[BL] Accidentally Becoming the Healer of the Deranged Archduke-Chapter 160: Xion Vanished

Xion thumbed the spherical pendant. Its silver carvings felt cool against his fingertips. Yet the stone itself was still warm. The lingering trace of Darius seemed to seep into his skin as he slowly rubbed his thumb over it.

"You said you got this... and then your condition improved?"

Darius hummed lightly in response. His low voice carried the unmistakable weight of exhaustion.

His body was the weakest among them — even more than Xion’s.

"We should really rest. A proper rest, Your Grace. Your body won’t be able to bear it much longer."

"We’ll see," Darius answered vaguely. He had his own considerations.

It nearly took them three months to come to the royal capital.

At that time, they were trying to hide their traces from royal eyes. Which had worked perfectly until they entered the southern region.

Now Darius was determined to return north as quickly as possible. With the pace they were pushing, they could cut their travel time almost in half.

There was a shorter route, one that bypassed this place altogether, yet Darius had chosen this path for a reason. He needed something from Marquis Roberto.

Something that would ensure that no matter where Xion went, Marquis’s family would have no right over his well-being.

Xion wanted to stay away from the Vaelis family, so Darius was going to gift him his freedom.

Just one signature on a parchment, and Xion would not have to worry about being hunted down by Roberto or Soren in the future.

This was why they were now standing at the huge gates of the Marquis estate.

"Stay close to Ray."

Xion nodded. Normally, Ray would stay with his grace, but this time Darius had taken Allen with him.

As for the reason, Xion did not ask. The majority of his attention was on the pendant in his hand.

There in the front was Marquis Roberto, with his blonde hair and blue eyes, he looked like the older version of Soren. That was the usual case.

Nonetheless, today, Roberto looked different. He was older, more worn. In just two months, he seemed to have aged almost a decade.

Xion barely spared him a glance. Whatever happened to Roberto was none of his concern.

From the thin lady standing at one side and the twins at the other, he ignored every member of the Vaelis family while they respectfully greeted his grace.

The greetings did not last long and soon Xion was taken to the special rooms decorated for his grace and his subjects.

When Xion entered after Ray, he was slightly stunned.

"I found you here, little rabbit." Ray deliberately elongated his voice when he said so. "You were so small back then... and now look at you — practically reaching my shoulder."

Xion gazed at the surroundings and then settled at the wooden closet. It was precisely where he was hiding and then got caught by Ray.

Come to think of it, if Ray hadn’t found him first, Xion might have ended up in Soren’s or Caspian’s grasp.

Of course, he would have fought back. Nevertheless, meeting Ray was actually a stroke of good luck.

"Yeah..." Xion smiled faintly. "I’m glad it was you."

Ray flopped onto the bed with none of his usual knightly poise. "Of course you are." He rolled to his side, propping his face on his knuckles with one leg lazily folded.

Then, with a wink that held zero shame, he grinned. "After all... I’m so handsome and charming."

Xion rolled his eyes. No matter how hard Ray tried to mimic Darius’ natural elegance by copying the archduke’s style, the difference was painfully obvious.

"Hey! At least agree with me! You would have done so if it were Allen."

Xion might have really played along with the alchemist. Well, Allen was never to make such tasteless jokes and Xion just did not feel the need to stroke Ray’s ego any further.

"That’s brother Allen. Of course, he is handsome, and his grace is a different kind of handsome. As for you..."

Instead of answering, Xion sighed and then shook his head, "There is no hope if you compare yourself to His Grace."

Ray snorted before slumping back on the mattress. Barely a few minutes had passed and Xion could hear the soft snoring filling the otherwise silent room.

Xion approached him carefully, draping a blanket over the sleeping knight. He knew Ray’s reflexes were too sharp for accidents, so he moved with extra care.

He did not sit on the bed. Rather he went toward the chair. The same one which Ray had once used while pulling the past Xion on the table.

Xion could still recall how terrified he had been at that time.

"It really is such a weird coincidence that we are back in the same place..." Xion muttered while giving one last glance to Ray before vanishing into thin air.

He was now in his lab. Without wasting a single second, he sat on the chair before placing the pendant on the table in front of him.

He took a few deep breaths, trying hard to calm his frantic heartbeat.

After relaxing his tense muscles and staring at the green gemstone for a bit longer, he made up his mind to discover the truth of his wild guesses.

He slowly extracted the mana stored in the pendant, letting it hover under the confine of his own pale-yellow almost white mana.

It was green, but not like the murky, sickly hue that coursed through Darius’ veins.

This shade was softer, gentler. It held a strange depth... like sunlight reaching down through endless water.

It reminded Xion of the ocean’s heart, that mystifying shade of green found far beneath the surface, where sunlight barely reached yet still danced in delicate shimmers.

It was the kind of green that felt cool to the eyes yet somehow warm to the soul, like the quiet calm that settles just before a storm.

Xion watched the delicate tendril dance with his own mana, weaving and connecting as if it belonged there.

It was nothing like Darius’ corrupted energy. Or... perhaps this was Darius’ true mana.

His ring amplified mana after storing it. But this pendant... it purified it.

Or more likely, terminated the toxins present in it and then injected it back into the archduke’s body whenever he needed it.

Darius’ murky mana was like... a special venom.

Something that invaded, corrupted, and consumed everything it touched.

Xion let out a shuddering breath.

It was like ... Cancer.

Darius was suffering from mana cancer.