Lotus was at a loss. She had just given away a few decades of her own life to someone else and now she's only just found out the details of Riddle's ailments! Yet if she give away more of her time, can she live long enough to claim vengeance, much less leave this world?
However, Yuu and Grim was saved and assisted by him back in the Isle of Lament according to Yuu as well. For that, she owes him a big debt of gratitude that must be repaid...
"So, I originally had silver hair?" Riddle looked to her in surprise before shaking his head, "No wait. You said I lost years of my life?"
Lotus nodded, "It's not as severe as Vil's case, but your body aged a little too quickly. It's only been a few days, so probably a year had passed for your body. Your growth also ceased due to lack of nutrient intake during the fast growth. Gave me your hand."
"What are you trying to do?" Riddle looked to her in confusion.
"Patch the problem." Lotus responded and took his hands in her own by force.
It was then that a sudden surge of energy flowing through his body followed by a dense mana! He could feel the weariness vanish as she slowly let go of her hands.
"Done. How do you feel?" Lotus questioned curiously as she fought back the feeling of weariness and strong pain rising from within her.
"Better..." Riddle noted hesitantly before looking to her with a start, "Peony?! You don't look too well. What did you do earlier?"
She yawned, "Nothing much. Just a little tired..."
Seeing this, Riddle frowned, "Are you sure?"
Peony nodded with a dry smile, "I'll just... sleep a little..."
"Peony? Peony!" Riddle called to her as a sense of discomfort rose in him. Something wasn't right!
He got up and looked around hurriedly trying to find another being other than himself. Other than himself and his dorm mates, they had not seen other guests in this realm before, but he recalled her once mentioning that there were other peaks in this realm. Perhaps, there were more people in other areas?
Seeing that Try and Cater weren't present in the realm, he cried out desperately trying to remain calm, "Little Jun? Jun?! Little Jun, come out!"
Like a miracle, Riddle heard a soft cry above him as he looked up with a shocked expression. Little Jun appeared in his large yet foal-like appearance and trotted down the sky to his side, "Riddle! It's Big Brother Riddle! Do you need something? I'm afraid I can't play today..."
"I think there's something wrong with your master!" Riddle hurriedly responded, "Please take a look!"
Seeing his master in such a fragile state, Little Jun was shocked and listened carefully to what Riddle had told him had happened.
"This..." Little Jun hummed hesitantly at a loss for words before saying, "I think Master needs a long rest..."
"Do you know what's wrong with her?" Riddle hesitated nervously, "You don't think that she just gave away her lifespan to me, right?"
"Well, that's probably what she did..."
"What?! This..." Riddle closed his mouth in silence unsure of what to say or do. How do you recover lost life span? Is it very serious? It sounds so in a literal sense.
Little Jun sighed, "You see, before arriving here, she was out on a mission and got poisoned."
"So, something did happened..." Riddle frowned.
Little Jun nodded, "The assailant was a young girl that had just become a full fledged evil cultivator. However, while sent to finish the job by the guardian, master was poisoned on the knee by her. Fortunately, the dorm leader found her and brought her back to the dorm."
"She was spotted by a dorm leader?" Riddle muttered with a nervous expression across his face.
Little Jun nodded, "It was the flashy, flashy one that got everyone cheering during the dance competition. Really tall and pretty big brother."
"That's Vil!" Riddle cried out with a look of surprise across his face, "Why was he where the guardian is?"
"He didn't say..." Little Jun replied rather saddened, "After they talked, he locked her in a dorm room. She could break herself out of there, but that would alarm the staff and students. Also, he used magic to seal the room."
"Seriously?!" Riddle said in disbelief, "Isn't that a little too excessive?"
"No matter what she said, I think he doesn't trust her words, so he locked her in there. To prevent him from alarming everyone, she sealed his ability to talk about her or anything related to the situation. However..."
There was a moment of silence as Riddle thought to himself carefully. He had only known Vil for a year and half and this wasn't like the Vil from what he knows. There's probably a deeper meaning behind all this...
"Due to this," Little Jun continued, "Master can leave the dorm to finish her mission. She agreed to stay and recover, but the guy wants her to stay longer to recover. Still, the bad guy won't sit still for a few weeks for her to get back on her feet and master fears they'll do something if she leaves the dorm..."
"What about Lotus?"
"Lotus?" Little Jun tilted his head innocently.
"It's no use! He's stuck babysitting the guardian!"
Out of nowhere a high pitch girl voice called out much to their surprise.
"What was that?!"
A small fairy like creature appeared next to them as the ponytail girl sighed, "I figured you'd be here, you little rascal! Do you know how worried everyone is right now?!"
"Who is this?" Riddle questioned with a surprised expression across his face, "A fairy?"
"I'm Ying Hui." She responded after examining her master, "I'm an ancient spirit weapon contracted under Little Jun's master. I'm also his tutor in cultivation and literature. After he disappeared, everyone got really worried. Especially, Crystal. She's busy guiding Vil to retrieve an antidote to suppress her poison right now, but I don't think it'll treat her current one."
"Do you know a way to treat her?" Riddle asked feeling as though there's still hope.
Ying Hui nodded, "Yes, but it's not that easy. From what I can tell, master has given away a large number of her lifespan and vitality today. It wasn't just you. She had to treat Vil as well because he lost a large number of his lifespan."
"So it WAS her lifespan!" Riddle's eyes widen in horror as his chest dropped upon hearing this, "What can we do to help her?"
Ying Hui shook her head, "Only cultivating can help heal her over time and she will require about fifty years of cultivation to recover her vitality and life span. Had it not been for her responsibility as a doctor, she would not agree to treat you two no matter what."
"Responsibility as a doctor?" Riddle looked to her rather impressed although also slightly disappointed without knowing why.
"How did Lotus get so good at medicine?" Ying Hui reasoned, "If not for her help, he wouldn't have gotten as good as his own family. But there are responsibilities that come with being a physician. You must treat them regardless of who they are. When providing diagnosis and treatment, prices must be paid for it or the one paying the price is the physician, themselves. It would seem that master owed you two the favor after what you've done in Isle of Lament and paid you back this way."
"But this is too much!" Riddle exclaimed in bewilderment, "I'm grateful that she's helped us to such an extent, but she..."
Ying Hui sighed, "Right now, she's too weak to fight off both poisons. Crystal got Vil to help her get an antidote for her old poison symptoms, we need to help suppress the other poison she can't fight off. Lucky for us, the Guardian understood which antidote our master actually requires. However, the new poison in her body is something else. To do that, we need someone to use light mana. Since you've just recovered your life span, you can't cast strong magic just yet. Not for another few days. We need someone else."
"Someone else?" Riddle thought to himself in confusion, "Ah right! Little Jun! Do you know who else is in this realm?"
Little Jun thought for a bit before responding, "Everyone here are those who master helped protect their soul from the overblot. Because they came into contact with her mana, they get transported here everytime they sleep, like big brother Riddle."
"Everyone?" Riddle's eyes widen in surprise, "Then, I can only ask them for help... But who can I ask?"
After humming in deep thoughts for a while, Riddle heard Little Jun gasp in surprise az he raised his head to the foal, "Jun?"
"There's these new guys that arrived just the other day! Master helped their little brother, so they're now both in the realm!" Little Jun exclaimed, "This tall guy won't stop smiling since he appeared though. Anyway, the shorter and nicer guy has an amazing amount of mana in him! Maybe we can go ask them for help!"
"Who are they?"
"They should be the siblings from Ignihyde." Ying Hui responded.
"Ignihyde? Then, Idia and Ortho?!"
She nodded, "Just the other day, master noticed an anomaly from the younger brother and discovered that, after death, his soul split in half and, while one rested in the underworld, the other resided in the robot relying on Idia's mana to keep his soul alive. After Master found this out, she reached out to merge the souls back together in exchange for helping Lotus integrate into the school. Right now, Ortho is back in one piece and resides in a machine vessel to stay in this world. However, he'll continue to dream for a long time before memories of his previous consciousness comes back to him, which we call awakening."
"Ortho... died?" Riddle looked to her in bewilderment.
Little Jun nodded, "I was there with master when we were trying to help merge the souls together. So I saw Ortho's and Idia's memories. I'll explain on the way, but we need Ortho's help."
"I'll stay with Master. Take Little Jun with you. Only he can leap between peaks with ease." Ying Hui explained, "Oh! Little Jun can only carry two people at a time now, so try not to push him too hard!"
Riddle nodded and used his horse riding skills to get on the foal with ease, "I still can't believe you can carry me without any problems."
"That's because I'm strong!" Little Jun said with a slight blush, "Hold on tight!"
With that, Little Jun began to gallop to the highest land of their peak as he began his explanation.