It was a bit over a year after we met when it happened.
"Coughcoughhackcoughhackcoughcoughwheezecough"
It came all of the sudden while we were having a warm soak in the bath together.
Alicia seemed like she was a bit better that day, but out of nowhere she suddenly had the worst coughing fit I've ever seen. She tried to bury her face into my chest as if she was trying desperately to suppress it, but instead I could feel my chest being splattered with something wet.
"Alicia! You alright? How do you feel!?"
I held the sick girl a little back so I could see her face.
She was in a bit of a daze, but I could smell it. It was blood, and not like the usual amount. It was the scent of a bleeding wound. There was even a bit of blood on her lips.
I had the worst feeling as my stomach rolled end over end.
My hand went to my chest and touched the spot Alicia coughed into. It was wet with something sticky and a bit thick. I brought my hand up and saw.
This time, she had coughed up blood.
A lot of it.
In a hurry, I jumped out of the bath and dried our bodies with magic before pressing her body against mine and I lay onto the bed as gently as I could before covering ourselves in every blanket I had.
After all this time, it was natural to sleep this way, and I had already lay down on the bed before I realized what I was doing. That said, since we were used to sleeping like this, not doing so would needlessly make Alicia anxious, making it more difficult for her to rest and heal.
I levitated over a scrap of leather to wipe Alicia's mouth and my chest. If what was making her sick was also in these clumps of blood, then I needed to keep them away from her.
Immediately after, I used [Scan] on her and started going through the endless pages of her data. There was so much information here, there must be something that said what was wrong.
But perhaps because I couldn't understand what was written well enough, just like the dozens the other times I've opened her data, I couldn't figure out what was wrong.
I bit my lip, barely aware that my fang tore right through it.
Whatever was causing this, it wasn't a status ailment, at least not the sort that the system would recognized as. If that was the case, then must've been something that the system didn't cover. But what would that be?
The system did properly show things like poison or paralysis. I confirmed such things when I suffered various status ailments while I was alone in the dungeon. Any time I wasn't feeling well, I was easily able to confirm it in my own status, so why couldn't I see what was making Alicia suffer through hers?
I opened my own data and compared the information, but quickly gave up. They were too different. We weren't even the same species, so even the things that were fine would be drastically different. It was useless as a point of reference.
I bit my already healed lip in frustration, but I hardly noticed the pain of tearing right though it once more.
"Uuu..."
"Alicia! Alicia, how are you feeling"
"S, Scarlet?"
"That's right. I'm here. How are you feeling?"
Her breathing was laboured and unsteady. I can hear faint wheezing with each breath, along with the strong scent of blood.
"I...coughhackcoughcough"
Specks of blood splattered onto my chest. Her face looked pale.
No, not just her face, her whole body was almost as pale as my own. For me, that was just how I was, but for a human like her, that was a terrible omen.
"I'm, I'm just tired. I'll be good again in the morning"
Alicia smiled weakly as she looked into my eyes.
It was only then I had realized it.
That smile. That smile was the same one she had been giving me for the last few months whenever I showed concern over her health.
This wasn't something new. I knew that much, but Alicia had been aware that she had been growing more and more sick.
I bit though my lip for the third time today, then swallowed my emotions like they were pieces of chalk in my mouth.
"Okay, then rest. I'll be here the entire time, so sleep and rest. We can play when you get better Alicia"
She weakly nodded before closing her eyes. I wrapped my arms around her body as tightly as I dared. I couldn't stop them from shaking, but Alicia didn't react to it. No, she pretended not to notice.
Tears ran down my face as I desperately tried to come up with any ideas as to what was happening to Alicia's body or what I could do about it, but the night passed without a single idea solidifying inside of me.
"Mmmm..."
"!"
Alicia stirred, and slowly opened her eyes.
"Good morning Scarlet"
"Good morning Alicia"
"I'm feeling better...!"
"No you're not. You're still sick. I'm not letting you out of bed today"
Alicia tried to push herself up, but I stubbornly pulled her back into my chest.
She had regained a bit of colour, and her eyes focused better than they did the night before, but I wasn't under any illusions. There was no way she had recovered in a single night what had been bringing her down slowly over months. No, perhaps even years.
"Muuu"
"I won't yield. You're going to rest, and you're going to get better. I won't allow any objections"
Perhaps seeing the determination in my eyes, Alicia gave up without complaining, but I didn't miss how her lips curled up at the ends a bit as she tried to hide her face.
"But first, I'm going to do a full examination. We can't beat this illness if we don't know more about it"
I rolled to my side, and gently lowered Alicia directly to the mattress.
The little girl shot her arms around my neck as I tried to pull away.
"Muuuuu!"
"I need to examine your body. There's no way I can do that while you're lying on top of me"
"Uuuu..."
She let go of me, but she was oozing with dissatisfaction.
To make up for it, I held her hand. Her expression got a little better, but she didn't let go of that frown.
As Alicia lay there on her back, I got a full view of her body, and I was shocked. Her body had gotten as thin as when we had first met.
Even this morning she was eating more than ever, yet it didn't reflect on her body in the slightest. It was like something was sucking all the nutrients out of her food before her body could use it. Both her ribs and her pelvis were clearly visible, and her limbs had almost no muscle or fat on them.
(How had I not noticed this?)
I clenched my teeth. I had become careless. If I didn't fix this immediately, I'd never be able to make up for my mistake.
My hand touched her forehead, throat, chest, and belly, checking for any abnormalities I could detect. But I wasn't a doctor of any kind. I couldn't tell if there were any issues where I touched.
There weren't any problems with her aura either, as far as I could tell. It was as thick and strong as ever, though not as energetic as it used to be.
I moved over Alicia and pressed my ear against her chest. Her heartbeats were regular, though not very strong.
Her breathing on the other hand was very rough. The airflow sounded like it was extremely turbulent, like her breathing was partially blocked somewhere and the air was forced to flow through a narrow passage that wasn't supposed to be like that. At least, that's what it sounded like to me.
"Alicia, could you take a deep breath?"
Her small chest rose a bit, but quickly deflated.
"Did you take as big of a breath as you could?"
"I did"
Was that normal? It definitely felt small, but her body was smaller than mine, so she obviously couldn't take as big of a breath as I could. But even then, it felt small.
I was reasonably sure that the problem lay with her lungs, but what could it be?
"Coughcoughhackwheezecoughcough"
As Alicia started to cough again, I wrapped an arm around the back of her head and held her to my chest. Until I could figure out what to do to fix her, all I could was comfort her the best I could.
I could feel my chest grow wet, but I ignored it and held on to Alicia tightly until she calmed down again.
"I...I'm sorry"
"There's nothing for you to be sorry about Alicia"
She was sick. It wasn't her fault. None of this was her fault. She shouldn't have had to suffer any of this, but it seemed like this world was pretty unfair like my last. Was it trying to correct the fact that she was supposed to die a year ago? I refused such a reasoning. Nobody should be fated to die, especially someone innocent like Alicia.
I'd overturn any logic if it was to save Alicia.
I was at my limit when it came to figuring out anything from Alicia's body. No inspection or examination told me more than what I already knew, which was that there was probably something wrong with her lungs.
If I could see inside, then maybe I could figure out more, but x-ray machines didn't exist in this world the best I could tell, nor did I have the skill for x-ray vision.
And it wasn't like I could make such a skill. The logic behind such an ability was completely arbitrary and dubious, made entirely of convenient movie logic and nothing more. It was the same as infrared vision somehow being able to see through solid walls. It was nothing more than a convenient plot device that ignored any logic beyond 'it's how it works in this fictional world.'
I couldn't understand her data, any surface inspection gave me virtually no useful information, and I couldn't see inside without doing serious harm to her body.
I was at my wit's end, and all I could do was lay Alicia's body on top of my own and hug her in comfort.
But who was I kidding? It was only for my own comfort, and the fact that she quietly lay there as we hugged each other was proof of that.
No matter how sick she was, she was still a seven year old child. She was probably bored whenever she wasn't asleep.
Every time she noticed I was staring at her, Alicia would raise her head and give me the biggest smile she could, but otherwise kept quiet. She even kept her breathing shallow to avoid wheezing and coughing as much as possible.
"Coughcoughhackcoughwheeze"
I've lost count of how many times blood had splattered onto my chest as Alicia coughed, but once again I retrieved a clean piece of leather I had shredded to make cleaning rags and wiped myself and Alicia so that she had at least a clean place to rest on.
(If only I could see inside of Alicia, maybe I could get a clue as to what's wrong)
I had also lost count of how many times I had thought this.
With how often Alicia had coughed up blood, she might be getting pretty low on it. Was her body producing enough to make up for the loss? At least her appetite hadn't suffered from all of this.
The amount of blood on the rag wasn't really significant. Maybe just a handful of drops, but it's happened so many times, it's gotta add up.
If only I could give her a transfusion or something, but never mind the lack of quality needles and tubing, I didn't even know if my blood would be compatible. Forget blood type, we weren't even the same species. The effects could be disastrous.
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