Chapter -1 - April Fools WARNING: CONTAINS MINOR SPOILERS! Read to 224 first!

Even after half a month, Cecil still hadn't awoken from his coma. It was odd that considering all the blessings that he acquired from the World Tree, something like this was happening to him.

When Anna received news of the grievous condition his foster son was in from her daughter, she immediately came over to check up and monitor his condition.

After all, she knew about the boy's constitution more than anyone else and she already deduced the cause of his coma.

His injuries on the outside weren't anything too severe but inside, the disorder in his mana flow was causing major problems to his body.

The beastmen's concoction that sent his mana flow into disorder proved to be much more deadly than it seemed for the boy. Unlike a normal person's body, where their mana would only flow inside their Mana Point and Mana Pathways, Cecil's mana flowed throughout his entire body.

It permeated his very being. Every cell, organ, tissue, and muscle was filled with mana. When this very mana was sent into disorder and was chaotically flowing throughout his body, it caused many problems for him. The rampaging mana was damaging his organs and it impacted his heart and brain the most.

To add insult to injury, the miasma that Silver had exuded from his body which he was exposed to further worsened his condition.

Anna and some other physicians had long since noticed that Cecil was seemingly poisoned by something very potent.

They deduced that it must have been the black miasma that had appeared inside the Darkfang Estate during the beastmen's assault on the city.

Only the Little Kings knew about the real origin of the miasma, but everyone else attributed the source and cause of the sinister miasma as the beastmen's concoction and plot to ruin the kingdom's lands.

It was a good thing that Yuna had stopped the proliferation of the miasma, but if everyone knew about the real source of the miasma, then it'll cause many problems for both Cecil and Silver.

This was the reason why the Little Kings didn't disclose any information about this even when they knew the truth.

In a way, it was because of the beastmen that Silver even transformed into his blackened self and began exuding the miasma, so conveniently, it was their fault anyway.

*****

"Muhhh..." A rabbitkin girl grumbled in annoyance as she struck down a monster.

"Something wrong, Serilla?" Zephyr asked when she noticed the girl's annoyed expression.

"...why am I here?"

Zephyr looked around at the battlefield full of monsters and soldiers, he awkwardly scratched his head and answered.

"Well...isn't it obvious that you're here to help the Kingdom with the monster extermination?"

"Tsk..."

His reply only earned him an annoyed response.

"I heard he's still in a coma..." Serilla said sadly.

Zephyr felt pained when she saw Serilla's expression. "...You should go then..."

"Hm?"

"Go, it's not far from where we are anyway. You could easily get there eas–"

"Serilla!" A voice cut off Zephyr from continuing his words.

Serilla and Zephyr turned towards the source of the voice and saw Elizabeth and the rest of Little Kings rushing over in a panic.

"Oh hey guys! What's up?"

"C-come with us! Q-quickly!" Eli grabbed onto Serilla's hand, she also eyed her brother and grabbed onto his hand as well. Yuna who was at the back quickly opened up a Misty Gate. Once the gate fully materialized everyone hurried through.

*****

Back in the Darkfang Territory, Lucia was currently sitting down on a bench just outside of Cecil's room.

Just a moment ago, the inside of the room was bustling with activity as numerous beastkin doctors and nurses came in and out of the room in a hurry.

Even Anna was inside just a moment ago, but now she was sitting next to her daughter.

A Misty Gate opened up next to the two and out walked the Little Kings alongside Serilla and Zephyr.

"Ah...you're all here..." Lucia said when she saw everyone.

They wanted to respond, but couldn't help notice the heavy feeling hanging in the air.

"..."

Everyone remained silent and only Serilla replied to her. However, she couldn't help but notice Lucia's despondence.

"W-what's wrong, Lucia? Where's our darling?"

Lucia stood up and grabbed Serilla's hand and walked her into the room. In the next instant, two girls' sobbing could be heard from inside...it was loud enough that people outside could hear them.

Serilla was sobbing the loudest, but this was because Lucia already had her fill of tears.

"N-no way...is he dead?!" Zephyr exclaimed in complete disbelief. Even the rest Little Kings were shocked when they heard him. They didn't want to believe it, but with Serilla and Lucia crying like that...

They did receive some bad news from Lucia, but they didn't think it was this serious. Everyone quickly rushed into the room and saw the two girls crying next to Cecil's bedside.

Anna walked inside in the next moment and said sadly, "He's not 'dead'...but you could say he died...FROM LAUGHTER BECAUSE THIS IS JUST AND APRIL FOOLS CHAPTER! WAHAHAHAHAH~"