"Mental illness ......?

　I whisper those words to Drage.
　What the hell is that ......?

"I don't know the details, but the boy doesn't seem to have the will to live. That's why the functions of the body are being pulled down by the mind. It's not a physical disease, and I can't cure it.

　In other words, the reason why this child is in this situation is because this child wants to do it.
　After hearing this fact, I looked again at the face of this boy who looks like Shin, and then turned around to look at the manticore standing behind me.

...... You heard that right, Mr. Manticore.

　The manticore does not respond to my call.
　But I will ask more questions.

"The monsters I grew won't help me save the boy. If you want to save her, perhaps there's only one way. Tell us everything you know about her. Tell us everything you know about her, where you met her, why she's here, and how she got to be this way.

　That will be the only way to save the child, I asked the manticore.
　After a moment of silence, the manticore speaks up quietly.

...... The child was found a few years ago by me and my wife, who found it by accident.

　Then the story is told from the manticore's mouth about his first encounter with the boy.





　It was the manticore's wife who first found the boy.
　She found the boy lying in the desert, alone and tired from walking around aimlessly.

　His wife was a manticore, like him, but at the time their child had been born to her and had become ill and died of exhaustion.
　Perhaps that was a factor, as his wife's manticore took care of the child while he was still down.

　The boy was saved by the demon and lived with him, but at first he was still very cautious.
　Even before he was picked up, he was already acting like he couldn't trust others for some reason.
　However, his wife's manticore had fed the boy many times and waited patiently for him to get his hands on it.

　After a few days, the tension between them began to dissolve as the boy dipped into the meal offered to him.
　After that, the boy gradually developed a childlike smile and attitude befitting his age, and would often play on the back of the manticore or fall asleep with him in a body hug.
　He would often play on the manticore's back and fall asleep with his body in his arms, as if he had lost his mother and was now reunited with her.

　And so it was with his wife, Manticore, he says.
　He met the boy just as he was about to lose his goal of living after losing his newborn child.
　Even though they were of different races, he couldn't leave the child alone and dying, without a parent.
　The manticore was so kind to the boy that he poured out his love for his lost child, and the manticore was also saved.

　But that relationship only lasted a few years.
　About a month ago, his wife's manticore suffered an unexplained weakness and died.
　Details are unknown as to whether it was the same disease that once took their child.
　But that's not the point. What is important is that the boy's mother, the manticore, has died.

　Then, like his mother's manticore, the boy's body wasted away day by day, and eventually he fell ill.
　After seeing the condition of their children and their wives, it was natural for the manticore to believe that this child had the same disease.

　Then he heard a rumor that I was a demon grower and was waiting for me to come to the desert territory.
　He didn't tell you exactly where he heard about me.





...... I see. So that's how it is.

　I nodded my head, which was mostly understandable.
　Then a certainty filled me.
　If I put together what the Manticore told me and what I heard from Shin, this child is probably Shin's real brother.
　One of the rightful heirs to the throne with royal blood.
　But a few years ago, he and his mother were nearly assassinated when the child fell off the terrace into a lake that existed just below. There he survived.

　Perhaps later, when the child realized that he was being hunted, he left the palace and fled into the desert on his own.
　He was very young and saw his mother killed right in front of him.
　It would be like an instinct to be confused and to run away.

　Then, just as he was about to run out of steam, this manticore picked him up.
　After that, the boy would have lived here, as he said, but the manticore that was raising him died.
　It was the boy's second loss of his mother.
　He couldn't trust anyone anymore and should have been just scared every day, but the monster that reached out to him.
　It was undoubtedly none other than the boy's mother.
　If that mother dies in front of him again, the boy's hope of living will be lost.
　If the boy has been raised by a demon, it's no wonder that his mental structure has stopped as it was when he was picked up.
　Therefore, the boy probably decided to die of his own volition.
　To go to heaven where his two mothers are waiting for him.
　There is no greater stress for a child than the death of the mother he loves.

When it comes to ......, this could be a really troublesome cause.

　I mutter heavily.
　Because as Drage said earlier, this was a complete debilitation caused by the boy's mind.
　Then to turn it back around you have to give the boy hope and meaning in life.
　I can cure any disease now. But there is still only one thing that can't be cured. That's the disease of the mind.
　The irony is that we've created a demon that can be harvested for the elixir of mandragora, and now we have a disease that is the only one that can't be cured.

　But what are we going to do.
　I've come this far and I want to fix this girl.
　Above all, if this is Shin's brother, you must do something to fix him for Shin's sake: .......

That's right!

　There was . A hope for this child to live. Or a reason to live.
　Certainly this boy's mother is dead.
　and the monster who became his mother for a second time is dead.
　And yet only one of the boy's flesh and blood. the older sister, who still remembers her brother's presence and speaks of him fondly.



"Mr. Manticore. I need you to do me a favor. Will you release her to me?

　To that request from me, the manticore just remains silent.

"Of course, I'm not just asking you to give me up. Of course, I'm not asking you to just hand her over. She has an elder sister who is still fondly carrying her close to her heart. Seeing her would reunite him with his lost family and maybe give him hope to live. So please. Give her to me. And then you can save her!

　I said this to the manticore, convinced that it was for the best.
　But the answer I get from the Manticore is something I didn't expect.

"...no.

"Huh?

"I'm not giving this baby back to you. We can't give her back.