Michael carefully peeked at gaps in between his fingers and saw that underneath her hair, Serena was wearing a bikini made out of shells that perfectly covered her natural mounds.
"Oh," he said, awkwardly laughing. "I thought you were... never mind."
"What brings you here? Has the rollercoaster been finished?" she asked, unable to hide her excitent.
She moved closer to him, making him recoil back in embarrassnt. "Uhhh, no, no. I’m here for sothing different. I heard that soone called Reed entered tropolis quite recently. Know anything about him?"
As soon as he said that, Serena’s face turned sad. "Nixie," she muttered.
"Nixie?"
"That’s his daughter," she explained. "I told you about our curse with Dao Hearts, right? Usually, its deterioration only happens once beastfolks are of advanced age, when their bodies could no longer keep up with their spirit.
However, there are so rare instances in which children would get affected by the curse of the Dao Heart.
Nixie is one such particular case. Her Dao Heart is extrely fragile, so much so that she couldn’t even swim around on her own.
And if she tried to exercise and try to strengthen her Dao Heart, the curse would imdiately act up and make her feel an imnse amount of pain."
Even though he hadn’t t this Nixie person yet, he already felt sorry for her. The fact that she couldn’t even go out and do things on her own ant that her childhood was severely limited.
"It’s a sha, really. There are hundreds of rn children who die from this curse yearly, and most of them wouldn’t last to their tenth birthday.
And unfortunately, Nixie is about to turn ten soon. That’s probably why Reed entered the Surface World in the first place. He wanted to find a solution for his daughter’s sickness. He’d do anything to save her."
Michael finally realized why they headed straight for Aerith’s apothecary shop as soon as they landed in tropolis.
They hoped that they could save her.
Now, although he wasn’t sure that they couldn’t heal her Dao Heart, he was pretty sure that he could, at the very least, help her condition.
The rollercoaster would be the perfect therapy for the little rmaid. She’d get all the benefits of experiencing a burst of emotions, while remaining in a completely still position as the rollercoaster train rode through all the ups and downs of the ride.
She could exercise her Dao Heart without the risk!
"Do you think the rollercoaster can help her?"
Serena’s eyes widened with realization. She grabbed his shoulders and grabbed him in a big hug.
"THAT’S RIGHT! You have the rollercoasters!"
She realized the perfect solution to Nixie’s problems as well.
"We have to go there now! I’ll vouch for you. They know my reputation!"
...
...
...
anwhile, in Aerith’s apothecary shop, Reed and his wife patiently waited in a dark room, with incense burning around them and creating a dical aroma.
They had a worried expression as they saw their daughter laying on the floor, with a bunch of herbs and liquid concoctions rubbed on her skin.
Opposite them was Aerith, who was continually setting up the room, grounding up a few crystals in a bowl and feeding it to little Nixie.
"I have sedated her, making her Dao Heart beat as slow as possible to lessen its strain," she said to them.
"Are they going to co yet?" Reed asked impatiently.
"They know that this is an ergency. I’m sure they’re doing their best to arrive as soon as possible," Aerith assured them.
Just then, the door to the room burst wide open as two people walked inside.
A middle-aged woman in her late thirties imdiately walked towards Nixie and bent down to inspect her. She didn’t waste any ti for greetings or niceties.
Behind her was another woman, who seed to be at the sa age as Aerith. She held a beg in her hands, which seed to be filled with dical instrunts based on the bulge of the outline.
"Senior Juniper," Aerith greeted the older woman. "How is the child?"
Juniper narrowed her eyes as she prodded at Nixie’s chest. Her expression narrowed as she saw the child wince in pain just from a simple touch.
"It’s good that you called here as soon as possible. The curse on this child had advanced far enough for her life to be in danger. Theodora, get my sage,"
Theodora, the woman she ca with, quickly ruffled through the bag and gave her a few leaves as instructed.
Juniper accepted the leaves and began casting her spells in quick succession.
As Reed watched Juniper, he couldn’t help but ask.
"Was Sinclair unavailable to help us?"
"She is currently in another continent," Aerith answered. "But she has sent the second-best apothecary in the entire world. Senior Juniper is Master Sinclair’s right-hand-woman. We can trust that your daughter is placed in the right hands."
Juniper’s casting finished, creating a pillar of light that surrounded Nixie, who beca engulfed with small light particles that got absorbed directly into her body.
A few seconds later, her spell subsided.
Nixie’s expression visibly softened. Then, she opened her eyes, groggily looking around the room as if she was looking for sothing.
"D—dad..."
"Nixie!" Reed called out to her, excited. "You healed her!"
This was the first ti in years that his daughter had spoken! It was a miracle!
But despite this joyous occasion, Juniper, the woman who made this miracle happen in the first place, didn’t celebrate at all.
"This is rely a delay," she said. "I have healed the damage in her Dao Heart, but it will continue to degrade if the root cause of her disease is not fixed."
"And can you do it?" Reed asked, desperate.
"Unfortunately, the root cause of her problem is the curse of a Dao Heart. It is not sothing that I, nor Sinclair, can fix."
Reed was gut-wrenched. They travelled all the way here, yet they still couldn’t find a cure for their daughter.
It made him want to lose all hope.
However, the look on his daughter’s face instantly made him regain it. "We’re not gonna give up on you, sweetheart."
If they had to spend the rest of their lives in the surface world to give their daughter a brief mont of solace, then so be it.
Just then, they heard a knock on the door.
One of Aerith’s gardeners peeked inside. "Miss Aerith. There’s soone here to see you. It is Princess Serena."
Reed perked up. "The princess? What is she doing here?"
Aerith nodded to his gardener to let the visitors enter her estate. It wasn’t long before Princess Serena ca inside the room with a boy right beside her. It was none other than Michael.
"Michael?!" Aerith gasped. "Why are you with the princess?"
Serena greeted everyone with a bow.
"I’m sorry, princess, but we are currently in the middle of Nixie’s treatnt," said Reed.
The princess nodded with a smile. "That’s exactly why I’m here. We may have found a cure for your daughter!"
The three apothecaries imdiately reacted to her words with doubt. They knew that the curse of the Dao Heart was as permanent as the heaven and the earth!
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