Incorrigible Nerd

Officially, in the manga it hasn't been stated that Beldaruit has a medical condition, or that he was ever paralyzed. But then Chapter 81 gave us this page...

...and everything fell into place!

«My bones have been brittle from the day I was born»

Yes, this is a real medical condition.

Osteogenesis imperfecta (OI), also known as Brittle bone disease, Lobstein syndrome, fragilitas ossium or Vrolik disease.

● ICD-11: LD24.K0   ICD-10: Q78.0

«Osteogenesis imperfecta (OI) literally means “imperfectly formed bones”, and is a rare and complex genetic disorder that is often characterized by bones that break easily. The vast majority of OI is caused by variations (mutations) in genes that affect the structure of type I collagen or genes whose proteins interact directly with type I collagen.»

In other words, a person with this condition is born with bones so fragile that their legs can break under their own body weight, and even lifting an object can result in a broken arm.

This would explain why Beldaruit is confined to the chair and prefers to travel around the Great Hall through smoke illusions. If he tried to stand on his own feet, his legs would most likely break under his own weight.

We only see Beldaruit lying in bed, where he has already developed pressure sores and ulcers. (I absolutely love the level of details in this manga and how seriously Kamome Shirahama approaches depicting different medical conditions.)

Also, notice how gentle all of his movements are. He doesn't even fully close his fingers around the rope, and the way he holds his pen is so delicate:

Symptoms found in various types of OI include:

whites of the eye (sclerae) that are blue instead

short stature

loose joints

hearing loss

breathing problems

problems with the teeth (dentinogenesis imperfecta)

Potentially life-threatening complications, all of which become more common in more severe OI, include: tearing (dissection) of the major arteries, such as the aorta; pulmonary valve insufficiency secondary to distortion of the ribcage;and basilar invagination.

More information

There are several types of osteogenesis imperfecta, ranging from mild to severe. I'll only talk about Type I, because I believe that's the one Beldaruit has. His body shows no obvious skeletal deformities, and he's quite tall, both of which are consistent with the mildest form of the condition.

You can read about the other types here

"Type I OI: people with Type I OI, the mildest and most common form, may have only a handful of fractures or as many as several dozen fractures in a lifetime. They may have few obvious signs of the disorder. In Type I, there usually is little to no bone deformity. Height is less affected than in other types of OI, and many people with Type I are often similar in height to other family members. Muscle weakness, joint laxity, and flat feet are common. Dislocations and sprains may occur, as well as fractures. Life expectancy appears to be average."

Works featuring characters with the same condition:

I think that narratively the table has been set for some of Olly’s memories to return at some juncture. I also think it makes perfect sense for Olly to be well aware that something is going on with Qifrey and his memories.

I think that Olly is very likely to provide a key assist to Coco in her very clearly telegraphed quest to cure the silverwood. But I do not at all buy the full double bluff Olruggio Knows Everything and has been lying to Qifrey who thinks he’s lying to Olly this whole time bcs reasons, etc. theories.

Why?

First of all, it’s an attempt to answer a question that the narrative didn’t propose.

In Ch 40, when Qifrey explains to Olruggio what’s going on with him, about his vision, about the experiments, about his eye, and his desire to stop the new forbidden magic, this is answering a question that has existed as regards Qifrey since the very first chapter of the manga. It also introduces the question of exactly what the new forbidden magic was.

When Qifrey wipes Olly’s memory and implies that he’s done this before, it introduces the question of the circumstances of these repeated memory wipes. Both of those questions are, in turn, answered by the silverwood seed plotline and the young Qifrey and Olruggio flashbacks.

Conversely, the reasoning and circumstances of that whole partners in pain situation are directly presented to the reader at the outset (it in fact serves as a final piece of context to complete your understanding of Qifrey and Olruggio's Whole Deal).

There is no meaningful hole in the narrative that needs filled as regards the partners in pain pact. (Why don’t we see Olly’s trip to the Tower? The same reason we don’t actually see Qifrey’s; we don’t get to see any of the tests and what they entail until it’s time for the girls to take them.)

These theories are trying to solve a mystery that doesn’t exist. They’re extraneous. They're going, “Well, Olly’s smart so I think he should have figured out a way not to have to sacrifice himself for Qifrey.” And/Or “This can't be the real plan because it is not an ideal solution for the problem as it requires both Qifrey and Olruggio to exist in an endless cycle of pain, misery, and self-denial.”

But that cycle is the clear dramatic intent. The narrative is throwing the brick that is this situation at your head and telling you to sit with it and consider what it reveals to you about these characters and this relationship both in retrospect and going forward. The narrative is not asking you to figure out a way for Olly to have avoided or sidestepped this sacrifice or situation. You’ve just decided to do that because you want the plotline to be different than what it is, which is fine, go nuts, but there’s no compelling reason in the text for it.

Further, I would argue that it makes perfect sense that this is the solution Olly specifically would come up with.

He was overwhelmed, panicked, and extremely short on time. He has just been directly told that the way to stop Qifrey from dying is wiping his memories, so he’s focused on a way to stop Qifrey from dying without having to wipe his memories. The only thing that he knows abates this parasite that he literally just found out exists is Qifrey being anxious. Olly is kind and selfless to a fault—this is continually drilled into us. He also clearly carries a lot of survivors guilt and an intense hero complex. And he is determined above all else,to keep Qifrey alive. Life is a precious thing to Olly, and Qifrey is of course also very precious to him. Of course Olly’s solution would be to sacrifice himself in some way in order to enable the only countermeasure he knows of to keep Qifrey alive. It’s in his nature.

This is also why Coco is perfectly set up to be the one who has a breakthrough about how to remove the seed entirely. She’s selfless and self-abnegating too, but she’s also uncompromising. Coco doesn’t just look for a palliative. She’s specifically determined to find a complete solution to every problem. A solution that explicitly doesn’t require a terrible sacrifice.

Second, it doesn’t make any logical sense. For a lot of reasons but the two major ones:

a) Most versions of this theory I’ve seen rest on the idea that Olly intentionally gave Qifrey a memory spell that doesn’t do what he said it does or some similar subterfuge. But, whatever the reason, for Qifrey to continue to be unaware of the spell not working as intended requires Qifrey to have in no way further investigated memory spells on his own in the intervening 15+ years. Which we know is not true because whatever memory spell he cast on Nolnoa worked, and he gives Coco the total mind wipe spell which was already in his book (which we can assume is also correct because Luluci identifies it). I would hazard to guess that after years of having to continually erase the memories of the love of his life, not to mention his own history with his childhood memories having been erased, Qifrey has done research on memory spells and how they work. It absolutely shatters credulity to suggest that the spell on which his literal life depends could be not working for any length of time and he just wouldn't notice. Yes, Olly is smart, but Qifrey isn’t stupid.

b) If Olly actually remembers their pact and about the silverwood, why would Olly keep pretending to find out Qifrey’s secret? To keep him anxious so he doesn’t turn into a tree? Except Qifrey explicitly mentions that every time Olly finds out, he forgives Qifrey and comforts him and then the tree grows, starting the cycle over again. So, he’s keeping Qifrey from turning into a tree by... continually making him turn into a tree with no guarantee that he’ll be able to come back any given time? If he knew, you would think that he’d get Qifrey to wipe his mind BEFORE the tree-ening. Or even just once try out not forgiving/comforting him just to see if that’s enough anxiety to keep Qifrey going. But just comforting Qifrey over and over again knowing it’s going to make him take root is inexplicably cruel and extremely cavalier about Qifrey’s life. The only way the repeating cycle makes sense is if it’s Olly’s genuine reaction that he’s sharing because he doesn’t remember reacting that way before or what happens when he does.

Finally, it undermines the impact of Qifrey and Olly’s situation and, worse, doesn’t serve a purpose except a convoluted surprise reveal that adds nothing to the plot.

“Olly will have figured out how to get rid of the tree!”

Listen...no he won’t.

Coco’s going to do that because she’s the main character and it’s affected TWO people she cares about currently.

Furthermore, it’s weird for this whole thing to be motivated in part by the idea that Olly’s too smart not to have figured out a better way than Partners in Pain, but also requires him to still...not have figured out a better way than Partners in Pain after half their lives.

As I said at the top, I think it’s very likely that he’s going to be instrumental to getting rid of the tree, but that doesn’t necessitate him having known the whole time. He just has to find out. And lo and behold, someone now knows who won’t turn into a tree if they tell him. Again, the main character, Coco, is here!

You can even get Olly keeping his actually knowing the secret from Qifrey as he works to get rid of the Silvertree without needing a labyrinthine conspiracy.

(Orthogonal to this discussion, but I love that a point is even made during Silver Eve about how amazed Olly is by the girls figuring out a way to save everyone with magic. This is after he’s had a panic attack at being called upon to “kill it with fire” and been left literally asking how he can help with the leech without killing. Additional sidenote, trying to make this massive ruse the core of Olly also kind of elides the actual biggest question of Olly’s character, which is what exactly happened in Noz and his early childhood that made him Like This about life, death, and magic; we know broad strokes, but the devil’s in the details.)

So anyway, tl;dr. For me, all this theory really does is undo the unhinged dual selfless-selfish nature of Olly’s plan, soften Qifrey’s ethical quandary, and just generally make the whole thing less dramatically interesting.