Jasmine, at heart, is a kind and loving person, especially to people in need so this was the question that suddenly popped inside Nera's head after thinking about it in the carriage on her way to the estate.
Even though she said she wouldn't think about it, she still felt nervous about the idea of suddenly talking about something as serious as the antidote. Thankfully, an idea came to her before she arrived.
Jasmine tilted her head, "What do you mean?"
"People only get to be healed with magic, right?"
"Yeah, because mana is used for everything."
"But you know, I was curious if we could heal our bodies without the use of mana..." Nera shrugged and sweated nervously, playing with her fingers to soothe herself. "And maybe plants could be an alternative." She immediately spewed out the facts about what the antidote needed because she didn't know how to say anything else. Not one clever way of telling her about it came into her head so she opted on mentioning the crucial part.
If this was Felya or anyone else that has known her before Jessica's memories, they wouldn't have believed that Nera was curious about anything.
But Nera knew that Jasmine wouldn't question her 'curiosity' since they were new friends.
"Why would you need to do that? Mana is literally everywhere." Jasmine's face and tone turned serious that it made Nera flinch.
She gulped, witnessing the Jasmine that is a person of intelligence. Not just a person of intelligence, someone at the top, a proclaimed genius by the Vanderwales themselves.
But even through her unease, Nera answered, "What if there was a sickness that couldn't be healed with mana?"
"Impossible," Jasmine replied with full confidence.
"Right? I was just curious..." Nera replied with a shaky voice.
'I can't do this!' Nera wanted to go home since Jasmine turned cold so suddenly which she expected; reading about it in the web novel gave her that heads up. Although now that she's experiencing it herself, she couldn't help but feel afraid.
Jasmine noticed Nera's agitated expression, immediately shaking her head, reverting back to her cheerful self.
"Oh, I'm sorry for that! I got all serious..."
"It's fine... I asked such a stupid question after all!" Nera awkwardly laughed and she kept looking down.
'Oh no...' Jasmine spoke in her head. 'I didn't expect her to ask something like that... That's why I got...'
"It wasn't stupid at all! It surprised me, that's all."
"Ah... I see."
"But, I really want to think about your question. You might have some reason that you can't tell me on why you're asking this but I won't pry. I want to be helpful to you."
'A female lead through and through!' Nera regained her energy from those simple words from Jasmine, simple enough to be convinced by that.
"I'd like to ask some more questions about that though..." Jasmine fumbled with her fingers.
"Sure. As long as I can answer them." Nera chuckled.
"How did you suddenly become curious about this?"
"Oh, I was reading through common sicknesses since I need to take care of my body more that I'm going to be a knight soon and I noticed that all the healing procedures were from magic. I was curious if we could do something else other than magic."
Jasmine's eyes slightly widened.
'She... isn't stupid at all.' Jasmine smiled.
She did indeed treat Nera as a friend immediately but the slight prejudice against short-haired people was still there. No matter how hard she tried to deny it, it still lingered in her mind.
'I'm the idiot.' Jasmine lightly hit herself in the head which made Nera stand up and go near her.
"Jasmine! What-?!"
"I made a huge mistake."
"Huh? Why..."
"Let's talk about that question more in the library."
"Sure..." Nera wanted to ask more but she stopped. "Oh, I don't know if this would help but I actually have the list of the most common illnesses that Felya did for me."
"Oh, that's great! That would help, thank you." Jasmine took the paper from Nera and then gestured with her hand. "Let's go."
They went to the library inside the Vanderwale house and Nera was astounded by the size of the library. Jasmine noticed this and smirked.
"There are other ones in the house, this is just the Magic Formulas section."
"This is a section?!"
Jasmine chuckled and went in with a surprised Nera.
For a few hours, they, mostly Jasmine, read multiple books about physical illnesses and magic formulas for the body and Jasmine noticed what Nera did. But Nera was just there staring around the enormous library, wondering how many romance novels they could have.
"Now that you mentioned it," Jasmine put her hand on her chin. "I'm starting to think it's strange we don't have other ways to heal people. Especially to those who can't afford to go to great healers or have unnaturally small mana storages."
"Yeah, I would like to know what if suddenly mana wasn't able to heal something, you know." Nera laughed slowly.
'I'm not being subtle about this... Oh, whatever, it's life and death after all!'
"That is a scary thing. We would be so desperate for an answer that we would discover it but by then, lives would be lost."
Nera nodded slowly. 'She predicted herself in the novel..." Noticing the orange light outside the library's window, she stood up and told Jasmine, "I'm sorry but I have to go home before dusk."
"You have a curfew?"
"I guess."
"Your father is protective of you " Jasmine chuckled.
"This is the first time he did it though."
"He's protective of you from father?"
"Probably." Nera shrugged and they both chuckled.
"Don't worry. This question of yours sparked my curiosity and now, I'm not gonna stop until I find a way to heal people without magic."
Nera grinned. 'As expected of the female lead! I hope this helps them find a cure for the pandemic faster this way...'
"Thank you for taking me seriously, Jasmine." Nera bowed and Jasmine waved her hands in front of her.
"Oh, please raise your head! I took it way too seriously earlier... But I'm thankful you told me!"
"Yeah, since I can't really solve this on my own." Nera beamed and so did Jasmine. "I'll go now!"
"I'll see you out then."
***
Jasmine waved goodbye to the carriage that left the mansion with a big smile on her face.
"I can't let her down now, can I?" Jasmine whispered and walked back to their library.
'I still didn't expect her to spark my curiosity like this...' She smiled. 'People have different ways of thinking, ways that even I wouldn't ask myself. Thanks for making me realize that, Nera.'