows, when he suddenly felt the cool air lingering around him without noticing the black smoke coming from behind wanting to touch him... and when it was about to hold him ...

"Milord!"

Dal came running in his direction.

The air then blows a cool breeze passes on their face before Dal drags Khalid back to their tent, ramping.

"Milord! What are you thinking wandering around like that?!"

Dal worriedly asks, though he doesn't answer, and shifts the question towards the boy.

"So, who put him in the wagon?"

They all exchange glances looking muddled as no one has seen him before.

"I... No-Milord, stop changing the subject and answer me."

Dal was then cut off when the boy answered.

"It was me. I was led inside when I was following the light."

He answered as his hands fidgeted.

"Eat more, so you can be strong like me!"

Lily then broke off the silence, continuously giving him the fruits and cooked meat prepared by Reinhardt.

"Milord, what are we going to do now?"

He sighed.

"We'll keep the boy."

Instead of being punished as a thief, the boy was taken and bathed before they continued their journey, where he could be seen sitting beside Lilibeth, facing Khalid and Agnette, who'd been sleeping for straight hours.

When the days turn into weeks, the journey that seems to have no end has finally reached its border when they arrive in the Clovisto kingdom, where change couldn't be pinpointed, it is still in chaos, with sick people lining up in the temple to get treated, yet no one was ever healed and was hanging into the hope that the extract of Natus brought by Khalid was the one who would heal the sick.

"Ugh! To be back at the graveyard!"

The boy was shocked to witness the snake wrapped in Khalid's arms tranform into a lady.

"Don't worry, that happens a lot."

Lillibet states as she jumps out of the carriage.

Seeing the people groan and wail in the lying, cold bodies of their loved ones, Naine slowly remembers his mother, haunting him even in his dreams that the night when he was supposed to be peacefully resting always left him with open eyes and sweat that showered him from sleep.

"This is a huge problem."

He slowly got up after hearing a familiar voice in the hallway holding a lamp as they talked in the dark.

"Not everyone can create the cure; what are we going to say to the people who believe in us, milord?!"

He questioned, enough to be heard by the boy.

"We'll find someone."

"But it was only limited! We can't keep failing."

Naine's eyes widen, and was about to go back from his bed when he accidentally knocks out the candelabra beside him.

"Who that?!"

"Show yourself!"

They both run towards the room where they find Naine anxiously standing behind the door, soaked in sweat.

"I...I didn't... I didn't mean to eavesdrop!-

But before he could finish, he was then cut.

"Pretend as if you've heard nothing."

Erwin's blunt tone stated and was about to leave the scene when...

"You said no one has yet created the cure...right?!"

He asks, gripping his clothes.

"I don't know what you are talking about."

Erwin's voice was firm pretending while staring into his eyes as if he was giving him a warning.

"Let's go, milord."

"Wait!"

"I can do it! I can create the antidote!"

Khalid who was about to leave stopped and stared at him from the eyes.

"What if you can't?"

"Then... Then you can take my life!"

Khalid grinned amusedly with his bravery, though Erwin showed the opposite, looking at the boy with despise and doubt, even though fire could be seen burning in his eyes.