When my father said I should take it easy for now, I just nodded, staring at the floor. He was actually encouraging to me after I told him everything. And honestly, I couldn't let him die. He was a very kind person with a very brilliant mind. Also, I wouldn't let my little sister live without a father. Even though I'm not their Phasnovterich, the least I can do is save his family.
"I'm going somewhere this summer."
He blinked, slightly tilting his head. "Oh? Somewhere?"
"Yeah. And… I think I know how to cure your Fluve Syndrome."
His pink eyes widened, but they weren't filled with shock. They were filled with hope but he chuckled weakly I'm disbelief afterwards.
"That's a very bold thing to say, my son. The Fluve Syndrome has been incurable since… well, since Fluxers began existing. Even the greatest research Fluxers couldn't—"
"I know. But I know the cure."
He went silent again. He wasn't scolding me or doubting me. I didn't say anything else. I couldn't tell him the truth because I did know the cure. I knew everything about it. It was one of those fixed events in the Masquerade of Dreams Shattered storyline. It was a tragedy that gutted every player the first time they experienced it.
Radellei Rameses is the golden prodigy of House Rameses and a Fluxer who was too kind for her own good. She found the cure to Fluve Syndrome after years of watching her people die from Flux Corrosion. Also, her own brother Asmarion was slowly losing his mind to the sickness as well. According to Hinesia, who is a serious lore player than me, Seirath told Radellei about Asmarion's Fluve Syndrome and asked her to find a cure. That's why Radellei focused more on her Alteration Flux.
When Asmarion finally snapped during the High Priestess Selection, the fourth act of the University Arc, he killed every single Rameses sister. Their house was drenched in their own blood before the cure could even be distributed.
Seirath discovered what Radellei was working on and, as an act of honor to his daughter's sacrifice, he entrusted it to the House of Germania, an Aiding House that specialized in medicine. That's how the cure became canon in later updates of the game.
When I first saw Asmarion, he didn't look weak but it was obvious he has Fluve Syndrome. He just hid it too well from the public and only Radellei found out about it from her father. Also, that's why Radellei chose to go with my mother to be a researcher. She wanted to find a cure of Fluve Syndrome.
That is also why Hinesia was happy about my mother's proposal to take Radellei to the World Forces as a researcher. This meant that Asmarion would be cured faster and he wouldn't kill them.
I knew exactly what ingredients she used for the cure. I'd memorized them back when I first played through the Fluve Exploration Arc, the second Dominia Quest. Every Outer who went through that event knew it by heart. The irony was that the game turned the recipe into a collectible after the arc ended. It was used ever single time that even story skippers knew the cure.
But the most important ingredient, the core of it all, was the Black Bleeding Rose. It's a flower so rare it only bloomed under specific conditions. And the only place in all of Altera Earth where such a field existed was right here, in the Argemenes estate.
Ire the same place where my current body was born. That realization hit me so hard I nearly laughed out loud.
Of course.. That's how Radellei got it in the main story. She didn't find it on her own. She got help from Phasnovterich Argemenes.
Phasnovterich was first introduced in the Fourth Act of the University Arc, the High Priestess Selection. His first appearance was him giving out a package to a woman hidden in a veil in Reversa University in the night and the heroine saw them. That's how the heroine first met Phasnovterich.
Not many players knew what the package was at first but those who paid attention to the story later on realized that it was the Black Bleeding Rose. No one except a direct Argemenes bloodline member could touch the Black Bleeding Rose without the flower withering. Which meant only an Argemenes could pluck it.
If I could synthesize the cure before the Rameses tragedy began, not only could I save my father, but I could prevent that entire massacre from happening. This is what Hinesia and I were planning.
Hinesia would help me find the ingredients and give them to Radellei while I got the Black Bleeding Rose from the estate. Then, I would give it to Radellei where she can make the cure earlier.
It was perfect.
But I couldn't tell my father all that.
If I said "Hey Dad, I'm from another world and I used to play this as an RPG," he'd probably assume the Fluve Syndrome had spread to my brain. So I took the easy route.
"I met The Frostclave Stag."
"One of the Ten Fluve Guardians? That's quite the encounter. You told me this a few minutes back, right?"
"Yeah," I said, rubbing the back of my neck, pretending to look sheepish. "It… told me things. One of them was a way to cure the Flux Corrosion sickness. It said it's not impossible but hidden."
"Hidden?"
"Yeah. Like… people knew it once but the formula was buried in the age of the First Fluxers."
He was quiet again. It wasn't a good life but at least he wouldn't ask more.
"Well, if the Frostclave Stag revealed something to you, then maybe it's fate. But I want you to promise me something, Phaser."
I glanced at him.
"Promise me that you won't lose yourself chasing miracles."
For a second, my throat locked. I wanted to tell him that this wasn't a miracle and that I could actually save him. But I didn't. I just nodded.
"Yeah… I promise."
As he stood up to leave, he gave me a gentle smile.
"Rest, Phaser. We'll talk more when your body recovers."
I nodded, watching as he walked out of the room. When the door closed, I exhaled heavily and looked out the window.