Chapter Text
It was a few days after their battle with the Hydra monsters that the effects actually started to appear. The whole mystery solving and debacle of events that lead up to that point.. The aftermath.. at some point, it all just became rather blurry for Cater.
He wasn’t sure if that was the slow loss of memories speaking, or whether that was just the exhaustion. Everyone was exhausted, and it was pretty evident. The manor was kind of lacking in energy, but things were improving. Hell, the newbie freshies were already back to normal, what with their loud bickering and shenanigans.
Cater could only chuckle in response.
The manor they all lived in was pretty big.
There was one common manor with some basic facilities that everyone could use. It had an attic that had seven mirrors that led to pocket dimensions, each consisting of a smaller house with about nine to ten bedrooms each, and other facilities. To keep some order, they kept one member in charge of every ‘dorm’, who was known as the ‘dorm leader’, and the dorm leader could also choose to appoint a vice-dorm leader should they wish too.
At the very middle of the manor was a small chamber, with an ancient mirror in the center. The mirror was the one that summoned people to this manor. It would assign the person to their dorm, and usually send each dorm out on missions, errands or such around places. The identities of the trainees were still kept to the knowledge of a select few, however.
They worked on the down low during missions, albeit most people were familiar with ‘Night Raven Company’, with it being a prestigious, well known company that trained talented mages, but had a very, very low acceptance rate, with only a few two dozen trainees every year.
Each dorm usually sticks to a role that it has to play, although depending on missions as well as individual character strengths, things could be subjective at times; hence switch-ups in roles or teams wasn’t unusual.
The Heartslabyul dorm was usually sent out to investigate people, they were good with undercover cases and digging up information through communication and others. Creativity and intuitiveness was one of their strengths.
It currently has five members.
The Savanclaw dorm had good instincts and senses, uncovering physical evidence and trailing things down and related things was their forte. Any missions related to physical prowess were usually their domain.
It currently has three members.
The Octavinelle dorm was good with dealings, contracts, and getting what they wanted when they wanted. It was their networking intelligentsia domain that pulled and tugged the strings as and when they needed to.
It currently has three members.
The Scarabia dorm was good with efficiency and management, often also running errands around the place without wasting a breath. If small tasks needed to be finished so that the entire mission could run smoothly; they were the go-to dealers.
It currently has two members.
The Pomefiore dorm strengths lay in potionology, as well as image-maintaining.They handled any potion making required for missions. Amidst missions, they also often oversaw the details of keeping member’s identities on a down low.
It currently has three members.
The Ignihyde dorm was extremely adept at magical engineering and technology. They worked behind the scenes more often than not, running simulations and tests and almost about anything that could be done within the reach of their high-end, advanced tech.
It currently has two members.
The Diasomnia dorm possessed powerful magic. Their skills within spells and vast knowledge of it was viable for all missions requiring powerful spell casters or high-end magic skills.
It currently has four members.
Everyone usually returned to the manor after a day’s long work, although most missions tended to last a few days or more.
Their last mission wasn’t so unusual from the ordinary, in that sense, however the intensity of the mission was clearly high, they could tell from the get-go, given that the mirror had assigned all the dorms to the same case (a very rare occurrence), albeit they all had different roles to play.
The mission was to locate a troublesome monster that was beginning to pose a threat to Twisted Wonderland itself. Each dorm played their part, adhering to their usual roles.
The monster, a Hydra, one that possessed three heads and was way too large for Cater’s liking, had been their target, as they soon discovered from doing some information digging and uncovering. Battling it face to face was also just as difficult as it may have sounded, and its stature and prowess required the strength of about the members of all the dorms.
Teamwork was never Night Raven Company’s forte,, like.. ever, but after the entrance of two certain interesting individuals, namely Yuu and Grim, a magicless human from another world and a small, talking, fire-breathing magical beast, who ended up staying at the haunted, abandoned rundown wing of the manor (which was referred to as ‘Ramshackle’, true to its nature), things had somewhat started to improve in that aspect.
Fighting the raging, almost unbeatable monster, with a strategy that had been formed over a mere few hours of intense discussion (that was more filled with arguments than actual discussion), had worn everyone out immensely. As a result, they were all on leave for the next two weeks.
Their ‘professors’ (not exactly professors, maybe ‘guides’ or something of the sort, but it was rather complicated to put to words, so they agreed to just stick to ‘professors’ instead) along with the current head of the company, who they referred to as the Headmage, were all busy with dealing with the aftermath of the mission, with high-importance documents and the like to be dealt with, which the Headmage simply could not just pass over to the trainees to deal with like he usually did.
Cater was enjoying his break.
Well, at least the first day off was nice.
Then, it started. The symptoms.
First, it was just a dry throat. Not unexpected, the area in which they fought the Hydras was not only water-based, but also a rather cold region with breezy, chilly winds. A cold, he supposed (he was never one to get sick often), was not unexpected.
A day after, it was accompanied by a coming and going headache. It was alright, Cater resolved it with some pills to keep the ache away so he could function like normal (and mayhaps to avoid anyone from finding out).
By the fourth day of their small break, he had begun hacking up blood. Red, metal-tasting, cold, filthy blood.
He stared at his blood stained sink.
He panicked.
He did not tell anyone.
Nobody could know.
At least, not until he first figured out what was going on, which.. he had a good idea about. And it's exactly why he didn’t want to tell anyone.
That day, during their battle with the Hydra.. just as they made it draw its final breath, out of its dying, raging fury, it spilt out scales full of venom. Most of them were not in range, and those who were unfortunately in its range managed to evade it– all but Riddle, who had been injured mid-battle, and did not notice the oncoming hit.
Cater didn’t think twice.
He activated Split Card, and his clone dived for Riddle immediately, taking the hit for the red-haired underclassman.
Nobody got injured (by that last minute attack, that is), Cater’s clone poofed into cards as soon as it got hit.
Cater and the other members of Heartslabyul rushed towards Riddle to make sure he was okay.
Trey asked Cater if he was okay, and Cater simply flashed Trey a grin and reassured him with his usual chronically online lingo. Cater didn’t think it was untrue but he wasn’t sure if it was true either. Yes, he was fine. But no, something felt amiss.
He ignored it. No good would come out of acknowledging it, and the last thing he needed was for people to fuss over him for nothing.
That would mean acknowledging that they care.
That would mean confronting the fact that they might not.
Cater preferred to keep things simple.
And in all truth, he seriously didn’t realize that the venom would have managed to spread into his actual body. Wounds from his Split Card clones don’t carry over to his physical body, and by that logic, neither should the venom have done so either.
Magic intervention on the Hydra’s side was Cater’s suspicion, as nonsensical as it sounded, but it was the only available conclusion. And also not such an important one, because Cater had a bigger problem on hand.
He needed to figure out a solution and fast, lest he actually leave this planet for good. Time was of the essence, and also, pretending that he was totally fine and hiding the symptoms from others was getting harder.
Not to mention, because of his own ailment, his clones were acting up too, making it unreliable to just send out clones while he went about his own business!
He would usually spend what time he had in the large library of the manor, and if anyone got suspicious as to why Cater Diamond of all people was spending time in the library of all places, he would just make an excuse about how he was researching some stuff for some new trends that had started on Magicam, and that it was usually his clone that he sent to the library.
Neither of them being true, of course.
It was on the sixth day that he found out, having dug deep into the vast libraries deep and dark archives. He missed his daily depressive doomscrolling on Magicam for all of this researching business.
All to find out but one thing that he could do:
Nothing.
There was no cure.
No way to heal the ailment from a Hydra. None discovered, as far as the books went.
Once inflicted, it was a surefire, shortest route to death. And nothing could be done about it, albeit trying to keep the symptoms down low and manageable.
The venoms killed by sending the victim into a comatose state, from which they would never wake up, eventually leading to death in some way or the other, be it the victims closely-associated people deciding to let the victim pass peacefully, or from the prolonged vegetative state that the mortal body could only handle for so long.
There he sat, at five p.m. in the evening, gaze fixed onto the words that nailed the coffin shut.