Eleazar

"So, you don't actually know how to treat Eleazar either."

"That's right. As for the Eleazar and forbidden knowledge you mentioned, it's most likely some manifestation of memory, and I happen to have some... connection to memories. That's why I can sense it."

"Regardless, please accept my sincerest thanks."

Xingsu shook his head. "It was a lucky accident on my part. I'll also look into exactly how Eleazar works later."

"People have long held differing opinions on how to treat Eleazar, but no one has managed to produce an effective treatment. Allow me to thank you again for your willingness to help us."

Xingsu watched Tighnari lead Collei by the hand until they disappeared beyond the House of Daena's doors, then stood alone in the empty reading area.

"Eleazar, Forest Watcher... It looks like Tighnari must be an Amurta scholar. I'll look for some reference material on the shelves."

The bookshelves towered up to the dome, neatly lined with herbal compendiums, medical observation journals, and research papers. The bitter scent of dried herbs mingled with the smell of ink in the air.

"Eleazar Observation Notes," "Ancient Sumeru Methods for Suppressing Eleazar," "How to Comfort a Child with Eleazar"...

Hmm. Written by Tighnari. All of them.

"Whoa... Did I just make friends with someone remarkable?"

Tighnari walked slowly along an Akademiya path, holding Collei's hand, but his thoughts had drifted entirely back to everything that had just happened in the House of Daena.

Over the past several years, he had studied countless herbal compendiums and investigated Withering Zone contamination in the field. He had always attributed Eleazar solely to a buildup of elemental toxins caused by forbidden knowledge, but herbal medicines, whether applied externally or taken internally, could only temporarily suppress the burning pain on the skin, treating the symptoms rather than the cause.

The consensus reached through years of research in Sumeru was that Eleazar was a terminal illness in which exposure to forbidden knowledge and entry into severe Withering Zones subjected the body to contaminated elements, causing bodily mutations, elemental imbalances, and immune system collapse.

Yet what Xingsu had just seen and sensed had opened up an entirely new research perspective for him-the root of Eleazar was not simply elemental contamination. Rather, forbidden knowledge settled into negative memories that eroded the soul, and the body's illness was merely an outward manifestation of damage to the soul.

He kept recalling Xingsu's pale, weakened appearance, countless questions churning within him:

Xingsu's unusual ability allowed him to directly absorb the residual poison of forbidden memories, taking on the mental backlash caused by the contamination.

There was no record of this treatment in any literature. Could relieving the symptoms in the short term cause a deeper depletion of his consciousness? Could repeatedly taking on this negative, forbidden contamination leave Xingsu himself infected by forbidden knowledge?

As a scholar, a scholar with a conscience, Tighnari would certainly not let Xingsu face that danger alone.

It seemed he would need to discuss things with Xingsu more often in his future research into Eleazar.

With countless thoughts tangled together, he completely failed to notice the figure approaching him.

Alhaitham carried a notebook of his own, his gaze resting on the manuscript in his hands that recorded research topics from the Darshans. Immersed in the logic of his own writing as he walked, he likewise never raised his head to watch where he was going.

The two collided without warning.

"Sorry." Alhaitham bent down unhurriedly to pick up the scattered pages, then looked up at the distracted Forest Watcher. His gaze passed over the worry lingering between Tighnari's brows, and he asked evenly, "You seem preoccupied. Has a new Withering Zone appeared in Avidya Forest?"

Tighnari hurriedly crouched to gather the scattered charts, his fox ears drooping slightly. Without concealing what was on his mind, he took the opportunity to recount his experience in the House of Daena. "It's not a Withering Zone. It's a new discovery about Eleazar. I just took Collei to the House of Daena to borrow some literacy primers, and we met a boy named Xingsu. He claimed he could see manifestations of memory, and he used some special ability to ease Collei's Eleazar. But it seems to place a considerable burden on his body."

"Xingsu? The House of Daena? The boy who came to the House of Daena yesterday and picked out several literacy primers to read?"

"Ah... Huh? So he wasn't joking? He really did only learn to read yesterday?" Tighnari felt as though his worldview had been shaken.

"He can see manifestations of memory? Interesting." Paying no attention to Tighnari's shock, Alhaitham was clearly intrigued by this novel concept of memories taking form. "I'll have a conversation with him when I have time."

"All right, then I won't keep you from your work. Goodbye, Alhaitham."

"Strictly speaking, I'm on my lunch break."

"Uh..."

Xingsu sat alone, bent over a wooden desk, with Tighnari's handwritten book on Eleazar spread before him. Dried rainforest flowers and herbs were pressed between pages densely covered in observation notes, herbal formulas, and data records.

He studied it carefully, word by word, sentence by sentence, but the further he read, the tighter his brows drew together.

Tighnari had spent years stationed in Avidya Forest on forest patrols, and his manuscript was filled with specialized terminology understood only by Forest Rangers and Amurta researchers. Removed from the actual rainforest environment, many of the words and phrases were impossible to understand through text alone.

Unfamiliar terms appeared everywhere on the pages: stratified concentration thresholds of Withering Zone miasma, secondary contamination from fungal spores, diagnostic characteristics of stage-three surface mutations in Eleazar, toxin release cycles from Ley Line fissures... These technical terms had never appeared in the Akademiya's standard literacy texts, and even the definitions provided by the Akasha Terminal remained superficial.

In short... he couldn't understand it.

"It looks like I'll still need direct contact with Eleazar patients like Collei if I want to understand the disease in detail."

Xingsu propped his cheek on one hand, his eyes lowered, his fingertips unconsciously rubbing the pages of the journal. He sensed the black mist of memories he had taken from Collei lurking deep within his consciousness, slowly dissipating at a barely perceptible rate.

Moreover, the greatest opening for researching a cure for Eleazar seemed to be himself, but Xingsu's understanding of his own abilities and memories was negligible too.

It looks like I need to study not just the knowledge here, but my own secrets as well. I'll ask Lin about that tonight.

Xingsu slowly lifted his heavy eyelids. A faint haze still clouded his vision, and the instant his eyes focused, he found himself staring straight into a pair of cool, composed green eyes.

He had no idea how long the young man before him had been sitting in the opposite chair. When Xingsu opened his eyes, the young man also looked up from the book in his hands and met his gaze.

"Uh... Ah, sorry, I was lost in thought. Is there something you need?"

"No apology is necessary. Not disturbing a scholar's thoughts is the most basic courtesy. I didn't come here to borrow books. I merely wanted to ask you a few questions."

"Ah, please go ahead."

"How did you appear in the Akademiya out of thin air and obtain the status of a visiting scholar?"

As the Scribe, Alhaitham had few duties, but organizing and managing records happened to be among them. Faced with Xingsu, who had suddenly appeared in the Akademiya without anyone else questioning it, Alhaitham's first priority was to establish his identity.