Chapter 17 - Health (2)

Her final hope. Her last desperate struggle.

That was Selena's frame of mind when she arrived at her private laboratory.

Her laboratory was every bit as well equipped as one in the Mage Tower. It was a testament to her desperate efforts to heal her body, whatever it took.

Her rapidly deteriorating health had made it difficult to visit lately, but today was different.

"Mary. Just do exactly as I say. Understand?"

"Yes! I'll do my best!"

"It isn't difficul—Cough! Cough! Hack!"

When a sudden coughing fit seized her, Selena hurriedly clamped a handkerchief over her mouth. Mary rushed toward her in alarm, but Selena raised a hand to stop her.

"Whew..."

Once the fit finally subsided, Selena lowered the handkerchief. Looking down, she found a pool of black, dead blood in it.

Before, the blood had merely soaked the cloth. If it was pooling now...

'It would have been today or tomorrow.'

She had little time left. Selena clenched the handkerchief. The pooled blood slowly began soaking into it.

She looked at the worried Mary and nodded. With her body in this state, Mary would have to act as her hands and feet.

"There's no time. Let's begin right away. First, bring me that extractor."

"Yes!"

"Next, connect the extractor to the charger..."

Selena gave Mary a series of instructions. Mary fumbled at first, perhaps from the urgency, but she made no mistakes.

She was quite bright herself, even if not as brilliant as Selena. Indeed, reaching this level despite her commoner upbringing was impressive.

'I should consider sending Mary to the academy.'

Before long, Mary finished the preparations exactly as instructed. All that remained was to extract the essence from the mature mandrakes. After that, they would adjust it with various medicinal herbs so a human body could withstand it.

"Next... Cough! Hack! Hrk!"

"M-my lady!"

Just as they approached the final stage, Selena broke into another coughing fit. She couldn't even get her handkerchief to her mouth before black blood poured out.

"H-hrrk... H-hurry... E-extract... it...!"

"B-but...!"

"Hurry... do it...! Cough!"

"Y-yes!"

Coughing and vomiting blood left her struggling for breath. Selena forced herself to endure it as she gave instructions.

She had come this far. She couldn't possibly give up. She fought to hold on as darkness began creeping across her vision.

"M-my lady! W-we have a problem!"

"What... Cough! What problem?"

"Th-that...!"

To make matters worse, something was wrong with the mandrakes. Reining in her ragged breathing as best she could, Selena looked over.

Just as Mary had said, a mandrake that had been unconscious moments ago was wriggling. It was coming to after being knocked out. That was a serious complication.

'I was in too much of a hurry to bring flowerpots...!'

To avoid accidents, mandrakes had to be unconscious during extraction. If one was awake when its essence was extracted, its scream could destroy the extractor.

The usual precaution was to silence them with magic or plant them in flowerpots.

Selena's body was currently too ravaged to use magic, and in her haste, she hadn't been able to bring any pots.

This was a genuine crisis. The only saving grace was that just one of them had regained consciousness.

As she wrestled with what to do, a sudden flash of inspiration struck her.

'He said hitting them makes them quiet, didn't he?'

It was the method Grylls had told her about. He said the mandrakes quieted down quickly when he beat them with his fists.

It was rather barbaric and scientifically unproven, but this was an emergency.

"Mary! Cough! Beat the living daylights out of it!"

"What? Hit it?"

"Yes! Hit it! If that's too difficult, grab its stem and slam it against the floor! Cough! Cough!"

Her breathing had eased, but blood still flew from her mouth whenever she spoke. Mary looked back and forth between Selena and the mature mandrake in bewilderment.

She seemed torn over what to do first, but decided to obey Selena for now.

Mary seized the stem tightly.

"Hmm?"

As she took hold of it, the mature mandrake, whose fine chin hairs resembled a beard, quietly opened its eyes.

THWACK! THUD! WHAM!

"Gwaark?! Gwek! Gweeek!"

It had no choice but to close them again. Gripping its stem, Mary slammed it this way and that.

It screamed in the process, but not enough to induce confusion.

"I-it's done!"

"Then let's extract... Cough! Let's extract the essence first."

"Yes!"

Following Selena's instructions, Mary began extracting the mandrakes' essence. As the process began, the mature mandrakes fitted into the extractor slowly shriveled.

DRIP. DRIP.

Golden liquid fell drop by drop into the glass bottle connected to the extractor. Watching it, Selena began to feel hopeful.

The brilliantly gleaming essence made her feel healthier already.

"Cough! Cough!"

"My lady. Here's a handkerchief..."

"No. It's all right now."

Of course, a feeling was only a feeling. After coughing, Selena looked down at her clothes.

Now even they were drenched in dark red blood. Every cough brought up another bowlful.

DRIP. DRIP.

In time, nearly all the essence had been extracted. The mature mandrakes had shrunk almost to the size of a baby's palm, and their vivid red color had turned stark white.

With every last bit of essence extracted, even their vitality was gone.

"I think it's almost finished. What should I do next?"

"All that's left... Cough! Cough! Hhng...!"

Selena's eyes flew wide. She could endure the coughing. The problem was the breathlessness that followed.

She tried desperately to bring her breathing under control, to no avail. Her vision began to black out, and pain engulfed her as though even her brain had stopped functioning.

'N-no...!'

Even Mary's frantic cries sounded like distant echoes as her consciousness faded. Barely holding on, Selena reached out toward the essence they had only just managed to extract. She gestured for Mary to give it to her, quickly.

Drinking the essence without refining it was tantamount to suicide. But with her life hanging by a thread, Selena couldn't afford to be choosy.

GULP! GULP! GULP!

Understanding Selena's gesture, Mary poured the essence straight into her mouth. Selena could feel its scorching energy down her throat.

Could this heat truly heal her?

Her hope had flared to life again like an ember. She couldn't give up.

'I-I have to circulate my mana...'

Even as her consciousness faded, she forced her mana to circulate. Yet her utterly blocked mana circuits could hardly be expected to respond.

It was bitterly unfair, but Selena refused to give up. The last fragile thread of her survival instinct spurred her on.

And just before she lost consciousness, she felt it.

THUMP!

The vivid beat of her heart.

* * *

"My lady! Lady Selena! Wake up! My lady!"

Mary patted Selena's shoulders, checking for a response as she lay on the floor. She had been sitting in her wheelchair when she lost consciousness and collapsed.

Without Mary there, she would have struck her head first and been badly injured. Yet she still showed no sign of waking, leaving Mary increasingly frantic.

'I-I need to get someone first!'

Standing around fretting wouldn't help. As a precaution, Mary turned Selena's head to one side. If she vomited blood again, it might flow back into her airway.

Then Mary rose and was just about to leave the laboratory.

CRACK!

A noise struck her ears, making her pause. It hadn't come from the laboratory equipment, but from Selena.

Mary turned back toward her anxiously.

CRACK! CRACK!

"Uh... Huh?"

Mary was utterly bewildered. Something bizarre was unfolding before her eyes.

Selena's skin was white as snow, but it was an unhealthy whiteness. Her blocked mana circuits had impaired even her blood circulation.

Now that skin was peeling away bit by bit, with new skin growing beneath it. Rather than deathly pale, it had the soft, fair glow of skin untouched by sunlight.

Most remarkable of all were the veins beginning to show faintly beneath her skin. They were proof that circulation had returned to Selena's once completely blocked mana circuits.

CRACK! POP!

It wasn't just her skin. Her muscles and bones were changing visibly too.

Nine Yin Blocked Meridians had left her unable even to exercise properly. But now that her internal energy—her mana—had found harmony, things had changed. That formidable mana was reconstructing a vessel fit to hold it.

In the language of the Central Plains, this was called a complete transformation.

Ordinarily, it was a phenomenon that required both immense mana and enlightenment. But Selena had suffered from Nine Yin Blocked Meridians. Harmony was all she had lacked; the mana itself had been plentiful, and her talent fulfilled the requirement for enlightenment.

CRUNCH! CRACK!

Every trace of her sickly appearance vanished, and her womanly curves became pronounced. Her snow-white hair repeatedly fell out and grew back, but soon settled at its original length.

Gleaming like moonlight, that white hair accentuated her beauty.

Her face changed last. It had always been beautiful, but the complete transformation made it far more radiant.

Though many things had changed, Selena's condition could be summed up in a single word. Her new body was much, much "healthier" than before.

"Mmm..."

As the complete transformation, both brief and long, came to an end, Selena regained consciousness. Her low groan snapped Mary out of her daze, and she asked urgently,

"My lady! My lady! Are you awake?!"

"... Mary?"

"Yes! It's me, Mary!"

"What on earth happened... Huh?"

Selena began to sit up without thinking, only for her eyes to widen. Having been lying down, her own body was the first thing she could examine.

And the first thing she noticed was her chest. It was the first part she saw when she looked down, making it all the more conspicuous.

'Were my breasts always this big?'

Selena tilted her head as she touched them. Her body had been utterly scrawny before. She had thought it held no feminine appeal whatsoever.

But now she could see the mounds of flesh and feel them in both hands. In terms of size alone, they were enough to make others envious.

'It's not just my chest. My arms, too...'

As if entranced, Selena examined her arms. No longer skeletal, they now carried flesh like an ordinary person's.

Even her skin was a healthy white instead of pallid. The faint glimpse of blood vessels beneath it gave her complexion a sense of life.

"..."

"My lady? Please say something..."

Just as Mary ventured to speak, Selena abruptly sprang to her feet. Mary's initial surprise gave way to astonishment at the sight of Selena standing unaided.

"My lady! You mustn't overdo—!"

PATTER!

Once again, Mary couldn't finish her sentence. Standing firmly on her own two feet, Selena had suddenly started running.

Not walking, but running. She had skipped her first steps and gone straight to a sprint. Barefoot, at that. Mary's heart sank.

"My lady! Where are you going? My lady!"

Selena paid no heed to Mary's frantic cries behind her. She simply ran, and ran, and ran.

Now and then, she heard the mansion's servants exclaim in shock. She didn't care. She just kept running.

'I can run. I can actually run!'

She never stopped, even when she occasionally stumbled. When had she last run around like this? She couldn't even remember.

No, perhaps she couldn't remember because she never had. Even walking had been difficult, yet now she could run without any trouble.

Feeling as though the whole world was hers, Selena ran out of the mansion. Her face, long accustomed to stiffness, remained rigid, but the corners of her mouth had risen noticeably.

"S-Selena?! Y-you...!"

"D-dear! Where are you going?!"

Her parents, who had just returned, were utterly shocked to see her. Naturally so, when their bedridden daughter was racing around like a wild horse.

And in clothes caked with dried blood, no less. To put it crudely, she must have looked like a crazy bitch.

"Whew!"

Regardless, Selena caught her breath in the mansion's front yard. Even after all that running, she didn't feel the slightest bit tired.

All she could hear was the clear beating of her heart.

'I'm not even coughing.'

The cough that had plagued her all her life had stopped completely. She couldn't feel anything wrong with her body.

It was so unfamiliar that it felt almost awkward.

'My mana is circulating smoothly, too.'

More than smoothly—it was incredibly fast. In the past, everything had felt clogged, but not anymore.

Her harmonized mana coursed through every corner of her body.

'Nothing hurts at all.'

A miracle had happened. What else could she call it, if not a miracle?

Selena looked up at the bright sky and closed her eyes.

'Thank you, Mr. Grylls.'

The person who had given her a new life, a miracle. A benefactor who had readily shown her kindness despite never having met her face-to-face.

What sort of person was he? She was growing more and more curious about him.

Her facial muscles relaxed of their own accord, and a happy smile naturally bloomed.

"Selena!"

"Darling! Are you all right?!"

"My lady!"

As Selena savored her newfound life, her parents and Mary called urgently from behind her.

At their voices, she opened her eyes and looked back. The family she loved more than anyone was watching her with concern.

"Yes. I'm all right n—Gaaack!"

SPLASH!

Selena broke off and bent her head. Something poured out of her mouth: black, dead blood.

Not merely a bowlful, either. She brought up at least two.

"Keh! Keck!"

PLOP! PLOP!

It wasn't only blood. Black congealed lumps dropped out as well.

These were impurities that hadn't been expelled during her complete transformation. Her previous physical condition had been so poor that they had accumulated into solid clumps.

"Ahh..."

"D-darling! Stay with me!"

"..."

To her family, who had no idea what was happening, the sight was beyond horrific—it was grotesque.

Selena's mother collapsed, and her father barely managed to catch her. Even Mary, the only one left standing on her own, turned ashen, seemingly nauseated.

"Cough. Cough. Ugh."

Selena's brow twitched. The rotten blood and impurities she had vomited smelled truly vile.

She wanted to grimace, but still couldn't quite manage it.

'I need to wash.'

Now she could bathe by herself, without Mary's help. Selena felt a surge of anticipation.

First, though, she had to clear up her family's misunderstanding.

She approached her bewildered family and spoke quietly. The blood she hadn't fully wiped away, combined with her characteristic blank expression, made her look rather frightening.

"Mother. Don't worry. I'm healthy n—Blaaargh."

Selena vomited black blood with an expressionless face. The bizarre sight horrified her family all over again.

"Ahhhh..."

"S-stay with me! I can't lose you too!"

She still had a long way to go.

* * *

Meanwhile, on the forum...

Thanks, Grylls.

Passing Dwarf

(Photo of liquor infused with a mature mandrake)

Looks like I'll get to have some infused liquor for the first time in ages

└Wild Grylls You crazy dwarf bastard. You turned something that expensive into booze?

└Passing Dwarf Got a problem with that?

└Wild Grylls I told you that thing was fucking expensive. And you made booze with it?

└Passing Dwarf My choice. You mad?

└Wild Grylls Go sharpen your knives with gold from now on, you lunatic

└Lmaoooo

└Lmaooooooo

└He told him to sharpen his knives with gold lmaooo

└I'd be fucking pissed too lmaoooo

└Hey, who can resist infused liquor lmaooo

Another peaceful day.